Hey, I could be wrong, I haven't followed local politics closely and didn't live in JC during the Schundler years, but I have some impressions.
Didn't he, in the typical Republican way, refinance the city's debt so that he didn't have to raise taxes? And doesn't the repayment of that debt add substantially to our financial burden now?
Wasn't the charter schools push the Republican way to show how for-profit corporations could do things better than government? And still earn a profit? And wasn't Golden Door built with money donated by real estate developers? That made him look like a champion of the common people, whose children were struggling to get a decent education, but anyone else who needed to build a charter school had to rely on corporations looking to make a profit from our tax money.
Needless to say, Schundler's daughter went to school in Hoboken. And I don't think Golden Door has been a success. Nor do I think the corporation-run schools in this or any other city have worked. But it sounded like a good idea.
Didn't he sell the water supply that had been publicly owned to United Water, and didn't they want to sell it in turn to a French company?
Schundler was just another Republican believer in the transfer of public assets into private hands, which we are seeing nowdays on a much larger and more frightening scale.
I share many other's dismay and frustration at the corruption of local government: Schundler presented a different image to the public, but his policies have done plenty of harm in the long run.

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I recall that Bret had a terrible relationship with the police, mainly because he wouldn't rollover to the union. But, in spite of this dicey relationship, crime was still less than now.

I am a bit concerned that there may be much more crime going on then we are hearing about. The Jersey Journal also used to be better at covering the crime beat. What happened?

-M

I like Healy -- why is it mostly one time writers who want him recalled? Just curious but if he did leave the thankless job of Mayor and decide to go back to being a judge would that make Willie Flood Mayor?

What are you talking about, "As bad as the Republicans?" The Schundler adminsitration over 10 years as the only republican administration in the past 100 years was also viretually the only adminsitration that had no high level indictments. Crime went down, taxes stayed down, educational choice was tried (with partial success- yes charters, no vouchers).

Perhaps its regretable that the Republicans didn't try to build a machine. Instead, for the most part, City government was run professionally. Yea, there was some cronyism, but small potatoes compared to the norm.
But if they build a machine, then they would be corrup- and yes it does happen to Republicans as in Nassau County NY, and, to some extent, it does in the NJ State Organization. But, here locally, I have not seen it.

And isn't there a pattern here? Just as republicans, albeit pragmatic ones have steadied the bid apple, so here in Jersey City, they have made reform inroads.

needs to be destroyed; the current group of Democrats in office are just as corrupt as the republicans and are just as much in bed with the developers as the Republicans. Crime is clearly out of hand. Yet, despite campaign promises, Healy continues handing out tax abatements on prime property yet he raises the taxes for everyone else.