Posted by From T ris M cCalls website on August 31, 2005 at 19:21:13:

In Reply to: JAIL ORDEAL IS TREE-DICULOUS! posted by By JARRETT RENSHAW AND JASON FINK on August 31, 2005 at 19:12:15:

Sorry you had to die.

This'll all be reported in tomorrow's Journal -- and I'm sure I'll have something to say about the article -- but for those of you nighthawks who enjoy reading the really early edition, here's the story in a nutshell. Rikki Reich was arrested at 1:30 on Monday, just after the construction company responsible for Grove Pointe began destroying the last remaining trees on the street. According to Rikki, Councilman Fulop had come around to her way of seeing things, and had agreed via cellphone that the trees were on City property, and that the developer had no clear authorization to chop them down. Fulop told Rikki to instruct the construction crews not to touch the trees.

They set their machines against them anyway. When Rikki crossed the street to confront the driver of the bulldozer, she was arrested by a battalion of cops. She had been in the process of reaching into her backpack to grab her cellphone to call the Councilman. The policemen may have feared that she was reaching for sort of weapon. Even so, there's no excuse for pushing a single woman up against a chain link fence and treating her roughly. Anybody who has ever seen Rikki knows that she poses no physical threat to police officers.

Rikki was brought to the Hudson County Jail, where the cops referred to her as "the treehugger". She was charged with disorderly conduct -- about as meaningless an infraction as there is on the books. She wasn't able to call her boyfriend. After spending a night behind bars (Rikki got food poisoning from the prison meals, which is probably not an uncommon occurrence), she was moved to a holding cell at 5AM. There she waited for five hours before she was brought before a judge.

According to Rikki, Councilman Fulop attempted to post bail early on Tuesday morning, but was denied access by the guards. He was finally able to post bail in the afternoon, and Rikki was released at 5PM on Tuesday. Well, she was released; her stuff was not. The possessions she had on her had been transported to a police station clear across town. When Rikki got out of jail, she found herself without money or the keys to her own house. Locked out of her studio, she ended up waiting for three hours in the Fulop HQ on Christopher Columbus -- a block from the scene of the crime.

I spoke to Rikki at 9:30 tonight. She seemed in good spirits, albeit a little horrified by her stay in jail. She declared herself willing to risk prison to take a stand against what she saw as overdevelopment, and prison was what she got. But if the denouement and punishment came faster than she anticipated, she's not traumatized by either. She doesn't intend to let this drop. Arborgate is not over yet.

*********************

Breaking Arborgate news: Word is that Councilman Fulop is about to bail Rikki out of jail. I certainly hope that this is true. It won't bring the trees back, but jail always -----, and Rikki Reich is certainly no threat to anybody's bulldozer. I will keep you posted as I hear more.

*********************

So that was, if nothing else, mercifully quick. At noon yesterday, this was a full-fledged controversy, with the Jersey Journal and News 12 on the case. By five o'clock, it was over: the trees were shredded by the construction teams, and Rikki Reich found herself the winner of a free, all-expenses-paid trip to the county clink. The municipal government did not intervene. Three stumps on the west side of Marin Boulevard are all that remains of the controversy. The Grove Pointe developers played the game by the book: send the bulldozers in before the public has a chance to rally around a symbol of resistance. It's the same playbook Lloyd Goldman used; Robert Moses, too.

Whether the public would actually have rallied is an open question, and one that can't be answered. Those of us who were watching were treated, again, to the spectacle of a local artist of some significant repute thrown by the police into the court system. The frequent iterations of this scene have not done wonders for the public-spiritedness of local activists. I do not know whether Rikki believed, as did Henry Sanchez and some of the other prominent 111 artists, that our local politicians could be persuaded to squeeze concessions out of a property-owner. I do think she felt that her protest wouldn't be ignored by City Hall.

Ignored she was. When crunch time came, our political leaders let her take the fall. (It came as no surprise to me that Councilman Fulop, the purported foe of development sans conscience, was no use at all.) So Rikki spent the evening in the Hudson County jail, and the trees she sought to defend are now a large compost heap of chipped wood and leaves. Grove Pointe is now free to reinterpret the sidewalk. Rikki earned publicity for her cause, and if she sticks around and continues to put up with Jersey City, many of us will applaud her for her courage. But those trees aren't coming back. No amount of critical editorials or signatures on a petition will make the stumps on Marin sprout anew.

Thus, you could uncharitably see the tree episode as a futile gesture made by a frustrated artist with an atavistic attachment to an outmoded version of the Downtown. Personally, though, I'm just amazed that somebody still has the energy and commitment to stand against the tide. That Rikki Reich believed that her one-woman campaign could raise consciousness and even make a legitimate intervention against Grove Pointe felt like a miraculous act of faith in Jersey City -- one that I didn't think was even possible after the forced evacuation of 111. For me, JC 2005 has been an unbroken tale of capitulation to the logic of developocracy, and compromises and concessions made on behalf of a long-term progressive agenda which won't be realized. But for a few hours there on August 29, I caught some flashes of Mayday and the fighting Spirit of '04. Thanks, Rikki, for that. Get out of jail soon.

*********************

Earlier that day:

Rikki Reich is trying to save the last two trees on Marin Boulevard from the developers' buzzsaws. She's doing this without the help of City Hall, the City Council, or any neighborhood advocacy group. She is willing to risk jail to make her point, and it does not seem like she's going to stand down easily. Right now, she is out in front of the Grove Street PATH stop on Marin with a hand-lettered sign, supported by her boyfriend; a one-woman crusade against what she sees as overdevelopment and pointless destruction. Go on out to the PATH station, sign her petition -- see for yourself.

Rikki decided to take action when she took a look out of her gallery window this weekend and saw that one of the three remaining trees on the Marin sidewalk had already been cut down by the construction company that is building the Grove Pointe luxury residential complex. She then discovered that the developer had been given authorization to destroy the other two. It is Rikki's assertion that there is no reason whatsoever to cut these trees down. Since the grow from the sidewalk, they are not officially on the property that is being redeveloped.

I don't know if the foliage or roots interfere with the Grove Pointe developer's plans, or if there's any motivation operating here beyond a crude need for the builder to exercise his dominion. It does seem a terrible shame to lose the trees. Unlike the four members of the flimsy corporate arbor that Mack-Cali has tossed together on the other side of Columbus Boulevard, these feel substantial, as if they have been part of the neighborhood for decades. I can't date the trees or give you their history. I do think it's a safe bet that they were planted very long ago, and that they have been keeping watch over this otherwise gray stretch of Marin Boulevard for longer than you or I can remember.

By tomorrow, they may be gone. This morning, Rikki woke up at 5 AM to beat the bulldozers to the spot. She may not be so lucky tomorrow. She told me she is determined to wait out the construction crews. That could be a very long wait. It's hot outside, and she's only one person. She has tried to get the attention of Mayor Healy and Councilman Fulop, though so far, she hasn't found either to be particularly sympathetic.

Mayor Healy has never given the impression that he'd back a tree in a dispute against a developer. While I disagree with him, I give him points for consistency. It would be completely out of character for him to ride to the rescue here. Councilman Fulop, on the other hand, ran for office as a foe of overdevelopment. How he behaves during this first Downtown mini-crisis will tell us plenty about what kind of an advocate he intends to be.

Here's all that's left of the poor tree that didn't make it:

I've never been called an environmentalist, but like Rikki, I hope this is not the fate of the other two. I recognize that trees are not people, and thus deserve only a fraction of the rights and privileges bestowed upon citizens. But if you'd stood out on Marin Boulevard for a hundred years, I would be loath to allow some developer to come by and kill you just because he felt that you were obstructing the view.

Follow Ups:

• Tris McCall the litter bug Annoyed 21:02:11 08/31/05 (1)
  • Re: Tris McCall the litter bug tris hater 21:17:56 08/31/05 (0)

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Comments:
: Sorry you had to die.

: This'll all be reported in tomorrow's Journal -- and I'm sure I'll have something to say about the article -- but for those of you nighthawks who enjoy reading the really early edition, here's the story in a nutshell. Rikki Reich was arrested at 1:30 on Monday, just after the construction company responsible for Grove Pointe began destroying the last remaining trees on the street. According to Rikki, Councilman Fulop had come around to her way of seeing things, and had agreed via cellphone that the trees were on City property, and that the developer had no clear authorization to chop them down. Fulop told Rikki to instruct the construction crews not to touch the trees.

: They set their machines against them anyway. When Rikki crossed the street to confront the driver of the bulldozer, she was arrested by a battalion of cops. She had been in the process of reaching into her backpack to grab her cellphone to call the Councilman. The policemen may have feared that she was reaching for sort of weapon. Even so, there's no excuse for pushing a single woman up against a chain link fence and treating her roughly. Anybody who has ever seen Rikki knows that she poses no physical threat to police officers. 

: Rikki was brought to the Hudson County Jail, where the cops referred to her as "the treehugger". She was charged with disorderly conduct -- about as meaningless an infraction as there is on the books. She wasn't able to call her boyfriend. After spending a night behind bars (Rikki got food poisoning from the prison meals, which is probably not an uncommon occurrence), she was moved to a holding cell at 5AM. There she waited for five hours before she was brought before a judge.

: According to Rikki, Councilman Fulop attempted to post bail early on Tuesday morning, but was denied access by the guards. He was finally able to post bail in the afternoon, and Rikki was released at 5PM on Tuesday. Well, she was released; her stuff was not. The possessions she had on her had been transported to a police station clear across town. When Rikki got out of jail, she found herself without money or the keys to her own house. Locked out of her studio, she ended up waiting for three hours in the Fulop HQ on Christopher Columbus -- a block from the scene of the crime. 

: I spoke to Rikki at 9:30 tonight. She seemed in good spirits, albeit a little horrified by her stay in jail. She declared herself willing to risk prison to take a stand against what she saw as overdevelopment, and prison was what she got. But if the denouement and punishment came faster than she anticipated, she's not traumatized by either. She doesn't intend to let this drop. Arborgate is not over yet. 

: *********************

: Breaking Arborgate news: Word is that Councilman Fulop is about to bail Rikki out of jail. I certainly hope that this is true. It won't bring the trees back, but jail always -----, and Rikki Reich is certainly no threat to anybody's bulldozer. I will keep you posted as I hear more. 

: *********************

: So that was, if nothing else, mercifully quick. At noon yesterday, this was a full-fledged controversy, with the Jersey Journal and News 12 on the case. By five o'clock, it was over: the trees were shredded by the construction teams, and Rikki Reich found herself the winner of a free, all-expenses-paid trip to the county clink. The municipal government did not intervene. Three stumps on the west side of Marin Boulevard are all that remains of the controversy. The Grove Pointe developers played the game by the book: send the bulldozers in before the public has a chance to rally around a symbol of resistance. It's the same playbook Lloyd Goldman used; Robert Moses, too.

: Whether the public would actually have rallied is an open question, and one that can't be answered. Those of us who were watching were treated, again, to the spectacle of a local artist of some significant repute thrown by the police into the court system. The frequent iterations of this scene have not done wonders for the public-spiritedness of local activists. I do not know whether Rikki believed, as did Henry Sanchez and some of the other prominent 111 artists, that our local politicians could be persuaded to squeeze concessions out of a property-owner. I do think she felt that her protest wouldn't be ignored by City Hall.

: Ignored she was. When crunch time came, our political leaders let her take the fall. (It came as no surprise to me that Councilman Fulop, the purported foe of development sans conscience, was no use at all.) So Rikki spent the evening in the Hudson County jail, and the trees she sought to defend are now a large compost heap of chipped wood and leaves. Grove Pointe is now free to reinterpret the sidewalk. Rikki earned publicity for her cause, and if she sticks around and continues to put up with Jersey City, many of us will applaud her for her courage. But those trees aren't coming back. No amount of critical editorials or signatures on a petition will make the stumps on Marin sprout anew.

: Thus, you could uncharitably see the tree episode as a futile gesture made by a frustrated artist with an atavistic attachment to an outmoded version of the Downtown. Personally, though, I'm just amazed that somebody still has the energy and commitment to stand against the tide. That Rikki Reich believed that her one-woman campaign could raise consciousness and even make a legitimate intervention against Grove Pointe felt like a miraculous act of faith in Jersey City -- one that I didn't think was even possible after the forced evacuation of 111. For me, JC 2005 has been an unbroken tale of capitulation to the logic of developocracy, and compromises and concessions made on behalf of a long-term progressive agenda which won't be realized. But for a few hours there on August 29, I caught some flashes of Mayday and the fighting Spirit of '04. Thanks, Rikki, for that. Get out of jail soon.

: *********************

: Earlier that day:

: Rikki Reich is trying to save the last two trees on Marin Boulevard from the developers' buzzsaws. She's doing this without the help of City Hall, the City Council, or any neighborhood advocacy group. She is willing to risk jail to make her point, and it does not seem like she's going to stand down easily. Right now, she is out in front of the Grove Street PATH stop on Marin with a hand-lettered sign, supported by her boyfriend; a one-woman crusade against what she sees as overdevelopment and pointless destruction. Go on out to the PATH station, sign her petition -- see for yourself. 

: Rikki decided to take action when she took a look out of her gallery window this weekend and saw that one of the three remaining trees on the Marin sidewalk had already been cut down by the construction company that is building the Grove Pointe luxury residential complex. She then discovered that the developer had been given authorization to destroy the other two. It is Rikki's assertion that there is no reason whatsoever to cut these trees down. Since the grow from the sidewalk, they are not officially on the property that is being redeveloped.

: I don't know if the foliage or roots interfere with the Grove Pointe developer's plans, or if there's any motivation operating here beyond a crude need for the builder to exercise his dominion. It does seem a terrible shame to lose the trees. Unlike the four members of the flimsy corporate arbor that Mack-Cali has tossed together on the other side of Columbus Boulevard, these feel substantial, as if they have been part of the neighborhood for decades. I can't date the trees or give you their history. I do think it's a safe bet that they were planted very long ago, and that they have been keeping watch over this otherwise gray stretch of Marin Boulevard for longer than you or I can remember.

: By tomorrow, they may be gone. This morning, Rikki woke up at 5 AM to beat the bulldozers to the spot. She may not be so lucky tomorrow. She told me she is determined to wait out the construction crews. That could be a very long wait. It's hot outside, and she's only one person. She has tried to get the attention of Mayor Healy and Councilman Fulop, though so far, she hasn't found either to be particularly sympathetic. 

: Mayor Healy has never given the impression that he'd back a tree in a dispute against a developer. While I disagree with him, I give him points for consistency. It would be completely out of character for him to ride to the rescue here. Councilman Fulop, on the other hand, ran for office as a foe of overdevelopment. How he behaves during this first Downtown mini-crisis will tell us plenty about what kind of an advocate he intends to be. 

: Here's all that's left of the poor tree that didn't make it:


: I've never been called an environmentalist, but like Rikki, I hope this is not the fate of the other two. I recognize that trees are not people, and thus deserve only a fraction of the rights and privileges bestowed upon citizens. But if you'd stood out on Marin Boulevard for a hundred years, I would be loath to allow some developer to come by and kill you just because he felt that you were obstructing the view.


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