Dear Editor:
In volume 18, number 4, Joseph Duffy responded eloquently to Mayor Schundler’s proposal for a waterpark in Liberty State Park. I agree with Mr. Duffy. A Jersey City waterpark for the tourists might be a fine thing but let the developer buy the private land to build it on. It’s bad enough that we have had to see a huge swath of our parkland turned over to private developers to build a marina, with its incumbent pollution and acres of asphalt. Only a tiny percentage of Jersey City residents will ever benefit from that marina in any way. The destruction to natural habitat caused by the marina is only too evident to any one who has spent time in the park. A few baseball diamonds would have been used by thousands, but let’s look ahead.
As a former councilor at Camp Liberty I know that for many Jersey City kids Liberty State Park may be their only chance to learn about and appreciate the infinite beauty and complexity of the natural world. Unlike Mayor Schundler and the other families of Jersey City’s new money-ed elite, these kids can’t just pile into the SUV and be whisked off to some second home where there is plenty of natural beauty. Liberty State Park is our kids’ birthright: free and in perpetuity. Let’s not let Mayor Schundler sell that birthright to developers to further his own political aspirations.
Dave Case