Tomorrow the State of NJ will hold a hearing on Jersey City's reval here in JC

If you would like to speak out and have your comments on record concerning the possible Jersey City reval, Thursday the "state Division of Taxation will conduct the hearing at 6 p.m. in the Scott Ring Room on the second floor of Hudson County Community College, 161 Newkirk St."

Jersey City hasn't had a citywide reval in almost 30 years and the state is let's say more than considering our fair city to go through one. The Healy administration had a reval 95% complete and let like a flaming bag of poop of new Mayor Fulop's doorstep which Fulop canceled because FRIENDLIES. Perhaps in hindsight Fulop should have let it run it's course and heap all the blame on the outgoing Healy, but now, your comments are wanted.

There are other ways to go on record if you can't make the meeting. You can find those and the rest of the article here.

Jennifer Morrill, Unplugged!

That's right Jersey City, an AMAZING record offer, the BEST of Jersey City mayoral spokesperson Jennifer Morrill now exclusively on SpacePunk Records and Tapes. You'll get such timeless hits as:

*Steve Fulop doesn't know what he's talking about

*Councilman Fulop should get the whole story before he runs his mouth

*Those are false narratives put out by enemies of Mayor Healy

Former Mayor Healy left this city in debt

Former Mayor Healy should stop his failed criticisms of Mayor Fulop

You''ll need a freedom of information request filed with the city

And of course you'll get her newest hit: Steve Hyman is delusional and not only losing all his money, but clearly also losing his mind

*denotes a recording on the old Healy Records label

So there you go Jersey City, follow this handy link to see more, so much more on this amazing record offer.
"Hey man, can I borrow your copy of The Best of Jennifer Morrill?"
"Oh no my brother, you got to get your own..."

Time for a few city officials to come take their medicine

Mayor Fulop, the line forms behind you.

Mayor Steve Fulop, Council President Rolando Lavarro and Ward F councilwoman Diane Coleman all were quite vocal about former Mayor Healy's plan to borrow $9.5 million to pay for city retirement costs. Fulop went as far, according to the Jersey Journal's own Terrence T. McDonald:

"...He even urged gadfly Yvonne Balcer last December to come to the council meeting to “speak against” Healy’s proposed borrowing plan..."

But now that Fulop is Mayor and Lavarro and Coleman are on his ticket suddenly they all support what they were against when Healy was mayor. What's that called again? What is it when you say one thing a lot about how bad it is then when you are in charge you totally change your mind? Oh yes, FLIP FLOPPING. That sound you hear this morning isn't so much a biting November wind as it is the sound of Jerramiah Healy laughing with a hearty "I told you so."

Here's Council President Lavarro showing that unless his side said it, it's not to be trusted:

“The bottom line for me is that I trust this administration more,” he said, laughing. “I trust the numbers being presented to me.”

You may have laughed last night Mr. Council President but it's not funny at all. Being beholden to one side never is. Mayor Fulop, have a napkin and wipe that egg off your face. Councilwoman Coleman, well, sadly we kind of expect this kind of thing from you after the ham-handed way you ran for city council.

So the city borrows $9.5 million to pay retirement costs and hopefully a valuable lesson gets learned by everyone.

The water in the streets is chest high! There's no power! Everything is flooding!!

Oh wait, that was last year. Nevermind.

We'd like to give Jersey City (just Jersey City this morning people, Johnny needs to talk to just his peeps on this) a HUGE pat on the back for everyone's actions over this past difficult year. A pat on the back to all the residents who had to deal with so much water, so much destruction and so much uncertainty. Police actions because of citizen malfeasance during the storm itself were nominal. There wasn't looting. Very very few took advantage of others (sans a few gas stations). After the storm we helped each other pick one another up. We helped each other rebuild. We helped out our neighbors who needed a hot meal, or to dry off, or maybe needed a place to come over and charge up a phone or watch news coverage as some got power back. Judging from city responses elsewhere in New Jersey, the Jersey City government led by former Mayor Healy did a very good job before, during and after the storm. We'd like to give pats on the back to many city council members who at the time did everything they could to get their residents the help and information they needed. A huge pat on the back as well to all the volunteers and people who helped out and didn't get their names in the paper nor ever expected to. You're all heroes and as we're fond of saying around these parts, Peter Stuyvesant approves!

"When written in Chinese, the word 'crisis' is composed of two characters. One represents danger and the other represents opportunity." -- John F. Kennedy

Spectra's disaster-in-waiting pipeline is set to open November 1

Johnny's against this, Mayor Fulop is against this, former Mayor Healy fought hard against this, pretty much anyone who has seen pictures of Dresden in 1945 is against this. Spectra Energy's 30 inch high-pressure natural gas pipeline will begin in earnest by November 1st. Let's hear from Spectra first today because Johnny's feeling merciful:

Spectra officials have argued that the pipeline will provide clean and affordable natural gas to the region in critical need of additional energy supply. It will be the safest in North America.

Got that? "to the region"

It's time to play Hudson County's favorite online game show "To the Region!"

When Spectra Energy says this will provide clean and affordable natural gas "To the Region" do they mean:

A) Bayonne
B) Hudson County
C) New York City

If you guessed New York City, well played, of course they get a Tywin Lannister share of the benefit. OK, time for our double point round.

Which area will bear the most risk "To the Region" if something goes wrong and blows up real good:

A) New York City
B) Delaware
c) Jersey City

If you guessed Jersey City you are absolutely correct but we'd also have accepted the Hudson River and area water supply. Alright, time for our final question. IF this goes sideways and explodes or sprays down an area in gas what will Spectra Energy's response "To the Region" be?

A) Spectra Energy immediately begins filing court briefs in friendly courts trying to limit liability.

Congratulations, you've found yourself champion of the internets!

Now, this is how Spectra Energy tests their pipeline. Tell us if you signed on for this (That's a trick question, nobody truly honestly got a chance to stop this project, it was rubberstamped from the get go):

Spectra has indicated to Jersey City officials that natural gas will be released into the atmosphere during the testing phase at three areas: Pacific Avenue near Grand Street; Burma Road near Liberty State Park; and at 17th and Coles streets.

City fire officials will be on standby for each release.

FUN! Let's also make sure we remember all the hard working trade workers who appeared in the Spectra Energy ads who said without these jobs the area would crater. Remember those names and faces friends. They helped bring this to you.

This is what a high pressure gas pipeline explosion looks like. This is NOT a Spectra Energy pipeline. This is merely to show what happens to the immediate area when one goes wrong. Yeah, no problem, we can handle that, no problem. From West Virginia:

We figured the Jersey City reval cancellation papers were lost in the mail but no, they haven't been sent

A big topic in the last mayoral race was about the property tax reval that former mayor Healy approved and candidate Fulop said he'd stop.

Just to be clear and as you'll read in the article by our friend Terrence T at the Jersey Journal, Mayor Fulop can't wave his magic scepter (Yes the one Boss Hague used to beat freely given contributions from his bannermen) and the reval goes away. There is copious paperwork and the request must be filed with the county yada yada yada...

But according to Jersey City Spokesperson-for-Life Jennifer Morrill (As always we kid, we respect the job you do) Fulop hasn't petitioned for approval for the cancellation. When asked why Morrill declined to comment.

Hmmmm.

The Jersey Journal said nobody seemed sure about the way forward on this:

It’s not clear what happens if Jersey City never petitions the county to halt the reval. Kennelly referred The Jersey Journal to the state Division of Taxation, whose spokesman did not return a request for comment.

We're hopeful at this point Mr. Fulop will file the proper paperwork (Don't be like Governor Christie and lose out because incomplete papers were filed) and this mess gets cancelled. If you own property downtown you'd better read the last third of the article. You'd stand to lose more than chump change if the reval continues.

Come on Mr. Mayor, be clear as to what we're doing as a city on this. Some people want to make long term decisions property-wise and having this hand grenade sitting downtown won't help the new campaign to pull people and businesses from the shoulder to the wheel borough of Brooklyn (save this link for home friends).

Hey, Mayor Fulop, about this sudden murder surge in Jersey City...

As you know of you spent any time here during the last five years you'd know when a spate of violent crime or a surge in murders would happen we'd jump in Mayor Healy's shit and chide him about all his promises on crime,  like him touting former Chief Comey's computer program to tell where crime is going to happen (yeah that never worked) and ask him if he truly had a plan other than taking guns off the street. So, Mayor Fulop, time to stand up and get something done on this topic. Another one of your citizens was gunned down last night and despite your comments and concerns and plans going forward voiced publicly, not much is changing. Except the body count.

Your effort to educate the city as to why and what is happening was a good start. We didn't used to get anything on that topic from the last guys other than "society is what society is." Your next step, which we hope was undertaken a couple weeks ago, is flooding the crime areas and beating some ass of the usual suspects to find out the who's, what's and where's. Don't make it polite, do what needs doing. Crisis situations call for crisis management. Making life tough on thugs by 'living' in their neighborhood is not 'stop and frisk'. No, it's 'sit on their chest until they are out of air' which is how we think you're gonna need to tackle this problem.

Think more Tywin Lannister, less Oprah...

Today screams for a news roundup

Actually it does. Lots of little stories that add up to BIG infotainment over coffee and bagels.

* Some flash in the pan named Bob Dylan performed at Pier A last night in the Big FuHo. Hoboken FD said that twelve people got their 99 Woodstock on and were treated for too much something or other. The fun part in this was watching Dylan's hosts mock him outright by doing their best impersonations.

* While we're in Hoboken this morning a retrospective: Maxwell's -- The Microbrew Years Killed the Place.

* Liberty Humane Society is fixing things up after a $15,000 grant from the Canyon Creek Ranch Better Way Project, a national campaign that assists pet organizations like as Liberty Humane Society. The money will help repair Superstorm Sandy damage and they're also getting more than 8,000 pounds of Canyon Creek Ranch dog and cat food.

* Healy allies are angry because new mayor Steve Fulop (who WON the election) used his clout in getting Dana Scott Eisenberg, a Regent Street man who volunteered on Mayor Steve Fulop's campaign, elected chair of the Jersey City Parking Authority Board of Commissioners. News Bulletin to the butthurt Healy folks. Elections have consequences. Now be gone with you.

* Dweedledumb and Dweedledumber robbed a bank in Fairview with a BB gun and a knife, left a trail of cash as they ran into North Bergen after which one carjacked someone and couldn't get the car in gear so naturally drove directly into a building, like ya do.

* Oh, by the way, The Port Authority pissed away $60 million of your tax dollars by insisting on paying higher insurance premiums than anyone would ever pay.

Steve Fulop cancels the Jersey City reval

And well done there. A common sense decision and a good one. As he said he would do, Mayor-elect Steve Fulop yesterday ordered the West New York company conducting a citywide property revaluation to halt work immediately and threatened to audit the firm’s work because of its ties to a former city business administrator.

“I will not allow this back-door tax hike planned by the Healy administration to take place,” he said.

Good for you. You did what you said you do and it was completely consistent with how you've voted previously.

The mayoral ghost of Jerry Healy had no comment.

Think Fulop can't do this? Think it's too late? Rube!

Fulop insists he has the authority, or will on Monday when he becomes mayor, to stop the reval.

“They haven’t completed their work and the city hasn’t finished paying . . . which we won’t, as there are a million questions,” he said. “I don’t suppose they will proceed without being paid.”

No word on where Fulop stands on sparklers.