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Published in the Star Ledger, Friday, October 27, 2006
[Editorial]
Approve the public questions
New Jersey's state parks are in desperately bad shape, have been for years, and for a simple reason: Lawmakers and governors have consistently underfunded them through good and bad budget times.
So historic buildings go unrepaired, nature programs are cur tailed or cut, trails left unmaintained, worker ranks squeezed and trimmed and squeezed some more. The neglect has gone on so long that the backlog of repair and other work has risen to more than $200 million.
Voters have a rare chance on Election Day to reverse that inexcusable slide. Voting "yes" on Public Question No. 2 will provide a steady, stable source of funding to begin restoring the state parks while also supplying money for work in local and county parks and for buying land to create parks.
All this can be accomplished without new taxes. Surplus corporate tax dollars now constitutionally dedicated to, but no longer needed for, underground storage tank cleanups will be shifted to give the parks $15 million a year through 2015 and $32 million a year after that.
Parks are vital to the quality of life in America's most crowded state, and $15 million isn't all that much to spread from Cape May to Sussex County. The dedicated money should be augmented with yearly infusions from the state budget. But the constitutional dedication would ensure that lawmakers can't return to their habit of gobbling up all park maintenance money to plug the budget hole du jour. Every resident should vote "yes" on Public Question No. 2.
The same is true of Public Question No. 3, which would force politicians to use all of New Jersey's 10.5-cent-a-gallon gasoline tax for roads, bridges and mass transit. For years, lawmakers and state treasurers have happily siphoned off 1.5 cents of the gas tax to subsidize the general state budget, not because aging trains or pothole-pocked roads didn't need the money but because use of the money wasn't restricted. A "yes" vote will stop that nonsense and provide an additional $80 million or so each year for badly needed transportation projects.
Public Question No. 1 is less of a sure winner for residents. A "yes" vote on this measure would dedicate half of the recent one-penny increase in the sales tax to a special property tax reform fund. This year, that would amount to about $600 million. But neither Gov. Jon Corzine's administration nor legislators have decided how the money would be used.
Possibilities could include additional school aid to hold down local tax bills, or property tax credits or rebates. A Cor zine spokesman says the precise use of the money will be decided as part of the ongoing Legislative debate over property tax reduction strategies. All well and good, but it would be nice for voters to have some idea of how their money would be spent.
Still, since a "no" vote would mean the $600 million will go straight into the maw of the general state budget, formally earmarking it for tax relief is the better course. A "yes" vote on Public Question No. 3 is appropriate."
Link to online story.
(Note: Online stories may be taken down by their publisher after a period of time or made available for a fee. Links posted here is from the original online publication of this piece.)
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff and Clippings have no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of these articles nor are Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff or Clippings endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)
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Monday, October 30, 2006
2006 General Election - Bergen Record - Public Question 2
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Published in the Bergen Record, Monday, October 30, 2006
Funding park repairs
By COLLEEN DISKIN
STAFF WRITER
State officials have finally found money in the budget to fix up New Jersey's parks, where deteriorating historical monuments, rutted walking trails, leaking roofs and broken restrooms have gone untended for years.
The only hitch: Voters must give them permission to spend it.
A question on the Nov. 7 ballot asks voters to approve transferring surplus funds from a program to remove underground storage tanks into an account that could pay for at least some of the building and maintenance needs of parks.
It would provide about $15 million a year for the next decade and possibly double that in the years that follow -- all without raising taxes.
The measure is being hailed by Democrats and Republicans alike as the best hope for solving a funding crisis in the state parks. For several years, nothing has been budgeted for park repairs. The result is a backlog of more than $250 million worth of repairs and renovations.
"This, for the first time, would create a stable source of funding for park maintenance and repairs," said Pola Galie, an activist for the Outdoor Recreation Alliance. The group was formed largely to persuade the public to vote "Yes" on Ballot Question 2.
How the money would be divvied up has yet to be determined. Lawmakers said maintenance and renovation work at county parks would be eligible for some of the funds. But since the state already has a long list of needs at its own parks, the money would be likely to go fast each year, advocates said.
"In the beginning, this is only going to bring in $15 million a year," said Bill Foelsch, director of the New Jersey Recreation and Parks Association. "So it's going to take a while to address the backlog."
On the list for repairs in North Jersey: a new roof for Ringwood Manor and work on buildings at Skylands Manor that are so structurally unsafe that they have had to be boarded up. Rust has formed on pedestrian bridges, and potholes plague roads at the Palisades Interstate Park. Restrooms and changing rooms have had to be closed at Wawayanda State Park for lack of money to repair them.
Meanwhile, many new projects have stalled for lack of money, such as a plan to transform an old junkyard into a museum and gateway park at New Bridge Landing in River Edge. A new park above Paterson's Great Falls also has been waiting for funds.
The Legislature managed to find $9 million in the current state budget to make some capital improvements at state parks. In deciding how to spend the $9 million, the state tried to target projects where history or valuable park assets were in danger of being lost, said Lisa Jackson, commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection.
The state park at New Bridge Landing is slated to get a slice of that $9 million. The details will be announced Thursday, Jackson said.
If voters approve the funding plan on the ballot, the first task for the DEP will be to prioritize the long list of needs, Jackson said. Some examples of immediate needs could include saving bulkheads at Liberty State Park that are in danger of being swallowed by the Hudson River, or replacing septic systems that are about to fail at other park properties.
Jim Hall, superintendent of Palisades Interstate Park, said his agency has seen some of its requests for major repairs go unfunded for five years in a row.
Just a year ago, the park was forced to close several of its attractions in Alpine, including the Kearney House, the pavilion and the boat basin, for about six months after an underground electrical line failed and had to be completely replaced, Hall said.
"We ended up having to apply for emergency money to get that fixed," Hall said. "But that's something that could have been avoided if there was a regular pot of money available for repairs. Right now, it's like you have to wait for an emergency situation before something can get fixed."
At Fort Lee Historical Park -- located at the southern tip of the Palisades Park system -- the battlements that Revolutionary War soldiers built out of earth and logs are starting to fall apart for lack of money to reinforce them, Hall said.
The legislation authorizing the ballot question passed both houses unanimously.
Advocates say their only challenge is to make sure voters understand the measure wouldn't raise taxes or dip into their pocketbooks in some other way.
The money would come from an existing corporate business tax currently dedicated to a fund to help residents pay for the removal of leaking underground storage tanks.
The need for that fund has waned and a surplus has existed for several years, said Elaine Makatura, a DEP spokeswoman. The surplus is expected to continue to increase in the coming years, possibly growing by $32 million a year by 2016. If voters approve rededicating the money for park use, the move will be permanent.
While it has the support of nearly all of the state's environmental groups, the initiative is far from being seen as a fix-all for the state's parks.
Lawmakers and advocates say they also need to pump billions more dollars into the nearly depleted Garden State Preservation Trust, which awards grants for preservation efforts and park improvements.
For that, they'll have to go to voters again in 2007.
E-mail: diskin@northjersey.com
Link to online story.
(Note: Online stories may be taken down by their publisher after a period of time or made available for a fee. Links posted here is from the original online publication of this piece.)
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff and Clippings have no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of these articles nor are Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff or Clippings endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)
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Published in the Bergen Record, Monday, October 30, 2006
Funding park repairs
By COLLEEN DISKIN
STAFF WRITER
State officials have finally found money in the budget to fix up New Jersey's parks, where deteriorating historical monuments, rutted walking trails, leaking roofs and broken restrooms have gone untended for years.
The only hitch: Voters must give them permission to spend it.
A question on the Nov. 7 ballot asks voters to approve transferring surplus funds from a program to remove underground storage tanks into an account that could pay for at least some of the building and maintenance needs of parks.
It would provide about $15 million a year for the next decade and possibly double that in the years that follow -- all without raising taxes.
The measure is being hailed by Democrats and Republicans alike as the best hope for solving a funding crisis in the state parks. For several years, nothing has been budgeted for park repairs. The result is a backlog of more than $250 million worth of repairs and renovations.
"This, for the first time, would create a stable source of funding for park maintenance and repairs," said Pola Galie, an activist for the Outdoor Recreation Alliance. The group was formed largely to persuade the public to vote "Yes" on Ballot Question 2.
How the money would be divvied up has yet to be determined. Lawmakers said maintenance and renovation work at county parks would be eligible for some of the funds. But since the state already has a long list of needs at its own parks, the money would be likely to go fast each year, advocates said.
"In the beginning, this is only going to bring in $15 million a year," said Bill Foelsch, director of the New Jersey Recreation and Parks Association. "So it's going to take a while to address the backlog."
On the list for repairs in North Jersey: a new roof for Ringwood Manor and work on buildings at Skylands Manor that are so structurally unsafe that they have had to be boarded up. Rust has formed on pedestrian bridges, and potholes plague roads at the Palisades Interstate Park. Restrooms and changing rooms have had to be closed at Wawayanda State Park for lack of money to repair them.
Meanwhile, many new projects have stalled for lack of money, such as a plan to transform an old junkyard into a museum and gateway park at New Bridge Landing in River Edge. A new park above Paterson's Great Falls also has been waiting for funds.
The Legislature managed to find $9 million in the current state budget to make some capital improvements at state parks. In deciding how to spend the $9 million, the state tried to target projects where history or valuable park assets were in danger of being lost, said Lisa Jackson, commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection.
The state park at New Bridge Landing is slated to get a slice of that $9 million. The details will be announced Thursday, Jackson said.
If voters approve the funding plan on the ballot, the first task for the DEP will be to prioritize the long list of needs, Jackson said. Some examples of immediate needs could include saving bulkheads at Liberty State Park that are in danger of being swallowed by the Hudson River, or replacing septic systems that are about to fail at other park properties.
Jim Hall, superintendent of Palisades Interstate Park, said his agency has seen some of its requests for major repairs go unfunded for five years in a row.
Just a year ago, the park was forced to close several of its attractions in Alpine, including the Kearney House, the pavilion and the boat basin, for about six months after an underground electrical line failed and had to be completely replaced, Hall said.
"We ended up having to apply for emergency money to get that fixed," Hall said. "But that's something that could have been avoided if there was a regular pot of money available for repairs. Right now, it's like you have to wait for an emergency situation before something can get fixed."
At Fort Lee Historical Park -- located at the southern tip of the Palisades Park system -- the battlements that Revolutionary War soldiers built out of earth and logs are starting to fall apart for lack of money to reinforce them, Hall said.
The legislation authorizing the ballot question passed both houses unanimously.
Advocates say their only challenge is to make sure voters understand the measure wouldn't raise taxes or dip into their pocketbooks in some other way.
The money would come from an existing corporate business tax currently dedicated to a fund to help residents pay for the removal of leaking underground storage tanks.
The need for that fund has waned and a surplus has existed for several years, said Elaine Makatura, a DEP spokeswoman. The surplus is expected to continue to increase in the coming years, possibly growing by $32 million a year by 2016. If voters approve rededicating the money for park use, the move will be permanent.
While it has the support of nearly all of the state's environmental groups, the initiative is far from being seen as a fix-all for the state's parks.
Lawmakers and advocates say they also need to pump billions more dollars into the nearly depleted Garden State Preservation Trust, which awards grants for preservation efforts and park improvements.
For that, they'll have to go to voters again in 2007.
E-mail: diskin@northjersey.com
Link to online story.
(Note: Online stories may be taken down by their publisher after a period of time or made available for a fee. Links posted here is from the original online publication of this piece.)
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff and Clippings have no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of these articles nor are Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff or Clippings endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)
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Sunday, October 29, 2006
Domestic partnership benefits - NY Times - Map
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Map of domestic partnership benefits nationwide.
(Click on image to enlarge.)
From NY Times, Sunday, October 29, 2006. Link to online graphic.
(Note: Online stories may be taken down by their publisher after a period of time or made available for a fee. Links posted here is from the original online publication of this piece.)
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff and Clippings have no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of these articles nor are Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff or Clippings endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)
Map of domestic partnership benefits nationwide.
(Click on image to enlarge.)
From NY Times, Sunday, October 29, 2006. Link to online graphic.
(Note: Online stories may be taken down by their publisher after a period of time or made available for a fee. Links posted here is from the original online publication of this piece.)
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff and Clippings have no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of these articles nor are Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff or Clippings endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)
Friday, October 27, 2006
NJ's Best Legislators: Bramnick #2
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With more than 12,000 votes cast, PoliticsNJ.com readers voted Senate President Richard J. Codey as New Jersey's Best Legislator.
Ranking second in the poll is Assemblyman Jon Bramnick (R-Westfield) who got his start in politics as a Plainfield City Councilman.
Ranking behind Codey and Bramnick in the poll are: Bill Baroni, John Adler, Bill Gormley, Joe Vitale, Bob Gordon, Charlotte Vandervalk, Kevin O'Toole and Diane Allen
Link to online story.
With more than 12,000 votes cast, PoliticsNJ.com readers voted Senate President Richard J. Codey as New Jersey's Best Legislator.
Ranking second in the poll is Assemblyman Jon Bramnick (R-Westfield) who got his start in politics as a Plainfield City Councilman.
Ranking behind Codey and Bramnick in the poll are: Bill Baroni, John Adler, Bill Gormley, Joe Vitale, Bob Gordon, Charlotte Vandervalk, Kevin O'Toole and Diane Allen
Link to online story.
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Housing - Ledger - Hovnanian cancels senior housing
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Hovnanian cancels senior housing dev
Builder won't pursue senior homes project
Star-Ledger, Tuesday, October 10, 2006
MOUNT OLIVE: The would- be builder of 372 age-restricted homes off Route 46 has withdrawn its application, claiming the development is no longer financially viable.
K. Hovnanian contracted to buy the land for the development in 2002, and the property was rezoned for the Four Seasons at Mount Olive project about six months ago, said company spokesman Doug Fenichel.
But "economic times have changed, and when we reviewed the numbers ... they didn't make as much sense as they did when we began the project several years ago," Fenichel said.
He cited the land's rising price, traffic improvements the company would have to make and regulatory costs. Plus, the housing market has softened.
"The demand isn't as high as it was," he said. "It makes us look at the numbers differently. The company pulled the applica tion on Friday, he said.
It had worked for 3 1/2 years to have the township rezone the land and faced the process of se curing approvals from at least four levels of government, Feni chel said.
The project abutted a former landfill between Route 46 and Gold Mine Road, which was removed from the federal Superfund cleanup list in 2004.
http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/jersey/index.ssf?/base/news-4/1160455243190710.xml&coll=1
(Note: Online stories may be taken down by their publisher after a period of time or made available for a fee. Links posted here is from the original online publication of this piece.)
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff and Clippings have no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of these articles nor are Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff or Clippings endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)
Hovnanian cancels senior housing dev
Builder won't pursue senior homes project
Star-Ledger, Tuesday, October 10, 2006
MOUNT OLIVE: The would- be builder of 372 age-restricted homes off Route 46 has withdrawn its application, claiming the development is no longer financially viable.
K. Hovnanian contracted to buy the land for the development in 2002, and the property was rezoned for the Four Seasons at Mount Olive project about six months ago, said company spokesman Doug Fenichel.
But "economic times have changed, and when we reviewed the numbers ... they didn't make as much sense as they did when we began the project several years ago," Fenichel said.
He cited the land's rising price, traffic improvements the company would have to make and regulatory costs. Plus, the housing market has softened.
"The demand isn't as high as it was," he said. "It makes us look at the numbers differently. The company pulled the applica tion on Friday, he said.
It had worked for 3 1/2 years to have the township rezone the land and faced the process of se curing approvals from at least four levels of government, Feni chel said.
The project abutted a former landfill between Route 46 and Gold Mine Road, which was removed from the federal Superfund cleanup list in 2004.
http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/jersey/index.ssf?/base/news-4/1160455243190710.xml&coll=1
(Note: Online stories may be taken down by their publisher after a period of time or made available for a fee. Links posted here is from the original online publication of this piece.)
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff and Clippings have no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of these articles nor are Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff or Clippings endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)
-- Dan Damon
Monday, October 23, 2006
2006 General Election - Courier - Candidate views
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Published in the Courier News, Monday, October 23, 2006
In Plainfield, many candidates focus on one topic -- change
By CHRISTA SEGALINI
Staff Writer
PLAINFIELD -- With residents concerned about a variety of issues facing the city, the three Republican challengers and one Independent candidate are battling more than the city's single-party dominance in their campaigns to unseat Democratic incumbents Rayland Van Blake, Rashid Burney and Harold Gibson on Nov. 7.
Insisting residents want change, Republican hopefuls Arlington Johnson, Angela Perun and Deborah Dowe and Independent Robert Edwards are working to establish their positions -- and distance themselves from their opponents -- as the general election nears.
But Van Blake, Burney and Gibson are also running on platforms of change, hoping that residents will give each of them four more years to address the city's hot-button issues of open government, crime, taxes and development.
Open government
Ask Perun why she's running for the 2nd and 3rd Ward City Council seat now held by Burney, and the answer, she said, is pretty straightforward.
"I don't think we have a very open government at this time," said Perun, who has been a state assemblywoman as well as a Plainfield City Council and Plainfield Board of Education member. "Elected officials are supposed to be public servants. But the City Council seems to have this attitude they will either get back to you, maybe, or they will send you a letter, maybe, and I think they have a real obligation to respond to the people."
Perun's frustration with the transparency of the city's government is echoed by Dowe, Johnson and Edwards. They also feel the City Council needs to do a better job of making information available to residents, either through better communication with the administration or new approaches to disseminating information to the public.
It's an issue incumbent Burney said he is making one of his top priorities as well.
"A lot of what we do on the council is perception, and one of the best ways of getting past that is by putting the minutes of our council meetings right out there for the public to see," Burney said. "The city's Web site -- I would like to put some money aside in the budget to make sure we can get as much information on to that as possible. That's an easy way to make everything more transparent for residents."
Van Blake, the current City Council president and First Ward representative, said he would also like to see the city's official Web site become full-service so residents can access information from their homes.
The process he said, will require funding and planning.
"Our technology infrastructure is so far behind, and it's going to take a lot of money to bring that up to speed," Van Blake said. "But I believe the council minutes should be on the Web site. In fact, I think the city's budget should be right there on the Web site for everyone to see. That Web site should be full-service."
Gibson, who was appointed to his Councilman-at-Large seat in August following the death of Ray Blanco in late July, said often, residents do not know the procedures for requesting information from the city and that officials need to do a better job of explaining that process.
"I think we have to get residents to understand what the role of the City Council is and then assist them in getting information that is open to the public," Gibson said.
Crime
While the number of homicides in 2006 is below the record number of 15 in 2005, residents' concern over public safety is still at an all-time high, and the council election challengers are demanding that the City Council do more to address the issue.
Combating crime, said First Ward council candidate Johnson, begins with mobilizing the city's residents.
"Nobody is organizing block associations. Nobody is going out to the people to let them know how to help themselves," Johnson said. "If elected, one of the first things I would do is to invite the community to organize themselves and offer government assistance to do that."
Dowe, who is vying for the City Council at-large seat held by Gibson, said more focus needs to be put on finding jobs for the city's youth that will keep them off the streets and away from the influence of gangs.
"As soon as a young person is eligible to get their working papers, we need to set up a program to walk them through that process of getting a job," Dowe said. "We've got to help young people see they can find gainful employment and for them to not give up on being part of society."
Van Blake also would like to see the city step up its efforts to help youth find jobs, and believes a wider variety of after-school programs should be made available to young people.
"I think we need to work to form a partnership with merchants in the downtown to get the youth after-school jobs to give them a way to make some money and to take up some of their after-school time," Van Blake said. "We can't depend on athletics alone. I'd like to see an arts program geared toward young people -- musical or theater-based -- to give kids a creative outlet."
Gibson, who in addition to being a former city administrator is the current Union County Public Safety director, said the City Council has to up its role as a liaison between the public and city law enforcement.
"City Council members need to be willing to visit people in their homes and speak to them about their real concerns and then bring that information back to the council as a whole to see what we need to be doing to address that," Gibson said. "The assignment of the personnel on our police department is a serious issue also that deserves to be looked at to see if we aren't wasting valuable personnel resources."
Burney said he would like to see law enforcement crack down on "quality of life" crimes, such as graffiti and speeding, that he said negatively impact the city's reputation and perpetuate a false sense that the city is accepting of smaller crimes.
"I realize that our police have a lot to deal with -- robberies, homicides -- but we can't let people think it's ever OK to break the law, even if it is a small, petty crime," Burney said.
Taxes
Residents' concern about taxes is not new, but incumbents and challengers said that City Council members need to be more creative and aggressive in their approach of how to address the problem.
Attracting sustainable commercial taxable properties is one approach Van Blake and At-Large council candidate Edwards said needs to be researched in order to ease residents' tax burden while maintaining important services.
"That is one area that clearly needs to be better looked at," Edwards said. "We need to look at areas of the city where we can encourage business ratables to come in so they can spend their money here for the long-term."
Burney, Johnson and Dowe pointed to an increased need for grant funding as another way to shield taxpayers from additional costs.
"I think we need to be looking full-time into what grants are available out there," Burney said. "We can't just talk about cutting incremental costs from the budget, because that's not going to make a big enough difference."
Dowe, who said she's had a lot of experience writing grant proposals, said she would make grant research a personal priority, if elected.
"We need to do a better job of getting supplemental funding for the city," Dowe said. "There are so many philanthropic foundations, the state and county who have money available for municipal projects and program, but we have nobody doing the work to get that money to Plainfield."
Development
Several redevelopment proposals have come before the City Council and Planning Board in the last few months, sparking renewed interest in the future of the city's building stock and available land.
Specifically, the administration's support of transit-oriented development -- higher density residential and compatible commercial development near the city's Netherwood and downtown train stations -- is emerging as the future of city's redevelopment plans.
Included in the city's redevelopment initiatives are the former Marino's Tract, a 7.3-acre parcel at West Front Street and Plainfield Avenue for which a supermarket is proposed; and plans for high-density residential and commercial development on an approximately 3-acre parcel in the city's North Avenue Historic District at the intersection of Watchung Avenue and East Second Street.
The City Council also recently heard conceptual plans by Pompton Plains developer Capodagli Property to transform a 4.2-acre area at the intersection of Richmond Avenue and East Third Street into a residential complex of 352 condominiums and a 7,800-square-foot retail building. Those plans have not been approved.
While all of this year's City Council candidates said they would like to see development and redevelopment in the city, concerns abound over how the proposed development would affect residents' quality of life.
Although proponents of redevelopment, Van Blake and Gibson said they are concerned about how high-density housing and payment in lieu of tax opportunities for developers -- such as the Park-Madison redevelopment project -- could become a burden for residents.
"I'm not certain that the high densities of the redevelopment projects proposed is something that over the years will necessarily benefit the city because of how it can impact services and schools," Gibson said. "But my biggest concern for redevelopment is entertaining redevelopment with tax abatements. I do not believe we should be giving away tax money in the hopes that something positive will come out the development."
Burney said he is a major supporter of transit-oriented development and wants to ensure the city's redevelopment plans will translate into money for the city. But what the city doesn't need more of, Burney said, is low-income housing.
"We need more development in town -- more ratables -- but we have to do it smart," Burney said. "I'm a real supporter for transit-oriented development because I think the train stations are some of our biggest assets. What I do not want is more subsidized housing. We need a balance of low-income and middle-class capital development."
Dowe said that while she feels the city needs more taxable properties and isn't opposed to higher-end housing projects, she would like to see more research done on the city's current housing stock before deciding whether a need exists for more affordable housing.
"There's a feeling in the city that certain people are being priced out of their homes," Dowe said. "I think the city needs to remain diverse. We definitely need to do a better job of bringing more ratables in to Plainfield. But we need to remain aware of the type of development we really want for the city."
Johnson said more attention needs to be paid to what the motives are behind redevelopment.
"I support redevelopment in the city, however, I don't support the method," Johnson said. "There are too many profit motives, either from the developers or the administration, and nobody is asking residents what they would like to see as far as development. There needs to be community forums on this. Residents need to know what their futures will look like."
Christa Segalini can be reached at (908) 707-3142 or csegalini@c-n.com
Link to online story.
(Note: Online stories may be taken down by their publisher after a period of time or made available for a fee. Links posted here is from the original online publication of this piece.)
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff and Clippings have no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of these articles nor are Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff or Clippings endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)
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Published in the Courier News, Monday, October 23, 2006
In Plainfield, many candidates focus on one topic -- change
By CHRISTA SEGALINI
Staff Writer
PLAINFIELD -- With residents concerned about a variety of issues facing the city, the three Republican challengers and one Independent candidate are battling more than the city's single-party dominance in their campaigns to unseat Democratic incumbents Rayland Van Blake, Rashid Burney and Harold Gibson on Nov. 7.
Insisting residents want change, Republican hopefuls Arlington Johnson, Angela Perun and Deborah Dowe and Independent Robert Edwards are working to establish their positions -- and distance themselves from their opponents -- as the general election nears.
But Van Blake, Burney and Gibson are also running on platforms of change, hoping that residents will give each of them four more years to address the city's hot-button issues of open government, crime, taxes and development.
Open government
Ask Perun why she's running for the 2nd and 3rd Ward City Council seat now held by Burney, and the answer, she said, is pretty straightforward.
"I don't think we have a very open government at this time," said Perun, who has been a state assemblywoman as well as a Plainfield City Council and Plainfield Board of Education member. "Elected officials are supposed to be public servants. But the City Council seems to have this attitude they will either get back to you, maybe, or they will send you a letter, maybe, and I think they have a real obligation to respond to the people."
Perun's frustration with the transparency of the city's government is echoed by Dowe, Johnson and Edwards. They also feel the City Council needs to do a better job of making information available to residents, either through better communication with the administration or new approaches to disseminating information to the public.
It's an issue incumbent Burney said he is making one of his top priorities as well.
"A lot of what we do on the council is perception, and one of the best ways of getting past that is by putting the minutes of our council meetings right out there for the public to see," Burney said. "The city's Web site -- I would like to put some money aside in the budget to make sure we can get as much information on to that as possible. That's an easy way to make everything more transparent for residents."
Van Blake, the current City Council president and First Ward representative, said he would also like to see the city's official Web site become full-service so residents can access information from their homes.
The process he said, will require funding and planning.
"Our technology infrastructure is so far behind, and it's going to take a lot of money to bring that up to speed," Van Blake said. "But I believe the council minutes should be on the Web site. In fact, I think the city's budget should be right there on the Web site for everyone to see. That Web site should be full-service."
Gibson, who was appointed to his Councilman-at-Large seat in August following the death of Ray Blanco in late July, said often, residents do not know the procedures for requesting information from the city and that officials need to do a better job of explaining that process.
"I think we have to get residents to understand what the role of the City Council is and then assist them in getting information that is open to the public," Gibson said.
Crime
While the number of homicides in 2006 is below the record number of 15 in 2005, residents' concern over public safety is still at an all-time high, and the council election challengers are demanding that the City Council do more to address the issue.
Combating crime, said First Ward council candidate Johnson, begins with mobilizing the city's residents.
"Nobody is organizing block associations. Nobody is going out to the people to let them know how to help themselves," Johnson said. "If elected, one of the first things I would do is to invite the community to organize themselves and offer government assistance to do that."
Dowe, who is vying for the City Council at-large seat held by Gibson, said more focus needs to be put on finding jobs for the city's youth that will keep them off the streets and away from the influence of gangs.
"As soon as a young person is eligible to get their working papers, we need to set up a program to walk them through that process of getting a job," Dowe said. "We've got to help young people see they can find gainful employment and for them to not give up on being part of society."
Van Blake also would like to see the city step up its efforts to help youth find jobs, and believes a wider variety of after-school programs should be made available to young people.
"I think we need to work to form a partnership with merchants in the downtown to get the youth after-school jobs to give them a way to make some money and to take up some of their after-school time," Van Blake said. "We can't depend on athletics alone. I'd like to see an arts program geared toward young people -- musical or theater-based -- to give kids a creative outlet."
Gibson, who in addition to being a former city administrator is the current Union County Public Safety director, said the City Council has to up its role as a liaison between the public and city law enforcement.
"City Council members need to be willing to visit people in their homes and speak to them about their real concerns and then bring that information back to the council as a whole to see what we need to be doing to address that," Gibson said. "The assignment of the personnel on our police department is a serious issue also that deserves to be looked at to see if we aren't wasting valuable personnel resources."
Burney said he would like to see law enforcement crack down on "quality of life" crimes, such as graffiti and speeding, that he said negatively impact the city's reputation and perpetuate a false sense that the city is accepting of smaller crimes.
"I realize that our police have a lot to deal with -- robberies, homicides -- but we can't let people think it's ever OK to break the law, even if it is a small, petty crime," Burney said.
Taxes
Residents' concern about taxes is not new, but incumbents and challengers said that City Council members need to be more creative and aggressive in their approach of how to address the problem.
Attracting sustainable commercial taxable properties is one approach Van Blake and At-Large council candidate Edwards said needs to be researched in order to ease residents' tax burden while maintaining important services.
"That is one area that clearly needs to be better looked at," Edwards said. "We need to look at areas of the city where we can encourage business ratables to come in so they can spend their money here for the long-term."
Burney, Johnson and Dowe pointed to an increased need for grant funding as another way to shield taxpayers from additional costs.
"I think we need to be looking full-time into what grants are available out there," Burney said. "We can't just talk about cutting incremental costs from the budget, because that's not going to make a big enough difference."
Dowe, who said she's had a lot of experience writing grant proposals, said she would make grant research a personal priority, if elected.
"We need to do a better job of getting supplemental funding for the city," Dowe said. "There are so many philanthropic foundations, the state and county who have money available for municipal projects and program, but we have nobody doing the work to get that money to Plainfield."
Development
Several redevelopment proposals have come before the City Council and Planning Board in the last few months, sparking renewed interest in the future of the city's building stock and available land.
Specifically, the administration's support of transit-oriented development -- higher density residential and compatible commercial development near the city's Netherwood and downtown train stations -- is emerging as the future of city's redevelopment plans.
Included in the city's redevelopment initiatives are the former Marino's Tract, a 7.3-acre parcel at West Front Street and Plainfield Avenue for which a supermarket is proposed; and plans for high-density residential and commercial development on an approximately 3-acre parcel in the city's North Avenue Historic District at the intersection of Watchung Avenue and East Second Street.
The City Council also recently heard conceptual plans by Pompton Plains developer Capodagli Property to transform a 4.2-acre area at the intersection of Richmond Avenue and East Third Street into a residential complex of 352 condominiums and a 7,800-square-foot retail building. Those plans have not been approved.
While all of this year's City Council candidates said they would like to see development and redevelopment in the city, concerns abound over how the proposed development would affect residents' quality of life.
Although proponents of redevelopment, Van Blake and Gibson said they are concerned about how high-density housing and payment in lieu of tax opportunities for developers -- such as the Park-Madison redevelopment project -- could become a burden for residents.
"I'm not certain that the high densities of the redevelopment projects proposed is something that over the years will necessarily benefit the city because of how it can impact services and schools," Gibson said. "But my biggest concern for redevelopment is entertaining redevelopment with tax abatements. I do not believe we should be giving away tax money in the hopes that something positive will come out the development."
Burney said he is a major supporter of transit-oriented development and wants to ensure the city's redevelopment plans will translate into money for the city. But what the city doesn't need more of, Burney said, is low-income housing.
"We need more development in town -- more ratables -- but we have to do it smart," Burney said. "I'm a real supporter for transit-oriented development because I think the train stations are some of our biggest assets. What I do not want is more subsidized housing. We need a balance of low-income and middle-class capital development."
Dowe said that while she feels the city needs more taxable properties and isn't opposed to higher-end housing projects, she would like to see more research done on the city's current housing stock before deciding whether a need exists for more affordable housing.
"There's a feeling in the city that certain people are being priced out of their homes," Dowe said. "I think the city needs to remain diverse. We definitely need to do a better job of bringing more ratables in to Plainfield. But we need to remain aware of the type of development we really want for the city."
Johnson said more attention needs to be paid to what the motives are behind redevelopment.
"I support redevelopment in the city, however, I don't support the method," Johnson said. "There are too many profit motives, either from the developers or the administration, and nobody is asking residents what they would like to see as far as development. There needs to be community forums on this. Residents need to know what their futures will look like."
Christa Segalini can be reached at (908) 707-3142 or csegalini@c-n.com
Link to online story.
(Note: Online stories may be taken down by their publisher after a period of time or made available for a fee. Links posted here is from the original online publication of this piece.)
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff and Clippings have no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of these articles nor are Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff or Clippings endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)
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Sunday, October 22, 2006
New Horizons College Club
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New Horizons College Club
WHAT IS THE NHCC?
New Horizons College Club (NHCC) provides and/or supplements the support and guidance the program participants receive at home and in their respective high schools. We guide each participant through the college choice process. We not only strongly encourage each of the participants to attend college, but provide them with the information needed and means necessary to navigate through the college selection process and choose an institution of higher education which best suits their educational needs.
The program provides students with college related information regarding the SAT/ACT factors important to selecting a college or university public, private, and institutional scholarships. The services provided by the volunteer program advisors take place at weekly sessions between September and May. The program's participants have the opportunity to learn more about campus life and college survival skills through a series of program sessions, guest speakers, and returning NHCC alumni.
The NHCC curriculum has four key topics: self-exploration, college search, financing a college education and college survival skills. Life skills and other real life topics (e.g. racism, sexism, and discrimination) are infused into weekly sessions in the form of group discussions, and program activities.
Top Ten Reasons to join NHCC
10. You have access to SAT and College Application fee waivers.
9. You have a good time while you learn.
8. You have a Program Advisor that will work with you one-on-one.
7. You will get help with structuring that dreaded personal essay.
6. You have connections to local scholarship opportunities.
5. You will know exactly who you are.
4. You will know more about the college process than your peers.
3. It’s one day a week.
2. It’s easy to join.
And the #1 reason IT's FREE!!!!"
About Us
Mission
New Horizons College Club is a non-profit corporation whose mission is to strengthen the position of African Americans in the community by encouraging the pursuit of higher education. We provide support, encouragement, direction and access to educational resources.
Mission Statement
New Horizons College Club seeks to ensure that African American high school students are adequately prepared to pursue and earn degrees of higher education by addressing barriers to access from application to matriculation and through to graduation.
Vision
The vision is to get African American students into college, despite social, academic, and/or financial barriers.
Vision Statement
New Horizons College Club envisions its graduates as college educated, self sufficient adults influencing, contributing to, and benefiting from, their communities and society.
Activities Statement
New Horizons College Club helps African American students get into college by providing support, information, direction, and access to educational resources.
Values
Our chief values are education, preparedness, collaboration, community, and upward-mobility. The underlying belief of New Horizons College Club is that African American students need assistance to successfully navigate the path to higher education and to generate as many options as possible to ensure a quality college education.
Value Statement
New Horizons College Club believes that every African American Student should have a plan of action to secure a quality college education, regardless of academic, social, or financial barriers.
Positioning Statement
Recognizing that societal barriers exist for people without a college degree to enjoy a certain level of freedom and a quality of life, New Horizons College Club values excellence in education an recognizes a higher education as an equalizer in this society."
http://www.joinnhcc.org/about_us/about.html
NHCC meets every Wednesday from September to May at the
Washington Community School
427 Darrow Avenue Plainfield, NJ from 7:30 - 9:00 PM
Contact Us At:
New Horizons College Club (NHCC)
PO Box 2722
Plainfield, NJ 07062
908.754.2721
http://www.joinnhcc.org/
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff and Clippings have no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of these articles nor are Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff or Clippings endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)
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Iraq - Guardian UK - Genteel revolt of GOP veterans against W
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Published in the Guardian/UK, Saturday, October 21, 2006
The genteel revolt that is remaking US policy on Iraq
Republican veterans push for end to interventionist approach
Julian Borger in Washington
The Guardian
A "polite rebellion" is under way among previously loyal allies of President Bush aimed at persuading him to change course in Iraq and quietly abandon the foreign policy doctrine he had hoped would be the centrepiece of his legacy.
Many senior Republicans believe the "Bush Doctrine" has hit a wall in Iraq and lies in ruins. The rebels, including many foreign policy veterans close to the president's father, see it as an obstacle to stabilising Iraq and extricating US forces. But they have decided that earlier, head-on challenges have only deepened the president's resolve, and a less confrontational approach was needed that avoided blame for past mistakes if there was to be any hope of a fundamental rethink.
"It's a polite rebellion by moderate and military-minded Republicans," said Steven Clemons, a Washington analyst. "Any walk-away from the Bush line is going to be covered with a lot of cosmetics to make it look like it's not really a big change."
The focus of the new approach is the Iraq Study Group (ISG), a bipartisan commission co-chaired by the first President Bush's secretary of state, James Baker, which will present its recommendations after the November elections.
Those elections are another reason for urgency. If the Democrats capture the House of Representatives, as expected, they will be in a position to cut funding for the war if they are not listened to. Even if they fall short of an absolute majority in the Senate, there are now Republican senators signalling that they could side with the opposition if there is not a decisive rethink on Iraq. David Mack, a diplomat in the first Bush administration who helped rally Arab support for the Gulf War, said: "We are really at a point where any talk of victory is an illusion."
Mr Mack, who served as a consultant to the ISG, said he was expressing personal opinions that did not necessarily reflect the views of the panel, whose work is still classified. He insisted the Bush administration would have to redefine victory. It would have to give up its rhetoric about spreading democracy, as well as its aversion to talking to Syria or Iran - both central planks of the Bush Doctrine, which emphasises the muscular use of US power to isolate enemy "rogue regimes".
Success might then be achieved in the form of "an orderly exit from the country that doesn't make a bad situation worse".
Those involved with the Baker commission hope that its recommendations, coming from friends and camouflaged as tactical tweaks, could offer President Bush a face-saving way out of the current bloody impasse. But they concede there is no guarantee of a decisive change.
There is no consensus on the way out of Iraq among the president's critics while resistance to change is entrenched and led by Vice-President Dick Cheney."I know what the president thinks. I know what I think. And we're not looking for an exit strategy. We're looking for victory," Mr Cheney told Time magazine.
The counter-attack by Republican "realists" has been led by close confidants of George Bush Sr, injecting the generational tensions of a powerful dynasty into an already heated debate. "A future Shakespeare will have a lot to write about," a former official from the first Bush administration now working with the Baker commission, noted this week.
There have been Republican rebellions against the administration's Iraq policy before but they have failed to exert any influence. The rebels' open questioning of the rationale for the war was regarded as disloyal and they were quickly excluded from White House discussions.
By contrast, Mr Baker's loyalty had hitherto been unquestioned. He is a fellow Texan, and has long been the Bush family's fixer. He has abstained from second-guessing the decision to go to war, despite recent intense questioning, and played a role in drumming up foreign contributions to fund Iraqi development. He personally asked the president's permission before agreeing to chair the ISG.
Mr Clemons said Mr Baker was seeking to "provide camouflage for changing direction". Nervousness about the death toll in Iraq and worries about a debacle at the polls in November have led other former loyalists to break ranks in recent days, including Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, another Texan conservative, who said this week that she was willing to contemplate Iraq's partition, an idea dismissed by the White House as a "nonstarter".
Perhaps the most worrying development for the Bush team is the public loss of faith expressed by a powerful Republican loyalist, Senator John Warner, the head of the armed services committee with very close links to the military.
Senator Warner was instrumental in the creation of the ISG and is its most senior sponsor. He returned from his eighth trip to Iraq earlier this month and declared the situation was "markedly different" from earlier visits. It was a "very serious situation" that was "simply drifting sideways".
In the next few months, he warned the administration would have to ask itself: "Is there a change of course that we should take?"
The cautiousness with which this rebellion is proceeding is influenced not just by anxiety over alienating the president and entrenching resistance from Mr Cheney. It is also informed by an awareness that there are no good options left on the table.
The eight options: what Washington and London are discussing
1 British out now
One of the British diplomats involved in talks on Iraq policy said the UK, which has responsibility for the south of Iraq, "could go tomorrow almost ... It would not look pretty, but it is doable".
Against British diplomats pinpoint three problems if the UK was to pull out immediately. One would be political: the US would not welcome being left virtually alone. The second is military: the US would no longer have a dependable force in the south. The third is security: without British forces in place, fighting between the various militia groups and the criminal gangs in Basra and elsewhere would intensify.
For The British presence is part of the problem. If Basra, Amara and other places were to disintegrate after British forces leave, the FCO hopes Shia religious leaders and Iran, which has influence over the Shia, could quickly establish stability.
Likelihood Not being seriously considered yet. Halving British forces next summer, with further reductions later on, is still the likeliest outcome.
2 US coalition out now
"We could pull out now and leave them to their fate," a Foreign Office official said. "But the place could implode." The advantage of this option would be to cut short the agony.
Against A premature pull-out could precipitate an even more ferocious civil war. Faced with world outrage over the level of human rights abuses and carnage, the US might then have to consider going back in circumstances even worse than before.
For The presence of US forces is making things worse. The insurgency would lose its patriotic justification. A pull-out might force the Iraqi parties and security forces to work together or face a descent into anarchy.
Likelihood Such an early exit is unlikely. It would be an unpalatable humiliation for the Bush administration and most of its critics agree that a hasty withdrawal could ultimately oblige the troops to go back.
3 Phased withdrawal
This is the present policy, but any pull-out is contingent on Iraq developing its own security forces. But there are increasing calls in Washington and London for a timetable. A Foreign Office official said: "The date might possibly have to be secret." Otherwise it could encourage insurgents to step up attacks. During this stage, the US could pour in money for employment programmes.
Against The risk of agreeing a secret date with the Iraqi government is that, as with much else in Iraq, the date would probably leak out anyway.
For The prospect of the removal of its security blanket might force the Iraqi government to face up to the many issues it ignores at present, such as the rise in sectarian violence. It also allows more time for training the Iraqi army and trying to train and reform the police force, a policy that has so far proved to be slower than coalition forces had hoped.
Likelihood Still the likeliest option.
4 Talk to Iran and Syria
There appears to have been virtual consensus in the Baker commission for talks with Iraq's two most difficult neighbours on the grounds that they must ultimately want stability but will not pursue it while excluded from negotiations. The FCO, which has an embassy in Tehran, is pushing for engagement too.
Against Iran and Syria could make demands in return for help that the Bush administration would find hard to accept. Iran would, at a minimum, demand that the US stop calling for regime change. Syria could urge the US to put pressure on Israel to return the Golan Heights, lost in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. There is some question over whether either country could stop sectarian killings.
For Whatever the limitations of their influence, the bloodshed is only likely to worsen until they are brought on board.
Likelihood There may be too much resistance in the Bush administration to direct talks, but the US could well give the nod to negotiations between a sovereign Iraq and its powerful neighbours.
5 Iraqi strongman
The US and British governments have been disappointed so far with Nuri al-Maliki, Iraq's elected prime minister who took over earlier this year, mainly over the reluctance of his Shia-dominated coalition to tackle Shia death squads. Washington and London could press for his replacement with a strongman at the head of a junta, such as Ayad Allawi, the interim prime minister from 2004-05 - and roll back democracy.
Against Ousting a democratic government, with its carefully crafted constitution, would amount to a scandalous policy failure. "I do not see that as an option for western democracies," a British official said. Allawi is treated with suspicion by religious Shias because he is secular and detested by Sunnis because he presided over the attack on Falluja.
For Only a strong, secular Iraqi leader could break the sectarian deadlock and broker the kind of compromises over oil and regional autonomy that are essential to prevent civil war and keep the country together.
Likelihood Not likely.
6 Break-up of Iraq
Iraq is moving towards a federal model that could result in its break-up. The Kurdish area to the north is virtually autonomous anyway. The Shia-dominated area stretching from Basra in the south to the holy cities of Kerbala and Najaf further north could form another bloc, leaving the Sunnis with much of the west and centre - mostly oil-free desert. Advocates of such partition talk about using coalition forces to escort minority populations across the ethnic divides to streamline the partition and working out a fair revenue-sharing formula for oil.
Against The break-up would leave a power vacuum in the region, which Iran, Syria and Turkey could exploit. The partition of Iraq would not be easy. Baghdad, which has huge Sunni and Shia communities, could explode.
For The sectarian killings are creating de facto partition. Military escorts for civilians displaced by the violence would at least reduce the death toll.
Likelihood Events on the ground may make it inevitable.
7 Redeploy & contain
There are two variations. One is for US forces to leave populated areas and retreat to "super-bases" in the desert from where they could support Iraqi forces - something the army has already begun. An alternative would be for the US forces to move out of Iraq altogether and use bases in nearby countries.
Against "Super-bases could be the worst of both worlds," argues Larry Diamond, a former adviser to the Coalition Provisional Authority. The troops would be too cut off from the streets to have much impact, but they would remain foreign occupiers. It could be difficult to persuade other Arab countries to provide bases, and once out, it will be harder going back. It could also be perceived as cutting and running.
For US forces would no longer be in the firing line and with them gone, the motivation for many of the insurgents might evaporate. They would still be at hand to prop up the elected government.
Likelihood Quite possible in the short term as the US tries to stem its casualties, but unlikely as a lasting solution.
8 One last push
This would involve an increase of troops in the short term in the hope of creating sufficient security to deliver economic gains and create confidence in the Iraqi government. This roughly is Senator John McCain's preferred option, but might also appeal to Mr Bush as it would not immediately require a policy U-turn.
Against It might be too late to curb the escalating violence and it would be politically unpalatable at home. It could leave even more US forces stuck in the middle of a civil war.
For Military experts have long said there are not enough coalition forces in Iraq to seal the borders against infiltration and stamp out sectarian killings. It would be a sign of backing for the Baghdad government and would force sectarian leaders to take it more seriously.
Likelihood A final gamble by Mr Bush is not to be discounted. Senator McCain is a presidential frontrunner for 2008, but by then Iraq may look very different.
-------------------------------------------------------
Full coverage
Special report: Iraq
The trial of Saddam Hussein
Britain and Iraq
In memoriam: 100 British troops killed in Iraq
Special report: UK politics and Iraq
Chronology
January 1 2005 - present
Feb 1 2004 - 31 Dec 2004
July 16 1979 - Jan 31 2004
Interactive guides
Saddam's trial
More click-through graphics on Iraq
Key documents
Full text of speeches and documents
Audio reports
Audio reports on Iraq
Links
Provisional authority: rebuilding Iraq
Wikipedia: Iraq
Link to online story.
(Note: Online stories may be taken down by their publisher after a period of time or made available for a fee. Links posted here is from the original online publication of this piece.)
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff and Clippings have no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of these articles nor are Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff or Clippings endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)
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Published in the Guardian/UK, Saturday, October 21, 2006
The genteel revolt that is remaking US policy on Iraq
Republican veterans push for end to interventionist approach
Julian Borger in Washington
The Guardian
A "polite rebellion" is under way among previously loyal allies of President Bush aimed at persuading him to change course in Iraq and quietly abandon the foreign policy doctrine he had hoped would be the centrepiece of his legacy.
Many senior Republicans believe the "Bush Doctrine" has hit a wall in Iraq and lies in ruins. The rebels, including many foreign policy veterans close to the president's father, see it as an obstacle to stabilising Iraq and extricating US forces. But they have decided that earlier, head-on challenges have only deepened the president's resolve, and a less confrontational approach was needed that avoided blame for past mistakes if there was to be any hope of a fundamental rethink.
"It's a polite rebellion by moderate and military-minded Republicans," said Steven Clemons, a Washington analyst. "Any walk-away from the Bush line is going to be covered with a lot of cosmetics to make it look like it's not really a big change."
The focus of the new approach is the Iraq Study Group (ISG), a bipartisan commission co-chaired by the first President Bush's secretary of state, James Baker, which will present its recommendations after the November elections.
Those elections are another reason for urgency. If the Democrats capture the House of Representatives, as expected, they will be in a position to cut funding for the war if they are not listened to. Even if they fall short of an absolute majority in the Senate, there are now Republican senators signalling that they could side with the opposition if there is not a decisive rethink on Iraq. David Mack, a diplomat in the first Bush administration who helped rally Arab support for the Gulf War, said: "We are really at a point where any talk of victory is an illusion."
Mr Mack, who served as a consultant to the ISG, said he was expressing personal opinions that did not necessarily reflect the views of the panel, whose work is still classified. He insisted the Bush administration would have to redefine victory. It would have to give up its rhetoric about spreading democracy, as well as its aversion to talking to Syria or Iran - both central planks of the Bush Doctrine, which emphasises the muscular use of US power to isolate enemy "rogue regimes".
Success might then be achieved in the form of "an orderly exit from the country that doesn't make a bad situation worse".
Those involved with the Baker commission hope that its recommendations, coming from friends and camouflaged as tactical tweaks, could offer President Bush a face-saving way out of the current bloody impasse. But they concede there is no guarantee of a decisive change.
There is no consensus on the way out of Iraq among the president's critics while resistance to change is entrenched and led by Vice-President Dick Cheney."I know what the president thinks. I know what I think. And we're not looking for an exit strategy. We're looking for victory," Mr Cheney told Time magazine.
The counter-attack by Republican "realists" has been led by close confidants of George Bush Sr, injecting the generational tensions of a powerful dynasty into an already heated debate. "A future Shakespeare will have a lot to write about," a former official from the first Bush administration now working with the Baker commission, noted this week.
There have been Republican rebellions against the administration's Iraq policy before but they have failed to exert any influence. The rebels' open questioning of the rationale for the war was regarded as disloyal and they were quickly excluded from White House discussions.
By contrast, Mr Baker's loyalty had hitherto been unquestioned. He is a fellow Texan, and has long been the Bush family's fixer. He has abstained from second-guessing the decision to go to war, despite recent intense questioning, and played a role in drumming up foreign contributions to fund Iraqi development. He personally asked the president's permission before agreeing to chair the ISG.
Mr Clemons said Mr Baker was seeking to "provide camouflage for changing direction". Nervousness about the death toll in Iraq and worries about a debacle at the polls in November have led other former loyalists to break ranks in recent days, including Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, another Texan conservative, who said this week that she was willing to contemplate Iraq's partition, an idea dismissed by the White House as a "nonstarter".
Perhaps the most worrying development for the Bush team is the public loss of faith expressed by a powerful Republican loyalist, Senator John Warner, the head of the armed services committee with very close links to the military.
Senator Warner was instrumental in the creation of the ISG and is its most senior sponsor. He returned from his eighth trip to Iraq earlier this month and declared the situation was "markedly different" from earlier visits. It was a "very serious situation" that was "simply drifting sideways".
In the next few months, he warned the administration would have to ask itself: "Is there a change of course that we should take?"
The cautiousness with which this rebellion is proceeding is influenced not just by anxiety over alienating the president and entrenching resistance from Mr Cheney. It is also informed by an awareness that there are no good options left on the table.
The eight options: what Washington and London are discussing
1 British out now
One of the British diplomats involved in talks on Iraq policy said the UK, which has responsibility for the south of Iraq, "could go tomorrow almost ... It would not look pretty, but it is doable".
Against British diplomats pinpoint three problems if the UK was to pull out immediately. One would be political: the US would not welcome being left virtually alone. The second is military: the US would no longer have a dependable force in the south. The third is security: without British forces in place, fighting between the various militia groups and the criminal gangs in Basra and elsewhere would intensify.
For The British presence is part of the problem. If Basra, Amara and other places were to disintegrate after British forces leave, the FCO hopes Shia religious leaders and Iran, which has influence over the Shia, could quickly establish stability.
Likelihood Not being seriously considered yet. Halving British forces next summer, with further reductions later on, is still the likeliest outcome.
2 US coalition out now
"We could pull out now and leave them to their fate," a Foreign Office official said. "But the place could implode." The advantage of this option would be to cut short the agony.
Against A premature pull-out could precipitate an even more ferocious civil war. Faced with world outrage over the level of human rights abuses and carnage, the US might then have to consider going back in circumstances even worse than before.
For The presence of US forces is making things worse. The insurgency would lose its patriotic justification. A pull-out might force the Iraqi parties and security forces to work together or face a descent into anarchy.
Likelihood Such an early exit is unlikely. It would be an unpalatable humiliation for the Bush administration and most of its critics agree that a hasty withdrawal could ultimately oblige the troops to go back.
3 Phased withdrawal
This is the present policy, but any pull-out is contingent on Iraq developing its own security forces. But there are increasing calls in Washington and London for a timetable. A Foreign Office official said: "The date might possibly have to be secret." Otherwise it could encourage insurgents to step up attacks. During this stage, the US could pour in money for employment programmes.
Against The risk of agreeing a secret date with the Iraqi government is that, as with much else in Iraq, the date would probably leak out anyway.
For The prospect of the removal of its security blanket might force the Iraqi government to face up to the many issues it ignores at present, such as the rise in sectarian violence. It also allows more time for training the Iraqi army and trying to train and reform the police force, a policy that has so far proved to be slower than coalition forces had hoped.
Likelihood Still the likeliest option.
4 Talk to Iran and Syria
There appears to have been virtual consensus in the Baker commission for talks with Iraq's two most difficult neighbours on the grounds that they must ultimately want stability but will not pursue it while excluded from negotiations. The FCO, which has an embassy in Tehran, is pushing for engagement too.
Against Iran and Syria could make demands in return for help that the Bush administration would find hard to accept. Iran would, at a minimum, demand that the US stop calling for regime change. Syria could urge the US to put pressure on Israel to return the Golan Heights, lost in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. There is some question over whether either country could stop sectarian killings.
For Whatever the limitations of their influence, the bloodshed is only likely to worsen until they are brought on board.
Likelihood There may be too much resistance in the Bush administration to direct talks, but the US could well give the nod to negotiations between a sovereign Iraq and its powerful neighbours.
5 Iraqi strongman
The US and British governments have been disappointed so far with Nuri al-Maliki, Iraq's elected prime minister who took over earlier this year, mainly over the reluctance of his Shia-dominated coalition to tackle Shia death squads. Washington and London could press for his replacement with a strongman at the head of a junta, such as Ayad Allawi, the interim prime minister from 2004-05 - and roll back democracy.
Against Ousting a democratic government, with its carefully crafted constitution, would amount to a scandalous policy failure. "I do not see that as an option for western democracies," a British official said. Allawi is treated with suspicion by religious Shias because he is secular and detested by Sunnis because he presided over the attack on Falluja.
For Only a strong, secular Iraqi leader could break the sectarian deadlock and broker the kind of compromises over oil and regional autonomy that are essential to prevent civil war and keep the country together.
Likelihood Not likely.
6 Break-up of Iraq
Iraq is moving towards a federal model that could result in its break-up. The Kurdish area to the north is virtually autonomous anyway. The Shia-dominated area stretching from Basra in the south to the holy cities of Kerbala and Najaf further north could form another bloc, leaving the Sunnis with much of the west and centre - mostly oil-free desert. Advocates of such partition talk about using coalition forces to escort minority populations across the ethnic divides to streamline the partition and working out a fair revenue-sharing formula for oil.
Against The break-up would leave a power vacuum in the region, which Iran, Syria and Turkey could exploit. The partition of Iraq would not be easy. Baghdad, which has huge Sunni and Shia communities, could explode.
For The sectarian killings are creating de facto partition. Military escorts for civilians displaced by the violence would at least reduce the death toll.
Likelihood Events on the ground may make it inevitable.
7 Redeploy & contain
There are two variations. One is for US forces to leave populated areas and retreat to "super-bases" in the desert from where they could support Iraqi forces - something the army has already begun. An alternative would be for the US forces to move out of Iraq altogether and use bases in nearby countries.
Against "Super-bases could be the worst of both worlds," argues Larry Diamond, a former adviser to the Coalition Provisional Authority. The troops would be too cut off from the streets to have much impact, but they would remain foreign occupiers. It could be difficult to persuade other Arab countries to provide bases, and once out, it will be harder going back. It could also be perceived as cutting and running.
For US forces would no longer be in the firing line and with them gone, the motivation for many of the insurgents might evaporate. They would still be at hand to prop up the elected government.
Likelihood Quite possible in the short term as the US tries to stem its casualties, but unlikely as a lasting solution.
8 One last push
This would involve an increase of troops in the short term in the hope of creating sufficient security to deliver economic gains and create confidence in the Iraqi government. This roughly is Senator John McCain's preferred option, but might also appeal to Mr Bush as it would not immediately require a policy U-turn.
Against It might be too late to curb the escalating violence and it would be politically unpalatable at home. It could leave even more US forces stuck in the middle of a civil war.
For Military experts have long said there are not enough coalition forces in Iraq to seal the borders against infiltration and stamp out sectarian killings. It would be a sign of backing for the Baghdad government and would force sectarian leaders to take it more seriously.
Likelihood A final gamble by Mr Bush is not to be discounted. Senator McCain is a presidential frontrunner for 2008, but by then Iraq may look very different.
-------------------------------------------------------
Full coverage
Special report: Iraq
The trial of Saddam Hussein
Britain and Iraq
In memoriam: 100 British troops killed in Iraq
Special report: UK politics and Iraq
Chronology
January 1 2005 - present
Feb 1 2004 - 31 Dec 2004
July 16 1979 - Jan 31 2004
Interactive guides
Saddam's trial
More click-through graphics on Iraq
Key documents
Full text of speeches and documents
Audio reports
Audio reports on Iraq
Links
Provisional authority: rebuilding Iraq
Wikipedia: Iraq
Link to online story.
(Note: Online stories may be taken down by their publisher after a period of time or made available for a fee. Links posted here is from the original online publication of this piece.)
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff and Clippings have no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of these articles nor are Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff or Clippings endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)
*
Thursday, October 19, 2006
Campaign contributions - Ledger - Booker will ban employee contributions
*
Published in the Star-Ledger, Thursday, October 19, 2006
Booker to ban some contributions
Mayor says he will not accept campaign donations from city employees
BY KATIE WANG
Star-Ledger Staff
Newark Mayor Cory Booker said yesterday he will no longer ac cept campaign contributions from city employees for his future mayoral campaigns.
The self-imposed ban, possibly the first in the state, is aimed at erasing the long-standing perception in Newark that campaign cash leads to job security in City Hall. As a candidate, Booker criticized his predecessor, former Mayor Sharpe James for sending city employees invitations to his $500 fund-raisers.
"Never again will we have a situation where people think they have job security based upon how much they give to the executive office," Booker said yesterday at a news conference at the New Jersey Institute of Technology where he reviewed his first 100 days in office.
Booker said he plans to sign an executive order outlining the ban next week.
The order does not apply to city council campaigns. The mayor's spokeswoman Desiree Peterkin Bell said the mayor decided to sign an executive order so that it is legally binding.
"This is a very good step for ward," said Heather Taylor, a spokeswoman for the Citizens Campaign, a statewide group pushing for reforms in campaign fundraising laws. "You are seeing a new direction in Newark."
According to campaign filings, Booker received $226,856 in contributions from 245 employees during this year's race. That figure is a tiny fraction of the nearly $7 million he raised to win this May's election.
The ban is one of a package of ethical reforms that Booker touted in a 48-minute speech about his first three months in office. At the beginning of his tenure in July, Booker unveiled a packed agenda that included hiring a new police director, launching new departments, kicking off a "safe summer" initiative, passing a 2006 spending plan and hosting office hours for the public.
Next on his agenda, he said, is to go after companies who are not complying with affirmative action laws or paying payroll taxes.
Amina Baraka, a poet, activist and critic of Booker's, called his remarks hypocritical.
"He talks about going after big businesses, but he went after the people first," she said. "Now that he's raised the taxes 8 percent, he's going to tell us he's going to go after money in different areas?"
Earl Best, also known as the "Street Doctor," praised Booker for keeping a visible presence in the community so far. At the same time, he said the mayor needs to bring more smaller community groups into the fold.
"There should be more grassroots," Best said. "I see him begin ning to do that."
Overall Booker gave himself a "B or B-plus" for his performance in office, saying his administration accomplished many initiatives, but fell short on several key ones.
Chief among those was curbing the homicide rate, which is on pace to exceed last year's total of 97 killings. On Friday, two more people were discovered dead in their Willoughby Street home by their 6-year-old daughter.
"We have to put down this perception of Newark as a violent city," Booker said before a crowd of about 200 dignitaries and City Hall employees. "The murders in our city and the shootings in our city continue. We are not successful in that one area."
Booker said the administration is still also trying to negotiate a better deal for the city on the New Jersey Devils hockey arena, a project he has criticized repeatedly. Among other things, Booker said he is fighting to get more city residents and businesses involved in the building and operation of the arena, which is scheduled to be ready by next year's season.
Booker has previously hinted that the Continental Airlines Arena should close. Yesterday, he said the Newark arena should be the state's major arena.
"The two cannot sustain, I don't think, and it hurts our state," Booker said about having two are nas.
"The way out is to use that land (Continental Airlines Arena) which is valuable and centrally located for something other than an arena. We will have the modern arena if this goes forward and a more advanta geous position."
Staff writers Ted Sherman and Jeffery C. Mays contributed to this report.
Link to online story.
(Note: Online stories may be taken down by their publisher after a period of time or made available for a fee. Links posted here is from the original online publication of this piece.)
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff and Clippings have no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of these articles nor are Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff or Clippings endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)
*
Published in the Star-Ledger, Thursday, October 19, 2006
Booker to ban some contributions
Mayor says he will not accept campaign donations from city employees
BY KATIE WANG
Star-Ledger Staff
Newark Mayor Cory Booker said yesterday he will no longer ac cept campaign contributions from city employees for his future mayoral campaigns.
The self-imposed ban, possibly the first in the state, is aimed at erasing the long-standing perception in Newark that campaign cash leads to job security in City Hall. As a candidate, Booker criticized his predecessor, former Mayor Sharpe James for sending city employees invitations to his $500 fund-raisers.
"Never again will we have a situation where people think they have job security based upon how much they give to the executive office," Booker said yesterday at a news conference at the New Jersey Institute of Technology where he reviewed his first 100 days in office.
Booker said he plans to sign an executive order outlining the ban next week.
The order does not apply to city council campaigns. The mayor's spokeswoman Desiree Peterkin Bell said the mayor decided to sign an executive order so that it is legally binding.
"This is a very good step for ward," said Heather Taylor, a spokeswoman for the Citizens Campaign, a statewide group pushing for reforms in campaign fundraising laws. "You are seeing a new direction in Newark."
According to campaign filings, Booker received $226,856 in contributions from 245 employees during this year's race. That figure is a tiny fraction of the nearly $7 million he raised to win this May's election.
The ban is one of a package of ethical reforms that Booker touted in a 48-minute speech about his first three months in office. At the beginning of his tenure in July, Booker unveiled a packed agenda that included hiring a new police director, launching new departments, kicking off a "safe summer" initiative, passing a 2006 spending plan and hosting office hours for the public.
Next on his agenda, he said, is to go after companies who are not complying with affirmative action laws or paying payroll taxes.
Amina Baraka, a poet, activist and critic of Booker's, called his remarks hypocritical.
"He talks about going after big businesses, but he went after the people first," she said. "Now that he's raised the taxes 8 percent, he's going to tell us he's going to go after money in different areas?"
Earl Best, also known as the "Street Doctor," praised Booker for keeping a visible presence in the community so far. At the same time, he said the mayor needs to bring more smaller community groups into the fold.
"There should be more grassroots," Best said. "I see him begin ning to do that."
Overall Booker gave himself a "B or B-plus" for his performance in office, saying his administration accomplished many initiatives, but fell short on several key ones.
Chief among those was curbing the homicide rate, which is on pace to exceed last year's total of 97 killings. On Friday, two more people were discovered dead in their Willoughby Street home by their 6-year-old daughter.
"We have to put down this perception of Newark as a violent city," Booker said before a crowd of about 200 dignitaries and City Hall employees. "The murders in our city and the shootings in our city continue. We are not successful in that one area."
Booker said the administration is still also trying to negotiate a better deal for the city on the New Jersey Devils hockey arena, a project he has criticized repeatedly. Among other things, Booker said he is fighting to get more city residents and businesses involved in the building and operation of the arena, which is scheduled to be ready by next year's season.
Booker has previously hinted that the Continental Airlines Arena should close. Yesterday, he said the Newark arena should be the state's major arena.
"The two cannot sustain, I don't think, and it hurts our state," Booker said about having two are nas.
"The way out is to use that land (Continental Airlines Arena) which is valuable and centrally located for something other than an arena. We will have the modern arena if this goes forward and a more advanta geous position."
Staff writers Ted Sherman and Jeffery C. Mays contributed to this report.
Link to online story.
(Note: Online stories may be taken down by their publisher after a period of time or made available for a fee. Links posted here is from the original online publication of this piece.)
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff and Clippings have no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of these articles nor are Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff or Clippings endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)
*
Bear with me - PIX
*
Bear with me, please.
-- Dan Damon
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Bear with me, please.
-- Dan Damon
Not getting your own CLIPPINGS email daily? Click here to get started.
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Development - NY Times - Sport figures fund urban housing renewal
*
Published in the New York Times, Saturday, October 14, 2006
Fighting for Housing
Oscar de la Hoya, Shaquille O'Neal and Keyshawn Johnson,
among others, aim to help
By JAMES FLANIGAN
LOS ANGELES, Oct. 13 — Oscar de la Hoya and John Long are unlikely business partners: one a championship boxer who is the son of Mexican immigrants, the other a successful but relatively obscure real estate mogul who came to the United States from China as a boy.
But the muscular fighter and the slightly built property investor both grew up in working-class neighborhoods in Los Angeles, and that common bond brought them together. In 2005, they formed Golden Boy Partners with a shared $100 million investment and a mission, Mr. de la Hoya said, to “revitalize Latino neighborhoods by building nice homes that are affordable for people who work in the area, teachers, nurses, fire and police.”
Indeed, judging from the experience of others, investment in urban areas instead of upscale suburbs is not only profitable but a new fashion in enterprise for prominent athletes. These days, they are not just lending their names but forming true partnerships to capitalize on often overlooked projects.
Earvin (Magic) Johnson, the basketball star, has been a pioneer in inner-city business for more than a decade, with stakes in movie theaters, coffee shops and restaurants, a mortgage company and Canyon-Johnson Urban Funds, a real estate venture. “Redeveloping these urban neighborhoods provides business opportunities and jobs,” he has said. His company recently turned an old Chicago police headquarters into condominiums and retail units in the heart of the city.
Active athletes are getting into the game. Keyshawn Capital Development, a venture of Carolina Panthers wide receiver Keyshawn Johnson, is a partner with the developer Chris Hammond in two shopping center projects in South Los Angeles. And Shaquille O’Neal of the Miami Heat has formed a real estate company to participate in a huge development of 1,100 housing units in downtown Miami.
A shift in emphasis has occurred over time from viewing inner cities and minorities who live there as candidates for public assistance to seeing potential for investment and entrepreneurship. The Milken Institute, in Santa Monica, Calif., has been studying what it calls “emerging domestic markets” for a decade and its researchers have found that minority businesses (Latino and Asian predominantly) “are growing even faster than the population in terms of new companies and revenues.”
Of those businesses, real estate is attracting more capital because in urban neighborhoods today “it is a real business with real returns,” said Betsy Zeidman, director of the Center for Emerging Domestic Markets at the Milken Institute.
Among the largest companies currently engaged in inner city home building is CityView, a firm organized by Henry Cisneros, who was secretary of Housing and Urban Development in the Clinton administration and mayor of San Antonio before that. CityView is working with a $500 million revolving fund from the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, the country’s largest public pension fund, and it has built 4,000 homes in California and major cities across the nation, including Chicago, Detroit and Denver.
Mr. Cisneros’s company reports annual returns on investment of 20 percent and more for the pension fund.
CityView gears the cost of its houses to a price that equals one and a half times the median income for the local community, Mr. Cisneros explained. “I call it work force housing,” he said, “because it is meant for the moderate-income working people that are the heart of every community.”
“But that is also its strength,” he said, “because there is always an active market for such housing while luxury housing is subject to boom and bust with the rise and fall of the economy.”
And beyond those considerations, Mr. Cisneros looks at a more important underpinning for urban housing markets: population growth. The United States population is projected by census experts to grow by 36 percent in the next four decades to 410 million, from 300 million today. And growth among urban “minorities” will be faster than average — including, Mr. Cisneros said, “a rise of 63 million in the Latino population.”
Mr. de la Hoya, 33, a nine-time world boxing champion in six weight classes, grew up in East Los Angeles in a neighborhood he describes as “nice enough, although nobody owned their own home — everybody rented.” Two decades ago, mortgages were hard to find in low-income neighborhoods.
But times are changing because of the growth of the Latino community in the Los Angeles area, and the increasing attention from investors and bankers wanting to serve the so-called minority majority, the largest single ethnic group in kaleidoscopic Southern California.
Mr. de la Hoya, nicknamed the Golden Boy, is notably unmarked for someone who has fought 265 amateur and professional bouts — and knocked out more than 170 opponents. He is more than a sports idol in Los Angeles. A successful investor in business and real estate, he owns the downtown Los Angeles building that houses Golden Boy Promotions, his boxing-match promotion company, and Golden Boy Enterprises, through which he has invested in eight Spanish-language newspapers among other ventures. The value of his businesses so far, including the building, is about $70 million, according to estimates by real estate and sports analysts.
Mr. Long amassed his fortune from commercial real estate. When he came to the United States from China in 1954, Asian people still could not legally own property in California; the state Legislature repealed the Alien Land Law two years later. Mr. Long, then 7, was of a merchant family that owned grocery stores in old Canton, now Guangzhou. But the Communist government took over the stores after coming to power, so the family moved to America.
Mr. Long grew up in a poor neighborhood in South Los Angeles, but went on to study economics at U.C.L.A. and then earn a master of business administration degree at Harvard Business School. “I didn’t know what I really wanted to do, but coming from my background I wanted to be in business of some sort,” Mr. Long said.
The business he chose was real estate.
In 1971, he went to work for Kaufman & Broad, a home builder (now KB Homes) and in 1978, he formed his own company, Highridge Partners, with four associates and began investing in commercial real estate. His strategy was to carefully select properties he deemed undervalued. “We wanted to be owners,” Mr. Long recalled. “We would identify assets, negotiate a purchase, lease it out, develop it from soup to nuts and sell it.”
Property ownership has been profitable. For over 28 years, he and his associates have owned more than $6 billion worth of real estate in California and Texas and say they have multiplied their initial investment more than 1,000 times.
And now, Mr. Long, whom business acquaintances cite as “a really tough negotiator,” is making a new kind of selection. He is investing in urban real estate, specifically in growing Latino communities. His Highridge group has sold most of its properties to focus on Golden Boy Partners. “In this partnership,” Mr. Long said, “we are creating an investment vision in Latino society.”
Golden Boy Partners has six projects in various stages of preparation and is closest to breaking ground to build 107 town houses on the site of a shuttered beer distribution warehouse in South Gate, an industrial city of about 100,000, 12 miles from downtown Los Angeles. The town houses will be sold at up to $400,000 apiece, which might seem high any place but the Los Angeles area.
“Homes across the street from the site sell for $500,000,” said Mr. de la Hoya, interviewed along with Mr. Long at his suite of offices and conference rooms in downtown Los Angeles, decorated partly in mahogany paneling and partly in posters for boxing matches.
Golden Boy Partners will provide assistance by introducing buyers to mortgage lenders but the business will be done at market rates, Mr. de la Hoya said. “We have talked to all the mortgage companies and they are eager.”
The emphasis on market rates is characteristic of these ventures in urban real estate, which both men describe as part business, part philanthropy — profit-making but purposeful. “Obviously, you go into business to make money but at the same time we want to help families,” Mr. de la Hoya said.
“What Oscar is saying,” Mr. Long chimed in, “is we are making profit and also taking into account the needs of the people and the community.”
Mr. de la Hoya’s stature guarantees respectful attention from city councils and permitting boards in Southern California’s welter of medium-size cities. And with $100 million in initial equity, Golden Boy Partners can borrow four times that, providing up to $500 million to invest. The company is also looking into building major retail operations in Huntington Park, a city of 65,000 in Los Angeles County that is already a beehive of small shops catering to Latino families.
Mr. Long is not only investing in urban development but has also created a center for real estate — what he calls “this $20 trillion industry” — at U.C.L.A. It is a center intended to look ahead. “The choice of the next generation will be urban,” Mr. Long said. “They won’t want to commute. We need to study real estate in relation to the environment and to the legal system and to the choices people will have to make.”
Underlining the point, Mr. de la Hoya said, “Young people getting married in the Latino culture want to live near family.” In addition to his business activities, Mr. de la Hoya, who won a bout in Las Vegas in May, insists he is not retired but could fight again in 2007. That would require two months seclusion for rigorous training, he said, which would take him away from business and from yet another activity he has begun — writing a book. “I want to write about the contribution of Latinos to the future of America,” he said."
Link to online story.
(Note: Online stories may be taken down by their publisher after a period of time or made available for a fee. Links posted here is from the original online publication of this piece.)
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff and Clippings have no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of these articles nor are Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff or Clippings endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)
*
Published in the New York Times, Saturday, October 14, 2006
Fighting for Housing
Oscar de la Hoya, Shaquille O'Neal and Keyshawn Johnson,
among others, aim to help
By JAMES FLANIGAN
LOS ANGELES, Oct. 13 — Oscar de la Hoya and John Long are unlikely business partners: one a championship boxer who is the son of Mexican immigrants, the other a successful but relatively obscure real estate mogul who came to the United States from China as a boy.
But the muscular fighter and the slightly built property investor both grew up in working-class neighborhoods in Los Angeles, and that common bond brought them together. In 2005, they formed Golden Boy Partners with a shared $100 million investment and a mission, Mr. de la Hoya said, to “revitalize Latino neighborhoods by building nice homes that are affordable for people who work in the area, teachers, nurses, fire and police.”
Indeed, judging from the experience of others, investment in urban areas instead of upscale suburbs is not only profitable but a new fashion in enterprise for prominent athletes. These days, they are not just lending their names but forming true partnerships to capitalize on often overlooked projects.
Earvin (Magic) Johnson, the basketball star, has been a pioneer in inner-city business for more than a decade, with stakes in movie theaters, coffee shops and restaurants, a mortgage company and Canyon-Johnson Urban Funds, a real estate venture. “Redeveloping these urban neighborhoods provides business opportunities and jobs,” he has said. His company recently turned an old Chicago police headquarters into condominiums and retail units in the heart of the city.
Active athletes are getting into the game. Keyshawn Capital Development, a venture of Carolina Panthers wide receiver Keyshawn Johnson, is a partner with the developer Chris Hammond in two shopping center projects in South Los Angeles. And Shaquille O’Neal of the Miami Heat has formed a real estate company to participate in a huge development of 1,100 housing units in downtown Miami.
A shift in emphasis has occurred over time from viewing inner cities and minorities who live there as candidates for public assistance to seeing potential for investment and entrepreneurship. The Milken Institute, in Santa Monica, Calif., has been studying what it calls “emerging domestic markets” for a decade and its researchers have found that minority businesses (Latino and Asian predominantly) “are growing even faster than the population in terms of new companies and revenues.”
Of those businesses, real estate is attracting more capital because in urban neighborhoods today “it is a real business with real returns,” said Betsy Zeidman, director of the Center for Emerging Domestic Markets at the Milken Institute.
Among the largest companies currently engaged in inner city home building is CityView, a firm organized by Henry Cisneros, who was secretary of Housing and Urban Development in the Clinton administration and mayor of San Antonio before that. CityView is working with a $500 million revolving fund from the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, the country’s largest public pension fund, and it has built 4,000 homes in California and major cities across the nation, including Chicago, Detroit and Denver.
Mr. Cisneros’s company reports annual returns on investment of 20 percent and more for the pension fund.
CityView gears the cost of its houses to a price that equals one and a half times the median income for the local community, Mr. Cisneros explained. “I call it work force housing,” he said, “because it is meant for the moderate-income working people that are the heart of every community.”
“But that is also its strength,” he said, “because there is always an active market for such housing while luxury housing is subject to boom and bust with the rise and fall of the economy.”
And beyond those considerations, Mr. Cisneros looks at a more important underpinning for urban housing markets: population growth. The United States population is projected by census experts to grow by 36 percent in the next four decades to 410 million, from 300 million today. And growth among urban “minorities” will be faster than average — including, Mr. Cisneros said, “a rise of 63 million in the Latino population.”
Mr. de la Hoya, 33, a nine-time world boxing champion in six weight classes, grew up in East Los Angeles in a neighborhood he describes as “nice enough, although nobody owned their own home — everybody rented.” Two decades ago, mortgages were hard to find in low-income neighborhoods.
But times are changing because of the growth of the Latino community in the Los Angeles area, and the increasing attention from investors and bankers wanting to serve the so-called minority majority, the largest single ethnic group in kaleidoscopic Southern California.
Mr. de la Hoya, nicknamed the Golden Boy, is notably unmarked for someone who has fought 265 amateur and professional bouts — and knocked out more than 170 opponents. He is more than a sports idol in Los Angeles. A successful investor in business and real estate, he owns the downtown Los Angeles building that houses Golden Boy Promotions, his boxing-match promotion company, and Golden Boy Enterprises, through which he has invested in eight Spanish-language newspapers among other ventures. The value of his businesses so far, including the building, is about $70 million, according to estimates by real estate and sports analysts.
Mr. Long amassed his fortune from commercial real estate. When he came to the United States from China in 1954, Asian people still could not legally own property in California; the state Legislature repealed the Alien Land Law two years later. Mr. Long, then 7, was of a merchant family that owned grocery stores in old Canton, now Guangzhou. But the Communist government took over the stores after coming to power, so the family moved to America.
Mr. Long grew up in a poor neighborhood in South Los Angeles, but went on to study economics at U.C.L.A. and then earn a master of business administration degree at Harvard Business School. “I didn’t know what I really wanted to do, but coming from my background I wanted to be in business of some sort,” Mr. Long said.
The business he chose was real estate.
In 1971, he went to work for Kaufman & Broad, a home builder (now KB Homes) and in 1978, he formed his own company, Highridge Partners, with four associates and began investing in commercial real estate. His strategy was to carefully select properties he deemed undervalued. “We wanted to be owners,” Mr. Long recalled. “We would identify assets, negotiate a purchase, lease it out, develop it from soup to nuts and sell it.”
Property ownership has been profitable. For over 28 years, he and his associates have owned more than $6 billion worth of real estate in California and Texas and say they have multiplied their initial investment more than 1,000 times.
And now, Mr. Long, whom business acquaintances cite as “a really tough negotiator,” is making a new kind of selection. He is investing in urban real estate, specifically in growing Latino communities. His Highridge group has sold most of its properties to focus on Golden Boy Partners. “In this partnership,” Mr. Long said, “we are creating an investment vision in Latino society.”
Golden Boy Partners has six projects in various stages of preparation and is closest to breaking ground to build 107 town houses on the site of a shuttered beer distribution warehouse in South Gate, an industrial city of about 100,000, 12 miles from downtown Los Angeles. The town houses will be sold at up to $400,000 apiece, which might seem high any place but the Los Angeles area.
“Homes across the street from the site sell for $500,000,” said Mr. de la Hoya, interviewed along with Mr. Long at his suite of offices and conference rooms in downtown Los Angeles, decorated partly in mahogany paneling and partly in posters for boxing matches.
Golden Boy Partners will provide assistance by introducing buyers to mortgage lenders but the business will be done at market rates, Mr. de la Hoya said. “We have talked to all the mortgage companies and they are eager.”
The emphasis on market rates is characteristic of these ventures in urban real estate, which both men describe as part business, part philanthropy — profit-making but purposeful. “Obviously, you go into business to make money but at the same time we want to help families,” Mr. de la Hoya said.
“What Oscar is saying,” Mr. Long chimed in, “is we are making profit and also taking into account the needs of the people and the community.”
Mr. de la Hoya’s stature guarantees respectful attention from city councils and permitting boards in Southern California’s welter of medium-size cities. And with $100 million in initial equity, Golden Boy Partners can borrow four times that, providing up to $500 million to invest. The company is also looking into building major retail operations in Huntington Park, a city of 65,000 in Los Angeles County that is already a beehive of small shops catering to Latino families.
Mr. Long is not only investing in urban development but has also created a center for real estate — what he calls “this $20 trillion industry” — at U.C.L.A. It is a center intended to look ahead. “The choice of the next generation will be urban,” Mr. Long said. “They won’t want to commute. We need to study real estate in relation to the environment and to the legal system and to the choices people will have to make.”
Underlining the point, Mr. de la Hoya said, “Young people getting married in the Latino culture want to live near family.” In addition to his business activities, Mr. de la Hoya, who won a bout in Las Vegas in May, insists he is not retired but could fight again in 2007. That would require two months seclusion for rigorous training, he said, which would take him away from business and from yet another activity he has begun — writing a book. “I want to write about the contribution of Latinos to the future of America,” he said."
Link to online story.
(Note: Online stories may be taken down by their publisher after a period of time or made available for a fee. Links posted here is from the original online publication of this piece.)
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff and Clippings have no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of these articles nor are Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff or Clippings endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)
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Tuesday, October 17, 2006
Pay to play - Ledger - Woodbridge plans extending law
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Published in the Star-Ledger, Tuesday, October 17, 2006
Woodbridge to vote on extending 'pay-to-play' ban
BY AMISHA PADNANI
Star-Ledger Staff
The Woodbridge council is ex pected to vote tonight on a "pay- to-play" ordinance that would ban developers from donating to township and county campaign funds for a year before being awarded a municipal contract and during the span of the contract.
The measure also would apply to consultants, lobbyists and professionals who work on behalf of developers. The ban is considered an extension of existing pay-to-play rules for township vendors.
"I'm hoping that all the questions that have been asked have been answered to everyone's satisfaction," said interim Mayor Joseph Vitale. "I think, generally speaking, everyone is in accord in terms of it being something important."
The rules have been opposed, however, by Councilwoman Caroline Ehrlich. She said the ban is not strict enough on "wheeling," a process in which contributions could be made by developers to county organizations and later funneled to local officials.
"I don't support the ordinance," said Ehrlich, the only council member to vote against introduction of the measure. "I strongly support the concept behind it, but I think it needs to be at a higher standard."
But Heather Taylor, spokeswoman for Citizen's Campaign, a part of the larger Center for Civic Responsibility that's supporting the ordinance, said county contributions are covered by the ordi nance.
Some council members have questioned the timing of the ordi nance so close to an election that would choose the township's new mayor.
"I don't understand where the high priority was to push this so fast," said Councilman Charles Kenny.
Taylor said Woodbridge should adopt the ordinance now because several major redevelopment projects are slated for the near future, including the Keasbey waterfront and improvements to Avenel and Route 1.
Chris Struben, a Republican candidate running for mayor in November, said he thought the reform agenda was a great step in the right direction.
"It shows that there's some willingness to clean up government," he said. "Maybe Mayor Vitale crafted what he knew he could get passed to get the ball rolling and the next administration could take it a step further."
Struben is running against Democrat John McCormac, a former state treasurer, in the special election for a one-year unexpired mayoral term following the death of Mayor Frank Pelzman.
Amisha Padnani covers Woodbridge. She may be reached at (732) 404-8091 or apadnani@starledger.com
Link to online story.
(Note: Online stories may be taken down by their publisher after a period of time or made available for a fee. Links posted here is from the original online publication of this piece.)
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff and Clippings have no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of these articles nor are Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff or Clippings endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)
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Published in the Star-Ledger, Tuesday, October 17, 2006
Woodbridge to vote on extending 'pay-to-play' ban
BY AMISHA PADNANI
Star-Ledger Staff
The Woodbridge council is ex pected to vote tonight on a "pay- to-play" ordinance that would ban developers from donating to township and county campaign funds for a year before being awarded a municipal contract and during the span of the contract.
The measure also would apply to consultants, lobbyists and professionals who work on behalf of developers. The ban is considered an extension of existing pay-to-play rules for township vendors.
"I'm hoping that all the questions that have been asked have been answered to everyone's satisfaction," said interim Mayor Joseph Vitale. "I think, generally speaking, everyone is in accord in terms of it being something important."
The rules have been opposed, however, by Councilwoman Caroline Ehrlich. She said the ban is not strict enough on "wheeling," a process in which contributions could be made by developers to county organizations and later funneled to local officials.
"I don't support the ordinance," said Ehrlich, the only council member to vote against introduction of the measure. "I strongly support the concept behind it, but I think it needs to be at a higher standard."
But Heather Taylor, spokeswoman for Citizen's Campaign, a part of the larger Center for Civic Responsibility that's supporting the ordinance, said county contributions are covered by the ordi nance.
Some council members have questioned the timing of the ordi nance so close to an election that would choose the township's new mayor.
"I don't understand where the high priority was to push this so fast," said Councilman Charles Kenny.
Taylor said Woodbridge should adopt the ordinance now because several major redevelopment projects are slated for the near future, including the Keasbey waterfront and improvements to Avenel and Route 1.
Chris Struben, a Republican candidate running for mayor in November, said he thought the reform agenda was a great step in the right direction.
"It shows that there's some willingness to clean up government," he said. "Maybe Mayor Vitale crafted what he knew he could get passed to get the ball rolling and the next administration could take it a step further."
Struben is running against Democrat John McCormac, a former state treasurer, in the special election for a one-year unexpired mayoral term following the death of Mayor Frank Pelzman.
Amisha Padnani covers Woodbridge. She may be reached at (732) 404-8091 or apadnani@starledger.com
Link to online story.
(Note: Online stories may be taken down by their publisher after a period of time or made available for a fee. Links posted here is from the original online publication of this piece.)
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff and Clippings have no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of these articles nor are Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff or Clippings endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)
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Carlton McGee - Ledger - Administrator stepping aside
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Published in the Star-Ledger, Tuesday, October 17, 2006
Plainfield administrator to step aside
Official taking post in Atlanta schools after less than a year on job
BY ALEXI FRIEDMAN
Star-Ledger Staff
The Plainfield administrator has accepted a job as chief financial officer of the Atlanta public school system and will leave his post by month's end.
Carlton McGee was appointed administrator by Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs when she took office in January. He will remain until Oct. 31, he said, but would be available afterward to help with the transition. A successor has not been named. In fact, the mayor said she hadn't received McGee's letter of resignation as of yesterday afternoon.
The office of administrator is the city's highest-ranking full-time position.
McGee, 54, accepted the new job 3 1/2 weeks after he was asked to submit his résumé during a nationwide search.
The Atlanta school system educates 51,000 students in 85 schools. It will put McGee geographically closer to his son, Carlton Jr., a Morehouse College junior; McGee also has a daughter who is a senior at the University of Illinois. The position also comes with a $180,000 annual salary, up from his current $118,000 salary. "It was a larger challenge," he said in an interview yesterday. "From a professional standpoint, it was an offer I couldn't refuse."
The Internet blog Plainfield Plaintalker reported Friday night on his decision to leave.
Over the past 10 months, McGee said, he has tried to stress the need for a modernized information technology network for the city's departments. "Unless you have a strong IT structure to give fast data, you have a hard time keeping that organization accountable," he said. While the police and fire departments enjoy cutting- edge technology, he said, the other departments do not.
McGee also said the mayor let him begin the process of long-range planning. "If you don't take a longer view in this, you can't solve the problems. If you run from pillar to post, there's always something to do," he said.
But McGee and the administration have stumbled on several decisions, raising the ire of the city council, which has complained in the past few months that department heads do not communicate with each other, and that the mayor's office tries to ram through ordinances or appointments.
Last month, a squabble between the planning board and the engineer nearly cost city homeowners their flood insurance. The vote on a related flood damage prevention ordinance was almost put off, which would have meant missing a federally imposed deadline. Council members scolded McGee -- who oversees all department directors -- for not improving the lines of communication.
Even on McGee's way out, communication still appears to be an issue, this time between him and the mayor. Yesterday afternoon, Robinson-Briggs said she was expecting, but had not yet received, McGee's resignation letter, preventing her from advertising for the job or conducting interviews. McGee, meanwhile, said "we're in conversations with people right now" to fill his slot.
The mayor responded curtly when asked about the sudden departure.
"If in fact he is leaving," she said, "he did a fine job on behalf of residents of Plainfield. He is a conscientious person and I wish him well."
Councilman Rashid Burney said the next administrator should be "someone who can bring people together." The administrator must be in the business of "sharing information on a timely and clear basis."
Burney added that the office should have someone who can "set a vision and articulate that vision and hold people accountable." He credited McGee with setting objectives and striving toward greater accountability.
McGee has acknowledged his missteps at council meetings. "It's an open secret that we can do better," he said in the interview yesterday. "There's an old African proverb that says, if one does not admit his illness one cannot be healed."
But, he said, the effort was always there.
"I have a deep loyalty to the mayor," he said, adding, "I put blood, sweat and tears into this for 10 months."
Alexi Friedman can be reached at (908) 302-1505, afriedman@starledger.com
Link to online story.
(Note: Online stories may be taken down by their publisher after a period of time or made available for a fee. Links posted here is from the original online publication of this piece.)
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff and Clippings have no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of these articles nor are Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff or Clippings endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)
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Published in the Star-Ledger, Tuesday, October 17, 2006
Plainfield administrator to step aside
Official taking post in Atlanta schools after less than a year on job
BY ALEXI FRIEDMAN
Star-Ledger Staff
The Plainfield administrator has accepted a job as chief financial officer of the Atlanta public school system and will leave his post by month's end.
Carlton McGee was appointed administrator by Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs when she took office in January. He will remain until Oct. 31, he said, but would be available afterward to help with the transition. A successor has not been named. In fact, the mayor said she hadn't received McGee's letter of resignation as of yesterday afternoon.
The office of administrator is the city's highest-ranking full-time position.
McGee, 54, accepted the new job 3 1/2 weeks after he was asked to submit his résumé during a nationwide search.
The Atlanta school system educates 51,000 students in 85 schools. It will put McGee geographically closer to his son, Carlton Jr., a Morehouse College junior; McGee also has a daughter who is a senior at the University of Illinois. The position also comes with a $180,000 annual salary, up from his current $118,000 salary. "It was a larger challenge," he said in an interview yesterday. "From a professional standpoint, it was an offer I couldn't refuse."
The Internet blog Plainfield Plaintalker reported Friday night on his decision to leave.
Over the past 10 months, McGee said, he has tried to stress the need for a modernized information technology network for the city's departments. "Unless you have a strong IT structure to give fast data, you have a hard time keeping that organization accountable," he said. While the police and fire departments enjoy cutting- edge technology, he said, the other departments do not.
McGee also said the mayor let him begin the process of long-range planning. "If you don't take a longer view in this, you can't solve the problems. If you run from pillar to post, there's always something to do," he said.
But McGee and the administration have stumbled on several decisions, raising the ire of the city council, which has complained in the past few months that department heads do not communicate with each other, and that the mayor's office tries to ram through ordinances or appointments.
Last month, a squabble between the planning board and the engineer nearly cost city homeowners their flood insurance. The vote on a related flood damage prevention ordinance was almost put off, which would have meant missing a federally imposed deadline. Council members scolded McGee -- who oversees all department directors -- for not improving the lines of communication.
Even on McGee's way out, communication still appears to be an issue, this time between him and the mayor. Yesterday afternoon, Robinson-Briggs said she was expecting, but had not yet received, McGee's resignation letter, preventing her from advertising for the job or conducting interviews. McGee, meanwhile, said "we're in conversations with people right now" to fill his slot.
The mayor responded curtly when asked about the sudden departure.
"If in fact he is leaving," she said, "he did a fine job on behalf of residents of Plainfield. He is a conscientious person and I wish him well."
Councilman Rashid Burney said the next administrator should be "someone who can bring people together." The administrator must be in the business of "sharing information on a timely and clear basis."
Burney added that the office should have someone who can "set a vision and articulate that vision and hold people accountable." He credited McGee with setting objectives and striving toward greater accountability.
McGee has acknowledged his missteps at council meetings. "It's an open secret that we can do better," he said in the interview yesterday. "There's an old African proverb that says, if one does not admit his illness one cannot be healed."
But, he said, the effort was always there.
"I have a deep loyalty to the mayor," he said, adding, "I put blood, sweat and tears into this for 10 months."
Alexi Friedman can be reached at (908) 302-1505, afriedman@starledger.com
Link to online story.
(Note: Online stories may be taken down by their publisher after a period of time or made available for a fee. Links posted here is from the original online publication of this piece.)
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff and Clippings have no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of these articles nor are Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff or Clippings endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)
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Carlton McGee - Courier - City waiting on resignation letter
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Published in the Courier News, Tuesday, October 17, 2006
City waiting on resignation letter
Plainfield not yet starting search to replace Administrator Carlton McGee.
By CHRISTA SEGALINI
Staff Writer
PLAINFIELD -- City Administrator Carlton McGee's decision to resign effective Oct. 31 has surprised Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs, who said Monday the city has yet to receive his letter of resignation.
"I've heard that he may resign, but until we have it in writing, I can't say officially what we're planning," Robinson-Briggs said.
But in an interview Monday afternoon, McGee said he is planning on leaving after 10 months of duty to take the position of chief financial officer for the Atlanta school district. He said he learned he got the job one month ago after successfully completing two rounds of interviews with the school district.
"I was not looking for work. It wasn't something I initiated," McGee said. "But the opportunity was so great, I felt that I could not pass it up."
McGee's new position will pay him $185,000. He currently makes $118,000 in Plainfield. McGee acknowledges his new position comes with a considerable salary increase but says it will also be a valuable experience and an opportunity to be close to his son, who attends Morehouse College in Atlanta.
"I have two kids in college, so I have to work," said McGee, who has four children in total. "I wasn't looking to leave the city, but I have to think about my family, too."
Robinson-Briggs said Monday she was happy with the work McGee accomplished as the city administrator, and that once the city receives a letter of resignation, it will pursue filling his position.
"If, in fact, that is the truth, I feel like he (McGee) has done a very good job for the city, and we wish him well," Robinson-Briggs said. "Once I know for sure, I'm going to have to sit down with our personnel director, and we'll do a really thorough review of what we need in someone for the position."
McGee said the Atlanta district has had a vacancy for its chief financial officer position since Aug. 30 and had been conducting a nationwide search to fill the position since.
McGee said a friend who sits on the school district's search committee asked him to submit his resume for consideration. He said he found out he had been chosen for the job approximately three weeks from the time he submitted his resume.
"I was surprised because usually these things tend to take a while and this was very, very fast," McGee said. "I'm flattered that they want me."
In addition to being the city administrator, McGee also has been serving as the acting director of administration and finance.
The administration had recently appointed Tyshammie Cooper to serve as acting director of administration and finance , but Robinson-Briggs said Monday that Cooper's appointment is currently under review.
McGee said that after he leaves the city, he will make himself available for two to three months to offer assistance as the city moves to hire a new administrator. During that transition, McGee said he will be off the city payroll and will already be in Atlanta, where he plans to begin his new job shortly after Oct. 31.
McGee acknowledged several challenges he faced as the city administrator, including dated technology and municipal facilities, a tight budget, and residents' quality of life concerns -- all of which he said made it difficult at times for the city to be proactive instead of reactive.
Still, McGee said he felt the city is heading in the right direction under Robinson-Briggs and applauded efforts made under the new administration to plan for new development, create a strategic plan for in-house operations and address long-standing social issues.
"I think the next administrator will just have to focus on making sure his or her actions speak louder than words," McGee said. "That's what you're remembered by -- what you did."
Christa Segalini can be reached at (908) 707-3142 or csegalini@c-n.com
Link to online story.
(Note: Online stories may be taken down by their publisher after a period of time or made available for a fee. Links posted here is from the original online publication of this piece.)
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff and Clippings have no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of these articles nor are Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff or Clippings endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)
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Published in the Courier News, Tuesday, October 17, 2006
City waiting on resignation letter
Plainfield not yet starting search to replace Administrator Carlton McGee.
By CHRISTA SEGALINI
Staff Writer
PLAINFIELD -- City Administrator Carlton McGee's decision to resign effective Oct. 31 has surprised Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs, who said Monday the city has yet to receive his letter of resignation.
"I've heard that he may resign, but until we have it in writing, I can't say officially what we're planning," Robinson-Briggs said.
But in an interview Monday afternoon, McGee said he is planning on leaving after 10 months of duty to take the position of chief financial officer for the Atlanta school district. He said he learned he got the job one month ago after successfully completing two rounds of interviews with the school district.
"I was not looking for work. It wasn't something I initiated," McGee said. "But the opportunity was so great, I felt that I could not pass it up."
McGee's new position will pay him $185,000. He currently makes $118,000 in Plainfield. McGee acknowledges his new position comes with a considerable salary increase but says it will also be a valuable experience and an opportunity to be close to his son, who attends Morehouse College in Atlanta.
"I have two kids in college, so I have to work," said McGee, who has four children in total. "I wasn't looking to leave the city, but I have to think about my family, too."
Robinson-Briggs said Monday she was happy with the work McGee accomplished as the city administrator, and that once the city receives a letter of resignation, it will pursue filling his position.
"If, in fact, that is the truth, I feel like he (McGee) has done a very good job for the city, and we wish him well," Robinson-Briggs said. "Once I know for sure, I'm going to have to sit down with our personnel director, and we'll do a really thorough review of what we need in someone for the position."
McGee said the Atlanta district has had a vacancy for its chief financial officer position since Aug. 30 and had been conducting a nationwide search to fill the position since.
McGee said a friend who sits on the school district's search committee asked him to submit his resume for consideration. He said he found out he had been chosen for the job approximately three weeks from the time he submitted his resume.
"I was surprised because usually these things tend to take a while and this was very, very fast," McGee said. "I'm flattered that they want me."
In addition to being the city administrator, McGee also has been serving as the acting director of administration and finance.
The administration had recently appointed Tyshammie Cooper to serve as acting director of administration and finance , but Robinson-Briggs said Monday that Cooper's appointment is currently under review.
McGee said that after he leaves the city, he will make himself available for two to three months to offer assistance as the city moves to hire a new administrator. During that transition, McGee said he will be off the city payroll and will already be in Atlanta, where he plans to begin his new job shortly after Oct. 31.
McGee acknowledged several challenges he faced as the city administrator, including dated technology and municipal facilities, a tight budget, and residents' quality of life concerns -- all of which he said made it difficult at times for the city to be proactive instead of reactive.
Still, McGee said he felt the city is heading in the right direction under Robinson-Briggs and applauded efforts made under the new administration to plan for new development, create a strategic plan for in-house operations and address long-standing social issues.
"I think the next administrator will just have to focus on making sure his or her actions speak louder than words," McGee said. "That's what you're remembered by -- what you did."
Christa Segalini can be reached at (908) 707-3142 or csegalini@c-n.com
Link to online story.
(Note: Online stories may be taken down by their publisher after a period of time or made available for a fee. Links posted here is from the original online publication of this piece.)
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff and Clippings have no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of these articles nor are Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff or Clippings endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)
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Daylaborers - Asbury Park Press- Lakewood zone a no-show area
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Published in the Asbury Park Press on 10/17/06
A no-show zone, not muster zone
Lakewood workers gather at usual site
BY JOHN VANDIVER
TOMS RIVER BUREAU
LAKEWOOD — It's 6 a.m., it's cold, and the concrete slab where the day laborers are supposed to gather is empty.
The only people on the scene on Swarthmore Avenue — about three miles from downtown — are a TV news crew and some local citizen watchdogs.
By 7 a.m. Monday, the picture looks much the same. Not much different an hour later, either.
There was no mustering at the muster zone Monday, where Lakewood's day laborers have been told they should wait for work in the mornings. Instead, the men are gathered where they always have, Clifton Avenue.
"Everybody wants to stay here," says Marco Gonzalez, 29, a per-diem worker waiting for his ride outside a coffee shop.
Police officers patrol up and down Clifton issuing tickets and warnings to contractors parking illegally.
Shortly after 7 a.m., Gonzalez sees his ride approach. He whistles loudly to the passing van and runs to jump aboard.
The van, though, is parked illegally and gets the attention of an officer on the other side of the street, who approaches the driver.
"Nobody has a license. Nobody is driving this truck. You parked in handicap," says Capt. Gregory Miick, in questioning the driver.
The van is later towed away. Many other contractors apparently are opting to simply stay away, as traffic is unusually sparse, according to observers.
Advocates and opponents
On Monday, day laborer supporters carried signs that chastised the township for initiating a relocated muster zone. Activists, local and from out of town, talked of how the policy is inhumane and unsafe.
Members of New Labor, a New Brunswick organization, were handing out cards to contractors, advising them on township ordinances and parking rules downtown.
"It looks like they're going after the contractors — strangle the source," said Carmen Martino, who's part of a Rutgers University program that examines occupational safety concerns.
There were also opponents of illegal immigration on the scene, opposed to both the muster zone and those who employ undocumented workers.
"I think it's a travesty. It's outrageous. Taxpayer dollars paid for this," Frank Shallis of Bound Brook said at the new muster zone.
Shallis represented the New Jersey chapter of the Minutemen, an activist anti-illegal immigration group.
The township has spent close to $40,000 to install the muster zone.
Mayor Meir Lichtenstein, the chief proponent of the zone, said the Township Committee is trying to improve conditions for business downtown.
Complaints from merchants that the assembled day workers are bad for business were a driving force behind the plan.
"One of the consequences is the day laborers will have a hard time to get work there (downtown). I hope the laborers will see to take advantage of" the muster zone, Lichtenstein said.
The workers have opposed going to the new muster zone for several reasons, safety being chief among them. Many workers ride bikes, and the route to the zone from downtown is regarded as perilous.
Larry Simons, a citizen watchdog, was at the new muster zone early Monday and said walkers could be killed if they attempted the journey on bike or foot.
"Whose conscience is it going to be on? The mayor's?" Simons asked.
Lichtenstein said there are alternatives to riding bikes, such as a township bus that loops from downtown to the industrial park.
"I have to say, we want to govern humanely, and I need to govern the local issues," Lichtenstein said.
Gerardo Perez, vice president of Hispano Power, a local advocacy group for the laborers, said he wants to meet with the mayor about "Plan B."
Plan B is to set up an assembly zone closer to downtown, a location the workers themselves would agree to oversee and keep clean, Perez said.
"That's our part," Perez said.
Lichtenstein didn't rule out another location.
"I will talk with any group that wants to work with me," Lichtenstein said.
While the concerns of merchants have been cited as one of the reasons for the muster zone move, some business owners weren't happy Monday.
"I hope they're not going after poor people," said Dave Raj, owner of Bakery Coffee Shop at the corner of Clifton and First Street.
"Nobody's here. This is our busy time," added Amanat Shah, coffee shop manager.
A small group of workers shuffled in and out of the shop, drinking coffee and reading Spanish-language newspapers.
"All these guys, they just come here for work. They're not doing damage to no one," said Michael Maximiliani, 28, who sat in the coffee shop while he waited for his employer to show up.
The same contractor picks him up every day. But when Maximiliani learned that contractors were being ticketed, he ran outside looking for his ride.
Back at the muster zone, coffee and doughnuts waited for the men who never showed.
"I'm not surprised," said June Stitzinger-Clark, pastor at Christ United Methodist Church.
The church hired a person, Luis Morales, to serve as an advocate for the workers at the zone.
For one month, Morales will be on the scene, keeping an eye out for the workers' safety and their rights.
Morales, who sat in his car waiting for the workers, smoked a cigarette and read a newspaper.
"We have no idea if they will come," he said.
After one month, if the new zone remains basically unused, there will be no point in the church maintaining a continued presence at the zone, Stitzinger-Clark said.
John Vandiver: (732)557-5739 or jvandiver@app.com
Link to online story.
(Note: Online stories may be taken down by their publisher after a period of time or made available for a fee. Links posted here is from the original online publication of this piece.)
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff and Clippings have no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of these articles nor are Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff or Clippings endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)
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Published in the Asbury Park Press on 10/17/06
A no-show zone, not muster zone
Lakewood workers gather at usual site
BY JOHN VANDIVER
TOMS RIVER BUREAU
LAKEWOOD — It's 6 a.m., it's cold, and the concrete slab where the day laborers are supposed to gather is empty.
The only people on the scene on Swarthmore Avenue — about three miles from downtown — are a TV news crew and some local citizen watchdogs.
By 7 a.m. Monday, the picture looks much the same. Not much different an hour later, either.
There was no mustering at the muster zone Monday, where Lakewood's day laborers have been told they should wait for work in the mornings. Instead, the men are gathered where they always have, Clifton Avenue.
"Everybody wants to stay here," says Marco Gonzalez, 29, a per-diem worker waiting for his ride outside a coffee shop.
Police officers patrol up and down Clifton issuing tickets and warnings to contractors parking illegally.
Shortly after 7 a.m., Gonzalez sees his ride approach. He whistles loudly to the passing van and runs to jump aboard.
The van, though, is parked illegally and gets the attention of an officer on the other side of the street, who approaches the driver.
"Nobody has a license. Nobody is driving this truck. You parked in handicap," says Capt. Gregory Miick, in questioning the driver.
The van is later towed away. Many other contractors apparently are opting to simply stay away, as traffic is unusually sparse, according to observers.
Advocates and opponents
On Monday, day laborer supporters carried signs that chastised the township for initiating a relocated muster zone. Activists, local and from out of town, talked of how the policy is inhumane and unsafe.
Members of New Labor, a New Brunswick organization, were handing out cards to contractors, advising them on township ordinances and parking rules downtown.
"It looks like they're going after the contractors — strangle the source," said Carmen Martino, who's part of a Rutgers University program that examines occupational safety concerns.
There were also opponents of illegal immigration on the scene, opposed to both the muster zone and those who employ undocumented workers.
"I think it's a travesty. It's outrageous. Taxpayer dollars paid for this," Frank Shallis of Bound Brook said at the new muster zone.
Shallis represented the New Jersey chapter of the Minutemen, an activist anti-illegal immigration group.
The township has spent close to $40,000 to install the muster zone.
Mayor Meir Lichtenstein, the chief proponent of the zone, said the Township Committee is trying to improve conditions for business downtown.
Complaints from merchants that the assembled day workers are bad for business were a driving force behind the plan.
"One of the consequences is the day laborers will have a hard time to get work there (downtown). I hope the laborers will see to take advantage of" the muster zone, Lichtenstein said.
The workers have opposed going to the new muster zone for several reasons, safety being chief among them. Many workers ride bikes, and the route to the zone from downtown is regarded as perilous.
Larry Simons, a citizen watchdog, was at the new muster zone early Monday and said walkers could be killed if they attempted the journey on bike or foot.
"Whose conscience is it going to be on? The mayor's?" Simons asked.
Lichtenstein said there are alternatives to riding bikes, such as a township bus that loops from downtown to the industrial park.
"I have to say, we want to govern humanely, and I need to govern the local issues," Lichtenstein said.
Gerardo Perez, vice president of Hispano Power, a local advocacy group for the laborers, said he wants to meet with the mayor about "Plan B."
Plan B is to set up an assembly zone closer to downtown, a location the workers themselves would agree to oversee and keep clean, Perez said.
"That's our part," Perez said.
Lichtenstein didn't rule out another location.
"I will talk with any group that wants to work with me," Lichtenstein said.
While the concerns of merchants have been cited as one of the reasons for the muster zone move, some business owners weren't happy Monday.
"I hope they're not going after poor people," said Dave Raj, owner of Bakery Coffee Shop at the corner of Clifton and First Street.
"Nobody's here. This is our busy time," added Amanat Shah, coffee shop manager.
A small group of workers shuffled in and out of the shop, drinking coffee and reading Spanish-language newspapers.
"All these guys, they just come here for work. They're not doing damage to no one," said Michael Maximiliani, 28, who sat in the coffee shop while he waited for his employer to show up.
The same contractor picks him up every day. But when Maximiliani learned that contractors were being ticketed, he ran outside looking for his ride.
Back at the muster zone, coffee and doughnuts waited for the men who never showed.
"I'm not surprised," said June Stitzinger-Clark, pastor at Christ United Methodist Church.
The church hired a person, Luis Morales, to serve as an advocate for the workers at the zone.
For one month, Morales will be on the scene, keeping an eye out for the workers' safety and their rights.
Morales, who sat in his car waiting for the workers, smoked a cigarette and read a newspaper.
"We have no idea if they will come," he said.
After one month, if the new zone remains basically unused, there will be no point in the church maintaining a continued presence at the zone, Stitzinger-Clark said.
John Vandiver: (732)557-5739 or jvandiver@app.com
Link to online story.
(Note: Online stories may be taken down by their publisher after a period of time or made available for a fee. Links posted here is from the original online publication of this piece.)
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff and Clippings have no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of these articles nor are Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff or Clippings endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)
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Overcrowding - Asbury Park Press - Ordinance targets Illegals
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Published in the Asbury Park Press on 10/17/06
Ordinance would fine those renting to illegal immigrants
BY KEVIN PENTON
KEYPORT BUREAU
KEYPORT — Landlords would be fined for renting to illegal immigrants under an ordinance the Borough Council is expected to consider tonight.
The ordinance, proposed earlier this month by Councilman Joseph Wedick, would allow the borough to fine landlords $1,000 for each time officials found out that a residential unit had been rented to someone who is not in the country legally.
The ordinance would be another way the borough could penalize landlords who allow too many people to crowd into apartments or homes, Wedick said.
"This is the borough's way of protecting those without a voice," said Wedick, who noted his ordinance is not meant to target Hispanics or other ethnic groups. "I'm not looking to arrest, deport or fine anyone who is illegal. I'm taking on the landlords."
The proposed ordinance drew criticism on Monday from the National Coalition of Latino Clergy & Christian Leaders, who gathered outside of Borough Hall to speak out against it.
"This is a racist ordinance with the sole purpose of getting rid of all Latinos in Keyport," said the Rev. Miguel Rivera, the coalition's president. "We are ready to file a lawsuit in federal court should it ever be adopted."
Rivera said members of his organization and the American Civil Liberties Union are expected to attend tonight's meeting to monitor what council says and does and prepare for any future actions.
Under the ordinance Wedick proposed, a code enforcement officer or a police officer would be allowed to ask about the legal status of the resident of a dwelling should Keyport receive complaints about an address or if the landlord was applying for a certificate of occupancy.
Residents would prove their legal status by showing any of the same documents one must produce to obtain a driver's license in New Jersey, Wedick said.
Keyport has a growing Hispanic population, many of whom work in Bayshore restaurants or cut lawns in the region, said Geno Rivera, the owner of a Front Street store, Grocery Los Paisanos, that caters to immigrants.
With low pay and high rents, it is natural that few can afford to rent an apartment on their own, noted Rivera, who said he does not understand why the borough would target illegals.
"Everyone here works hard, if not harder, to get by," said Rivera in Spanish. "Rent isn't cheap, so what are people going to do?"
Existing borough ordinances should be used to deal with the overcrowding issues that Wedick has raised, Keyport Mayor John Merla said, not an ordinance that he believes targets those looking to get a toehold in this country.
"If there's overcrowding in this town, I want to find out where it is," said Merla, who contends the proposed ordinance is embarrassing for Keyport. "But I don't think it makes sense for a local municipality to try to enforce something that falls in the federal realm."
Council President Robert Bergen said he asked Borough Attorney John Wisniewski to hold off on revising a sample ordinance that Wedick submitted earlier this month until council meets tonight and reaches a consensus on how it feels about the issue.
"Frankly, I believe this stands little chance of withstanding a legal challenge," said Bergen, who is also against the ordinance.
Wedick said no one on the council voiced any opinion against his proposal when he pitched it earlier this month. He said he is ready to fight any legal challenge by outside entities.
"If they want to protect landlords who hand out candles to people so they'll stay warm, that's absolutely their right," Wedick said. "I'm looking to stand up for these people."
Kevin Penton: (732) 888-2617 or kpenton@app.com
Link to online story.
(Note: Online stories may be taken down by their publisher after a period of time or made available for a fee. Links posted here is from the original online publication of this piece.)
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff and Clippings have no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of these articles nor are Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff or Clippings endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)
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Published in the Asbury Park Press on 10/17/06
Ordinance would fine those renting to illegal immigrants
BY KEVIN PENTON
KEYPORT BUREAU
KEYPORT — Landlords would be fined for renting to illegal immigrants under an ordinance the Borough Council is expected to consider tonight.
The ordinance, proposed earlier this month by Councilman Joseph Wedick, would allow the borough to fine landlords $1,000 for each time officials found out that a residential unit had been rented to someone who is not in the country legally.
The ordinance would be another way the borough could penalize landlords who allow too many people to crowd into apartments or homes, Wedick said.
"This is the borough's way of protecting those without a voice," said Wedick, who noted his ordinance is not meant to target Hispanics or other ethnic groups. "I'm not looking to arrest, deport or fine anyone who is illegal. I'm taking on the landlords."
The proposed ordinance drew criticism on Monday from the National Coalition of Latino Clergy & Christian Leaders, who gathered outside of Borough Hall to speak out against it.
"This is a racist ordinance with the sole purpose of getting rid of all Latinos in Keyport," said the Rev. Miguel Rivera, the coalition's president. "We are ready to file a lawsuit in federal court should it ever be adopted."
Rivera said members of his organization and the American Civil Liberties Union are expected to attend tonight's meeting to monitor what council says and does and prepare for any future actions.
Under the ordinance Wedick proposed, a code enforcement officer or a police officer would be allowed to ask about the legal status of the resident of a dwelling should Keyport receive complaints about an address or if the landlord was applying for a certificate of occupancy.
Residents would prove their legal status by showing any of the same documents one must produce to obtain a driver's license in New Jersey, Wedick said.
Keyport has a growing Hispanic population, many of whom work in Bayshore restaurants or cut lawns in the region, said Geno Rivera, the owner of a Front Street store, Grocery Los Paisanos, that caters to immigrants.
With low pay and high rents, it is natural that few can afford to rent an apartment on their own, noted Rivera, who said he does not understand why the borough would target illegals.
"Everyone here works hard, if not harder, to get by," said Rivera in Spanish. "Rent isn't cheap, so what are people going to do?"
Existing borough ordinances should be used to deal with the overcrowding issues that Wedick has raised, Keyport Mayor John Merla said, not an ordinance that he believes targets those looking to get a toehold in this country.
"If there's overcrowding in this town, I want to find out where it is," said Merla, who contends the proposed ordinance is embarrassing for Keyport. "But I don't think it makes sense for a local municipality to try to enforce something that falls in the federal realm."
Council President Robert Bergen said he asked Borough Attorney John Wisniewski to hold off on revising a sample ordinance that Wedick submitted earlier this month until council meets tonight and reaches a consensus on how it feels about the issue.
"Frankly, I believe this stands little chance of withstanding a legal challenge," said Bergen, who is also against the ordinance.
Wedick said no one on the council voiced any opinion against his proposal when he pitched it earlier this month. He said he is ready to fight any legal challenge by outside entities.
"If they want to protect landlords who hand out candles to people so they'll stay warm, that's absolutely their right," Wedick said. "I'm looking to stand up for these people."
Kevin Penton: (732) 888-2617 or kpenton@app.com
Link to online story.
(Note: Online stories may be taken down by their publisher after a period of time or made available for a fee. Links posted here is from the original online publication of this piece.)
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff and Clippings have no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of these articles nor are Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff or Clippings endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)
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