John Stossel asks a politician a question that we probably all, at some time, have wanted to ask a politician or two. From Stossel at townhall.com:
“Are you on the take?”
When I tried to get Edgewater, New Jersey, politicians to answer that question, the mayor wouldn’t discuss it, ultimately telling me, “You may sit down.”
The town of Edgewater is right across the Hudson River from Manhattan. Anyone fortunate enough to live there gets a spectacular view of New York City’s skyline.
But the Edgewater city government wants to seize a choice piece of waterfront land for itself.
The spot in question is owned by a developer, the Maxal Group. Maxal bought the property for about $26 million and then spent millions more to clean it up. They planned to build apartments and, to please the town, parks, a school and a ferry stop for commuters.
“This whole pier would be open to the public,” says Thomas O’Gara of the Maxal Group, showing off the spot in my latest YouTube video.
In addition, Maxal’s development would generate about $12 million a year in taxes for Edgewater.
Sounds good to me, or at least good enough to see how the market responds. But Edgewater’s politicians just said no. Now they’re using eminent domain law to try to seize the property and spend taxpayer dollars to put Edgewater’s Department of Public Works there — a department of just thirteen people.
Why would they do that?
“The unsuccessful bidder is a fellow named Fred Daibes,” says Maxal’s lawyer. After Maxal bought the property, “Daibes told us, ‘you will never be able to develop this property!'”
Apparently, Fred Daibes knew something they didn’t.
Daibes is the biggest apartment developer in the area. He told a reporter, “You can’t be in Edgewater and not be affiliated with me.”
I suspect that means that Daibes controls Edgewater’s politicians.
A lawsuit filed by Maxal Group says four city council members got loans from a Daibes-controlled bank, and Mayor Michael McPartland pays below-market rent to live in a Daibes apartment building. (The mayor told a reporter that he doesn’t pay below-market rent.)
To continue reading: Crony Developments
