State Senator Dana Redd, who is running for Mayor of Camden, made headlines this morning by taking exception to Steve Lonegan's call to bulldoze boarded up neighborhoods in Camden and other NJ cities to make them "parks and forests."
Forests in Camden. That's not quite the Hail Mary I expected from the Lonegan campaign.
Lonegan told the Courier-Post editorial board:
"Job growth and business growth are critical, but also to some extent downsizing the city is, too," Lonegan told the Courier-Post editorial board on Tuesday. "You have neighborhoods in Camden I've visited that are boarded-up. They should be leveled. Why not make them into parks or forests?"
Redd seizing this quote and making hay of it doesn't help Lonegan. She must have missed the memo that Corzine wants to boost Lonegan's chances in the last week of the GOP primary.
What happened to Lonegan's committment to home rule with Mayors and Council determining the destinies of their communities? How is Lonegan going to turn urban decay into parks and forests without a government program?
Redd gave the Christie campaign and the GOP another gift. According to the Courier-Post, She challenged Lonegan and other Republican contenders for governor to come up with viable solutions to the problems faced by Camden and other urban areas.
The GOP should take her up on that. Obviously Democratic "solutions" for urban areas have not worked. Conservative solutions to urban problems will work. Politically, the GOP should go after the Dems strong holds in Camden, Essex and Hudson. We can't fix New Jersey's economy if we keep wasting billions of dollars in our cities, and if we run against the wasteful spending in cities without offering workable solutions, everyone continues to lose.
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9 comments:
Excellent point Art. Republicans shouldn't write off these areas so quickly. Republicans can play the "we'll give you" game as good as the Democrats, only Republicans can give them opportunity and law and order - things the Democrats have taken away from the inner cities.
Why not create a Central Park in Camden? Reducing the size of the failing city sounds like a good idea. Hopefully that would also reduce the size of the NJ taxpayer funded subsidy that is wasted in Camden and other urban centers of failure throughout the sate.
While democratic solutions may not have worked, please point me in the direction of one idea for urban areas that a republican has come up. The only one I can think of is to make sure all affordable housing units are concentrated in cities rather than the suburbs. Wouldn't want those types coming into towns like Colts Neck and Rumson, would we.
"OCEAN CITY — On March 9, Republican Assembly candidates Mike Donohue and Frank Conrad said it is time to scrap COAH and apply the Governor’s Special Municipal Aid to urban housing. The New Jersey Council on Affordable Housing is beyond reform. "Scrap COAH and let the Corzine Democrats use Special Municipal Aid to construct affordable housing in urban areas where it is most needed. Get off the local taxpayers backs.”
Art, do you know of any? STS...do you know of any republicans with a clue? All I've heard is how things just aren't working and nothing on what they would do. Where is the plan? What would they do? Even Christie speaks in generalities with little specifics. He will fix it all, but how? You know I'm no fan of Corzine, but c'mon, where are the guts of the broad statements?
Years of Democratic Party rule has destroyed Camden, brought it to its knees.
"Camden, unlike other urban centers, was run by the GOP. It is notable that during its Republican era, Camden was a bustling center of commerce and prosperity. Industry was booming, the city's inhabitants lived in solid, safe neighborhoods with leafy parks. Its mayors were not serially perp-walked from office. Indeed, someone may once have asked, where in New Jersey are Democrats doing a better job governing than Republicans are doing in Camden and Camden County?"
Again, years of Democratic Party rule has destroyed Camden, brought it to its knees.
Read about it here!
Anyone who has heard Lonegan speak or read his book, Putting Taxpayers First, knows he is for home rule. While he may suggest one idea or another it always comes back to what the people want, home rule, and referendum questions.
Indeed, someone may once have asked, where in New Jersey are Democrats doing a better job governing than Republicans are doing in Camden and Camden County?"That would have been one smart someone. Good looking too.
here is a good question. Why are the people in these cities so attached to the dems? All they bring is ruin and coruption
Look how much better NY is since they stopped electing democratic Mayors. look how much Jersey city improved when it had a republican Mayor.
Republicans have proven we can improve cities yet the city dwellers still will not elect us?
Ok. so no one has answered my question...which was, what are specific ideas of how to deal with the problem of Camden, or any other problem of the urbanites. Not one idea. Only denigration and scorn. Please, come up with SOMETHING.
ambrosiajr said...
Ok. so no one has answered my question...which was, what are specific ideas of how to deal with the problem of Camden, or any other problem of the urbanites. Not one idea. Only denigration and scorn. Please, come up with SOMETHING.//
School vouchers are a start. Close all the public schools. No need for wasteful Abbott dollars. Parents of school aged children receive tuition vouchers to be used at qualifed private schools.
Strict enforcement of parental responsiblity and removing government incentives for having children out of wedlock.
Strict enforcement of code violations for all buildings, commercial, industrial and residential.
Create tax incentives for businesses to locate in the cities. Create incentives for residents and developers to purchase and rehab run down homes.
That's my start.
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