Morgan: Fulop expected to create panel to review study on bias in city-generated economy

By Earl Morgan/For The Jersey Journal
October 14, 2014 at 6:16 AM

During the administration of former Jersey City Mayor Thomas F.X. Smith, more than three decades ago, the Glimcher Corp. of Ohio announced its intention to develop the Jersey City waterfront without requiring any governmental subsidy.

The announcement was met with skepticism that such a feat could accomplished, considering the wide swath of fallow, property and the lack of infrastructure existing on what was once prime railroad-owned real estate along the Hudson River.

But things change and so did the minds of Glimcher officials who announced, after Thomas F.X. Smith left office to be replaced by Gerald McCann. The company claimed it would need a $50 million infusion of government dollars to get the development off the ground. Mayor Gerald McCann said he knew where the funding could be obtained and put the city?s Washington, D.C. lobbyists to work and they obtained a $50 million Urban Development Action Grant.

However, Glimcher flipped the project, turning it over to billionaire developer Sam Lefrak, who brought in partner Melvin Simon, another deep-pocketed builder -- and the Newport development project is today a reality. Jersey City?s waterfront now bustles with populated high-rise offices, expensive condominiums and rejuvenated neighborhoods with homes selling for $1 million or more a pop.

Conversely, the $50 million city investment did very little to reclaim or resuscitate parts of the city in the most desperate need, where double-digit unemployment is the norm, where gun shots and crime are part of the daily warp and woof of life. If there is an area in need of the sort of game changing investment the city provided the waterfront it?s in the heavily minority-populated portions of Bergen-Lafayette and Greenville.

Several years ago, during the administration of Mayor Jerremiah Healy, the city commissioned a $376 million ?disparity study,? for years 2002 to 2008, to determine whether the city?s minority population was left out of the millions Jersey City shells out to purchase goods and services, annually. The 800-plus page study confirms that indeed minorities have been seriously excluded from sharing the wealth generated in city tax dollars.

While the Healy administration obviously shut the study in a drawer where it was forgotten for years, after more than a year in office, the administration of Mayor Steve Fulop seems ready to address the disparity issue.

Last month, the Jersey City Council voted unanimously to approve the study. Fulop subsequently approved an executive order, creating a Purchasing Disparity Study Committee to review the document. The survey includes multiple remedies, if implemented, that could be the game changer and point the way a brighter future in badly battered needy neighborhoods and minority businesses. Most, if not all, of the recommendations will cost the city little if nothing to implement.

The mayor?s committee will include four municipal department directors, three City Council members and three Jersey City residents. There will undoubtedly be some jockeying to see just who among the city residents will be appointed. At least some movement to address the issue is beginning.

http://www.nj.com/opinion/index.ssf/2 ... _government-generate.html