iGreg wrote:
Quote:

jc_dweller wrote:


In a show of your naivete, let me point out that downtown

In a show of your naivety, let me point out that downtown is not all of F'king Jersey City and the other wards would like some political representation, safety in their streets, schools to be more than holding grounds and babysitters for their children etc. etc.

Add up the numbers from DTJC and all the other neglected wards if you want to see how a properly campaigned election can place a winner.

Holla @ Yo Boyz

jc_dweller wrote:


In a show of your naivete, let me point out that downtown

RichBoggiano wrote:
If you've ever read the Jersey Journal, it's clear my father isn't afraid to speak his mind. One of the perks of not having gubernatorial ambitions is that he's liberated to say what he believes.

Maybe that'll cost him the hipster vote, but 30+ years of history suggests it's pretty popular with people who care about issues such as litter, potholes, functioning public services, and government accountability.

RichBoggiano wrote:
On me answering on this forum for my father, he's very accessible. Give him a call anytime at 988-1164. Elected officials can't be everywhere all the time. Mayor Fulop has a spokesperson with a $110,000 a year salary, for instance. In my father's instance, my mother, sister, brother, and cousins all volunteer our time and help out where we can.

On "natives" versus "outsiders" debate, he only cares about what he believes to be best for Jersey City. Sometimes newcomers have great ideas, and sometimes those ideas are well intended but naive or impractical. National and international politics rarely apply at the local level, but if there's anything the Brexit, Donald Trump, and Bernie Sanders all have in common, it's that there's a large number of people who are tired of elites rigging the system and dismissing the concerns of common people. If it helps, my father voted for Bernie Sanders.

RichBoggiano wrote:
If you've ever read the Jersey Journal, it's clear my father isn't afraid to speak his mind. One of the perks of not having gubernatorial ambitions is that he's liberated to say what he believes.

Maybe that'll cost him the hipster vote, but 30+ years of history suggests it's pretty popular with people who care about issues such as litter, potholes, functioning public services, and government accountability.

RichBoggiano wrote:
On me answering on this forum for my father, he's very accessible. Give him a call anytime at 988-1164. Elected officials can't be everywhere all the time. Mayor Fulop has a spokesperson with a $110,000 a year salary, for instance. In my father's instance, my mother, sister, brother, and cousins all volunteer our time and help out where we can.

On "natives" versus "outsiders" debate, he only cares about what he believes to be best for Jersey City. Sometimes newcomers have great ideas, and sometimes those ideas are well intended but naive or impractical. National and international politics rarely apply at the local level, but if there's anything the Brexit, Donald Trump, and Bernie Sanders all have in common, it's that there's a large number of people who are tired of elites rigging the system and dismissing the concerns of common people. If it helps, my father voted for Bernie Sanders.

RichBoggiano wrote:
If you've ever read the Jersey Journal, it's clear my father isn't afraid to speak his mind. One of the perks of not having gubernatorial ambitions is that he's liberated to say what he believes.

Maybe that'll cost him the hipster vote, but 30+ years of history suggests it's pretty popular with people who care about issues such as litter, potholes, functioning public services, and government accountability.

RichBoggiano wrote:
He only cares about what he believes to be best for Jersey City...

Sometimes newcomers have great ideas, and sometimes those ideas are well intended but naive or impractical. National and international politics rarely apply at the local level, but if there's anything the Brexit, Donald Trump, and Bernie Sanders all have in common, it's that there's a large number of people who are tired of elites rigging the system and dismissing the concerns of common people. If it helps, my father voted for Bernie Sanders.

jc_dweller wrote:
Not that I object to the course this conversation took, but the original question point was a question if anything can be done about these God-awful signs? I guess not?

JSleeze wrote:
Quote:

RichBoggiano wrote:
The issue with red light cameras was that the system didn't work, unless the goal was to suck in money rather than public safety. The system flashed people who had done nothing wrong, increased the number of rear-end accidents, and amounted to a money-making racket. A good idea poorly implemented is a bad idea.

Those last nine words epitomize so much that is wrong with the conservative movement and, let's face it, Rich is a conservative. Time and again we see this course taken - in education, infrastructre, guns. Progress isn't often binary, it's usually a process. It's always easy to find fault with even the best ideas - the answer isn't to throw them away because of even minor defects, it is to double your efforts to figure out how to make them work better. That's what a leader does. All I hear from Rich is an endless torrent of bitching and criticism while offering very little in terms of workable policy designed to solve problems.

JSleeze wrote:
Quote:

RichBoggiano wrote:
The issue with red light cameras was that the system didn't work, unless the goal was to suck in money rather than public safety. The system flashed people who had done nothing wrong, increased the number of rear-end accidents, and amounted to a money-making racket. A good idea poorly implemented is a bad idea.

Those last nine words epitomize so much that is wrong with the conservative movement and, let's face it, Rich is a conservative. Time and again we see this course taken - in education, infrastructre, guns. Progress isn't often binary, it's usually a process. It's always easy to find fault with even the best ideas - the answer isn't to throw them away because of even minor defects, it is to double your efforts to figure out how to make them work better. That's what a leader does. All I hear from Rich is an endless torrent of bitching and criticism while offering very little in terms of workable policy designed to solve problems.

RichBoggiano wrote:
The issue with red light cameras was that the system didn't work, unless the goal was to suck in money rather than public safety. The system flashed people who had done nothing wrong, increased the number of rear-end accidents, and amounted to a money-making racket. A good idea poorly implemented is a bad idea.

JSleeze wrote:
Quote:

dr_nick_riviera wrote:

I'm just very disappointed that thus far, if Fulop isn't running, no real progressive, transit-oriented development candidate has emerged. Maybe he has gone downhill in recent months, but I'd easily vote for Fulop again over some of the names being thrown around.

Fulop would be a hell of a mayor, if he was interested in the job. He's head and shoulders, hands down more capable than the all the Lavarros, Mukherjis (a lower wattage Indian Fulop on ambition steroids), Wattermans, Boggianos, et al rolled together. But how would a second Fulop term be any different than the first? He'd probably be even more desperately running for governor, which would just generate even more frenzied activity for the sake of press releases rather than substantive improvement/change and the meat and potatoes stuff (like traffic enforcement, road maintenance, policing, etc.) would move further and further out of focus.

If he runs, O'Dea is probably the best of the bunch.

rescuelife wrote:
Richie also has a history of referring to people who are Jersey City residents but not native as "outsiders" and a general anti-outsider tone, which will undoubtedly be highlighted in any city-wide election. That prejudice may fly in his neighborhood but how can he possibly win a city-wide election without support of non-natives? He wants to turn the pedestrian plaza back into a car road, how will downtown residents like that? He should enjoy his twilight years with family.

dr_nick_riviera wrote:


On what are his policies on things newer residents demand such as bike lanes, more restaurants and businesses and increased access to public transit?

RichBoggiano wrote:
His vision is to improve quality of life and get the basics right - paved streets, filled potholes, synced traffic lights, traffic enforcement, cleaned up litter, having mailboxes actually available throughout the city, etc.

dr_nick_riviera wrote:
Quote:

RichBoggiano wrote:
This is one of Rich Boggiano's sons responding on behalf of my father from his account. I'll be up front and lay out what you get, and don't get, with him as a politician.

What you get:
1. Integrity. He'll tell you what he actually believes, and he has never used any of his influence to benefit himself. He'll never get arrested in an FBI sting operation because he's happy to drive a beat up old car, live in the same house he's lived in for decades, and isn't selling his soul to get elected to the next higher office.
2. Accessibility. People call him all the time with actual problems, and he gets them fixed. He's been doing this my entire life, long before he was elected, and I don't expect he'll ever stop. His cell phone number is 988-1164. Give him a call next time you have a problem and he'll help you. He helps people from every ward after their council members don't respond to them. Decades of helping individual people is reason he was elected after being outspent by Mayor Fulop 10 to 1.
3. Focus on quality of life. He cares about trash, potholes, traffic enforcement, etc.
4. No higher ambition. I have no idea what office, if any, he'll run for in 2017. He only cares about Jersey City and has zero aspirations for any higher office. Steve Fulop is really sharp, but he's been running for governor for the past 3 years, which has some obvious downsides.
5. Hard work. Technically, being on the city council is a part time job. He is the only councilperson in the city who shows up to City Hall everyday. When he's not there, he's working anyway.
6. Service. He's lived a life of service. He enlisted in the Marines at 17 to serve his country. He loved serving as a police officer for ~37 years and only retired because he hit the mandatory retirement age. He's been a community activist my entire life via the Hilltop Neighborhood Association. He's now serving on the city council. He's not going to stop helping people regardless of his political future.

What you don't get:
1. A technologist. He's not tech savvy. Anyone with a 70 year old parent can relate.
2. Political correctness. Sorry, but he's going to tell you what he's thinking. That may offend you, but he's authentic. Ironically, I fully expect an elitist response to this post from one or more people who consider politically correctness credentials impeccable.
3. A lap dog. This may blow your mind, but after knowing my father for years, Steve Fulop wanted him to run on his ticket he ran for mayor. He chose to run as an independent candidate instead despite a far more challenging path to victory because he didn't want to be beholden to a political boss. He's served as the city council's conscience for the past three years because of that decision.

On the signs, I have no idea who put them up. It wasn't him. He's got a fan somewhere that's been putting signs like that up for years.

Why can't he write in himself and make these points, why does his son need to do it? Not everybody needs to be a software engineer, but basic computer and technology skills are very necessary for any administrative job in 2016.

A lot of the pros you list are the same points people are using to justify voting for Donald Trump. Nobody is disparaging his past service, but future vision and actual policies are what actually matter, none of which he's been able to clearly articulate.

RichBoggiano wrote:
This is one of Rich Boggiano's sons responding on behalf of my father from his account. I'll be up front and lay out what you get, and don't get, with him as a politician.

What you get:
1. Integrity. He'll tell you what he actually believes, and he has never used any of his influence to benefit himself. He'll never get arrested in an FBI sting operation because he's happy to drive a beat up old car, live in the same house he's lived in for decades, and isn't selling his soul to get elected to the next higher office.
2. Accessibility. People call him all the time with actual problems, and he gets them fixed. He's been doing this my entire life, long before he was elected, and I don't expect he'll ever stop. His cell phone number is 988-1164. Give him a call next time you have a problem and he'll help you. He helps people from every ward after their council members don't respond to them. Decades of helping individual people is reason he was elected after being outspent by Mayor Fulop 10 to 1.
3. Focus on quality of life. He cares about trash, potholes, traffic enforcement, etc.
4. No higher ambition. I have no idea what office, if any, he'll run for in 2017. He only cares about Jersey City and has zero aspirations for any higher office. Steve Fulop is really sharp, but he's been running for governor for the past 3 years, which has some obvious downsides.
5. Hard work. Technically, being on the city council is a part time job. He is the only councilperson in the city who shows up to City Hall everyday. When he's not there, he's working anyway.
6. Service. He's lived a life of service. He enlisted in the Marines at 17 to serve his country. He loved serving as a police officer for ~37 years and only retired because he hit the mandatory retirement age. He's been a community activist my entire life via the Hilltop Neighborhood Association. He's now serving on the city council. He's not going to stop helping people regardless of his political future.

What you don't get:
1. A technologist. He's not tech savvy. Anyone with a 70 year old parent can relate.
2. Political correctness. Sorry, but he's going to tell you what he's thinking. That may offend you, but he's authentic. Ironically, I fully expect an elitist response to this post from one or more people who consider politically correctness credentials impeccable.
3. A lap dog. This may blow your mind, but after knowing my father for years, Steve Fulop wanted him to run on his ticket he ran for mayor. He chose to run as an independent candidate instead despite a far more challenging path to victory because he didn't want to be beholden to a political boss. He's served as the city council's conscience for the past three years because of that decision.

On the signs, I have no idea who put them up. It wasn't him. He's got a fan somewhere that's been putting signs like that up for years.

dr_nick_riviera wrote:

I'm just very disappointed that thus far, if Fulop isn't running, no real progressive, transit-oriented development candidate has emerged. Maybe he has gone downhill in recent months, but I'd easily vote for Fulop again over some of the names being thrown around.