The background for tonight’s meeting at the Wallace School for a Board of Ed search for a superintendent is included in a story at Hoboken Now. Reporter Amy Sara Clark has all the details and the invitation for the public’s contribution to defining the role in the search.
This is a unique opportunity for the public to help define the criteria. Meeting will be held at the Wallace Elementary School Auditorium, 1100 Willow Ave at 7:00 pm.
This is not just about Hoboken, but the impact here was as big as any event in Americans’ lifetimes. So we’re taking a moment to mark it. About a week ago, we heard the US President would not be attending this historic event: the 20th year anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the largest liberation of humanity in our lifetime. We understand there was no award, no money or accolades for President Obama. For those too young to understand the massive importance of what occurred, take a look. No, this was bigger than your first iPod, trust us. Here’s some historical context:
Is there any doubt if this man was President where he’d be today?
And contrast to this, which the media is practically silent on. Watch it in its entirety, unedited and the full context of the remarks. Anything vaguely unsettling?
We decided to move a comment so it could get more deserved attention here. This is the third noteworthy perspective since the two spoken at the previous City Council meeting on the hospital. Have a bone to pick with the ideas go at it. With the author, take it up with Da Horsey. Without further adieu, Mister Snitch on HUH, Hoboken University Hospital:
The ‘hospital’s ticking time bomb’ got moved up an hour with the election of Christie. Unlike Corzine, he has no incentive to keep bailing out Menendez’ money-laundering-and-patronage scheme. You’ll recall, I hope, that Christie brought down Version One of this racket at UMDNJ. He became acquainted with Menendez’ tactics there, so he knows exactly where the bodies are buried here. Christie knows full well where the state’s money would be going if he leaves the spigot open – not that the state has much left to spend, anyway. No, the favors Christie owes aren’t in the same places Corzine owed them – and Hoboken’s going to notice that damn quick.
The hospital was forced to acknowledge being $20 mill or so in arrears the other day. Menendez’ henchwoman Quigley declared that the firing of the old CFO and the hiring of a new one ‘fixed’ the problem. (For good measure, she blamed the economy.) Right. She’s the same machine functionary who’s been attacking critics of the scam from the get-go. For Quigley, covering-up is Job One.
Hoboken better get ready to cough up another $50 million gone AWOL. There’s not a reformer in town equipped to take this on, so you can expect the issue to explode in the town’s face only when it can no longer possibly be avoided.
Mason’s focus on salary cuts is the equivalent of giving everyone on the Titanic a bucket and telling them to bail. But the fact is, no one else is doing anything but putting on a show for the folks in the cheap seats. And the curtain won’t come down until Hoboken’s taxes have nearly doubled – again – and the town is forced into bankruptcy.
Nora Jacobson (pictured right) returned from Vermont to visit her old home in Hoboken and an intimate Q&A after a screening of her documentary “Delivered Vacant” to a packed house at Burchard Auditorium on the Stevens campus last night. It turned out to be an amazing reflection with even one of the film’s characters, a well known Hoboken developer in attendance participating too.
The humor of the working class roots of Hoboken past is beautifully captured. The film harkens to a time in the mid to late 1980s, with politicians, citizen activists, and winners and losers in a deadly game where arson also played a part in properties delivered vacant for condo conversion. A friend who was in college during the time of the filming at Stevens described Hoboken in more blunt terms, “It was a hole” but from the characters in the movie, there’s quite a bit of positive sentiment. A woman with a baby adds a stark dose of reality at a City Council meeting, describing being propositioned by a drug dealer adding a strong dose of realism to the romanticism.
The years later exchange of filmmaker and depicted developer is fascinating and captured here in the Q&A as well. Another point of interest is a filmgoer remarking no one was ever arrested for the clear cases of arson and the murderers never brought to justice. Nora Jacobson stated her hope someone would’ve stepped up to the plate on this as she did not feel safe doing so.
A remarkable film capturing a time in Hoboken’s past and the resentments lingering today among the birthers. One woman speaks with a smile as she states the feelings of residents to the “newcomers” including the filmmaker – “We hate you.” This movie captures a lot of the reasons why.
“Delivered Vacant” is available on DVD via Nora Jacobson’s website.
Film Screening – Delivered Vacant November 7th
Not sure what you have in mind for a cool Fall Saturday night? This is a unique opportunity to see a film related to Hoboken’s recent history and also meet the film’s creator in a Q&A. More on the film at the link here.
After the certification of the election, a low key ceremony took place inside City Hall to swear in Hoboken’s first elected woman mayor. Here’s the photo from the City website. A ceremony open to the public next weekend has yet to be announced but should be soon.
As part of the official proceedings, the former City Council President also resigned as the 4th Ward Councilwoman. The important question of who will replace her becomes the flavor of the month.
There was some back story leading into the day after election City Council meeting Wednesday night. Which Beth Mason would be showing up? The old reformer or the new and repackaged version who wants to represent all sides of Hoboken in the repackaged “triangulator” version.
Other than the invariable short length of the meeting and Mayor Zimmer’s permanent recusal from the proceedings, last night’s City Council affair was uneventful short of a proposed amendment by Councilwoman Mason to cut government officials and directors salaries beyond the resolution at hand. With the across the board 10% reductions ready for a final vote, Beth Mason perhaps not getting the memo from the election the night before decided a new amendment to reduce salaries 25% for the mayor, council and city directors was even better. She made a proposal along those lines to reduce the mayor’s salary a whopping 35% from just last spring’s salary. When that was brought to her attention, she agreed to have the amendment reflect the current mayoral salary as the base point of the reduction, not the already reduced figure. Is anyone else seeing the irony of this since the Councilwoman asked for backpay just earlier this year?
What Councilwoman Mason doesn’t realize or has failed to in her million dollar drive for the prize is the battle has been engaged and finally won. What is called the reform movement here in Hoboken, (decent government in most of America) is now charged to fix years and years of old school operations where the tax takers stated a birthers right to grab as much loot as possible while the tax payers have been out trying to attend to their jobs and families.
The spotlight has been reversed for the moment but now the hard work begins. There’s already fair warning now on the ticking time bomb of the hospital right in the heart of the city. More than one Hoboken citizen highlighted the lack of seriousness to address the hospital’s threat to fell the town with one more financial heart attack. Dawn Zimmer in an interview after the Stevens debate stated she is already working on sourcing up to $40 million in grants to aid the hospital. Unfortunately, we are facing a structural issue, the executive posturing from the hospital CEO notwithstanding. Hoboken on the hook for $52 million needs to break that umbilical cord asap. Hey, what is Jon Corzine up to these days?
After the election, we’ve noted similar conversation coming from different corners all with the same hope: Beth Mason come home. Clearly some habits die hard. And if you can’t beat them, at least cut their salary more than they have already agreed. Councilwoman Beth Mason’s campaign, a bigger disaster than in the spring for the desperate falsehood of a tax increase her advertising and operatives shamelessly pushed in the final week, clearly didn’t get the message with a 20 point defeat at the hands of her rival. In the famous words of Rosie Perez in “White Men Can’t Jump,” “Sometimes when you lose, you really win.”
Does Beth Mason want to be a part of the long sought reform victory or does she want to make her stand with herself as a paragon of self-worship? Oh and the amendment to further cut salaries went down in flames with only the Russo clan playing along in the kabuki dance.
Talking Ed note: Frank “Pupie” Raia was first in stopping by Zimmer Campaign headquarters and Councilwoman Beth Mason also made a classy appearance to congratulate the mayor on her blow out victory. Pupie’s campaign was notable in its stated goal of staying positive although he did make comparative ads late, his class and reputation remains solidly intact. It didn’t escape notice along with the issues oriented campaign put forward by the Brinkman campaign who made a congratulatory call early.
Councilman Peter Cunningham was handed the gavel after Mayor Dawn Zimmer recused herself from the City Council meeting. The Councilman handled the proceedings well, using the chair’s role to recognize speakers and act smoothly on motions as required. Not a bad start for a guy who said he was tired and a bit under the weather. Keep those subcommittees in action and this job will be easier.
Update 11:40 – To answer one of our favorite readers Infotainme, Councilman Peter Cunningham will officially take over as City Council President when Mayor Zimmer is sworn in after the election is certified.
Reader Lincolnlogger raised a question on who had the idea first on a cost per vote breakdown regarding our reference to Hoboken Now’s story. We doubted there was any theft of an idea that was often discussed in this election with the Mason Campaign spending in the ballpark of a half a million, but just in case, Amy Sara Clark called it standard post election fare and offered this Jersey City story from earlier this year as an example.
Now here’s a related joke from this election. Two political operatives from opposing camps run into each other on the street. The first representing Mayor Zimmer asked the other in the Beth Mason campaign if he knew what the record was in NJ for cost per vote in a losing campaign. The Mason operative replied in the negative, “I’m not sure what it is but I’m pretty sure we’re going to break it.”
True story. We sat on this one since last week just to make sure we didn’t leave any tracks where this guy could get fired. Yes, even when a good joke is at stake.
In another story of interest, the White House actually did polling to see about replacing Jon Corzine in the statewide Governor’s race. After the polling came back poorly and that included Newark mayor Corey Booker, they landed up making a number of trips on behalf of Jon Corzine but it still failed. At least this doesn’t reflect on the White House though.
Talking Ed election notes: Mayor Zimmer contrary to some of her opponent’s predictions, not only won the 4th Ward election night but every ward in the city. In Councilwoman Beth Mason’s 2nd Ward, the tally was 905 – 594 in favor of the Mayor. In the 4th, Mayor Zimmer took 883 votes with Frank “Pupie Raia and Beth Mason pulling 474 and 425 respectively.
Considering the fact that Mayor Zimmer was outspent 6 or 7-1 when all expenditures are totaled from her two main challengers, that’s beyond impressive. Girlfriend had some pull.
The problems the City is facing especially the looming financial problems at the hospital are ominous. Mayor Zimmer in an interview after the Stevens debate mentioned efforts to find funding grants of up to $40 million. That’s a formidable task and one that must be very high on the agenda.
Amy Sara Clark has posted the “preliminary” cost per vote analysis at Hoboken Now. We should note that those figures will change. The Kim Glatt campaign will have a larger backend of figures to add into their tally not appearing to this point. With the Beth Mason campaign GOTV effort, her final figures will only grow further as the largest campaign expenditure.
Hoboken Now also has posted a story on Everton Wilson, the mayoral candidate leaving the country due to medical reasons. Wilson said via email doctors have told him he has a stomach condition causing him to lose weight and it’s life threatening. He hopes a return to his native Jamaica will lead to him proving this wrong.
We wish Everton all the best and a speedy recovery.