16 moments that helped define this decade in North Jersey – NorthJersey.com
The 2010s had a little bit of everything for North Jersey. Here are some of the major events and trends that we covered. How many affected you?
New Jerseyans became more serious about climate change after the devastation from Superstorm Sandy in 2012, which damaged more than 2,000 properties in the Meadowlands and wreaked havoc at the Jersey Shore. After a long delay, the state now has plans to build the nation’s largest offshore wind farm with the goal of lowering its carbon emissions. It is also building hundreds of public charging stations for electric vehicles, to take more gas-powered cars off the road. But continued construction along the Shore and in low-lying areas has raised questions over whether New Jersey is ready for the long-term effects of rising seas and more frequent extreme weather. — Scott Fallon
Remember swine flu? A decade ago, a global pandemic was cresting. Panicked parents lined up for hours to get their children vaccinated. Federal authorities distributed millions of doses of vaccine nationwide. The H1N1 flu virus, as it was officially called, claimed 12,000 lives in the United States and as many as 200,000 worldwide. As 2010 dawned, a 45-year-old Bergen County man died of swine flu to become the 22nd of 42 New Jersey residents to die in the outbreak. To the relief of health officials, however, the world dodged the catastrophe they feared. The death toll was no worse than a typical flu season, except for one thing: Its victims were mostly young.
Current flu vaccines now contain strains that protect against H1N1. But fast-forward a decade, and parents who oppose vaccinating their children are flexing their political muscles. Exemptions to mandated childhood vaccines have climbed as action stalled in the New Jersey Legislature to tighten vaccine requirements. Measles is resurgent in the United States. An outbreak of hepatitis has quietly spread in New Jersey.
From flu to Ebola, Zika to adenovirus, infectious diseases have claimed lives, stoked fears and accounted for massive expenditures of public dollars this decade. — Lindy Washburn
In each of the last four years, New Jersey has set a record in opioid deaths, despite state efforts to expand treatment options. More than 18,000 New Jersey residents have died of opioid overdoses over the course of a decade, more than the population of many New Jersey municipalities. The death toll would have been much higher if not for the widespread use of Narcan, an overdose reversal drug that is now carried by police and emergency medical personnel.
The nature of the epidemic has evolved, too. Physicians in 2019 prescribed fewer opioid-based painkillers than they did a decade earlier. Federal and state policies intended to monitor and discourage over-prescribing have led to decreases since 2015. Heroin and, more recently, fentanyl, a much more powerful narcotic, now account for a majority of overdose deaths. Medication-assisted treatment for substance-use disorders is now available in most jails and prisons, and more doctors offer it as part of their practices. But treatment slots — both residential and outpatient — don’t meet the need. — Lindy Washburn
There was renewed focus on the sex abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic Church as allegations were made against Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, law enforcement officials began investigations in multiple states and a change in New Jersey law opened the way for perhaps hundreds of civil lawsuits to be filed.
McCarrick, who years ago led the Newark Archdiocese and the Metuchen Diocese, was defrocked in 2019 amid allegations that he sexually abused minors and harassed adult seminarians. In December 2019, he was accused in a lawsuit of abusing a Hackensack boy in the mid-1990s.
In 2018, the state Attorney General’s Office launched a sweeping investigation into how church officials handled sex abuse accusations after a Pennsylvania grand jury found that the church in that state had covered up allegations while law enforcement sometimes looked the other way.
Earlier this year, the state’s five dioceses released a list of 188 credibly accused priests, at least partly in response to the state investigation. The list did not include priests who belong to religious orders.
In 2018, the order that runs Delbarton School in Morris Township said 13 of its monks had been accused of abusing 30 people over three decades. The revelation came after NorthJersey.com reported that the order had settled some abuse complaints. It has settled at least 10 lawsuits over the last two years. — Abbott Koloff
Mosquitoes, mobsters and bouffant hair — that’s how people used to see New Jersey. As if those were bad things. The 2010s will be remembered as the decade, in pop culture, when we learned to stop worrying and love the Garden State. Yes, “The Sopranos,” beginning in 1999, set the table. But “Jersey Shore,” “The Real Housewives of New Jersey” and “Cake Boss,” all three of which launched in 2009, were the shows at the forefront of this change — over the past 10 years — in public sentiment. How could we be anything but impressed by The Situation’s epic ab development? Or not be entranced by Teresa Giudice’s white lipstick? Or fail to marvel at Buddy Valastro’s way with a frosting dispenser? All hail New Jersey. What’s not to love? — Jim Beckerman
Because of the consolidation trend during the decade, only a handful of New Jersey’s hospitals remain independent, and many doctors have joined hospital groups or sold their practices to private-equity firms.
“Every week we read about another health care system acquiring another,” said John Fanburg, chairman of the health care law practice at Brach Eichler, a Roseland law firm. “There is a feeling among all providers that independent, solo entities — whether doctor or hospital — cannot make it in this health care business environment.”
Hackensack Meridian Health and RWJBarnabas Health have emerged as the two largest health care systems in the state, each including multiple hospitals as well as facilities for outpatient visits and surgery, long-term care, urgent care and rehabilitation. Hackensack Meridian incorporated mental health care and substance use disorder treatment into its offerings by merging with Carrier Clinic.
At the same time, solo and duo physician practices have all but vanished. Physicians have aligned with hospitals to streamline their small businesses and integrate their information-technology systems. Insurers have created incentives for hospitals and doctors to do better at preventive care and treating people in their homes, rather than in hospitals. Private equity firms have acquired emergency-medicine and anesthesia practices, and are expanding into dermatology, ophthalmology and other specialties.
Summit Medical Group, the state’s largest multi-specialty group practice, merged with CityMD, the operator of dozens of urgent care centers in the New York region, in a deal underwritten by private equity. More physicians are spending less time with patients and contending with reduced reimbursement rates than just four years ago, according to Brach Eichler’s eighth annual survey of physicians. — Lindy Washburn
The late Anthony Bourdain loved New Jersey. He said so on a 2015 episode of his award-winning CNN food and travel show, “Parts Unknown.” The swashbuckling, Leonia-raised celebrity chef, author and food tourist did it by showcasing the Garden State’s eats. The 10 restaurants and dives he visited make up the New Jersey Legislature-certified Anthony Bourdain Food Trail. A fitting tribute to a food- and people-loving man who called Jersey “home.” — Esther Davidowitz
In 2012, Gov. Chris Christie gave microbreweries the right to serve beer on-premises and increased the amount of beer they could sell for takeaway. This legislation served to encourage the fledgling industry, giving it room to grow. And grow it did. According to a study done by the research company C + R, New Jersey has seen 43% growth in its craft beer industry since 2015, the highest in the country.
Brix City Brewery in Little Ferry opened in 2014 (the first in Bergen County). Magnify Brewing in Fairfield opened in 2015. Alementary in Hackensack opened in 2016. Ghost Hawk in Clifton, Hackensack Brewing Co. in Hackensack and Four City Brewing in Orange opened in 2019. Bolero Snort in Ridgefield Park, Glenbrook Brewery in Morristown, Seven Tribesmen in Wayne and more are set to open in 2020.
Joe Delcalzo, owner, along with Pete Reuther, of Brix City Brewery, said that when they opened, most people didn’t even know what a microbrewery was. As they attempted to find a home for Brix, town councils asked if it would bring smokestacks, drunkards and foul smells. “It wasn’t a stigma, necessarily, it was just complete unawareness,” Delcalzo said. “Most of the people had zero concept of what a brewery was. It was an uphill battle.” Now, there are more than 108 microbreweries in the state. — Rebecca King
The death of Ridgewood’s Tyler Clementi by suicide, just months into the new decade, brought national attention to the struggles of LGBTQ youth.
That event, coupled with the Supreme Court’s landmark 2015 ruling allowing same-sex couples to marry, seemed to usher in a new era of public support for the rights of gay, lesbian and transgender citizens.
In North Jersey, municipalities were quick to embrace the changing times with a visible sign of support: the rainbow Pride flag waving over borough hall. Clifton was first, followed by Glen Rock and Westwood. Then a dozen more.
This year, at least 14 towns in Bergen and Passaic counties raised the Pride flag. In Essex County, Maplewood celebrates the LGBTQ community in a different way: It has painted permanent rainbow crosswalks at Oakview Avenue and Valley Street.
Inside municipal buildings, too, times are changing. In New Jersey, at least 41 of 11,000 elected officials now identify as LGBTQ, according to John Weingart, associate director at the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University.
Brick Township Councilwoman Marianna Pontoriero has served two terms in the conservative Ocean County municipality. Alyssa Dawson, an openly gay Republican, became the youngest woman to hold public office in the state in 2018 when she was appointed to the Westwood Borough Council. — Stephanie Noda
President Barack Obama signed the Affordable Care Act in March 2010, a signature political achievement that has generated years of Republican opposition through the courts and Congress. As the decade ends, the fate of the law is uncertain: Congress removed the tax penalty for going without insurance, and last month a federal judge in Texas said the law’s insurance mandate is unconstitutional.
Nevertheless, New Jersey’s decision to expand Medicaid through the Affordable Care Act increased enrollment in that federal-state insurance program to 500,000. Nearly 250,000 others have purchased insurance themselves under provisions of the law. To preserve the gains in insurance coverage, Gov. Phil Murphy’s administration has sought to maintain key provisions of the federal law, including the tax penalty for going without coverage.
But health care prices continue to climb. Those who do not receive federal subsidies to purchase insurance pay higher premiums than in the past. And most policies come with high deductibles, or out-of-pocket expenses, for obtaining health care. Health care remains an important pocketbook issue in New Jersey, despite enactment of the Affordable Care Act. — Lindy Washburn
In 2010 — before Parkland, before Santa Fe, before Sandy Hook — it was not unusual for parents to be able to walk into school to drop off a forgotten lunch bag. Then came the series of massacres that took dozens of young lives. That prompted a transformation in school security.
Districts that didn’t already have armed guards moved to hire school resource officers or armed Class III officers (recently retired police officers). Some districts, like Lodi and Totowa, did this after the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut killed 20 children and six adults. For others, like Garfield and Mahwah, it took the February 2018 shooting in Parkland, Florida — which left 17 dead — to convince them that unarmed security guards weren’t enough.
Beyond the police presence, millions of dollars’ worth of door buzzers, surveillance cameras, secure vestibules and even bulletproof doors were installed in schools across North Jersey. Lockdown drills took on added urgency.
And today, a parent trying to drop off a forgotten lunch must either place it in an outdoor bin or bring a photo ID to get past security. — Linda Voorhis
The mundane rituals of the daily commute exploded into a chaotic scene of ripped metal, tumbling steel beams and screaming riders the morning of Sept. 29, 2016, as an NJ Transit train from Bergen County plowed through a barrier at the Hoboken train station, killing a Hoboken woman, injuring more than 100 people and sparking a federal investigation.
The three-car Pascack Valley Line train, filled with about 250 passengers, accelerated from 8 mph to 21 mph as the throttle was pushed forward in the seconds leading up to the accident, federal authorities said. They also said the train engineer, Thomas Gallagher, suffered from a sleeping disorder, obstructive sleep apnea, which was found to be a factor in the accident.
The crash prompted an investigation, and NJ Transit acknowledged that its safety record was significantly worse than those of other American commuter railroads and that it needed more money and 305 new employees to operate safely. The agency had cut its maintenance staff by 5 percent between 2010 and 2014, even as ridership rose steadily.
A federal investigation into NJ Transit’s safety problems found train workers using their personal cellphones while on duty, trains without required emergency tools or a functional fire extinguisher, crews that failed to conduct required brake tests or blow the horn at railroad crossings, and failure to properly secure locomotives in train yards. — James M. O’Neill
A much-anticipated class adventure at a historic park became a nightmarish, deadly ride for fifth-graders from Paramus’s East Brook Middle School on May 17, 2018, when their school bus and a dump truck collided on Route 80 in western Morris County, killing student Miranda Vargas, 10, and teacher Jennifer Williamson-Kennedy, 51, and injuring 43 others. The impact pushed the bus into guardrails and tore its body clear off its chassis, which remained at a right angle across the road, and twisted its front end into a yellow tangle of metal.
The crash triggered a number of suits by family members of the victims, and a law requiring new school buses in the state to have shoulder restraints and three-point seat belts for all students. The Legislature also passed laws mandating that school bus drivers take safety classes twice a year, comply with federal safety regulations and show proof of physical fitness if they are 70 or older, and requiring the state Department of Education to notify local authorities when a bus driver’s license is revoked or suspended.
The driver of the Paramus bus, Hudy Muldrow will spend up to 10 years in prison after taking a plea deal on Dec. 23, 2019. With family members of the victims in the courtroom, Muldrow, 79, admitted to recklessly “driving the bus sideways” across three lanes of the highway after missing the exit in Mount Olive for historic Waterloo Village. As Muldrow attempted to make an illegal U-turn, the bus collided with the dump truck. — James M. O’Neill
A 10-alarm fire at the Marcal Paper Mill left the community of Elmwood Park shaken after the gargantuan flames toppled much of the mill in January, including the famous Marcal sign that illuminated Route 80. Close to 500 people lost their jobs because of the fire, and many had to scramble to find employment at job fairs set up by the company and local officials who sought to help.
Uncertainty loomed for much of the year as to whether the company would rebuild and what that would look like. On the penultimate day of the year, Marcal announced that it will rebuild in Elmwood Park, incrementally hiring workers to eventually return to a 24/7 operation and erect the iconic sign once more. — Anthony Zurita
American Dream, the Meadowlands’ mega-mall and entertainment complex under development for decades, opened its doors for the first time on Oct. 25, 2019, greeting patrons and politicians alike with a mix of unfinished construction, confusing parking — and sheer delight at its colorful indoor amusement park and pro-size ice rink.
Big SNOW, the complex’s indoor ski slope, opened in early December. The November 2019 opening of the indoor water park was postponed indefinitely, and stores and dining options are slated to open by March 2020.
Will the sprawling mini-city, which the developer expects to attract 40 million visitors annually, be a hit or miss for retail? The mega center, developed by Canada’s Triple Five, will be nearly impossible to replicate. But, once fully operational, it will be a test case for experiential retail, and whether the concept can be successful in one of the country’s most competitive markets.
Under the concept, retailers or shopping centers create experiences that will lure people to their properties, where they later shop. It also describes a mode of retail in which shoppers are engaged with a product or an in-store offering.
Experiential retail was conceived out of necessity by the retail industry. With the rise of the internet, online shopping drastically changed consumers’ spending habits. People were no longer flocking to brick-and-mortar stores because they could do their shopping from home. That ate into the profits of some of the country’s biggest retailers — namely the department stores that were mainstays inside traditional malls. When those retailers went dark, malls struggled. Mall owners had to get creative with their offerings to attract shoppers, or else they, too, would fail. — Melanie Anzidei
Growing competition from online retail caused many traditional iconic brands such as Sears to struggle and shutter stores as the decade wore on. After a crippling 2017 holiday season, for instance, Toys R Us, the Wayne-based toy retailer, liquidated its stores across the United States.
Despite that, in North Jersey, the retail sector continued to thrive, a testament to the wise decisions that mall developers made. In Paramus, Westfield’s Garden State Plaza unveiled an ambitious plan in January 2019 to bring mixed-used residential to the property. That project will eventually create a miniature downtown at the mall, with an outdoor ice rink and sprawling green space for its residents.
Paramus Park mall, once struggling, recently welcomed New Jersey’s first Stew Leonard’s supermarket to its roster. The new tenant filled a vacancy left behind by Sears and has helped increase traffic to the property. In Hackensack, the Shops at Riverside had a major luxury transformation and welcomed fine dining to its halls.
Even Toys R Us made a comeback at decade’s end. One year after liquidating its U.S. stores, the iconic retailer emerged in early 2019 as a company called Tru Kids Inc. It planned to open 70 stores in Asia, India and Europe, and is focusing on the development of e-commerce platforms.
The company returned to the retail world with the opening of its first U.S. store at Garden State Plaza, just in time for Black Friday. The 54-year-old brand reimagined the toy shopping experience for customers.
Historically, Toys R Us stores were 40,000 square feet, large big-box locations. At 6,000 square feet, the new store is significantly smaller. The space also offers interactive play areas, propelling the toy giant into the world of experiential retail. — Melanie Anzidei
