A Message from Mayor Adam Schneider
Mayor’s words against
redevelopment recalled


BY CHRISTINE VARNO

Staff Writer

LONG BRANCH — Adam Schneider has spoken out against the effort to redevelop the city’s beachfront. He just hasn’t done so any time recently.

At the Feb. 10 city council meeting, Denise Hoagland, a Marine Terrace resident, stood up during the public portion of the meeting and read a letter that then-City Council candidate and now-Mayor Schneider wrote to the Atlanticville in July 1989.

" ‘The policies of the administration, specifically overdevelopment of the beachfront with high-density, expensive housing, was not in the best interest of the city, and I said so,’ " Hoagland read from Schneider’s letter. " ‘Almost eight years of this administration has left Long Branch with record taxes and a decline in services. Many residents feel left out. Yet, when anyone speaks out in protest of these developments, they are branded as negative.’ "

Contacted on Monday, Schneider said there is a difference between the policies he wrote about 15 years ago and what is happening in the city today. He said the biggest difference between then and now is community involvement.

"We sat down to see what could be done and what needed to be done for the city," Schneider said. "We brought the community into the process for a plan for the entire city."

"Fifteen years in office, if you do not change, you have to be brain dead," the mayor said.

The publicity the group has received during the fight has resulted in an outpouring of support for the residents of the area, according to Hoagland.

"We have received an inconceivable amount of support, especially from the citizens of Long Branch," Hoagland said. "People have approached me in the grocery store, the bank, my children’s school and the mall. We have received letters, tapes and some other very interesting stuff."

Hoagland said that her point in reading the letter was to remind the mayor of the words that got him elected.

"He thinks he can change the minds of the voters who elected him, who anticipated something else," Hoagland said.

Bill Nordahl, another member of MTOTSA and a resident of Marine Terrace, said, "The idea of building high-priced condominiums is taking a working-class neighborhood and replacing it with high incomes."

"I run into people every day who say this is not where this was supposed to go," Hoagland said.

Nordahl said he wants to see eminent domain stopped and would like to see his neighborhood taken out of the redevelopment plan.

Schneider said that the reality is that the redevelopment has been successful.

"Has my mind changed as to where we are going? No, it hasn’t," Schneider said. "Not because I haven’t listened, but because we disagree."

Schneider said that he believes he has listened to the concerns of citizens and agreed to work with them.

"The reality is the plan calls for much more than a change in the oceanfront," Schneider said. "We offer to work with you to see if there is a plan to help save your neighborhood."








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