Why Bribery Matters

Jersey City, especially the uptown wards, is full of disused property: empty lots, abandoned housing, vacant factories and stores.

There are a number of complex reasons why this is so. But unlike Newark, for a poor city, Jersey City has a healthy property market. Even during the credit collapse of the last two years, there’s been a lot of housing built in town. Not all of it has been “luxury rentals.” Some three-family homes and Section Eight-approved housing has been completed in the uptown wards, exactly the sort of development the city needs.

One of the reasons there has not been more building, though, is that disused property is still zoned under its former use. This means a lot that used to have a warehouse on it is still zoned for industrial use, and a house zoned as a single-family dwelling can only have a single-family dwelling on it, even if that “single-family dwelling” was illegally divided into three apartments thirty years ago.

If someone wants to build something different on the property, they have to apply to the city for a zoning change, or variance.

If you talk to anyone who has tried to build anything in Jersey City and isn’t “connected,” you will hear the same story: dealing with the building and code departments of the government is a sort of purgatory.

Building officials are widely known to be rude and unhelpful; although they work for a government that seems not to care at all for the safety existing buildings, they have peculiar hang-ups about procedure and rules when it comes to new construction. They always find some reason to hold up your request.

For a lot of potential investors, this is a hurdle they are unwilling to clear. It’s common sense. If you want to buy an empty lot and build a couple three-family homes on it, you are not going to move forward unless you can be sure you will be allowed to build those homes.

For the vast majority of us who don’t have envelopes of cash to turn over to the City Council president and Mayor, we can’t be sure we’ll be granted a variance. We can only be sure we’ll have to deal with the byzantine procedures of the building department, the zoning board, and their surly minions.

And we can be reasonably sure we won’t get what we need in a timely manner—not because the government is performing due diligence on the matter, but because it has already selected through an illegal auction which builders it is going to treat fairly.

So what happens? Diverse investors—regular people—are cut out of the property market in Jersey City. It’s taken over by a small group of people who know how to work the government to get official favors from the zoning board and inspectors. They speculate on property, get variances, and resell the lots at higher prices to people who actually want to build in the city.

This is why the F.B.I. bribery sting matters. It revealed exactly how this works, and how the present city administration is actively supporting the arrangement. Many of the arrested Jersey City officials were actually members of the city’s various zoning and “planning” boards, or have significant influence over the members of those boards. They are nothing but leaches—they suck out a sliver of the huge profits made by the connected speculators. They’d rather have the cash than see Jersey City prosper. It is just what the government calls it—extortion under color of official right.

In every criminal complaint, the F.B.I. describes officials who are willing to take cash, or dubious campaign "donations," in return for official favors, almost always variances. Such is at the heart of the complaint against Mayor Jerramiah Healy's campaign treasurer and deputy mayor, Leona Beldini.

Take a walk. You’ll probably see a lot or two with a big sign that says something like for “FOR SALE Zoned for 16 units with parking.” Most of the time, what I’ve described above is the story behind the sign.

D.C.