chinatripjpg.jpgMontclair mayor Jerry Fried has seen the future of Montclair — and it’s in China. Fried will leave later this month for a second trip to China to participate in an economic sustainability forum in Binzhou (his first trip was in May of this year, pictured). Although Fried is sharing his experience as mayor of Montclair with the Chinese, there is no cost to Montclair taxpayers (Binzhou is picking up the tab) and everything to gain, according to Fried, who sees these trips as a way to ensure a sustainable future for Montclair.
Fried has also been talking to Montclair School Superintendent Dr. Alvarez (who also traveled to China in 2007) about hosting students from China in the Montclair schools.
Says Fried, “This is something I talked with Dr. Alvarez about, but is not confirmed. The arrangement was originally planned for two groups of 10 students to study in the fall or spring semester of 2011-12 accompanied by two teachers who would teach Mandarin. We’d essentially barter the kids’ education for the teacher’s instruction. I haven’t talked with Dr. A since we got the $1.3m grant from the US Dept. of Education, which might change the idea somewhat.”


Dr. Alvarez was out of the office when Baristanet called and emailed today to inquire how this might work.
Fried’s China trips are not something that comes up in Montclair council meetings, according to councilor Cary Africk. “Jerry has taken on this China initiative as both an economic development opportunity, as well as an opportunity to affect our schools. Its a big job, and neither I personally, nor as a Council member, know more about it than any other Baristanet reader.”
Says Africk, “I’m a firm believer in economic development for Montclair, and think it is an area where we are doing poorly. Although we have a superb Business Improvement District, we need to be doing much more both with private industry, and county, state, and federal government. We need to find a way to do this, as well as make a much more concerted and organized effort at grants and similar support.”
One thing Africk is not clear on is how the trips will ultimately benefit Montclair, or what success will actually look like. “I hope, of course, that it’s [Fried’s China trip] wildly ‘successful,’ but I’m not sure how ‘success’ would be defined. Is it Chinese entrepreneurs opening satellite offices? Investing in Montclair businesses? A trade development office? Perhaps all three?”
Africks adds “Again, Jerry’s efforts are to be commended. Not doing anything is not an option.”

65 replies on “Montclair Mayor Headed To China Again”

  1. No matter who is paying for this, it is a junket pure and simple. Of dubious purpose and certainly of even hazier value. Why not admit that at the very start of the item?
    Where is this supposed to lead? Where did Fried’s first China trip lead save to an educational exchange?) To investments in local business? None so far. To plabs for factories? Where on earth would they go in Montclair? To the establishment of branch offices of Chinese companies? Which companies? And for this the Mayor has to go over there twice? (Not once, mind, but twice and in a relatively short time span between junkets.)
    Even if it is on the Chinese taxpayer’s yuan, this is not the wisest trip to take. And if a normally sane and fiscally cautious local politician like Cary Africk cannot quite find the “benefits” of this one…

  3. We’d essentially barter the kids’ education for the teacher’s instruction.
    If Fried thinks that he is “bartering” for Mandarin instructions then he is even more naive than many have already pronounced him to be.
    In reality China has deployed thousands of language instructors across the United States at no cost to local school districts, which the kind-hearted may view as a genuine effort at building stronger cultural ties with the US, but which the cynical bastard in me sees as an insidious attempt at extending the reach of Chinese hegemony to our youngest generations.
    And from what I understand, China has sent these language instructors pro quo without requiring any quid, such as “bartered education”, and so for Fried to think that he has stuck such a great deal reveals more about his lack of competency in dealing with the bread-and-butter economic issues that directly affect Montclair residents and taxpayers than it does about whatever sophistication he thinks he has when it comes to “globally sustainable economic development” or however he might like to refer to it.
    It should be no mystery that Monclair is whirling away in a tax-and-spend death spiral when Fried thinks he is getting a bargain when he pays handsomely for something he very well could have gotten for free.
    The answer to financial sustainability are to be found in the ledger books in Montclair town hall, not in Binzhou, China.
    Or to be more blunt: It’s the taxes, stupid!

  4. cathar, sorry to create a scenario that might make your pulse or digestive tract irregular, but I endorse your circumspection on this topic.

  5. Dear Junket Jerry, please use the flight time to think about the spending cuts you and the council have been avoiding. I am giggling as I think of all the hilarious lessons our municipality can teach the Chinese..

  6. Maybe Fried is really an American spy to China…Can’t come up with any other logical reason for his continual presence there.

  7. Trips and exchanges like this are good for PR and notches in the belt – or ruler. And if anyone thinks that’s not important, check out the considerations that all the list-makers make when racking up the top 100 million schools in the USA. And if you think that’s not important, ask any real estate agent.

  8. He can’t do much damage to our finances while he’s there, so I am happy hear it. I worry about his return, however.
    Is there some way we can get the Chinese to keep him?

  9. Regards to you too on this one, Spiro. I’m glad we can seemingly unite on this issue.
    I can only imagine Mayor Fried sharing his wealth of “experience” with those wonderful oppressors who gave us Tienanmen Square.

  11. Sorry, but he’s an ass.
    I LOVE the new name: Junket Jerry “Bike Boy” Fried Rice.
    What we need is an atmosphere that will make business want to OPEN and STAY in Montclair– didn’t B-net just have a post on 3 restaurants closing?
    How in the hell is going to China going to help that?
    No. We need a Mayor and Council that are working overtime to get us more business in town. Not 2 teachers paid for by China.
    And forgive me, but this “exchange” is going to benefit us in the same way the “exchanges” with the Russians, Japanese, and ________ (insert fashionable foreign country here) have in the past– In no way.

  12. “no cost to Montclair taxpayers”
    “to ensure a sustainable future for Montclair.”
    Well now!! Seems like a good deal!! NOT!

  13. What a laugh! Any chinese students subjected to MHS will have learning and knowledge subtracted from them! They will go back to their home school 3 years behind where their peers will be.

  14. Thinking that the trip will save Montclair from its monetary problems is optimistic at best.
    Alas, the only downside which I see as claimable is the absence of the mayor himself. On the flip side I do believe that thanks to the Faulkner act it really does not matter whether council member are present or not.

  15. Gee, I must not be much of a visionary because when I visited China, I didn’t see the opportunities for Montclair, NJ. I did, however, note the way the government made decisions regardless of consequences for its residents and without their input, so perhaps that is the similarity.
    Come on, plenty of comedy writers in this town, where’s the reality show/sitcom? (Is Martin Mull just too old to play Fried?)

  16. The last time the mayor went to China, he came back saying how much smarter their kids were in math and science than Montclair’s kids. Can’t wait to hear what jewels of wisdom he comes up with this time.

  17. Aside from indiscriminate venting, I don’t see a point anywhere in these posts. The budget is done. Next year’s budget will be another version of this year, so no need to start on it before the winter. The mayor has made all the major decisions on the BOE and has a new town manager in place.. He has weekly meetings that few residents attend. Quite frankly, he is getting to do something fun for himself with no downside to the town. There is even a chance it might help the town 5 yrs down the road.
    If he was going to the NJ Shore for a week, it wouldn’t be news. You’re not going to vote for him next election anyway.
    Just let it go and wait for a real issue to come up. Otherwise, you’re just sounding shrill.

  18. Where are you getting your information from, 5th Ward?
    “The budget is done.”
    The budget is not done.
    “He has weekly meetings that few residents attend.”
    The mayor has weekly meetings? The COUNCIL has weekly meetings.
    “There is even a chance it might help the town 5 yrs down the road.”
    Riiiight.

  19. A big downside for the town is that this is diverting time and energy away from really daunting financial issues. Right now, that should be the only focus.

  20. Who is being naive now?
    And the “daunting” issues will be there when he gets back.

  21. 5th Ward,
    So you’re happy with the 11% municipal tax increase?
    I suppose we have some room in the Bollocks School for some Chinese kids since it will open with 200 extra seats.
    Wake me up when the mayor puts a 1/10th of the focus on Montclair’s fiscal sustainability as he does on the planets environmental sustainability.
    The give backs to the library were deplorable, especially when these dollars were gained by selling off town property at the worst time to sell commercial real estate in nearly 30 years. Fried is a bonafide embarrassment and if people weren’t so easily fooled in this ‘Whole Paycheck’ town, he would have been recalled already.

  22. Stuw6, I hope you haven’t moved out of town yet, because I would like to write you in at the next municipal election!

  23. Kay,
    I’ve been driving my buyers agent crazy as I have been looking for almost two years now. I have made three offers, but none have been accepted. Having watched my multi-family drop by 35% from peak (based on the towns assessment vs. a recent appraisal), I’m fairly certain a nice colonial in Glen Ridge will eventually enter my price range. Unfortunately, prices are holding up much better over there than in Montclair. Perhaps it has something to do with the self-control their leadership has shown in regard to property taxes. Since it’s a multi-family that I own and I don’t plan to sell it, I doubt I would qualify for town council unless I truly lived in the town. But it doesn’t have to be me who runs. I truly think we will have Cary as mayor next time around and I would bet he comes up with a decent enough slate of people to run with who pay attention to finances. Sadly the Fried Five will continue to think they are doing a wonderful job until none of them get reelected.

  25. I just want a Trader Joe’s and a decent education for my children. Oh, and I’d like to know where the #28 bus stops. If that is in China, awesome.

  26. How bout a Trader Joe’s at Bloomfield Station? Plenty of parking available and commuters looking for take home meals.

  27. Do the Chinese care that your town has no budget and its debt is rated as junk?
    I doubt the Chinese would buy your town’s bonds. What makes your mayor think they would do any kind of significant business with you?

  31. The featured town in today’s NY Times real estate section was Fair Haven, NJ. Another “diverse” town. Another town with high taxes (lower than ours, however) and the taxes have gone DOWN every year over the past three years. Why can’t we do we do that? On another note, a few more liquor licenses would be nice too. I’ve been spending time in Hoboken with friend who live there and it really make a difference to have a handful of places that are just nice to hang out for an hour or two for a drink. That might be one of the factors that keeps our business districts from having as much foot traffic. That as well as the high rents, because of the high taxes.

  32. Hey Nick- June 17, 2010 (from Moody’s):
    “Ratings agency Moody’s Investors Service has slightly downgraded more than $100 million of Montclair’s long-term debt, a small but significant sign to investors that there is a higher degree of potential default.”
    Nick, like most of the crap that ethics-challenged (and soon to be defunct) Moody’s rates, your town’s debt is garbage. Moody’s is just doing your town the “favor” of applying paddles to the dead municipal corpse long enough for the people who issued this trash to either disappear or get their lies together.

  33. Clot, if you believe Montclair’s bonds are junk, then fine. But the ratings service, like Moody’s, are the ones who define them that way, whether you like it or not. And they don’t define them as junk. They define them as triple-A.
    Jerseygurl, the town doesn’t have a say in how many liquor licenses it issues. The state places a limit, based on population. I think Montclair would have to have an additional 3,000 people for it to qualify for another liquor license.

  34. Time for creative thinking.
    Let’s resettle 3,000,000 illegal aliens in a heavily guarded internment camp in the middle of Edgemont Park. Then we get Tea Party support.
    (….or at least the support of Marg Baker, the “middle-aged real estate broker vying for the Republican nomination in the state’s 48th district, north of Tampa.”- see the other Baristanet thread- and whatsupwiththat can be the gatekeeper)
    We then are, by virtue of our new population numbers, immediately entitled to an additional 1000 liquor licenses in Montclair (per Nick Charles’ formula), and Tea Partiers far and wide will come here for a brew or shot, and thereby fill our municipal coffers to the brim (liquor surcharge must first be approved by Town Council)
    Then we can boast the most liquidity ( pun intended) of any town within 20 miles of Times Square.

  35. Baloney. AAA is the highest rating. Your town’s debt has the fourth-highest.
    IMO, your town is one of the ripest in the US for eventually declaring municipal bankruptcy, as the spending, payrolls and unfunded obligations are out of control. The only way to break the municipal unions’ stranglehold will be voiding their contracts through BK.
    The entire fiscal structure of your town is failing and is unsustainable. All the junkets to China, tree-hugging and wussy-liberal handwringing won’t fix it. Nor will any amount of multicultural events or openings of restaurants that peddle stuff that looks and tastes like dirt.

  36. Clotpoli, you are clearly bigoted against liberals, using your view of one liberal town’s bond rating as a segue into a one-size-fits-all pathetic rant worthy of an AM radio with bad EQ.
    Either that, or you are a wet-behind-the-ears wannabe satirical writer. Don’t quit your day job.
    And pardon our “tree-hugging” – I won’t be too bothered if a big one falls on your home safe deposit box, car, or fridge.
    PS, Have fun, Clotpoli, letting your waistline or blood sugar go out of whack at one BK after another — since you will more likely than not (based on your rant) be boycotting our fine international restaurants in the name of your cherished beliefs that, somehow, your idea of fine cuisine is more patriotic than ours.
    Just don’t ask us taxpayers to pay for your toe amputations when the diabetes gets the better of you.

  37. Liquor licenses are allotted based on population in increments of 3,000. That means Montclair just missed adding another in the year 2000 – the census had them at 38,977 – that’s just 23 away.
    There was some talk at the time of challenging that number (to push it over 39,000) – which would have been worth several hundred thousand dollars to the municipality at the time.
    P.S. The reason towns like Hoboken have so many is that they are grandfathered-in. There is also some talk in Trenton of changing the laws to allow more licenses under certain circumstances, or reduce some of the other ABC restrictions…

  38. I’m not really sure why I’m bothering to reason with someone who seems like a psychopath, but Moody’s has 10 ratings that are above “junk” status. Montlair’s A3 rating is the fourth highest. There are still six more levels to go before “junk.”

  39. Your debt is headed toward junk status. For all intents and purposes, it already is, as it will default in the end. Your town’s fiscal policies will continue driving away sources of revenue and you’ll be left with unsustainable mandated spending and no income. This is not a liberal/conservative thing; it’s common sense (which, unfortunately, is an uncommon thing in your little Soviet shtetl).
    FWIW, the debt will probably outlive Moody’s (which would stamp “AAA” on turds). By a little.
    Liberalism is great. Look what it’s done for Europe.

  41. Considering you didn’t know the rating of Montclair’s debt, clot, I doubt you know anything about its fiscal policies. Kindly direct your attention to your own shtetl, thanks.

  42. One thing the latest financial meltdown taught me was that bankers and bondholders always get paid.
    Montclair, Bloomfield, all of NJ, CA, IL, etc have unsustainable debt levels. They won’t got bankrupt, though, the Feds will bail them out.
    Much as I’d like to see it, we can’t have bondholders take a haircut now can we?

  43. In addition to having virtually no gray matter, clotty also seems to have an all-consuming fixation for a town in which he does not reside.
    Perhaps his ex-wife lived here.
    Maybe he got a speeding ticket here once.
    Maybe Mayor Fried beat him up.
    It could be that he spends his days in contact with residents of other “socialist” towns — Cambridge MA, maybe. Or Berkeley CA. Or Burlington VT.
    If so, his posts there are probably as bereft of sense, style, and intelligence as the ones he offers up here.
    Sadly, no other Europeans are on hand to answer him, as they are all on their 5 week summer vacations.

  44. clot is a rip, cro, thinking Montclair is somehow Soviet – I guess the existence of all the investment bankers who live here haven’t yet been factored into his AM talk radio preconceptions.
    clotpoll, the Scandinavian branch of our family is doing just fine over there in Liberal Europe. Thank you very much for thinking of them.

  46. Obviously, you have excluded the GM bankruptcy from your statement. The company was given to the union, and bondholders were given the shaft.
    A generation or two from now, the GM bankruptcy will be taught in schools as the beginning of the end of rule of law in the US.
    If the federales were going to bail out municipalities, they’d be doing it already in CA and IL. No such luck.
    “One thing the latest financial meltdown taught me was that bankers and bondholders always get paid.”

  47. Well then, clotty, you should therefore have more respect for the shetl and not use it as a perjorative term.
    …That is, unless you hate your “Jewish” “in-laws” ….

  48. I guess that would be the same GM that earned a 1.6 billion dollars profit last quarter.
    And Spiro, don’t be too hard on dear old clotty. As evidenced by his use of shetl and now “federales”, he just loves to try out new words for other languages. He thinks it might deflect people’s attention from the fact that he’s a dope.

  49. My fascination with your town comes from its self-congratulatory attitude and complete denial of reality. You’re taxing and spending yourselves into oblivion and don’t even know it.
    The rhetoric of your town’s leaders show that the general concern level is focused pretty high up Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, while the reality of your situation is a little closer to 1929.

  51. Nick- Moody’s also rated billions of $$$ of subprime sewage AAA, too.
    Your residential tax base is headed toward a median home price of 450K and a 20K tax bill. I’d like to know how your town will avoid BK once you get to this point (or before, for that matter).

  52. Does this mean you’ll be lining up for the IPO of this DOA, piece of crap company? Or are you on the list to pay 41K for their electric tin can on four wheels?

  53. Done talking to you guys. You can’t address any of the statements I’ve made (because they’re irrefutable), so you pull the stupid card and the anti-Semite card.

  54. Nice try laying on us what you caused yourself, clotti.
    If you had stuck to a simple economics discussion on the relative value of different types of bonds, you might have gotten somewhere.
    Instead, you (and not us) brought in Soviet, shtetl, Liberal Europe, turds, and so on, (all your embellishments, no ours) and when it failed to reinforce your point of view (how could it?) , you blamed us instead.

  56. Your residential tax base is headed toward a median home price of 450K and a 20K tax bill.
    The average Montclair house is worth $650,000 and the average tax bill is about $15,500.
    You don’t really know all that much about Montclair, do you?

  57. Dolt, I said “HEADED TOWARD”.
    You’re not too bright, are you? Or perhaps you’re still feeling like a special little snowflake for living where you do?
    It’s really going to be fun watching your town fall apart.

  58. I know you said “headed toward.” But you’re wrong — it actually went over 450K years and years ago.
    Night!

  59. Whatever will clotty do for fun after he watches “our” town fall apart?
    It is hard to imagine the sort of pathetic existence that would be highlighted by watching others — countrymen all — suffer financial hardship.
    All from the nirvana that is Clinton NJ.
    I used to think that clotty was just a dope. I realise now that it goes much, much deeper.

  60. I’d bet the average resident of Montclair owes more to Montclair debt then they carry on their personal credit card. Since I don’t carry a balance on my credit card, I owe Montclair $6054. This is simply astonishing. You all might not like Clot’s delivery and slant, but the tax implications he brings up is real.
    China runs budget surpluses. I hope Fried does more listening and less speaking when he’s over there.

  61. “China runs budget surpluses”.
    In fact, the Organization for Economic Development and Cooperation has for some time urged China to run budget deficits in order to sustain its growth. This would entail a rebalanced economy, real exchange rate appreciation, a more flexible yuan, and true reform.
    China faces an “ageing population, income inequalities, fragmented social safety nets, the inability of small firms to access financing, and a lack of incentives for innovation due to weak protection of intellectual property rights.”
    The report noted that “further out, maintaining strong domestic demand will require a continued fiscal deficit… durably lower government saving was needed to keep reducing China’s current account surplus and to pay for further reforms in areas such as education, welfare assistance, pensions and health.”
    China is far from a paradise, and while Fried would ALWAYS, in my view, do better to listen rather than speak, he would be unwise to grovel in front of the Chinese who do, after all, lead a nation with an abysmal human rights record, a history of oppression, and a culture which in its discouragement of individual initiative is counter in almost every way to our own.
    So stu, I’m not quite ready to raise a Tsingtao to the Chinese just yet. And if you are suggesting the the besotted clotty is the only one who realises that taxes, etc. are a problem in Montclair, you are very much in error.

  62. Stuw6,
    These are long standing issues that you foreaw and have commented on for as long as I can remember. Whether he goes to China or not is irrelevant.
    I do disagree that the majority of the majority of residents who voted for this Mayor were fooled. I think they got pretty much what they wanted and expected. The fact he probably won’t be re-elected is a historical given.
    In an overall affluent town like Montclair, increases in property taxes is the lesser evil than increases in income taxes in the short run.
    Unfortunately for you, you are part of a constituency that is represented even less than my ward.

  64. Unfortunately for you, you are part of a constituency that is represented even less than my ward.
    And as we continue to go down the same path, I expect to see less and less like-minded residents. Quite frankly, they are being priced (and taxed) out of town. I expect to see a lot more William Sonoma and a lot less Rainbow in the future. Hopefully, I won’t be here to witness the changeover. Diversity…well you better be wealthy.

  65. Back to main topic — yesterday or today it was reported that China has just surpassed Japan as the second largest economic power on earth, and that it is poised to jump over the USA rather soon.
    The mayor may wish to take a few notes while in the land that will shortly be holding the reins of the the world’s most powerful economy.

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