$1G taken in 3rd grocery holdup Monday
Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Two gunmen wearing ski masks held up a Randolph Avenue grocery store and made away with $1,000 Monday evening, the same day two robberies elsewhere in Jersey City left one deli worker pistol-whipped and another dead.

Five men were menaced at gunpoint during the Randolph Avenue heist, which took place around 8 p.m., police said yesterday.

According to police reports, two men wearing green ski masks, black jackets and jeans, and gloves with the fingertips cut off, burst into the grocery store, each brandishing a black semiautomatic pistol.

One robber, about 5-foot-10 and of slim build, shoved a customer into a food rack, then went behind the counter and removed $300 from the cash register and $700 from a cigar box.

Meanwhile, his partner, about 6-foot-2, stood by the door aiming his gun at the owner and four customers present.

==========================

'COLD-BLOODED' KILLER HAD HELP
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
By ALI WINSTON
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Authorities are calling the shooting death of Fidelina Claros a "cold-blooded" murder, and, contrary to previous reports, now say she was shot three times - twice in the head and once in the back.

"The fact that she was shot three times eliminates any possibility of accidental discharge," Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio said yesterday. "This was completely gratuitous, wanton violence."

Investigators initially said she'd been shot once. An autopsy revealed the additional wounds, DeFazio said.

He added that one of the shots was "in the ear."

Claros, the owner of G&P Deli & Grocery at the corner of Webster Avenue and Ferry Street in the Jersey City Heights, was shot to death during a robbery Monday afternoon. Based on shell casings recovered at the scene, investigators believe the weapon used was a .22 caliber semiautomatic pistol, DeFazio said. Cash was taken from the New Jersey State Lottery till as well as the cash register, police reports said.

"This looks like a straight hold-up that went tragically wrong," DeFazio said.

DeFazio also released additional information yesterday about how police were alerted to the Monday afternoon shooting.

A customer walked into the deli as another man - suspected to be the shooter - was walking out, DeFazio said.

The customer saw Claros's bloody body behind the counter, ran back outside and started yelling for help; a Jersey City employee driving past pulled over, went into the deli and saw Claros himself, then called 911 at 12:50 p.m., DeFazio said. He said police responded within minutes, but Claros was already dead.

Though the G&P was equipped with security cameras, DeFazio would only state that "we are continuing our research in that area."

In addition, DeFazio said a witness who came forward yesterday morning because "his memory was jogged by the coverage of events" said he saw a man believed to be the shooter fleeing east on Ferry Street in a dark-colored, older model compact car - possibly a Nissan Maxima - driven by another man.

The car had been seen idling on the north side of Ferry between Webster and New York avenues during the holdup.

Witnesses described the driver as a thin man, approximately 30 years old, with a mustache, wearing a multi-colored flannel shirt and a black cap. The shooter appeared to be a man in his 30s, of medium build, around 5-foot-10 with close cropped hair, wearing a blue jacket with matching pants that might be part of a work uniform, DeFazio said.

DeFazio also said that investigators did not think the shooter is from the Heights, but they do think he is from Hudson County.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Hudson County Prosecutor's Office Homicide Squad at (201) 915-1345.

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Two Men Wanted In Jersey City Grocery Store Murder
Image

Jay Dow CBS Reporter

(CBS) NEW YORK Fidelina Claros was married with three children, and they were the center of her world. "She was a very nice person. I loved her so much," her son Brian Herrera said, just a day after his mother was gunned down during a robbery at the G&P grocery store and deli she owned.

CBS 2 News has learned the robbery and murder was a two man job. Investigators say one dark-skinned adult male dressed in a blue outfit shot Claros twice in the head and once in the torso.

He made off with an undisclosed amount of cash, and then hopped in a getaway car driven by an unidentified accomplice.

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Healy: Blood on Bush's hands
Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Enraged about the proliferation of illegal handguns, Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy yesterday laid the brutal slaying of a Heights deli owner at the doorstep of President George W. Bush.

"You should be down in (Washington) D.C. asking George Bush why he hasn't controlled the outrageous proliferation of handguns," Healy barked at a reporter asking what the city had done to make city residents safer. "It cries out for a federal cure."

Healy called the shooting death of Fidelina A. Claros "a tragedy" and said that at least once a month he shopped in her store, located less than two blocks from his home.

The mayor ticked off local initiatives he's pursued to stem gun violence, namely his gun buy-back program and an ordinance that prohibits the sale or purchase of more than one handgun within 30 days.

Between retirements and new hirings, the department has made a net gain of roughly 100 police officers during his tenure, Healy added.

"If this man (Claros's killer) didn't have a gun, there would have been a fight, a tussle, but this woman would still be with us."

KEN THORBOURNE

I think the police are working on this case!

============
Across town, store owner alive because thug's gun misfired
Tuesday, October 31, 2006 -- Jersey Journal

Police say they're looking at a possible connection between yesterday's murder of a deli owner in the Jersey City Heights and an attempted robbery about 90 minutes earlier at a store on West Side Avenue.

A man walked into the West Side Avenue card and gift shop about 11:25 a.m., placed a dollar on the counter and said he wanted a lottery ticket, the store's owner told police.

Once the cash drawer was opened, the owner said, the man pulled out a handgun, shoved it under the owner's chin and pulled the trigger twice, but it didn't go off.

The man then pistol-whipped the store owner, but fled after the owner pushed an alarm button, police said.

The man in this incident was said to be wearing a camouflage jacket over a green hooded sweatshirt; the man in the Heights shooting was said to be wearing a blue jacket with a fur-lined hood.

"The police are looking at both incidents. They may or may not be linked," a police spokesman said.

KEN THORBOURNE
=======
here is the whole article from the Jersey Journal that Bergen Wood cites

In murder close to home, Healy blames illegal guns
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
By ALI WINSTON -JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

The Jersey City Heights home of Mayor Jerramiah Healy is less than two blocks from the deli that was the scene of yesterday's fatal shooting and robbery.

Healy, who said last night he was a frequent customer at the G&P Deli & Grocery, on Webster Avenue near Ferry Street, said he was "saddened by this tragic event."

"Once again, the proliferation of illegal guns on the streets of our city is the cause of yet another loss of life," said Healy, who lives on Ferry Street near Central Avenue.

"The loss of this hard-working, friendly woman and this senseless crime will leave an indelible mark on her family, this neighborhood, and Jersey City."

Bystanders outside Claros' store, where she was killed, remarked that the Heights has been seeing more and more violent crimes, including the abduction and rape of a 16-year-old girl from in front of her Ravine Avenue home, just blocks from the deli.

When asked what could be done, Healy echoed the comments of Police Chief Tom Comey, who earlier this month told The Jersey Journal that lax federal gun control laws are to blame.

"Every neighborhood has changed because of the ridiculous proliferation of guns in Jersey City. A federal plague requires a federal cure," Healy said. "New Jersey and New York are tough on guns, but people can drive down to Pennsylvania, Virginia or North Carolina, buy a trunkload of guns and sell them up here."

Jersey City Neighborhood Mourns a Friend

By JENNIFER LEE and NATE SCHWEBER
NEW YORK TIMES -- Published: Oct. 31, 2006

Fidelina Claros had steaming coffee waiting for her customers as they came in every morning, just the way they liked it: light and sweet, or black. She had her teenage daughter give rides to neighbors when their cars broke down. She gave free bagels with cream cheese to a high school student who walked by on her way to school, because she believed breakfast was the most important meal of the day.

Ms. Claros was the owner of a corner deli, a mother of three and a generous presence in the Jersey City Heights neighborhood. And yesterday her customers gathered around her store in tears after learning that Ms. Claros, a 47-year-old immigrant from El Salvador, had been shot and killed in her deli on Webster Street around 1:30 p.m.

It is unclear whether she was the victim of a premeditated killing or of a holdup that ended badly, the Jersey City police said.

?This was in broad daylight,? said Stan Eason, a spokesman for the police. ?It was very cold.?

The police were looking for the gunman last night.

Ms. Claros bought the corner store, G & P Deli, about five years ago, and landed in the neighborhood as a whirlwind of charm and compassion, her customers said. Adiana Delarosa, whose mother was a good friend of Ms. Claros, remembered that the deli owner once found a teenage boy sobbing outside her store. He told her he had a drug problem, Ms. Delarosa said, and Ms. Claros helped him find counseling.

Raul Santiago, a regular customer, described Ms. Claros as ?classy in the sense that she would give you the shirt off her back to help you.? One time, Mr. Santiago?s car broke down and he went into the deli, saying he was unable to get around. Ms. Claros had her teenage daughter drive him to the auto parts store.

Ms. Claros hung a big blue and white Salvadoran flag in her store and chatted with other customers about Latin American politics. She cooked Salvadoran dishes in the back kitchen for church functions and gave away gallons of milk to Gerardo Acosta, a 50-year-old nanny, so he could make Colombian desserts. She jumped in to help with Puerto Rican and Ecuadorean parades, explaining, ?We?re all the same.?

The neighborhood, a mix of apartment buildings and warehouses, wasn?t always the safest. Ms. Claros, who had been robbed twice before, was careful not to keep much money in the store. Customers worried about her being there alone and would visit on afternoons and weekends to keep her company. Joe Andino, 44, a mechanic, lent her his dog, a bull terrier named Capone, to make her ? and himself ? feel more at ease.

She had been trying to sell the store for several months, telling neighbors that she was tired of a business that required her to stay open from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day. She even kept the store open on holidays, in case her customers needed last-minute ingredients for their Thanksgiving or Christmas dinners. Even though her daughter helped out before and after school, it was still a wearying job for a single mother, requiring a half-hour commute each way from her home in Roselle, N.J.

In a statement, Jersey City?s mayor, Jerramiah T. Healy, called the murder a ?tragic event.?

?Once again, the proliferation of illegal guns on the streets of our city is the cause of yet another loss of life,? Mr. Healy said. ?The woman who worked in this establishment was hard-working and friendly, and this senseless crime will leave an indelible mark on her family, friends, and the Jersey City community that she served.?

John Holl contributed reporting.
LINK TO NEW YORK TIMES

http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=local&id=4711065

Police say the grocer was shot in the head and died instantly
WABC Eyewitness News

(Jersey City - WABC, October 30, 2006) - A Jersey City grocer was murdered early Monday afternoon in an apparent robbery attempt.
The suspect remains at-large.

The shooting happened inside the G&P Deli and Grocery at 55 Webster Avenue in a neighborhood of Jersey City known as the Heights.

The Hudson County Prosecutor has confirmed the victim's identity as Fedelina Claros, 47 of Roselle, New Jersey. Her nickname is Buenaventura.

It is unknown if the woman was shot execution-style or simply shot as she resisted.

The family-owned corner grocery is said to have been a fixture in this working-class neighborhood for nearly thirty years.

"I would like to know who did it and why they would do something like that to her," a neighbor said. "As sweet as she was, she'd help anybody."

Investigators say the grocer was shot point-blank in the head and died instantly, while the suspect took off into the neighborhood.

Police say an intensive search has so far yielded no additional clues as to the shooter's whereabouts.

"She took care of everybody, she was very kind," a neighbor said. "If you didn't have enough changes, she'd let you go, come back and pay her. It's unfortunate."

Authorities say the suspect took money from the lottery machine and cash from the register.

(Copyright 2006 WABC-TV)
Click to see ABC TV News

I think the main thing that Downtown Jersey City has going forward is that all the new units make Jersey City seem MUCH SAFER and this should bring prices in-line with Hoboken and much of Brooklyn and Queens.

That is the main thing that has been keeping prices and rents very low in the past. Saftey is key to Downtown and I think it will soon feel as safe as Hoboken and the best parts of Brooklyn and Queens. Downtown Jersey City will balance with these places price wise and although some of these areas may fall I think Jersey City will rise to equal to them.

In New Jersey, System to Help Poorest Schools Faces Criticism
Timothy Ivy for The New York Times

GARFIELD, N.J.? The residents of this tumbledown city of 30,000 routinely voted down school budgets over the years, leaving their schools so hard up by the early 1990s that broken windows were patched with cardboard and principals did their own typing because they could not afford secretaries.

State money allowed Garfield, N.J., to afford a new middle school, as well as amenities like modern computers and a year-round preschool.

Though school taxes remain relatively low, the 5,000 students in this city of former woolen mills and soda factories in Bergen County now enjoy many of the privileges of much wealthier suburban districts: year-round preschool, modern computer labs and a new $40 million middle school ? all of it paid for by the state of New Jersey.

Garfield is a so-called Abbott school district, one of 31 poor districts that have received a total of $35 billion in state aid since 1997 as part of an ambitious court-ordered social experiment to narrow the achievement gap between rich and poor students, whites and minorities. In a decision that set a precedent for school equality cases nationwide, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that the poorest urban school districts should be given the resources to spend as much on their students as the wealthiest suburban districts do.

Now a growing number of New Jersey elected officials, educators and parents are calling for sweeping changes to this school financing system, saying that it has wasted millions of taxpayer dollars in the Abbott districts. For every success story like Garfield, where fourth-grade test scores have risen to the state average, there are chronic problems, like those in Newark, Camden and Asbury Park.

Today, the Abbott districts serve 286,500 children in kindergarten through 12th grade ? about 21 percent of the state?s students ? but get $4.2 billion a year in state aid, slightly more than half of all the state money given to New Jersey?s 616 school districts. The Abbotts are among the highest-spending school districts in the state, averaging $14,038 per student compared with $10,509 statewide. The vast majority of districts that fall between richest and poorest say they are increasingly bearing the burden of the Abbotts? getting so much of the money.

Gov. Jon S. Corzine has made school financing a priority in his efforts to reduce property taxes, and next month the State Legislature is expected to propose a new school aid formula that will seek to distribute aid to all school districts based on their numbers of poor students, rather than focusing on just 31 districts in what has been called an all-or-nothing approach. The Abbott districts and their advocates have vowed to fight any reduction in state aid, signaling another round of court battles.

In the meantime, state education officials plan to audit all 31 Abbotts in the next year after finding that the highest-spending districts were making the fewest gains. Asbury Park spent the most, $18,661 per student, in the 2004-5 school year. Still, slightly fewer than half the district?s fourth-grade students were proficient in state language arts and math tests in 2005. ?What we know is lots of money has been spent, and in some places, there is very little to show,? said Lucille E. Davy, the education commissioner.

For their part, the Abbott districts have criticized what they see as a bureaucratic system that undermines local authority and forces them to adopt programs that they do not need. For instance, Patrick Gagliardi, the Hoboken superintendent, said that he is required to provide full-day preschool to every 3- and 4-year-old child in his district, regardless of income, a mandate that now benefits many affluent families. ?The court intended to help poor people, not the wealthy,? he said. ?Now it?s costing the state more money, and it?s inefficient and flawed.?

The debate over the Abbott districts has spread outside urban centers to affluent suburban communities from Ridgewood to Cherry Hill, where local officials have repeatedly raised taxes and slashed school budgets to offset their own dwindling share of state aid. Many of them say the huge amounts of money given to Abbott schools versus non-Abbott schools has polarized parents and teachers between school districts

?We resent a system that has not provided adequately for our children,? said Elisabeth Ginsburg, the Board of Education president in Glen Ridge, where less than 5 percent of the $23.5 million school district budget is covered by state aid.

Critics often single out Hoboken as an example of an Abbott district that should no longer be one, since rapid development has drawn affluent newcomers. Hoboken actually gets far less state aid than other urban areas because it already spent more on its students than other Abbotts. Hoboken gets about $12.2 million a year, but as an Abbott, its plans for a new $25 million high school would be fully subsidized by the state.

In this year?s budget, state education officials withheld a total of $23 million from eight Abbott districts, including Garfield, where property values have risen but local taxes remain relatively low, forcing them to raise local taxes and shoulder more of their school costs. Republican lawmakers have also introduced a bill that would phase out 13 Abbott districts that have thrived economically in recent years.

?Why should we continue to support them?? asked Assemblyman Joseph R. Malone III, a former school administrator who has sponsored the bill. ?It?s like saying to somebody who?s on welfare: ?Stay on welfare and receive the benefits even if you?re a millionaire now.? ?

The Abbott districts grew out of a 1981 lawsuit, Abbott v. Burke, which claimed that the state had failed to remedy disparities between rich and poor school districts. In a series of decisions spanning two decades, the state?s highest court relied on an 1875 amendment to the New Jersey Constitution requiring the Legislature to establish a system of ?thorough and efficient? education for every child. It struck down the school financing system as unconstitutional in 1990, saying that it deprived poor urban districts of resources, and ordered lawmakers to address the problem.

After years of delays, the state court ruled in 1997 that the poorest urban districts should spend as much on their students as the wealthiest suburban districts. That exceeded the standard in other states to simply match the average state spending per student. The court designated 28 Abbott districts based on a state list of poor urban communities, and the Legislature added two more districts a year later. A third, Salem City, was included by lawmakers in 2004 after it sued to become an Abbott district.

Paul Tractenberg, a professor at Rutgers Law School in Newark who has advocated on behalf of the Abbotts, said the court ordered the current school financing system for lack of a better alternative, and largely left the future designation of Abbott districts to state legislators and education officials. He supports efforts to come up with a new school aid formula, saying, ?We?re spending the right amount in the Abbott districts; the problem is we?re not spending enough in the other poor districts.?

Assemblyman Bill Baroni, a Republican who does not represent an Abbott district, says that changing the Abbott system is such a politically divided issue that the Legislature has been generally reluctant to act. ?Every time there is talk of removing a school district,? he said, ?instantly massive political opposition forms in that district.?

But as New Jersey has struggled with fiscal problems, the Abbotts have come under increasing pressure to justify their high cost. The results are mixed across districts, but over all, the Abbotts have improved their test scores, particularly in the lower grades. For instance, 66 percent of Abbott students were proficient in the fourth-grade language arts test in 2005, compared with 29.5 percent in 1999, but that still falls below the 85.5 percent of proficient students in non-Abbott districts. The gap is larger on the math test and among students in higher grades.

Ellen Frede, co-director of the National Institute for Early Education Research, said that larger gains would come as Abbott districts built on their strong preschool programs. In a 2005 report based on testing in the 15 largest Abbotts, her group found that students were better prepared for kindergarten. ?The overwhelming data is this is a good use of state taxpayer money,? she said.

But critics of the Abbotts say they have grown impatient with the problems in some districts. This month, a state fiscal monitor was appointed to oversee the scandal-ridden Camden district, where the superintendent, Annette Knox, resigned in June amid investigations into bonuses that she received. The district spent $15,420 per student in the 2004-5 school year, though its test scores lag behind the other Abbott districts.

Bart Leff, a spokesman for the Camden schools, said the district?s 15,500 students are mostly poor minorities who have ?significantly more need for the money? than those in better-off communities. ?We are an urban school district in a poverty-stricken city,? he said.

In contrast, the Abbott money has ushered in major changes in Garfield, reinvigorating the schools after decades of neglect and decline. In 2005, 79.9 percent of the district?s fourth-grade students were proficient in the language arts test, just below the statewide average of 81.2 percent. Garfield students performed even better in math, with 81.8 percent proficient compared with 80.2 percent statewide.

Nearly two-thirds of the district?s $66 million annual budget, or $41.7 million, is covered by state aid; the district has received a total of $370.7 million since 1997. The rest is raised largely through local taxes. Though property values have climbed in recent years, school officials said that many residents are senior citizens and recent immigrants who can ill afford any increases.

In the past three years, residents have twice rejected the school budget, including the one for the current school year. Under state law, Garfield city officials then propose cuts to the budget, but as an Abbott district, the total budget cannot fall below the previous year?s spending level. The budget rose by $915,000 this year after state education officials forced the city to raise taxes.

Nicholas L. Perrapato, the superintendent, said the district has come to rely on the Abbott money. He said it has allowed them to hire more teachers, reduce class sizes, and update textbooks and curriculums. (Second graders now learn PowerPoint.) It has meant that two new schools could be built ? the first in nearly 50 years ? and that students could get a taste of unheard-of luxuries such as teams for swimming, tennis and volleyball.

?Without the money, we?d be in dire straits,? Mr. Perrapato said. ?If they de-Abbotize us, you?re looking at rolling up the carpets because the people here would never be able to afford to keep the programs we have in place.?

Housing prices still surging in Jersey's cities
While suburban markets cool, urban centers, led by AC, sizzle

Star-Ledger Staff Oct 29, 2006 BY ROBERT GEBELOFF

As the real estate market softens in New Jersey -- with sale prices flattening in a number of popular suburban towns -- one segment continues to boom: the state's 30 cities.

The median sale price for a home or condominium in urban communities rose 18 percent in the first six months of 2006, compared with a relatively modest 8 percent jump in the suburbs, according to a Star-Ledger analysis of home sales.

And while sales volume was down throughout the state, New Jersey's cities are claiming an increasing share of the action: 1 in 5 sales now, compared with 1 in 7 at the beginning of the decade, the analysis found.

Turnarounds continued in Newark and Jersey City, but the urban leader of late has been Atlantic City, where after years of being overlooked as a residential market, the median sales price jumped 25 percent in 2004, 29 percent in 2005 and 41 percent this year.

"We've become a different city, baby!" said Bevan Farber, who has sold condominiums at the Ocean Club on Atlantic City's boardwalk for two decades. "You'll have to forgive me for being excited. I've been here 21 years and nobody ever called me up to ask me about the prices going higher."

Another stark example could be found along Route 78. As recently as 2003, buyers paid almost a third more for homes in pastoral Hunterdon County than in densely populated Hudson. Now the price gap -- $385,000 versus $382,000 -- is just 1 percent.

Median prices actually fell in 33 mostly suburban towns that had enough sales volume to produce significant data, the analysis found, though prices are still up more than 90 percent since 2000 in half of those communities.

Glen Ridge in suburban Essex County, for example, saw prices drop by 1 percent this year to $505,000, after double-digit increases in four of the previous five years. East Brunswick was down a percentage point, though it's still up 109 percent since 2000.

Economists warn that the overall slowdown in price growth shown in the analysis -- 10 percent growth statewide this year through June compared with 15 percent in 2005 -- has in the last three months begun to turn into an all-out price slide.

"When I was going around last fall and winter making predictions, the concern I always had was suburban tract houses," said Joel Naroff, an economic adviser based in suburban Philadelphia. "Those houses are clearly getting priced out of the reach of the people who would normally live in those places."

Urban communities fared better in the past year in part because prices in cities are generally still lower than in the suburbs.

Naroff said many of New Jersey's cities are influenced by special situations: Jersey City has become home to many affluent Wall Streeters while Passaic has a growing middle-class Orthodox Jewish community.

In Newark, the state's largest city, prices jumped 20 percent for the second consecutive year. In Camden, the state's poorest city, the median price had risen only $4,500 between 2000 and 2005, to $43,500. This year, the median was up $14,500.

The analysis was based on home sales reported to the state, which monitors real estate values for administrative purposes. The state database contains all home sales, including newly built and existing homes, that officials deem to be made on the open market -- intrafamily transactions are excluded.

The data include all sales through June 30 of this year, so the analysis was based on comparing the first six months of 2006 to the same period in prior years.

NEW CASINO, NEW POPULARITY
Atlantic City prices began increasing in the summer of 2003, just as the $1.1 billion Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa was opening. The casino breathed new life into the city, in part because it showed the gaming industry was committed to expanding and in part because the Borgata markets itself to a younger clientele.

"Atlantic City has not had a single high-rise building brought onto the market in the past 20 years," said Tom Scannapieco, a developer who has been involved in numerous building projects in the city. "There is not an oversupply of condos. That's why you're seeing tremendous appreciation."

For the residential real estate market, there was also the matter of simple economics. The more prices ballooned in other Shore towns, the more Atlantic City looked like a bargain.

"Our prices were much lower than in surrounding communities," said Kevin Corcoran of Kevin Corcoran Real Estate. "People who wouldn't before consider buying something here are considering it now."

While prices have gone up, some are quick to point out that the transformation of Atlantic City has mostly benefited outsiders -- not full-time residents.

Developers used government subsidies to clear run-down housing in the northern inlet section. But even though the newly built housing is attractive and increasingly popular with buyers, the area still doesn't feel like a homey city neighborhood, said historian Bryant Simon.

"It's eerie and quiet," said Simon, a Temple University professor and author of "Boardwalk of Dreams: Atlantic City and the Fate of Urban America in 2004." "There are some pretty big houses that look nice, built in the new urban design style. But there's nobody outside."

But others say the changes are a major success. Tom Carver, who runs the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority -- the state agency that oversees the investment of fees collected from the gaming industry -- estimates more than $10 billion will be spent on commercial ventures in the city over the next few years, and that will further bolster the residential market.

"The value of land has increased dramatically, and so the ability to develop and sell in Atlantic City has also increased," he said.

A DIFFERENT DYNAMIC
To economists like Naroff, suburban real estate now resembles a pyramid scheme.

Suburban homeowners looking to move up and New Yorkers looking to move in get a premium on their home, and are able to afford higher prices in more affluent towns. But as these homeowners begin having trouble selling their own houses, demand for the ritzier communities also begins to fall.

"It's the kind of situation where if you can't sell your own house, you can't buy the next house up," he said.

But in places like Atlantic City, where prices are low and most of the buyers are shopping for second homes, that problem doesn't apply.

Tarron Weir, a Jersey City resident, doesn't care much for the casinos. In fact, he was considering spending $1.2 million for a luxury townhouse in Jersey City's riverfront Port Liberte development but changed his plans when he realized he could buy a house on the beach in Atlantic City for less than half that price.

"It's pretty reasonable compared to other Shore homes," he said. "From my master bedroom, I can see the ocean."

The house is part of Oceanside II, a residential development in the northern inlet section that was seeded by the state development agency, but has taken off on its own.

The agency sold one oceanfront lot to a developer for $189,000. Now the lot has a new 12-room beach house on it -- and a price tag of $1.7 million.

State records show the highest individual sale through June 30 was the $1.3 million a penthouse apartment went for in the Ocean Club last year. Farber said another penthouse went for slightly more in September.

Diane Tooshi, who recently bought a unit in the Bella -- a boardwalk condominium complex --for $470,000 said she intentionally avoided an ocean view. Instead, her apartment looks out over the glimmering lights of the Marina district and, in the distance, the Borgata.

"The ocean is the ocean is the ocean," explained Tooshi, a school psychologist from Manalapan who grew up in Bayonne. "If you're going to buy in Atlantic City, you want the city atmosphere. It's like with New York -- the skyline is what the city's about, not the Hudson River."

Robert Gebeloff may be reached at rgebeloff@starledger.com or (973) 392-1753.

Waterfront Project Reflects 2 Images of a Senator

New York Times By DAVID KOCIENIEWSKI and RAY RIVERA
Published: October 29, 2006

BAYONNE, N.J. ? Senator Robert Menendez is not directly involved in building the new waterfront development that will soon rise here in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty. But his influence can be seen throughout it.

The project, which occupies the 437-acre site of the abandoned Military Ocean Terminal, is being built with the help of nearly $30 million in federal funds that Mr. Menendez secured using his trademark policy expertise and aggressive politicking. His work provided the seed money for a plan to produce movie studios and shops, marinas and waterfront parks, and 6,600 homes.

The project has also produced considerable work for some of his chief political supporters.

The first major contract to develop the site went to a company that hired a Menendez friend and political confidant, Donald Scarinci, to lobby for it. That developer later took on Mr. Menendez?s former campaign treasurer, Carl Goldberg, as a partner. Bonds for a portion of the project were underwritten by Dennis Enright, a top campaign contributor, while Kay LiCausi, a former Menendez Congressional aide and major fund-raiser, received lucrative work lobbying for the project.

Mr. Menendez said he had no role in securing the contracts for any of his friends. But the project, known as the Peninsula at Bayonne Harbor, nonetheless displays the two contrasting images of Mr. Menendez ? one a fiery advocate who brings home federal aid for his constituents, the other a political empire builder who detractors say pushes too much largess toward his friends.

Whether the considerable clout wielded by Mr. Menendez in Congress is matched by cronyism, or worse, at home, has become one of the central issues in the Senate race he is waging against State Senator Thomas H. Kean Jr., his Republican challenger.

Republicans have portrayed Mr. Menendez as a modern-day political boss, presiding over an apparatus not of union stewards, ward heelers and precinct captains, but of lawyers, developers and lobbyists who fill his campaign coffers.

In a year when Republican candidates are on the defensive, Mr. Kean?s steady attacks on Mr. Menendez?s ethics have made the New Jersey race one of nation?s closest and nastiest. A defeat here, where Democrats have not lost a Senate race since 1972, would endanger the party?s hopes of winning control of the upper chamber.

Mr. Menendez brushes aside the questions about his ethics as ?guilt by geography,? a reference to his rise in politics in Hudson County, where the reputation for machine politics and official mischief is notable even by New Jersey standards. Mr. Menendez asserts that in 32 years in political office he has never once used his power to steer a contract to an ally.

Mr. Menendez?s supporters say the attacks are simply a way for Republicans to avoid talking about issues he has campaigned on, including Iraq, terrorism and stem cell research. ?Those are the things that matter to people, which Senator Menendez is far superior on, both in his knowledge and in his ability to articulate,? said State Senator Bernard Kenny, chairman of the Hudson County Democratic Organization.

Even Mr. Menendez?s critics concede his success in bringing federal transportation and environmental funds to the state while serving in the House for 13 years. That money helped revitalize blighted communities in his district, particularly a stretch along the Hudson that has come to be known as New Jersey?s Gold Coast.

It should not be odd then, Mr. Menendez says, that developers and business leaders have expressed their approval by contributing to his campaigns.

?If someone agrees with your policy goals, is it surprising that they would support you?? he said in a recent interview. ?What are they supposed to do? Give to someone who opposes their vision??

A Land of Scandal

In many ways Mr. Kean has tried to turn the election into a referendum on Hudson County and its checkered political history.

The densely packed county was once a destination for generations of Irish, Italian and Cuban immigrants, including Mr. Menendez?s parents, drawn by low rents and the promise of work in the factories and shipyards that stared across the harbor at the New York City skyline.

Today, the county functions almost like New York?s sixth borough, as young professionals, families and banking firms flee to cities like Hoboken and Jersey City in search of rents that are lower than in Manhattan.

But while the county?s demographics have shifted, and many of its communities have gained new vibrancy, its reputation for corruption has endured. It was here that Frank ?Boss? Hague, Jersey City mayor from 1917 to 1947, famously declared ?I am the law,? while ruling over a machine that controlled governors, judges and United States senators. When he died, he had a net worth of $10 million though his salary never eclipsed $8,000 a year.

Mr. Menendez in 1992 in Union City, the city where he grew up. He says he is proud of the way he fought his way up the ladder.

In the 1980s, after an onslaught of corruption cases hit the county, The Jersey Journal declared in a headline, ?No Hudson officials indicted today.?

These days, the political power structure is less influential and more decentralized than in the past. The taint of scandal continues, however. Since 2002, about 20 public officials, including former County Executive Robert Janiszewski, have been indicted or convicted of corruption charges.

But Mr. Menendez, who grew up in Union City, says he is proud of his roots and of the way that he fought his way up, unlike his opponent, the scion of a famous New Jersey political family who was appointed to his first posts in the State Assembly and Senate.

In fact, Mr. Menendez?s reputation as a tenacious infighter was born challenging the political establishment. In 1981, as a young lawyer serving as school board secretary, he became a government witness after discovering that the mayor, William V. Musto, who had been both mentor and father figure to him after his own father committed suicide, was diverting school funds to organized crime.

To many, the act was seen as a shameful betrayal, stirring so much resentment that Mr. Menendez said he took to wearing a bulletproof vest during the trial. When he made a bid to run against Mr. Musto for mayor, fliers filled the streets depicting him as a plump bird in a cage, with the caption, ?Once a canary, always a canary.?

Mr. Menendez lost the election, but four years later he ran again and won, becoming the state?s first Hispanic to be elected mayor.

He went on to become the first Hispanic elected to the State Assembly, the State Senate and, in 1993, the first to represent New Jersey in the House of Representatives, where he rose to be the third-ranking Democrat. Jon S. Corzine appointed him to finish out the final year of his Senate term after Mr. Corzine was elected governor in 2005.

In Washington, he has become a respected voice on issues like immigration and transportation, and a staunch defender of liberal causes like stem cell research and abortion rights. He has also broken with his party to support deregulation of the financial services industry, a growing force in the New Jersey economy, and his devout opposition to Fidel Castro has won him near folk-hero status, and generous campaign contributions, in South Florida.

But critics from both parties say that some of Mr. Menendez?s most ardent battles have been fought to preserve his own power, and protect government contracts of his patrons.

?If you?re going to cross him or his people, you?re in for the fight of your life,? said William O?Dea, a Democratic freeholder from Hudson County who has clashed with Mr. Menendez over the apportionment of county contracts.

A Friend?s Good Fortune

Perhaps no one has done more to foster Mr. Menendez?s political success than Mr. Scarinci, a childhood friend who has stood by him from the days when he was battling Mr. Musto, and before. And few have benefited more from that success: among Mr. Menendez?s first acts as Union City mayor was to name Mr. Scarinci city attorney.

Mr. Scarinci has since contributed more than $250,000 to state Democrats and helped raise millions more; he and his wife and members of his law firm have contributed more than $40,000 to Mr. Menendez?s Congressional campaigns since 1997. As his chief campaign fund-raiser, Mr. Scarinci was so closely associated with Mr. Menendez that many elected officials came to view him as the congressman?s emissary.

As he raised money for Mr. Menendez and helped him navigate the treacherous currents of Hudson County politics, Mr. Scarinci also won millions of dollars in state and local contracts for his law firm, many of them with government entities over which Mr. Menendez and his allies hold immense influence.

For example, after Mr. Menendez was named to head Gov. James E. McGreevey?s transition team, he lobbied vigorously to help Mr. Scarinci win a legal contract with the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority, according to three officials familiar with the appointment. Mr. Scarinci?s firm has made $2.8 million from that contract since 2002.

Mr. Scarinci does not deny that his firm has benefited from his political activity.

?It?s not the political connections as much as you?re involved,? he said in an interview earlier this year. ?So when they win, you?re not going to hire some stranger, you?re going to hire someone you?re comfortable with, someone you trust.?

Mr. Menendez insists that he has never helped Mr. Scarinci get or keep a contract, except when he was mayor and it was his duty to appoint legal counsel.

But in 1999, Mr. Menendez led a fierce recall effort against his former prot?g?, Mayor Rudy Garcia of Union City, because, Mr. Garcia says, he had fired Mr. Scarinci as city attorney. Mr. Menendez says it was because Mr. Garcia wanted his job in Congress. Whatever the cause, there was no mistaking who won: Mr. Garcia resigned as mayor in 2000, and his successor promptly rehired Mr. Scarinci.

Mr. Scarinci was forced to sever his ties with the campaign last month, after the release of audio tapes recorded in 1999 in which he is heard advising a client who held a lucrative psychiatric contract with Hudson County to hire another physician as a ?favor? to Mr. Menendez.

The psychiatrist with the contract, Oscar Sandoval, who is being sued by the county for allegedly bribing Mr. Janiszewski, the former county executive, to win contracts in the first place, said in an interview that Mr. Scarinci?s message was clear: hire Mr. Menendez?s friend or risk losing the contracts.

After the tapes were released, Mr. Scarinci issued written statements denying Dr. Sandoval?s allegations and insisting that his dealings with him were never directed or requested by Mr. Menendez.

True or not, the tapes have provided fodder to Mr. Kean, who in ads has promised to free New Jersey from ?the clutch of corruption.?

In September, United States Attorney Christopher J. Christie also subpoenaed the records of a Hudson County social services agency that leased a building, for $300,000 over nearly 10 years, from Mr. Menendez while, as a House member, he helped it win millions in federal financing. Mr. Kean has used the subpoenas to assert that Mr. Menendez is under criminal investigation, which Mr. Christie?s office has never confirmed. Mr. Menendez denies that he is under investigation and says that the House Ethics Committee?s legal counsel cleared the deal.

Questions About Contracts

Mr. Menendez?s involvement in the Bayonne project began in the mid-1990s, as he fought to save the base, which provided 2,500 jobs and was Bayonne?s largest employer. Once that fight was lost, he began a new battle for federal financing necessary to transform the site into a thriving addition to the local economy ? including $11.6 million from the Army for environmental cleanup, $7 million in Defense Department funds to stabilize the shoreline, and $3.2 million for road improvements to make the area more accessible to the New Jersey Turnpike.

Project officials say that Mr. Menendez had no role in awarding contracts and that without his support the development would never have gotten off the ground.

But the board created to oversee the project, the Bayonne Local Redevelopment Authority, was appointed by one of his allies, Mayor Joseph V. Doria Jr. The selection process for a developer ? which was based not on price but on the subjective assessment of the redevelopment authority ? was also led by people who are Menendez allies.

And the redevelopment authority?s first executive director was Nicholas A. Chiaravalloti, a lawyer who had once worked in Mr. Scarinci?s office. After assembling the contract specifications for the project, Mr. Chiaravalloti left in late 2002 to accept a job on Mr. Menendez?s Congressional staff.

Dozens of companies expressed interest in the development, and two submitted detailed written proposals. The new executive director, Nancy Kist, who had worked as Mr. Doria?s legal counsel before being appointed to the authority, said she forwarded both proposals to the board.

But at least one board member remembers seeing only the plan submitted by Fidelco Bayonne Realty ? Mr. Scarinci?s client. Two principals of the second group, George Figliolia, president of BG Builders, and Angelo Cali, a co-owner in Cali Futures, said they were never asked to give a presentation.

Maria Karczewski, who served on the seven-member board from 2002 until this January, said the Fidelco offer was the only one presented, though she said she did not believe Mr. Menendez had an influence on that decision. Three other board members said they recalled a presentation by Fidelco but could not recall whether they had seen the second one.

In public hearings, Ms. Kist urged the board to accept Fidelco?s proposal because it included movie and television production facilities as well as housing, and also gave local officials a voice in shaping the project.

But some city officials said that once Fidelco hired Mr. Scarinci, it was clear who would get the contract.

?People knew that Menendez was running the show because he brought all the federal money,? said City Councilman Anthony Chiappone, a rival of Mr. Doria who said he is frustrated that he and others have been excluded from the decision-making process. ?And everyone in Hudson County politics know that Scarinci is his No. 1 guy, so any contractor who hires him gets treated like they have Menendez?s seal of approval.?

Steve Kalafer, a principal in Fidelco, said he hired Mr. Scarinci?s firm because it had a long track record of getting waterfront development projects through Hudson County?s maze of legal and governmental regulations.

?In every community there?s one firm that has the experience and credibility with the local governing agencies to get projects done,? he said. ?I didn?t bother to interview any other firm because I didn?t want to try and reinvent the wheel.?

Mr. Kalafer said that Fidelco?s decision to bring Mr. Menendez?s former campaign treasurer, Carl Goldberg, into the project as a partner in 2005 was based on his track record as a developer rather than any political connections. He said that Mr. Menendez played no role in Fidelco?s decision to hire Mr. Scarinci or team up with Mr. Goldberg.

?Other than a smile and an occasional passing comment like, ?how?s the project going?? I?ve never had any discussions with the senator about it,? Mr. Kalafer said.

Royal Caribbean Cruises, one of the development?s first tenants, hired a former Menendez staffer and fund-raiser, Kay LiCausi, who was vice chairwoman of the Hudson County Democratic Organization, to lobby for state and federal support.

Ms. LiCausi left her job on Mr. Menendez?s staff in 2002, but she has maintained a close relationship with the congressman, who has acknowledged helping her get more than $200,000 in lobbying work for campaign committees over which he controlled or had strong influence. He has also recommended her for other lobbying work, which he compared to writing a reference letter for any deserving former employee.

In August 2004, just months after Royal Caribbean hired her, paying her more than $180,000 over the next two years, Mr. Menendez announced the first of two appropriations totaling $9.5 million to repair shoreline and extend a berth for the company?s huge cruise ships.

Mr. Menendez said in an interview last week that Ms. LiCausi?s role with the firm did not affect his actions, and that he did not consider it a conflict of interest to be obtaining tax dollars for companies who hire his own fund-raisers as lobbyists.

?If these people, these companies have success, that?s their own initiative,? he said, adding that several of the contractors involved in the project have never contributed to him or hired any of his supporters.

Royal Caribbean also hired Dennis Enright, a top contributor to Mr. Menendez, to underwrite a $16.5 million bond issue to help pay for terminal repairs.

A Royal Caribbean spokesman said the company never discussed the hires with Mr. Menendez, and that Ms. LiCausi and Mr. Enright were chosen because they were the best people for the job. Ms. LiCausi and Mr. Enright did not return repeated phone calls seeking comment for this article.

Mr. Menendez says that he is being held to a different standard because of where he comes from, saying that Mr. Kean has accepted campaign contributions from government contractors, and asserting that his opponent would never have received his first Assembly and State Senate appointments without his family?s considerable ?political muscle.?

?You do that when you come from Hudson County, it?s called bossism,? Mr. Menendez said. ?But I guess when you come from my opponent?s background, it?s just leadership.?

Fight over closed street includes claims of racism
Friday, October 27, 2006
By KEN THORBOURNE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Before the battle of the bollards at the foot of Washington Street in Jersey City ended with a compromise to create nine parking spaces near the Korean War Memorial but otherwise keep the cul-de-sac car-free, a new element was introduced into the already divisive debate: race.

Sonia Maldonado, president of the Newport Waterfront Association, read a letter at Wednesday's City Council meeting written to her by Charlie Hannon, a Korean War veteran who initially endorsed the compromise plan but then changed his mind.

In the letter, Hannon claims that Dorothy Winant, an activist with the Historic Paulus Hook Association, said to him during a phone conversation, "We want to keep them (the bollards) up because we want to keep these little black kids out of our neighborhood, and keep the street safe."

Hannon, who attended the meeting but didn't speak, confirmed he penned the letter. When asked yesterday about the Hannon letter, Winant was aghast.

"That's a boldface lie," Winant said. "My God, I would never say anything like that."

Winant, a former Jersey Journal Everyday Hero, acknowledged she spoke to Hannon and told him that over the past 10 years when the bollards were taken down, the character of the quiet dead-end street that leads out to the waterfront and the Morris Canal entrance of Liberty State Park changed dramatically.

Crack vials and condoms could be found on the street and one local resident saw a couple having sex in a car while he was walking his daughter to school, she said. But the issue of race never came up, she said.

Several council members were shocked by Maldonado's reading, particularly Downtown Councilman Steve Fulop, who brokered the compromise between local residents who want the street closed to traffic and the veterans, who want access to the memorial. Fulop accused Maldonado of "playing the race card" and waging a campaign fueled by personal animus.

"If I solved cancer tomorrow, you would say it was the wrong kind of cancer," Fulop told Maldonado.

The plan, which calls for three handicapped and six other parking spaces, was approved by the council, 9-0. Vehicles will be allowed to enter the street between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m.
Journal Link

[/img]Here is a link -- America's Middle Class Has Become Globalization's Loser

Why should we care if the developers make money or go broke --
downtown will have lots more people in any event -- rentals or
condos -- it will be (already is) vastly safer than only a few years
ago -- and we will have lots of amenities -- sure rents will be
much higher and that is a shame for those renting but if you own,
or you are lucky to have a rent stabilized place then you will likely
be happy about the changes.

It is also great for Journal Square, the Heights and frankly
everywhere in JC-- more good tenants who move out of downtown
because they can't afford the higher rents or all the newcomers
who feel safer with the new downtown but can't afford the rents
will look in these areas

I am not gonna lose sleep worrying about the developers -- even if
they all go broke -- people will be renting in these high end
buildings -- maybe at discounted prices - but don't hold your
breath for that one.

------------------------------------------

I also think you underestimate the wealth of many of the new
"immigrants" and what is really happening in New York City's and
"wealthy" suburbs' growth.


JSalt wrote:
"Despite what you may want to believe, the overwhelming majority
of that U.S. population growth is happening in suburbs, and very
little of it is in urban areas.

The vast majority of New York City's population growth has been
due to immigrants in the outer boroughs - people who do not likely
buy luxury condos."

JCLAW I always enjoy your posts -- seem well informed -- but I guess I have always missed something about the whole abatement issue. I thought the point of getting an abatement was to have taxes "locked in" for 20 or more years -- am I just wrong? Are you saying that abatements don't protect the owner from tax increases over those 20 or more years?

Your point is that people with tax abatements do and will "always pay more in taxes" than owners of other "new" are totally "re-habed" places? So, all future increases will be the same for both?


Quote:

Out of the Kitchen and Into the Shopping Mall
The New York Times -- By TERRY PRISTIN
Published: October 25, 2006

Lisa Price was already a success by most measures before she met Steve Stoute, a marketing executive who teams up hip-hop stars like Jay-Z with brands like Reebok.

Only a few years after seeking personal bankruptcy protection, Ms. Price had parlayed a hobby of developing skin-care and hair products in her kitchen into a business called Carol?s Daughter, with $2 million in sales.

She had opened a store in the Fort Greene section of Brooklyn. She had told her inspirational story on ?The Oprah Winfrey Show.? She was about to publish a memoir, ?Success Never Smelled So Sweet.?

But by October 2003, when she was introduced to Mr. Stoute over lunch, Ms. Price had reached a plateau, she recalled recently. ?I knew that I?d done all that I could on my own,? she said. ?It was more important for the brand to become what it can become than for me to have control of it.?

Though he had no experience in cosmetics, Mr. Stoute became Ms. Price?s business partner and raised $10 million from a group of investors that included Jay-Z, the actors Jada Pinkett Smith and Will Smith and the record producer Tommy Mottola and his wife, the singer Thalia.

A year ago, Carol?s Daughter opened a sleek, eye-catching store in Harlem. This year, the brand began appearing in Sephora cosmetic stores. Prices range from $6 to $27.

And now, Carol?s Daughter has accomplished something that is rare for a homegrown business, and even more unusual for one started by an African-American entrepreneur. The company is about to open its first mall store, at Roosevelt Field in Garden City, N.Y. A second mall store will open next year at Newport Center in Jersey City. A Carol?s Daughter kiosk in the shape of a gazebo will be installed at Atlantic Terminal in Brooklyn this fall.

David Simon, the chief executive of the Simon Property Group, the giant shopping mall operator that owns Roosevelt Field and Newport Center, said Carol?s Daughter?s primary customers, African-American women, were underserved by malls.

?We thought they might have an opportunity to do good business in our centers,? he said. ?It?s not so much that this company is sponsored or owned by African-Americans. It?s the demographic they appeal to that is most important.?

But mall owners are generally reluctant to take chances, especially if a retailer does not have a long credit history. ?They are going to trust a Gap more than a start-up, even if the start-up is more exciting,? said Roger A. Lowenthal, a senior vice president at the Greenberg Group, a Hewlett, N.Y., brokerage company that represents Carol?s Daughter. ?They don?t know if the company will pay the rent on time or be around in 10 years, so there?s more of an element of risk.?

Unlike many start-ups, however, Carol?s Daughter had strong financial backing from the team that Mr. Stoute put together. ?It helped to give us some confidence, knowing they were going to stand behind the company,? Mr. Simon said.

It did not hurt that some of these backers were celebrities who were likely to bring traffic to the malls while promoting the Carol?s Daughter store. Mr. Stoute said the opening of the Roosevelt Field store would look like a movie premiere.

Mr. Stoute, who said he first learned about Carol?s Daughter from a friend, had no experience in the cosmetics business when he decided to form a partnership with Ms. Price. In their first meeting, he said, he was surprised to learn that she packaged her face and body butters in baby-food jars with hand-written labels not because she wanted her products to look homemade but rather because that was all she could afford.

?I?ve never been in the beauty business,? he said in a recent interview in his Times Square office. ?All I knew was this woman had a great story. And I knew as a businessman that she had an undervalued asset. It made no sense ? how could everybody know about this, and she had no money??

Mr. Stoute described his role in Carol?s Daughter as providing ?cash and access.? But in fact, the partnership with Mr. Stoute has transformed Ms. Price?s business in major ways. In 2004 he recruited Clarisa Wilson, a former general manager of Mizani, a division of L?Or?al USA that is geared to African-Americans, as company president.

He chose not to replicate the ?Afro-centric apothecary? look of the 750-square-foot Fort Greene store at the corner of South Elliott Place and DeKalb Avenue. Instead, Mr. Stoute wanted a more luxurious ? and more universal ? feel for the 1,100-square-foot Harlem store. ?You want everybody to feel that the store is for them,? he said.

Wedged between an H&R Block branch and a pawn shop, the light-filled store stands out on an as-yet- ungentrified stretch of 125th Street, between Fifth Avenue and Malcolm X Boulevard.

?We?re trying our best to provide a Madison Avenue mentality to 125th Street,? Mr. Stoute said. The overall design is modern and spare, but the store has some homey touches, including photographs of Ms. Price?s mother, Carol Frances Hutson, who died in 2003, and a kitchen meant to evoke the company?s origins.

These days, about 10 percent of Carol?s Daughter?s products are made in its Brooklyn warehouse, she said. The rest are farmed out to several manufacturers.

But although she is no longer working primarily out of her own kitchen, Ms. Price remains in charge of research and development. ?The formulas start with my recipe sheets,? she said.

CLUB SNUB?
Plans for Blue Ribbon have some neighbors concerned
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
By ALI WINSTON
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Former NBA star Terry Dehere and his legal representatives met with local residents Monday night at St. Joseph's Church to discuss his plans to bring live music and other entertainment to his Journal Square restaurant.

The Blue Ribbon is in the Summit House, Jersey City's oldest building, which was bought last year by Dehere and his childhood friend, Steve Papas. They recently applied for an entertainment license, which would allow for "any live act, including vocalists, actors, dancers, floor shows, instrumentalists and DJs," according to city ordinance.

Some residents, including members of the Hilltop Neighborhood Association, say they fear the restaurant will become a nightclub, bringing late-night noise and trouble.

Last year, just four months after Dehere and Papas opened the restaurant, two Hudson County corrections officers were shot, one fatally, about 3 a.m. after leaving a party there.

"He opened a restaurant, most people want it to stay that way. It's going to be a tough sell," said Richard Boggiano, president of the Hilltop Neighborhood Association. "I have an open mind on the entire situation."

Dehere is seeking an entertainment license that would allow his business to host live music and provide a "supper club" atmosphere in the Journal Square area.

"The ordinance just says 'nightclub,' which puts a bad taste in people's mouths," Dehere said. "The type of establishment specified under the ordinance needs clarification."

Dehere also said the neighbors' concerns were "legitimate" and that he hoped all could "come to a harmonious solution."

The Jersey City native, noting he is aware of Summit House's extensive history and will work to protect the building, has previously said his intention is to have live jazz music during brunch and during dinner.

Councilman Steve Lipski, who attended the community meeting, agreed with Dehere that the entertainment license ordinance is too vaguely worded.

"The ordinance currently in place is very broad; if we specify the type of use, such as a supper club that closes at 11 p.m. versus a nightclub that closes around 3 a.m., there would probably be a lot less resistance," Lipski said.

Dehere, however, never said he intended to close at 11 p.m. In fact, the Blue Ribbon currently remains open until midnight on weekdays, and closes at 2 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, an employee said last night.

Lipski hinted at the possibility that race - or at least, "culture" - has something to do with apprehension about the restaurant's future.

One resident said the Summit House, which until Dehere and Papas bought it had housed a Laico's restaurant, used to be a "blue-collar white person's bar."

Lipski urged residents to remember Dehere is a "class act" and a "man of God" and, paraphrasing Martin Luther King Jr., asked that he be judged on "the content of his character, not his color."

Mayor Jerramiah Healy, who did not attend Monday night's meeting, also praised Dehere but added: "There have been some serious problems at the Blue Ribbon since it opened, and the city will be looking long and hard at the situation before granting an entertainment license."

What Med Center programs make cut?
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
By KEN THORBOURNE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

State Health and Senior Services Commissioner Fred Jacobs said yesterday that it's "too early" to say which programs at the Jersey City Medical will stay or go, but he expects to have critical data about them in hand within 30 days.

Several of these programs at the cash-strapped hospital, such as the HIV/AIDS clinic, the Level II Trauma Center, and Children's Hospital, might also have to survive without additional state aid to the hospital, he added.

The commissioner's remarks came a day after JCMC officials released a "performance improvement plan" prepared by Chicago-based consultant WellSpring Partners that calls for strenuous belt-tightening at the 336-bed facility, recruiting better paying patients, and possibly eliminating several money-losing ventures.

Jacobs noted several of these programs would require state approval to be ended and said money won't be the only factor in deciding if they stay open, he said.

The "pre-eminent" consideration is the medical needs of the community, Jacobs said.

"(The programs) will be evaluated in a dispassionate and comprehensive way with the WellSpring Partners, and (JCMC) board, and the state," he said. "It is too early to say which program will go."

Jacobs also tamped down expectations the state might cough up more dough to keep the programs open.

"We (the state) are already a major financial supplier to the Jersey City Medical Center, not just in charity care, but in supplemental aid to the charity care," Jacobs remarked.

JCMC has received roughly $60 million in charity care reimbursements from the state the past two years, said JCMC Acting Chief Executive E. Stephen Kirby. In addition, the hospital has received roughly $35 million a year in supplemental aid, and Medicaid and Medicare reimbursements, he said.

But despite all this, the hospital is still coming up about $3 million-a-month short in making ends meet, officials said.

Kirby replaced Jonathan Metsch, who abruptly resigned as the hospital's chief executive officer on Sept. 22, following a board review of the draft report.

"I think whatever happens at the end of the day, Jersey City Medical Center and the state are going to have to be in partnership to make this work," Kirby said.

Powerhouse vision has gotten blurry
Jersey Journal -October 25, 2006

The Powerhouse Arts District, once a symbol of a progressive urban planning, is quickly becoming a badge of failed stewardship - and the line between intention and reality is becoming more and more blurred.

The first domino to hit the floor was 111 First St. After costly legal wrangling and engineering reports that concluded the building would cost millions to preserve, Lloyd Goldman forced to the city to approve plans for the demolition of the historic warehouse and the construction of a modern skyscraper.

A number of the city's political elite were genuinely upset about the decision, particularly because it highlighted the city's failure to follow simple, procedural rules that might have saved the building and the plan itself.

Jersey City Corporation Counsel Bill Matsikoudis proclaimed that the Goldman decision would not spur the "domino effect" conservationists feared - turning the unique warehouse district into dominant Vertical City that surrounds its borders.

Well, such declarations now appear hard to justify.

Local attorney and powerbroker James McCann recently alerted the city of Toll Brothers' desire to seek amendments to the Powerhouse plan that include demolishing a large portion of the Manischewitz Building. The letter alludes to the Goldman decision as a precedent.

Sources tell me that Toll Brothers - which refused to speak about its intentions - wants to build a 40-story building on a portion of the Manischewitz lot. The plan, though not publicly released, will likely be met with opposition.

"We oppose building tall at the Manischewitz Building," said Joshua Parkhurst, president of the Jersey City Landmarks Conservancy, the group instrumental in helping create the historic zone.

The future of the Butler Building, considered as another key landmark in the area, also is uncertain, because city sources tell me that the building's owner, aware of the Goldman decision, expressed interest in tearing down the historic warehouse and building higher.

Matsikoudis now says that developers' proposals will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis and that council members will have to make "policy decisions" about what type of development they want in the district - a sharp change from a regional approach.

The administration rightly argues that while some of the aesthetic may have changed, much of the philosophical vision of the Powerhouse Arts District remains the same, including thousands of feet of gallery space, creating a vibrant retail, cultural and entertainment district and artist housing.

If the city wants to retain a semblance of the original aesthetic vision of the Powerhouse Arts District - and that's debatable - the City Council needs to take a lead role.

It should consider declaring the remaining buildings historic and add the extra legal protection necessary to combat the domino theory that will inevitably come crashing down, should the city stay the course.

"If the buildings are declared historic, it would provide us with more legal protection and show developers that the city has a clear plan for the area," said Bob Antonicello, executive director of the Redevelopment Agency.

If these steps are not done, maybe City Council should change the area's moniker to something more appropriate.

JARRETT RENSHAW can be reached at jrenshaw@jjournal.com.

Just some info --

"Sodium Hypochlorite" is bleach or rather a "bleach like" chemical -- if mixed with ammonia in sewers or elsewhere it can create chlorine gas -- here is a link.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/classic/A795611

His guilty plea: I tried to murder cops
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
By MICHAELANGELO CONTE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

A Jersey City man pleaded guilty yesterday to smuggling a gun into the West District Police Station last year and opening fire on cops, authorities said.

Corey Harley, 28, pleaded guilty to two counts of attempted murder for shooting at Officer Patrick Kirwin and Sgt. Tim Harmon in the Communipaw Avenue station on June 15, 2005, Hudson County Assistant Prosecutor Stephanie Davis Elson said yesterday.

Harley also pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated assault on Police Officers Michael Meyers and John Bennett, and to one count of possession of a gun by a felon.

He faces up to 25 years in prison when sentenced on Jan. 25, Davis Elson said.

Kirwin was shot in the back, but his bullet-proof vest stopped the bullet; Harmon was struck in belly, but the bullet passed through his body without hitting vital organs. Meyers and Bennett were unharmed.

Police Chief Tom Comey thanked the Hudson County Prosecutor's Office as well as the officers caught in the shooting that night.

"The officers involved that evening, under adverse conditions, acted heroically and with the spirit of the Jersey City Police Department," Comey said. "I'm pleased that the officers who were injured have recovered and are back on duty."

That night, Harley's girlfriend and her three children were at the police station getting a restraining order against him after he'd showed up at her home.

Two officers were sent to her home, where they found Harley and searched him - but then allowed him to go back inside, unsupervised, to get his belongings, officials said. It's thought he picked up a gun at that time, officials said.

He was questioned at the station and led to a hold room by Harmon and Kirwin, who told him he was going to be arrested. At that point, police said, the officers told him to turn over his personal items, and Harley pulled out the gun and opened fire.

A number of officers returned fire, hitting Harley six to eight times, in the cheek, ear and extremities, official said. He spent weeks in the hospital before being released to the medical ward of the Hudson County jail in Kearny.

Comey said the Police Department's Internal Affairs unit conducted an investigation into the incident and determined that no officers violated the rules and regulations of the department leading to the gun being smuggled into the station.

The incident now is used as a training situation at the Jersey City Police Academy for recruits and for in-service training for officers in the Street Survival Class, Comey said.

CHALLENGES AHEAD
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Jersey Journal

Here's a look at some of the findings in the Wellspring Partners report on the Jersey City Medical Center and its parent, LibertyHealth System

Jersey City Medical Center's inpatient volume ranks highest in Hudson County, but this has been achieved by providing "disproportionate" levels of service to Medicaid and charity care patients.

JCMC is having trouble attracting the more affluent residents that dominate the Downtown area, but even if this segment chooses JCMC, it would not be enough to change the hospital's fiscal situation dramatically.

LibertyHealth - which includes JCMC, Greenville Hospital and Meadowlands Hospital Medical Center - is not acting like a system, missing out on potential savings it could achieve by acting as one large entity.

LibertyHealth does not have the financial resources to sustain JCMC's current scope of specialty programs, clinical designations and commitment to medical education.

Programs to be evaluated include Level II Trauma, Regional Perinatal, Children's Hospital, Open Heart Surgery, Bariatric Surgery, Mt. Sinai Affiliation, Graduate Medical Education, HIV/AIDS, Mental Health and Ambulance/Paramedic.

To achieve national departmental benchmarks LibertyHealth would need to reduce staffing levels by 212 full-time employees, including 65 employees at the JCMC. In an editorial board meeting with The Jersey Journal yesterday, representatives said 77 spots are now unfilled due to retirement or other attrition.

Tanker carrying chemicals overturns
Route 440 closed in both directions
WABC 7

(Bayonne - WABC, Oct. 24, 2006) - A tanker carrying chemicals overturned on Route 440 on the border of Jersey City and Bayonne this morning.
Newscopter Seven was live over the scene.

This all happened when the tanker, carrying sodium hypochlorite, flipped on the highway near Avenue C in Bayonne just before 4:30 a.m. Route 440 was closed in both directions.

Hazardous materials crews were on the scene to determine if the chemical was leaking into the sewer system.

The road is a major truck route, and services the New Jersey Turnpike Interchange 14 A.

Metro Traffiic's Joe Nolan advises drivers to allow a lot of extra time to get where you're going this morning or take an alternate route.

Link

Rx FOR MED CENTER
Report says cuts needed to balance the losses
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
By KEN THORBOURNE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

To stay afloat financially, the Jersey City Medical Center needs to cut staff and programs while working to attract more private care physicians and a better paying clientele, according to a "performance improvement plan" hospital officials released yesterday.

Perhaps the only way to soften this radical change of direction for an institution that's catered primarily to the poor and uninsured would be for state government to provide significantly more aid, the officials said during an editorial board meeting with The Jersey Journal.

Rosemary McFadden, vice chair of LibertyHealth - JCMC's parent corporation - also suggested that the new course outlined in the report by Chicago-based WellSpring Partners is the reason Jonathan Metsch, the hospital's longtime chief executive officer, abruptly resigned on Sept. 22.

"It's very difficult to build up an organization and then have someone come in and say 'Take this thing apart,'" McFadden said, giving her reasons for the Metsch departure.

Metsch - who didn't return phone calls for comment - had told board members in the summer he was thinking about retiring at the end of 2008, McFadden said.

The LibertyHealth System includes the JCMC, Greenville Hospital in Jersey City and Meadowlands Hospital Medical Center in Secaucus, the only hospital in Hudson County operating in the black, the officials said.

The WellSpring report projects gaps in the roughly $360 million Jersey City Medical Center budget - $20 million this year, $47.7 million next year and $65 million by 2008.

Even assuming $34 million in state aid promised for FY 2008, that would still leave a $32 million hole in the budget, said George Whetsell, the WellSpring Partner principal.

Roughly half of this hole, $15 million, can be filled through "operational improvements," such as staff cuts, better collection of bills and restructuring contracts, he said.

But dealing with the $17 million balance would require slashing an array of programs.

Sinatra?s First, Freed at Last

By KEVIN COYNE - The New York Times
Published: October 21, 2006

THE most valuable object the late Frank Mane ever owned spent decades in a jumbled drawer in the living room of his apartment here ? a heavy 78-r.p.m. disc of ?Our Love? that he recorded in 1939, filed casually among newspaper clippings, sheet music, letters and other mementos from his long career as a musician. In the unlikely event that a listener couldn?t recognize the unmistakable voice of the singer, Mr. Mane wrote the name on the label in his spidery black hand: ?by Frank Sinatra.?

The two Franks knew each other from WAAT, a small Jersey City radio station where they sometimes performed on live broadcasts. Mr. Mane was older, an alto sax player who had a car and lived in Bayonne. Sinatra was a newlywed, living on Audubon Avenue in Jersey City, which was on Mr. Mane?s way home from the radio station. Both were veterans of the local nightclub circuit, and both were eager for the brighter lights elsewhere.

In March 1939, Mr. Mane had his eye on a job with Clyde Lucas and his California Dons, and he booked some studio time across the river in Manhattan to make an audition record. He assembled a 10-piece band and was rehearsing at the Sicilian Club in Bayonne when Sinatra showed up. ?He said, ?Cheech, could I go to New York with you and sing with the band?? ? said Mary Mane, recalling the way her husband always told the story. Mr. Mane died at 94 in 1998, just a few months after Sinatra. ?So my Frank said, ?Sure, why not?? ?

The band recorded four songs, including Rimsky-Korsakov?s breakneck ?Flight of the Bumblebee,? an ideal showcase, Mr. Mane thought, for his lightning virtuosity on the saxophone. They still had some time left, so Sinatra stepped to the microphone and started a song that took its melody from Tchaikovsky?s ?Romeo and Juliet? ? the first time he had ever sung solo in a recording studio:

Our love, I feel it everywhere,

Our love is like an evening prayer. ...

?You can tell it?s him,? Mrs. Mane said as the song played on a portable tape deck, filling the small kitchen of the rented apartment where she and her husband moved in 1969. ?His phrasing is the same.?

The record has finally left the living-room drawer and is now at Guernsey?s, the New York auction house that has sold items from the estates of John F. Kennedy, Elvis Presley and Mickey Mantle. It will be auctioned in early December.

?Will it go for $20,000, or $200,000, or some multiple of that? God only knows,? said Arlan Ettinger, Guernsey?s president. ?What?s so unique here is that it?s the one and only first recording. With most early recordings, there are multiple copies. Something may have come out on an obscure label and only 20 have survived and are in collectors? hands, but that?s 19 more than Mrs. Mane?s.?

Mr. Mane did get the job with Clyde Lucas and spent the next three years on the road, but he wearied of the travel and returned home to Bayonne, where for the next half-century he led his own more modest bands at ballrooms and nightclubs, weddings and dinner dances. He was still playing when he was 93, and his foot was too swollen to get a black shoe on it, Mrs. Mane said. He wore slippers instead, and put black rubbers on them, and went to the job on a cane.

Just a few months after recording ?Our Love? with Mr. Mane, Frank Sinatra was singing with Harry James and saying goodbye to Hudson County. The two Franks didn?t see each other again until 1979, when Sinatra convened a reunion in Atlantic City of some of his old musician friends from his days apprenticing in New Jersey.

?Every casino he played at after that, we were his guests, V.I.P.,? said Mrs. Mane, pointing to an autographed picture of Sinatra among the dozens of photos that make the living-room wall a collage of her husband?s career.

Shortly after the reunion, Mr. Mane made a cassette copy of ?Our Love? and sent it to Sinatra, who hadn?t heard it in 40 years. A 1980 thank-you letter from Sinatra hung for years on Mrs. Mane?s wall and will be auctioned along with the record.

Mr. Mane ?liked to play the recording for his friends,? said Robert Mandelbaum, a friend of the couple who helped Mrs. Mane arrange for the auction. ?He understood its significance, but he never tried to capitalize on it. He wasn?t like that.?

Mrs. Mane is 84 now, gregarious and quick to laugh. ?There was always music here,? she said, sweeping her arm across her apartment, where she lives alone, on Social Security. ?Since he?s gone, there?s none.?

But on a gray, soggy afternoon, ?Our Love? was playing one more time. ?That?s my Frank,? she said, her ear tuning first not to the voice that everyone else hears, but to the alto sax. ?He had the warmest sound. Everybody told him that.?

E-mail: jersey@nytimes.comNew York Times Link

Councilman runs race for nonprofit
Monday, October 23, 2006
By KEN THORBOURNE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Downtown Jersey City Councilman Steve Fulop is running like a man on a mission - and for a good cause.

The 29-year-old Citigroup trader is competing in the Nov. 5 New York Marathon and in the process, raising money for the Hudson County Child Abuse Prevention Center, a Jersey City-based nonprofit that helps prevent the sexual, physical, and emotional abuse of kids.

"They do terrific work for children who can't convey the difficult position they're in," Fulop said about the center. "I just wanted to help."

Fulop has spent the past few weeks collecting pledges from individuals and groups for the 26.2-mile run. His goal is to raise between $12,000 and $20,000 - as of last week, he'd already raised $10,000, he said.

Fulop, who served six months in Iraq as a U.S. Marine, has never run a marathon before. He said he's been waking up every morning at 5 to run about six miles, and does longer distances on weekends.

"The wear and tear on your knees and ankles is pretty difficult," he said. "When you get to those higher levels, your body just starts to hurt."

Peter Herbst, the center's executive director, quipped that Fulop's fund-raising effort was "wonderful - as long as he (Fulop) is doing the running."

Nightclub in historic building?
Monday, October 23, 2006
By ALI WINSTON
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

The oldest building in Jersey City has some changes in its future.

The Summit House, believed to have been built by Dutch settlers more than 300 years ago, was bought last year by former NBA star Terry Dehere and his childhood friend Steve Papas. They opened a Blue Ribbon restaurant in the building - which formerly housed a Laico's restaurant - and now want to add a stage to the building's interior to host live music. They also are applying for an entertainment license, which would allow the restaurant to operate as a nightclub.

However, Dehere told The Jersey Journal, the changes won't mean any renovations or alterations to what's left of the original historic structure.

"This is an addition to what is already established," Dehere said. "The only thing we're trying to do is spruce up our brunch atmosphere."

Providing that the entertainment license is successfully obtained, the stage will accommodate jazz bands, open mic performances and other acts on Sundays and Fridays, according to Dehere.

City officials stated that Dehere and Papas have inquired about applying for an entertainment license that would permit the Blue Ribbon to operate as a nightclub. Currently, the Blue Ribbon does not have such a license, according to Division of Commerce Director Paul Barna.

Entertainment licenses are required by law for any establishment that hosts "any live act, including vocalists, actors, dancers, floor shows, instrumentalists and D.J.'s," according to city officials.

John Gomez, president of the Jersey City Landmarks Conservancy, did not object to the proposed changes to Summit House.

Redevelopers to be forced to hire Jersey City residents
Monday, October 23, 2006
By KEN THORBOURNE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Developers who agree to rebuild blighted areas in Jersey City have to give more than lip service to hiring local residents: they must contract with the Jersey City Public Housing Authority to ensure residents are put to work, one city official said.

"Your 'best effort' is now going to be working with the (Jersey City) Housing Authority, which has an outstanding track record at putting people to work," said Robert Antonicello, executive director of the Jersey City Redevelopment Agency.

"If the local residents can't benefit by this building boom, we have really done something wrong," he added.

The details are still being hashed out, but within a month, a deal will be in place whereby developers who agree to build in redevelopment areas would have to hire the Jersey City Housing Authority as hiring consultants, Antonicello said.

Using a section of its federal charter as leverage, the Jersey City Housing Authority has managed to get contractors they oversee to hire enough local workers to represent at least 30 percent of a job's "man hours," officials said.

But it's not easy, they added. Meeting the goal requires holding job fairs, monitoring, and in some cases, "hand-holding" would-be workers, said Jersey City Housing Authority Executive Director Maria Maio.

"We always met the goal," said Maio, referring to six multi-million dollar projects the agency has overseen. "The key was closing up the excuses and then monitoring it."

Get a cup of Java -- It's a long article!

Oh and YES this is a repost -- but Mr. Bonamo has updated the article a bit and put it out again so here it is!
Please don't flame me for the re-post -- I'm very sensitive!
=====================

Politics in shades of gray
The history of the dirty, the clean, and prospects for the future

By Mark J. Bonamo -- HUDSON REPORTER -- 10/21/2006

On the Hudson County waterfront, a man who doesn't want you to know his name sits in the back room of a bar. His glittering blue eyes dance as he tells stories about a lifetime of involvement in Hudson County politics. As the stories of various campaigns and convictions over the last 30 years roll off his silver tongue, the longtime county employee stops for a moment and laughs.

"Definitely nine out of 10 commandments were broken," he says with a crooked smile on his face. "What I can say is, I seen all types of illegal action committed, outside of murder. I saw the envelopes come in. They took the cash in and they shared it. Not that good, but they did. The people that the public suspects the least are usually the ones who do the most. It's just the nature of the beast."

He was, and is, corrupt. But he is a free man. And he is among friends.

According to the office of Christopher Christie, the U.S. Attorney for New Jersey, out of 97 New Jersey political corruption cases where the defendants have either pleaded guilty or have been convicted of politically related charges since 2002, 20 originated in Hudson County.

In the last five years, the following local politicians, from the petty to the powerful, are just a few of those who have been snagged:

- Anthony Russo, a former Hoboken mayor who admitted accepting thousands of dollars in bribes from an accounting firm run by his best friend, and went to jail in 2005. His son Michael, now a councilperson, got teary-eyed at a 2004 council meeting where he voted for campaign reform: "I have seen, firsthand, how this concept affects people."

- Robert Janiszewski, the Hudson County Executive from 1998 to 2001, now sits in a Kentucky federal prison for extortion and tax evasion.

- One day in 1996, Patrick Cecala, the then-secretary to Hoboken's Alcohol Beverage Control Board and former school board member who had no prior criminal record, asked a woman for a $1,000 bribe to smooth the process of getting a liquor license in Hudson County's most bar-packed town. He later explained, "One thousand dollars was just a round number. I just could have used $1,000 cash in my pocket."

- Peter Perez, a former North Bergen parks and recreation commissioner, pleaded guilty to accepting kickbacks from an air conditioning contractor who had town contacts. The contractor also did work on officials' private homes.

If political corruption makes New Jersey a national joke, then Hudson County is the punch line. For nearly a century, the 62 square miles hard by the west bank of the Hudson have been looked at as the spot where the cancer began eating the Garden State body politic alive.

What fuels the fire of Hudson County political corruption? Is there an ingrained culture here that knows no rival, and if so, can it change?

Whether it's only gossip among the state's newcomers or the sticking point in the current statewide U.S. Senate election, the answers are needed now more than ever.


Frank Hague's ghost

It's hard to talk about Hudson County corruption without mentioning the infamous man who ruled Jersey City for 30 years.

Frank "Boss" Hague was mayor of Jersey City from 1917 to 1947. Born in 1876 to Irish immigrant parents, he grew up tough in "the Horseshoe," a long-gone tenement neighborhood near what became the entrance to the Holland Tunnel.

Expelled from school as an incorrigible 13-year-old, Hague's natural political skills vaulted him through the ranks of the Hudson County Democratic Party.

He was elected Jersey City's public safety commissioner in 1916 as a reformer - and used his position as head of the police and fire departments to build the rock-solid base and patronage system that would consolidate his power.

While he cleaned up the police force and lowered the crime rate, he also recruited a group of plainclothes policemen from the Horseshoe to be "Zeppelins," a secret surveillance squad within the police force who had a fierce loyalty to him.

Riding a tide of simmering Catholic anger at the previous Protestant control of the city, plus the need for safer streets, Hague was unanimously elected mayor by the city commission government within a year.

Hague's machine employed the now-familiar political methods of canvassing, telephoning voters and transporting voters to the polls, establishing the famed Hudson County Democratic "get out the vote" apparatus that is still revered and feared in New Jersey politics.

Between 1916 and 1940, Democrats won six of nine gubernatorial elections, most due to huge Hudson County electoral landslides.

Federal funds from allies such as President Franklin D. Roosevelt flowed into Jersey City. Through his ward leaders, Hague created a unique form of municipal socialism that provided needed services for his constituents at the height of the Depression.

When Hague said "I am the law" in Jersey City, he meant it.

Corruption continues

But after World War II, returning veterans increasingly felt locked out by Hague's machine. And ethnic groups outside Hague's Irish power base felt neglected. Hague's strong-arm tactics and long vacations in Florida and Paris alienated working-class residents.

As a result, Hague's appointed successor, his nephew, lost to a reform slate led by John V. Kenny in 1949. (Ironically, Kenny, who also billed himself as a reformer, was himself later indicted for conspiracy and extortion.)

Hague died a millionaire in a Manhattan apartment in 1956, unable to return to his former seat of power, out of fear of being subpoenaed over the kickback schemes that made him rich. In fact, before his death, he was served with a subpoena in a $3 million kickback suit brought by city employees in an attempt to recover funds. Hague never paid back a dime.

Historian Thomas Fleming called Hague's mayoralty a "blend of violence and benevolence" where order was maintained by "justice at the end of a nightstick," a slogan Hague liked to use himself.

Despite his rough reputation and use of voter fraud involving a misused state voter registration law, Hague was never indicted and never spent a day in jail.

Although his Jersey City mayoral salary never exceeded $8,000 a year and he had no other source of legitimate income, at the time of his death, his wealth was estimated at more than $10 million.

Next 'reformer' took $3.5M

Hague was dead, but the boilerplate he set up for Hudson County politicians was alive and well. Kenny set up his own satrapy in Hudson County. Mayor of Jersey City until 1953, Kenny remained the power behind the country throne until 1971, when he and Mayor Thomas Whelan were indicted and convicted as members of the "Hudson County Eight" for conspiracy and extortion for taking $3.5 million in kickbacks in exchange for county construction contracts.

When Robert Janiszewski became Hudson County Executive in 1988, it was hoped that he was the true reformer Hudson County had been waiting for.

But "Bobby J" was destined to disappoint.

Janiszewski abruptly resigned from office in 2001, and it was subsequently revealed that he had secretly worked as an informer for the federal government since late 2000. They had quietly arrested him in Atlantic City regarding extortion and asked him to wear a wire to catch other politicians and contractors.

His testimony brought down officials including Nidia Davila-Colon, a five-term Hudson County freeholder, who received a 2.5-year jail term for passing more than $10,000 in bribes to Janiszewski to ensure that her then-boyfriend, psychiatrist Dr. Oscar Sandoval, would receive lucrative county contracts. Sandoval became an FBI informant and was never charged.

Janiszewski ultimately paid a price himself. He pleaded guilty in 2002 to extortion and tax evasion, admitting he had accepted over $100,000 in bribes. He was sentenced in 2005 to 41 months in federal prison, and is currently serving time in Kentucky.

Proven guilty? Says who?

While many convicted Hudson County officials remain mum, former Jersey City Mayor Gerald McCann, better known as Gerry, is more than willing to talk.

A decade before Janiszewski experienced his legal woes, McCann, the mayor of Jersey City from 1981 to 1985 and again from 1989 to 1992, faced his own day in court for criminal fraud and tax evasion that took place in his private business dealings while he was not in office.

After his fall, Janiszewski expressed remorse for his actions, but McCann is cynical.

"Do you really think people go into public service to serve the public?" he said. "There are hundreds of other ways to do it. Why do people like Jon Corzine want to become governor and Tom Kean Jr. want to become U.S. senator? It's the power."

He added, "It's the only thing that they didn't have. They had money, but they didn't have power. Sometimes when power becomes almost absolute, then the potential for corruption occurs."

But besides the major players like Hague who were looking to feather their nests, what about politicians who get involved in small-time government? What makes them cross the line?

"A councilman in a small town is not necessarily looking for power," McCann conceded. "But there are people who believe that the problems that occur in a small town can be resolved if they themselves get elected. Once these people become decision makers, the people who want to become the beneficiaries of their new power start to get them to cross over, whether it's paying bribes or getting kickbacks."

He added, "Campaign contributions are part of the same thing. No one can get anybody to volunteer anymore because they think everybody is corrupt. It becomes self-perpetuating. In order to move up the chain in politics, you have to live in the gray. There are a lot of people more than willing to live in the gray. Gray is very close to black."

Besides the major arrests in Hudson County politics over the last few years, like Janiszewski and Russo, there have been smaller busts, like politicians who used campaign funds for jobs for relatives, or accepted a jet ski from a contractor.

Mayor: 'Temptations are astronomical'

For instance, Peter LaVilla served as the mayor of Guttenberg, a tiny four-by-12-block waterfront enclave bordered by North Bergen and West New York, from 1996 to 2000. He pleaded guilty in 2003 to misappropriation of campaign funds.

What happened, LaVilla said in a recent interview, was that during a 1999 campaign against Robert Janiszewski for county executive, he took out $63,000 worth of advertising in the now-defunct senior citizen newspaper that he owned. He didn't report those funds as income, and the IRS came after him. He said he no longer had the paperwork to prove his innocence, so he pleaded guilty.

LaVilla did six months of probation, paid a large fine, and has gone back to working as a screenwriter and a documentary filmmaker.

"The temptations are astronomical," he said, remembering his time in office. "There's always a fine line between what is legitimate and what is not legitimate. As mayor, I made four grand a year. I couldn't live on that. I had to have other income. If you have a contractor and he wants to get some business from the town, and he says things like 'Hey, can I take you to lunch?' that's where the fine line comes in. Do you pick up the tab?"

When asked about the politicians he served alongside in the 1990s, LaVilla declined to mention names, but said, "You're having a fundraiser, you send the ABC company two tickets, and they buy them, is that a violation? Because the temptations are so great, it's up to the individual who is in office to take care of due diligence and be above board."

Really low salaries

The great disparity in mayoral incomes in Hudson County seems to be one of the problems. (See sidebar.) Guttenberg's current mayor earns $7,640 a year, but the town budget is approximately $12.8 million. That means that a $7,000-a-year mayor is giving out millions of dollars in contracts.

The CEO of a $12.8 million company certainly would earn more than $7,640.

What's worse, the mayors in North Bergen, West New York and Union City draw incredibly low mayoral salaries to deal with high budgets. Union City Mayor Brian Stack gets $16,000 for a town with an $80.2 million budget. North Bergen's Nicholas Sacco gets only $15,000 for $71.2 million. According to Jersey City City Clerk Robert Byrne, some of the towns, like Union City and West New York, technically consider the mayoralty a part-time job.

Stack, Sacco, and West New York Mayor Albio Sires have state legislative jobs as well, making one wonder if they have time to do both jobs to the best of their abilities.

After a while, low-paid politicians tend to do one of two things: Seek another job at the same time - like assemblyman or county executive - or give contracts to friends and start asking for cash back over dinner.

'I didn't do anything corrupt'

As for McCann, he drew a fine line between black and white until he finally left a distinct gray smudge. He was convicted in December of 1991 of defrauding a South Florida bank. He was charged with having diverted for personal gain at least $267,000 of a $300,000 investment the bank entrusted to him in 1986 and 1987 to develop a marina at Liberty State Park in Jersey City.

He was sentenced to 33 months in federal prison and ultimately served 24 months.

When asked if he felt he did anything wrong, his answer was Jersey City blunt.

"I absolutely do not believe anything that I did was illegal," he said. "The power of the prosecutor's office got me. I didn't do anything corrupt. Corruption is when you are in a public position, and you do something to violate that trust. I was convicted for things that occurred when I wasn't the mayor. I'm very proud of what I achieved as mayor. I can show you the development at Newport, Harsimus Cove, Exchange Place, Grove Street, the light rail, and the new homes where Roosevelt Stadium was. If you have a legacy, it's what you've achieved in your own life. You can't point to one person, including Frank Hague, who did more."

It fell off back of a truck

Not everyone agrees with McCann's assessment.

"Dream on, Gerry," said Jersey City native and published author Helene Stapinski. "Those buildings on the waterfront would have been built sooner and better, without him."

Stapinski's critically acclaimed memoir Five-Finger Discount chronicled her coming of age in a Jersey City where personal and political corruption were often intertwined, including among some of her relatives.

Stapinski's frustration with McCann and the rest of Hudson County's ruling political class comes from both early observation and subtle cooperation. Stapinski describes growing up with the concept of "SWAG" - which stood for Stolen Without A Gun.

"Swag was a socially acceptable way of taking what wasn't yours, mostly stuff to live on," she said. "Your socks and underwear just fell off the back of a truck."

Stapinski detailed, in her book, how her father brought home frozen seafood not normally seen in working-class Jersey City homes from his job at Union Terminal Cold Storage.

"There were a lot of lobster tails on my table growing up," she said. "The thievery among the common folk happened because it trickled down from above. When you were bringing Ivory Soap home from the job, that's peanuts compared to what Hague was doing."

What might start with ripping off one's boss ballooned into bigger misdeeds.

"I used to think that [politics] were unimportant and that I didn't have to vote," the current Brooklyn resident said recently. "But the older you get, the more you see. Politicians are making the laws, and they are breaking the laws. They are defining what happens on a large scale and for the long-term future. If the schools are poorly run because of corrupt politics, the Yuppies will leave. This makes me really want to vote three times, which you can do in Hudson County sometimes."

Stapinski wondered aloud if New Jersey voters will actually pull the lever for any Hudson County politician running for statewide office.

"Hudson County was such a power magnet in statewide politics, but that time is all gone," she said. "It's more of an albatross now. Even the whiff of Hudson County makes people itchy."

In the shadows

The man in the back room of the bar on the waterfront is just the type of Hudson County resident who makes people reach for calamine lotion.

His desire for anonymity is based on a certain practicality. "I would not like to expose my family to this," said Mr. C (not his real initial). "You never get complimented on something like this. There is always something that backfires. I'm almost done, and will leave this life with my pension."

The man's description of the life he lived and witnessed is murky at best.

"You could say I was more involved in south Hudson, but helped others in north Hudson," he says. "I was mainly a county person, so Bobby Janiszewski was whom I supported the most. Basically, we all get recycled."

Around Bobby J, the man saw the same cycle over and over, deals made in various shades of green.

"Corruption might be dressed differently, but it is mainly the same," Mr. C said. "Kickbacks are always in cash, unless the other people are dumb and make some kind of gift that is tangible. Major law firms always get the big contracts. Unnecessary jobs go to workers who support the campaigns. If you were to actually hold interviews for some major jobs, three-fourths of the individuals would never get the job."

In the last few years, statewide "pay to play" laws have cut the ability for contractors to donate to municipal and county governments. Recently, reformers have tried to adapt those laws to local school boards as well.

Mr. C believes that people are fooling themselves if they think legislative measures to stem corruption are anything more than a futile finger in a dike.

"If a law is made, it is made mostly by lawyers," Mr. C said. "They are the same people who find ways around the law. Pay-to-play laws appease the public, but that will never change who gets contracts and whose friend gets a job."

Christie's anti-corruption campaign

Christopher Christie was appointed U.S. Attorney for New Jersey by President George W. Bush in December 2001. His stance against corruption has resulted in 97 successful prosecutions of both elected officials and other participants in illegal activities, including contractors, who are part of the circle of corruption.

Christie has received bipartisan accolades for his work, in part because officials of both the red and blue persuasion have been subject to his purple bruises.

Former Republican Essex County Executive James Treffinger, for instance, was brought up on corruption charges in 2002 when Treffinger was a leading G.O.P. contender for the U.S. Senate.

Recently, Christie was the driving force behind the legal effort that led former Democratic State Senate President John Lynch to plead guilty to mail fraud and tax evasion. At a Sept. 15 press conference following Lynch's plea, Christie spoke about the struggle against corruption in New Jersey.

"At this point, this is an old story," he said. "This office will continue to be vigilant about going after anyone who violates the law and betrays the public trust. Absolutely no one in New Jersey is above the law."

The advocate

Donald Scarinci knows the law. In the early 1970s, the politically connected attorney was editor of the school newspaper at Union Hill High School around the time U.S. Senator and current senatorial candidate Robert Menendez was student body president.

The two men formed a friendship that lasted while both served as aides to Union City Mayor and State Sen. William Musto. Musto's political career would come to a close in 1982 after his federal conviction on racketeering charges. Menendez was among those who testified against him.

Menendez went on to build a political career that took him to Musto's mayoral chair, the state assembly, the state senate, the U.S. House of Representatives and finally, after his appointment in January by Governor Jon Corzine, to the U.S. Senate. At the same time, Scarinci's law practice also grew, becoming one of the most influential in the state.

In the current U.S. Senate election, Scarinci very recently had to sever ties with Menendez's campaign after a 1999 telephone conversation was released in which Scarinci was recorded using Menendez's name to gain political leverage.

Scarinci said recently that he believes Hudson County simply gets an unfair rap.

"I've been involved in Hudson County politics and government since 1972," Scarinci said. "It is mythology that Hudson County is more corrupt than anywhere else. It has nothing to do with anything that has happened since the days of Frank Hague. The reality is that there are fewer instances of public corruption in Hudson County than in 50 percent of the other counties in the state of New Jersey. Bad people will do bad things."

He added, "Just because there are a few bad people like Gerry McCann and Bob Janiszewski doesn't mean all public officials are bad. You haven't had people stealing public money in Hudson County since the Musto trial in 1982. Wall Street would not be developing the waterfront if they had the concept that Hudson County was a corrupt place. I think the perception is based on folklore."

He said the perception is also based in something even darker than local legend.

"The idea has its foundation more in racism and prejudice than in any reality," he said. " 'Hudson County' to some people becomes a euphemism for Latinos, in the same way that 'Essex County' becomes a euphemism for African-Americans. When people want to suggest that the people from Hudson County are above-average corrupt, I think that there is a very large element of bigotry and racism in that kind of remark."

Scarinci defended his friend Menendez as a true reformer.

"He demonstrated by his actions that he is a reformer," he said. "He testified against his mentor Musto, who was a personal and a political disappointment to him. Several people who were indicted with Musto were members of organized crime. Bob Menendez testified against them. That took courage. I saw him wear the bullet-proof vest [during the trial]."

Corruption issue affects Senate race

The question of ethics has recently become a major campaign issue for the Nov. 7 midterm elections. While Menendez's side has tried to portray him as someone who would stand up to President Bush, Republican challenger Tom Kean Jr. has depicted him in ads as just another corrupt Hudson County politician.

Menendez has had to fend off several corruption allegations in recent weeks. These criticisms have included that while in the House of Representatives, Menendez leased a building he owned to a Union City nonprofit agency for which he helped win federal funds.

But Tom Kean Jr.'s campaign had to deal with an ethics accusation after Menendez's campaign discovered that a researcher working for Kean's chief campaign consultant was digging for dirt on Menendez through an exchange of letters with the infamous Bobby Janiszewski. Janiszewski apparently wrote the letters from the confines of a federal prison cell in Kentucky.

See next week's paper for more on the campaign.

A policy perspective

Ross Baker, a political science professor at Rutgers and a longtime observer of New Jersey politics, said there are cultural and structural reasons for the county's corruption.

"Hudson County deserves every bit of its reputation," he said. "One of the things about Menendez, particularly after he turned state's evidence against Billy Musto, was that he stood out as the glowing exception, proof that a reformer could come out of Hudson County. But then again, Frank Hague and Bobby Janiszewski originally were reformers too."

He noted, "The low state of public rectitude in Hudson County tends to rub off on people who try to escape its clutches."

Baker said the problem starts with having too many politicians. He cites county executives, positions that not all states have.

"The center [of power] is never as powerful as the collective might of the 21 county chairs," he said. "Office double dipping has to be abolished. It tends to monopolize elective offices. It's a dangerous concentration of power. Pay-to-play legislation also has to be passed."

But Baker worried that some of it is ingrained.

"There are also cultural factors that will only change over the long run," he said. "A lot of the politics of Hudson County is tribal in that political ties are intermingled with ethnic ties. The more Hudson County becomes a desirable place for upper-middle-class people to live, the more that leads to the demographic transformation of Hudson County. The waterfront communities offer probably the best hope for reform."

What can be done?

It appears, from observers' comments and even politicians' own suggestions, that some waves of change are coming, but more has to be done. Suggestions include:

- Consider banning dual office holding. This move would provide more assurance that elected officials are not prey to conflicts of interest, and that running for office is seen as a path to public service, not personal enrichment. It also means separate officials will have more time to do the job better. However, not everyone agrees that dual office-holding is always bad. Scarinci says: "I think a legislator who is also a mayor, or a freeholder or a county executive, brings something to the table at the state legislature. In Trenton, they truly know what state laws mean at the local level. There's no evil in a $12,000-a-year mayor being a state senator."

- Increase mayoral salaries for towns with large budgets. If mayors are ultimately controlling large sums of money without commensurate compensation, this becomes an inducement to steal. For instance, in 2003, former Hoboken Mayor Anthony Russo was indicted for having given kickbacks to an accounting firm run by his best friend, the late Joseph Lisa. Lisa's firm had earned more than $5 million in contracts from Hoboken in just a few years.

- Consolidate towns and town services. New Jersey currently has 566 separate municipalities. Through carefully considered regionalization, the number of towns and municipal positions would decrease, and with it opportunities for influence-peddling and fiscal temptation.

- Ban "pay-to-play" at every level of New Jersey government, including redevelopment agencies. "Pay-to-play" is the practice of giving professional service contracts to campaign contributors. Such practices can result in politicians approving overly expensive or unnecessary projects in exchange for campaign support. Giving someone a government contract in exchange for a political donation is illegal, but often it is difficult to prove. "Pay to play" laws cut out the possibility of that happening by saying that a business contributing a certain amount cannot get a contract. The state legislature should close loopholes in the laws.

- Institute a zero-tolerance policy on the acceptance of gifts. Current ethics laws forbid legislators from accepting gifts worth more than $250 in total value from any single source for anything related to their official jobs. Instead, legislators should be banned from receiving any gift of any value whatsoever from lobbyists, government affairs agents, or anyone else.

- Combine the Joint Legislative Commission on Ethical Standards into the new state Ethics Commission. Merging these two commissions would centralize and provide a vehicle for consistent and rigorous enforcement of the state's ethics laws.

- Make the new Uniform Ethics Code compulsory for the legislature and local governments. While more and more municipalities have taken up the cause of ethics reform, a clear, consistent approach must be taken regarding the application, control, supervision and enforcement of stronger ethics standards.

- End pension-padding. This practice allows for the promotion of state officials immediately before retirement, allowing them to receive a public pension based on the higher salary of a position that they never held. Convicted corruption offenders can sometimes still get their pensions.

- More aggressive investigations. Newly confirmed New Jersey Attorney General Stuart Rabner, who helped prosecute Janiszewski as an assistant U.S. attorney under Christie's leadership, can continue to work with Christie in this vein.

- Don't state corruption rumors as facts. As Hoboken Councilman Michael Cricco said at a 2004 council meeting, "This is Hudson County. It seems like we're already guilty before we even do anything." The unfair stereotype of every politician being corrupt is often spread by cynical new residents, or by campaign hopefuls hoping to gain office by slandering the other side. It paints hundreds of local public servants, unpaid board members and volunteers with the same brush, sometimes solely because they grew up here. The stereotype becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy because only career politicians will be willing to undertake the name-calling that comes with holding these positions.

- Voters should reward and punish at the ballot box. On the grass-roots level and on Election Day, voters should remember who has been doing the right thing, and who hasn't.

Young councilman reflects on potential change

Will reforms like the above work?

Jersey City Councilman Steven Fulop, 29, was raised in Edison. He moved to the Jersey City waterfront for the same reason many other new Hudson County residents did.

"I was working at Goldman Sachs," he said. "Goldman was moving their building to Jersey City. You get a lot of the benefits of being close to Manhattan, but at the same time all the benefits of being in Jersey. It just kind of made sense."

What Fulop did after he made the move to Jersey City was more unusual. He enlisted in the Marines after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and temporarily left Wall Street in 2003 to serve a tour with Marines in Iraq.

Shortly after his return, he entered politics. Fulop stunned many local political observers by winning the downtown Jersey City council seat in 2005 over the Hudson County Democratic Organization (HCDO)-backed incumbent Junior Maldonado.

When looking at the question of campaign contribution reform, Fulop offered some cautionary comments.

"If the reforms are not done in a way that would affect the county organizations as well, you will inadvertently adversely affect the reform candidates, because you won't give them the same access to funds the other side is going to have times 10," he said. "Jersey City adopted the state's pay-to-play reform package. Now some groups have come forward and said that they want a kind of pay-to-play law that would restrict developers from giving money to any Jersey City candidates. The premise is good, but if you do that, you restrict the money that somebody can get independently, but you can't restrict a developer from giving the money to the HCDO, which will ultimately give to the candidates that they choose."

Fulop continued, "Reform should go further to include not only banning dual public-office holding, but also holding two jobs that are paid for by taxpayer dollars in any capacity. Here in Hudson County, we are one of the biggest violators of this. Taxpayers paying one salary should be enough."

One more idea

But why is it that even politicians who originally run for office as "reformers" wind up covered in sludge?

Fulop thinks self-imposed term limits might avoid this fate.

"What I'd like to do is have an impact in the near term, and then I think that I'm done," he said. "You go back to the private sector, say that you served the public, and that's it. When you stay in office for too long, that's when things start to go awry."

And sadly, he agrees that some people duck local politics because of the reputation for corruption, causing a vicious cycle.

"You can't say everybody is corrupt and evil here," he said, "because that's surely not the case. We're headed in the right direction. In Hoboken, we have some young council people with fresh ideas coming from the private sector. In Jersey City, we're moving that way. You need the residents to put the right people in elected office, and then you need those elected officials to do the responsible thing. Part of the problem is that we still have the mentality that if you're good at hanging campaign signs, then you might qualify for some senior-level position, which is ridiculous. We're long past that mentality. So you either recognize that and get involved with change and progress, or you're going to have to get out of the way."

He added, "Change can be forced, or change can be embraced. Either way, we'll take it."

To comment on this story, e-mail Mark J. Bonamo at mbonamo@hudsonreporter.com.
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Epps' pay hike irks Sussex pol
Saturday, October 21, 2006
By KEN THORBOURNE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Assemblywoman Alison Littell McHose, R-Sussex, expressed outrage yesterday over the nearly $10,000 pay hike that Jersey City Superintendent of Schools Charles T. Epps Jr. was recently given.

"Every taxpayer in New Jersey should be offended that a man who has abused tax dollars for personal pleasure and who has demonstrated poor judgment on a number of occasions is being rewarded with a pay raise," McHose said in a written statement. "How many of our state's residents would get a $10,000 pay hike from their employer for making bad decisions?"

The Jersey Journal reported Wednesday that acting Commissioner of Education Lucille Davy signed off on a 41/2 percent pay hike, worth $9,473 retroactive to July 1, for Epps, having concluded he had performed his job "satisfactorily."

The raise brings Epps' superintendent's salary to $219,993. He also receives a $1,000-a-month housing allowance and earns $49,000 a year as a state assemblyman representing Bayonne and Jersey City.

Earlier this year, Epps, who was appointed by the state, reimbursed the school district roughly $5,000 after it was revealed he and an associate had lived high on the hog in England at taxpayers' expense for a few days prior to a school-related conference.

Other questions were raised when it was learned that Epps had contributed to the campaign account of Jeff Dublin, a Hudson County freeholder who also sits on the Jersey City School Board. As a school board member, Dublin filled out an anonymous, written performance evaluation of Epps that was sent to the state Department of Education.