hy·poc·ri·sy noun, pl sies

March 24, 2011

If you attend a sufficient number of Ramapo board meetings, you will likely find yourself one evening asking, They don’t really believe that stuff they’re saying, do they? Surely there’s a limit to their capacity for self deception.

Well, last night there was another one of those foggy moments when Town Attorney Michael Klein read the following resolution about overcrowding, quality of life, and our environment. It was a Memorializing Resolution titled: "Opposition to Re-Zoning of International Crossroads Property (Mahwah, NJ)."

Klein read aloud:
"Whereas the Mahwah Town Council is considering the re-zoning of the International Crossroads Property at the junction of Route 17, 287 and 87;

And whereas the proposed re-zoning will permit the construction of a mall including 600,000 square feet of retail space, 50,000 square feet of professional office space, and a 100,000 square feet hotel on the site of an overall maximum development of 750,000 square feet;

And whereas said property is within close proximity to the Town of Ramapo and will have a detrimental effect on traffic impact on Route 17, 287, and 87 which are used by Ramapo residents on a daily basis;

And whereas said property is in close proximity to the Ramapo River and could cause a detrimental effect on the Ramapo River in terms of potential flooding and impact on use of the river as a major source of drinking water;

Now therefore be it resolved by the Town Board of the Town of Ramapo that it hereby opposes any rezoning of Crossroads Property to permit a 750,000 square foot mall and urges the Mahwah Town Council to reject the rezoning request.

Be it further resolved that Christian Sampson, the town clerk, is hereby directed to provide a copy of the above resolution to the Mahwah Town Council."

This righteous moment was followed by a unanimous approval vote and a few confounded looks from the gallery. Wasn't this the same town board that approved the Patrick Farm little-city project? And isn't Patrick Farm not just at the headwaters of the Ramapo River, but it’s sitting directly over a critical sole-source aquifer for Ramapo? And wasn't this the group that figured there would be no impact on traffic directly exiting from and onto Route 202 in Ramapo from a site that will have 500 dwellings? And didn't this Supervisor invent a new zoning classification, Adult Student Housing, to re-zone Patrick Farm to allow high-density housing on the site? And now there they were, all agonizing over the traffic and water pollution on a site in another state that is "near" where Ramapo residents might travel or catch a glimpse of the Ramapo River? Who the hell did they think they were fooling?

Flag Pins for Everyone
Well, themselves of course--once again, fooling themselves. This was one of those embarrassing, too-frequent moments when these board members, led by their grinning supervisor, right in the middle of a meeting, do things like turn and pin flag pins on each other, congratulating all on their service to the community.

How this can work is not entirely clear to those of us who live outside the political bubble where this group is all breathing the same damp air. I mean, how can you spend 85% of your time in meetings, hell-bent on the urbanization of Ramapo--covering over every square foot of available space in neighborhoods with multi-family, multi-story dwellings four or six to an acre, and then take time out of the board proceedings to tut-tut a nearby New Jersey town for building over not an undersized lot in a residential neighborhood, but an industrialized site which once housed the Ford Plant?

It didn’t go unnoticed that not one of the Ramapo resolutions on the agenda were read in their entirety. Just three Memorializing Resolutions about Mahwah’s re-zoning and two other matters over which this board has no control or influence. So what were they Memorializing? You guessed it, themselves, and their obvious dedication to public service, to the common good, and to truth, justice, and the American way.

Three of these public servants, incidentally, are currently burning through one million dollars a week on a baseball park that the public loudly rejected in an official public vote. Well, I guess one man's notion of public service could be another's crushing tax burden. So it goes. Would you like a flag pin?

So today, as Town Clerk Sampson prepares to send to the Mahwah Town Council a Memorialized Resolution expressing the indignation of the Ramapo Town Board, I have a suggestion. Put the pins back in your pockets, and in the future please refrain from these spontaneous public service-award demonstrations during the meetings. They’re really embarrassing.