I'd like to see his honor reconcile his claim of JC being a 'world-class destination' with his reliance on maintaining Distressed City status so the state can keep bailing out the JC school system, which he's short-changing through his continual PILOT-granting.

Also, he recently put the lawyer coincidentally defending his most recent alcohol-fueled Bradley Beach adventure on the city payroll as a "Legislative Research Officer"... He could explain exactly what that position entails.

What would you change about Jersey City?
Corzine may attend mayor's address Tuesday; residents give suggestions

Ricardo Kaulessar
Hudson Reporter
02/16/2008


SMALL BUSINESS OWNER AIRS CONCERNS ? Laila Haddad, owner of Sweet Priscilla, the caf? located at 530 Jersey Ave. in downtown Jersey City, spoke last week about what she would want Mayor Jerramiah Healy address in his State of the City address scheduled for this Tuesday. She says flooding is an issue downtown.

When Mayor Jerramiah Healy gives his annual State of the City address Tuesday night, it is likely he'll include some standard lines: "Jersey City is the second largest city in the state, soon to be the largest city ... We have the four tallest buildings in New Jersey ... We are a world class destination..."

In fact, Healy released a short press release Friday saying that Gov. Jon Corzine and other officials are scheduled to attend his second annual address on Tuesday. The release stated that Healy will "discuss the dramatic drop in crime, his administration's success in bringing development beyond the waterfront, increased open space and the creation of new jobs."

He also plans to talk about adding to the city's open space by 20 percent, and talk about development at Journal Square and the West Side.

But what do residents want to see addressed?

Infrastructure and trash

Last week, residents said they'd like the mayor to talk about issues ranging from flooding to lost bus service to the city becoming too expensive for the working poor.

Laila Haddad said last week that flooding is a problem at the caf? she owns, Sweet Priscilla at 530 Jersey Ave. in downtown Jersey City.

"It's the physical infrastructure of the city that has to be addressed," Haddad said. "The sewage system, the roads, the traffic lights - we have to address the fact [the city] is planning for so many people who will be living in Jersey City."

Haddad said her suggestion comes not just from living in the city for 10 years, but also from seeing the basement of the building where her caf? is located get flooded on a number of occasions. Flooding has been a big problem in the downtown area.

She also recommended Healy address what she sees as a "massive garbage problem in this city."

She continued, "As a private business owner, I can't tell you how many people dispose of their residential garbage along with my commercial garbage, which I pay by the bag to get picked up by a private company," Haddad said. "We have more trash on the streets than gets picked up in the bags."

Think about the city's neighborhoods

Brian Neary is a newcomer to his Palisade Avenue neighborhood, which he moved into with his wife Lisa about six month ago.

However, he already has been at several neighborhood meetings. At the Riverview Neighborhood Association meeting last week, he was wearing his trademark bowtie and his thick-rimmed glasses. He sports the two items in courtrooms in the tri-state area as a premier criminal defense attorney for over 25 years, as a law professor at Rutgers-Newark, and a legal commentator for Court TV and other media outlets.

After the meeting, Neary said the three issues that Healy should address are transportation, public safety, and education. He did compliment Healy on being "way ahead" in the development of the city and his work as mayor.

But Neary, a native of the southern part of the city, said there's an even larger issue that Healy needs to examine.

"He needs to keep traditional Jersey City neighborhoods together," Neary said. "Start neighborhood by neighborhood, because when administrations deal with the neighborhoods, it is usually top down, not from the bottom up."

Neary said that as an example, "I don't think [the city] was completely aware of the problems with the buses in the Heights until they came to neighborhood meetings like this one."

Look out for the working poor

Elizabeth Perry's family dates back six generations in Jersey City, originally migrating from North Carolina and South Carolina. Perry is currently an employee of the Jersey City Board of Education but worked for 12 years as a construction worker.

That sense of history and belonging is part of what drives Perry to be outspoken on issues over the years ranging from education inequality in the Jersey City school system to fighting for Jersey City residents to get jobs working on luxury developments in the city.

It is also growing up in what she came to realize as a young adult, was a "cycle of poverty." She has fought as an activist to see that others living in this city don't go through that same cycle.

Perry, who lives about a mile away from Journal Square, said Healy should take some time in his address to discuss what he will do for the people in her neighborhood.

"He should be looking out for the working poor in this city," Healy said. "Despite all the talk of the Gold Coast and middle and upper income people, that is really only a few places as this city has mostly low-income residents."

Perry continued, "There are many people living in this city who like myself want to actually stay here, but the economy and the city's policies are making it tougher to do so."

The address

The speech is scheduled to take place this coming Tuesday, Feb. 19, at the new Franklin L. Williams Middle School on Collard Street in Jersey City Heights in the northern part of the city. It will take place at 7 p.m. and is open to the public.

Healy has been mayor ever since he won a special election in November 2004 to fill the remainder of former Mayor Glenn D. Cunningham's term after Cunningham died of a heart attack the previous May.

Healy is also likely to touch on mass transit (restoring bus service lost in the northern and southern parts of the city), bringing in more revenues through development (a defense of the city continually issuing tax abatements), and the environment (the city's settlement with Honeywell International to bring about the cleanup of chromium contaminated land on the city's west side).

What would you like to see addressed? Send letters to the editor to editorial@hudsonreporter.com. Comments on this story can be sent to rkaulessar@hudsonreporter.com.


?The Hudson Reporter 2008