Caven Point Urban Habitat Links

- Video of 10/8/22 Rally to Advocate for the Caven Point Protection bill - great speakers - 25:38 minutes

- Caven Point protection bill S2956 Introduced by Senator Brian Stack and Assemblywoman Angela McKnight (Assembly bill  is A4468)

- Caven Point history, bird species list and photos on Shayna Marchese's webpage

- "Caven Point Wildlife: vestige of an untamed estuary" powerful 5 minute silent film (except for the bird calls) by John Dunstan

- 3/3/19 Video - The Fight for Caven Point nature walk protest in "360 degree movable video" by Jonathan Tobias

- "The Wildlife of Liberty State Park" - beautiful 30 minute film by John Dunstan



News Stories, Editorials, and Letters to the Editor

- 7/1/22 The Star Ledger Editorial Board  "Hudson Lawmaker:I promise to protect Caven Point/ Q&A with Sen. Brian Stack"
 "In many ways, the bill Gov. Murphy signed Thursday to establish a Liberty State Park Design Task Force was Jersey politics at its worse - a measured rammed through in a barely fortnight, reeking of hidden agendas, greased by dark money, with no environmental protections and patronage appointees outnumbering those with actual expertise." Senator Brian Stack's statement: "I am absolutely committed to getting this done. I give the advocates and the people my word. I will fight day and night to make sure this bill is enacted, and nothing except what is already in Caven Point's natural habitat will be maintained."

- 6/26/22 The Star Ledger Tom Moran editorial column "Why let a billionaire take a bite out of Liberty State Park"
"Councilman Frank Gilmore represents Ward F in Jersey City, a mostly Black and Brown neighborhood near the park. He says his voters agree with park-lovers who want to protect Caven Point's and build ballfields. He says Fireman is trying to stir up a phony racial divide.
"People in the community are asking for this park to be protected," says Gilmore, who is Black."This narrative is being painted to get Black and Brown people to be for this bill as it stands without those protections."
Fireman's bill doesn't grab the land outright, not just yet. He's tried crude land grabs in the past, and failed each time. Bruised by the experience, he's now hired several of Trenton's most expensive strategists and lobbyists to revise his tactics."

- 10/8/22 The Hudson Reporter by Mark Koosau "Rallygoers call for the protection of Caven Point at Liberty State Park"
     "For over 30 years, we've had to fight for this park; we're gonna unfortunately continue to have to fight," said Hudson County Commissioner Bill O'Dea referencing the decades of attempts to privatized Liberty State Park.
      Because when you have the crown jewel, everyone's going to try to steal it,"he continued. "Everyone's going to try to buy it. But that crown jewel must belong to the people and no one else. You can't buy it, you can't steal it, you can legislate it, and we have to make sure that's clear."

- 10/8/22 Jersey City Times by Jordan Coll "Park Advocates Call for Passages of Caven Point Protection Act"
       "Caven Point is the longest uninterrupted stretch of natural beach in the upper New York Harbor and Hudson River. A sanctuary for lifelife, an educational resources for school children, a valued spot for birders, and an antidote to the harsh, noisy cement-filled vistas of city life, the property is a verdant oasis for thousands of visitors per year."

- 8/15/22 The Jersey Journal "Tune out aggressive lobbying and pass LSP law"
"Stack's bill would preserve the ecologicallysensitive peninsula as a natural habitat, effectively thwarting any attempt to lease or sell it to a private entity like Fireman's golf course.
But already last week, one of Fireman's front groups tried to redirect the conversation with insinuations that the land needs pollution remediation, something the State Department of Environment Protection has long said is complete.
Experience tells us that money talks. But it doesn't always win.
Caven Point Peninsula must be maintained as a breeding ground and habitat for birds and other wildlife in our otherwise urban city and country. As such, it is also a place where our schoolchildren can go to learn about nature beyond reading a book and without taking an expensive field trip.
The full state Senate and Assembly along with Gov. Murphy must tune out Fireman's aggressive lobbying and get this law on the books.
By ending this battle in the war for the future of Liberty State Park, we can move on to the next - preventing the construction of the Fireman-supported sports and entertainment complex that will erect a new barrier to the people's enjoyment of the park: ticket booths."

- 8/8/22 The Jersey Journal by Jake Maher "Bill that would protect the birds at Caven Point, not birdes, is approved by Senate Committee"
Desite the continuing total lies of Fireman's phony front group, this article quoted from a January 2020 New York Times article. "The state Department of Environmental Protection has said that Caven Point was remediated in 2004 and does not require additional clean-up." The New York Times story


- 7/19/22 Politico NJ by Ry Rivard and Matt Friedman "Billionaire's Jersey City golf course lobbied for LSP"
"The golf course's involvement cuts against his own supporters' claims that Billionaire Paul Fireman's involvement had little or nothing to do with golf."
"Paul Fireman, the billionaire owner of Liberty National Golf Club, said in 2020 he would "halt" his efforts to acquire the spit of public park land known as Caven Point to build a few new holes for the exclusive club. And when a new bill to create a Liberty State Park task force emerged this summer and was quickly fast-tracked for passage, Fireman's allies insisted that the suggestion it had anything to do with a renewal of his golf course expansion efforts was a conspiracy theory.
It's worth noting, then that Fireman's golf club lobbied for the new bill, according to the latest lobbying reports using Eric Schuffler to make the push. That's the same lobbyist the club used in 2020, when language was quietly inserted into the state budget that was widely read as a way for the club to get its clubs on Caven Point, a migratory bird habitat and uniquely wild 22 acres in the middle of the nation's most urbanized area."

- 7/10/22 The Star Ledger editorial "Q and A with DEP Commisioner Shawn LaTourette"
"Though it's significant that the Commissioner indicated that Governor Phil Murphy won't be privatizing Caven Point and referred to protections related to state & federal funding BUT Senator Brian P. Stack's LSP Caven Point protection bill is essential because there are processes which can un-protect this urban nature treasure by future governors and/or presidents approving "conversion/diversions" as former Gov. Chris Christie attempted near the end of his term. Governor Phil Murphy, silent on the LSP Protection Act, must support the Caven Point protection bill."

- 7/21/22 The Jersey Journal by Jake Maher "As state signals support for Caven Point, filings reveal Liberty National lobbying effort around LSP"
Summary of the killed Protection Act, the bill that Fireman orchestrated and Jeff Tittel's statement about the lack of ironclad protection in current regulations.

- 7/24/22 The Star Ledger political cartoon and editorial statement by Drew Sheneman "Leave LSP to the birds" "Give this bird the bird"
"Fireman would very much like to expand his golf course on public land in Caven Point and we should tell him to shank his balls elsewhere. Seriously, can we not have anything nice? Caven Point is just fine as is. Keep your grubby little mitts off our Loons"
"Hey billionaire, how much is enough?"

	Cartoon by Drew Sheneman July 2022, Star Ledger

- 7/26/22 New Jersey Monitor by Dana DiFlippo "In fight against commercialization, park preservationists champion a beach for the birds"
Great story and aerial and other photos with quotes from knowledgeable nature experts. "Lorraine Freeney stated, "To have a beautiful public space and such an important educational resource on our doorsteps is a gift. Caven Point is one of a kind, and if it's destroyed, there's no bringing it back."
All of LSP's 600 acres of land & 600 acres of water belong to the People to enjoy unstructured and active recreation and spiritual and educational benefits of nature.
Caven Point won't be protected unless Senator Stack's LSP Caven Point protection bill becomes law since NJ's Green Acres and federal requirements its land use have processes which can un-protect it according to who is governor and president.

- 10/1/20  Letter to Governor Murphy from NJ Commission of American Indian Affairs in support of Protection Act
The Dutch massacred 120 Lenape people at Caven Point in 1643.

- 6/26/22 The Star Ledger Tom Moran editoral column "Why let a billionaire take a bite out of Liberty State Park"
"Councilman Frank Gilmore represents Ward F in Jersey City, a mostly Black and Brown neighborhood near the park. He says his voters agree with park-lovers who want to protect Caven Point's and build ballfields. He says Fireman is trying to stir up a phony racial divide.
"People in the community are asking for this park to be protected," says Gilmore, who is Black."This narrative is being painted to get Black and Brown people to be for this bill as it stands without those protections."
Fireman's bill doesn't grab the land outright, not just yet. He's tried crude land grabs in the past, and failed each time. Bruised by the experience, he's now hired several of Trenton's most expensive strategists and lobbyists to revise his tactics."