Quote:

What would you like to see him do to improve the city?

Schmuck is so uninspired. I was thinking Parvenu Salami Slicer, since he likes to bring up his time at the family deli.

As I've been saying for months, the kid mayor is just as empty a suit as Booker. A lot of flashy, superficial changes that do nothing to improve the city. All of these BS "accomplishments" do nothing but help Fool-Op (for the newbies, we were fools for believing him, and he never misses a photo Op) achieve higher office and leave JC in the dust.

Couple that with the way he slams through motions with the city council and he's no better than Healy. Same snake different skin.

Lets begin the movement to NOT reelect this schmuck.

Political Insider: Jersey City Mayor Fulop building himself on 'best mid-sized city' branding

By Agustin C. Torres/The Jersey Journal
March 08, 2014 at 2:50 PM

This is my opinion and not based on any scientific study or the usual hundreds of polls. This is just about an extraordinarily high level of ambition, a blueprint for success with a heavy dose of social media, a great deal of bandwagon jumping by some high-powered friends, a slight lean to the left or center when needed ? and some occasional chutzpah.

The script has been written. It has been previously used locally by U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez who became mayor of Union City in 1986 and immediately was on the road for higher office. U.S. Sen. Cory Booker also borrowed it. It?s all about branding.

Like Menendez, the Jersey City mayor has a progressive agenda and appeals to regional media with the eventual goal of attracting national attention. Fulop is a Marine veteran and a member of the ?official? party of this county and state. He has advisers like former Gov. Jim McGreevey; influential attorney relationships that include one with Mike DeCotiis, managing partner of powerplayers DeCotiis, Fitzpatrick & Cole, LLP; and acquaintances among whom is Jonathan Kushner, whose KRE firm is building a $666 million trio of residential towers at Journal Square. You get help where you can find it.

Only a major stumble, a prettier face or more snow storms can take the air out of the mayor?s jib. Fulop is insulated by his staff. Interviews and requests for meetings by the media are analyzed thoroughly in advance to determine if they should even take place ? unless we?re talking about a larger regional or national reach, such as the Wall Street Journal and big online websites.

It is not even a year in office but the mayor has strongly emphasized his desire to enhance a decaying city?s educational system; its art and culture; its housing and architecture; as well its public safety, open spaces and job opportunities. And he needs to do it all without placing a large burden on taxpayers. What Fulop has going for him is a city that is essentially a Petri dish open for urban experiments in sustainability, environmentally sound construction and land reuse ventures.

Look for him to possibly mimic successful programs in other cities to give residents the sense that the county seat is moving forward, whether through the favorite means of all politician?s ? strategic partnerships with civic organizations ? or calling upon residents to expand their already active spirit of volunteerism such as mentoring, joining neighborhood cleanups and the like. He?ll try to enlist residents to join committees and panels as a way of getting public input or generate ideas for the common good.

This was written midweek and on cue yesterday I received a press release from the mayor. Here?s the first paragraph:

JERSEY CITY- Mayor Steve Fulop and The Citizens Campaign today announced a new collaboration aimed at empowering Jersey City residents to bring their talents, energy and ideas to the city government with the goal of developing a new force of citizen problem-solvers actively building a better Jersey City.

See, the feet aren?t even touching the ground.

We already know that job creation is very important, otherwise, as useful as controversial former Gov. Jim McGreevey?s advice may be, why would the mayor stick his neck out and rely on him to head the city Employment and Training Program? Jobs are essential, but in particular for poorer neighborhoods and those seeking a second chance after spending time behind bars.

Fulop?s support for education reform was the genesis of his support and as previously mentioned it will be important in his bid to change the city landscape. Unfortunately, Fulopis already fighting with the school board, the majority of whose members were backed by the mayor, because he wants the cash-strapped district to support his call for constructing pre-k schools and other new educational facilities. Those schools will be central to redeveloping old neighborhoods, attracting retail and constructing affordable housing for educators and others who will contribute the city?s resurrection.

The mayor is seeking positive branding of the city ? and by association, himself ? by promoting artistic enclaves and the city?s cultural and ethnic diversity. Thus his crosshairs are on the Landmark Loew?s Jersey Theatre, a redevelopment centerpiece in a Journal Square that desperately needs to reestablish its claim of being ?the Heart of the City.? To achieve his own vision, Fulop may face a life or death struggle with the Friends of the Loew?s (FOL) volunteers who have been keeping the former movie palace alive with sweat equity.

Update: Yesterday morning the FOL filed a breach of lease legal action against the city.

The arts community is a big pixel in Fulop?s vision of Jersey City as a major city. I left the ?mid-sized? from in between the center of the last two words of the previous sentence because, to come close to some of his stated goals, the mayor would be better off copying some of the efforts in walkable cities ? say a Boston and its open spaces. In his State of the City address, A Dawn Zimmer-like Fulop said his administration will invest about $6 million in city parks this year with about $2.7 million available in capital improvement accounts and the rest coming from the usual county and state funding for open space. (For you out-of-towners, Zimmer is mayor of Hoboken , often called the Mile Square City, where the concept of more open space and parks is the administration's religion.)

Fulop will have weekly headlines. He?ll make the news as he did by suing the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey for more tax revenue; or by accusing the Gov. Christie administration of canceling meetings with Jersey City; or by criticizing Big Apple Mayor Bill De Blasio over taxing; or by announcing that Jersey City will have the biggest population in New Jersey by 2016. He has met with national figures, rappel down skyscrapers and has competed as a tri-athlete.

Good luck to Senate President Steve Sweeney, a fellow Democrat who is brushing off the "too cozy with Christie" label, and any other potential gubernatorial hopefuls in trying to keep up. Now tell me that Jets owner and GOP fundraiser Woody Johnson is thinking about running as the Republican candidate for governor and we may have to rethink things just a tad.

In the future we?ll get around to talking about statewide political alliances, after we get back to more mundane county and local politics.

INSIDER NOTES

? My sources tell me that, much to his chagrin, a City Council member will have to pay those tickets for blowing by some EZ-Pass toll booths on the Garden State Parkway. Supposedly the councilman was in his city-owned car en route to last fall?s League of Municipalities convention. According to my sources, the councilman asked the Fulop administration to pay the tickets for him and he was denied. How much must they cost? About $80 a pop? I believe he is responsible for four tickets. What I don?t know is, since it?s a city-owned vehicle, who actually gets the bad news first -- the city or the councilman? He does love his city car. Oh yes, the city Law Department did not get back to me yesterday on this. Considering the fire and other things, I know they have their hands full :P

? Councilman Richard Boggiano is expected to introduce two measures at Wednesday?s City Council meeting. One calls for doing away with traffic light cameras because he believes they are unsafe and the other is to ask the Port Authority for alternative transportation on weekends when the PATH train to and from Lower Manhattan is closed. We're keeping count on how often the councilman is rebuffed by his colleagues.

-- Bayonne mayoral hopeful Anthony Zanowic's campaign filed a complaint yesterday with the state ELEC charging that Police Capt. Jimmy Davis has failed to file a campaign finance report with the state election law agency. "Mr. Davis claims to run on transparency, but fails to act on it. We all are held to a standard of integrity and principals."

I'm not certain what the head of a school has to do with anything. Expect more virulent videos on the Bayonne race to emerge.

-- Now let's discuss the video above at the start of this post. It is on the Jersey City website homepage and YouTube. Hopefully, it will change in the future to show more of the inner city. Right now, most of the sites, except for a few exotic locations, are Downtown Jersey City. There are some shots at the Mary McLeod Bethune Life Center but none on the streets outside or just along Martin Luther King Drive. I know the video is an economic tool (click on this link for an older version of a JC pol's video) and could be construed as political advertising, but it's nice to know that the city can grow a flower and attract a butterfly. Was the part of Peg-leg Pete's statue standing proudly just off Bergen Avenue edited out?

-- For you folks who often look for this column a minute after midnight on Hudson County Voices, we've been posting on www.nj.com/opinion (statewide) and Hudson Voices at 6 a.m., Saturdays. Sorry gang, but there's been some changes. After all, you can't get the New York papers early Sunday mornings at McGinley Square for the last three numbers on Saturday's parimutuel handle, anymore ;) Things change.

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