Driving down Route 440 and past the Droyers Point lot that was home to the famous Roosevelt Stadium, NJ Skateshop co-founder Steve Lenardo had an a-ha moment for a new signature sneaker to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the shop.

Lenardo and co-founder Chris Nieratko knew they wanted to create a shoe for the anniversary that was true to their skating brand and dedicated to the Jersey City history and community they loved.

With memories of the iconic sporting events and concerts at the stadium off Route 440, and the realization that the New Balance Numeric 440 skate shoe shared the same number, everything seemed to click into place.

“A best-selling skate shoe is the New Balance 440, and for anyone in Jersey City, when you think 440, you think of that stretch of road. And if you’ve been around Jersey City long enough, you think about Roosevelt Stadium, which sat right there on 440,” explained Nieratko.

The coincidental thread between the stadium and the New Balance 440 model led the skateshop founders to reach out to New Balance Numeric (New Balance’s skateboarding brand) about creating a limited edition 440 sneaker modeled around Roosevelt Stadium and Jersey City.

“NJ Skateshop has a rich history in skateboarding,” explained Tyrone Romero, global marketing manager of New Balance Numeric. “With their 20-year anniversary coming up … it was just an appropriate time to collaborate with a great shop and a staple in our industry.”

NJ Skateshop opened its doors in Sayreville, in 2003, but was forced to close the original shop after Hurricane Sandy. After a 10-year run in Hoboken, there’s currently one shop in New Brunswick and another at 383 Monmouth St. in Jersey City (opened in 2018). They sell everything from skate sneakers, to skating streetwear, to skateboard decks and wheels.

“My partner’s roots and my roots go deep into Jersey City, so we always wanted to be there,” said Nieratko.

NJ Skateshop and New Balance Numeric worked together to craft this special shoe around the historic stadium that housed a handful of professional minor league teams and hosted some legendary concerts.

Built in 1937 and torn down in the early 1980s, Roosevelt Stadium hosted everything from high school football to heavyweight boxing to concerts by the likes of the Grateful Dead and Jersey City’s own Kool and the Gang. It was where Hall of Famers like Monte Irvin and Rickey Henderson honed their game.

The stadium also hosted 15 major league game — Brooklyn Dodgers’ home games — between 1956 and 1957.

“It’s super special to tie in Roosevelt Stadium,” explained Lenardo, who along with founding the shop has worked as a teacher at Jersey City’s School 24 for the past 24 years. “That’s actually where I saw my first concert. My uncle was working the event and took me to see Kool and the Gang.”

Most famous as the home of the Jersey City Giants minor league baseball team, Roosevelt Stadium is the place Jackie Robinson first broke the color barrier in professional baseball with the Montreal Royals, the Dodgers’ Triple-A team, on April 18, 1946.

“You could make an argument that Roosevelt Stadium is the most important stadium in baseball history,” said Nieratko.

To celebrate this story, the limited edition sneaker features the schematics of Roosevelt Stadium on the insoles, a tongue tag depicting the stadium’s iconic scoreboard clock, odes to the colors of the Jersey City Giants uniform, and JERSEY CITY emblazoned across the heels.

New Balance built the shoe with layered suede, jersey-type material on the side panels and piping to match the look of the vintage Jersey City Giant uniforms.

As an extra special touch, NJ Skateshop teamed up with Jersey City pencil company General Pencil to create custom pencils included with the shoes as an ode to the pencils used for scorekeeping at Jersey City Giants baseball games.

“They were kind enough to make 1,000 pencils that read ‘Roosevelt Stadium, April 18th, 1946,’ ” said Nieratko.

For the die-hard Jersey City “sneakerheads,” Nieratko said that New Balance created 114 pairs of an even more limited edition blue version of the collaboration, which commemorates the 14-1 score of that first game, and includes special packaging with photos of the field.

With less than 1,500 pairs of the limited edition shoes made, the sneakers will become available on a first come first serve basis at NJ Skateshop’s Jersey City store at 11 a.m. Saturday. The shoes sell for $100.

“A ton of skaters love (the sneakers) and want to skate in them … but then there is also a Jersey City, Roosevelt Stadium, baseball fan who is buying them as a collectible,” explained Nieratko.

To celebrate the release, NJ Skateshop is hosting an event along with New Balance and Nieratko’s charity, Super Skate Posse, to provide free sneakers, skateboards and skate lessons to 100 local underserved children.

The event will open to the public for music, food trucks and other festivities from noon to 5 p.m. at Enos Jones Park, 237 Brunswick St, Jersey City.

“Jersey City is a very special place that needs to be celebrated,” said Lenardo.

Even though Hoboken is generally known as the birthplace of baseball, neighboring Jersey City has its own rich history with America’s favorite pastime. Roosevelt Stadium, which was located on the western part of Jersey City overlooking the Newark Bay, was the site of some of Jersey City’s best sports moments. From baseball, to football, to boxing, many athletes had their moment in the sun at Roosevelt Stadium. Read on the learn more about the history of the stadium and some of the sports highlights that took place there.

Roosevelt Stadium was dreamed up by former Jersey City Mayor Frank Hague who, though embroiled in scandal, originally announced his plans to build a 50,000-seat municipal arena on June 5, 1929. He proposed a stadium surrounding a field dedicated to locals who passed away during WWI.

Read More: The Unexpected History of Cricket in New Jersey

In Hague’s original idea, Roosevelt Stadium would cost $500,000 and be completed by 1930. It would be named after President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and located at what is now called Droyer’s Point, on the south side of Jersey City, right by Greenville and right on the riverfront. But, of course, delays in construction are common, and the arena was finally built in 1937 on the former grounds of the Jersey City Airport, with increased funding of $800,000.

Upon the stadium’s completion, opening events were scheduled for April 22, 1937, tying into the International League’s (a minor baseball league) opening. Mayor Hague even declared it a half-day for residents. Then-New York Giants (the baseball team, not today’s football team) owner Horace Stoneham was slated to be there, as the arena was slated to be the home arena for the Giants’ affiliate, the Jersey City Giants, alongside then-Senator Harry Moore.

But, alas, rain washed out the opening, and the opening was pushed back a day, and Hague threw out the first pitch. He was joined by Senator Moore and Mr. Stoneham, who were there for the ballpark’s dedication.

As time went on, the arena became more commonly used for Jersey City’s William L. Dickinson, James J. Ferris, Abraham Lincoln, Henry Snyder high schools, alongside the city’s major parochial schools, Hudson Catholic, and St. Peter’s Prep, all of which hosted football games at Roosevelt Stadium. For many years, the stadium hosted an annual Thanksgiving Day football game between rivals St. Peter’s Prep and Dickinson High School.

Mayor Hague continued the tradition of granting a half-day to citizens on the baseball season’s opening day. On April 18, 1946, the season kicked off with the Jersey City Giants playing the Montreal Royals. Over 50,000 tickets were sold for the 25,000 seat stadium, so it was standing-room-only when a player for Montreal stepped up to bat and into the history books: Jackie Robinson. This appearance in this minor league game took place a full year before Robinson’s first major league appearance on April 15, 1947, as part of the Brooklyn Dodgers.

It was still the home arena for baseball’s Jersey City Giants from 1937 to 1950, and then a slew of more baseball teams, starting with the Jersey City Jerseys in 1960-1961. It then developed into the home of the Jersey City Indians of the Double-A Eastern League in 1977, who then transformed into the Jersey City A’s in 1978.

See More: A Historical Walking Tour of Jersey City Heights

Sports, of course, became a big part of Jersey City’s history with the baseball field, hosting heavyweight champion Max Baer, featured in the film Cinderella Man, and Sugar Ray Robinson in their respective fights in 1940 and 1950.

The Jersey City Giants left the city in 1961, taking a significant amount of the stadium’s income generation with it. The city filled the gap with another minor league team, which left in 1978, more concerts and special events, but eventually, it became too costly to maintain. The facility fell into disrepair and while some wanted to preserve it as a historical site, in November 1982 the city’s Planning Board voted in favor of demolition.

The tearing down of the stadium was finally completed in 1985, and a gated community, known today as Droyer’s Point, was built in its place.

John D. Rockefeller, Jr. wanted to create a city within a city: a “mecca for lovers of art.”

Rockefeller Center is a series of buildings situated over 22 acres in mid-Manhattan. Its centerpiece, rising 850 feet into the New York skyline, is 30 Rockefeller Center, also known as 30 Rock. Constructed in the early 1930s, it is an Art Deco showcase both within and without. Outside, an Art Deco bronze statue of Atlas holds up the heavens while a large golden statue of Prometheus overlooks its world-famous ice-skating rink. However, its most famous artwork can no longer be seen, having been destroyed.

John D. Rockefeller, Jr. wanted to create a city within a city: a “mecca for lovers of art.” To that end, he commissioned scores of sculptors, painters and textile workers. He believed in the idea of human progress, which he supported through his philanthropy and how he saw the symbolic value of Rockefeller Center. At the time it stood taller than most of the New York City skyline; nothing stood between it and the Empire State Building, built around the same time.

“New Frontiers’’ was the theme of the Center’s artwork. Rockefeller’s wife, Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, a co-founder of the Museum of Modern Art, a patron of the Mexican artist Diego Rivera, suggested that Rivera be approached to do a mural for the lobby. He was asked to produce “Man at the Crossroads Looking with Hope and High Vision to the Choosing of a New and Better Future.” For the work, Rivera put together a six-person team that included the Social Realist painter Ben Shahn, who had impressed Rivera because of his paintings of Sacco and Vanzetti, two Italian immigrants who were executed on trumped-up charges due to ethnic and political bigotry. Rivera was hired with the knowledge of his leftist political views. After they fled Stalin, Trotsky and his wife Natalia would stay in Mexico City with Rivera and his wife, the artist Frida Kahlo.

Rivera’s original sketch placed a soldier, a worker and a peasant clasping hands at the center, representing unity within the human spirit facing an unknown but hopeful future. What he ended up painting evolved far beyond the original sketch, to become a highly complex mural with social, scientific, ethical, economic and political images, including those representing communism. The latter became too much for the Rockefellers after Rivera added Lenin, and they asked him to remove Lenin. In a letter written by Shahn, Rivera responded: “Rather than mutilate the conception [of the mural], I shall prefer the physical destruction of the conception in its entirety, but preserving, at least, its integrity.”

The drama carried on for months, including public demonstrations, but months later the mural was destroyed.

A FEW years later, Shahn received a commission to create a mural for the community center of Jersey Homesteads, New Jersey. Later renamed Roosevelt, Jersey Homesteads lies just east of Trenton and was established by the Resettlement Administration (RA) as part of Roosevelt’s New Deal (Executive Order 7027). The charge of the RA was to resettle “destitute or low-income families from rural and urban areas” to new communities established on cooperative and collective models.

Jersey Homesteads was conceived as an industrial and agricultural cooperative for unemployed Jewish garment workers from crowded conditions in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Notes from its early town meetings were written in Yiddish! Houses were built in the simple Bauhaus style on half-acre plots of land surrounded by shared open space. Conservative voices did not approve of the socialist leanings of the RA projects, with one newspaper headline reading “First Communist Town in America Nears Completion.”

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Such a nonconformist approach fit very well with Shahn’s attitude toward art. In a lecture at Harvard, he explained “a want of satisfaction with things as they are” propelled artists to “become critics of society, and… partisans in its burning causes,” as witnessed by the “passionate testament of their sympathies as it is written across the canvases and walls of the world.”

Shahn’s mural in Jersey Homelands measures 45 feet (13.7 meters) in length and 12 feet (3.7 meters) in height. It is a fresco, a technique he learned from Rivera, that tells the Jewish immigrant story to the United States. Like Rivera’s mural in Rockefeller Center, it is divided into sections, in this case three sections.

The left panel includes Sacco and Vanzetti lying in their open coffins with a Nazi soldier standing behind the coffins holding a sign (in German): “Germans! Defend Yourselves! Don’t shop from Jews!” Below we find Shahn’s mother, Gittel, and Albert Einstein arriving at Ellis Island.

The middle panel focuses on the issue of worker’s rights. There we see workers in various sweatshops, as well as a union leader painted in the likeness of John Lewis, president of the CIO; and a picket sign with a quote of Lewis visible: “One of the great principles for which labor and America must stand in the future is the right of every man and woman to have a job, to earn their living if they are willing to work.” David Dubinsky, the head of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union is also portrayed.

The far-right panel focuses on a number of individuals important to the New Deal and the Labor movement, surrounding a blueprint of the municipality.

Shahn moved to Jersey Homelands in 1939 with his second wife, photojournalist Bernarda Bryson, whom he met when she came to New York City to do a piece on Rivera’s mural. For decades, Shahn used his artistic skills as social commentary. In that light, his work can be seen like that of the prophets of the Bible whose primary task was to hold a mirror up to society, as a tool to motivate all of us to repair and improve our world.

Shahn’s mural is located in the Roosevelt Public School. Once travel returns to normal post-COVID, prospective visitors can call the school at 609-448-2798 to arrange an appointment to see the mural.

The writer is rabbi emeritus of the Israel Congregation, Manchester Center, Vermont, and a faculty member of the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies and Bennington College.

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The 200-yard-wide fire break aims to protect homes in the case of a raging forest fire.

MANCHESTER, NJ — Wildfires in the Pine Barrens are a perpetual concern, especially in the spring. For homeowners in areas surrounded by large swaths of forest, the concern can be heightened.

Manchester Township residents in the Roosevelt City section can breathe a sigh of relief, however, as a joint project by federal, state and county officials has created a 200-foot-wide, 5-mile-long fire break that now protects 4,000 residents and 1,700 homes, officials said.

The project started at the Ocean County level, with its Parks and Recreation and Planning departments working together, but soon gained notice from the federal Department of Defense and New Jersey's Department of Environmental Protection and Forest Fire Service, Ocean County officials said.

The firebreak protects an area considered by the Forest Fire Service to be at the highest risk of loss of property and life in the event of a major wildfire. Forest fire season lasts until early May. Roosevelt City butts up against the Warren Grove area, which was the site of a forest fire that consumed 1,600 acres of Pine Barrens in 2007.

"We have seen the devastation wildfires can cause and how quickly they spread," said Gary Quinn, director of the Ocean County Board of Commissioners. "The action we took along with our partners to create this fuel-break will result in reduced wildfire risk.

Find out what's happening in Manchesterwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Ocean County contracted with Shelterwood Forest Managers to complete a Forest Stewardship Plan for the Roosevelt City section, on property the county owns through Natural Lands Trust purchases. The Pinelands Commission approved the plan Sept. 11, 2020.

The Stewardship Plan aims to ensure the sustainability of the property's native forest; reduce wildfire risk to the residents of Roosevelt City by creating a fuel-break and to manage the forest with consideration for wildlife.

"Following the purchase of the Structural Management Property in Manchester Township by the Ocean County Natural Lands Trust Program, we realized that we had an obligation as the new landowner to manage our property in a way that would decrease the wildfire risk for the nearby communities," said Michael Mangum, director of the Ocean County Department of Parks and Recreation. The county then worked on the agreement with Manchester officials and the forest fire service to create an agreement to manage the area.

In addition to the fire break, the agreement also encourages prescribed burning on the surrounding public land to reduce the accumulation of hazardous fuels by thinning vegetation including shrubs, which reduces the risk of wildfire. Thinning vegetation also improves the health of the forest.

County officials said the Defense Department joined when the state Department of Environmental Protection alerted the county to a grant opportunity, the Department of Defense Readiness and Environmental Protection Integration challenge grant. The county applied in January 2020 and approved.

"The Roosevelt City project is just the first of six tasks, totaling $1.9 million," said U.S. Navy Capt. Ed Callahan, commanding officer at Naval Weapons Station Earle. The work will help lower the risk of wildfire, increase storm surge resistance and increase stormwater capacity across three New Jersey counties, protecting five military facilities as well as their neighboring communities.

The REPI grant award of $380,000 will pay for all of the contractual services for implementation of the fuel break, as well as, equipment for the long-term fire mitigation, officials said.

The fire break also Joint Base McGuire Dix Lakehurst infrastructure.

The Ocean County Board of Commissioners awarded the contract for forestry thinning to Pagodin's Tree Care Service on Dec. 16, 2020. The thinning was completed in February. The County's contracted forester, Bill Brash of Shelterwood Forestry, provided oversight and final inspection of the project.

"We will continue to work with the state Forest Fire Service to do prescribed burns in the area reducing the accumulation of vegetation and growth that can act as fuels," Commissioner Virginia Haines said. "This effort is important to public safety and helps preserve the delicate ecology of the Pinelands."

Click here to get Patch email notifications, or download our app to have breaking news alerts sent right to your phone. Have a news tip? Email karen.wall@patch.com Follow Manchester Patch on Facebook.

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At least two Boy Scout councils in New Jersey are selling their camps to help cover their share of a nearly $1.9 billion national bankruptcy settlement to pay thousands of victims of sexual abuse.

The Patriots’ Path Council — which includes 11,000 Scouts in Morris, Somerset, Sussex, Union and parts of Middlesex County — told its members earlier this month that it entered into a contract to sell Sabattis Adventure Camp, its beloved campground in the Adirondack Mountains.

“This decision was not easy and involved months of consideration by our executive board and special bankruptcy committees,” council leaders wrote in a letter sent to Patriots’ Path members.

Sabattis Adventure Camp, a 1,250-acre camp on a 250-acre lake in Adirondack Park, has hosted Boy Scouts from New Jersey for summer camp and weekend campouts for more than 60 years. The historic property was first developed by Charles Daniels, an eight-time Olympic medalist in swimming, in the early 1900s.

The announcement of the sale of the Patriots’ Path camp came less than two months after the Boy Scouts’ Jersey Shore Council announced it is selling its campground in Toms River for $1.1 million to help pay its portion of national sexual abuse settlement deal.

Under the proposed Boy Scouts of America bankruptcy deal, non-profit Boy Scout councils across the country are expected to sell assets and dip into endowments and savings to pay their portions of the $1.9 billion settlement for men who were sexually abused while participating in scouting as children.

The individual councils, which run day-to-day operations for local Scout troops, have each been assigned a dollar amount in the Boy Scouts of America bankruptcy settlement. Each council is expected to come up with a plan to make the payment.

Many Boy Scout councils — including groups in New York, Wisconsin, Arizona, Maine and other states — have sold campgrounds or announced they are looking for buyers. That has raised concerns from environmentalists and community leaders that property that has been open space and used by children for generations will be sold for development.

Some of the proposed Boy Scout camp sales in other parts of the country have already led to protests and lawsuits.

The Patriots’ Path Council council did not disclose the purchase price for the Sabattis Adventure Camp. They also did not name the buyer, except to say the purchaser is a neighbor of the camp who has “agreed to permit the council to use the property for at least five more years,” according to the letter from council leaders.

A previous proposal to sell Sabattis Adventure Camp in 2017 was delayed by the Boy Scout council after nearly 2,000 people signed a petition to save the camp.

“It is a true gem that we cannot afford to lose!,” the petition said. “Scouts and Scouters get to experience the serenity of the Adirondack Mountains while earning merit badges, kayaking in Bear Pond, doing sea plane excursions out in Long Lake, fishing, mountain boarding, laughing, learning or just straight up relaxing.”

The sale of the camp will help Patriots’ Path Council pay a portion of the $3.7 million the council is expected to contribute to the bankruptcy settlement, officials said. Discussions are still underway to decide how the council will pay the remainder of the money.

The Jersey Shore Council — which represents about 6,000 Scouts in Atlantic, Ocean and parts of Burlington and Cape May counties — is selling its four-acre campground off Whitesville Road in Toms River to the township.

The Toms River Township Council said in September it would use unspent bond funds to cover most of the $1.1 million it offered to buy the Boy Scout property, which other buyers had expressed interest in purchasing. The land is adjacent to another former waterfront campground jointly owned by the township and Ocean County.

Toms River officials said they want to keep the property open space and out of the hands of developers. The township plans to lease part of the property back to the Boy Scouts.

It is unclear if other Boy Scout sites in New Jersey or out-of-state campgrounds owned by local councils are up for sale or have already been sold.

In addition to Patriots’ Path and the Jersey Shore Council, New Jersey’s councils include the Northern New Jersey Council (Bergen, Essex, Hudson and Passaic counties), the Garden State Council (Burlington, Camden, Cape May, Cumberland, Gloucester, Salem and parts of Atlantic County) and the Monmouth Council (Monmouth and parts of Middlesex County).

Two Pennsylvania councils also represent parts of New Jersey: the Minsi Trails Council includes Warren County and the Washington Crossing Council includes Hunterdon, Mercer and parts of Middlesex and Somerset counties.

According to the Boy Scouts of America bankruptcy filing from September, the councils with ties to New Jersey will owe at least $18 million in settlements:

The more than 80,000 sexual abuse victims who filed claims against the Boy Scouts are currently voting on whether to approve the bankruptcy plan. They have until Dec. 15 to return their ballots, then the bankruptcy plan will go back to the judge for approval.

If the plan is not approved, the Boy Scouts of America may have to renegotiate the deal with the alleged victims and other creditors.

The vote on the bankruptcy comes as New Jersey’s window for filing civil lawsuits against the Boy Scouts of America and other organizations for past child sexual abuse is closing.

Under a law passed in 2019, New Jersey waived the statute of limitations to allow those who say they were sexually assaulted as minors to file lawsuits until Nov. 30, 2021, no matter how long ago the abuse happened. As of last month, about 880 cases were filed, court officials said.

About 62% of the cases named a priest, cleric or religious institution, according to court data. Schools were named in 15.5% of the cases and lawsuits against the Boy Scouts accounted for 11% of the New Jersey cases.

Some advocates, attorneys and lawmakers have called on New Jersey to extend the Nov. 30 deadline, as other states have done, to give more alleged victims time to come forward.