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| Street scene in Lakewood (Jew in the City) |
The Lakewood, NJ Planning Board (has approved) a plan to construct over 500 houses on the site of Eagle Ridge Golf Club...
As reported here earlier, a General Development Plan (GDP) was submitted for a development on the site of the golf club after the developer won a lawsuit to have road-improvement-contingencies removed from the township’s Master Plan-based ordinances. The ruling paved the way for the GDP – a preliminary application that serves to lock in local zoning – for the 1,112-dwelling development (including basement apartments) called The Parke.
If by ‘Lakewood’ Matzav means the non Jewish or non Orthodox
residents of this community, then this is an example of how not to get along
with your neighbors. But I have a feeling that the ‘Lakewood’ referred to as
livid by Matzav are its Orthodox residents.
This controversy is not new. Nor is it limited only to the
city of Lakewood. Similar things are happening in Monsey, New York.
There is little doubt in my mind that contentious issues
like this have contributed to a climate of antisemitism. There is ample
evidence of that in the number of events that have occurred in places like Lakewood and Monsey recently that
were clearly antisemitic in nature. Despite denials to the contrary.
But just because their arguments might have exposed a degree of antisemtism, doesn’t mean they don’t have some merit. The argument was made crudely but it is one that should not
be ignored.
Which is that Orthodox Jews have moved into these communities in such great
numbers that they are changing the very character of those communities. Which were chose
by the original residents for the quiet ambiance of a countryside setting. Where
there was lots of open space; single family homes with large front and backyards;
low traffic patterns; plenty of parking, quaint little shops on small strip
malls; plenty of parks and other recreational
areas as well as entertainment facilities galore
that were all geared to that kind of lifestyle.
But these areas are morphing into the suburban version
of Boro Park which have replaced a lot of that with a shops and stores geared
to the Orthodox Jewish family. This has been happening in plain sight for
decades. Residents that moved there for one type of living experience have slowly
been forced to live in an environment unlike anything they have ever experienced
or even knew existed. And surely do not want. An environment that has nothing to do with their lives, They feel they are being crowded out. I can’t say that I blame them.
That being said, I realize that people can choose to live
wherever they want in this country. And businesses have a right to establish themselves
there in order to serve a community as it exists and grows.
So if anyone wants to argue the US constitutional guarantees
that grant us those rights, they can. And they do. I suppose that is one of the
reasons behind the approval of this new development by the Lakewood, NJ Planning Board.
I would also not be surprised if the people behind pushing this new project are the developers whose real goal is greed. They probably want to build as many units as they can as cheaply as they can and sell them to as many people as possible. As is often the case – follow the money.
Asserting rights and being right is not the same thing. And not always the best course of action.
Sometimes we have to forgo a right in order to maintain good relations with our
neighbors. I would go a step further and say that by forgoing a right now and
then one can make an enormous Kiddush Hashem. It will tell our non Jewish
neighbors that we hear their concerns, care about them, and will try to accommodate
them by compromising on some of our goals.
As noted, however, it is likely that the ‘Lakewood’ Matzav refers to as being ‘livid’
is the Orthodox Jewish Lakewood residents themselves.
My guess is that many of them
moved to Lakewood to escape the concrete jungle that is Brooklyn. Which is the very
thing that now threatens their new homes. They are not interested in the
traffic jams that characterized their former homes in Boro Park. They are not interested
in not being able to find a parking space because of the increased number of cars that now
fill their streets. They wanted the same countryside experience that attracted the
non Jews that preceded them. If they wanted the ‘Boro Park’ experience they
would have stayed there.
Sure, it’s nice to have the Orthodox
infrastructure that makes life easier for them. They need grocery stores and Kosher
butcher shops. And it’s nice to have a restaurant or two to go to once in
awhile. There is nothing wrong with that. It’s perfectly fine for businesses like
that to set up shop there. But not if those business take over to such an
extent that it crowds out everything else.
That is what compromise is
about. They can have those things without seeming to ‘take over’. This new
project will be taking a giant step in that direction. I can only imagine what
an over 1000 unit development will do to that community. If it’s crowded now,
wait until all those units fill up with the typically large families that
Orthodox Jews have without the city building the necessary infrastructure to accommodate them. Not to mention changing the entire look of that community even if they did. To put it the way Al Jolson did in the first talkie: ‘You ain’t
seen nothin yet!’
If I were living in Lakewood
I would surely be ‘livid’ about this. Thankfully I don’t live there. I live in
Chicago in a neighborhood that is integrated with a variety of ethnicities and
races and is a model of ‘how to get along with your neighbors’. Our shops mesh
nicely with shops that serve other residents.
What about all those Orthodox
Jews on the East Coast that want to move into Lakewood? If there is no room, there is no room. You
don’t squeeze them in. Simple as that. They might have to quietly start another
community in another location. Same way the pioneering Orthodox families that first
moved into Lakewood or Monsey did.
Either way – whether it is
only the non Jews or Lakewood’s Orthodox residents that are livid, proceeding with
this development will surely not further our mission of being a light unto the
nations. No one will say, ‘How wise are God’s Chosen people!’ No one will
proclaim the glory of God’s kingdom when we assert our rights to the detriment
of our neighbors. People who claim the mantle of authentic Judaism will instead
be seen as pariahs. And that, my friends is anything but a Kiddush HaShem!
