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LGBTQA and TEANECK PRIDE –

 So Much More Than Just A Flag-Raising



PUBLISHED BY TEANECK VOICES

6/6/2023

Contents:


LGBTQA & TEANECK PRIDE–Much More Than Just A Flag-Raising

This Week in Teaneck - June 6-11

Development Developments - What's Immediately Ahead

Still Waiting For.....


Announcements:


Church Street Legal Defense Fund - 6/10 to 11

Race Amity Day - 6/11

Master Plan Kick-off - 6/14

JUNETEENTH - 6/17 to 19

PRIDE Film Festival - 6/23 & 6/30


Contacting Teaneck Voices

LGBTQA and TEANECK PRIDE –

 So Much More Than Just A Flag-Raising

Teaneck has outdone itself with two emotion-filled and celebratory events within one week! Monday, May 29 we gathered on the Memorial Green to honor the thousands who gave their lives to preserve our democracy and our way of life. The theme of the day was HOME.



Sunday, June 4 we gathered at the Votee Park Flag Poles to celebrate and to embrace the many ways of life of all who call Teaneck HOME. It was an exceptional event -- a fitting finale to Memorial Day week to validate the true meaning of Democracy that all those we honored last Monday gave their lives for.


While this event started out a few short years ago as a modest flag-raising, it has blossomed into, as the Teaneck Pride website stated, “so much more than just a flag-raising.”

After a Pride Parade and before a family fun day in Votee park (at which Rev Chellie of Christ Episcopal Church promised to join the fun at the Bounce House) about 150 residents of Teaneck, with family and friends and many small children running and dancing through the crowd, gathered at the flag poles at the entry to the Sportsplex for the raising of the multi-colored Pride Flag. The “more” than a flag-raising, was a beautifully organized program of brief speeches (the Mayor; clergy from Christ Episcopal Church, Temple Emeth, St. Marks Episcopal Church; representatives from Rep. Gottheimer’s office and BCLA) retelling the painful history of the Pride movement beginning with the Stonewall Riots, recounting the challenges remaining today, and providing hilarious stand-up comedy (Leola Ladyland – more below!).


Probably the two most compelling speakers were the Keynote Speaker Jess Horan, a Dumont High School teacher and the indescribable Leola Ladyland, emcee.


Jess Horan has been a NJ Physical Education and Health teacher for the last 13 years. In 2020, Jess and her family were the target of hate and bias at her school. After this incident, and egregious lack of support, she dove into LGBTQIA+ rights in NJ Schools. Jess and her wife Ashleigh created THREADZ with help from the Dumont Diversity Committee. Threadz is a free teen clothing event where kids can shop for clothing that   feels right for them – for free with free alterations. In 2021, she became active with Bergen County LGBTQ Alliance & is an advisor for the Rainbow Cafe in Cresskill,

Leola Ladyland is the creation of writer, actor, comic Will Nolan who lives in New Jersey with his husband and teenage son. Through the years Nolan has written, produced, and directed evenings of comic theater performances, and about a decade ago this gender-bending persona (Leola) came forth from his pen.


 From an interview with Will Nolan conducted by Baristanet:

          

 Will Nolan: Leola was born out of the idea that everyone, regardless of age, is still striving for some sort of acceptance in their life. Leola came out at 70 and now, at 72, is finding her way in a new gay world. Her closing mantra at every appearance is: Be proud. Be love. Be you. 


Leola gets to say all the stuff I’m too shy to say. I’ve always been more of an introvert but playing Leola, who is really the ultimate extrovert, has forced me to be more social and connect with people. She’s inappropriate, embarrassing, completely un-PC, and yet full of heart and truly believes in the goodness of all folks.

This Week in Teaneck - June 6-11, 2023

·       Teaneck Board of Education Annual Retreat - June 6, 2023 – Postponed until June12

 

·       Planning Board Special Meeting (PB) – June 6, 2023 at 8:00 pm in-person only in MP-1 at the Rodda Center. Agenda found by clicking the meeting itself on the Township calendar Click Here.

           

Whether or not the meeting  actually takes place is dependent on  whether mediation of the litigation concerning the HNMC hospital zone       expansion (Ordinance 22-2022) has been successfully settled. 

The Planning Board’s short 5/31/2023 meeting consisted of only the agreement to continue the long-running Holy Name site plans hearing to the 6/6 and 6/22 scheduled meetings in the event a mediation settlement had not been achieved

 

·       Municipal Open Space Trust Committee (MOST) scheduled on the website for June 7, 2023 at 6:30 pm. The town website description of this meeting currently consists of the word “zoom”. Neither access information nor agenda information nor prior meeting minutes are posted as is required of the MOST Board’s Chair by Ordinance 6-2023. 


If this information becomes available before the scheduled meeting, Teaneck Voices will post it on its website Click Here.

 

·       Youth Advisory Board (YAB) – June 7, 2023 at 7:00 pm at the Rodda Center

 

·       Parks, Playgrounds and Recreation Advisory Board (PPRAB) – July 7, 2023 at 7:30 pm. As of 6/6 neither access information nor agenda information nor prior meeting minutes are provided as is required to be posted by the PPRAB’s Chair by Ordinance 6-2023. 


If this information becomes available before the scheduled meeting, Teaneck Voices will post it on its website Click Here.

 

·        Teaneck Board of Education Workshop Meeting – June 7, 2023 at 8:00 pm – virtual only. For the Zoom link Click Here The Agenda is still to be posted. If this agenda information becomes available before the scheduled meeting, Teaneck Voices will post it on Voices website Click Here.

  

·       Planning Board Regular MeetingJune 8, 2023 at 8:00 pm In-person only in MP-1 of the Rodda Center. Agenda information on the Township website is at Click Here. It calls for a regular PB meeting addressing, among other matters, the long delayed Open Space and Recreation Plan (OSRP) and appointment of a new Board attorney but lists no Holy Name issues. Readers should, then, disregard what the website calendar says about the 6/8 agenda (Click Here) which wrongly states that the Holy Name site plans will be the lead agenda item.

Development Developments -

What's Immediately Ahead

Looking forward, the Township has announced two public meetings in June that will be of great interest to all Teaneck residents who believe that emerging land use/development decisions will determine what it is that our township will value and become.


1) The first - just 8 days away - is the "all are welcome" kickoff meeting of the long-delayed initiative to shape the first major rewrite of the Township's Master Plan since 2007 . It will occur in the Library Auditorium beginning at 7:00 pm on Wednesday, June 14 - one night later than the next Council meeting. (6/13).


The Town says it would prefer residents to come to the meeting in person; But it is to also be a hybrid meeting. However, the official meeting flyer has not yet provided adequate virtual access information for what it describes as "limited virtual option". Voices reporters are working with the Clerk's office to obtain that information - and we will publish it in our next edition.


Teaneck Voices hopes that the Town's announcement reflects leadership's desire to engage us all: It says: "We want to hear voices from every corner of the community - now is your chance to shape the future of Teaneck. " (See the official flyer in our Announcement section this edition.)


2) The second announced development meeting is described on the website as an American Legion Drive Redevelopment Community Meeting which is to occur at 7:00 pm June 28 and will also be in the Teaneck Library Auditorium.


It is not yet clear what Teaneck entity has scheduled this meeting and who will be in attendance and presenting. Voices is hoping that the genesis and organizational authority for the meeting will be clarified at Council on June 13.


Of great concern to some Voices readers is the announcement just made on a private website by Councilman Schwartz on 6/5 that the "designated developer" for this controversial AINR will be participating. (See below) Voices knows of no decision to designate a developer and that the only AINR decision made thus far was to identify and qualify lots in the American Legion area as an Area in Need of Redevelopment (AINR), an action that took place in the Spring 2021. Stand-by on this one .



Still Waiting For ...

In our prior Voices edition, we began a feature entitled

Still Waiting....


  • We identified two issues then - and are sorry to report that there is no new information about either of them this week



1)   Still Waiting for a redesigned website; and

2)   Still Waiting for a 2023 User-Friendly Budget.

(You can check out our discussion of them both by Clicking Here - and going to the Still Waiting... article)


To that list we will add one more this week. We are Still Waiting for the Township Clerk to assure that when either of our land use boards hold meetings that are conducted virtually or are videotaped that those videos then are immediately placed on the Town website.


Last Thursday (6/1) the Board of Adjustment met for nearly 5 hours and the hearings it conducted for two of the applications were enormously interesting and instructive. One involved what a resident whose home is at a corner should be allowed in fencing construction - its height, location, and material. That hearing has implications for residents at hundreds of town intersections.


The other hearing involved a mixed-use developer's request to add health service provider uses to its development that currently allows only retail establishments that do not include health services. The issue is arising in nearly all of our retail districts.


As each case proceeded it became clear that the degree and nature of the applicants requests for approval of variances were affected (directly or indirectly) by recent township zoning changes which the Board of Adjustment needed to understand in order to evaluate whether the applicant's request should be approved.


Voices reporters had attended (by zoom) the entire meeting and went to review the videotape in order to provide our readers with short videos on the salient discussion from each hearing.


But unfortunately, there was no tape in the assigned "video" location on the website. Multiple calls to the Clerk's office but 5+ days later there is still no posting of that video. Somehow it is not yet a real priority to provide our residents with access to the ongoing process of how our land use boards relate our land use preferences to our zoning and then accommodate anomalies with zoning adjustments (variances).

As Voices has previously noted, we are too often without key videos apparently due to technical issues. The absence of a successful video of the recent Development Forum is a case in point. But that is apparently not the issue in this case. We hope we will not be Still Waiting for this B of A video by next week.


ANNOUNCEMENTS

Contacting Teaneck Voices


By Email: teaneckvoices@gmail.com

By Phone: 201-214-4937

By USPS Mail: Teaneck Voices, PO Box 873. at 1673 Palisade Ave. 07666

Teaneck Voices' Website is www.teaneckvoices.com


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