Dear Friends ,
Hoboken is emerging from the worst natural disaster in
our history having demonstrated the incredible spirit of
our community.
Hundreds of people volunteered every day to help their neighbors, literally
saving lives as we struggled together as an extended Hoboken family.
As I write this, power has been restored in most of the City thanks to the
enormous assistance given to us by President Obama, Governor Christie,
the National Guard, the Army Corps of Engineers, and most of all by the
dedicated workers of PSE&G who worked 24/7 to get our antiquated and
badly damaged substations running again as quickly as was humanly possible.
Some of our neighbors still remain without power and we are continuing
to work hard to identify the reasons and resolve the remaining problems.
It is time to start the long and difficult process of rebuilding
our City and in many cases our homes and our businesses.
Tomorrow is Election Day and the election will go on. It is
important that despite the turmoil in all of our lives, that
you vote if you can.
FIND YOUR POLLING PLACE
Polling locations can be easily found by texting 877877 with your
address (street address and 07030 zip code) as the message. A return
text with your polling location will be received in seconds.
In addition to voting for President, Senator and Congressperson, three
questions critical to our local Hoboken community are on the ballot.
Especially during this difficult time, it is important to the future of our
community that you make sure that your voices are heard on these three
critically important Hoboken ballot questions.
SCHOOL BOARD
I strongly urge you to support the Kids First School Board team of
Tom Kluepfel, Jeanne Marie Mitchell and Ruth McCallister
(K – L – M on the ballot).
Kids First has our schools finally moving in the right direction. They have
instituted the sound educational and fiscal practices that are necessary
to make our schools better year after year.
The process will take time but Kids First is definitely moving our schools
in the right direction and we cannot return to the past practices that led
to the problems the Kids First team is working so hard to address.
ELECTION REFORM
Please vote YES on Hoboken ballot questions 1 & 3, important
election reforms that would consolidate our municipal elections into a
single election on Election Day in November with the candidate getting
the most votes on that day elected to serve without the need for an
additional runoff election.
This would replace the current system of having a separate local election
in May followed by an additional runoff election if necessary in June, in
addition to the June primary and the November general election.
In 2009 we had 5 elections in 8 months. If these reforms had been
in place we would have had only two, a June primary and a November
general election. These important reforms would greatly increase voter
participation and save taxpayer money, as much as $125,000 per
unnecessary election that would be eliminated.
RENT CONTROL
I will be voting NO on Hoboken Ballot question 2 which proposes
amending our Rent Control law to move toward vacancy decontrol.
In my opinion the proposal, which was developed by a landlord advocacy
group, does not include sufficient protections for existing tenants given
the new financial incentives that would be created to encourage vacancies
so that rents could be raised.
If your commute has been made more difficult, please vote in
the morning if you can. The process will likely be much quicker and
that would ensure that a difficult commute doesn’t cause you to arrive
home too late to cast your ballot.
I will be emailing more regularly over the next several months
so that I can keep you updated on how our great City is progressing.
Sandy has set us back a bit, but Hoboken remains a unique and extraordinary
City and our future remains bright.
Dawn
