The Big Show--Election night analysis

Well friends, the Cult of Personality has won and won big. Steve Fulop won by almost a 4-1 margin. Four more years of abatements for anyone who asks (More on the council later), sending thugs around to do his bidding and let department workers know what he expects on contracts and what not and another four years of swaths of Jersey City being ignored or given lip service like happened to Journal Square for over 30 years. Worst though is the finances that look great right now but aren't before too much longer. A lot of those first abatements to get people to buy downtown again are coming due and sadly because of the lack of city planning back then they'll come due at the same time a lot of them. More come off after that. That's when taxes go up and there's still never enough money to fix problems or invest in Greenville and other areas that are overlooked. Accounting tricks are great but there's always that moment of clarity where you realize how the trick works.

Do you really think the city can take close to $100 million off the city tax rolls downtown alone, hire more public servants, give the ones we have needed raises, pay rising insurance costs, not raise taxes for two years and not have a ticking bomb somewhere? Incidentally part of this time Mayor Fulop was looking at the governor's race and this year for mayor and optics mean you can't raise taxes. Not what's best for Jersey City in the long run, it's what's best for Steve Fulop short term. FYI if you're upset by Johnny pointing this out and want to bring up all the new buildings opening, yes, Mayor Healy can be proud of the ones opening now, these aren't Fulop buildings, these are the ones he railed against as councilman. Johnny's guess? This term starts out with Fulop once again forgetting who elected him as he eyes a bigger office, maybe Bob Menendez's job or a congressional run. He's done this very thing before when he sees something shiny. No reason to think that won't be repeated.

The council races went largely as expected. Incumbents and Fulop rubber stamps Rolando R. Lavarro Jr., Joyce E. Watterman and Daniel Rivera all won their At-Large seats quite comfortably. Great. Feel all that energy? Lavarro, who never met someone else's money he couldn't spend, will be trying to increase his visibility as he should be announcing he's running to replace Fulop in the next election by Friday.

In Ward A to replace the 'Gone fishing 4 years ago' Frank Gajewski, Denise Ridley and Joseph Conte will face each other in a runoff with Ridley's campaign running strong.

Ward B had maybe the biggest 'surprise' last night with new seat holder but incumbent Chris Gadsden, who has been a fantastic addition to council flush with new workable and smart ideas on school funding will face Mira Prinz-Arey, who outpolled Gadsden last night.

Despite one of the worst answers to a question about his independence from Steve Fulop, John Hanussak got enough votes to win a runoff in Ward C with incumbent and Fulop burr under the saddle Richard Boggiano. Our guess is Boggiano holds this seat at first glance but he's only ever one grumpy moment away from perhaps not.

Michael Yun will continue to serve Ward D with honor and distinction and continue to drive Fulop spokesperson Jennifer Morrill batshit.

Ward E (and you may be hearing more on this race in the upcoming days--maybe) brings the fourth runoff between top vote getter Rebecca Symes and James Solomon. Big question here is can Solomon coalesce the Hudnut and Grillo vote into enough support to win.

 Ward F also returns a good councilman, Jermaine Robinson who was never really headed in his race.

There you have it friends, election night in Jersey City 2017, a good night for team Fulop in November that could still go wrong on a night in December.

Mayor Fulop's terrible awful no good week

It's been a bad week for Jersey City mayor Steve Fulop dear readers. Late last week Fulop sprung a previously unannounced plan to take train cars full of New York City garbage and park them in Greenville and Port Liberte in the Greenville Yards. The Jersey Journal's Terrence T. McDonald tells us thusly:

"...a proposal floated by Mayor Steve Fulop last week that would allow the city to collect a $10 million payment and $250,000 annually from waste disposal firm IESI in exchange for halting Jersey City's opposition to a garbage transfer station in Greenville Yards, where New York City municipal waste would be loaded from barges onto railroad cars and then moved out of the city."

Remind you of anything? Dumping garbage on people expecting something else entirely? Mayor Fulop reminds us here a whole lot of Montgomery Burns and his "Merry Fishmas" betrayal of the people of Springfield by tossing fish guts and garbage on them when they least expected it.

How do residents feel? We think unhappy is a starting point:

"We give you $10 million and you're gonna live in stink," is how Ocean Avenue resident Kathy Quirk describes the deal.

City council did their part to push the surprise announcement through by voting on it two whole days after Fulop brought the deal to light and once again Council President Rolando Lavarro Jr. decided he knew best for somebody else's neighborhood. Again he proves if it can make money or can impress the mayor he does not give a shit about you or your neighborhood. The vote was 5-2-1 for garbage trains. Boggiano and Yun were no votes, everyone else was yes except oddly enough Frank Gajewski who represents Greenville was on vacation and did not vote. He previously said he was against the plan. Joyce Watterman abstained. As many of you know we here are very impressed by Candice Osborne. That being said we noticed a couple weeks back she was very much against a zoning change to allow an extra seven floors on a building in her neighborhood but yet voted for garbage trains in someone else's. *John Belushi raised eyebrow*

Wait a minute, what's that? Quoteth ESPN Gameday's Lee Corso "Not so fast my friend!"

The Port Authority whom Fulop earlier this year sued he said on Jersey City's behalf for $400 million in unpaid taxes were probably drawing straws to see who got to tell Fulop his plan was DOA. They stopped it faster than a bug on a windshield. Gotta be shocking to live in Greenville and Port Liberte and realize the Port Authority is looking out for you more than your elected city government, yes? They even took a dig at Fulop by saying in a statement "We will require assurances that adequate consultations with local public officials and concerned citizens have occurred..." OUCH!

So getting shut down by the Port Authority like that so publicly after thinking you'd succeeded in ramming a deal down Greenville and Port Liberte's throats is pretty bad. What could make this week worse?

Fulop's Chief of Staff, Muhammed Akil, resigned today saying his comments made some twenty years ago, that were hateful and pretty stupid, let's face it, were a distraction to Mayor Fulop. Look, don't we all just make mistakes? Haven't we all said stupid shit we wish we could take back? Everyone has. Those who say otherwise are lying. Life is about mistakes and learning from them in becoming better people. Muhammed Akil had quite clearly met that bar. Not everyone learns from mistakes and we read about them usually in the crime blotters. Akil had become a success and we figured this too would blow over just like potty mouth trash hater Brooke Hansson's now-classic YouTube performance. Johnny talks with people in and out of city hall. Lives near one. Nobody was screaming for Akil to go. Unless of course this might look bad for someone say running for governor to have a chief of staff having said such things back when, but Jersey City nary batted an eye over it. This raises the question about whom the resignation is more aimed at, Jersey City or Trenton.

A lot of goodwill burned up for nothing, every neighborhood now on alert for secret deals they know nothing of but will be armed to the teeth with lawyers for when they poke their heads up, and a city asset chased off by the ghosts of what might be.

"And for what? For a little bit of money. There's more to life than a little money, you know. Don'tcha know that? And here ya are, and it's a beautiful day."