Video: Dedication of Plainfield’s Assemblyman Gerald B. Green Plaza Brings Out Top NJ Politicians
PLAINFIELD, NJ – It was a veritable who’s who in New Jersey politics on Saturday in Plainfield at the dedication ceremony for the Gerald B. Green Plaza, the large-scale public and private redevelopment project totaling 26,000 square feet.
“It was a $30 million project that was developed in 2004,” according to Sebastian Delia, Union County’s Communications Director. “The Union County Improvement Authority, the city of Plainfield, and the county of Union developed the project, and it was a unique entity because it was not only a public project, but it was a public-private project.”
Delia said, “Jerry had championed the project which was on the roster of open space inventory. The city had, at the time, wanted this to become a park. But Jerry had championed legislation, along with Senator Lesniak, and it was freed up for development. And then he later moved his offices here.”
The Union County Improvement Authority voted to name the building for Green in December 2016.
With Green’s family on hand, this morning’s invocation was given by Rev. Wayne Johnson of the Bibleway Deliverance Church in Roselle, followed by opening remarks by Senator Nicholas P. Scutari, LD22, who called Green a fixture in the city of Plainfield.
“He didn’t just represent Plainfield, he was a statewide figure. But I can tell you that he was Plainfield. You knew where his heart was, you knew where he’d always be. Whether it was fighting for fair housing or for advocating for minority causes, he was a man of the people, and we could count on him.”
“The late Assemblyman Jerry Green has left an indelible mark on the state, the county, and on this city,” Plainfield Mayor Adrian O. Mapp said.
Mapp added, “Over the years, we’ve had many battles, and like two prizefighters, we would throw punches at each other, and in the end, we would embrace. Because the Assemblyman and I knew, that we were stronger together and for as long as we worked together in the best interest of Plainfield, Plainfield would be a better place, the county would be a better place. And so there was no point in us being apart, we always came together to do the right thing and to work in the interest of the city of Plainfield.”
“This has anchored economic development,” Mapp said of the plaza.
Assemblywoman Linda Carter, who took the oath to join the New Jersey General Assembly in May, and has vowed to fight for affordable housing, education funding, tax relief, environmental protection, and women and minority owned businesses, said, “We come here today to honor a legacy of a man who has done so much for our state, for District legislative 22, for our county, and for the residents of the city of Plainfield. Jerry Green put the people first. Always, never without a doubt, and never wavered from making sure the people were first.”
Carter noted that a building could hardly do justice “for a man whose legacy lives in all of us.”
“I know I can never fill the shoes of Jerry Green, and I said this before; I will not even try. It’s impossible. What I can do is make sure that I carry the mantel of public service forward and through his legacy put the people first. Because at the end of the day that is what Jerry would want, and would expect. Am I right? Or am I wrong?”
Union County Freeholder Chairman Sergio Granados said Green fought hard to build the complex to help those in Plainfield. “When this building opened in 2004, it not only brought hundreds of new jobs to the area, but helped stabilize the downtown area. It was a unique development that combines private retail with public sector business.”
Granados added, “This development brought county and state employment assistance and social services to residents in the area, and has since helped thousands to find meaningful employment. This complex was also the most significant project in Plainfield in nearly thirty years. Jerry moved his offices here, and the assembly office remains here with our new Assemblywoman, Linda Carter.”
“For 17 years I worked alongside Jerry Green and many times we worked on the same issues: fair housing, expungement, criminal justice reform, fairness of government, making sure that we were looking after the needs of everybody. That’s what Jerry Green has been to the Assembly and to the state of New Jersey,” Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman said.
Craig J. Coughlin, Speaker of the New Jersey Assembly, said, “When I first began the quest to become the Speaker, Jerry was one of the first people I reached out to outside my Middlesex County delegation to support me, because I knew that if I had Jerry, I had something special. And I was fortunate that Jerry was one of the very first people to endorse me to become the Speaker of the Assembly. And he never left my side.”
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy noted, “It is abundantly clear to all of us the impact he had in life on his wonderful family, on his colleagues, and on this city and this county he loved so deeply.”
“But Jerry wasn’t just about politics. He was about results.”
Murphy added, “He sponsored bills large and small because he knew that each one in its own way would improve the life of someone in our state. And I think that’s a good definition of public service, to use the powers of whatever our office might be to improve the lives of others, particularly those who have nowhere else to turn.”
Green was the “voice for the voiceless,” Senator Robert Menendez said.
“The dedication of this plaza to Assemblyman Jerry Green is a fitting tribute to a man who truly believed in the mission of government; not to accumulate power, but to improve people’s lives. To change the course of events for those he got to represent and beyond.”
“We saw it in the way that he stood up for his constituents, we saw it in the legislation that he passed, we saw it in the causes that he took throughout his 26 years in the legislature. It’s no exaggeration to say that Jerry cared about the people of Plainfield and greater Union County the way he cared about his own family.”
A new scholarship has been created in memory of Assemblyman Green, and it will provide financial support to African American men and women at Union County College who are on track to graduate. For more information or to donate, contact the Union County College Foundation’s Executive Director, Doug Rouse, at 908-709-7113 or email douglas.rouse@ucc.edu.