Letter to the Editor
Dr. Henry Pruitt
Teaneck Township Council Election
2024
The Teaneck Council Election in November 2024 is a Quality of life Issue. Are we going to remain a diverse, peaceful, multicultural suburban oasis of human understanding or are we going to become an urban community with all of the other concerns that go along with that change?
I am supporting Harley, Khan, and Walser because I believe that they will do a better job in meeting the concerns and understanding the pain of all of the sub-groups in Teaneck. And will be more interested in maintaining a positive quality of life than the current council.
For (all)The People
Specific Concerns
1) The handling of the fallout from the mid-eastern war was a disaster. This mishandling leads to more than 15 protests requiring police presence and an over-time bill of $130,000. (This council cut the Forum budget by $25,000).
There were two resolutions presented at the Council meeting. One was conciliatory and the other was partisan. The partisan resolution was passed that night. Neighbors were pitted against each other over a far-off war that Teaneck will have no ability to determine the outcome of. Protesting high school students were issued death threats. The council’s job is to work with both sides of this or any other concern and maintain peace within our Teaneck community. They failed.
2) The current council’s main objective is development with little concern about the impact that it will have on local neighborhoods.
Alfred Avenue is a congested part of our community relative to access and egress of traffic in the neighborhood. They have given a pilot (tax abatement) to two developers who will create more than 400 hundred rental units (800 cars) creating traffic concerns in this community.
Teaneck Road in the State Street area has three completed developments and three proposed developments. This is in addition to the approximately five hundred units of preexisting apartments. This is approximately 1,300 units in the State Street area of Teaneck Road. This could mean that approximately 2,600 cars could enter Teaneck Road at this location and several hundred more between Liberty Road and Route 4. I am not aware of any effort to mitigate the traffic problem on Teaneck Road.
3) There is a belief that the sale and production of cannabis will enhance the quality of life in the Township of Teaneck. I disagree with this premise, especially when the plan for the first unit is to be on Alfred Avenue. This is already a congested area and the pressure to place the first establishment in this area does not smell right because of the multi-cultural nature of this community. If the Council insists on following through with the proposal, they should place the first establishment in West Englewood, Cedar Lane, or DeGraw Avenue. The state tax benefit is three times the municipal benefit. We must ask ourselves: Why are there so few communities in New Jersey selling recreational Cannabis?
4) The idea of a code enforcement officer has been ridiculed by this council. They call them harassment officers. This concern would be better understood if one of your neighbors turned his property into a junkyard or large commercial vehicles chose your street for overnight parking, or a neighbor turns his home into a rooming house in a residential neighborhood, or the trash from a commercial business blocks the sidewalk.
This community has long been cited for good government and multicultural sensitivity. The founding fathers built a suburban town with forethought in many areas.
Teaneck Road in Teaneck was built wider than the roads north and south of the township to better move traffic along.
Teaneck built four bridges over the railroad tracks in an effort to keep traffic flowing smoothly and permitting emergency vehicles to not be trapped waiting for a train to pass.
There are four fire stations spread out into different parts of town.
Teaneck has a full-time paid fire department and an adequate police department and DPW staff.
Teaneck has a large recreation facility. Many surrounding towns do not. It also has its own recycling facility.
It also does not suffer from significant traffic congestion except for north Teaneck Road that is suffering from overdevelopment.
Teaneck has significant open space and developed and undeveloped parkland.
Taxes may be high, but people moved here for the amenities.
Like other towns, sometimes things do go wrong. The township leadership over time has been able to mitigate these concerns.
The Desegregation of schools required heroic action by seven out of nine school board members (1964).
The defeat of blockbusting required a dedicated council to end it by taking the Summer Real Estate company to the New Jersey State Supreme Court (1969). Two community organizations: The Teaneck Political Assembly on the west and the North East Community Organization (NECO) on the east collaboratively participated in eliminating this practice from our community.
The Pannell incident also required committed council members to put this township back together after this horrific event. Some positive results were the integration of the police department and training of police officers to be more sensitive. An additional positive outcome was the building of the recreation center to enable more interaction between the different sub-communities within the township (1996).
Between 2002 and 2006, Teaneck brought the community together in an effort to become a model American Community. Different groups of people joined task force committees to discover a Pathway To The Future for the township of Teaneck.
The task forces studied the following components of the Teaneck community.
1) Search for Excellence in Education.
2) Community-Based Programs for Youth.
3) Representative and Responsive Government.
4) “Teaneck Connects” Community Relations.
5) Economic Development.
6) Teaneck Taxes.
When Mayor Kates left office this report was put on the shelf and no longer looked at.
In those times every effort was made to maintain the suburban nature of the community and to foster positive inter-group relations within the community.
The current council leadership seems to be turning this suburban town into an urban town.
I am supporting
Harley, Khan and Walser.
FOR THE PEOPLE
Henry Pruitt
September 23, 2024
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