Congressman Steve Rothman (D-9th Dist.), who represents Secaucus and part of North Bergen and Jersey City, discussed several local issues at the Reporter’s offices last week as part of what he called a “get to know you” tour of his district. His activities for Jan. 11 also included a visit to Christ Hospital and a brief classroom lecture at one of the schools in Jersey City.
During an hour-long interview, Rothman talked about bilingualism in government and in the schools, airport noise over Secaucus and the proposed mega Mills Mall in the Meadowlands.
Rothman, elected to the 9th Congressional District in 1996 to replace Robert Torricelli, bills himself as a family man, and indeed has been called “a soccer dad,” someone who can mostly likely be found on the sidelines of his children’s sporting events when not tending to his official duties as congressman. Before being elected to Congress, Rothman served as mayor of Englewood and as a judge in Bergen County’s Surrogate Court. Both positions, he said, gave him hands-on experience with the public, something these trips to local communities are intended to reinforce.
Although Rothman’s district has only a small slice of Jersey City and North Bergen as well as all of Secaucus in this part of Hudson County, his membership in the House of Representatives Foreign Relations Committee has put him in touch with some of the thornier issues faced by residents throughout the country. His positions on issues such as affirmative action, bilingual education and immigration have had an impact on Hudson County residents.
Rothman’s published statements on Affirmative Action tend to avoid the stereotypical reaction of historic Jewish liberals – whose opposition to job quotas has a historic base in pre-World War II Eastern Europe.
Rothman, who juggles a district that has a strong mixture of traditional labor, white-collar business executives, and ethnic poor, has said affirmative action should be reformed and improved. In talking about the issue to the Hudson Reporter, Rothman said one of the tests of Pres. George W. Bush will be an ability to wrestle with issues like this.
“We’re going to soon seen how much of a compassionate conservative George Bush really is,” Rothman said, hinting that as a Democrat in an administration controlled by Republicans, Rothman will be looking to see whether or not Bush will reach out on these issues.
Aircraft over West Hudson
Aircraft noise has been an issue for years in communities surrounding Teteboro Airport, and though most of these towns are in Bergen County, Secaucus, North Bergen and other Hudson County towns along the western side of Hudson County have found low-flying aircraft invading their air space. The noise of these planes have shaken dishes and rattled nerves, especially during cloudy days or days with altered wind patterns.
Secaucus isn’t the only victim. Communities in the flight path of numerous smaller airports like Teteboro around the country have suffered a similar fate. While a federal law was passed in 1990 to curtail noise over residential neighborhoods, Rothman said a huge loophole was left through which jets under 100,000 pounds could fly.
These smaller jets – which use Teteboro and other secondary airports – fly lower and create more racket than the larger ones aimed for major airports like Newark International.
“The 1990 law required jets over 100,000 pounds to use stage three engines,” Rothman said. “They were required to update their fleets by the year 2000.”
The smaller planes, however, had no such requirement, and although 85 percent of the planes flying in an out of Teteboro use the latest technology, 15 percent of the planes are stage one and stage two, and these cause 90 percent of the noise people hear, according to Rothman.
While federal legislators have tried to close the loophole and force smaller planes to comply with noise regulations, the General Aviation Lobby maintains significant influence in congress, and Rothman said Congress has not yet been able to make small plane owners update their planes to the less noisy technology.
Rothman, however, said he has been holding discussions in other levels of government, seeking to find a solution for removing these “jalopies of the air” from over the skies of residential neighborhoods.
A less acceptable solution, he said, would be to limit the hours in which these noisier planes operate – such as keeping them from landing or taking off at night or early morning.
According to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, flights in and out of Teterboro during the overnight hours make up less than seven percent of the airport’s total daily activity. According to the Federal Aviation Administration, 60 to 70 flights land at or depart from Teteboro Airport between the hours of 11 p.m. and 7 a.m. each day; most of which are small turbo propeller planes or small corporate jets. The corporate jets generally weigh less than 75,000 pounds and may therefore still use older “stage 2” type engines, which are approximately 50 percent louder than the more modern “stage 3” versions.
Rothman said he is currently talking with the Federal Aviation Administration to deal with the older engines. But he has also been discussing some of the approach elevations allowed by the airport with the Port Authority. Some of the elevations may have been calibrated wrong, allowing flights to come in at lower altitudes. A reexamination of these could result in changes that reduce local noise.
Rothman opposes Mills Mall on the Empire tract
Rothman stated unequivocally that he opposed the construction of Mills Mall on a tract of land in Carlstadt that is considered environmentally sensitive – even though Mills Corporation has agreed to reduce the area of wetlands to be filled from 206 to 90.
The Mills Mall could be the largest mall built in New Jersey, and has become a national issue as the Meadowlands becomes the model nationwide for dealing with wetland issues.
The Meadowlands Mall project, slated for the Empire tract in Carlstadt, as first proposed, would contain 2.1 million square feet and with as many as 18 anchor stores and 200 specialty shops, making it the largest mall in the state and the fifth largest mall in the nation. Meadowlands Mills would serve residents within a 200-mile radius and draw and estimated 18 million visitors each year.
Since introducing the project in 1996, Mills has been forced to get environmental approvals from the state and federal government to build on wetlands. The corporation has agreed to make up for lost area wetlands by creating 146 acres of freshwater wetlands and 151 acres of brackish marsh.
Rothman said the project could be moved to the site of the Continental Arena in East Rutherford. The Arena is slated for demolition, and another mall proposed for that site failed to win local approvals.
“The Empire tract should be kept as open space until the state and federal government can come up with the money to completely cleanup and preserve the property,” he said. “I would like to see a wildlife refuge put there.”
By moving the mall less than a mile south of its current proposed location, local labor would still benefit from the construction jobs, and local merchants would still benefit from the increased business the mall would bring into the area, Rothman said.
America’s mother tongue
In campaigns over the last four years, bilingual education has been an issue. In his 1998 campaign, Rothman’s very conservative opponent rejected bilingualism in government and the schools; he believed all government signs and forms, as well as education, should be purely in English.
But Rothman – while emphasizing the need for immigrants to learn English – said bilingual services in government are necessary in helping to meet the needs of people whom government serves.
This was an issue that became very clear in Englewood where he served as mayor and found that 15 percent of the population of a town in the heart of Bergen County was Latino or African American. As surrogate judge, he found it necessary to have good communication, and saw the need to have people who could move easily between two or more languages. He said America has often had to use a variety of languages in government in order to accommodate incoming immigrants, whether they were the Italian immigrants at the turn of the last century or Latinos today.
Education, however, is another matter. While Rothman agrees with the need to have some level of bilingual education, the goal is to get people to understand English so they can function well in a society where English is the primary language.
“I do support transition into English as quickly as possible,” he said. “But we need to have the education system meet the needs of the population, and anything we do must be on a case-by-case basis.”
Rothman said setting firm rules and timetables (the one-size-fits-all philosophy, a term he chose to avoid) does not serve the public.