Deltacanopy

Posted on 20th Apr 2010 @ 12:20 AM

LAKEWOOD — On a recent warm, bright afternoon, Michael Berenzweig sat on a Rubbermaid storage bin, his back against a tree, reading "The Vegetarianism of Jesus Christ." Between the book and his lap was a tattered dictionary. On the leaves next to him, a mug of hot tea.

Nearby, his wife of 40 years, Marilyn, talked about what she feeds their rescued junco, white king dove and two starlings caged in a separate tent.

"I give them organic rice and millet, maybe some wild mountain potatoes," she said. "And worms."

Not far through the trees, traffic can be seen moving along Cedar Bridge Avenue.

 The vegan couple — she a textile designer in Manhattan, he a volunteer radio producer — moved here a few weeks ago, after Marilyn was laid off at a furniture design company, and sleeping on a couch at her daughter's home in Queens became awkward after five months.

"I was talking to a friend who was a child of the Great Depression and he's going on about all these families living in tents back then, and I kept thinking, "Gosh, I wouldn't mind living in tents,' " said Marilyn Berenzweig, 59.

So the couple searched "tent communities" on the Internet, found the name of Steve Brigham — the unofficial founder of the camp here — and asked him if he had room for two more.

In a way, the Berenzweigs represent the best and the worst of a camp that, for three years, had been a thorn for township officials and a sanctuary for the homeless.

The pair are ideal tenants: pacifist, intellectual, hygienic and almost obsessively unobtrusive. Yet, they also reflect a major point of frustration among officials who argue that, instead of dwindling in size, the camp has only grown, largely because of outsiders drawn to its relative comforts.

"It seems to gain residents faster than this committee can get them out," Mayor Steven Langert said at a recent Township Committee meeting. "It goes against the agreement we had with some of the leaders in that camp."

Confrontation looms

Now it appears the situation has come to a head. Langert said the township attorney has just finished drafting court papers to "relocate" — he does not like to use the word "evict" — the 25 squatters on the township property.