City Belt

RIDING WHILE IRANIAN

My profiling experience on the PATH
By Roozbeh Shirazi

As always, City Belt welcomes commentaries from our readers. Got a story to tell? E-mail info@citybelt.org

I went out with my girlfriend a few nights ago to have a long a leisurely dinner with two of our friends in the Village. We met up with them a little late, but there were no hard feelings; despite the delay, we were in high sprits and happy to see each other. We asked each other how we had been, got caught up on the details of mutual friends' lives, and told a few satisfying stories over some good Japanese food and beer.

After dinner, we walked with them to the West 4th Street stop hugged and kissed our goodbyes, and walked up two blocks to the PATH station at 9th St. and 6th Ave. As we had inadvertently learned on our inbound journey, the PATH train was running on a holiday schedule because of President's Day, so we got settled in for a longer than normal wait.

We did not have to wait long; a few minutes later, the train arrived, sporting the two-tone blue and orange headlights signifying that it would stop in Hoboken that night as well, before continuing on to Journal Square to start its return to New York. We would be home in 20 minutes, not too bad as far as our trip was concerned -- but still too late to catch the beginning of a show we wanted to see that started at 9 pm.

MEDIA MASSAGE: THE WEEK IN MORONIC PRESS ABOUT NJ

Special Jersey City Edition
By Jon Whiten

Last week, I was in Washington, D.C., out to dinner with a friend and his co-worker. We were chit-chatting, talking weather, etc. You may recall there was a snowstorm. Indeed. Well, as they are wont to do, the DC-ites were complaining about not-all-that-Arctic temps and just generally being mezmerized by winter weather. At some point, I said something to the effect of: "You guys don't have it that bad. It's much worse in Jersey." To which the co-worker of said friend replied: "I think everything's much worse in Jersey, isn't it?"

REFORMING SCHOOL AID FORMULA WILL WAIT YET ANOTHER YEAR

ShapTalk: Guest Commentary
By Michael M. Shapiro

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More than half of New Jersey’s property taxes are used to finance public schools. For the past seven months, Governor Corzine and the State Legislature have attempted to reform the school aid formula that determines the amount of state funding each school district receives. For many years, the aid has disproportionately gone to underperforming urban school districts while suburban and rural districts receive little in the way of funding.

Unfortunately, because of political wrangling, plans to implement a new school aid formula for the upcoming fiscal year have been scrapped. Instead, hundreds of millions of dollars in Governor Corzine’s upcoming budget proposal will be pledged to boost state aid to our school districts. While increased funding is a welcome change, meaningful property tax reform will never occur unless our legislators are willing to tackle the unfair school assistance program.

CIVIL UNIONS: SEPARATE BUT EQUAL, AGAIN

While it may be a step forward in some ways, New Jersey's civil unions law also creates a 'gay ghetto'
By Jon Whiten

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"In respect of civil rights, common to all citizens, the Constitution of the United States does not, I think, permit any public authority to know the sexual orientation of those entitled to be protected in the enjoyment of such rights. Every true man has pride of sexual orientation, and under appropriate circumstances when the rights of others, his equals before the law, are not to be affected, it is his privilege to express such pride and to take such action based upon it as to him seems proper. But I deny that any legislative body or judicial tribunal may have regard to the sexual orientation of citizens when the civil rights of those citizens are not involved. Indeed, such legislation, as that here in question, is inconsistent not only with that equality of rights which pertains to citizenship, National and State, but with the personal liberty enjoyed by every one within the United States..."

If you're a law geek or a civil rights movement buff, that quote might sound familiar. It's a snippet of Justice John Marshall Harlan's dissent in the 1896 Supreme Court case of Plessy v. Ferguson, which upheld Southern segregation. All I've done is replace the word "race" with "sexual orientation."

Harlan's words ring true today in New Jersey, as our civil unions law is enacted.

Is there cause for celebration? Indeed, on some level there is, I won't deny that.

But in a state already beleagured by bureaucracy's complexity, the legislature has chosen to add another level, in the form of the "separate but equal" civil union law (PDF file), rather than just ponying up and altering the already existing civil marriage law.

Why not just allow any two people, same sex or opposite, to obtain a civil marriage in New Jersey? That would have been the least expensive, not to mention most just, thing to do.

HAS CORZINE GONE TOO FAR?

ShapTalk: Guest Commentary
By Michael M. Shapiro

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For the past decade, New Jersey's governors have slowly but steadily politicized the state's system of higher education, from appointing "cronies" to serve on the Board of UMDNJ to "finding" jobs in New Jersey Higher Education for fellow politicians. Governor Corzine’s recent intervention in the union organizing drive underway at Rutgers is just as troubling.

For the state’s chief executive to get so intricately involved in the day-to-day management of the state university is quite unusual in and of itself, but for the governor to actively promote this unionizing effort and go so far as to join the union's organizing rally is unacceptable. By exerting political pressure and influence on the president of Rutgers University, Richard McCormick, the governor has also secured a “neutrality” agreement that prohibits the university from taking a position on the possible unionization and allows employees to promote unionization during work hours. Has the Governor gone too far? 

END NEW JERSEY'S FRAGMENTATION

We need to throw off 'home rule,' share resources, and govern smartly if we want a future.
Guest Viewpoint by Jon Shure

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At first, these two news items might not seem to be connected. One is the controversy over Linden providing a $56,000 Cadillac for its mayor to use in traversing the 10.8-square mile Union County city. The other is that Lawrence Township in Mercer County is privatizing its ambulance corps because there aren’t enough volunteers to staff it.

What these have in common is that they are two more on the ever-growing list of examples showing how unsustainable New Jersey’s institutional arrangements have come to be. By that I mean this won’t remain a first-class state if we continue to divide ourselves into the tiniest possible pieces for providing local services and educating children. It’s time to expose this 18th century delivery system -- and end it.

New Jersey’s fetish (it’s really more that than the commonly used phrase “love affair”) for home rule is anachronistic and counter-productive. It narrows our horizons, costs us money and it isn’t a stretch to say that it often contributes to the corruption that plagues public life.

DEMOCRACY FLOURISHES IN THE SUNSHINE

ShapTalk: Guest Commentary
By Michael M. Shapiro

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Governing bodies throughout New Jersey, particularly on the municipal level, are abusing The Open Public Meetings Act (OPMA) and the Open Public Records Act (OPRA). The purpose of these Acts is to enhance democracy by allowing the public to see government in action rather than permitting the government to operate behind closed doors. While some municipalities televise their meetings or otherwise record them, many do neither -- so there is no true record of what occurs at most public sessions.

In addition, while minutes of these meetings are public documents under the law and must be available to its citizens, there is no requirement that the minutes be thorough or that they accurately reflect the meeting they are supposed to memorialize. Too often a citizen who requests documents, including resolutions and ordinances, is routinely given the runaround until he rescinds his request. In addition, there are few vehicles for the public to use when an OPRA request is denied by a governing body. Fortunately, change may be in the air.

MEDIA MASSAGE: CAN'T STOP, WON'T STOP?

Nj.com Misleads on Climate Change Study
By Jon Whiten

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The headlines screamed out, like manna from heaven for gas-guzzlers, McMansioners, and Bush administration "scientists" alike:

"Scientists: Global Warming Can't Be Stopped."

"Scientists Say There's No Way To Stop Climate Change."

This morning, the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released their widely-anticipated report on global climate change. The report (available here as PDF) found, among other things, that, "Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, as is now evident from observations of increases in global average air and ocean temperatures, widespread melting of snow and ice, and rising global mean sea level." The group of experts also said, with over 90 percent confidence, that human activity has been the main driver of said warming.

So what's New Jersey's largest news portal, home of the award-winning Star-Ledger, to do with such a drastic report?

If you guessed, "Misrepresent its findings," you're the big winner -- we've got a Hummer in the mail to you.

The Star-Ledger/Nj.com report, authored by Kitta MacPherson, leads by calling global warming "a runaway train that can't be stopped," before half-heartedly adding, "at least for a while." What the IPCC did in fact say was that we've fucked ourselves over for at least 30 more years of global warming as a result of our selfish actions, but, as the New York Times put it:

"The warming can be substantially blunted by prompt action."

So, it turns out there actually is a way -- many ways, actually -- to stop climate change. While my fellow City Belter Elizabeth recently took An Inconvient Truth to task for saying as much, there are personal actions that, if replicated on a grand scale (perhaps incentivized by government), can help stem the tide of global warming. But she was right to say that our ever-business-friendly federal government deserves most of the blame, and it is indeed killing us.

Rather than giving up, and encouraging everyone else to do so, perhaps Nj.com should help us understand how we can create change. Perhaps with an afternoon to put it all together, the report in tomorrow's paper will be a little less cynical -- and a little more correct.

MORE MEDIA MASSAGE

CHENEY: AN ABJECT FAILURE

These stickers, as well as 'Dick Cheney Will Fucking Shoot You' stickers, are available for under 2 bucks here.

ShapTalk: Guest Commentary
By Michael M. Shapiro

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As the Republican Party implodes over Iraq and Republican Senators are publicly expressing outrage over President Bush’s plan to increase by approximately 20,000 the number of American soldiers in Iraq, Vice President Cheney has remained firmly behind the President. That’s not surprising since Vice Presidents tend to be steadfast supporters of the Commander-in-Chief. What sets Cheney apart from the crowd is the degree to which he is intractable, arrogant and inflammatory. As a result, the Vice-President stands out as one of the most abject failures in recent political memory.

STEWPOT: TACO BE COLI

By Emma Pollin

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Taco Bell probably should have seen God’s wrath coming when it foisted Fourth Meal (“The Meal Between Dinner and Breakfast!”) on an obese nation. Vengeance came in the form of a deadly bacteria called E. coli 0157:H7. And it came, alas, to New Jersey. The South Plainfield Taco Bell was the epicenter of last month’s outbreak of E. coli poisoning. The restaurant was forced to close temporarily, as were many other franchises across the Northeast.

And guess who had a phenomenal fourth quarter? McDonald’s. Apparently "Inside the Bun" sounds like a nice, safe place to be these days.