Your Morning NIMBYism

New Jersey is collectively freaking out because the energy company is putting up solar panels on telephone poles. Oh, won't someone think of the property values!!!

2 notes:

1. When the panels are everywhere, they aren't going to affect your property values, unless the entire nation decides to abandon New Jersey because of solar energy.

2. Do solar panels look worse than telephone poles? Of course not. But those are naturalized into the landscape and solar panels are new.

Can't we just double-down on energy sources that destroy Nigeria, Kuwait, and other counties Americans will never have to see?

Historical Image of the Day

Police officer and striking woolen workers, Passaic Woolen Strike, Passaic, New Jersey, 1926

Historical Image of the Day

Elizabeth Gurley Flynn addressing a crowd of strikers in the famous I.W.W.-led Paterson strike, Paterson, New Jersey, 1913

Most Prominent Politicians From Each State, III: New Jersey

New Jersey has had a somewhat weak group of national politicians throughout its history with an obvious choice for the top. I suspect a lot of this is getting overshadowed by New York and Pennsylvania. That the Frelinghuysen family has dominated New Jersey politics from its early days, a family that has long aspired to mediocrity in office, has certainly not helped.

1. Woodrow Wilson. A native of Virginia, but his political career was in New Jersey. Certainly one of the most important presidents in  U.S. history, though one I also find pretty loathsome.

2. William Paterson. Key player in the Constitutional Convention, 2nd governor of New Jersey, early Supreme Court justice. Put the hammer down on the leaders of the Whiskey Rebellion while a Justice.

3. George McClellan. We usually think of McClellan as a failed general, and indeed he was.  But he was also the Democratic candidate for president in 1864 and later governor of New Jersey from 1878-81. His big post-war political ambition was to be Grover Cleveland's Secretary of State, but he failed to get the position.

Paterson and McClellan are fairly lame 2 and 3 choices for the 3rd oldest state, but the other possibilities are also pretty underwhelming. In chronological order:

Frederick Frelinghuysen--Chester Arthur's Secretary of State, senator, general Republican hack who helped decide the disputed 1876 election.

William Pennington--Governor of New Jersey in the 1830s and 40s, later elected to the House of Representatives where he served as Speaker of the House in 1860 and early 1861. He also once turned down the chance to be governor of Minnesota Territory. Pretty hot stuff, I know.

John Griggs--Governor of the state. William McKinley tapped him to be Attorney General in 1898, where he served until 1901.

Thomas Kean--Like most other long-time New Jersey politicians, solid and remarkably unspectacular. Governor of the state from 1982-90, most known for his service on the 9/11 Commission. That alone separates him from the pack of mediocrity known as New Jersey.

Bill Bradley--Some might put Bradley in the top 3 and maybe he had more of an impact than either Paterson or McClellan. He was senator from 1979-97. Launched a particularly lame campaign for the Democratic nomination for the presidency in 2000. Mostly I find him to be an annoying blowhard, which is why I couldn't move him to #3. 

Tomorrow: Georgia. Getting to the South should be fun, for it gives me the chance to eviscerate racist politicians. 

Historical Image of the Day

Playing the slots, Atlantic City, 2008

Immigrants Help Our Economy? Who Knew???

Ken Belson and Jill Capuzzo's story about Riverside, New Jersey rethinking its anti-immigrant ordinance made me laugh.

Like other towns across the nation, Riverside is figuring out that masses of hard-working immigrants local economies grow. They help small towns revitalize. They are good citizens and contribute positively to American life.

But of course these people were also brown and spoke a funny language so it was worth it, or so says former mayor Charles Hilton. “The business district is fairly vacant now, but it’s not the legitimate businesses that are gone,” he said. “It’s all the ones that were supporting the illegal immigrants, or, as I like to call them, the criminal aliens.”

Yes, such as grocery stores, restaurants, music shops, stores that sell phone cards to call back to Mexico, and other horrible businesses that only bring money into communities. I suppose if you equate "legitimate" and "white," then maybe Hilton has a point.

I can only imagine what would happen if my home town of Springfield, Oregon passed one of these ordinances. They entire time I was growing up, downtown was dying. No one went down there for any reason. There were a few old crappy restaurants, a bar or two, some thrift stores, and a lot of vacant buildings. Beginning in the early 1990s, Spanish-speaking immigrants began filtering into town. Today, downtown is way more hopping than it used to be. There are really good Mexican restaurants, stores catering to Mexican consumers, including a music store, and other shops owned by immigrants. Downtown Springfield no longer sucks. How comfortable local residents are with the area's first ever large non-white population is hard for me to say, but I'd far rather live in the Springfield of 2007 than the Springfield of 1992.

Historical Image of the Day

Camden, New Jersey, 1938