The Star Ledger has a new story out on the pavilion fight. As usual the mayor’s comments scream out to be countered, so here we go….
“The vast majority of Belmar residents want the redevelopment of our pavilions, it’s just a small minority who do not and their opposition is really more of an ideology – a Steve Lonegan-type ideology that basically thinks FEMA shouldn’t exist and that using federal money for Sandy recovery is stealing from places like Iowa and Michigan,” he said. “This is counter to what our governor has been doing, he has been going out and getting as much federal funding as possible, and it is counter to how Belmar’s government has been stepping up in our recovery from Sandy.”
I’m sure the vast majority of Belmar residents do want the redevelopment of the pavilions, but they want us to replace what was lost. The mayor knows that most residents just don’t like his plans and that’s why he’s fighting so hard to thwart a public vote. And his claim that the opposition is ideologically driven is complete nonsense. While I’m personally a little uncomfortable with trying to squeeze every last cent we can out of FEMA, and I’m sure I will attacked soon for actually thinking that it’s not nice to take other people’s money, none of the other opponents of the plan – none of them – have even brought this up. They just don’t like how it looks and they also worry about the cost. It’s the mayor that has made it political.
And about that “Steve Lonegan-type ideology”. At it’s core, it’s the ideology of Washington, Jefferson, Madison and Schneck. I think it’s a pretty good one. It’s the ideology that catapulted the United States to unprecedented levels of freedom and prosperity. I guess the mayor favors the Cory Booker-type ideology. At it’s core, it’s the ideology of Lenin, Trotsky, Mao and Castro. It catapulted the USSR, China, Cuba and Newark to unprecedented levels of human misery.
More spin:
Doherty compared the need for the boardwalk pavilions to be larger than their predecessors to the reason the boardwalk was extended an extra tenth of a mile when it was rebuilt.
“The boardwalk had always been 1.2 miles and the last tenth of a mile, you’d have to get off and walk on the street to where is started up again south of us. So what we did, we figured if we were going to rebuild it, let’s do it the right way. Now you can walk on the boardwalk without ever walking on the street,” he said. “And now if we have the opportunity to rebuild the pavilions, let’s do it the right way again. So they are more useful, not just for the next couple years but for the next couple generations.”
So by extending the boardwalk by that final 1/10 mile, a little less than 9 percent, that’s the same thing as going from this:
to this.
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