Gov. Murphy’s New Statewide State Parks And Open Space Foundation Law Invites Abuse
Virtual Media Blackout Of This Story – No Public Awareness Of The Threats
An Open Pitch To Intrepid Journalists
I follow the excellent work of FBW – Fund For A Better Waterfront.
Their latest newsletter warns of potential abuses in Hoboken:
By leasing the Community Hub building proposed for Maritime Park, the City of Hoboken could generate up to $111,000 in annual revenue for the community room and $55,000 for the roof deck. The City could also “Capitalize on Kayaking”, generating annually up to $77,500 for boat storage and $18,000 through kayak and canoe rentals.
These proposals are contained in Appendix C, Maritime Park Funding Opportunities, prepared by James Lima Planning + Development, in the final report submitted by Dattner Architects and its partners. The Funding Opportunities report proposes monetizing Maritime Park further with lawn areas for pay-to-play soccer, softball and volleyball; fees for birdwatching tours; and rental of the beach area.
These proposals fly in the face of the Fund for a Better Waterfront’s (FBW) decades-long advocacy for a truly public space at the water’s edge, open and free to all. To comply with the City’s Open Space Trust Fund (OSTF) ordinance, leasing the Community Hub building to a private operator would require approval by Hoboken voters, a right that FBW recently bolstered through its settlement with the City of Hoboken.
Very similar abuses currently are going on at Liberty State Park, where billionaire Paul Fireman is seeking commercialization and privatization via a sham astroturf Foundation called Parks For people or some such. This battle has generated enormous public opposition and tons of media coverage critical of Fireman’s abuses.
I sent Ron Hine at FBW an email giving him a heads up that the potential abuses he is seeing in Hoboken were expanded Statewide by Gov. Murphy’ new State Parks And Open Space Foundation law.
Ron replied that his was a local park battle, not a State Park.
So, I had to clarify that the new law applies to ALL local, county and State Parks – including historic sites, Green Acres lands, State forests, and State Wildlife Management Areas.
Yet this law has a gotten ZERO media coverage and the people of NJ have no idea of the threats it poses to their local public parks and open spaces.
So, I pitched the following story to a NY Times reporter who has covered the Liberty State Park controversy as well as the national political ambitions of Gov. Murphy – here is that pitch, and I must say, it is quite as story for an intrepid journalist out there!
Good day XXXX:
I just came across your piece on Gov. Murphy’s national ambitions and the Liberty State Park controversy, particularly the Fireman Foundation.
Given the obvious abuses by Mr. Fireman’s Foundation (i.e. a dark money astroturf operation to inject private commercial influence into public parks decisions – with pay to play dynamics, etc), I was shocked to see that Gov. Murphy signed into law a bill rammed quietly through lame duck that created a Statewide Parks and Open Space Foundation, comprised of private interests, and virtually modeled on the Fireman Foundation, see: P.L.2023, c.256
PL not yet published, but here is final form of bill passed and signed into law
https://pub.njleg.state.nj.us/Bills/2022/S1500/1311_R2.PDF
Legislative history here
https://www.njleg.state.nj.us/bill-search/2022/S1311
The law applies to ALL state parks, forests, Green Acres lands, local and County parks, historic sites, etc. Liberty State Park and Island Beach State Park were specifically targeted in the law via lame duck amendments.
The Foundation is empowered to raise private funds, and to dedicate those funds to specific projects that they recommend.
The Foundation is not subject to Open Public Meetings Act, Open Public Records Act, NJ Ethics laws or ELEC lobbying law. Pay to play on steroids!
The NJ State Park System has a $720 million unfunded maintenance deficit (per testimony by DEP Commissioner LaTourette to Assembly Budget Committee last year), so it will be virtually impossible for DEP to reject a project funded by the new Foundation.
There is literally NO awareness of this law and I’ve seen no media coverage, which has been consumed by the Liberty State Park controversy.
You may recall that NJ conservation groups “Keep It Green” open space voter referendum stripped the previously Constitutionally dedicated $48 million per year to State Parks capital projects and diverted that money to Open Space (during Christie Administration). The public got duped on that and was never told this would happen.
Similarly, the public knows nothing of this threat to their local and State parks (including forests!).
Can you please look into and write about this story?
Here’s a specific great story as an example of the abuses:
You might want to look into Peter Kellogg, a billionaire who owns Hudson Farm in Sussex County, an elite private hunting club. Ironically, that’s the place where Benton MacKaye conceived the Appalachian trail, see
https://hudsonfarmnj.com/history/
Kellogg has his own private Foundation, Hudson Farm, see:
https://hudsonfarmnj.com/hudson-farm-foundation/
Kellogg, via that Foundation, donated almost $500,000 to NJ Audubon to fund a controversial “forest stewardship” project (logging, including clearcuts) in DEP’s Sparta Mountain Wildlife Management Area, on preserved public lands purchased with Green Acres money. NJ Audubon provided political cover and a scientifically flawed “conservation” rationale for that logging (in specially protected NJ Highlands Forests, a law enacted to preserve intact forest canopy and stop forest fragmentation – I know, I wrote much of it).
Kellogg’s Hudson Farm also participates in a private carbon trading market and his Hudson Farm lands have generated “carbon credits”. Those economically valuable credits are based on the carbon stored in forests that would be lost if he clearcut the forest, which is something his own Forest Stewardship Plan says he is not going to do!
DEP received $370 million in Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) auction sales (2020 – 2022). Ten percent of those funds are dedicated to “carbon sequestration” so we’re talking about a lot of money.
DEP is now structuring Forest Management policies regarding carbon sequestration, and there is a forestry bill pending in the Legislature, sponsored by Senate Environment Committee Chairman Bob Smith.
So, here’s a perfect example of a billionaire using lots of private money in an astroturf operation to shape State public lands, forestry, and climate policies, all behind the scenes and in which issues he has significant economic interests.
And this history of Hudson Farm (public advocacy of MacKaye and Jane Addams involvement) poses an incredible irony to the private elite abuses ongoing now. The old Manhattan progressives are rolling in their graves.
Wolfe