I spoke at the Council meeting tonight before the Redevelopment Plan for this site was approved: meaning that the city intends to go ahead with this warehouse project.

I brought the environmental issue with quotes from this article.

Others stated that there is no requrement that Jersey City residents get hired for these jobs. Steve Lipski as usual acted like a jerk in proclaiming that he fully supports this project.

As to the survey, sounds like a flawed survey question.
Participants were asked:
The proposed redevelopment of a former landfill in Jersey City is raising the question of which is more important to the area's future: new jobs or more recreational space, particularly a public golf course. In general what would you like to see in Hudson County?

Heck even I would say new jobs when faced with a question like that, and I'm against the warehouse!

Had they asked about an extension to Lincoln Park where families and youth could learn or play sports like golf, rather than a warehouse that will downgrade the Marion neighborhood, methinks the answers would have been different.

My $.02

Also remember that, five years ago, Hudson County residents overwhelmingly voted to INCREASE their taxes to create an open-space trust fund. That vote, where people had to put their money where their mouth was, says more than an opinion poll.

And I think the contrast between "jobs" or "parks" is misleading. One of the problems with the PJP site is that it will create one industrial site with employment at the expense of the surrounding neighborhood. The expansion of open space would be more likely to spur development along the Hackensack River, which would include businesses that could employ local residents.

MONEY TALKS
Hudson residents want places to work, not play
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
By KEN THORBOURNE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Hudson County residents overwhelming believe jobs are more important to the area's future than parks, supporting Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy's push to have a warehouse built at the old PJP landfill site in Jersey City, according to the latest New Jersey City University/Jersey Journal poll.

The City Council is expected tonight to approve a redevelopment plan for the area, the latest step in bringing the warehouse proposal to reality.

According to the poll, which was conducted by phone on Sept. 27, some 57.9 percent Hudson County residents said jobs should be priority No. 1, while 15.8 percent favored parkland.

Only 3.5 percent of those polled said golf courses should be built on open areas, a proposal some county officials promoted for the old Jersey City landfill site.

"Overwhelmingly, people preferred the jobs that the warehouse and other buildings might provide against open space and golf courses," wrote the poll's authors, political science professor Fran Moran and English professor Bruce Chadwick, both of NJCU, in an analysis of the results.

"The largest group of supporters for jobs were among the youngest group, those in the working world for the first time, and the 50-65 year old category, many of whom may have been laid off or downsized during the last few years," they added.

Jobs were preferred across the board in all categories and by all political parties and groups, they said.

Healy championed AMB Corp.'s proposal to build a mega-warehouse on 47 acres of the former PJP landfill site. The land, owned by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark, already is under contract to be sold to AMB Corp., which would build the enormous warehouse but not operate it.

Although some Marion residents and council members opposed the plan, arguing the warehouse would add pollution and traffic congestion to the neighborhood, the City Council settled on a compromise that would allow for both a warehouse and 67 acres of open space. However, most of the land designated as open space is already owned by trucking companies, and the city has no plans to buy it.

The City Council is scheduled to hold a public hearing on this plan at its meeting tonight at 6 at City Hall, 280 Grove St.