hobokenhorse.com

Hoboken’s City Council operates sadly like a series of bad one person Shakespearean plays but now the audience here at MSV will get to help give them their annual grades.  (The mayor’s administration will be graded later.)

It would be too easy based on the antics of MORTe to provide a collective grade.  Their obstruction of inflicting a $4 million cost to Hoboken by refusing to approve a low cost bond refinance on the midtown garage warrants a failing grade alone but this will be a person by person individual grade.  (The damage for that cynical action is not tallied and may in fact cost city workers their jobs.  MORTe takes no responsibility for any of this but vociferously complains about the impending result.) Read More...

Hoboken is a strange and wondrous land, journeyed by newcomers, some transient, others visiting who insist on staying in ever greater numbers raising families and demanding decent government for their tax dollars.

When it comes to defining decency, it’s a clash of cultures akin to full out culture shock.  The Old Guard is blind to their malfeasance and are fond of saying “everyone does it.”  Then there’s the sadder cynical line, “Don’t hate the player, hate the game,” as when imprisoned felon Peter Cammarano went down in flames.  After his arrest, they fell silent but soon regrouped and moved on.  (Enter Tim Occhipinti.) Read More...

City of Hoboken announces:

=&0=& 1600 Park and Hoboken Cove Concept Plans to be Shown at City Hall The City of Hoboken is in the process of revising the designs to create new parks and public space at 1600 Park and Hoboken Cove. Revisions are underway based on community input regarding connectivity between the parks and new flexibility regarding the height of the proposed recreation field. The City has commissioned the professional landscape architect Imbiano Quigley (IQ) to design the site. The consultant will be presenting multiple concepts to the stakeholders committee and receiving feedback from the stakeholders for consensus on a final conceptual design. Concurrently, a studio class of graduate students in the Landscape Architecture program at City College in New York has been working to creatively consider the same constraints and develop design ideas of their own. A set of the studio class’ design ideas, a culmination of a semester-long collaboration effort, will be on display starting Tuesday, December 13, 2011 in the lobby of City Hall, 94 Washington Street. Professor and Landscape Architect Lee Weintraub worked with members of the stakeholder committee to guide the students in their work over the last 10 weeks. Director of Community Development Brandy Forbes and the City’s consultants Remington and Vernick also provided input into the students’ work. The public is invited to see the exhibit which opens Tuesday, December 13, 2011 at 2:30 p.m.  All of the students will be in attendance to describe their work. Later in the week the formal concepts from the City’s professionals IQ will also be on display in the City Hall Lobby.

Former NJ Freeholder and Church Towers resident Maurice Fitzgibbons is hospitalized in the intensive care unit at Mount Sinai in Manhattan.

The cause of his illness is not known but residents have noted he has not looked well of late.

Fitzgibbons was 5th District Freeholder for three terms until 2008.  He also is a former Chair of the Hoboken Democratic Committee.

Fitzgibbons runs a media firm, Fitzmedia and has been awarded contracts at the North Hudson Sewerage Authority.  He had been Director of Ethnic Affairs among other positions for Governor Jame Florio. Read More...

The following is a letter from a new citizens group: Hoboken Residents for a Public Waterfront.
Welcome to Hoboken Residents for a Public Waterfront Dear Concerned Neighbor: Thank you for requesting more information.  Please ensure you also sign our petition to send to public officials if you have not already.  The goal of Hoboken Residents for a Public Waterfront is to give residents of Hoboken a platform to come together and voice concerns about the privatization of the waterfront. Our first order of action is to defeat the “Monarch at the Shipyard” proposal put forth by Shipyard Associates, a division of Applied Development.  The Monarch at the Shipyard project is composed of two eleven story residential towers connected by a three story building containing a private parking garage, private swimming pool and lobby on the dilapidated pier/platform over the Hudson River just east of the Hudson Tea building.  This new application is in direct conflict with the original application submitted for this land and approved by the state, county and city in 1997.  The original approved application was for 1,160 residential units (now the Shipyard buildings, Constitution, etc.) with promised open space for the public, a recreational area and much needed public parking to be located on the pier/platform of the newly proposed Monarch project.  The development approval was contingent on the open park space being completed.  Now that all 1,160 residential units are complete and occupied, Shipyard Associates re-applied to amend the original applications with the goal to residentially develop this last plot of land rather than provide the promised open space, recreational area and public parking for the neighborhood and city. We fundamentally believe THE WATERFRONT SHOULD BE PUBLIC OPEN SPACE FOR ALL HOBOKEN RESIDENTS and their visitors to come and enjoy.  Our beautiful waterfront is a big part of what makes Hoboken special.  If the Monarch development is successful, it will be the ONLY private development on the waterfront in Hoboken and will be contrary to both the Hoboken and Hudson County master plans which call for the continuous, public waterfront access. TRAFFIC along Hudson Street, 15th Street, Shipyard Lane and Sinatra Drive are already at elevated levels.  There are existing approvals in the immediate neighborhood of the proposed Monarch project for an additional 661 units to be constructed at the Hoboken Cove/Hudson Tea complex.  This overdevelopment of a relatively small area in Hoboken will cause a dangerous traffic situation.  Without counting the Monarch project, approval is already in place for 2,438 residential units between the Hoboken Cove/Hudson Tea and Shipyard complexes. PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION in the uptown neighborhood of Hoboken is crowded.  Hoboken residents wait on long lines at bus stops in town, at ferry terminals and in Port Authority in Manhattan.  Many times buses drive past uptown Hoboken bus stops because buses have reached maximum capacity.  We believe the public transportation system cannot adequately handle additional high rise development in the uptown Hoboken neighborhood. In October 2010, a portion of Sinatra Drive and the public riverfront walkway on the Shipyard site COLLAPSED into the Hudson River.  Luckily, there were no injuries.  More than one year later Shipyard Associates has not yet completed repairs on the riverfront walkway.  Hudson County has already completed their repairs and Sinatra Drive reopened in the summer of 2011.  We believe it is dangerous and risky to allow a developer to construct a residential development on a platform over the Hudson River when they have such an unsafe history. This is just a small sample of reasons why we oppose the proposed Monarch project.  We would love to hear your concerns as well.  Together, we will fight this project until we receive the open space we deserve and were promised. How You Can Help RIGHT NOW: 1.       SPREAD THE WORD!  You can LIKE our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/HobokenRPW<http://www.facebook.com/HobokenRPW> and follow us on Twitter @HobokenRPW to get up to the minute updates.  Encourage your neighbors and friends to do the same.  We have strength in numbers.  You can also reach out to our group via email at HobokenRPW@gmail.com<mailto:HobokenRPW@gmail.com>. 2.       SIGN OUR PETITION!  To send the strongest message possible to elected officials that residents of Hoboken do not want private development on our waterfront. 3.       WE NEED VOLUNTEERS!  To pound the pavement and gather signatures for our petition.  We can provide you with signup sheets to use in your neighborhood or lobby of your building.  We would love to also gather signatures at bus stops, ferry terminals, the PATH station and other areas where residents congregate.  Please email us at HobokenRPW@gmail.com<mailto:HobokenRPW@gmail.com> if you can help us collect signatures. 4.       SEND LETTERS TO THE EDITOR!  Of local and regional newspapers.  We believe this is an effective method of spreading our message to a larger audience.  Again, we can provide you with contact information for the relevant publications we have been communicating with. 5.       SHOW UP FOR PUBLIC HEARINGS!  We will notify everyone when public hearings are scheduled for the Hoboken Planning Board, Hudson County Planning Board, and hopefully appeal hearings at the NJ Department of Environmental Protection.  We must speak with a loud unified voice to ensure these regulatory bodies understand what is at stake. 6.       SEND LETTERS TO ELECTED OFFICIALS!  Voicing your concerns about private residential development along the waterfront.  We are happy to provide you with contact information for members of the entities listed above as well as Mayor Zimmer, Hoboken City Council members, Hudson County representatives, and state legislators. Shipyard Associates’ application has been approved by the New Jersey State Department of Environmental Protection.  As concerned residents, we need to support an appeal of this approval.  In the past, public outcry has caused the DEP to rescind approvals.  We believe the DEP did not perform proper due diligence in approving this application and we have a strong defense for appeal.  The application also needs to pass the Hudson County Planning Board and the Hoboken City Planning Board before this project can become a reality.

A new Hoboken citizens group is looking to keep the Hoboken waterfront public with a view to take on the Monarch project on the northeast pier.

We have been inspired by the work of FUND FOR A BETTER WATERFRONT (www.betterwaterfront.org<http://www.betterwaterfront.org>), a local nonprofit that has fought for open space initiatives and smart city planning.  They have successfully defeated many private development projects along the Hudson River, both in Hoboken and neighboring cities.  They were also major players in the Pier A park and Maxwell Pier park projects.  We are happy to be working in conjunction with this fine nonprofit that has already given so much to Hoboken. We promise to stay in touch to keep you updated on the latest news and more ways to help the cause.  Please reach out to us at HobokenRPW@gmail.com<mailto:HobokenRPW@gmail.com> if you have additional items to share or want to get more involved. Regards, Hoboken Residents for a Public Waterfront

It’s the holiday season and what better way to show your love for vote by mail ballots when there isn’t an election anywhere in sight than to give your hard earned cash to Tim Occhipinti so he can get a head start on buying oodles of them at $40 a pop in the Housing Authority.

Looks like the Old Guard doesn’t want to carry Occhipinti so they would like you to do so.

Help Tim buy votes in the HHA. Please donate

Guess there’s been an Old Guard budget review and between Frank Raia, Beth Mason and Mike Novak, it’s time to tighten the belt and look to people who love absentee ballot fraud, petulant council hysterics and childish behavior coupled with the worst self-awareness on a body where MORTe provides plenty. Read More...

After the Rotary event at Stevens last Saturday, a group descended on Elysian Cafe including Councilwoman Beth Mason, her husband Ricky and the always inscrutable Scott Delea with another self-proclaimed “independent.”

They spent some power seeking quality time together as Delea bent on half knee to kiss the Masonic Temple ring and pledge his fealty if the Ricky checkbook would be opened on his behalf as an at large candidate in 2013 where Mason imagines herself a winning mayoral candidate. Read More...

Courtesy the City of Hoboken:

Hoboken University Medical Center ribbon cutting ceremony from Hoboken NJ on Vimeo.

In a vote proving the third time is the charm, the City Council finally passed a resolution with numerous items allowing a critical element to finally pass – City payroll for firefighters.

With numerous problems cited by Corporation Counsel Mark Tabakin if the the budget items were not readily shifted and after much bickering on peripheral issues about obtaining information by the council minority, including a raise going back to September for the mayor’s Chief of Staff, the vote was 8-1 in favor. Read More...

 MORTE – beth Mason, tim Occhipinti, michael Russo, and Terry Castellano get to live out their dreams of sabotage if they follow through on undermining a simple line item transfer for the third time this evening.

Expect lots of noise, wasted time and finger pointing with a blame information game before a vote to finally shift a mere 2% of the city’s finances.

Tune in at 7:00 for all the phoney drama.

Oh and MORTe or perhaps Beth Mason alone may toss in some random attacks on Hoboken Transportation and Parking Director Ian Sacs too.  A coordinated attack has been underway for a spell with Beth Mason’s favorite fascist website Hoboken411 leading her political operation. Read More...