Boycott LG Electronics

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We who advocate for a waterfront Greenway along the Hudson River applaud the leadership of Bob Bender, the chair of the Community Board 8 Parks and Recreation Committee, in calling for a boycott of LG Electronics products, reported in last week’s Riverdale Press.  

We support the Greenway because we believe the Hudson River is the premiere natural resource of Riverdale.  We want to overcome the community’s separation from the river and bring people to it, literally. Likewise the view of the forever-wild Palisades is an essential part of the Hudson River experience when viewed from the streets of Riverdale and other towns on the east side of the river, and from the edge of the river on the Greenway.

LG Electronics plans to build a 143-foot high tower in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey overshadowing the Palisades and defiling these views.  The LG building will be four times higher than other construction behind the Palisades.  

If built, it would forever spoil the adjacent interstate park and its sweeping vistas, protected by a century of conservation. It would open the door for more development, ruining one of the last untouched areas in the New York metropolitan area.  It would diminish the view from Wave Hill.  And it would destroy this very special part of nature that is also part of Riverdale.

LG Electronics could build lower to the ground on its 27-acre site, creating equivalent office space and numerous jobs, while preserving a national natural landmark cherished  by all of the towns on the east side of the Hudson.  Instead, it stiff-arms its neighbors and ignores the opposition to its plan.  We need to send a message that LG will understand — we need to communicate with our pocketbooks by joining this boycott.

The accompanying images, developed by Save the Palisades (www.savethepalisades.org), tell the whole story.

Paul J. Elston is a Riverdalian and President of Friends of the Hudson River Greenway in the Bronx. Point of View is a column open to all readers.

LG Electronics, boycott, Palisades, Shant Shahrigian

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