Make Great Falls a National Park

I'm all for making the Great Falls in Paterson, New Jersey a National Park, and the proposal has the bipartisan support of the entire New Jersey Congressional delegation as well as the support of Gov. Corzine. It's one of the largest cataracts East of the Mississippi, and at 70 feet, only the Niagara Falls are taller.



Yet, some of the rationale for the falls being made into a National Park are disturbing.

The National Parks Conservation Association, based in Washington, D.C., looked at Paterson's diverse community as one of the main reasons to designate the national park.

"Paterson can become the first NPS unit with strong Muslim-American support in a city that has the second largest number of Muslims in any American city," the association's Ronald J. Tipton wrote to federal officials.

What does the makeup of the community have to do with the application for the national park status? Either the site itself deserves classification and protection as a national park or it doesn't. I've noted previously that the economic vitality of Paterson has been in decline since the start of the 20th Century and national park status is seen as a way to revive the local economy, regardless of who actually resides there.

Paterson's Great Falls was home to the first hydroelectric plant in the country, and Paterson is called the "Cradle of American Industry" for all the manufacturing plants that sprung up to take advantage of the locale. That's the true legacy, and the only reason that any such national park status should be awarded to this, or any other site; not because someone thinks that this is a good idea to reward the Muslim-American community in Paterson.