>> Major funding for "Reporters Roundtable" with David Cruz is provided by RWJBarnabas Health, let's be healthy together.

♪ David: Home sweet home, if you can afford it.

Hey, it is "Reporters Roundtable."

I'm David Cruz.

Joanna, Senior correspondent from Spotlight news, Keith, and Charles are part of our Roundtable.

We will hear from them in a few minutes.

We begin today with a discussion about affordable housing, the driver behind most affordability concerns in this state, according to most polls.

Lawmakers came up with a new plan, but local leaders for responsible canning, a bipartisan group of municipal leaders, is -- responsible planning, a bipartisan group of municipal leaders is taking them to court.

The mayor joins us now to came out this week.

What is the number in Montvale?

You told Brenda Flanagan that the numbers were shocking, why were you shocked were you shocked -- why were you shocked?

Guest: We built 300 20% inclusion rate, about 1700 units we have to bills.

The whole town is 3000 units, and that is what is shocking.

We will have to increase our population by that much.

David: Let me get a question from one of our panelists, Charlie style.

Charlie: good morning.

That number at face value is shocking, but aren't there a variety of ways by which you can meet that obligation without having to just build units?

It is sticker stock argument to hear from Towns.

It has not only been used in this suit, but historically.

We have heard the same thing since the beginning.

Guest: So, that is the whole hold of this whole thing, in 2023, our number was 550 units.

Fair share housing said your number is 550, but if you sign here today, you get a 30% discount.

I said, are we buying a used car,, do you need the numbers or do you not?

If we need 65,000 units in the state, we have to have 348 from Montvale or not?

There are ways, we can have zoning, bids, seniors, different ways to account for it, but it becomes like a game of numbers.

Do we need these numbers are doing not?

I have two boys who cannot afford to live in the town where they grew up in, but we have to do, we have to hire new police officers, we have to have a second water tower because the water pressure is so low that the fire hydrants are at risk.

We have to widen five intersections and pass a $30 million referendum good schools so we can have more school space.

And then what is happening, and I don't know if people know this, when the builder wants to build 100 units, and 23% is affordable, they have to raise the prices of the fair market value to cover the lower values.

So it becomes unsustainable because now we are paying 3500 for one bedroom per month in Montvale.

David: Kenny, you had a question, as well?

Kenny: yes, hello, Mayor.

I have not been a New Jersey resident for a long time, only five years, and within that time, 40 on housing issues, this affordable housing issue seems to be ongoing for decades.

My question to you this morning is, why do you and your other colleagues want to kick this can down the road?

If the town addressed affordable housing to begin with back in the 1980's, it would not have been such a sticker shock, and your two sons would be able to live in your borough.

Mayor Ghassali: we have built affordable housing in Montvale and the regions around us.

What we are asking is, let us work with you.

Ask us the question, where can you build and how much can you build?

We have flooding and environmental issues.

We have infrastructure issues.

I can tell you where we can and cannot build, but for someone from the outside -- and Montvale is only four square miles, the last exit on the Parkway.

Many people do not know where we are.

We can -- we have built, the entire town has 10% of the population of the housing units is affordable housing.

We even have 100% units that is lower than affordable housing.

So for someone to say we are not building, we are building.

But we have single lane roads, so we are widening them, but how far can we widen them?

If you visit us, it is a very small town, trees, we love to live here, we invite people to come and live here.

We have natives of 57 countries that live in Montvale, and we speak 27 languages.

It is a very diverse town, but there is a limit to how much we can build.

Kenny: With all due respect, New Jersey is diverse, but at the same time what I don't hear discussed his income diversity.

People who would like to live in Montvale, let's be honest, your borough, the median household income is four times of n -- Newark.

I covered Baltimore, it seems like towns like Montvale and others, when it comes to affordable housing, is the usual we cannot handle it, we need -- we are not that big, we do not want house czars telling us what to do.

In general, when can we address this issue, and when can we actually acknowledge that nobody has kept up with the pace of affordable housing that has been needed the last four decades?

Mayor Ghassali: I respect thatMayor Ghassali: -- Mayor Ghassali: I respect that.

I lived the American dream, yes, income is high here, but we have doctors, lawyers, workers, train operators, what is wrong with the American dream?

People are working hard, and they want to live here.

I'm working with a town of 600 people and one lane, and they pay high taxes, and they Sikkema that is where I live, I will pay high taxes.

That is the American dream, is that not?

I came here with nothing, I worked hard, and I chose to live in Montvale.

I like my trees, my schools, the stores.

I will pay the high taxes.

What is wrong with that?

David: Let me ask you this?

Do you think all towns have a responsibility to provide, make room for, encourage the building of a affordable housing?

Mayor Ghassali: 100%.

We have 565 towns in the state, 62 don't.

Some already built affordable housing, but that is not count toward the overall state count.

We are asking them to count that so if the numbers is correct, 65,000 units, let's have everyone be counted.

That is what we argue.

David: Should towns like Newark and Jersey City have an affordable housing requirement?

Mayor Ghassali: they should.

Our building already.

That should be counted.

Why is that not counted?

I don't understand that.

I don't see the connection.

It is affordable housing, we have to build affordable housing.

We would like 65,000 units, let's count everything and see exactly what is needed.

The migration to New Jersey, the migration outside of New Jersey, what is that number, and who needs it?

We would like to build and help, but let's get the right numbers and not play games with 80% discount, you can do the overlay -- 30% discount, you can do the overlays only, but it is OK because it is discounted.

David: Montvale Mayor, Michael ghassali, appreciate you coming on with us.

Good to meet you.

Joanna, Charles, Kenneth, welcome to you all.

Ken, I feel like the affordable housing issue is mostly painted in broad strokes.

Families in need of affordable housing versus greedy, rich towns you do not want poor people moving in, but is it that simple?

Kenny: It is both.

OK. And I'll do to it.

We talk about how diverse their towns are, but we barely talk about income equality or diversity, where people who make $50,000 a year versus people who make $177,000 a year, like median in Montvale.

This is an issue, let's be honest, nobody has really kept up.

Plus, you are outside of the country's largest city, New York, and that is an expensive state.

Some of that is rollover to New Jersey.

Even some rollover from upstate New York and Connecticut.

The issue is they needed to keep up.

Someone has to put a number on it.

Right now, these towns do not like that number.

David: It is at the heart of their affordability crisis in the state, but at the same time, towns are getting a decade to meet the requirements.

Kenny: -- Charlie: Absolutely.

And this is not the U.S. Attorney's office coming in and saying you have -- issuing a warrant if you must build.

This is a very negotiable long-term project and with towns with the ability to absorb this.

It is the same old this guy is falling -- old the sky is falling rhetoric that we have heard.

That towns are going to crack, they cannot absorb it, it is going to bring in, and there is also, although this was not in this discussion, but in the past, there has been an undertone of racial animus about it, bringing in the poor, people of color degrading the values of a town, etc., etc.

There is always that kind of anxiety.

I have to say, I live in a market rate unit within a complex that is one of the first to build affordable units, and I think it is the crown jewel of New Jersey's affordable housing.

It has done exactly what it has supposed to do.

In the projects, which used to be a beacon for middle-class families that need to live and work in the area, who would otherwise have to travel over to get here from New Jersey in the crappy transit system.

David: Most of the time you find the fear is much worse than the reality.

Charlie: Absolutely.

It gets integrated.

People make adjustments.

Life goes on.

David: Jo, this is a big part of the respondent homeless count -- recent homeless count, which found an increase of over 20% in New Jersey.

Is there anything positive to report on this issue of affordable housing, homelessness, other than the fact that maybe people are becoming a little more aware of the crisis?

John: I think when you come -- Joanna: I think when you combine homelessness and affordable housing, the full picture, there is nuance.

Some of it has to do with we need new affordable housing but when you look at the homeless population in New Jersey, there are people struggling with addiction.

Addiction services and the state are looking to improve some of its care and opening centers.

All of those things are going to play, I believe, into how the state addresses the homeless population.

Just to the point where we do here some Mayors saying from some towns, look, -- we just heard it from Mayor Ghassali, the schools cannot absorb the numbers.

There will be an impact.

And some are saying that we have flooding that we have not seen because of building and there isfor water runoff.

It is a complicated and complex issue.

It has taken the courts years to figure out how to address it.

Now we are going to be back in the courts fighting at.

But this homeless for 24%, I think, was to increase, it points to a lot of problems that are still going on in New Jersey across the board.

David: Also, that number says 24%, but you don't really know how many people are crashing at other people's houses and that sort of thing.

So it is probably larger.

Joanna: I have been out there when they do the point in time count, and they are scouring the woods, trying to find folks who, like you said, some may be at friends homes, but others are lost or staying in encampments.

Sometimes they know when folks are coming and they hide.

It is hard to get an accurate count.

David: It is like being invisibly homeless.

Kenny: And all of this, I cannot help but point out that part of it is because they kept kicking the can down the road since the 1980's.

It was interesting that the mayor said that Newark should have the housing requirement, Camden should, but at the same time, not everybody would like to live in a city.

Some people would like to live in a township, a borough -- Charlie: With trees.

Kenny: with trees.

David: Let's prove it politics.

Charlie, national Democrats appear ready to dump money into the some congressional district race.

Does that tip the scales?

Charlie: Very hard to tell.

Clearly, the poll from last week is what forced them to cut this check.

It is now part of, part of the final cocktail of momentum of money.

We will have to see.

The fundamentals of this district are still strong for Republican registration, there is name recognition, he has the name, but she has made a real competitive go of it.

She surprised a lot of people.

Frankly, as Tom said about it, who did not get this kind of funding until it was too late, she has earned it.

She made the case.

It was not just Phil Murphy calling up Hakeem Jeffries in Washington.

It was Sue Altman making the case, -- David: Showing it is worth it.

We are knee-deep into election planning in the news, do you know where you are going to be and what are you looking for on that night?

Joanna: I don't know where I'm going to be.

But seven is interesting.

You have to wonder if this comes down to a couple of thousand votes, if national Democrats are going to kick themselves and say they should have invested in this district a lot sooner.

Sue Altman, you know, was untested in the space when she first started, but she strongly mean the case.

She has a huge campaign effort that has gone door-to-door.

It has galvanized voters in that district that are undecided or perhaps are fatigued of Trumpism in the state, and I cannot help but wonder if national Democrats are going to say they missed an opportunity here to flip the house if this comes close.

I would not mind being in district seven.

David: Kenny, closer to home, Republican Senator John Bramnick is calling for civility classes for our kids.

Who does he think he is, trying to indoctrinate our children?

Kenny: [LAUGHTER] I know!

It has been the same thing.

I have talked to two or three Republicans this cycle running for Congress and guess which one I did not interview.

More importantly, they don't like the rhetoric going on.

Teddy, running against Donald in the first District, said he did not like the language surrounding immigrants.

He says they are people, too.

The same in the second District, and even Curtis Pasha does not like the rhetoric.

It is either a fight or flight, and some of the New Jersey Republicans, including Senator Bramnick, are fighting to get rid of the loudest and divisive voices on the GOP side in the room.

David: In terms of indoctrinating kids, Joanna, you have been covering East Orange and the whole mess over there.

I guess the lesson for kids in East Orange, don't follow the budgeting procedures of the East Orange Board of Education.

And how does Patterson plan to all of this?

Joanna: East Orange is more complicated than a three-minute story.

Some of this has to do with the tax levy on residents and how that has impacted their ability to get state aid to their district.

While they say that they are not getting their kind of funding fair share, there is a lot more that is going on in the district that has created this shortfall that they are experiencing, on top of the fact that it seems the superintendent says he was handed a budget to rehire positions that actually were not funded for, so now they find themselves in October having to release the hires.

You can see right there, one of the hires just made in the summer, so it is a mess, in short.

But it helps districts like Patterson and Jersey City that right now are in classrooms, having virtual teachers, so the kids are sitting at their desk, and at the screen in front of them is a virtual teacher who could be in Missouri for all we know.

So right now, it is cherry picking off of the teachers and staff who will be let go from East Orange.

So probably great news for these teachers who are let go that there is such a huge teacher shortage in the state.

They probably will all land pretty quickly in a new district, if that is what they are looking to do.

East Orange is going to be interesting to keep following.

The governor is now looking into it.

It is a mess.

David: You have got me thinking when you said virtual teachers how pretty soon all teachers will be artificial intelligence.

Joanna: Don't say that.

[LAUGHTER] David: I'm not hoping that, I'm just saying that it is possible.

Charlie, Katie Brennan returns, she is going to run for the assembly.

She is an intriguing candidate, no?

Charlie: Absolutely.

I think this is another example of the new upturned landscape caused by the opening created for people like Katie to come and make a pitch without having to necessarily have the full institutional backing of the Hudson County machine.

I'm certain that the offices are jumping for joy to have Katie Brennan back on the stump, repeating that history, but she is part of the new progressive wave that we will see next year.

David: Let me get to a couple of quick important stories.

News from down the shore, and it liquidates voice -- an liquidates voice that is probably as known as Bruce Springsteen, you probably know her for this -- >> Watch the tram car please.

Charlie: I grew up with that noise.

David: That was reported in 1971.

She never got a dime for it, and she assuming now.

What is the appropriate settlement?

Charlie: I cannot put a monetary value on it.

I'm sure she should get something.

Plus, one of those Neapolitan ice cream waffles stands.

David: That sounds awesome.

Charlie: The proceeds from that.

David: Kenny?

Charlie: What's the matter with you?

You've never been to the boardwalk?

David: I got kicked out of Wildwood a couple of times, but that is a different show.

Which of this woman get, Kenny?

Kenny: She should definitely get money.

Some type of royalty.

I don't think they could afford all of it, but they could do the base value of 53 years ago.

David: Joanna, they are saying her voice will probably be replaced now, which is likely to end up creating another controversy, right?

Joanna: Apparently, that isn't popular decision for residents and folks who come to Wildwood.

Her voice is iconic, and there was a Mover couple of years ago to replace her and there was pushback so they did not.

I find it interesting now that they are selling dolls and merchandise with her voice.

Sure, there are royalties there, as well.

If her voice is able to sell merchandise, maybe they do not want to replace it and they would just like to pay dollars and make this go away.

By the way, I love her name.

David: Totally.

Charlie: Awesome.

David: I used to think it was the tram actually talking.

[LAUGHTER] Joanna: She recorded it into a recorder.

Remember when we have recorders?

David: What?

What are those things?

Kenny: [LAUGHTER] Joanna: This thing.

David: Sports talk roundtable now, I don't care if you like baseball or not, I would like your World Series picks and why.

Yanks, Dodgers or do not care?

Joanna: I'm going Yanks in seven games.

I think it will come down to the wire with these two.

I really do.

I think we will sweat it out.

It will be a lot of late nights, but these are two teams that are solid.

They are solid all the way around, but we have pitching, hitting, fielding.

It has been exciting so far to watch the playoffs.

I was disappointed that the Mets did not make it just because I wanted the Yankees to beat them in the World Series.

David: If I hear that one more time, you are the third woman I have talked to who said I wanted the Mets to win because I think the Yankees will dominate the Mets.

Charlie?

Charlie: I'm a fourth-generation Yankees fan.

Yankees in six, better pitching, and Aaron Judge will emerge from the doldrums and hit about three or four titanic shots that we will be watching on YouTube on deadline when we should be working.

David: We picked this panel?

Kenny?

Kenny: I'm going anti and I don't care, I would like the Dodgers to win, I'm picking them and I will tell you why.

In the 1996 ALCS, the Yankees are a ringer in the stands, that little 13-year-old Jeffrey Maier interfered with the game in my beloved Baltimore Orioles.

We should've gone to the World Series, not the Yankees.

David: Man.

Show us on a baseball where the baseball world hurt you.

Joanna: That is holding a grudge, Ken can hold one for a long time.

Kenny: That is what we do.

[LAUGHTER] David: Charlie, what did you say?

Charlie: Ken, therapy, you can get it online now.

[LAUGHTER] David: All right.

That turned into a lively baseball conversation, see?

That is roundtable for this week.

-- status "Roundtable" for this week.

Thank you, good to see you.

Thank you, are Guest: For joining us -- thank you for Mayor Ghassali for joining us.

It is easy to share this content and subscribe to the YouTube channel to find more great work.

I'm David Cruz.

For all the kids here at Gateway Center in downtown Newark, thank you for watching and we will see you next week.

>> Major funding for "Reporters Roundtable" with David Cruz is provided by RWJBarnabas Health, let's be healthy together.

♪