LSP For All Executive Director Arnold Stovell On Saturday’s LSP Rally: If Advocates Truly Care About Community They’d Demand A Full Clean-Up
JERSEY CITY, NJ – Liberty State Park For All Executive Director Arnold Stovell issued the following statement regarding Saturday’s rally at Liberty State Park:
“If the advocates at today’s rally are truly concerned about the future of Liberty State Park and the community that surrounds it, they should demand the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection conduct a full clean-up, not a cover-up, of the contamination in the Park. Capping is a minimum standard. Forty years ago the promise of the Park included recreational facilities and activities. Now the DEP is colluding with Friends of Liberty State Park (FLSP) to prevent a full-cleanup. These conservatives are not conservators.
“I am sure there will be talk today of how Park advocates have always supported the community. I am sure they have been there with money or support when you least expected it. But why are they working to silence the community? How is it their intention to work with the community when both organizations have already decided our fate? Your ‘Friends-ship’ should not demand your loyalty before your family. The FLSP are having a rally to turn away from agreements vetted, negotiated and agreed upon by diverse representatives. They will convince you to agree with them rather than work to listen to you. They want a place to watch birds and ride bikes. They want to do the least they can to keep the park as they like it – without communities of color actively using their park and upsetting the assortment of white people that pass through the park – from Barbecue Becky’s to Cop-calling Amy’s. Where is their equal concern for Wards A & F residents’ comfort?
“Jersey City and the state of New Jersey deserve better than that. We deserve real arbiters and advocates working to meet the needs of the community and not the politics of a morally bankrupt DEP. Miraculously, neither the DEP nor the FLSP knew anything about a Master Plan documented in 1979. If their sound bites of including Black and brown residents in decision-making were sincere, they would have told the truth that plans were already made. For years they didn’t say a word about any of this. The DEP tried to wait out their accountability. Now the conservative hosts will rally support around the shiny new proposed DEP plan, a watered-down minimal standard plan. Revamped from the Chris Christie administration it still leaves the park contaminated. Is that the response of someone supposedly caring about nature or your community?
“The Liberty State Park Protection Act does not address contamination, but double-talks into it being ignored. The DEP has changed the tone of its inherent racism by enlisting conservatives, pretending to be conservators. No naturalist would accept partial contamination clean-ups. Were this park in a predominantly white neighborhood, capping public spaces would not even be a consideration. Why do our ‘Friends’ believe Wards A & F residents don’t warrant equal protection for their children? It is Liberty State Park, not Liberty State Preserve. The DEP’s plan does not provide for a full clean-up and has been created without input from Jersey City’s communities of color. Watch, listen, and recognize the same institutional racism we have dealt with for more than 400 years.”
The Liberty State Park For All Coalition was created to increase awareness about the broken promises of Liberty State Park and to ensure the community has a voice on the decisions around the Park. The Coalition wants a plan that will fully clean-up Liberty State Park and create recreational, cultural and economic opportunities and accessibility for everyone. Learn more about the Coalition at https://libertystateparkforall.com/. Follow us on Twitter @lspnj4all and Instagram libertystateparkforall and like us on Facebook at Facebook.com/LIBERTYSTATEPARKFORALL. |
