Crony Developments

Guest Post by John Stossel

Crony Developments

“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.

Continue reading “Crony Developments”