Liberty State Park editorial statements and news stories on Fireman-orchestrated LSP non-protection law to facilitate his plans for exclusionary, admission-fee, traffic-jam causing, sports and entertainment commercial venues. His surrogates will be pushing these plans on the illegitimate task force created by his LSP law.
The 7/12/22
Star Ledger editorial
"
LSP legislation advances, fight continues"
Sen. Stack promises to
protect Caven Point.
"In many ways, the Fireman bill Gov. Murphy signed to establish a LSP Design
Task Force was Jersey politics at its worst a measure rammed through in barely a fortnight, reeking of hidden agendas, greased by dark money, with no environmental protections and patronage appointees outnumbering those with actual expertise."
6/9/22
The Jersey Journal
Editorial
"Bait-and-switch plan puts LSP future at risk"
on Paul Fireman's June LSP law
The (Fireman) bill notably leaves out the heart and soul of the proposed Liberty State Park Protection Act, which would prohibit the selling-off or leasing of park land for private interests.
Glossy brochures made their way to area mailboxes pushing for support and touting a rendering of
a garish plan for the park
that would include a 7,000-seat concert venue for ticketed and free events and a 5,000-seat multipurpose stadium
AND
a separate track and field stadium.
The plans in the (Fireman-funded) mailer go against the results of the
thoughtful process last year that included multiple public hearings and surveys.
Those hearings ended with promises of the remaining 235 acres of park land in need of development – closed to the public and awaiting contamination remediation – being filled with trails, marsh restoration and nature preserves while devoting about one-third to much-needed active recreation areas.
Further, while claiming to hold to the original 1977 master plan vision for the park, the proposed law twists its words, referencing “an amphitheater,” for example, when, in fact, the master plan called for a sloping grassland to form “a natural amphitheater” and “informal atmosphere.” A later reference in the master plan summary to an amphitheater is clearly meant as an example, not a concrete plan, and part of a series of community-oriented goals.
6/17/22 The New York Times by Tracey Tully
"Fast-Tracked Bill Stokes Fears of Private Development in 1,200-Acre Park
(600 acres of land & 600 acres of water)
"The push to develop the park is being supported by Paul Fireman, the owner of Liberty National Golf Club, an elite private golf course along the bay southwest of the park. In a statement,
Mr. Fireman said he was backing the proposal to re imagine the park
in an effort to create a modern place where children and families from all over the region can gather and play".
Note from Friend
s
: Children and families from all over the region have gathered and played since LSP opened in 1976. Fireman's plans are for exclusionary admission-fee, traffic jam-causing sports and entertainment commercial venues. Fireman and his surrogates reject the DEP's plans for habitats and miles of paths and 61 acres of Free active recreation with ballfields, track and field areas, etc.
Insider NJ summer, 2022
on billionaire Paul Fireman's lobbyist-written LSP law:
"The New Jersey Legislatures devious little 11th-hour pass-through of
the
Orwelliannamed
Liberty State Park Conservation,
Recreation, and Community Inclusion Act
sets a ravenous pace for the wholly diabolical development of our public green spaces".
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."
8/5/22 Insider NJ
by Max Pizarro
The Troubling Implications of the Liberty State Park Problem
JERSEY CITY – On Monday the state Senate Judiciary Committee will consider a bill that would designate Liberty State Park’s Caven Point Peninsula as natural habitat, but environmentalists worry that the amount of ongoing commercial speculative activity at the park signifies gloomy days ahead for New Jersey’s precious wildlife resources.
The Legislature already passed – and Governor Phil Murphy signed – the so-called “Liberty State Park Conservation, Recreation, and Community Inclusion Act,” which allocates $50 million in state funding toward
billionaire
Paul Fireman’s plan for a commercial concert venue and stadiums.
The initial act included no specific protection for the environmentally sensitive Caven Point area.
Now, the Legislature is doubling back.
But the massive funding allocation – cut down from an initial $150 million – the legislature’s utter acquiescence in budget session stealth mode, no less – and the existing political structure that makes it all possible, suggest that similar plans could be coming to a state park near you.
Fireman employed Eric Shuffler’s River Crossing Strategies, which employs Middlesex County Democratic Committee Chairman Kevin McCabe, whose organization put Speaker Craig Coughlin in power. The Middlesex Dems have also contributed to keeping Murphy propped up during his most difficult days politically.
10/5/22 Insider NJ
Fireman's second astroturf group's press release
note from Friends of LSP – The People's Park Foundation press release formation announcement thanking Fireman for his funding
to build a LSP Sports and Entertainment Complex commercial venues and their coopting the term "People's Park" which the park founders Morris Pesin and Audrey Zapp and hundreds have used over the decades to mean a Free People's Park behind Lady Liberty.
8/8/22 The Jersey Journal
"Bill that would protect birds at Caven Point, not birdies, is approved by Senate committee"
by Jake Maher
Fireman has publicly stated that he has given up on trying to acquire the land, but lobbying reports show he has continued efforts to sway opinions on the park land adjacent to his golf club
.
His efforts helped keep the Liberty State Park Protection Act, which would have provided for active recreation plans and the park's protection from large-scale commercial interests, from ever corning up for a vote.
Liberty State Park For All, a group funded by Fireman
, issued a statement Monday thanking Stack for his support for the park and attempting to reframe the question of the preservation of Caven Point to one of contamination.
"Similar to other areas in Liberty State Parle there is historic contamination at Caven Point - including chromium and petroleum that pose a threat to the safety of our community. We strongly urge the legislature to conduct a thorough review of the historical significance of Caven Point as well as an environmental investigation, with a commitment that any remaining contamination in Caven Point be cleaned."
The state Department of Environmental Protection has said that Caven Point was remediated in 2004 and does not require additional clean-up.
Liberty State Park for All and The People's Park Foundation, another new group funded by Fireman, have advocated for a stadium, concert arena and community center, besides all the ballfields that have been discussed by the DEP's Liberty State Park redesign task force.
10/5/22
Insider NJ
posts Fireman's second astroturf group's press release
note from Friends of LSP
– The People's Park Foundation press release formation announcement thanking Fireman
for his funding to build a LSP Sports and Entertainment Complex commercial venues and their
coopting the term "People's Park
" which the park founders Morris Pesin and Audrey Zapp and hundreds have used over the decades to mean a Free People's Park behind Lady Liberty
.
Why let a billionaire take a bite out of Liberty State Park?
| Moran
Excerpts below from his column which is in full at Ledger
Updated:
Jun. 26, 2022
, 7:16 a.m. .By Tom Moran | Star-Ledger Editorial Board
It’s time for Americans to use the word “oligarch” to describe our own billionaires, not just those in Russia.
Because it clarifies things. It helps explain what’s happening at Liberty State Park as Reebok billionaire Paul Fireman paves the way to grab a pristine corner of the park for himself. He wants to expand his members-only golf course, whether we mere citizens like it or not.
And the Legislature, at every turn, has rejected pleas to protect the land at stake, a 22-acre spit of gorgeous oceanfront, including a half-mile of beach, the biggest stretch in New York Harbor. Known as Caven’s Point, it is a feeding station for migratory birds, a nursery for horseshoe crabs, and a home for mussels, clams and even some oysters. Schoolkids visit to study this rare haven, tucked into the most densely packed corner of the most densely packed state.
Why on earth the people of New Jersey would sacrifice this treasure so that Fireman can expand his elite club is beyond my imagination.
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.
Two years ago, after a setback, Fireman said he would “halt” his efforts to expand his golf course. But I found no one who believes that, and Fireman will not rule out reviving the effort.
I asked Fireman to discuss his plans, but he refused. Nor would he reveal his spending on this effort.
We know he’s providing money to the two “grassroots” organizations in Jersey City fighting for this bill. And two years ago, sources told Terrence McDonald at the Bergen Record that Fireman’s foundation gave to several politically connected non-profits in Hudson.
But the rules of American politics allow billionaires to donate vast sums of money to political groups and foundations controlled by politicians, with no fingerprints.
So we have a right to be suspicious. A dark money group supporting Murphy is now spending $2 million on a series of TV ads promoting the governor. Is Fireman helping pay that bill? Neither man will open their books, so it’s fair to wonder. Is Fireman donating to groups allied with legislators, even those who just voted on this bill? Again, a fair question with no answer.
The Oxford dictionary defines the word oligarch like this: “(especially in Russia) a very rich business leader with a great deal of political influence.”
Time to get rid of the Russia part.
We have our own oligarchs. And if we’re not careful, this one is going to bulldoze our parkland.
- 8/15/22 The Jersey Journal
"Tune out aggressive lobbying and pass LSP law"
"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 Firemansupported sports and entertainment complex that will erect a new barrier to the people's enjoyment of the park: ticket booths".
- 7/7/22 The Jersey Journal Editorial
–
"Protect Caven Point Peninsula - but no backroom deals"
"Will the politicians pack the new task force with cronies and people with a financial interest in commercialization? Or, will they step out of the back room and choose appointees who'll act solely in the public interest?
We are not alone in foreseeing many more battles ahead for the future of Liberty State Park and its surrounding neighborhoods. Stack, Cunningham, and Murphy have the chance right now to put one battle to rest and get the Caven Point Peninsula protections through the Legislature, without strings, and into the law books."
7/6/22 The Jersey Journal Letter to editor -
"Prescription for failure as history repeats itself at LSP"
by Dr. Frank Gallagher
"I read, with dismay the
Liberty State Park Conservation, Recreation, and Community Inclusion Act.
The title itself is the epitome of deceit as it will not build "community" as it will divide those who can pay from those who can't. "There was a fundamental disagreement (with the LSP Development Corporation) over the very concept of what public lands are and who should use them. I believe it came from the LSPDCs perception that public land is a commodity to be monetized rather than the foundation upon which a community is built. Such a paradigm fosters an elitist attitude where the commodity is best used by those who can afford to pay for it. An attitude that ignores issues of equity and fosters systemic bias. "Piece by piece, the park will be cut into revenue-generating private initiatives for the economically privileged at the expense of the local residents who need open space."
By Dr. Frank Gallagher is a former assistant director of the New Jersey Division of Parks and Forestry. He currently serves as the director of the Environmental Planning Program as an as an associate professor of Professional Practice at the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, Rutgers The State University.
Iconic milestone story on park history condemning and refuting Fireman's surrogates lies and smear attacks.
Special report:
Whose park is it, anyway?
updated Sept. 03, 2020 7:47 pm | Published Aug. 24, 2020
7:15 a.m.
Margaret Schmidt | The Jersey Journal
For the last half-century, many different people have looked at what was once literally a dump on the Jersey City waterfront and said "Why not?" to many different things.
Why not rolling green hills, some asked, where city folks can take a break from the urban grind with harbor breezes instead of exhaust fumes at their backs? At the same time, others asked, why not a sprawling, noisy, honky-tonk amusement park?
Why not playgrounds, picnic areas and a magnificent memorial to the New Jersey residents who died across the Hudson River at the World Trade Center on 9/11 – or maybe a doll museum?
That’s the story of Liberty State Park in a nutshell: decades of competing visions for prime taxpayer-owned real estate, and decades of battles pitting park activists against state officials who had fallen under the sway of developers with big ideas for 600 acres of undeveloped land with stunning views of the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, the Manhattan skyline and the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge.
Fight after fight, it generally comes down to the choice of open space for all next to the most densely populated area in America or a high-value, high-prestige playground for a few that would come with a hefty cha-ching windfall for a private developer who would pay to clean up that old dump.
Fifty-three years after the last train left Jersey Central’s flagship waterfront terminal – now restored and the centerpiece of the north end of Liberty State Park – another developer is reprising that old song, this time pushing an ugly, misleading narrative that would turn the heroes of the park into villains and co-opt the momentum of the Black Lives Matter movement.
Paul Fireman, the billionaire who brought Reebok sneakers to the U.S., wants to expand his ultra-exclusive Liberty National Golf Club into part of the adjacent park, relocating three holes onto the environmentally sensitive Caven Point Peninsula so they’d have more breathtaking backdrops for televised tournaments.
It’s an idea the state Department of Environmental Protection, which runs the park, has already turned down. But, Fireman persists and sees as standing in his way a retired preschool teacher and other volunteers who have succeeded over the years in keeping our parkland accessible to the public.
Several local people – some of whom have acknowledged receiving large contributions from Fireman for their community organizations – have signed on to the narrative in part or full. And while Fireman has publicly said he is taking a break from seeking the peninsula, the well-funded effort continues to paper windshields with accusatory flyers and has set up social media accounts with doctored photos.
At first, the narrative focused on initial visioning for the park, alleging that never-realized amenities like ballfields and basketball courts equaled an exclusion of minority interests and voices. Now, the focus has moved to 234 acres of still-polluted, fenced-off land known as “the interior,’' alleging that environmentalists somehow like it that way.
Members of the nearby community and people who have worked on Liberty State Park over the years tell a different story.
Please see rest of the story at the URL.One of four LSP history stories in LSP that day. At the end of this "Special Report" story are links to the other 3 stories.
