I've started a grassroots effort which I am hoping you will support in the New Jersey Legislature. As is stated in the Assembly Tourism and Gaming Committee Statement to Assembly Number 2049 - " New Jersey's tourism industry is of critical importance to the overall health of the State's economy as evidenced by the amount of revenues this State collects annually from tourism and tourism-related activities and the opportunities for employment afforded to its citizens."

I'm sure you and the New Jersey Legislature are aware of the broadcast antenna that the Metropolitan Television Alliance is planning on erecting in New Jersey. This 2000 foot tower is most likely going to be built in either Bayonne or Liberty State Park by the Liberty Science Center This tower is needed to replace the broadcast antenna that once stood atop the Twin Towers. Not many New Jerseyans seem to be aware of this plan, therefore I have created a website - http://www.aboutnewjersey.com/NJ_LibertyTower/ - and I am developing a grassroots effort to gain support for the Liberty State Park Tower (unofficially I have named it New Jersey's Liberty Tower).

Once built - this tower will be the tallest structure in the world. Currently the NY broadcasters want to build an ugly tower with tons of support cables. It will be no different than the many other communication towers throughout NJ that no one wants in their neighborhoods - except for one thing - this one will be 2000ft tall and be seen from 20 miles away. The broadcasters just want something cheap and quick to build - but New Jerseyans will have to live with this for generations. This tower is proposed for Bayonne, which the Mayor of Bayonne supports and is willing to give to them.

Liberty Science Center, on the other hand - has a vision that is more beneficial to ALL of New Jersey. They are proposing a tower design similar to the CN Tower in Toronto - http://www.cntower.ca (which has held the title of World's Tallest Structure for 26 years) or The Space Needle in Seattle - http://www.spaceneedle.com. New Jersey's Liberty Tower will have an observation deck, museum, educational opportunities with linkages to LSC and may contain a possible restaurant. This tower would be next to the Liberty Science Center in Liberty State Park. This has the potential of bringing millions of visitors to New Jersey - along with their tourism dollar. Liberty Tower would become a world renowned symbol for New Jersey. 2,000,000 people visit CN Tower in Toronto every year and is a world renowned symbol for that city and all of Canada. Liberty Tower can do the same for New Jersey.

New Jersey's Liberty Tower can be used to advertise New Jersey to the world and draw tourists from New York. Right now most of the tourists that visit New York don't see a reason to take the ferry ride across the Hudson to New Jersey. The tallest structure in the world WITH observation deck can give them that reason. Once they are here - looking out over Manhattan from New Jersey's Liberty Tower - they can also see what other things there are to see and do in New Jersey. Liberty Tower can be the central point that New Jersey needs to tie all our great tourism together and advertise it to the world. We have Revolutionary War reenactments, skiing, the beaches, the oldest lighthouses in the country, great restaurants, great state parks and so much more. But sadly most of the rest of the country thinks that New Jersey is a dump.

This is a small description of New Jersey on AOL's travel information page - this review is provided by Rough Guides....

The long, skinny state of NEW JERSEY, squashed between Philadelphia and New York on the Atlantic coast, suffers a severe image problem. Most travelers only see "the Garden State" (so called for the rich market garden territory at the state's heart) from the stupendously ugly New Jersey Turnpike toll road, which, heavy with truck traffic, cuts through a landscape of gray smokestacks and industrial estates. Even the songs of Bruce Springsteen, Asbury Park's golden boy, paint his home state as a gritty urban wasteland of empty lots, gray highways, lost dreams and blue-collar tragedy. In reality, the majority of the refineries and factories hug a mere fifteen-mile-wide swath along the turnpike, but bleak cities like Newark, home to the major airport, and Trenton, the capital, do little to improve the look of the place. - http://aolsvc.travel.roughguides.com/roughguides.html?link=1&formid=0&option=0&opname=0&locationid=17250

The rest of the review on New Jersey isn't any better. They don't even have a nice thing to say about Princeton in their "Towns" section. When they describe the Jersey Shore they mention the garbage washing up on New Jersey's beaches years ago. In their review, they fail to mention that the garbage originated from the Fresh Kills landfill on Staten Island in New York and was THEIR garbage. This is a link that AOL provides as a guide to people thinking of visiting New Jersey. This image needs to be changed and I think that New Jersey's Liberty Tower can be used to bring about that change.

Having the RIGHT tower that draws tourism and is world renowned is good for the entire state, good for the entire New Jersey tourism industry. It would be a huge step in combating this negative stereotype that New Jersey has had for years.

I would like to see something built that New Jerseyans can be proud of for generations to come. The Bayonne design, by contrast will be an eyesore for generations to come and will do nothing to promote additional tourism in the state. New Jersey deserves something that will be a world renowned symbol, something that will bring more tourism and money into the state. We, as New Jerseyans, should accept nothing less.

I am asking for your support in this. New Jersey's Liberty Tower will do much more for New Jersey in terms of jobs, tourism dollars, prestige, etc than a quickly erected eyesore like the one proposed in Bayonne. From my understanding there isn't much time - supposedly a decision by Governor McGreevey will be made in 4 - 6 weeks. In this short time - I am trying to get as much exposure and support for this as I can. You may think that this does not concern anyone outside the Jersey City/Bayonne area - but I think that this will be great for ALL of New Jersey.

Thank you -