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What does Deal, a shore town just north of Asbury Park, have in common with Weehawken, a town perched atop a cliff overlooking the Hudson River?
Well, they both have beautiful places to swim, for one thing; places we all helped pay for with public grants. For another, they want to keep you out.
Deal has a history of trying to limit parking near the beach to residents only, even though it got millions of dollars of new sand paid for by federal and New Jersey taxpayers through a beach replenishment program.
And Weehawken recently landed in hot water over its exclusive pool with a fabulous view of the Manhattan skyline, which it tried to limit to residents only; despite the millions that New Jersey taxpayers chipped in to build it through the state’s Green Acres fund.
This is against the rules, folks. The Department of Environmental Protection should be cracking down because places like these are supposed to be open to the public that helped pay for them, says Jeff Tittel, the former president of the New Jersey Sierra Club.
“What we see over and over again is that towns want to get public money from all of us to pay for swimming pools or parks or playgrounds for them, but then they don’t want the people who pay for them to be able to use them,” he told us.
Deal ultimately backed off its plans to limit parking near the beach to residents, after getting sued by an environmental group. But Weehawken is still violating the terms of its grant. Even after the state threatened to withhold millions for other projects in the township, Weehawken is still breaking the rules, making only a half-hearted effort to allow the rest of us in.
Starting this month, it’s letting some non-residents into its expansive waterfront complex with a splash park and separate pools for laps, adult swim and babies, but only between the hours of 9:30 a.m. and noon, and you need to reserve a spot. By Monday, it was booked up for the week.
We don’t see Bayonne or Jersey City roping off sections of the Hudson River walkway or Liberty State Park for residents only. They got Green Acres money, and therefore are open to the rest of the state.
So why is there an “adult swim” just for the people of Weehawken? We asked the mayor. Check out our editorial, if you’d like to take a dip in this pool.
Here are some other compelling stories from this past week’s opinion section:
- Created before Jesus and found in New Jersey | Opinion: Why was this ancient artifact found here? A local art expert says there are theories but we’ll likely never know for sure.
Marie Naples Maber, a professor of art at Brookdale Community College, was shopping in Cape May when she found a peculiar piece of art. She thought, could this be real?
- Friendly Fire: Garland speaks, Biden surges, and congestion gets pricey: Can Americans still have a sensible and friendly political discussion across the partisan divide? The answer is yes, and we prove it every week with this column.
Jersey political insiders: On the left, Julie Roginsky, a career Democratic strategist and TV commentator; on the right, Michael DuHaime, a Republican strategist and public affairs executive.
- Buying a pistol won’t make you safe. Here are the facts. | Opinion: Jorge Reina Schement, a Distinguished Professor of Communications Policy, American Studies, and Latino Studies at Rutgers University-New Brunswick, says that just having access to a gun in the home increases the risk of suicide by 300%.
Think you're buying home safety? Think again. Here are some things to think about before you put your money down for that brand-new pistol.
- Weak N.J. Dems wimp out on battle to fix SALT cap | Letters: Our U.S. senators had a chance to give their constituents tax relief by pushing to have the SALT deduction raised from the $10,000 cap and voting “no” on the Inflation Reduction Act unless the cap was increased. The bill that President Biden received did neither.
This week reader Eric Johnson of Point Pleasant writes that our senators could have given much-needed tax relief to the middle class in New Jersey. Instead, they chose their party over the people of the state.
- Has Jersey City lost its soul? | Hudson Dems a pit of corruption | Letters: Now that a group has declared that Jersey City has the highest rest in the nation a reader asks, what does that mean?
Reader Robert Hampton of Jersey City says residents finally got what we wanted: a seat at the big table with cities like San Francisco; Boston; Portland, Oregon; and Manhattan. But what does that mean?Reena Rose Sibayan | The Jersey
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We paid for it but can’t use it. That’s not fair. | Opinion - NJ.com
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