carolhUncategorized

This is a pretty angry piece, but the LG tower is worth discussing. Thoughts? Promoted by Rosi.





The Palisades looking southward from the Hudson River in Alpine at the NY/NJ state line.

Thanks to ethically compromised Democrats in Englewood Cliffs who allowed a 143 ft height variance in a 35 foot zone on top of the Palisades, and State Senator Paul Sarlo, who literally rallied defending it, the private sector labor unions have been dragged into a fight that was completely unnecessary.

For those unfamiliar with the LG Electronics/ Palisades issue here is the New York Times editorial by four former NJ Governors. For over 114 years there has been an active, bi-state, as well as national, patriotic effort to protect the vista that is the Palisades. The Palisades were formed 200 million years ago when the supercontinent of Pangea split apart and what is now the West Coast of Africa separated from what is now the East Coast of North America. Think of the Palisades North of the George Washington Bridge as an early baby picture of North America, a view that appears unchanged since Henry Hudson sailed up it, the British scaled it chasing Washington and Thomas Paine into retreat, and as Native Americans viewed it for millennia before that.





The view of the Palisades that has been preserved for over a century.

LG Electronics, a South Korean company from a country where building height ordinances protect historic landmarks and vistas, decided to do what they could not do in their own country because there would be an outcry. They decided to do the equivalent of building a Trump casino tower on the rim of the Grand Canyon. They wanted a new bigger Headquarters in Englewood Cliffs where they currently have a shorter one not visible over the Palisades treeline. They wanted their South Korean executives to have a view of the Manhattan skyline – at the expense of everybody else. It is not like LG could not comply with the longstanding 35 ft height ordinance. Their 27 acre lot, could accommodate the same size building they want but one that would not disrupt the treeline, according to not only several architects I have spoken to but also LG’s own architect. And so the issue really is only about height, not the size of the building or even the type of business. Height. That’s it.

Any sane and rational person would understand that a shorter building of the same square footage would need the same number of workers to build it, but Mayor Parisi and Senator Sarlo got the labor unions all in an uproar that this “controversy” was about jobs. At rallies, Sarlo even brought up the issue of trees – trying to stir anti-environment sentiment in the union workers. Like the issue was the classic jobs vs environment issue all over again. Except it wasn’t. The site already had a huge building on it (that did not exceed the 35 ft height limit.) Although the site is less than 200 ft from the Palisades Interstate Park, it was already developed. In fact even with a new shorter building, more trees could be planted.





The Hi-Rise overlay Zone on the Palisades that Mayor Parisi wants to implement showing Connect One bank where he sits on the Board.





Graphic showing how close LG’s proposed building will be to the edge of the Cliffs.

While the union tough guys profess to love America and our veterans and all the things we stand for, they allowed themselves to be played like fiddles by politicians who know full well the LG Electronics HQ building on the Palisades has nothing to do with jobs at all. It is simply about the height of a building, not even its size. Height. That’s it really in a nutshell. Completely. Foreign nationals want a view of Manhattan that will destroy all the views FROM Manhattan, the same foreign nationals Mayor Parisi wants to impress because he is courting Asian businessmen with the Otterstedt Asia branch of the real estate insurance company he inherited from his dad.

These Democrats who wanted union support for themselves got the private labor unions all stirred up so they could look like heroes to them and get their support at election time. While CWA and the public worker unions come out to protect their workers from the wrecking ball of the Christie Administration and actually adhere to their core mission of protecting workers, the labor unions have no such fealty. The labor unions allowed themselves to be used to push the Port Authority toll increases so that Republican Christie could come in looking like a hero and lower the toll increase from $6 to $4, an increase that hurt working stiffs unlucky enough to have to cross the Hudson every day. These labor unions have no such fealty to the Democratic Party and yet, Democrats like Parisi and Sarlo appear to have no compunction about cynically using them for their own political or personal gain.

I was deeply ashamed to be a Democrat last month when I attended the Planning Board hearing where Mayor Parisi attempted to retroactively change the Master Plan to support hi-rises on the Palisades. Mayor Parisi did not advertise the meeting on the Town website meeting calendar and yet every labor union guy in a monster truck within a hundred miles showed up two hours early. They got the first parking spaces because every street for six blocks had Police no parking signs on one side, and there was no ADA parking for senior residents. I watched a man ride his wheelchair to his car a few blocks away in the rain after the meeting. Inside, every two union men would take up three seats and then leave as soon as the police – who were wanding residents and intimidating them with police dogs, told the residents basically locked out of their own town meeting that there were no more seats and it was time to go home. It was a shameful display of the stereotype union “thug” behavior Republicans always pin on Democrat-supporting unions. Except that this time it was true and being used against mild mannered citizens in all its ugly, intimidating glory.





Outside the Planning Board hearing the residents and environmentalists from as far away as New York City and Trenton stand in the pouring rain while Englewood Cliffs Police and County Police wand and use police dogs on every one entering.

The most painful aspect of this fight is to see Democrats (and even unions) who ordinarily garner the support of the environmentalists and women’s clubs (who first saved the Palisades before they could even vote, mind you) completely lose that support by defacing a National Natural Landmark that is internationally beloved. By forcefully pushing for hi-rises on the Palisades that would benefit a foreign company and also the bank that Democratic Mayor Parisi sits on the Board of (which is in the area he wants to rezone), the Democratic Party in Bergen County is risking losing a major source of support base Democrats have always taken for granted. Last year two Republicans running in Englewood Cliffs against the LG tower, won against two Dems for it. The Republicans in Englewood Cliffs are in agreement with the environmentalists on this one. This is the second case I have seen in the past two years, where Bergen County Republicans concerned about the environment are winning in traditional Bergen Democratic strongholds, because Bergen County residents value quality of life highly and the Democrats are pushing over-development. When Dems were building parks, Bergen County residents were for it. Now that they are destroying views of the Nation’s most famous landmark located in Bergen County, residents are incensed. And venting at the ballot box.

Former Republican Governors Tom Kean and Christie Todd Whitman have also come out against the LG tower as well as the Pinelands Pipeline. In NJ the environment is becoming a bipartisan issue. As more Democrats try to use the Labor Unions muscle like the Establishment Republicans nurtured the Tea Party, only to regret it, the environment will cease to be a Democratic Party value and Dems will lose valuable support in NJ where open space is treasured.

On Thursday, at 10 am, bipartisan bill S 2025 to save the Palisades vistas will be brought to a vote by Senator Richard Codey, Senator Bob Smith, Senator Christopher Bateman. Unfortunately, Senator Paul Sarlo will mightily try to derail it, but if Dems in the NJ legislature care about the future of the party, they will educate themselves on the issue, have a Come-to-Jesus moment, stop riling the labor base for personal or political gain when jobs are not at stake, and vote to save the Palisades iconic and world famous vista and their own future at the very same time.

More info on this topic: Here, here, and here. History Lesson from Palisades Interstate Park historic interpreter Eric Nelsen: here. Blogs by others on this topic with amazing photographs: here, here, and here.