NEWSFLASH - Greg Lembrich and Nancy Adams win Primary! Jerry Concedes

Australia and other countries similarly require electoral participation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compulsory_voting#Current_use_by_countries

Ok.............thanks for the link. Feel better about the Motherland now. Apparently the law

is on the books but not really enforced...like so many things over there.

I love that idea.

ArchBroad said:
I love that idea.

So do I, but imagine the resistance it would meet in this country! I don't even dare propose it.

You folks in Maplewood have it great. You should realize it. There are more people volunteering for the job than seats, and it's a huge, thankless job. Without knowing anything about Greg, chances are he'll turn out to be very competent. With less experience than the old timers, he will be less effective in the first year or so, but in time, he will come up to speed.

I have a lot of respect for all who have served on the TC, even though they have had majorly opposing views and styles.

You complain about transparency, and I guess you should, because it can always be improved, but you have the most transparent government I have ever seen. The TC members are always available, and they respond.

I have always call Tom the conscience of MOL. I think to expand a little on his last comment. This is one great Town. I knew it 35 years ago when we were first drawn here in search of a good educational system for our little girl. I even sensed it years earlier when I visited the home of my college room mate on Van Ness Terrace.

I knew it through years of Republican governed stability under Mayor Grasmere and I knew it even more as the New Yorkers and Brooklyn people moved in and brought their liberal dem politics and slightly funny accents.

I have lived most of my adult life here. I am determined that when the grim reaper finally throws a punch I can not duck it will be right here in Maplewood.

My family always thought I was a little strange.........actually stranger than they ever knew

but I have been having affair with this town. And will never regret it.

ArchBroad said:
I love that idea.

The Greek one or the Australian one?

BTW if you don't know this, there are actually Australians posting on MOL from Down Under.

Mr. Lembrich has participated in voter registration drives. I wonder if he would be willing to introduce a Town Ordinance imposing a fine on anyone who doesn't vote.

requiring people to vote or face some "fill in the blank" consequence...

I think there should be a"none of the above" choice. If "none of the above" receives a majority of votes than the respective parties have to go back and offer another choice to the voters.

Come to think of it, Jerry was one of a few reasons I chose Maplewood. He and I worked down the hall from each other at Bell Labs. In 1999 or so, he told us he was going to be in a play there (with The Strollers), so I went. It was my second time there, and I got there early and ate alone in Arturos and looked out onto Maplewood Avenue. I thought to myself, what a nice place to live this would be. Four years later, I moved in, in 2003. The play was fun, too.

In 2009, I became a bicycle activist, and a friend and I co-founded the South Orange Maplewood Bicycle Coalition (now defunct, as we ran out of energy). I met with Jerry (at the bar at Coda) to ask his advice on getting the town's help. He gave me valuable advice, and at the same time, I heard stories about how people misunderstand what his job is like on the TC. It's a ton of work, and I can't imagine having the energy to perform it so lovingly and faithfully. Yet Jerry does it, and others do it. As I said before, you have more candidates than spots, and it's a job that can easily take 40 hours a week, and it isn't even paid.

There's another theory out there (Cass Sunstein?) that apathy in (not) voting promotes stable governance.

I don't know how people can do the job of TC member and keep their good humor the way Jerry does. Yes it's hard work and it's thankless most of the time, but what gets me is how many people toss around innuendo and hints implying that the TC members are shady or crooked. It's one thing to have people complain because they disagree with you. But it's something else when they impugn your integrity.

Tom,

Just for that Jerry deserved re-election.

ml1 said:
. . . what gets me is how many people toss around innuendo and hints implying that the TC members are shady or crooked . . .

Which was the subliminal message of the Lembrich campaign's theme that Jerry voted to give the developer a $300,000-plus "sweetheart deal."

Paul............it wasn't very subliminal if the general public is aware of the fact. I think the feeling among the public is that the entire project is a "sweet heart deal". Allow a purchase price of the property that is substantially less then market value........and I have heard realtors quote that.......then make sure the contractor gets his PILOT. It is a similar situation to the Station House where the town received a pittance of the value of the land where once stood the old Police Station.

Subtract the cost which would be given to the builder for demolition of the Post Office ...........asbestos

removal, which in this case would be a one day project and removal of the rubble and the amount

of monies the Township would receive is super close to the deficit in the budget for the year.

A one time influx and the monies are gone.

Sounds like the Republican habit of borrowing against the future and forgetting that eventually you must pay the piper.

If the township hosts an RFP for a pretty sizable program and developers bid and they don't bid what some realtor thinks the land is worth, then the land is not really worth what they thought.

Unless you believe there is an extremely complex conspiracy happening under the noses of a bunch of TC members that everyone just hailed as being spectacular people. Then of course, maybe it could happen.

I'd like to be a little more positive about it and just believe maybe it's not really worth $1.8M with all the things that have to be done as part of the project.

I could be wrong. Maybe Jimmy Hoffa is buried here instead of in the Meadowlands.

author said:
Paul............it wasn't very subliminal if the general public is aware of the fact. I think the feeling among the public is that the entire project is a "sweet heart deal". Allow a purchase price of the property that is substantially less then market value........and I have heard realtors quote that.......then make sure the contractor gets his PILOT. It is a similar situation to the Station House where the town received a pittance of the value of the land where once stood the old Police Station.
Subtract the cost which would be given to the builder for demolition of the Post Office ...........asbestos
removal, which in this case would be a one day project and removal of the rubble and the amount
of monies the Township would receive is super close to the deficit in the budget for the year.
A one time influx and the monies are gone.
Sounds like the Republican habit of borrowing against the future and forgetting that eventually you must pay the piper.

Accusing Jerry of voting for a "sweetheart" deal without informing the public that the deal provides more revenue to Maplewood than if normal taxes were applied is misleading and suggests (this is the subliminal part) that Jerry is "crooked" or "shady" per Ml1's post.

Paul...........I assume you are referring to the PILOT. I have seen that argument posted from the back , front and middle. Frankly my head is spinning . Now matter what the final truth is I would think the TC has an obligation to explain in simple terms exactly what the PILOT does.

Too many intelligent people, and I am not counting myself as one of them, have presented cogent arguments that one way or the other the Township loses money. Maybe they are wrong but that is largely the consensus of the people. Greg did not get the number of votes he garnered simply by giving out

cookies...........and I never got one.

I don't know in what forum it could be done but I think someone from the Township Administration

should stand up in public next to a black board if they still use them and give a " this is a football " talk

And when he is done give me my cookie.

Because I just went by it, I wonder why no one ever mentions the large new TOD building being constructed next to the Orange station when we discuss our project? It's a good floor taller and much much closer to the train, the street, etc. No idea what finish quality it will be. Thoughts?

Today's News-Record:

author said:
Paul...........I assume you are referring to the PILOT. I have seen that argument posted from the back , front and middle. Frankly my head is spinning . Now matter what the final truth is I would think the TC has an obligation to explain in simple terms exactly what the PILOT does.
Too many intelligent people, and I am not counting myself as one of them, have presented cogent arguments that one way or the other the Township loses money. Maybe they are wrong but that is largely the consensus of the people. Greg did not get the number of votes he garnered simply by giving out
cookies...........and I never got one.
I don't know in what forum it could be done but I think someone from the Township Administration
should stand up in public next to a black board if they still use them and give a " this is a football " talk
And when he is done give me my cookie.

Yes, it is complicated. And that's a big reason why the Lembrich campaign was misleading.

Well I think the fault has to go at least partially to the TC. If the populace was confused and Greg played upon that confusion.......who else should try to explain things. I think I did see Mr. Ryan make one or two attempts in that direction but apparently they did not work.

I frankly also don't understand the seemingly split vote with Ms Adams. How does one team member receive hundreds of more votes than the other?

She was not the incumbent. When there is a whole lot of sentiment that the current admin is flawed (right or wrong), the vote count makes a lot of sense.

And one scenario leads to another..........What would have been the outcome of a kathy Leventhal and Jerry Ryan ticket.? We will never know.

Only guessing but I imagine most folks believe that what works in the more urban Orange downtown isn't consistent with the quaint Maplewood village. Kind of ironic, as the Orange Public Library near the building you reference was designed by McKim, Mead & White and is an actual national historic landmark. I imagine its basement is more interesting than anything in the Maplewood P.O. building.

ArchBroad said:
Because I just went by it, I wonder why no one ever mentions the large new TOD building being constructed next to the Orange station when we discuss our project? It's a good floor taller and much much closer to the train, the street, etc. No idea what finish quality it will be. Thoughts?

The Orange Public Library is a grand old building. Have used their reference areas a few times. Apparently,

I guess because of budgetary reasons the interior needs a lot of work to restore its former grandeur.

Not a good commentary that our libraries are so low on the priority list for funds.

Interesting. When you look at the list of NJ national landmarks, South Orange, whose village is arguably not as quaint as Maplewood's, has three listings, while Maplewood only has one (and it's not the post office, or the bank, or Village Coffee).

There's a lot of complaining about how much we are selling the land for. I just did a completely unscientific spreadsheet, comparing our program and land sales price to the program and sales price (plus incentives) of the South Orange Third and Valley project.

Third and Valley has 214 units, 513 parking spaces and 3,000sf of retail. I attributed 1,200sf per apartment and 375sf per parking space to get a total of 410,375 sf. With their $7M sales price, plus $1.1M grant to the rescue squad, that comes out to $17.87 per developable square foot (note, if their grant was deducted from the $7M, the land price was $13.00 per developable square foot)

Post House has 20 units, 32 parking spaces (not counting offsite they are paying for) and 9,000sf of retail. Same attributions even though the parking costs would be cheaper since half of them are exterior. With a 950,000 land price (after removing the incentives), that comes out to $21.11 per developable square foot. After the PILOT reduces the price to what some may say is $679,000, that reduces to $15.09 per developable square foot.

That seems to be nearly identical to the south orange site. I admit my numbers on both may be off, but I tried to be equally off on all accounts just to do the comparison without all the real data in front of me.

What steal, again?

What is your opinion of that TOD, @ArchBroad

ArchBroad said:
Because I just went by it, I wonder why no one ever mentions the large new TOD building being constructed next to the Orange station when we discuss our project? It's a good floor taller and much much closer to the train, the street, etc. No idea what finish quality it will be. Thoughts?

I couldn't find a site plan or rendering to reference, but it seems too close to the train, and a floor or two too tall, at least from the tracks. And the form feels odd.

ArchBroad said:
I couldn't find a site plan or rendering to reference, but it seems too close to the train, and a floor or two too tall, at least from the tracks. And the form feels odd.

I couldn't agree more, even though in general I believe that TOD grants can be good for encouraging improvement in Orange, just as HANDS has done in Orange with the Hat District - Valley Arts. And even though I do not feel it is appropriate for Maplewood, it can work elsewhere.

One major issue for me is the sight lines to the train stations themselves. Part of the charm of these towns along the "milk run" line is that the stations and vicinity have a certain character. They have typically always had breathing room around them, plazas, pedestrian pathways, and open access (train depot type areas) (even though as the years have gone by there is more parking) where one can have a classic sweeping view of the train pulling in along the tracks, the stations, and roofed waiting areas.

When these stations get boxed in with these low or mid rise developments almost literally on top of them, like the one growing in Orange (and others), those sight lines and that view is gone....one cannot experience the full gestalt of the train and its meaning to the town.

A good example is Brick Church, which has many mid rise buildings within walking distance of the station. But they are a good distance away so the train and station can be fully perceived and the buildings, though large, cannot then dwarf the train like an HO set.

A bad example is what is happening is Orange, but especially South Orange, where you really cannot see the station any more at all as it is totally boxed in by the mid-rise buildings and that wall (!!) of the PAC, like the old days of the elevated trains in NYC. There is a reason the ELs were moved underground!