Dear friends,

As many of you may know, I relocated to the Philadelphia area in March and do not currently reside in Hoboken. However, I’m not finished with the work I was doing there, and the stakes in next week’s election are astronomically high for all of us. Mayor Zimmer and her City Council team have been doing an absolutely incredible job of setting things on the right track, delivering on tax relief, responsible development, honesty and accountability in city government, flooding relief, and overall high-quality, responsive, engaged and professional local government. Mayor Zimmer and her team have stared down and defeated those who would return the city to the days of millions being stolen from parking-meter coffers and mayors being arrested for bribery with an alarming degree of regularity. Without wasting any more time telling you what most of you already know about how good of a job the Reform team is doing and how important it is that they be re-elected to continue their incredible and tireless work, there’s one very important thing I need to share with you. In this final stretch — the last weekend and days before Election Day next Tuesday, the campaign of Dawn Zimmer, Ravi Bhalla, Jim Doyle and David Mello really need your help. This is a grassroots, volunteer-driven effort, and while it is a positive thing that the elections have finally been moved to November, as they should be, an unfortunate by-product is that volunteers are generally busier and have less spare time on their hands than during the spring and summer. That is why it is so important that each and every one of you who cares about good government and defeating corrupt bullies who want to resume their family business of stealing from all of you so they can maintain lifestyles where they get to sit around in deck chairs on Washington Street all day and instead of working regular jobs like the rest of us. In light of the challenges of maintaining the usual volunteer surge during this time of year, I am humbly and sincerely asking that you join me this weekend in donating some time to help the election effort. I will be driving up from Philly this weekend and working nonstop for the campaign until the numbers are tallied on Tuesday night. One of the things I have always loved about Reform campaigns is the friendship, camaraderie, fun times, generosity of spirit and united sense of purpose that ensues when we all come together around a common goal. Some of you I have met and become very good friends with purely through our work together on these campaigns over the years — campaigns that built on one another further and further to get us where we are today. I very much look forward to seeing, catching up with, having fun with, and WINNING with all of you over the next week, and cannot wait to see you when I get there. We all have many priorities — I have two kids, a small business and a new home that needs attending to — but we’ve come to far with all of this to let up now. Let’s all commit to managing our various obligations in a way that enables us to come together this weekend to MAKE IT HAPPEN AGAIN!!!! Love to you all, and see you in a few. Best, Jake

Jake Stuiver was one of the leading voices in an April 2011 protest with dozens of Hoboken residents against Councilman Michael Russo’s corruption captured on FBI surveillance tape with informant Solomon Dwek.

City of Hoboken announces:

=&0=& Left to right: Police Officer Willie Montanez, Police Chief Anthony Falco, Detective Vince Lombardi, Mayor Dawn Zimmer, Sergeant John Petrosino, Police Officer Robert Truppner

Mayor Dawn Zimmer was joined by Police Chief Anthony Falco, Sergeant John Petrosino, President of the Hoboken Police Superior Officers, and Detective Vince Lombardi, President of Hoboken Policemen’s Benevolent Association and Police Officers Willie Montanez and Robert Truppner to display the Hoboken Police Department’s newly purchased vehicles and new uniforms. Read More...

Councilman Ravi Bhalla announces: 

Dear Friends,    As election season heats up, you may have come across a series of false and malicious personal attacks against me by Councilwoman Beth Mason. Let me be clear: Ms. Mason’s pre-election day stunts are rife with intentional lies and defamatory statements.  To set the record straight, I have put together a detailed factual response to Ms. Mason. You can read it here.    As this document demonstrates, Ms. Mason has crossed a line.  These are no ordinary election year dirty political tricks. Ms. Mason’s defamatory conduct towards me has negatively impacted my reputation within the Hoboken community where I reside with my wife and two children, as well as my private employment. For now, however, we have an election to win this Tuesday. It is critical to Hoboken’s future that we deliver victory for Mayor Zimmer, Councilman David Mello, James Doyle, and I next Tuesday. If our opponents control the City Council they will retain power over zoning board appointments and redevelopment decisions, a source of corruption among prior elected officials. Our opponents are also attempting to rush through a massive redevelopment project called Vision 20/20 in the city’s housing authority with poor vetting and no credible leadership.  Ms. Mason and others are spreading these lies so that they can take control of the City Council. I hope, however, that their lies will motivate you and your friends to turn out on election day to vote for the Zimmer team. While I remain focused on this election, please rest assured that after the election is over, I intend to file a defamation lawsuit against Ms. Mason to protect my reputation as a proud member of the Hoboken community. I have retained an excellent attorney who has already served an appropriate written communication upon Ms. Mason. If what Ms. Mason says is the truth, she will have an opportunity to present that defense under oath in a court of law. I know she will fail completely.   Again, let’s keep our eyes on the ball and remember that we have a race to win!  Let Ms. Mason’s tactics serve to remind us how much really is at stake in this election. Let’s make our voices heard loud and clear on Tuesday by voting for a Mayor and a Council that will continue to move Hoboken forward. Please vote for the Zimmer team this Tuesday, November 5 (polls open from 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.) and ask your friends and family to do the same. Together, we will clean up Hoboken one vote at a time.    Sincerely,    Ravi S. Bhalla Councilman-at-Large City of Hoboken

Courtesy QLC:

Video streaming by Ustream

Beginning of forum available only but it should be going to Cablevision channel 78 as the rent control forum will also.

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We’re a week out from the election and who are Old Guard friends today are over the side tomorrow. So with that, here’s a flyer attacking Ruben Ramos for his Russo clan alliance. Someone got ahold of this recent photo and put it on a flyer.

It’s up on a Hudson Street pole barely a block away from Chez Mason Civic.  Beth Mason who has been a checkbook for the Russo’s going back to 2009 and every election since is most definitely a suspect.  Grafix Avenger has a story on the same flyer making an appearance. Read More...

The oft overused term “defining election” is bereft of substance with endless election cycle after election cycle. In Hoboken’s case, it’s not true as a redevelopment plan has been presented as compassion for the poor or rather not presented but the concept is quite dangerous.

Presented originally as part of a marketing concept brochure, the 100 plus pages featured some singular odd contradictions: examples of low density structures in Jersey City in contrast to the only detail of a plan =&0=& of 800 units. Since MSV and Grafix Avenger have blown the whistle on the rancid underbelly of Executive Director Carmelo Garcia’s “plan” the blowback has been harsh, continuous and the rancor at public meetings more foul than ever with taunts of “racist“ and “KKK” being directed against the Council President and anyone agreeing with reform minded citizens that a full plan requires vetting as any Master Plan would in Hoboken. =&2=& at least not any available to the public.  Vision 20/20 is being sold to the public as an idea but it’s all a sham. There’s certainly shadowy individuals in the background and others =&3=&  It’s a builder’s wet dream but it doesn’t end there. For the Old Guard and their connected friends and family, it’s a 401(k), a new beach home, a final goodbye to Hoboken before enough people awake and stop the corruption, the greed and looting of the public trough anytime eyes are not peering over their shoulder. Only one of the three candidate for mayor is questioning Vision 20/20 on both its current and future plans: Mayor Zimmer.  The other two candidates, Ramos and Occhipinti are already on board without any legal documentation presented to HHA residents and the Hoboken public as a whole.  Meaning they can do whatever they want, however they like and once green-lighted, it will not be stopped and the scam will go on and on for 17 acres.  Or more.  The developers will control the buildings, the residents who get in and the land titled to the federal government. That’s what Vision 20/20 has in its sights. Here’s the council forum video.  Listen to the candidates and =&4=& or do they mouth empty platitudes or distractions eager to throw the public off from =&5=&

Talking Ed Note: This doesn’t even scratch the surface of Vision 20/20 problems.  Let’s start with Carmelo Garcia, the circus barker who thinks he can fool anyone to agree and look away without anything legally binding presented to the public.  He’s been doing this carnival act for months for anyone foolish enough to listen to a marketing pitch. Read More...