While members of the bayonne Local REdevelopment Authority were secretly negotiation with the Port Authority of New Jersey that resulted in the sale of a portion of the Military Ocean Terminal, Longshoremen pleaded their case for a container port, saying that Bayonne needed jobs not luxury housing.
The Sept. 13 meeting of the Bayonne Local Redevelopment Authority was like a scene out of the classic film “On the Waterfront,” as several hundred members from the International Longshoremen’s Association packed the City Council chambers urging officials to use a portion of the former Military Ocean Terminal as a container port.
In fact, one of the longshoremen who spoke had actually played a part in the 1955 film.
Thomas Hurley, who played the boy on the rooftop with Marlon Brando in the film, said he was born and raised in Hoboken, but moved to Bayonne when Hoboken stopped being Hoboken.
“I worked on the docks in Hoboken, and when the docks no longer existed, I moved to Bayonne,” he said. “I currently worked at Global Terminal. I like Bayonne because it is the closest thing I could find to what Hoboken used to be. We still have neighborhoods here.”
Like many of those who spoke during the public comment period of the BLRA meeting, Hurley said the city is missing out on the opportunity to keep an important legacy of the city, and to maintain some of the blue collar aspects for which Bayonne is famous.
Docks among the houses?
Hurley was among the hundreds who urged the BLRA to give over a portion of MOTBY to help generate high-paying jobs, criticizing the development plans currently laid out for residential housing and limited roll-off cargo.
“Isn’t anybody going to stand up and say this is a mistake?” he said. “We need good jobs here. And longshoremen are great people to have in town. We love to spend money.” Although union members were very vocal, often cheering each other on as each gave impassioned speeches encouraging the BLRA to reconsider its plans, the event was more civil than previous clashes between union leadership and BLRA members.
Creating jobs is the issue
At the heart of the conflict is the belief by the union officials that the BLRA violated its agreement with the Army to use the former Military Ocean Terminal to create jobs. Although Keith Eastin, assistant secretary of the Army for Installations and Environment, issued a report saying the BLRA was in compliance, union officials say residential development instead of port facilities violates the conditions which allowed the city to take possession of the 432-acre site without cost.
Christopher T. Ragucci, an attorney who has been among the harshest critics of the BLRA, often clashing with the members, maintained his assault on the board at the meeting, claiming that someone from the city or state had deliberately deferred federal dredging necessary to make the container port possible.
The Army Corps of Engineers is currently dredging the channel north of the MOTBY, except for a small slice in the area where the container port would be built.
BLRA officials said the dredging was delayed, not eliminated. But Ragucci said the Army Corps would be unlikely to return later to dredge the area once the work is concluded on the rest of the channel.
“This decision must be reversed,” he said. “Although the federal money has been allocated, it will go away.”
He also said he believed that restrictive language was inserted into contracts for the sale of two portions of the residential development that would prohibit a container port from being developed in the maritime district of MOTBY.
The former military base has been divided into six sections, five of which are either residential or mixed use, the sixth for maritime uses. When the city first asked to take ownership of the base, a container port was one of the uses planned for this sixth section. The city even received proposals from numerous companies for the development. But in 2005, the BLRA and others in city government decided not to develop a container port there, raising protest from union officials who had envisioned the site as a source of jobs.
Ragucci said the one proposal by the Shaw Group had agreed to give the city $50 million up front for rights to develop a container port, then yearly lease payments starting at about $5 million to $10 million per year. He said the estimated time of construction would be 24 months and had the BLRA taken the proposal when first offered two years ago, the port would already be up and running.
The project, he said, would generate about 1,700 jobs during construction and then would generate about 2,400 jobs directly or indirectly associated with the container port. This would include people working at the port as well as truck drivers, warehouse workers, and others who would be serving the goods passing to and from the port’s operations. He said within five years, these jobs would rise to about 5,500.
The overall impact for the area generated by the port’s economic activity would be over $100 the first year, rising to $300 million later.
Ragucci said the unions would use every legal option possible to bring the BLRA back to its original proposal to build a container port in Bayonne.
Mayoral campaign did not settle the conflict
The container port was the central issue in the 2006 mayoral election, with Mayor Joseph Doria’s campaign painting the port in bleak terms, even printing pictures of degraded conditions union officials claim were not at all what modern up-to-date port facilities look like.
Several city officials and even prospective developers at MOTBY said a container port will not be a good selling point for companies seeking to market luxury residential units on the base, regardless of sound barriers and other efforts to reduce noise.
Some union workers questioned the wisdom of building luxury units in a city where few if any of the residents can afford them.
Michael Morola, not a union member, spoke in favor of the container port, asking why the BLRA did not have more of an open mind. “I’m happy with the services here, but the city cannot generate enough income,” he said.
School populations are rising, he said, and will rise more as new development comes into the city.
“Where are these kids going to go to school?” he asked. “Bayonne High School is already bursting at the seams. Are we going to build a new high school?”
He said the BLRA is pushing for development of new residential homes even as “for sale” signs proliferate through the rest of the community.
“During last year’s election, Broadway had a lot of Elect Doria signs in the windows of empty stores,” he said. “Broadway has more empty stores than ever, and yet the city wants to build strip malls. Why are you building strip malls instead of helping businesses on Broadway? Why are you building more houses when there are so many houses for sale already in Bayonne? What we need is a balance, and the container port can provide jobs.”
Aston Moffi echoed this sentiment, saying that every year taxes are rising in the city of Bayonne.
“If we don’t have jobs, we can’t pay taxes,” he said.
Can’t afford Bayonne
“What you are building there most people in Bayonne can’t afford to buy,” said Anthony Falcicchio. He said he was forced to move out of Bayonne because of the high taxes and the high cost of housing, even though he had been born and raised here. He disputed the claims that the port would create traffic problems, saying that he had worked on MOTBY from 1976 to 1982. Traffic came and went with the workers, he said. But that traffic would be worse with residential development, since people living there would have to travel out of town to jobs, and then return.
Dennis Dagget, also a union representative, said the BLRA has failed to use MOTBY to its full potential by building residences there, instead of a container port.
“These are good high-paying jobs that provide health benefits and pensions,” he said. “The port will also create truck, warehouse, and rail jobs. You’re not going to get these by giving into a few real estate interests.”
Robert Dickey, a representative of ILA local 1588, said the BLRA did not have to give up its residential plans, but only had to go back to its original concept to develop a portion of MOTBY as a container port.
Harold Dagget, who serves as an executive for ILA and is president of the Local 1804 in North Bergen, said that $149 billion in cargo passed through New York area ports last year, a figure he said is expected to double within the next decade.
A fair hearing?
Councilman Gary LaPelusa said the shifting political scene in Bayonne may provide an opportunity for the public and the BLRA to get a full hearing on the port proposal. Mayor Doria is expected to leave office for a state post in the next few weeks, and LaPelusa said City Council President Vincent Lo Re promised to allow a presentation on the container port proposal.
“I’m holding you to that promise,” LaPelusa said. “I believe the most appropriate venue would be here before the BLRA.”
BLRA Chairman Howard Fitch commended the gathering, and said that the information would be considered in any decisions made.
“This board will do the right thing,” he said. “Someone earlier said he spoke from the heart. I have spent my life speaking from the heart, and I consider myself to be fair-minded.”