Just wanted to give this a bump...

JCdowntown is sitting down with the Mayor for an interview that will be printed in our April issue. I would love to hear what questions and topics you would like to see the Mayor address.

Melissa
Editor-in-Chief
JCdowntown Magazine
melissamaguire@jcdowntownmag.com

"However, the city still has contend with the fact the rail Embankment is owned by local property owner Steve Hyman, who wants to build two-family homes there. There was controversy over the embankment for a number of years because activists wanted it to be part of a park. The city is going through legal channels contesting Hyman's ownership rights."

It is important to know that those "activists" that the reporter
refers to are members and supporters of the Embankment Preservation Coalition and that they are still actively involved in creating a city park on the Embankment. Like the community organizations that supported Reservoir#3, the Embankment Preservation Coalition's primary purpose is to maintain a green space for a future park. The city, with a large degree of assistance and guidance from the EPC, has been mobilized to navigate legal options for retaining the Embankment as a public park for the people of Jersey City.

Falcon or others on here that are interested in TV & film making -- you can get a pretty nice "DV Magazine" subscription -- well -- "pretty nice" for FREE that is. It is good for info on sound issues and other other tech questions .. and did I say it was free!

Click this link:
http://www.submag.com/cgi-bin/subscribe?01




Quote:

What state is the city in? Mayor speaks of new PATH stops, cutting taxes, in first govt. address

Ricardo Kaulessar Hudson Reporter 02/23/2007

REACTIONS ? Audience members applaud during the State of the City address on Tuesday.

Mass transit, new revenue sources, and the quality of life were the main topics as Mayor Jerramiah Healy gave his first State of the City Address since taking office in fall of 2004.

About 200 people, many of whom were city officials and employees, were attendance in the auditorium of Middle School 4 on Bright Street Tuesday night. Among the prominent names attending were U.S. Rep. Albio Sires and Hudson County Executive Tom DeGise, who gave the introduction for the speech.

Healy spoke for 30 minutes and addressed five points: public safety and crime, the quality of life, economic development and fiscal responsibility, the environment, and integrity in government.

New transit stops in Newport, Marion

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Healy said in his address he has had meetings with Port Authority officials about a new PATH station in the Marion section of the city west of Journal Square, and with representatives from the New Jersey Department of Transportation and NJ Transit about the light rail connecting the Newport area of the city with Secaucus.

"Our quality of life will truly be improved if we rely less on cars and improve our mass transportation," Healy said.

The tracks for the Newport-Secaucus connection would run across the Sixth Street Embankment through the Bergen Arches and end at the Secaucus transfer train station near Exit 15X of the New Jersey Turnpike - an idea Healy has been pursuing for about two years.

However, the city still has contend with the fact the rail Embankment is owned by local property owner Steve Hyman, who wants to build two-family homes there. There was controversy over the embankment for a number of years because activists wanted it to be part of a park. The city is going through legal channels contesting Hyman's ownership rights.

The PATH station in the Marion section would accommodate new residents who will move into that area in future years, as the result of condo projects such as the American Can Company site on Dey Street within close proximity to the proposed station.

New revenue to lower a tax increase

Jersey City property owners were hit with an 18 percent increase on their tax bill in the 2005-2006 fiscal year. Their wrath is something Healy wants to avoid.

"My administration has also searched for new ways to help create savings and generate revenues that will not increase the burden on property taxpayers," Healy said.

Healy said he is working with state legislators to pass legislation to bring about two future city taxes: a realty transfer fee and a billboard tax.

The realty transfer fee imposed would be 50 cents per $500 of sales when property within the city is transferred from buyer to seller. Healy and other city officials estimate the fee would bring in $1 million annually into the city's coffers.

Healy mentioned a billboard tax would be placed on billboards across the city. Healy offered no further details on the billboard tax in his address.

Affordable housing

Healy announced he is going to put together a committee of city officials, developers and affordable housing advocates to determine how they want to go forward with their affordable housing policy.

The city had suffered setbacks in that area because a state Appellate Court ruling in January struck down the state's affordable housing requirements for cities, meaning a new plan will have to be put into place within six months.

Also, the city was stymied in its attempt to increase the $1,500 fee per unit of luxury housing built that developers pay into the city's Affordable Housing Trust Fund.

How to run a city

The theme of the address, the first by a Jersey City mayor since 2003, was "Our city is strong."

To make the city stronger, Healy said, "We plan on applying the principles of CompStat to all city departments as Baltimore has done with CitiStat to bring greater accountability to city government."

CitiStat is a computerized accountability program created in Baltimore based on the ComStat crime-fighting system pioneered in the New York City Police Department by Jack Maple in the 1990s. Like CompStat, CitiStat utilizes computer pin-mapping and weekly accountability sessions for every city agency, helping a mayor run his or her own city.

Jersey City has been contemplating the implementation of CitiStat since late mayor Glenn Cunningham was in office.

But the Healy administration has given strong consideration to CitiStat, with Mayor Healy and other city officials making trips to Baltimore in the past two years to see how CitiStat works.

When asked after the address if CitiStat will be in place before his term ends in 2009, Healy expressed uncertainty.

On crime

Healy reiterated that he would like to hire more police officers, and repeated some of his past accomplishments including putting more police on the street, the lower crime statistics over the past year, and implementing CompStat.

Business-friendly

Much of the speech was Healy's review of his accomplishments in office up until last week including: hiring more police officers, filling potholes, encouraging more development through the granting of tax abatements, getting companies to clean up property polluted with chromium, and reappointing the city's Ethics Board.

One of the larger issues he addressed was making Jersey City more "business-friendly" by continuing their tax abatement policy and doing "more to market Jersey City" such as holding forums for commercial real estate brokers.

"As always, when faced with tough decisions, we will not consider what the most politically expedient course of action is, but will look at one criterion: what is best for our City?" said Healy.

Mixed reviews

What impression did Healy leave upon those in the audience?

The comments were mixed.

Lavern Webb-Washington, a longtime resident of the city's Bergen-Lafayette section, said Healy's speech was "great."

"He did good, we came a long way," said Webb-Washington. "We have a good mayor; he's doing a good job."

Greenville resident Lorenzo Richardson, an accountant for the Urban League of Hudson County, commended Healy for covering a wide range of topics in his address but felt he left out some issues.

"I think more needs to be dealt with in terms of making housing affordable for those who live here as opposed to allowing the development that was spoken of for some people who don't live here," said Richardson.

Downtown resident Dan Levin was more stinging in his assessment.

"Bottom line," he said, "the speech was an outline of the status quo, and did not provide any comprehensive plans or vision to address his stated platform of public safety, quality of life and finances."

Ricardo Kaulessar can be reached at rkaulessar@hudsonreporter.com

Hi Melissa,

One topic I'd like to address with the Mayor is the "trash" issue in Jersey City. It is embarrassing the amount of trash I run into in my daily walk to/from the PATH Grove Station. It seems like there is pride in having trash on the streets of Jersey City. It is an absolute eyesore and also a sanitary concern. If the Mayor is so proud of the Jersey doing "better than ever" ask him to explain how the trash helps in beautifying the city.

Why did he campaign on the position of ending tax abatements for the waterfront, yet support them for Lefrak's Shore Club development, calling them good for the city?

Why did it take him over a year to implement the COMPSTAT police management system, the so-called centerpiece of his campaign?

JCdowntown is sitting down with the Mayor for an interview that will be printed in our April issue. I would love to hear what questions and topics you would like to see the Mayor address.

Melissa
Editor-in-Chief
JCdowntown Magazine
melissamaguire@jcdowntownmag.com

SWEET! The city is better than ever! I feel at ease now!

Healy: City's better than ever

Thursday, February 22, 2007
By COTTON DELO
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Speaking in a packed auditorium at Middle School 4 Tuesday evening, Mayor Jerramiah Healy painted a rosy picture of life in Jersey City during his State of the City address.

Citing reductions in crime and the continued Downtown development boom in the course of his 45-minute speech, Healy contended that "Jersey City is better now than it has ever been."

Healy named an expanded police force, his gun buyback program and the utilization of CompStat - a computerized crime tracking system - as factors contributing to the reduction of crime, including homicide, which he says dropped 39 percent in 2006.

The mayor maintains, however, that more police must still be hired.

Focusing heavily on development in the latter half of his speech, Healy said his "administration will continue to be business friendly."

"I have rejected calls to implement a payroll tax or an affordable housing fee on commercial development because such initiatives, in my opinion, would be a disincentive to move to Jersey City," he said.

Healy staunchly defended the practice of using tax abatements to lure developers to the city but advocated extending the policy to areas beyond the waterfront.

He praised the City Council for approving "unusual" 30-year abatements on condo developments like the Beacon and the American Can Co. in McGinley Square and alongside the Pulaski Skyway, respectively - areas formerly not on developers' radar.

Winning applause from the audience, Healy referred to his proposal earlier this month to require "that Jersey City residents be used as apprentices in union training programs on public construction contracts and certain large tax-abated projects."

The legislation - pending a hearing by the City Council - was widely perceived as an answer to critics of his tax abatement policy who contend that the Downtown renaissance has done little for the city's workforce.

On Journal Square, Healy spoke about the demolition of blighted structures and the plan being undertaken to build two residential towers with retail space for stores and restaurants as accomplishments.

He capped off his remarks with an allusion to Downtown Councilman Steve Fulop's recent crusade to pass a pay-to-play ordinance - which Healy opposed - that would have banned developers from giving public officials campaign contributions while negotiating for a project.

"We should not adopt legislation that would keep those of moderate means from running viable campaigns and that would limit elected office exclusively to the wealthy," Healy said.

Public officials in attendance included Congressman Albio Sires, D-13, state Assemblyman and Jersey City Schools Superintendent Charles T. Epps, six members of the City Council, and Hudson County Executive Tom DeGise - who introduced Healy.

Although Healy took office in November 2004 following a special election and was elected to a four-year term in 2005, this was the first State of the City address of his City Hall tenure.

COTTON DELO can be reached at cdelo@jjournal.com

Quote:

Falcon,

good first effort with the new camera. your exposure choices
worked well and your use of the monopod...was very steady yet hand held enough to draw the audience in.

there are flaws, however....your misuse of the autofocus yields very blurry results especially for the long shot in the first half. once you are in tighter, the focus improves slightly, but we still see tell tale autofocus shifts, which seems somewhat amateurish.

the sound is legible, which is good but there is still room for improvement here: the use of an external shotgun microphone would eliminate much of the peripheral room reflection.

the use of cheesey transitions is expressly prohibited as per course policy. but because this is your first project I will give you a B

The translation of the 'address' is as follows:

State of the City is unclear and we have things happening. I have put money on the bar at the Iron Monkey, so thanks for coming and we will not have question time, so lets make our way there.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

He is pitchy, he needs to own the stage, and bores me to death.

Score: -5

I was browsing Healy's official bio, because I wanted to find out how long before his term is over, and I found this gem:

"Prior to his tenure as Mayor of Jersey City, Jerramiah Healy has had a lustrous career of public service..."

I guess there are no proofreaders in City Hall. Obviously, the writer meant to write "an illustrious." Now, instead of a distinguished career, Healy has had a shiny career.

BTW, his term doesn't end until 2009. It's seems like it's been so long already.

I filmed this on February 20, 2007 at the State Of the City Address. Jersey City's JC1TV also fimed this and will release their version on Comcast. I edited this video to keep within the 10 minute youtube time limit.

Oh, how I hope he uses the word "berserk".
It would be such a shame not to.

Healy should announce that he doesn't know how to manage people or run a city, but knows how to look after friends and business colleagues.

He should simply walk away and seek State intervention and do us all a favor!


If Healy and his administration, including the Chief of Police was running a private business with shareholders, they would sacked on the spot with no bonus and forfeit their last months pay.

The Chief could save himself if he publicly announces harder and stringent checks and balances on his and the public paid officers. Internal affairs should systematically check every officer regardless if there is a complaint about them to improve public image.

There should also be an independant ethical and internal affairs department within City Hall to do the same with staff. This is public taxes paying for their conduct and should be transparent.

There are some really good points that are discussed above and should be addressed by the Mayor.

As one of the founders of the Downtown JC Watch, I've learned a lot from our meetings with the police in the past 3 years.

*it's necessary to let the Police know specific location and crimes and issues on a regular basis as a group
* the JCPD has a system just like most workplaces and many times, we are not aware of that system (who do we call, when should we call with a phone tree, what should we say or not say, how to report a crime)
*contact the Captain or the Community Relations officer in your district if there's a problem
*Narcotics unit need specific information like vehicle description/lic. plate, name, address instead of "there's drug dealing on my block"
*a block patrol or "hanging out at front and chatting" creates presence and discourages criminal activity
*talking with the police and not "at" the police helps
*asking for more police, is like preaching to the choir. there's not enough graduates to match the number of retirees.

Still, it's important to have outcry and to rally and to discuss in all forms of media. It's good to question and there are some "big picture" issues that are not always discussed.

But, I just want to mention that our group, Downtown JC Watch was not contacted about this rally. Thanks to Bright Moments, I was made aware of the rally. Who is this group organizing this event?

Also, the JCPD and the former Chief Troy began a Community Policing group last June where citizens from each area of Jersey City meet with the police every month. The aforementioned issues are discussed but in more detail.

This group rep. would be an asset to have at these meetings. When I brought the rally flyer to the attention of the Community Relations Officer and Heights member, they were not familiar with this group. So my question is, did this group reach out to their Council Person or their Community Relations person about working on their issues?

I just think it's important that people know that there are exisitng outlets for this so I hope they are being used.

Good luck and hope to see you all at the rally....

downtownjcwatch@gmail.com

Atleast he gave notification this time. It is common for him to simply not show, particularly when the meeting takes place in the Heights, even though he is supposed to live there.

interesting. i will be at both, i'm working on a clever tee shirt. perhaps i should just wear a budweiser tee cut off and tied under the boobies so i can get the mayors attention.

Jersey City, NJ - High Taxes, High Crime. Where?s the Protection? That is the question many Jersey City residents will be asking Mayor Jeramiah Healy, Police Director Samuel Jefferson, and Chief of Police Thomas Comey at a citywide Public Safety Rally scheduled for 6:30 PM Wednesday March 7, 2007 at the Abundant Joy Community Church aka the ?Central Avenue Reform Church? located 137 Bowers St., Jersey City.

Although Jersey City has evolved dramatically over the past twenty five (25) years, some public services, such as policing, have not kept up with the changes. For a City with a population of 240,000 people (U.S. Census Bureau), the Jersey City Police Department is staffed with an estimated 850 police officers. Despite increasing taxes and the recent real estate boom experience, the City of Jersey City has not improved the infrastructure of its police department or its level of service to the public.

The people of Jersey City have had ENOUGH! In an attempt to better serve our great City, the community leaders of Jersey City are organizing a citywide rally to address ongoing public safety concerns with elected officials.

Policy makers have allowed the City to fall into a reactive (vs. proactive) system of policing. The police department typically reacts to crime by taking complaints from citizens instead of taking proactive measures to prevent it from happening in the first place. Band-Aid solutions like this take the place of well planned preventative measures such as creating strong police presence thru lasting community policing programs.

Accountability has become a major concern at the department as it has seen four (4) Chiefs in as little as four (4) years. New Chiefs always bring personnel changes within the JCPD. In what has become a yearly shuffling of personnel, this instability has jeopardized the department?s overall accountability and service to the public. As an example, one out of four Jersey City Police Stations (North District) saw at least five (5) district commanders in those four years.

Politics has a long history in the JCPD and it clearly continues today. Police officers (retired and active) are seen working in other capacities of City government more now then ever before. Some of these rolls include high-profile political appointments such as department directors and aids to elected officials. Several police officers are so involved with politics that they have been City Council and Mayoral candidates in recent elections. When political affiliations are rewarded, the morale of hardworking men and women within the department are undermined.
From a tax payer?s point of view, even the system of dispatching police officers for Jersey City?s four (4) established police districts (North, South, East, & West) is a disservice to the public. There was a time when each police station had a strong relationship with the community and citizens could directly call in complaints. Anyone who calls into their local police station today will be instructed to call the dispatch room (201.547.5477) and have their complaint placed on a list of generic priorities (Violent Crimes is a high priority vs. a group of teens loitering, lower priority). This bottle necking procedure delays police response to all non-violent crimes throughout the City. Each district has unique demographics requiring police service to be customized for its tax paying constituents. What is considered a high priority to the residents in one section of the city might be considered a low priority in another. Is this system of dispatching police the best solution to serve the public or a system of convenience for the department?

While the murder rate reached a twenty three (23) year high in 2005, experiencing crime has become part of everyday life and an adverse reality in today?s Jersey City. Many citizens are calling for police protection from growing gang activity, drug dealing, and the other crimes occurring in broad daylight. Many ?quality of life? issues have evolved into ?life threatening? issues causing many residents, especially seniors, to think twice before taking to the streets alone.

The people of Jersey City are asking public officials to answer to three fundamental public needs within the JCPD: Presence, Protection, and Accountability. Realizing the limited resources of tax dollars to increase JCPD man power, innovative management is needed now more then ever at the JCPD. The time has come for Public Policy on safety to change with the times. As part of what could be a comprehensive solution, people are calling for the creation of a Jersey City Civilian Review Board.

The intent of this board (representative of the public and Neighborhood Block Associations leaders) is to reestablish the relationship between the JCPD and community. Their mission would consist of following up on community complaints on crime and question department behavior considered political. The board will shift focus away from local politics while encouraging the moral of diligent police officers who have truly dedicated their lives to serve and protect the public.

The time to demand change is now, not after you or a loved one has been victimized. High Taxes, High Crime. Where?s the Protection?

Jersey City, NJ - Originally scheduled for February 20th, a citywide effort to organize a Public Safety Rally has been postponed for 6:30 PM Wednesday March 7, 2007 at the Abundant Joy Community Church aka the ?Central Avenue Reform Church? located 137 Bowers St., Jersey City. Invited guest speakers include Mayor Jerramiah Healy, Police Director Samuel Jefferson, and Chief of Police Thomas Comey. The entire City Council of Jersey City along with the New Jersey Attorney General, Stuart Rabner, and Hudson County Prosecutor, Edward J. De Fazio, have also been invited to attend.

Despite organizers? best efforts over the last two (2) months to confirm the Mayor?s attendance; it was only recently that the Mayor?s office confirmed a conflict of schedule for the original date. Not only will the Mayor not be able to attend, but he will be conducting the first ?State of the City Address? in nearly four (4) years calling the attention of all other municipal officials and department directors including those who have already confirmed for the rally. As a consolation prize, the North District Commander was offered to substitute the Mayor, Police Director, and Chief of Police on the original date. Needless to say, the rally was postponed to the later date as to include the original three guest speakers. The Mayor?s office has already confirmed this date.

Will there be a webcast or is that way over reaching the technical capabilities of our city?

Does this mean that he will not be in attendance to the Bowers Street event?

interesting, this is the same night that there's a big neighborhood meeting in the heights on Bowers street. nice planning city.

The info has been placed on the calendar awaiting approval-

Mayor Healy will be making a State of the City Address on February 20, 2007, 6pm at PS4 Conwell School, 107 Bright St.

For more info call 201.547.4836.