The Jersey City Independent:
Mayor-Elect Fulop Says Mass Retirement of Police Brass Could Cost City $5 Million; Says City Will Audit Unused Compensation Day Claims

By Matt Hunger • May 22nd, 2013

Mayor-elect Steve Fulop has a list of 27 names who have put in their papers for early retirement starting on June 1 and going through the end of the year, including that of Police Chief Tom Comey and three of his deputy chiefs, with an estimated payout of $5 million in unused compensation days.

“The fact that Chief Comey and his friends in the police department are putting in for retirement just days after the mayor lost the election demonstrates how the Healy police department is more concerned with their cushy office jobs than protecting the public,” Fulop said in a statement. “We have a public safety crisis and yet these officers are putting their own personal financial interests ahead of public safety and certainly ahead of the taxpayers. I am beyond outraged. I am disgusted.”

Indeed, there have been a series of shootings over the past few weeks, a problem that could be exacerbated by the uncertainty that comes with mass turnover in a department.

City spokeswoman Jennifer Morrill confirmed these findings, saying that “According to applications submitted to the state Police and Firemen’s Retirement System, which the city was able to confirm today, 25 officers have applied for retirement for the months of June, July and August.”

http://www.jerseycityindependent.com/ ... -compensation-day-claims/

Quote:

Just the top two.

Some more choice bits from the article:

"Fulop wants to offer developers fewer incentives for building Downtown and more incentives for building in Bergen-Lafayette and other areas of the city....

"Fulop won every ward in the city except Ward F, according to unofficial election results. He lost Ward F by about 50 votes, but he did considerably worse in Bergen-Lafayette than he did in the Downtown parts of Ward F.

"Asked whether he thinks he needs to work on convincing voters in that area that he will work for them, Fulop said many of his proposals – to decrease crime, to encourage development in areas aside from the Waterfront – are targeted to improve the lives of residents there.

"Besides, Fulop added, he intends to live in Ward F. A longtime Downtown resident, Fulop has sold his Paulus Hook walkup and seeks to buy a home in Bergen-Lafeyette"

The NYTimes just did a nice article on MANA Contemporary:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/17/nyr ... html?pagewanted=all&_r=1&

It's being discussed around the corner, here:

http://jclist.com/modules/newbb/viewt ... c_id=29453&post_id=315199

Quote:

LOL! +1!

Quote:

Yes.

Umm... Err... Someone ought to tell the campaigns to try real hard to keep from calling the same person more than once in any given day. Once is annoying enough....two times is really really annoying.

The public library has an interesting set of photos of the city that were taken in 1964, roughly when that video was done. It's an aerial survey of the city done for planning purposes. The Newport area, for example, was railroad yards serving active docks.

[quote]
JCCheerleader wrote:
Do you open it for visitors who aren't young enough to hang out drinking? I'd love to come see it![/quote

That, I believe, is by appointment with the management.

"...costs about $16 per mile to construct and $30,000 per mile..."

I think someone missed some zeros on that first number.

I've've been to the GV space. It is, well, incredible.

Just got a Healy robocall informing me of the Obama endorsement.

There's a meeting with Ben Delisle about a skate park in new Berry Lane Park. He's the City's project manager for the park.

The meeting will be at Fountain of Salvation Church, 324 Communipaw (corner with Pine) on Wednesday, Feb 20, at 7PM.

There's a meeting with Ben Delisle about a skate park in the new Berry Lane Park. He's the City's project manager for the park.

The meeting will be at Fountain of Salvation Church, 324 Communipaw (corner with Pine) on Wednesday, Feb 20, at 7PM.

Done

Photos from a fact-finding trip to Philadelphia. Took this one at FDR, the largest do-it-yourself skate park in the world:



Took this one a Pop's Skate Park, a small park in Northeast Philly. Police report an 80% reduction in crime in a two-block radius around this park since it opened two years ago:

Quote:

There has in fact been some discussion of a skate park among community groups and the city. If you want to see a akate park there, email the Ward F Councilwoman, Diane Coleman: dcoleman [at] jcnj.org

Quote:

Makes sense. Walker hasn't a chance of winning, but he could pull votes from Fulop.

A sit com story about a fly-by-night mural at a corporate event at the science center:

http://new-savanna.blogspot.com/2012/ ... s-corporate-largesse.html

An interesting discussion on Booker vs. Christie for governor:

New Jersey gives away $678M per year in incentives. That's $77 per capita and 2 cents per dollar of the state budget.

Here's a list of NJ incentives (with cities listed):

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/20 ... ent-incentives.html?hp#NJ

Color me skeptical. The little complex is pretty much on its own. I can't imagine hanging out there. Heck, it's too exposed for drug dealers and I can't for the life of me see why anyone would want to hang out in the middle of a multi-street intersection.

Quote:

If I were you I wouldn't wager any money on that bet. You'd lose it.

Quote:
The article is based on an extensive database of over 100K cases and doesn't mention the two cases you mentioned. But, yes, it's corporate blackmail, and the article talks about that.

The New York Times has a major story about how state and local governments are giving companies all sorts of economic incentives and getting NOTHING in return. Sound familiar?

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/02/us/ ... roll-corporations.html?hp

"The Times analyzed more than 150,000 awards and created a searchable database of incentive spending. The survey was supplemented by interviews with more than 100 officials in government and business organizations as well as corporate executives and consultants.

A portrait arises of mayors and governors who are desperate to create jobs, outmatched by multinational corporations and short on tools to fact-check what companies tell them. Many of the officials said they feared that companies would move jobs overseas if they did not get subsidies in the United States.

Over the years, corporations have increasingly exploited that fear, creating a high-stakes bazaar where they pit local officials against one another to get the most lucrative packages. States compete with other states, cities compete with surrounding suburbs, and even small towns have entered the race with the goal of defeating their neighbors."

National Sporting Goods Association, 2008 report:


MOUNT PROSPECT, IL – Among sports and recreation activities that grew more than 15% the past 10 years, skateboarding led the way with a 74.1% growth, according to the National Sporting Goods Association (NSGA). Data contained in NSGA’s annual “Sports Participation – Series I and II” reports, which are now available, shows skateboarding grew from 5.8 million to 10.1 million participants between 1998 and 2007. Target shooting had the second highest 10-year growth, 63.3% to 20.9 million participants.

Other sports and recreation activities showing more than 15% growth over the 10-year period included snowboarding (41.7% to 5.1 million participants); running/jogging (40.1% to 30.4 million participants); archery target shooting (37.5% to 6.6 million participants); workout at club (27.5% to 33.8 million participants); motor/power boating (24.1% to 31.9 million participants); muzzleloading (16.1% to 3.6 million participants); and exercise walking (15.6% to 89.8 million participants).

“Skateboarding saw a remarkable increase in the last 10 years, due in part, to the television exposure provided by ESPN’s X-Games,” said NSGA Vice President of Information & Research Thomas B. Doyle. “Much of that increase came at the expense of inline skating, which saw a decline of 60.4% (to 10.7 million) during the same period. In the 1990s, during inline skating’s peak growth period, skateboarding suffered similarly.” In 1998, there were 27.0 million inline skaters.

http://www.nsga.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=3966

A few stats:


Skatepark Facts
- More than 600 skateparks were built during 2001 in the U.S.
- There have been more skateparks built in the last three years than in the previous twenty
- 75% of communities that built a skatepark said that the park produced a significant reduction in the street skating problem
- 94% of communities agreed that their skatepark was a benefit to the community
- 50% of communities who built a skatepark has plans to build another

Rider Facts
- More than 9.3 million skateboarders will take to the streets in the U.S. this year
- In 2001, more people over the age of 7 participated in action sports than baseball, soccer, softball, volleyball, tennis or football (nearly 21,000,000).
- During the last ten years, no sport had a larger increase in participation among users age 7 and older than skateboarding (a 106.3% increase)
- Skateboarding is the third largest sport for participants between ages 6-18
- Skateboarding is the sixth largest participant sport in the U.S.
- 1 in 10 U.S. teenagers owns a skateboard
- In 2001 Female participation in skateboarding increased 23.7%

From here:

http://suburbanrails.com/cgi-bin/WebO ... a/wa/loadPage?pageId=2566

Philadelphia' FDR park, built by sk8ers for sk8ers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FDR_Skatepark

Quote:

The city slipped a skate park into the plan for Berry Lane at the last minute but the neighborhood shot it down at community meetings because it wasn't within the design specs had been the community had settled on four years ago during a design charette.

So, the city was planning to spend money on a skate park. They can easily plan to put it somewhere other than Berry Lane.

Quote:

LOL!