Jersey City's SAT score is listed as 1425. Is that supposed to be some sort of average?

This is nonsense.

Asked a couple of guys standing outside when they were opening. They said they're opening on Monday with the full menu available by Thursday of next week.

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Freudian slip?

Just looks suspicious to me, is all. When somebody posts a hit job and then a series of questions on hot-button issues, it could be an honest attempt to have questions answered. Or it could be an abuse of anonymity in an attempt to take advantage of a candidate who is on this forum in good faith under his own name.

By all means, Mr. Waterman can and should answer the questions himself. But with vague questions you'll probably get vague answers, if any.

njlist said:
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This seems like a polite line of questioning designed to pin Mr. Waterman down. And this after an oppo research hit on his previous employment. Are you a voter or do you represent one of the other candidates? These are complicated issues. I would hope that any of the candidates could write a treatise or speak at length on each of them. But without anything specific, he shouldn't respond unless he has time to write a booklength post on JCList.

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The you tube video is really not to be missed. Get this guy a TV show!

Just a reminder of the stakes here:

Gerry McCann is a current member of the JC Board of Ed who is up for re-election on April 20. He is also an ex-con. The members of the Board of Ed work voluntarily, for free; but they have at their fingertips a $600 million annual budget with which they have a certain amount of discretion to dole out contracts as they see fit. This is not my opinion. These are facts.

My opinion is that it is crucial that folks get out to vote, and vote out McCann and whoever is on his ticket (Dehere?) to restore some trust in how our tax dollars are spent.


Vote April 20th! Better yet, over the next few weeks remind 20 friends and relatives about the stakes in this election and encourage them to vote on behalf of the kids of JC or just in the interest of their own wasted (yet rising) tax dollars.

April 20th, polls open 2-9pm!

http://www.politickernj.com/wallye/37 ... andidate-loses-rutherford

McCann's candidate loses in Rutherford, at least partly due to McCann's involvement.

First go to the meeting, Trambone, then blow your horn all over it if you want to.


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This is the place on the road heading out of the Holland Tunnel on the right, adjacent to one of the gas stations. I don't know if I've ever seen it open or if it's even there at all anymore. The name was in blue writing on the door.

SICULO wrote:
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Actually -- the one being idealistic is you. T-bird is the pragmatist in this discussion. He's talking about real problems with a candidate for office, Gerry McCann; and you're throwing generalities about politicians' egos back at him. Further, he's recommending a real solution, voting McCann's felonious self out of office. One can agree or disagree with that. But idealistic it is not.

Regardless of past accomplishments, a convicted felon should not have a hand in how a $600million budget is spent, especially if the potential losers in all of this are our children.

Apologies if I misstated anything, Dan. It wasn't intentional, just trying to get some info up on Sterling and Carol since folks were asking about potential candidates on the thread. Best of luck to Carol!

Last night at the Council Meeting, those present were able to hear the views of two candidates running for the Board of Education -- Carol Lester and Sterling Waterman. Both are or have been leaders in the Jersey City school system and neither are products of the machine. They are independent reformers who have already succeeded in making dramatic changes to the educational system in Jersey City.

Here?s a quick wrap-up of what I know of both:

Sterling Waterman
 President of the Concerned Parents' Association (CPA=PTA) at PS#16 where his son is in the 2nd grade
 Head of the JC Coalition of Parent Council Presidents
 Member of the School Leadership Council
 Member of the PCUE (Parents and Communities United for Education) whose stated goal is 100% graduation for Jersey City students
 Big Brother at Big Brothers/Big Sisters
 Operation Ceasefire member
 JC resident for 17 years
Sterling works literally every day to improve the life and pedagogy of schools in Jersey City, both in his capacity as a leader and as a parent. He attends all Board of Ed meetings and is outspoken at most, specifically discussing issues that are pertinent to his and all Jersey City schools.

Carol Lester
 From a family of teachers and educators
 Lobbied vigorously on behalf of charter schools after realizing how poor the options were in Jersey City for her own children
 Member of the founding board of the Learning Community Charter School
 Teacher of yoga and music for seniors and children
 JC homeowner and resident for 21 years
Carol has education in her genes. She is a teacher, both of her parents were public school teachers, and so is her husband. Carol?s deep understanding of the issues will serve the school board well.

I?ve met personally with both; and both are the sort of breath of fresh air needed to clear the waste from that $600 million Board of Education Behemoth and restore learning to its proper place in our city.

The list did indeed carry over. I know two people who were on the previous meeting's list. They're near the front of this week's list and neither re-called the clerk.

I love that they make floorplans available, but they're impossible to read. Prospective buyers don't need engineering blueprints, just the layout, please.

Also, the 'pictures' link doesn't work.

Sort it out, people.

Can some of you speaking at the Council meeting please mention the school board election on April 20th? I'm not asking anybody to vote for anybody, just ask people to vote.

It is truly the only sure-fire way to guarantee change in government.

And just in case you don't think this election has anything to do with the tax increase, please take note of this: Christie's instituting across-the-board school budget cuts which will have to be made up for by the city which will take it out of the tax-payers' pockets unless there's new blood in the school system to cut some fat in the budget. Already property taxes cover a portion of that budget and they will have to be raised more to cover more of it.

We'll see in the coming weeks which of the candidates have the right stuff. Until then, we've got to get people excited to go out and vote.

I'm not certain of the allowable hours, but I'm reasonably sure work is allowed Mon-Sat.

You're not going to run anything until you get people to the polls.

There is an election April 20th for the Board of Education. Their budget is over $600 million. Some of which is paid from our property taxes.

You want to run this town? Don't just go to the Council meeting. Organize your supporters there into a GOTV operation for April 20th. The Council doesn't care about a bunch of people yelling and screaming. But a bunch of people yelling and screaming who then go out and swing an election away from the incumbents is something they will both notice AND be forced to act upon.

You have to threaten them where they live. Show them you can boo and hiss and they will ignore you. Show them you can win an election and they will fear you. And maybe things will start to change around here.



PS -- The winning candidates last year each got less than 3000 votes.

"Wonder if Mariano is rolling over on the big fish?"

No, unfortunately for him, he doesn't have any intel on the "big fish", as far as I know. The US Attorney is probably reexamining their case in light of the Beldini verdict.

"is Vega collecting a paycheck in the midst of all this?"

Yes, though not for his County job because he was fired from that. He is still collecting his Council salary.

So he's the President of which Jersey City temple?

JCPower --

People here are talking about property taxes which are paid to the municipal government. There may be many problems with the Healy administration, but they did not invade Iraq.

I think you might be confusing property taxes with income taxes.

Anger + Wanton Ignorance = Comedy

Anger + More Anger = Even More Anger

Anger + Focus = Action

Inasmuch as anyone would look less than their best while being secretly filmed eating soup at a diner, I agree that the Mayor also doesn't look great. But he doesn't seem to be saying anything criminal or even unreasonable. Did I miss it?

I agree that the most effective speaker was the young mother speaking so candidly about her finances and the values she teaches her son. A close second was the guy who called the Mayor's dial-a-story with his daughter only to hear quite a pertinent one: the three little pigs.

Again, Esther riled a lot of people up and there's certainly something to be said for that; but populist anger only goes so far until it becomes self-destructive.

I was there, too.

The problem with these rally/protests is that people go to the Council meeting, they yell, they boo, they hiss, they cheer; and for many, it represents a catharsis of sorts. And by attending that one meeting they feel they've done their civic duty for the day or the month or the year.

As stated in the previous post, for any actual action to occur, there has to be consistent, concerted movement rather than these one-off protests.

Otherwise it looks like a bunch of crybabies who only show up when their own pocketbooks are affected. Esther's intentions are good, but her speech was so long and overdramatized that it lost its oomph, IMO. When this is what they are faced with, the Councilpeople can still consider themselves above the fray, as ridiculous as that is.

I know her. As her past attests, she's a dynamic lady who's led a pretty unconventional life and remains feisty at 74 yrs old despite the horror of a looming jail sentence.

Not to understate the serious nature of her alleged crimes, but she's really a badass; and if anybody were to get a reprieve in all this, I would hope it would be her.

I assume that the Port Authority has made use of the PATH system conditional upon one's assent to the search of their bags. If so, the current search regime doesn't seem to violate any 4th amendment principles of which I'm aware.

Anyone have any info (even anecdotal) of anyone's person being searched?

You're mistaken, ianmac. The idea is that the whole kit n kaboodle will be moved to November. The municipal elections would remain non-partisan.

"I think certain of those fine citizens who were priced out of this neighborhood in the last decade (this area used to be undesirable in the 80s and 90s) now come back regularly to "do business" in their old neighborhood."

What?! Where does one begin with such an odd, hateful, ignorant bit of conjecture?

I was all geared up for the Dickinson protest today, but I think the school and school board made the right decision to let school out early (hopefully avoiding large-scale student confrontation.) And especially considering the lackluster showing by the WBC in Hoboken yesterday, it seems unnecessary to take valuable time to counter-protest these folks.

I spoke with one lesbian student from Dickinson who told me that at least one group will be protesting. I imagine not too many JCers realize how diverse and (relatively) tolerant our high schoolers are, so it would be almost nice if the high school's gay rights group got a little press.

Finally -- kudos to the JJ for their piece on yesterday's protests. The tone was just right and I like that they left the WBC out of the photo.

I spoke to someone with the Police Director's office about permitting for the protest.

They said that because the rally is scheduled as Dickinson High lets out for the day, the Westboro Baptists' permit may be denied.

I've got some ideas (including the aforementioned 'turn our backs' protest) if they are indeed able to obtain a permit. Let's find out what's going on with the permits and I'll take one out for a counter-protest if theirs is granted.

For all those worried that a counter-protest would embolden the WBC: There will be a vocal (and possibly, violent) reaction to them if they hold this rally as school gets out regardless of what any of us do. With a proper permit of our own, we can attempt to make sure the reaction is smart and effective.

When I've got more information, I'm going to paste it in a new topic. Calling these people "anti-gay" is like calling Hitler 'anti-Gypsy', accurate but hardly inclusive of all of the prejudice and racism they express.