Reverend
Pastor Nelson, Imam Mubarak-Rowe, Rabbi Edelman, Mayor Deluca, Township
Committee members, Township Staff and fellow residents of Maplewood.
Happy New
Year and Good Afternoon. It’s an honor
to stand here in front of all of you today.
I would like
to acknowledge my family, my wife Marie, my daughter Madison, My Dad and his
wife, and cousins who are present.
Marie thank
you for your unwaving support and dedication not only during this past year of
campaigning but through the years. I
love you.
The effort to
communicate and physically interact with Maplewoodians from every corner of our
town was nothing less than a collaborative effort. Dean Dafis, Erin Scherzer, Tom Carlson, A heart felt thank you. You where they’re every step of the way. I appreciate your management, time, energy and
guidance.
Fred Profeta,
US Congressman Donald Payne, Assemblywoman Mila Jasey, Assemblyman John McKeon,
Mayor Vic Deluca, Village President Sheena Collum, David Humer, Ian Grodman, Christine
Houseworth, Malia Herman, Robert Wise, Beth Jansen, MB Jarosik, Frank Lazare, Carl
Patterson, Heather Berman, Harold Babrow, Allison Ziefert Thank you for your
council, support, or artist eye.
Greg Lembrich/Alex
Carter, Fred and Sue Profeta, Chris and Tre Danuser, Nancy Adams and Sal Renda,
thank you opening your homes and providing the opportunity to engage with our
great maplewoodians, to listen and learn about what is important to them.
To The Maplewood Democratic Committee, Chairman Ian Grodman,
Vice Chair Garnet Hall, Brenda Ross, Bill Streinburn, Kathy Leventhal, Sheila
Kenny, Kurt Kiley, Lara Laquori, Jose Padron, Amy O’Meara, Mark Loughney, Tammy
Haynie, Ellen Sleeter, Bruno Lee, Gideon Romann, Thank you
for standing with me and by me as we pounded the pavement, braved the weather
at times and knocked on the doors of homes throughout our community.
To those who dedicated the time to publicly express in
words our relationships, interactions, friendships and collaborative efforts to
better inform our town, Ellen Davenport, Christina Taber-Kewene, Ariel Cohen,
Chris Sabin, Robert Marchman, Indira Singh, Elizabeth Baker, Craig Goldstein, Maureen
Jones, George Curtis and Ronni Schwartz. Thank you.
To Palmers
Sweetery and Cafe, The Parkwood Diner, The Able Baker, The Maplewood Diner.
Thank you for your support and flexibility. To everyone who donated their time,
money or express your support with a lawn sign, thank you, your contribution
was invaluable.
Finally I
want to Thank Marlon Browlee for his service to our community, not just as a
member of the TC for the last 6 years, but also as a boys and girls basketball coach,
trustee for
the Community Coalition on Race, and as a PTA president.
Marlon,
I will continue to pay the rent for the privilege and honor.
Our
community is a special place. Where
families come to live and grow.
Some
Maplewoodians have lived here for generations and others have been with us for
just months. Regardless of tenure, it is
important to be welcoming to all. To say those familiar words “Welcome to Maplewood”. To let new
Maplewoodians know about the numerous opportunities to engage, contribute, and
make a positive impact in our community.
You don’t
have to look to far to see the impact of this way of thinking as it is standing
in front of you today. It was through
the warm hearted interactions in Memorial Park, the simple hellos on the black
top at Tuscan school or the conversation at an Achieve event that planted the
seed that Maplewood is a place where I am not only proud to be a resident, but
a community where I wanted the opportunity to serve and work to keep our town
affordable, safe, inclusive and forward thinking with future growth.
Maplewood
posses great qualities, but we must continue to work together to maintain,
achieve, and in some cases fix the attributes of our community that define its
character.
Collaborating
with my fellow Township Committee members, I look forward to continuing the
work of reaching across the geographical aisle and exploring service and
process opportunities with South Orange, Union, Irvington, Milburn, and Newark.
Working with our town administrator and team to make sure that our vendors
provide the highest quality of service for our community.
Working with
our town engineer and law enforcement to keep moving forward the process with
state administrators of improving the traffic flows for our student
pedestrians, commuter pedestrians, our stay at home parent or caregiver pedestrians,
our seniors pedestrians. Our visiting
pedrtrains. The safety and well being of
people who walk throughout our town matters.
Continuing
to push the conversation of diversity and inclusion, so our committees, PTA
boards, neighborhood block parties, our employees, and our residents reflect
this vision and no one can say that this is just an ideation.
That our
infrastructure is prepared to absorb the growth and evolution of being a town
of desirable residence and not lose maplewoodians in its path that make up the
essence of our community.
To be in
forefront of the conversion of environmental action and education. With
education being a key driver so that our community in aware of the many quick
wins that they can perform in their daily lives. Like most assets, an investment in
Sustainability for our town will provide a great return for the future of
Maplewood.
Just this
past week, I visited my hometown community of Hyde Park. Hyde Park is a small neighborhood on the
South Side of Chicago nestled between Lake Michigan, two major parks and the world
renowned University of Chicago. Many have described it as a utopia.
Growing up
there, I was part of a community where interracial couples raised their families. Where same sex couples lived together as
partners and no one thought anything of it.
Where the leader of the Nation of Islam resided next door to his dear
Jewish neighbor. Where black boys went
to as many bar mitzvahs as they did sweet six-teens.
The local
watering hole was a place where high school educated workers from the
neighborhood shared a pitcher of beer with Nobel peace prize winners and professors
tended bar or played a set during Sunday night Jazz.
Hyde Park
was not perfect. There were issues and challenges that the community faced, times
of racial insensitivity, disagreement over development projects by the
University, occasional public safety issues.
But the
residents worked together, and with the city government and with the county
government. They addressed the issues and moved forward and today, the
community is better for it.
Hyde Park
today does not looked the same, I admired all the new small businesses in the
business districts, the new university buildings which fit into the historical
look and feel of the community, the new bike path lanes and recycling trash receptacles.
WHAT WAS the same was the people. The People walking the streets, patronizing
the stores or playing in the park. It
was still Hyde Park.
But the one
thing that struck me the most was how much Hyde Park reminded me of
Maplewood. And seeing and experiencing
the evolution of Hyde Park brings me great hope and optimism for our town.
We too must
continue to work to attract new small businesses to our business districts,
ensure that the new developments fit into the historical look and feel of the
community and work to retain the character of our town,
Support and
promote alternative forms of transportation such as biking or walking and
protect those who decide to engage in it.
To collaborate as an entire town and support the enhancement of our core
amenities by bringing our public library into the 21st century.
To demand
nothing less when it comes to inclusion. Not just black and white, but Black,
White, Latin and Asian, or ethnic orientation – Irish, Haitian,
Interracial
couples, same sex couples, generation, economic status, religious beliefs,
people living with disabilities, college educated or not, English speaking or
not.
Today, my
father is celebrating his 73rd birthday. He was the 1944 news years day baby at Provident
hospital on Chicago’s South’s Side. Provident
hospital at that time was the only Hospital in Chicago where African American doctors
could practice and one of the few where black women could give birth.
He has seen
a lot, and it is his institutional knowledge which I lean on to remind me and
ground me regarding how something that seems like a given now, was not
prevalent then. How the idea that a person
with the label of black could feel or think that they were limited in the
country of opportunity.
Fast forward
to today, why should anyone continue to condone or support the idea of the new
label, immigrant.
My wife came
to this country as an immigrant and many people in this room are the products
of immigrants.
Immigrants
patronize our businesses, our trusted with our children when we go to work, and
volunteer at our PTA events.
Why should
any Maplewoodian think or feel that they are limited in the country of
opportunity. Not in Maplewood, not now, not tomorrow, not ever!
Many Maplewoodians
continue to reflect on the outcome of our national election. Some have become
disillusioned or disenfranchised. But it’s important to remember that true
change happens at the local level. Washington is not going to fix what’s
happening in our schools, that’s up to us. Washington is not going to make sure
that our seniors have affordable housing, that’s up to us. Washington is not
going to make sure that we have the right mix of small businesses that can
successfully thrive, that’s up to us. Nor
is Washington going to make sure that we are not discriminating against each
other, that’s up to us. It’s up to us to ensure that we are using our resources
efficiently. It’s up to us to ensure that our pedestrians are safe. It’s up to
us to ensure that we are sustainable.
We are a
community of families, schools, places of worship, teams and organizations. Collectively
we are 24,000 strong. Our community is a shining example of the best that
America has to offer. And by living up to that example, we have an opportunity
to further develop the quality of our great community.
So today, I
am challenging everyone in this room, watching this broadcast, to become even more
engaged in the Maplewood community that we hold so dear.
I am
extremely humbled to be given this awesome responsibility to serve you on the
Township Committee.
Thank you for
putting your trust in me. God bless Maplewood and God bless the United States
of America.
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