The boot is dead. Long live the 72 hour boot!

While not quite dead, the boot is making fewer appearances on Hoboken streets. Although there’s been no change in the City Council to the parking ordinances, stickers began appearing recently on cars stating said vehicle was parked illegally and had 72 hours to move or be booted.

The days of immediate terror with instant booting are apparently over by executive order. It hasn’t taken long for bad habits to filter down from Washington D.C. and the attention on the austere booting policies in Hoboken created lots of bad publicity, bad will and some say a bad business climate. Read More...

Hoboken is on a ride but many residents don’t know it’s underway. The descent is speeding up and plummeting to a crash as the Mile Square approaches the fifth anniversary of one time political corruption star in former Mayor Peter Cammarano.

The rise was steady, the tongue always loquacious and the belief he could talk his way through anything supreme. No, not Peter Cammarano – Mister Carmelo.

After being selected in the Vision 20/20 sweepstakes as an appropriate Assembly vehicle for one State Senator Brian Stack, the steady rise of one Carmelo Garcia as he was happy to tell you; he was “destined for greatness.” Read More...

A July 15th HUD letter issued by Newark Director Sonia Burgos to Hoboken Housing Authority Chairwoman Dana Wefer says the federal agency plans to review a “sampling” of HHA contracts.

The time period of contracts available for sampling is stated as going back to 2010. Contracts issued outside of federal procurement rules and without any approval by the Hoboken Housing Authority’s Board of Commissioners ran in the millions of dollars at the sole direction by its current contracted manager, Carmelo Garcia. Read More...

Cablevision News 12 is blowing the lid off the MSV story broken here last May on the “contributions” to Carmelo Garcia with million dollar no-bid contracts to vendors in the HHA.

News 12 with investigative reporter “Kane in Your Corner.” Catch it!

The report says Carmelo gave $2 million in no bid contracts to three firms who then gave him thousands of dollars earlier this year.

Carmelo is sticking to his cover story that it was an “emergency” but Chairwoman Dana Wefer disagrees and says otherwise and the facts are on her side. The audit report just released here earlier this week says the independent third party professionals aren’t buying it either. Read More...

Carmelo Garcia is quite the popular guy these days. Well, he’s undoubtedly a fav with certain HHA vendors who kicked in thousands to his political committee last March and certainly he’s beloved by more HHA vendors for not making them go through that oh so unnecessary sealed bid process. (See yesterday’s story below.)

Word is a certain news group is on the prowl around the Mile Square on the lookout for the whereabouts of a certain contracted Executive Director. Did said news crew catch up to him? Read More...

If HHA Executive Director Carmelo Garcia thought the investigation into his procurement woes was over with the odd intervention of the HUD office in Newark, a new publicly released audit report’s findings will displace any such notion.

Showing a lengthy list of serious problems, many clearly in violation under state and federal law, the HHA audit findings laid bare the mismanagement and vendor abuses under the controversial contractor heading the agency in Carmelo Garcia.

Among the more than a dozen and a half serious problems delineated in the HHA Audit Report: Read More...

Going against the grain, Da Horsey is not being contrarian in picking the Lionel Messi train to derail conventional wisdom Germany will raise the World Cup trophy today.

Argentina has not demonstrated dominance in the tournament while Germany saw a win for the ages against the Selçåo, an emotional but tactical disaster when Brazil took the field in the semifinal without two of its top players. This was not the Brazil of old which could see a top tier talent take the field when one of its stars had fallen. Read More...

Last night’s July City Council meeting saw a former member approved for an open Zoning Board seat and the irony of earlier actions splitting the council coming full circle.

Carol Marsh, a former councilwoman in Hoboken is returning to public service after her City Council  colleagues voted unanimously to appoint her to an open Hoboken Zoning Board seat. The term is not a full three years but six months as the slot is a replacement. It will be eligible for a full three year term after the six months are completed. Read More...