Which Teaneck do you Live in?

Open Space and Recreation Plan

Notable Women of Teaneck

Update Regarding the Fire Engine Company on Teaneck Road

Announcements

One Town One Vote Appeal Letter

Upcoming events

Events at the Library

At every Township Council meeting, we read in the agenda that Teaneck is “One of New Jersey's most culturally diverse communities..."

On Wednesday, October 6th, Governor Murphy made a campaign visit to Teaneck. What in this hugely Democratic town should have been a town-wide celebration of “Our Governor,” became, instead, a Tale of two Teanecks.

At a whistle-stop meet-and-greet event scheduled by his re-election campaign, Governor Murphy visited the Teaneck we hear so much about and take great pride in.

The Bischoff's gathering on Cedar Lane was all a campaign event should be. A diverse and enthusiastic crowd gathered inside and outside of the restaurant, who joined the governor as he praised departing State Senator Loretta Weinberg while dipping into a cup of mint chocolate chip ice cream.

No invitations were required, no credentials were checked and every person who heard about the event was welcomed inside through the open doors.

The governor then headed to a pair of events along West Englewood Avenue and The Plaza. Self-appointed as the governor’s gatekeeper, Deputy Mayor Elie Katz sent an email “invitation” to a purported list of 28,000, encouraging residents to “please come and hear from the Governor of New Jersey”.

The two deputy mayors, Mark Schwartz and Elie Katz, seemed to be re-enacting a similar event that took place in 2013, when Katz escorted Chris Christie down the same stretch of storefronts and businesses he owns so that the then-governor could announce the enthusiastic support of Katz, Schwartz and Yitz Stern for the governor’s re-election and the establishment of Jewish Leaders for Christie:

While all of Teaneck was supposed to have been guests of the governor on West Englewood Avenue, a group of 40 assembled in the backyard of Sender’s restaurant, which is located in a property owned by Mr. Katz, as are all of the other restaurants on the street.

A crowd of protestors gathered outside Sender’s, critical of Mr. Katz’s baseless attacks on the initiatives to move municipal elections to November and efforts to bring residents choice for cleaner energy. Many held up signs touting the two municipal ballot questions opposed by the deputy mayors, and asking “Why is Party Boss Katz so afraid of increased voter turnout?” and calling for support of "Diversity, not Exclusion!"

Among those gathered on Court Street and kept out of the event was Councilwoman Gervonn Romney Rice. When some of the individuals who had been at Bischoff's asked to come inside to hear the Governor as promised by Elie Katz, they were told No. It is a closed event. Only those who were specifically invited may attend.

The governor then went around the block to Mocha Bleu, for an event for “local business owners and community movers and shakers” hosted by Moshe Kinderlehrer and Mark Schwartz, co-publishers of The Jewish Link, who both gave introductory remarks.

The attendees seemed skewed towards businesses that advertise in The Jewish Link, with no visible representation from the diverse businesses just doors away from Mocha Bleu, let alone those in our other business districts on Teaneck Road or Degraw Avenue, or those on Cedar Lane, Teaneck’s real downtown.

A perfect storm resulted from the mixed messages, the barred entries, and changing plans known only by word-of-mouth, on both sides of the Bischoff’s/Plaza divide. It reflects sadly on the large and growing divide in what is becoming a Tale of Two Teanecks.

Is Teaneck still “One of New Jersey's most culturally diverse communities”, one that celebrates the scope and breadth of the varied backgrounds and experiences of its residents? Or do you live in the Teaneck where different groups are pitted against each other in a winner-takes-all competition?

Which Teaneck do you live in? Which Teaneck do you want to live in?

For more than 2 years Teaneck residents and Planning Board members have become increasingly aggressive in pressing the Planning Board leadership to discuss and act on the new draft OSRP.

The new draft was written by Barbara Davis of the Nature Conservancy of NJ after several meetings with Teaneck residents to capture their interests. This state-required document, prepared under a Township contract for $10,000. was due by 2018.  The new OSRP had been applauded by the Council and the Planning Board, and was ready for final Planning Board approval by October, 2019.

What is an OSRP? An OSRP articulates a local government’s vision of open space and recreation…as part of a municipality’s Master Plan. Open space and the role it plays in defining the character of the community should be an integral component of the master planning effort, as it will affect the preservation and maintenance of open space and recreation resources in the community. For these reasons, Green Acres "requires a municipality’s Planning Board to adopt their OSRP as part of their master plan.” (click here to review the State’s full explanation)

The Green Acres OSRP Guidelines outline criteria to participate in “the Green Acres Planning Incentive (PI) funding category…[that] awards 50% matching grants to local governments that fund land acquisition for recreation and conservation purposes. In addition to collecting an open space tax, local governments must have a Green Acres approved OSRP to be eligible for PI funding.” (emphasis added)

So it is clear Teaneck must have an approved OSRP, not only to receive Green Acres funds, but, critically, to have town-wide agreement on how open space and recreation are to shape the character of the town. Bluntly, it impacts whether Teaneck moves toward urbanization or remains richly endowed with open space and recreational opportunities for all.

On March 25, 2021, then Town Planner, Richard Preiss summed up the what and why of a timely OSRP in this 45-second video (Click Here)

At first, the Planning Board's quick approval of the new draft seemed likely. At the end of Barbara Davis’s July 18, 2019 presentation and Q&A, and after laudatory statements by the entire PB, Chair Bodner summed it up this way (Click Here).

But for reasons unspoken, by the time the final Davis draft arrived, the Planning Board leadership had turned cold about placing the OSRP on their agenda. And they continued to omit this critical item from their agenda for the next full year and a quarter. During that time, neither the Board chair nor the attorney would respond to constant “Where is it?” questions.

The Planner Stall? As the public clamoring expanded to Council meetings, the Planning Board announced, in the early Fall of 2020, that it wanted a full review of the draft by a new town planning firm. No reason was given for this sudden shift away from the enthusiasm with which Barbara Davis’s document was received.

The task was given to Teaneck’s new alternate planning firm, Nishuane which showed up to a warm reception at the Planning Board in January 2021. But three months later Deputy Mayor Schwartz announced that Nishuane was no longer a Town Planner. No reasons were given, but the Nishuane disappearance had to do with allegations of Nishuane’s pay-to-play violations. This short video (Click Here) illustrates the turn around.

Hence – a change of planners. On March 25 both the Council and the Planning Board announced that the OSRP review job had been handed to Preiss. Preiss and his junior partner, Liz Leheny, had devoted several billed hours that same day to reviewing the Davis’ draft. At the PB meeting that evening, Preiss presented his and his firm’s positive evaluation of Davis’ work. As far as they were concerned, it was a GO! Click Here 

Within a month of his glowing report, Preiss suddenly retired from his firm saying he no longer would be involved with Teaneck. That left Preiss’s junior colleague, Liz Leheny, as the next planner reviewing the original Davis OSRP. She began billing for the review in July.

Pressure to address the OSRP led PB Chair Bodner to promise in August that the OSRP would be on a September PB agenda. But then in September, he promised the OSRP would be an agenda item at one of the two October PB meetings. He also reported that he and the attorney were in discussions with Leheny about her report. Click Here

Teaneck residents can only wait and see.

One other factor is relevant. Davis not only successfully had written Teaneck’s prior OSRP but is generally regarded as one of the most highly-regarded, independent professional experts who author and/or assess the State’s OSRP’s.

Why is Teaneck’s leadership dancing around such experience and expertise? To be sure, Teaneck and the State have long held different views about what Teaneck land has already been declared open space in perpetuity. Davis’ draft clearly analyses those Town-State differences. It also reports the results of a 11/2018 public meeting where residents from many different organizations recorded their open space and recreation priorities which sharply differ from those pursued by Teaneck’s current leadership.

Town leadership is fundamentally opposed to adding more open space and recreation property – and is trying to figure out a way to avoid formally recognizing that the residents of Teaneck have long since committed the Township to the open space that current leadership would like to use for different purposes.

So it appears that this unexplainable delay, was truly a leadership-managed stall.

And that a struggle over land use in Teaneck is at the heart of this Leadership Stall.

PS: To watch Barbara Davis in action, here is her7/18/2019 OSRP presentation and Q&A session on YouTube. It offers residents one and a quarter hours of superb Teaneck environmental policy and practice analysis! Click Here

“I’m gonna join hands around the world, down by the riverside,

Gonna study war no more...”

Ronnie Gilbert of the Weavers said once, “We used to believe that if we could just sing loud enough, we could change the world.” Teaneck’s Paula Rogovin grew up in a home where making change went far beyond words. In the Rogovin home change meant action. Paula Rogovin is a lifelong activist.

In 2005, with our country embroiled in two foreign wars, Paula took action. She co-founded the Teaneck Peace and Justice Vigil, which has stood vigil every Wednesday since 2005. During the 5 weeks of the Covid shutdown, the vigil was livestreamed from her home.

Although the U.S. has withdrawn its troops from Afghanistan, Paula and the Teaneck Peace and Justice Vigil will continue to stand every Wednesday. Peace and Justice are still, Paula believes, achievable goals.

Paula Rogovin, mother of three adult sons and five grandchildren, graduated from the University of Chicago and Bank Street College of Education. She taught in the New York City public elementary schools for 44 years before retiring in 2018. To say Paula taught is barely touching the surface of the innovative experiences she created for her young students – kindergarteners and first graders.

Believing that inquiry is essential to understanding the world around you, Paula encouraged her young students to work to conduct real research: We’re going to do research about our school. Her students chose the topics: What are the windows made of? How do we get water in our drinking fountain? What are our desks made of?

Never wanting to leave children depressed about things they learned about, such as child labor in production of chocolate, sweatshops, and apartheid, they made lists of ways they could help solve those problems. Then they took actions. Her belief is with this early start, these youngsters will one day ask, for example, What problems do we face in community and our world, and what can we do about them?

As well, Paula introduced her students to inquiry in the world outside their classroom. As documented in the New York Times on October 31, 2010, Paula and 25 first-graders met with the supervisor overseeing the building of the Second Avenue subway. This was just one of the weekly meetings with sandhogs, laborers, crane operators, and other workers they met with over a 9-year period.

Paula’s students learned about their power to effect change. Intro 1524, which bans the use of toxic pesticides (such as Roundup) on NYC parks and public spaces, was introduced on behalf of her kindergarten class of 2014, and with involvement of environmental organizations, medical researchers, and others, was finally passed (unanimously) into law by the NYC City Council on Earth Day, April 22, 2021. The children learned about pesticides during their research about tomatoes in the lunchroom.

Paula’s activism has been lifelong and extraordinarily far-reaching. She co-founded “Educators Against Racism and Apartheid,” the “Coalition to Ban Unsafe Oil Trains,” the “Don’t Gas the Meadowlands Coalition” (which stopped two power plants in New Jersey and is working to stop a third in Newark), and “Eco-Friendly Parks for All.”

She has written several books to assist educators in developing social justice curricula: Apartheid is Wrong, A Curriculum for Young People (United Nations Center Against Apartheid), and 3 Heinemann books: Classroom Interviews, a World of Learning (which is in English and French), The Research Workshop, Bringing the World into Your Classroom, and Why Can’t You Behave, a Teachers’ Guide to Creative Classroom Management.

Most recently – right now – Paula is championing Teaneck’s adoption of CCA (Community Choice Aggregation) allowing Teaneck to bulk purchase renewable energy for all residents. She helped oversee the gathering of sufficient residents’ signatures to place the CCA question on the November ballot as Municipal Question #2. She hopes the Residents will vote a resounding YES for Municipal Questions #1 (to move Council elections to November) and #2!

Singing may not change the world, but it certainly lifts the spirit and energizes the mind and body. That’s why at quiet moments in the classroom, Paula could be found sitting cross-legged with guitar singing with her students to “study war no more.” In her retirement she sings at rallies with the Solidarity Singers.

Members of the North East Teaneck Block Presidents Association met with Fire Chief Zaretsky to discuss returning a fire truck to the Teaneck Road Engine Company. It appears that a resolution has been reached.

The Teaneck Road Engine Company will be equipped with a tower ladder that has a water tank, referred to as a quint.  A quint fire truck is an apparatus that combines the equipment capabilities of a ladder truck and the water-pumping ability of a fire engine.

Looking at the fire-safety needs of our entire township, all residents may want to consider the following points:

For the protection and safety for all residents of Teaneck our governing body may want to conduct a review of the Fire Department's actual operating needs as a high priority while factoring in all new and planned development and its effect on population density and growth.

Of course, this is a budgeting decision and residents who would want to support this thought need to consider attending the budgetary meeting to make sure that the need to hire firefighters and equipment are included in the approved budget - just something to think about for discussion at Good and Welfare and a sound reason for attending the upcoming Budget meeting in November.

Protection and safety from fire is a life necessity.

Below you will find a flyer from the League of Women Voters of Teaneck followed by a handy illustration from Teaneck Voices of the three ways to vote this year, each with their dates. Voters can find out if they are registered in Teaneck by clicking here. Voters can track their vote here to see if has been counted yet (or use the QR codes in LWVT flyer). As indicated , Teaneck Voices favors voting YES on our two Municipal Questions.

Purchasing a Congressman John Lewis Make Good Trouble Vote! lawn sign is a charitable donation that will help the Martin Luther King Birthday Committee in awarding annual scholarships to applicants who meet the qualifying criteria. Thank you for your support!

Any questions can be directed to Joseph Harris at: harrisjilr@gmail.com -or/call 201-280-8580 

Dear Friend of One Town One Vote,

As reported in the The Record, the judge sided with more than 3,400 Teaneck voters like you who signed the petition to allow township residents to vote on whether to move municipal elections from May to coincide with the November general elections.

Even though this decision means the question will be on the ballot in November, we can be sure the Teaneck town council will continue to try to defeat this proposal. They know a low-turnout May election benefits them, and they can continue to use their bully pulpit to try to defeat the referendum.

As an engaged Teaneck resident, you undoubtedly realize that moving municipal elections from May to November will save our town approximately $50,000 per election. More important, it will double, or even triple, voter participation in council elections. Many more Teaneck residents across various demographics will participate in the democratic process.

The result? A more representative local government! But greater participation threatens the status quo.

Please help us raise money to convince all Teaneck residents to vote YES on this municipal question in November. We also need funds to pay ongoing legal costs as we defend our efforts to make it easier and more convenient for all Teaneck residents to vote in municipal elections. Please be generous but keep in mind every little bit helps. Donate now to help secure the future of Teaneck.

Bernard Rous, 764 Wendel Place, Teaneck NJ 07666

Wednesday, October 13, 2021 at 6:30pm

no further information available.

Wednesday October 13, 2021 at 8:00pm 

*NOTE: All meetings are scheduled to begin at 8:00 pm and will be held in-person. Regular Board meetings will be held in the Cheryl Miller-Porter student center in Teaneck High School located at 100 Elizabeth Ave., Teaneck, NJ 07666.

These meeting will also be held virtually via the zoom link posted on the district website for each meeting. Public comments virtually can be made if you attend the meeting via the Zoom app and or the zoom link. Instructions on how to download the Zoom app can be found on the district website at www.teaneckschools.org

Thursday, October 14, 2021 at 8:00pm

Zoom Link with passcode 313142

no official agenda information available at press time  

**NOTE: The Planning Board Chair on September 30 said that the Board would have to wait until October 14 or 28 to find out the results of the review by the Planner (Elizabeth Leheny) now assigned the task of reviewing the Open Space and Recreation Plan (OSRP). 

Teaneck taxpayers have been slowly paying for this review (now assigned to a third Planner) since March of 2021 (6 months ago). Meanwhile Teaneck continues to be ineligible for some Green Acres funding for a third year because the Planning Board simply never approves the draft OSRP. (See OSRP article above in this issue.)

Also at the September 30 meeting, many residents from the Holy Name neighborhoods spoke after receiving a draft of a Master Plan amendment addressing Holy Name zoning and related issues. Most speakers were sharply critical of that draft. The Chair indicated that Holy Name issues might be on the agenda at this October 14 meeting.

**AND TAKE ACTION: Attend the Planning Board meeting. Demand to know exactly what the Board finds objectionable in the original Barbara Davis Open Space and Recreation Plan? Ask why it is not adopted? Why is there such a delay to the detriment of Teaneck residents?

And if you have issues with wth the Master Plan amendment dealing with Holy Name zoning as it has been drafted, speak up! 

Click here for this week’s Teaneck Library Events Calendar