Latest / Seth Grossman – Liberty and Prosperity / 10.10.26 Seth Grossman WPG Radio: Joe Bertolino, president of Stockton U, rearranges the deck chairs as the ship sinks. South Jersey Socialism blocks success in Ocean City– supports bail out of failure in Atlantic City.

Transcript

10.10.26 Seth Grossman WPG Radio: Joe Bertolino, president of Stockton U, rearranges the deck chairs as the ship sinks. South Jersey Socialism blocks success in Ocean City– supports bail out of failure in Atlantic City. · Seth Grossman – Liberty and Prosperity

• 0:00
  - Stockton University.
• 0:02
  - We all know that Stockton University has a
• 0:04
  - budget
• 0:05
  - crisis.
• 0:06
  - They're short somewhere between 20 or $25,000,000,
• 0:10
  - and we all know why they're short 20
• 0:11
  - or $25,000,000.
• 0:13
  - They started
• 0:15
  - this building boom with borrowed money
• 0:18
  - about twenty years ago where they built all
• 0:21
  - sorts of new
• 0:22
  - buildings in, the Galloway Township campus.
• 0:26
  - And if that wasn't bad enough, then they
• 0:28
  - built a whole duplicate campus
• 0:30
  - in Atlantic City that's pretty much empty, but
• 0:34
  - they have this huge debt.
• 0:36
  - They have this huge
• 0:38
  - expense of running empty buses back and forth
• 0:41
  - between Galloway and,
• 0:44
  - and Atlantic City campuses, which they don't need.
• 0:47
  - And I love the way they talk about
• 0:49
  - how environmentally
• 0:50
  - conscious they are when they're burning up all
• 0:52
  - this gasoline for nothing. The enrollment has dropped
• 0:55
  - dramatically. The tuition has gone up dramatically.
• 0:58
  - And now, belatedly,
• 1:01
  - Joe Bertolino, the new president, is saying we
• 1:03
  - have to lay off a,
• 1:06
  - a few professors,
• 1:08
  - which is really like rearranging the deck chairs
• 1:10
  - of the Titanic. I'd like to talk about
• 1:12
  - that. But what's even more disturbing, you could
• 1:15
  - get this from... It's called breaking AC. It's
• 1:18
  - a website
• 1:19
  - done by Linda Cohen, who I believe used
• 1:21
  - to be the crime reporter for the press
• 1:24
  - of Atlantic City.
• 1:26
  - She showed a video
• 1:28
  - of the protest
• 1:30
  - of the Stockton students
• 1:32
  - against the the Stockton... Joe Bertolino and the
• 1:35
  - Stockton administration, which is so
• 1:37
  - horrible
• 1:38
  - and disgusting.
• 1:40
  - I would wanna give a dime to Stockton
• 1:42
  - for any event.
• 1:43
  - And if you're a parent or grandparent,
• 1:46
  - before you even consider
• 1:49
  - helping your
• 1:50
  - child or your son, daughter,
• 1:53
  - or grandkids
• 1:54
  - attend Stockton University, you ought to see what
• 1:57
  - the video of those Stockton students in action
• 2:00
  - that, Linda Cohen posted on her breaking AC
• 2:03
  - website.
• 2:04
  - And you could also get them. We put
• 2:06
  - them on our,
• 2:07
  - Liberty and Prosperity
• 2:09
  - blog and our Liberty and Prosperity
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  - YouTube channel.
• 2:13
  - Stockton bailing out to Sheridan and... Oh, yeah.
• 2:16
  - I got a gem from Ocean City
• 2:19
  - about the the latest group
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  - that now opposes
• 2:23
  - building a hotel
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  - in Ocean City in a resort commercial area
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  - where there used to be an amusement park.
• 2:32
  - Zoning laws
• 2:33
  - are being misused
• 2:35
  - to smother and strangle
• 2:38
  - New Jersey and make everything more expensive.
• 2:42
  - When they started zoning,
• 2:44
  - it sort of made sense.
• 2:46
  - People before you had zoning laws, and New
• 2:49
  - Jersey didn't have any zoning laws until basically
• 2:52
  - the nineteen forties or nineteen fifties.
• 2:54
  - I could understand where if you lived in
• 2:57
  - in a residential
• 2:58
  - zone,
• 2:59
  - you didn't want somebody building a gas station
• 3:01
  - next door. And if you lived in a
• 3:03
  - commercial area with a bunch of shops, you
• 3:06
  - didn't want somebody building a power plant or
• 3:08
  - a smoke stack, or, you know, type of,
• 3:12
  - factory next door.
• 3:14
  - So they would have,
• 3:16
  - you know,
• 3:17
  - a limitation that in a residential area,
• 3:20
  - you could only build houses.
• 3:22
  - In a commercial area, you could only, build
• 3:25
  - stores and
• 3:27
  - shops and and small businesses. And in a
• 3:29
  - industrial area, you would build factories.
• 3:32
  - But they never ever told you what kind
• 3:35
  - of factory you had to have in a
• 3:37
  - factory area
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  - or what kind of store you had to
• 3:40
  - have in a commercial area.
• 3:42
  - So basically, the public is fickle.
• 3:45
  - What is profitable and fashionable today in a
• 3:48
  - business
• 3:49
  - will be outdated and abandoned two years from
• 3:52
  - now. So you always wanted to have somebody,
• 3:55
  - if they had a
• 3:57
  - a a business and and it wasn't doing
• 3:58
  - so well, you wanted to give them the
• 4:00
  - freedom to stop doing that business
• 4:03
  - and and put something new up.
• 4:05
  - Now what they have done since in the
• 4:08
  - past thirty or forty years,
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  - basically, almost every town in New Jersey have
• 4:13
  - have passed
• 4:14
  - zoning laws
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  - that make 90 to 95%
• 4:19
  - of every building
• 4:21
  - in violation of something,
• 4:23
  - which basically means you're allowed to continue what
• 4:25
  - you already have.
• 4:27
  - But if what you already have isn't working
• 4:29
  - and you wanna try something new,
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  - then you have to go through this whole
• 4:33
  - expensive permit process,
• 4:35
  - which requires lots of money, lots of lawyers,
• 4:37
  - lots of experts, and lots of political influence.
• 4:40
  - And it gives every neighborhood,
• 4:44
  - I I wanna say yeta, every neighborhood gossip
• 4:47
  - the chance
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  - to speak out against something and shut down
• 4:50
  - everything. And so that's why so many towns
• 4:53
  - like Somers Point
• 4:54
  - are are becoming so shabby
• 4:57
  - and, filled with so many empty lots.
• 5:00
  - But anyway, in Ocean City, you have this
• 5:02
  - one particular hypocrisy I just wanted to bring
• 5:05
  - up.
• 5:06
  - And that is, of course, you have,
• 5:09
  - Eustace Meeta of the Icona Hotel
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  - in, in Avalon, wants to build a hotel
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  - where the old,
• 5:17
  - Wonderland Pier used to be.
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  - And you have all these neighbors,
• 5:21
  - are saying, well, I
• 5:23
  - I don't want a a hotel.
• 5:25
  - They they didn't give me permission.
• 5:27
  - But here's the classic hypocrisy.
• 5:31
  - Every week in the Ocean City Sentinel, you
• 5:34
  - see these
• 5:36
  - letters to the editor complaining about the hotel.
• 5:39
  - And last Wednesday,
• 5:41
  - you had Howie Atkinson,
• 5:43
  - the president of the Beachwatch
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  - Condominium Association,
• 5:48
  - wrote this whole letter to the editor saying,
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  - yeah, I live in this condominium
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  - association next to Wonderland Pier, and I don't
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  - want them to build this hotel
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  - next to my fancy condominium property.
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  - You know what's so ridiculous about this?
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  - Until a few years ago,
• 6:05
  - the Beach Watch condominium
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  - used to be a motel.
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  - But the owner
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  - couldn't make money from the motel, so he
• 6:13
  - turned it into condominiums, sold the condominiums, and
• 6:15
  - this guy Howie Atkinson moved in.
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  - So here you have a bunch of people
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  - turn a motel
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  - into a condominium
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  - in a hotel motel,
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  - you know, commercial resort area, and as soon
• 6:30
  - as they move in, they say, well, we
• 6:31
  - don't want any hotels or motels.
• 6:33
  - It's almost like somebody who builds a house,
• 6:36
  - you know, at at the end of a
• 6:38
  - runway of an airport, and then says, oh,
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  - there's too much noise coming from the planes.
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  - Shut down the airport. I own a motel
• 6:45
  - here in Cape
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  - May. Run it for fifty years.
• 6:50
  - And a lot of people have the idea
• 6:51
  - that
• 6:53
  - it's like money growing on trees
• 6:56
  - that, you know, it's just
• 6:58
  - whatever law gets passed,
• 7:01
  - whatever zoning restrictions get imposed,
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  - it doesn't matter. Well, it does matter.
• 7:08
  - The damage that the Jim McGreevey,
• 7:11
  - room tax did to our industry
• 7:14
  - is has been absolutely
• 7:16
  - horrible.
• 7:18
  - We have lost inventory, and and Cape May
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  - is...
• 7:23
  - You take out Atlantic City and with the
• 7:26
  - casinos. Okay?
• 7:28
  - Cape May is is the top tourist destination
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  - in the state,
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  - second only to Atlantic City. So we were
• 7:36
  - very fortunate in many ways here, but we
• 7:39
  - have lost
• 7:41
  - inventory.
• 7:42
  - We have lost rooms in Cape May and
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  - and
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  - so it is not that easy to run
• 7:48
  - these properties
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  - at all.
• 7:51
  - And, you know, you you make a very
• 7:53
  - good point here.
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  - These zoning laws
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  - talk about affordability.
• 7:59
  - The added cost
• 8:01
  - of insane,
• 8:02
  - ridiculous
• 8:04
  - zoning and building laws
• 8:06
  - in this state make housing
• 8:09
  - very, very unaffordable.
• 8:11
  - You've you've got the, the Green Acres Act
• 8:14
  - that's taking out all sorts of inventory,
• 8:17
  - paying farmers
• 8:18
  - for their land, yet the farmers get to
• 8:21
  - keep the land.
• 8:23
  - And, yeah, I can go on and on
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  - here. I can give you an example. Yeah.
• 8:27
  - And and and like I like when I
• 8:28
  - say affordable housing. We're gonna have affordable housing.
• 8:31
  - What that means is if it costs you
• 8:33
  - $200,000
• 8:35
  - to build a a house, it means the
• 8:38
  - developer is forced to sell some of those
• 8:40
  - $200,000
• 8:41
  - units for a 150,000.
• 8:44
  - But to do that, he has to raise
• 8:46
  - the price of a 200,000
• 8:47
  - units that sell for 250,000.
• 8:50
  - So he's just... It's just like a lottery
• 8:52
  - for lucky lucky people with connections get their
• 8:54
  - cheap house. And then after a couple years,
• 8:57
  - they sell for the 250,000
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  - because they cost all this extra money to
• 9:01
  - make it. Isn't that how how affordable housing
• 9:03
  - works?
• 9:04
  - Well, look, Seth.
• 9:07
  - Unfortunately,
• 9:09
  - politicians
• 9:10
  - and and
• 9:11
  - zoning and planning board members,
• 9:14
  - they
• 9:16
  - are really ignorant
• 9:18
  - in in many occasions
• 9:20
  - in these small towns here
• 9:22
  - about what it takes to run a business
• 9:25
  - profitably,
• 9:26
  - to to stimulate a local economy.
• 9:30
  - And, you know, Eustace made a... He's running
• 9:33
  - into a brick wall
• 9:35
  - unnecessarily
• 9:36
  - in Ocean City, but it's happening in Cape
• 9:38
  - May too. Eustace has a project here where
• 9:41
  - he's gonna spend tens of millions of dollars,
• 9:44
  - create
• 9:45
  - well paying jobs,
• 9:48
  - you know,
• 9:49
  - huge, huge
• 9:51
  - shot in the arm to the local economy
• 9:54
  - here. I mean, absolutely
• 9:55
  - gigantic. And I know his projects
• 9:59
  - I've have toward his hotels.
• 10:01
  - He does first class work. It's it's not
• 10:04
  - it's not just
• 10:07
  - okay.
• 10:08
  - This guy builds quality, quality properties.
• 10:13
  - And, you know, I, he would he would
• 10:15
  - add to the synergy in Cape May. I
• 10:18
  - don't see it as competition for me. I
• 10:21
  - see it as an enhancement
• 10:23
  - for our our local
• 10:25
  - economy here.
• 10:26
  - But,
• 10:28
  - you know, Seth, can I just? I know
• 10:30
  - I'm violating your role here. No. No. No.
• 10:32
  - No. You're not because you're responding to a
• 10:34
  - topic. So I'm I'm I'm granting you a
• 10:37
  - dispensation because I Well... Because I I I
• 10:39
  - was actually wrong by injecting that topic before
• 10:42
  - you came on. So go ahead.
• 10:44
  - Well, no. It's just, you know, you mentioned
• 10:46
  - Craig Callaway here. And again, it's very reminiscent
• 10:50
  - of Levgeny,
• 10:52
  - Beraya, Stalin's
• 10:54
  - henchmen,
• 10:56
  - who said, you know, show show me the
• 10:58
  - man and I'll find you the crime. Okay?
• 11:00
  - That's that's very obvious here.
• 11:03
  - And, you know, it it... If the politicians
• 11:07
  - really wanna bring integrity
• 11:10
  - to our election process... Well, look, here's the
• 11:13
  - example of how inept
• 11:16
  - and feckless the Republican Party is.
• 11:19
  - Something called the Save Act.
• 11:22
  - Congress, you know, there are some brave people
• 11:25
  - in Congress like Mike Lee,
• 11:27
  - k, and representative Chip Roy of Texas
• 11:31
  - who wanted to bring the Save Act. And
• 11:34
  - where did it go? Well, it went nowhere.
• 11:36
  - We have a Republican Congress, a Republican White
• 11:39
  - House, and it's going nowhere. Save Act,
• 11:43
  - its main objective was to ensure that only
• 11:46
  - US citizens can vote.
• 11:48
  - That's not happening right now. It is not
• 11:51
  - happening.
• 11:52
  - Non citizens are voting.
• 11:54
  - Yeah. And, you know, if if we don't
• 11:56
  - have integrity in our elections, in our democratic
• 12:00
  - process,
• 12:01
  - well,
• 12:03
  - it it pretty much is all over then,
• 12:05
  - isn't it? I mean, we Well well, I
• 12:07
  - I guess part of the myth is when
• 12:09
  - you say we have a Republican majority in
• 12:12
  - Congress. Actually, we don't.
• 12:13
  - Because,
• 12:15
  - you know, you only have a majority of
• 12:16
  - what, 51 or 52,
• 12:18
  - which will probably be lost in in a...
• 12:21
  - In about six weeks. But but when you
• 12:23
  - have, like, Murkowski in Alaska,
• 12:25
  - she's not really a Republican. Never votes with
• 12:27
  - the Republicans.
• 12:29
  - Before you had guys like McCain.
• 12:31
  - So so what happened is the only way
• 12:34
  - the Republicans could do Republican things in Congress
• 12:37
  - is if they would have a majority of
• 12:39
  - maybe, 20 or 30 seats. But unfortunately,
• 12:43
  - Trump did not act on these things when
• 12:46
  - he had the,
• 12:47
  - majority he needed.
• 12:49
  - And by time he had the thinnest of
• 12:51
  - majority, where all the Democrats have to do
• 12:53
  - is pick off one or two, and then
• 12:55
  - the legislation is dead. I think that's what
• 12:57
  - happened. So it's it's...
• 12:59
  - You know, it it's it's more...
• 13:01
  - I I just don't wanna see,
• 13:04
  - where Trump says, well, it's not me. It's
• 13:06
  - those Republicans in Congress. They they all had
• 13:08
  - a hand in this mess.
• 13:10
  - And I don't I don't know how we're
• 13:12
  - gonna straighten it out, but
• 13:14
  - we're
• 13:15
  - we're in a heck of a situation.
• 13:17
  - Well, Seth, you know, you and I both,
• 13:19
  - were very much in the camp of a
• 13:21
  - very, very
• 13:23
  - effective executive. His name was Ron Ron DeSantis
• 13:26
  - back in 2024.
• 13:29
  - I think Ron DeSantis,
• 13:31
  - he's proven in Florida he gets things done.
• 13:35
  - You're right. But, unfortunately, too many of, Republicans
• 13:38
  - are are just like the Democrats looking for
• 13:40
  - the quick,
• 13:41
  - simple, easy answer where you say all this
• 13:43
  - stuff and people clap because I wanna hear
• 13:45
  - it.
• 13:46
  - But if you wanna bring fundamental change, it's
• 13:49
  - it's like what, I think Thomas Edison said.
• 13:52
  - People often miss opportunities
• 13:53
  - because it comes dressed in overalls, and it
• 13:56
  - looks like work.
• 13:57
  - People don't wanna
• 13:59
  - people don't wanna take the time to work
• 14:01
  - to understand that it took
• 14:04
  - sixty or seventy years for us to get
• 14:06
  - in this mess. And we're gonna have to
• 14:08
  - start the process of working sixty or seventy
• 14:11
  - years to get out of it. But too
• 14:13
  - often, people on our side say, well, I
• 14:16
  - don't wanna worry about that work. It's too
• 14:17
  - it's too complicated. I I want someone who's
• 14:20
  - gonna fix it right now.
• 14:22
  - And and I think that's where we are,
• 14:24
  - and it's not working out for us.
• 14:26
  - Oh, Seth, look, we we all,
• 14:29
  - you you mentioned this. Okay? It's not enough
• 14:32
  - just to vote.
• 14:33
  - You know, we we can't be lazy as
• 14:35
  - as citizens.
• 14:36
  - We need to get involved.