Dear Editor:
I was repulsed by the amount of false accusations and distortions which Mayor Schundler stuffed into one letter to the editor (JC Reporter, 12/17) regarding his collaboration with the park’s public-be-damned Development Corporation to push an expensive, commercial waterpark into Liberty State Park’s 45 acre interior perimeter. The people of Jersey City and New Jersey and the future generations whose land we hold in trust, really deserve better than a Mayor uttering falsehoods and hiding his real agenda regarding his waterpark privatization plan for our free, urban sanctuary in this very crowded county.
Fulfilling the park’s purpose, with open space in the perimeter for a multitude of active, unstructured recreation uses and peaceful enjoyment of free land features, is the NJDEP Committee Plan #2.The plans will be presented at the NJDEP public meeting on January 27, at 1:30 p.m. at Liberty Science Center (with free parking). Committee Plan #3, pushed by Schundler and the Development Corp includes the privatized waterpark for about 4000 users on 13 acres with the Development Corp getting a middleman cut and the private developer deciding on the admission fees. Mayor Schundler totally conceals the truth when he refers to an innocent “swimming complex.” The estimates of approximate perimeters in the NJDEP Plan #3 come from the waterpark designer whom they brought to a NJDEP Committee meeting. The Friends doesn’t support Plan 1 which limits public access to the perimeter.
The Mayor stated that “he and I have a simple disagreement.” The differences are major between his waterpark support at the NJDEP committee meetings and in his bragging in early November about the results of the Jersey City official “survey” (which omitted the open space option) and the open space support by the several hundred members of The Friends, by the overwhelming majority of people who have spoken at public hearings for 25 years, and by the hundreds of park users I spoke with last summer at park festivals, concerts and at the picnic area and new playground. The Friends were in the forefront for getting that playground built, for stopping the golf course which the mayor supported, for opposing the yacht marina and for advocating for a “free and green” park since 1988.
In summarizing the Mayor’s other falsehoods and ignored facts: 1. The Governor declared, upon killing the Development Corp’s golf course plan in 1995, that the interior will be a natural area with trails and no development. 2. The Friends has never opposed the Sports Complex (wanting five million annual visitors) for the JC car pound site (across the road from the proposed waterpark); Liberty Science Center expansion; the Port Liberte golf course or the wonderful Camp Liberty going into the perimeter (though I heard that its directors and families want to stay in their present quiet park location).
The Mayor’s commercial mentality is blinding him to what this park is all about.
Sam Pesin, President
The Friends of Liberty State Park