11 April 2008

Born To Raze: Max Weinberg And The 22 Acres Of Central Jersey Woodlands



Max Weinberg is Bruce Springsteen's drummer. He's the dude who plays in Conan O'Brien's band in a buttoned up suit. Somehow. I don't know how he does it. It makes me sweat just looking at the dude. Anyway, in their songs, Springsteen and the E Street Band are all about blue-collar workers struggling against "the man"; plutocrats who want to export their jobs and poison their water and well now your boy Max Weinberg is being accused of being an evil profiteer himself.

Looking to increase the value of his land by more than $7m Weinberg plans to develop (raze, plow, burn, pave) 22 acres of central New Jersey woodland into a housing development. Those 22 acres happen to be the largest remaining undeveloped space in that area.



Naturally the preservationists are upset, and the Newark Star-Ledger called the once beloved Weinerg "a symbol of hypocrisy":

"Neighbors criticized the plan for threatening one of the largest undeveloped spaces remaining in the area. Local planning authorities expressed similar concerns — but said they had little choice but to approve it since Mr. Weinberg had done his research, and the subdivision plan was done by the book.

"I really feel this is not best for the area," the Middletown Township Planning Board's chairwoman, Judith Stanley Coleman, said at the time of the vote, according to the Asbury Park Press, a local newspaper. "But we have laws in front of us that we have to take into consideration, and that is what we have to abide by."

See Weinerg is a sly motherfucker. Not only is he notorious for bribing marble, stone, kitchen fixture and other home equipment suppliers across the world with concert tickets for discounted goods he's been known to spend hours leafing through property records and arcane regulations at town hall looking for loopholes.

And so when neighbours and local planning authorities criticised Weinerg's plan for threatening one of the largest undeveloped spaces remaining in the area they had little choice but to approve it since Mr. Weinberg had done his research, and the subdivision plan was done by the book.

Born To Renovate {Wall Street Journal}

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