NJ Spotlight, Feb. 27, 2014

By COLLEEN O’DEA

Missed deadline for new COAH quotas sets stage for legal showdown as fair-housing and environmental advocates cry foul

The Christie administration has defied the state Supreme Court’s order that new affordable-housing quotas be put in place by yesterday’s deadline, setting the stage for a battle over the rules in appellate court next week.

The inaction by the NJ Council on Affordable Housing was not completely surprising, given Gov. Chris Christie’s attempts to stop the body from doing any work throughout his first term and his animosity toward the court.

But flouting an order from the state’s highest court is nevertheless significant.

"Ignoring a court order is serious business," said Kevin Walsh, the Fair Share Housing Center attorney who has been fighting for years to get COAH back up and functioning to boost the state’s affordable housing stock. "This is a breach of the basic rules by which our government functions."

Jeff Tittle, head of the New Jersey chapter of the Sierra Club, went further, saying the lack of compliance "again shows the arrogance and abuse of power of the Christie administration."

Neither the Department of Community Affairs, in which COAH is located, nor Christie’s office returned requests for comment.

The state acknowledged the deadline in papers the attorney general filed in the Appellate Division of Superior Court in advance of next Wednesday’s hearing on Fair Share’s motion asking the court to appoint a special master to do the work the state has refused to do.

In its papers, the state does not argue with the date or the requirement, but merely states that "any claim that COAH is acting in violation of that (Feb. 26) deadline must be brought before the Supreme Court."

Last September, the Supreme Court struck down the state’s most recent affordable- housing regulations and, barring any legislative action, gave COAH five months to establish new quotas using a method similar to the one it had used in the 1980s and 1990s to ensure that municipalities provide their fair share of low- and moderate-income housing.

In its decision, the highest court affirmed a nearly three-year old appellate decision that had invalidated COAH’s third-round rules, which were based on future municipal growth.

Despite the order, COAH has not met once since that decision was handed down. In fact, it has only met once in the last several years — despite another Supreme Court ruling that Christie had no right to dismantle the council — and that was last May, when the administration was seeking to take some $160 million in municipal affordable housing funds to help balance the state budget.

Anticipating that the administration would not act by the deadline, Fair Share filed a motion in the appellate division two months ago, seeking enforcement of the Supreme Court order.

Walsh noted that state agency rules must be proposed, published for public comment, and then adopted by a state agency, a process that takes at minimum three months. COAH has not taken even the first step in that process. He said the agency’s attorney told the Supreme Court at oral argument that it would take 30 days to prepare regulations.

"The Christie Administration is blocking thousands of new homes from moving forward — which is especially critical after Hurricane Sandy destroyed so many houses and made housing even more expensive in New Jersey," Walsh said

Tittle expressed concern that since there are currently no valid rules governing affordable housing in the state, builders could go to court to seek permission to build high-density complexes that include lower-cost units and higher-priced ones to help offset the builders’ costs.

“The failure of the Christie administration to adopt appropriate and legal third round rules for COAH puts every town in New Jersey in jeopardy," he said. "This is a cynical game where he on one hand attacks COAH, but at the same time wants to open New Jersey to developer lawsuits … Since there are no rules in place, the courts could strike down every COAH plan that has been adopted or just allow for builder remedy lawsuits for every town in the state. Developers can declare open season in every town in New Jersey.”

Grist, Feb. 26, 2014

By Sarah Laskow

Oh COME ON, New Jersey! I want to be able to defend you against haters — really, I do. But you gotta help me out here. For starters, maybe you could NOT do the thing where you clean up a toxic waste site and then decide to dump more toxic waste in the same place, because it’ll be profitable for people with political connections.

Would that be so hard?

Apparently so. As Michael Powell reports in the New York Times, Jersey is allowing a company called Soil Safe to build 29-foot mound of petroleum-contaminated dirt on a site that was once a dumping ground for cyanide-contaminated sludge. This is happening against the advice of environmental experts, who are worried that this mound could wash away into the Rahway River.

Why is it happening? Powell offers this explanation:

The county political boss here is a Democrat, State Senator Bob Smith. He holds two day jobs: He is chairman of the Senate environment committee, and he oversees a politically connected private law practice. He represented Soil Safe at a hearing before an elected county board, which he more or less dominates through careful oiling of well-financed political action committees.

Then there is Paul Weiner, one of the three owners of this contaminated plot of swampland. He is the law partner of State Senator Ray Lesniak, a Democrat, who more or less runs politics in neighboring Union County. Soil Safe now pays the owners of this land $75,000 a month in rent; if the deal goes through, it promises the owners many millions of dollars in tipping fees.

Soil Safe also, Powell reports, has connections to the president of New Jersey’s state senate.

To be fair, it’s probably better to dump contaminated soil on a remediated site than a pristine one. (Which, yes, haters, there are pristine places in New Jersey.) And it’s not like we’re going to find a GOOD place for oil-soaked dirt. But it’s hard to trust that this outcome was the best one, given the amount of politicking it seemed to involve.

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Source: In Plan to Dump Contaminated Soil, Classic New Jersey Politics Emerge, The New York Times.
Sarah Laskow is a reporter based in New York City who covers environment, energy, and sustainability issues, among other things.

Alternet, Feb. 27, 2014

by Monique W. Morris, The New Press

The numbers illustrate the unfinished business in our efforts to establish justice for all.

The following is an adapted excerpt from Black Stats: African Americans by the Numbers in the Twenty-First Century. Copyright © 2014 by Monique W. Morris. Reprinted with permission of The New Press, New York, NY.

Black Stats: African Americans by the Numbers in the Twenty-First Century is intended to serve as a resource for those looking to better understand contemporary issues in Black America. The texture of Black America’s lived experiences is complex, and therefore reflects a story that cannot be told by quantitative data alone. However, the numbers help us to situate our discussions. They help us ground and focus our conversations such that we can generate informed responses to the conditions of Black America.

The statistics below represent a small snapshot of what is included in the book. While there are also stats in the book that demonstrate significant progress over the past few decades, the numbers below reflect that there is still unfinished business in our efforts to establish a foundation of dignity, liberty and justice for all.

EDUCATION

1) 42 percent of Black children are educated in all high-poverty schools (both elementary and secondary). By comparison: 38 percent of Latino children are educated in high-poverty schools, 31 percent of Native American children are educated in high-poverty schools, 15 percent of Pacific Islander and Asian children are educated in high-poverty schools, and 6 percent of White children are educated in high-poverty schools.

2) Black youth make up 16 percent of public school students and 9 percent of private school students in grades K–12 nationwide but account for: 35 percent of in-school suspensions, 35 percent of those who experience one out-of school suspension, 46 percent of those who experience multiple out-of-school suspensions, and 39 percent of those who are expelled.

3) The unemployment rate for Black high school dropouts is 47 percent. By comparison, the unemployment rate for White high school dropouts is 26 percent.

ENVIRONMENT

4) 78 percent of Black Americans live within 30 miles of a coal-fired power plant, compared with 56 percent of White Americans.

5) African Americans are 20 percent more likely than Whites to have asthma, a condition that is exacerbated by air pollution.

6) Black Americans cause one-eighth the amount of global warming pollution caused by White Americans.

7) Hurricane Katrina shrank the Black population in New Orleans by 57 percent.

ENTERTAINMENT & SPORTS

8) Black writers are underrepresented as television writers by a factor of 2 to 1, compared with the percentage of Black people in the U.S. general population.

9) Black actors have received only 4 percent of the Oscars for best acting since 1929.

10) Although African Americans make up just 67 percent of the players in the NFL, Black players received 92 percent of the unsportsmanlike conduct penalties during the 2010–11 season—a statistic that sociologists believe may be linked to a negative reaction to “cockiness” or “self-promotion” when demonstrated by a Black player.

HEALTH

11) Black mothers are more than twice as likely as White mothers to experience the death of a baby within the first 28 days of the infant’s life.

12) African Americans make up 4 percent of all adults reporting serious psychological distress, but that percentage doubles for African Americans below the poverty line.

13) Most of the nation’s worst food deserts are disproportionately located in cities with a high percentage of Black Americans. The nine worst food deserts are located in the following cities (percent African American): New Orleans (60 percent), Chicago (33 percent, Atlanta (54 percent), Memphis (63 percent), Minneapolis (19 percent), San Francisco, in the historically Black communities Bayview, Hunters Point, and Visitacion Valley (33 percent and 13, respectively), Detroit (83 percent),New York City (26 percent), Camden, New Jersey (48 percent)

JUSTICE

14) Only 14 percent of Black Americans have a great deal of confidence in local police officers to treat Black and White Americans equally, compared with 38 percent of Whites.

15) Nationwide, 16 percent of persons under the age of 18 are Black, and 32 percent of total juvenile arrests are of Black youth.

16) 55 percent of Black Americans report avoiding certain places or neighborhoods because of a concern over crime, compared with 46 percent of White Americans.

17) Wages grow at a 21 percent slower rate for Black formerly incarcerated people than for White formerly incarcerated people.

18) The rate of drug use among Black people ages 12 and older is 10 percent, yet Black people account for 32 percent of those arrested for “drug abuse violations” in the United States.

MONEY & JOBS

19) The unemployment rate for African Americans with a four-year college degree is 8 percent, almost double the unemployment rate for similarly educated Whites (4.5 percent).

20) The current Black real median household income is 16.8 percent lower than its pre-2001 recession peak.

21) Although Black (including multiracial Black) people make up just 14 percent of the U.S. population, 37 percent of people who are homeless are Black.

22) African Americans are nearly twice as likely as all Americans to have been affected by the mortgage lending crisis; up to one-quarter of all African Americans who purchased a home in the years leading up to the 2008 recession may ultimately lose it.

POLITICS, VOTING, CIVIL ENGAGEMENT

23) African Americans compose 8 percent of state legislators nationwide, a figure almost unchanged since 1992, when 7 percent of state legislators were Black.

24) 25 percent of elderly African American voters (compared with 8 percent of elderly Whites) do not possess the identification that would be required under new photo-ID laws introduced in 40 states before the 2012 election.

25) One in every 13 African Americans of voting age is disenfranchised because of a felony conviction, a rate more than four times greater than the rate for the rest of the U.S. population.