Back in 2011, the one local hospital in Hoboken, the former St. Mary’s now Hoboken University Medical Center reached a crisis. The red ink piled up and without state intervention aiding a new buyer the hospital would close.

At the time, the crisis became a political football as a local political faction eyed an opportunity to push for the hospital’s closure to use as a political weapon against former Mayor Dawn Zimmer.

St. Mary’s hospital was saved with a $55 million bond guarantee underwritten by the City of Hoboken in 2006. In 2011, an effort to identify a buyer saved it from closure in the darkest days. Read More...

They’ve been counting the results for days in Nevada and are starting to get the hang of it. With 96% of the vote counted, here are the latest figures as of this morning in the Democrat Nevada caucus:

It’s not clear when the other four percent of the vote will be tallied but we are expecting Iowa results to be completed by midweek.

Nevada is facing similar challenges as Iowa with Mayor Cheat challenging the vote but two delegates are currently added to his column.

On Saturday, South Carolina, the heralded firewall for Democrat & DNC Media frontrunner Joe Biden will make his big stand in that upcoming primary against Bernie Sanders. Read More...

After much delay and years of haggling and big special interest flexing, the controversial Hoboken Yard Redevelopment Plan passed last night in the City Council in a 9-0 vote.

There’s a collective orgasm coming out of the mayor’s office. The skinny? They think the bounty of special interest money will go Mayor Ravi Bhalla’s way and not land up with his nemesis, Councilman Mike DeFusco in next year’s mayoral race.

After trying to slam one rendition of the redevelopment through last year with zero public input, Ravi Bhalla’s office put out this statement celebrating. Read More...

If you missed the debate last night, some clips may be illuminating. Here’s one short clip.

Watch this 19 second clip with the sound on.

The DNC/Democrats are truly doomed.#DemDebate

pic.twitter.com/oZcsV3Mixm

— Benny (@bennyjohnson) February 20, 2020

Joe Biden took a moment to speak out about global warming. Was his clip about the global warming “existential threat” his best moment?

Joe Biden “It is the existential threat that humanity faces…global warming”

What is wrong with Joe ???? pic.twitter.com/5NL6BFXwBj

— truthseeker (@Calloutfortruth) February 20, 2020

Senator Elizabeth Warren took a tomahawk to tattoo Mike Bloomberg in the head, or was it two? Read More...

Official release:

Dear friends and neighbors, The list of notable news only seems to get bigger in Hoboken, never smaller.  Here is what this newsletter will cover:

Tribeca Film Festival Expanding Into Hoboken – mark your calendars for April 15-26 and what we hope will be a number of opportunities to see cutting edge films at the Mile Square Theater and possibly other Hoboken venues.

Read More...

An indicator of the paranoia coming out of the mayor’s office is the utter silence and inability to tell the Hoboken public the truth on the pending budget deficit.

That number is more tightly kept locked away than the Iowa caucus votes being massaged in the back rooms of the DNC by a Super PAC app. Yup, there’s an app for that but not for Hoboken’s current budget woes.

The City Council passed the temporary budget under the normal State rules previously, good for several months leeway. Now comes the painful part. Drastic steps are in the works with plans to layoff dozens of municipal workers. A major tax increase is about to hit the table. Read More...

It’s started to trickle out of the mayor’s office. After issuing dozens of layoff notices and hinting at tax increases, the actual number of Mayor Ravi Bhalla’s budget debacle is trickling out.

Let’s start with the official story first broken here in early January pointing to $7 million dollars. It ain’t going to be seven million or seven and a half million.  =&0=& =&1=& =&2=& =&1=& =&4=& =&1=& =&6=& =&1=& =&8=& =&1=& =&10=&=&11=& =&12=&

Related: The early January exclusive:

Mayor’s office: Deploy the Patronage Protection! 

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Official release:

Dear Neighbor,   I want to wish each and every one of you a Happy Valentine’s Day and a happy Black History Month. So far this month has already been chock full of excitement. Here are some of the items that have taken place or that I think would interest you to know.    Hospital Zoning At our City Council meeting last Wednesday evening, my Council colleagues and I unanimously approved on first reading an emergency ordinance to zone our hospital property as a hospital district, to prevent it from being used for future residential development. Although the future of our hospital is once again uncertain, working with Mayor Bhalla’s administration, we are doing our part to help secure a future with a hospital continuing to serve our community.  By acting to diminish the appeal of the hospital’s land to a real estate developer seeking to profit from the hospital’s precarious financial status, we are working to increase the likelihood that the hospital continues to provide critical public health services to our community. To read more click here!    Spring Recreation Since 2018, the City has expanded recreation opportunities for children through the re-launch of the flag football program, the introduction of tennis clinics, the expansion of basketball for children with a new division for girls, and this year — a new girls’ volleyball league.  Mayor Ravi S. Bhalla and the City of Hoboken are pleased to announce the launch of recreation tennis, and for the first time, girls’ volleyball for the spring season. Registration will open on a first-come, first-serve basis for both sports at 12:00 pm on Friday, February 14th and will remain open until March 2nd. To register, visit http://www.hobokennj.gov/register.   Art in the Park On February 11th registration began for Hoboken’s popular Art in the Park program, a six-week creative arts program this summer for children ages 1-4 years of age. You can sign up at www.hobokennj.gov/register. This picture of Anna, 17 years ago, shows how much my family has enjoyed this terrific program which is run so well by Nora Martínez DeBenedetto. Though Anna is in college now, our Art in the Park program is still here, going strong and better than ever! It’s not too soon to plan for our fun Art in the Park program.  Register today!   Pet Waste Station Adoption  Note the empty roll on our 11th Street pet waste station, which I personally “adopted”, and which used to have 200 bags. It’s pretty clear that our pet waste station is being well-used, and our 11th Street sidewalks look pretty clear too! ???? ???? ???? ???? ???? This initiative from Mayor Bhalla’s administration seems to be working well. Let me know if you would like to adopt a Pet Waste Station if you don’t have one nearby, and we will follow-up or visit www.hobokennj.gov/petwaste for more information. Let’s keep our streets clean together!    Coffee with Cohen Thank you to everyone who joined me for February’s Coffee with Cohen and our gracious host, the beautiful bwe kafe at 1401 Adams! I enjoyed discussing Rebuild by Design, the proposed sale of our Hospital, Recycling, Parking Permits, the City’s Budget and Public Safety.  I want to say a special thank you to Mayor Bhalla and Fire Chief Crimmins for joining us. I appreciate the time both of you took out of your day to come and talk to the 5th Ward constituents. I hope to see you at my next Coffee with Cohen event on the first Monday in March! Stay tuned! Census A reminder that the 2020 Census is still hiring (age 18+)! To help with this important undertaking, the U.S. Census Bureau is hiring thousands of employees. Local Census taker positions pay $22/hour, with paid training and flexible hours. The Census offers great jobs, great pay, and important work for our community. Learn more at www.hobokennj.gov/census.    Congratulations to Anne Lockwood and Joan Allman! Congratulations to Hoboken’s newly appointed Planning Board Commissioners, Anne Lockwood, and Joan Allman, who were sworn into office last week. Best of luck to Anne and Joan, longtime engaged 5th Ward residents, and thank you both for your service. Hoboken is fortunate indeed to have such talented people serve our community. If I can ever be of any assistance you, please do not hesitate to contact me at HobokenPhil@gmail.com    Thanks, and best wishes to you and your family, Phil Cohen 5th Ward Councilman  City of Hoboken, New Jersey P.S. You can learn more about me and my ideas for Hoboken on my website, philcohen.org News Mayor Ravi Bhalla issues dozens of layoff notices and readies higher taxes 02/13/202001/22/2021 by SmartyJones1 Min Reading A slew of municipal layoff notices in the dozens hit the street with the mayor’s office preparing a budget expected to deplete millions more this year from the surplus and an inevitable tax increase higher than the one he proposed last year. Welcome to the world of Mayor Ravi Bhalla’s Hoboken. An economic boom is underway across the country but in the Mile Square City, its depression era municipal job cuts, splurging on the surplus and a fat tax increase for Hoboken taxpayers. How’d this happen? Let us dial back a single calendar year. What were Ravi Bhalla and the office of mayor doing? Rolling out a three-percent tax increase to residents while issuing themselves fat double-digit raises. Read More...