Author: SmartyJones

News

Councilwoman Tiffanie Fisher: “UDD, Monarch, Washington St, Clydesdales, Personal Attacks”

Official release:

Dear friends and neighbors: I hope everyone is settling into the weekend and either went or was able to see online the Lighting of Hoboken’s Christmas Tree.  We are in the season full swing!  I unfortunately could not make it as I am away to attend a funeral for a longtime family friend who at 80, passed peacefully with a smile on his face and surrounded by loved ones.     There is always a lot happening in our own version of Sesame Street… this newsletter includes an update on just a few:

  • Hoboken Waterfront – UDD and Monarch
  • Update from 12/7 Council Meeting including:
    • Protective and medical Marijuana legislation
    • Update on Washington St. timing
    • Personal attacks against me
    • Read More...

  • News

    Holiday Grist: US Army Corps of Engineers approve permit for NY Waterway at Union Dry Dock

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    The Hoboken Horse at MSV can exclusively report the pending decision from the US Army Corps of Engineers came in and NY Waterway may commence full commercial operations at the site of the former Union Dry Dock.

    It’s unclear for the moment when exactly the decision came down but reliable sources inside City Hall confirm the unified fight among many in the city from Mayor Ravi Bhalla, Council President Ruben Ramos, Councilwoman Tiffanie Fisher on down to community activists is lost.

    Talking Ed Note: After former mayor Dawn Zimmer completed her second term, there was a discussion in the community to obtain the Union Dry Dock site and add it to the public waterfront. Read More...

    News

    Horse is a witness: Mayoral council operation -dealing the race card from the bottom of the deck

    MSV provides its opinion/analysis on orchestrated ugly race-baiting at last night’s City Council meeting

    Holiday season marred in Hoboken as political operation launched in council playing the race card

    Let’s make it official. The council ward races are almost a year off, people are beginning their holiday season and the latest political operation to attack council members who refuse to bow to Mayor Ravi Bhalla and capitulate without question or even a lone dissenting vote is well underway.

    As witnessed, we’ve already seen this odd tack of attacking an individual councilman for a lone differing vote of no consequence. In a very publicized prior instance first reported on MSV, Councilman Jim Doyle found himself at the end of an attack in a TV commercial for being a lone dissenting no vote. That came courtesy of Ravi Bhalla’s construction union allies on the Hilton Hotel vote. Read More...

    News

    Politics & rape; power and politics first; the Katie Brennan story

    At yesterday’s legislative oversight hearing in Trenton, Katie Brennan who worked on Phil Murphy’s campaign for NJ Governor details how she was ignored after reporting she was raped by another campaign staffer. She accused Phil Murphy’s team of putting politics over a rape victim.

    The following is courtesy of NJ.com:

    1. She accused Murphy’s team of putting politics over a rape victim.  Brennan all but said Murphy’s team didn’t do anything to punish Alvarez or properly address her allegations until it was politically expedient for the governor.  “I had access to people in the highest positions of power in the State of New Jersey,” she told lawmakers. “At each turn, my pleas for help went unanswered. Somehow, it wasn’t a priority to address my sexual assault … until it impacted them.” Brennan recalled how she reported the alleged April assault to police and the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office. After being shocked to learn in December that no charges would be filed, Brennan said, she reported her claims to Murphy’s transition team before the governor took office. She said she reported it again to Murphy’s administration in March after Murphy was sworn in  and then emailed Murphy and his wife, First Lady Tammy Murphy, seeking a meeting in June.  All the while, Alvarez continued to hold his position in the administration. For more on this story, see NJ.com.
    News

    ‘No Justice’ – the Katie Brennan rape hearing in Trenton

    A hearing is set for today on the allegations surrounding the rape of Katie Brennan, a married woman who lives in Jersey City.

    The hearing is set for 10:30 this morning in Trenton.  Background via NJ.com:
    Katie Brennan in Trenton testifying before the NJ Legislative Oversight committee

    In what’s expected to be a dramatic day in Trenton, Katie Brennan, an official in Gov. Phil Murphy‘s administration who accused another staffer of rape, will testify Tuesday before a committee of mostly women state lawmakers investigating how Murphy’s team responded to her allegations.
    Brennan — who will testify at the Statehouse at 10:30 a.m. — is the first person to sit for the panel, formed by the state Legislature after she came forward with her allegations in an October Wall Street Journal article. Read More...

    News

    Ravimobile controversy explodes: pimpmobile or to be pimped out, that is the question?

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    nine-page letter issued by Hoboken Police Chief Ken Ferrante to this website late Friday on the Ravimobile attempted to dispel a growing public controversy on its purchase, cost, and usage by Mayor Ravi Bhalla.

    Pimpmobile or to be ‘pimped out’ – let the public decide! 

    The defense of a gas-guzzling green-killing $63,000 SUV fondly called by some a ‘pimpmobile‘ has been left to Hoboken Police Chief Ken Ferrante as the mayor’s office and Ravi Bhalla remain silent on a growing public backlash.

    Members of the City Council allege they were never told of the actual reason with the approved purchase with a fleet of five police vehicles approved last summer at its August 1st meeting. Read More...

    News

    Councilwoman Jen Giattino: Budweiser Clydesdales Coming to the 6th Ward December 8th 3-5pm

    Official release:

      Dear friends and neighbors, In celebrating the repeal of Prohibition, the world-famous Clydesdales will be making an appearance on Washington St. between 1st and 8th Sts. Saturday, Dec. 8 from 3 to 5 p.m.    The Budweiser Clydesdale hitch will be making stops along Washington Street delivering cases of Budweiser Reserve Copper Lager.   To read more about the event click here.   Tonight Hanukkah Menorah Lighting: Date: 12/2 Time: 5pm

    Location: In front of City Hall Read More...

    News

    When your government goes Stasi on you

    The Constitution and its succeeding Amendments mean something to Americans although it’s no longer unfathomable to see the deconstruction of our freedoms at every turn.

    It’s been occurring at an increasing and dizzying pace although it’s easy not to see any of it.

    Sharyl Attkisson, a former CBS reporter during the Obama Administration tells her story in her bestseller “Stonewalled.” It highlights how she was hacked while working at the media giant and how it continued after she left big media. She’s also the best-selling author of another excellent book, “The Smear” detailing how people are led what to think about issues and inevitably how they vote. Read More...

    News

    Horse Sense: Ravi Bhalla preps Hoboken for deal with the Barry Brothers

    =&0=& =&1=& A hearing before the New Jersey Appellate Court today plays back fiddle to word of the latest back room deal hatched by Mayor Ravi Bhalla with the Barry Brothers, re: Ironstate Development. Over the last two days, Ravi Bhalla has met with residents of the Hudson Tea Building uptown and the condo board of Metro Stop on the west side of town to discuss moving the proposed Monarch Towers to two locations of added density in the third and fourth wards. Residents from yesterday’s City Hall meeting were mum but MSV has exclusively learned some of what Bhalla pitched Hudson Tea residents and the reactions were a mix of shock, anger and outrage. “He just lies right to our faces,” said one resident who asked to remain anonymous but added, “It didn’t go without notice, let’s put it that way.” Bhalla insulted the Hudson Tea Residents out of the gate saying they were invisible on the matter of the controversial Monarch Towers after the Barry Brothers backed out of a longstanding agreement to build tennis courts and parking on the eastern lot next to their building. The insult pointed to a specific meeting at the City Council where former mayor Dawn Zimmer stacked up additional density on the lot across from Metro Stop in a plan to switch the Barry Brothers from their proposed Monarch Towers location. The plan was torpedoed as Metro Stop residents were joined by dozens in the third ward lacing into the proposal crushing the possibility of any passage in the City Council. In addition, sources at the meeting were aghast when =&2=& Tens of millions in additional profits for the Barry Brothers could be the result of ineptitude, incompetence or another backroom deal enriching all the players is what many already see as the inevitable outcome if pushback from the community doesn’t take shape. Lacking any concrete financial answers, Bhalla pressed ahead that he saw two locations in the third and fourth ward as prime options to add dozens and dozens of luxury apartment units. The first is across the street at Metro Stop where controversy broke out last summer with chemical odors emanating from that Barry Brothers work site.  The City claimed there was no problem with the air but the third ward neighborhood was angered by that response adding to their woes of the Bijou monolith monstrosity going up down the block. (What this will do to Hoboken’s urban lifestyle and traffic will be an issue for decades to come.) The second location is in the fourth ward just south of the downtown “triangle” firehouse where a proposed hotel is suddenly going to be flipped into a far more profitable towering apartment building, 20 stories anyone? To make matters worse, Ravi Bhalla reportedly told Hudson Tea Building residents that both the third ward councilman (Michael Russo) and fourth ward councilman (Ruben Ramos) were already on board with his deal. This apparently came as a major surprise to both Russo and Ramos who had no clue what Bhalla’s mouth was saying. The hearing before the NJ Appellate Court on the Monarch Towers today will remain in the background as Ravi Bhalla looks to cut a great deal for the Barry Brothers and himself. That is if the people of Hoboken don’t have something to say about it first. Tick tock, the clock is ticking and Bhalla is trying to pull another fast one right after the weed store scam he pushed not days earlier.
    Former mayor Dawn Zimmer and her troubling infamous words on last year’s mayoral race. Good job there Dawn, the Barry Brothers would like to thank you.
    =&3=&: Savvy long-time readers of this anti-corruption website saw this coming but everyone was warned last year. So, deal with it and the prescient reference only yesterday about forging ahead or as MSV wrote, “back to the mayor’s office.” For more on that story, see the Hudson County View. This Horse Sense editorial, opinion learned in almost a decade of MSV’s reporting in Hoboken is dedicated to those members of the vanquished Hoboken Reform Movement who told you so in 2017.
    News

    Peter Cammarano’s problems grow $95,000 courtesy of NJ ELEC

    Peter Cammarano, the disgraced former Hoboken mayor received bad news before Thanksgiving.

    The convicted felon who went to the federal clink for taking $25,000 in bribes from an FBI informant in a 2009 sting was hit with $95,000 in fines courtesy of NJ ELEC.

    The state agency overseeing campaign compliance says Peter Cammarano didn’t comply in timely reporting $1,000,000 received in campaign loot.

    The $95,000 penalty catapaults Cammarano atop the all-time Hoboken violators list surpassing the notorious former second ward councilwoman Beth Mason. She was whacked with approximately $44,000 for similar NJ ELEC campaign violations back in 2015. Read More...