By Steve Janoski
Every time I see the heaping monstrosity rising from the flank of Route 3, I can’t help but shake my head.
That massive, gaudy orange-and-blue ulcer of a mall has come to symbolize everything that is wrong with the Garden State, from the officials who allowed the hugely inappropriate project to be recklessly built on environmentally sensitive land to the budget woes and overruns in time and money that have subsequently occurred.
It will look hideous once it’s done, just another manmade eyesore climbing out of the swampy Meadowlands, desperately being dragged to "completion" by its newest developer, the Triple Five Group.
Always having been much more of a naturalist than a shopper, I’ve had nothing but disdain for the project since it was announced back in 2003. I do realize what state I live in, though, and I knew there was little hope of trying to stop such a thing from being built.
But it just keeps getting worse and more bizarre, as the The Record reported on June 14 that the developer has asked for permission to strip yet another five acres of wetlands to construct a new indoor amusement and (ironically) water park on the site.
As that request is processed and reviewed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the article states, Triple Five is trying to finalize the $2 billion in financing necessary to complete the $3.7 billion mall.
With so much of Xanadu — or, as it’s called for the time being, the "American Dream Meadowlands Project" — already built, another five acres might not seem like much. And truthfully, it isn’t.
But by now, it’s just out of spite that I’m hoping that the environmental permits are rejected and that maybe the developer will be told to try and open the mall for a day or two before planning an expansion on a project that should have never been allowed in the first place.
As a reporter, I’m acutely aware of the constant battle between environmentalists and developers and the need for both open space and ratables. And, even though I tend to lean toward the green side (as in trees, not money), I understand that a balance must be struck.
But the Meadowlands has seen enough damage on our account.
It took us centuries to realize that the swamp was a little bit more than an expendable wasteland, a brackish tidal estuary where garbage and bodies and toxic waste could be dumped with little effect on the ecosystem.
And everything has been dumped there over the years. Even pieces of London rubble ended up in our marshy plain when, after the Battle of Britain reduced much of that city, sections of concrete were used as ballast in ships coming back to America and then thrown into the meadows by the military.
But even with the apocalyptic assault leveled at it by humans, decades of more stringent regulation, combined with the rise of conservation groups and a general change of attitude in regards to the wetlands, has started the entire region crawling towards recuperation.
Many species of animals not regularly seen in years, such as grey seals, fluke, and striped bass, have made their way back into the streams winding their way through the golden plain. Even the HackensackRiver, which was once so polluted that it could only support the hardiest of fish, has staged a modest comeback.
And that five acres, while it’s but a small sliver of the Meadowlands’ 8,500, should be preserved as well. The area’s wildlife has hung on with a white-knuckle grip, and the state should be trying to nurse it back, not allowing developers to further ravage it, even in the smallest amount.
I know that this argument has been made many times over in New Jersey, and I don’t expect anything other than more development to occur. And, being as the rusty-walled fool’s paradise has already been built, there’s nothing more that can really be done except hope that it somehow works out.
But in the future, I can also hope that the state pays attention to the cascade of mistakes that have left both the Meadowlands and the mall in such dire straits – and the next time developers promise the world a mall the size of Rhode Island, New Jersey tells them to find somewhere else.
Email: janoski@northjersey.com
http://www.northjersey.com/news/159828175_Not_my__American_Dream__for_the_Meadowlands.html?page=all
That massive, gaudy orange-and-blue ulcer of a mall has come to symbolize everything that is wrong with the Garden State, from the officials who allowed the hugely inappropriate project to be recklessly built on environmentally sensitive land to the budget woes and overruns in time and money that have subsequently occurred.
It will look hideous once it’s done, just another manmade eyesore climbing out of the swampy Meadowlands, desperately being dragged to "completion" by its newest developer, the Triple Five Group.
Always having been much more of a naturalist than a shopper, I’ve had nothing but disdain for the project since it was announced back in 2003. I do realize what state I live in, though, and I knew there was little hope of trying to stop such a thing from being built.
But it just keeps getting worse and more bizarre, as the The Record reported on June 14 that the developer has asked for permission to strip yet another five acres of wetlands to construct a new indoor amusement and (ironically) water park on the site.
As that request is processed and reviewed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the article states, Triple Five is trying to finalize the $2 billion in financing necessary to complete the $3.7 billion mall.
With so much of Xanadu — or, as it’s called for the time being, the "American Dream Meadowlands Project" — already built, another five acres might not seem like much. And truthfully, it isn’t.
But by now, it’s just out of spite that I’m hoping that the environmental permits are rejected and that maybe the developer will be told to try and open the mall for a day or two before planning an expansion on a project that should have never been allowed in the first place.
As a reporter, I’m acutely aware of the constant battle between environmentalists and developers and the need for both open space and ratables. And, even though I tend to lean toward the green side (as in trees, not money), I understand that a balance must be struck.
But the Meadowlands has seen enough damage on our account.
It took us centuries to realize that the swamp was a little bit more than an expendable wasteland, a brackish tidal estuary where garbage and bodies and toxic waste could be dumped with little effect on the ecosystem.
And everything has been dumped there over the years. Even pieces of London rubble ended up in our marshy plain when, after the Battle of Britain reduced much of that city, sections of concrete were used as ballast in ships coming back to America and then thrown into the meadows by the military.
But even with the apocalyptic assault leveled at it by humans, decades of more stringent regulation, combined with the rise of conservation groups and a general change of attitude in regards to the wetlands, has started the entire region crawling towards recuperation.
Many species of animals not regularly seen in years, such as grey seals, fluke, and striped bass, have made their way back into the streams winding their way through the golden plain. Even the HackensackRiver, which was once so polluted that it could only support the hardiest of fish, has staged a modest comeback.
And that five acres, while it’s but a small sliver of the Meadowlands’ 8,500, should be preserved as well. The area’s wildlife has hung on with a white-knuckle grip, and the state should be trying to nurse it back, not allowing developers to further ravage it, even in the smallest amount.
I know that this argument has been made many times over in New Jersey, and I don’t expect anything other than more development to occur. And, being as the rusty-walled fool’s paradise has already been built, there’s nothing more that can really be done except hope that it somehow works out.
But in the future, I can also hope that the state pays attention to the cascade of mistakes that have left both the Meadowlands and the mall in such dire straits – and the next time developers promise the world a mall the size of Rhode Island, New Jersey tells them to find somewhere else.
Email: janoski@northjersey.com
http://www.northjersey.com/news/159828175_Not_my__American_Dream__for_the_Meadowlands.html?page=all
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