Longtime mayor and independent challenger pitch different paths for Linden

Linden voters will choose a mayor Nov. 3. Democratic Mayor Derek Armstead is asking for another term after a dozen years in office, but independent Carlos A. Rivas, a former Democratic councilman and school board president, says City Hall has stopped listening to residents.

Both candidates answered questions about their backgrounds, why they are running, how they would engage residents, and what they see as the city’s most pressing issue. Their answers show a basic split.

Armstead points to the redevelopment, tax, and parks record he says his administration has built. Rivas promises closer scrutiny of city spending and debt as rapid development threatens to outpace the capacity to provide municipal services.

Linden is an industrial city of about 46,000 in southeastern Union County. It sits across the Arthur Kill from Staten Island, about 13 miles southwest of Manhattan.

It is home to the Phillips 66 Bayway Refinery, one of the largest on the East Coast, and to a large Polish American community near the city center, but 12,000 African American residents and 15,000 Hispanic community members have altered the city’s complexion.

Linden has experienced a profound demographic shift over the last few decades, transitioning from a predominantly white, blue-collar industrial town into an incredibly diverse, multicultural city.

No single racial or ethnic group holds a majority in the city, as the US Census Bureau breakdown shows Latino residents making up the largest plurality at 35.2%, followed closely by White alone at 34.2%, and Black or African American residents at 27.6%.

Global immigration surged the foreign-born population to 36.1%, meaning over a third of Linden’s residents immigrated to the United States. This is heavily reflected in households, where 56.7% of residents now speak a language other than English at home.

After decades of slow growth, Linden’s population has exploded recently.

Linden’s population grew from 40,499 in 2010 to 43,731 in 2020, and recent projections show the city’s 45,752 residents continuing to climb, fueled by urban overflow from New York City and nearby Hudson and Essex counties.

The Rise of Rentals: Linden is experiencing a shift toward tenant-occupied housing.

Driven by new multi-family developments, the median monthly rent has climbed to $2,495–$2,600, outstripping national averages significantly.

New homes and mixed-use projects have been going up near downtown and the Wood Avenue train station, which offers NJ Transit service to New York Penn Station.

Linden is growing without a plan

Linden’s leaders call the city’s transformation a success story. The details point to a city growing faster than it can manage.

Start with the schools. Dense apartment buildings downtown have filled classrooms quickly. Enrollment at Linden High School rose 12.5% in four years, adding more than 200 students, while enrollment across New Jersey stayed flat. Building approvals moved quickly, but planning for the schools has not kept up. The district already serves a mostly working-class community, and it now has to stretch the same budget over more students.

The economy is changing too, and not necessarily for the better. Linden is trading its factories for warehouses. The city has approved more than 30 large redevelopment projects, led by the 4.1 million-square-foot Linden Logistics Center at Tremley Point. Its backers promise 3,000 jobs and more than $200 million in tax revenue.

Those are projections, made by people with a stake in the project. Warehouse work is low-margin and increasingly automated. The thousands of trucks the center will bring are certain, and they will roll through a city that was already ranked New Jersey’s most polluted community in 2015.

The retail picture offers little relief. The former General Motors plant is now Legacy Square, a shopping center anchored by discount chains like Five Below rather than the kind of local business that builds a downtown.

Meanwhile, Linden still leans on the Bayway Refinery, which by some estimates produces nearly 1% of New Jersey’s entire economic output. That leaves a large share of the city’s jobs and tax base dependent on one aging fossil-fuel plant during an energy transition.

Put together, the picture is of a city that keeps adding apartments, warehouses and trucks without the planning to support them. The bill will come later, and residents will pay it.

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The mayor is elected citywide to a four-year term. Armstead’s current term ends Dec. 31.

Armstead: ‘I’m not finished’

Armstead, 12 years in office, is the Democratic nominee on Column A of the ballot.

“I’m running for reelection … because I’m not finished, and neither is Linden,” he said.

He says his family has lived in Linden for nearly 100 years. He represented the 4th Ward on the City Council for 21 years, starting in 1993, and in 2014 became the city’s first African American mayor. He and his wife, educator Danie Orelien, raised five children in the city.

Armstead says that, working with the council, his administration ended a separate garbage fee in 2018. He says it also cut the municipal portion of property taxes six years in a row, from 2018 through 2023, and that this year’s budget cut spending by more than $7 million without reducing services.

He also points to redevelopment. The former General Motors plant site is now the Legacy Square shopping center, and he lists the Citizen Linden, OneWest, and Linden Logistics Center projects as having brought housing and jobs. He says the city has drawn employers including Amazon and FedEx. A food-waste-to-renewable-gas project is under development, and the city is pursuing solar panels on its former landfill.

Armstead names flooding as his top priority if reelected. He says the city has cleaned catch basins, inspected drainage systems and cleared creeks. Replacing aging underground pipes, he wrote, “is expensive, and Linden needs outside partners to meet that challenge,” and he plans to seek county, state, and federal money for the work.

He also says he will keep pushing for the Tremley Point Connector Road, which he says would cut truck traffic on residential streets. He cites a $555,500 grant to plant about 540 trees and a city ban on artificial intelligence data centers in every zoning district. The city adopted the ban over concerns about water, energy use and quality of life.

On engagement, Armstead says his administration expanded emergency alerts, made council meetings easier to watch online and modernized the city’s cable channel, Linden TV. He proposes a “Mayor’s Listening Tour” in all 10 wards.

“My approach is simple: show up, listen, give an honest answer and follow through,” he wrote.

Rivas: a voice ‘not to a political party’

The Republican contender pulled out of the race, leaving Rivas, an independent candidate running with the Change for Linden slate, as the only alternative to more of the same leadership typified by Armstead.

He has lived in the city for nearly 20 years. He served as the 5th Ward councilman, as president of the Zoning Board of Adjustment, and as president of the Board of Education. He also led the School No. 4 parent-teacher organization.

Rivas says his interest in public service began at 14, representing classmates at his high school in his native country. He moved to the United States at 17 and studied political science in college. He now works as a manager overseeing operations for a major airline at Newark Liberty International Airport. He has also volunteered as an advocate for New Jersey’s Spanish-speaking community.

“My loyalty is to the people of Linden and not to a political party or special interests,” Rivas wrote.

Every seat on the current City Council is held by a Democrat.

Rivas says residents have told him they are worried about city services, traffic, development, finances and “whether their voices are being heard before decisions are made.”

In his first year, Rivas says he would review basic services such as street sweeping, road repair, tree trimming and snow removal. He would also look closely at city spending and debt.

He says he would cut unnecessary spending, seek outside funding, and pay down municipal debt “without putting unnecessary burdens on residents or cutting essential services.”

He says growth must not outpace the city’s roads, sewers and schools. Before major projects move forward, he wrote, the city should understand their effect on traffic and public services.

Rivas says he would hold regular town halls and neighborhood forums and create resident advisory committees on public safety, infrastructure, development, seniors and youth.

“Community engagement must begin before decisions are made, not after they are finalized,” he wrote.

Where they agree

Both candidates name infrastructure as a central concern. Armstead’s focus is stormwater and flood protection. Rivas puts more weight on how new development strains roads, sewers, and schools.

Both also promise to be more accessible. Armstead would build on the listening tour and the outreach changes he has already made. Rivas would set up new advisory committees and seek public input earlier, before ordinances and projects are decided.

The general election is Tuesday, Nov. 3. While the city’s heavily Democratic electorate makes Republicans virtually unelectable, Armstead’s predecessor was an independent.

In 2006, former Mayor Richard Gerbounka, a retired Linden police captain and three-term city councilman, split from the local Democratic organization to run for mayor as an independent.

Gerbounka narrowly defeated John Gregorio, a longtime Democrat first elected mayor in 1966 who also served as an assemblyman and state senator, with time out after he was convicted of criminal corruption, winning by just 113 votes.

In 1983, following a felony conviction for failing to disclose his interest in a pair of Linden go-go bars, Gregorio was forced to resign from the State Senate and from his position as Mayor of Linden, New Jersey.

After receiving a pardon from Republican Governor Thomas H. Kean in January 1990, Gregorio staged a political comeback and won back his mayoralty, serving in that position until 2006.