http://onejerseycity.com/?page_id=1783

My name is Dan Levin and I am running for Ward E City Council (ballot position 3C) in the May 14th municipal election. I have lived in downtown Jersey City with my wife since 1996, and our two children attend our public schools. For 10 years I owned and operated a small art framing business in Hoboken, giving me an understanding of the needs and challenges of small business owners.

Enacting positive change has driven my work as an activist in downtown Jersey City. I have served with neighborhood associations and community groups, working with residents, city administrators, and elected officials to create change. As councilman, I will work effectively with everyone in our community to deliver results and create a downtown that every Jersey City resident can embrace.

During my time as president of the Harsimus Cove Association, we spearheaded the creation of the hugely successful multi-use plaza at the Grove Street Path Station. This plaza now regularly hosts a farmers market, art market, and live entertainment.

I was a founding board member of the Jersey City Landmarks Conservancy, which landmarked the Powerhouse and worked towards redeveloping it into an arts district. I also founded and led as president the good government organization Civic JC that created, developed, and led the effort to have Jersey City adopt the Contracting and Redevelopment Pay-to-Play ordinances ? the toughest ethics reforms in the state.

I co-founded Bike JC, which organizes the Jersey City Ward Tour; every year 700 bicyclists ride through all six wards. We also worked with the city to develop a bike lane plan, which will be implemented this summer. Not only will this provide bicyclists with a safe place on our streets, but it will reduce speeding. Most recently, I worked with the city to have the Liberty State Park footbridge that was damaged by Hurricane Sandy replaced by FEMA.

I care about what happens next in Jersey City.

As councilman, I will work for a sustainable future and support environmental initiatives that will mitigate flooding. I will help create a more vibrant downtown, expanding cultural ordinances so that small businesses can host live entertainment. I will prioritize the realization of the 6th St. Embankment as open park space and work for a black box theater space because I believe these are essential to the future of downtown and an asset to all residents of Jersey City.

I will continue to fight for sensible spending and good government practices, including reforming the insurance procurement process and implementing an open appointment process for the city?s 40 boards, authorities, and commissions.

As our city grows, we need to create more public communal spaces from plazas to parks to libraries. Like Village Park on First Street, I will make use of private-public partnerships and outside grant monies to bring needed open space to our neighborhoods.

Simply put, I want to get things done and I will do the best I can to make your life in Jersey City better.

Sincerely,

Daniel Levin
Candidate for Ward E Council

It seemed to me that Osborne was the only candidate that was consistently focused on what a Councilperson and city government could do about these issues.

Crime is a good example. Candice talked about specifics for redeploying police officers, and restructuring how they relate to our neighborhoods.

Dan talked about setting up block watches, and "facilitating" the police doing security audits for residents. Sounded more like a job for a community activist, involved citizen - Dan's accustomed role.

On government funding, abatements, and consolidation of services, all were very similar, except that Osborne seemed to both have a better high-level strategy and to drill down deeper. While I appreciate Dan's suggestion that the City start 2-sided printing to save paper, we need professional, aggressive management.

On education: Dan seemed to argue that the schools are not in trouble and that people's concern about school performance is political. Candice seemed to be the only candidate to recognize that not all of JC's problems (esp. schools) have a local fix, and that city government ought to be pushing Trenton for changes which benefit our city. More visionary than the others.

I thought it was also interesting how much Dan had to stress that he is not Mayor Healy.

This was a very informative debate!

Quote:

Thanks Webmaster.

Just for the record... (and I hope I can post this here, if not maybe my thread), here is the picture I was referring to.

https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos ... 40401312_1156970008_n.jpg

At last night's debate, I referenced a picture. Well, here it is. It was in the City of Jersey City OFFICIAL Newsletter. Inside were a lot of pictures of Mayor Healy. But come on... showing up in a sport coat and white polo shirt, during Hurricane Sandy relief for a photo op? Come on now. I don't make this stuff up. It's crazy. Politicians show up, get pics and leave. I show up and stick around. The good stuff is always at the end anyway. And PS. I would ban any Government Communications during an election season. That is a waste of taxpayer money, for propaganda purposes.

Questions of loyalty dominate Ward E candidate debate in Jersey City

By Ken Thorbourne/The Jersey Journal
on April 18, 2013 at 11:02 PM

Candidates running for Ward E Jersey City council seats on the tickets of mayoral candidates vowed their independence while the independent candidate questioned their commitment to the ward.

"Of course I would be willing to vote against Steven Fulop if we both get elected," said Ward E Council Candice Osborne who is running on the ticket of mayoral candidate Fulop. "I didn?t run with him to be a rubber stamp."

Ward E council candidate Dan Levin is running on the ticket of Mayor Jerramiah Healy and when asked if he would be willing to vote against Healy on an issue, Levin said, "Of course. I?ve spoke out numerous times against Mayor Healy?s policies."

He added that he has worked with Fulop in the past and his strength is that he can work with anyone.

Independent Ward E candidate Fletcher Gensamer told the crowd of some 20 people at School 4 on Bright Street that he was skeptical about the responses of his opponents.

"I?m very concerned that if Dan gets elected he will be a puppet for Mayor Healy," Gensamer said of Levin. And he asked Osborne, "Will you really be looking out for Ward E or doing what Steve Fulop says?"

All three candidates agreed that no more abatements should be given to developers in Ward E, which includes Downtown and the waterfront, and abatements should be used to spur development elsewhere.

Osborne said there were a lot of things she would have done differently from the Healy administration during Hurricane Sandy.

"In the time of crises, people do not leave their home so you have to come to them," Osborne said. "All the politicians know how to do it during election season." She also said it was unacceptable that phone and email went down.

Levin agreed that the city could have done a lot of things differently, beginning with preparation for the storm but it was a learning experience.

"The city should be spending and will spend a whole lot of time reviewing what happened, what went wrong and how can we do it better next time," Levin said.

Gensamer said Jersey City officials should have learned a lesson from hurricane Irene and been able to respond better to Sandy.

"There were things Jersey City should have done to minimize the damage," said Gensamer, giving an example that cars should have been moved to higher ground. He noted Healy administration pictures of Healy handing out bottles of water and said "That?s not really getting involved."

In his opening statement, Levin said he has lived in Jersey City 17 years and his background in community groups.

"I will do whatever I can to make sure we can work with the administration, with the mayor, to get things done for your community and I promise to do everything I can to make lives better."

In her opening statement Osborne said she moved to Jersey City 10 years ago and she wants to make a difference.

"I decided to make Jersey City my permanent home and I began to realize over the last several years that Jersey City is not loving us like we love it and it?s time for it to do better."

In his opening statement, Gensamer said he has lived in Jersey City since 1993 and he believes this is the most important election in Jersey City history.

"I?m not quite certain we are heading in the right direction," Gensamer said. "I really care about Jersey City and the people and all the wonderful things we do here and that?s why I?m running."

http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/20 ... _of_loyalty_dominate.html