Friday night MULTIMEDIA EXTRAVAGANZA with THE BOOMTOWN RATS!

Well, here we are Jersey City and the surround, the last Music Series. As sad as that is, that's NOT what the Friday night Music Series has been about. Nothing maudlin tonight, hell no. Just great music, it's what we do here. It's what we'll be doing in Oscoda, just a click away or you can drive 600-some miles each week and watch Johnny put it together. Your call.

Let's step off one more time proper with one of the most underrated songs in the history of songs, 'Rat Trap' by The Boomtown Rats. Edgy guitar, the perfect anti-hero, the nasty sax, and Bob Geldof telling the tale. It's all in here. Like a turducken of music, only good.

Let's do this thing...

Friday night MULTIMEDIA EXTRAVAGANZA with THE SMITHEREENS!

Johnny's ode to all his New Jersey friends. Bruce or Jon seemed so cliche and we've played them both plenty. 'Blood and Roses' all up in your ears and sounding like Friday night should.

Turn it up loud enough you can drown out all the car horns ;)

Friday night MULTIMEDIA EXTRAVAGANZA with ROBERT PLANT & THE BAND OF JOY!

Johnny, a spiritual on the last night even if reimagined in such a hip way? Oh you know it, sinner. It's the music that Johnny loves. This is incredible. Plus it's one more chance to fit Patty Griffin into a Music Series and stick a finger in the eye of the person who said via email twice Johnny played her music too much.

Like that could happen.

One.Last.Song. Jersey City, you'll have to click all the way in Oscoda to get the next one in a few weeks. Radio Free Iosco (County) we'll call it. "Move Up' taking us out one last time.

Quite the waterfront kerfuffle in Hoboken

The City of Hoboken has some land on the Hudson River that NJ Transit really wants to buy to build a NY Waterways ferry repair/service dock. Trouble is the city of Hoboken wants to use that same land for a park for all the residents.

Now guess who's probably going to win. If NJ Transit is successful in buying the land, perhaps as early as this week that would prevent by state law from FuHo using eminent domain to take it since NJ Transit is a state agency. A shitty and horribly run state agency but immune to eminent domain from Hoboken nonetheless. There's plenty more on the machinations and possible court fights for you dear reader right h'yar.

For what it's worth...

Johnny is on board 100% with those officials in Hoboken who want to put the final kibosh on Santa Con. First off, what is Santa Con? A loutish, stupid, white privilege on display event that taxes people unfortunate enough to come in contact with it, Google the articles, people get harassed just living in their homes in the Mile Square City/ It means normal people can't spend a day before Christmas shopping without being overrun by idiocy. No happy lunch out while shopping, drunken bros inside. Why Hoboken? The condensed nature of the entertainment (read bars) and e-z access to public transportation. Hopefully this condensation can be used to stop it by asking bars (And I know they have but maybe next time lean on the bars a bit harder) to turn people in Santa outfits away like they do at Barcade. Fact, drunk people hate walking long distances to their next drink. Make that next drink harder to get.

The Hoboken Mayoral race is set, give or take Anthony Romano

Five candidates are official and on the ballot for the upcoming Hoboken mayoral race, a wide-open affair with incumbent Mayor Dawn Zimmer moving on to concentrate on issues affecting global warming and the environment. The five who are ON the ballot are as follows:

The five other qualifying mayoral candidates are City Councilman Michael DeFusco, Council President Jennifer Giattino and Councilman Ravi Bhalla, as well as local restaurant owner Karen Nason and cycling advocate Ronald Bautista.

Now, as for Anthony Romano, that'll have to be decided in court. Romano is currently on the ballot and running for two offices simultaneously. That runs afoul of the law according to at least one FuHo resident:

"On behalf of my client, Patricia Waiters, a Hoboken resident, this letter constitutes her formal objection to the validity of the nominating petition of Anthony Romano purporting to designate him as a candidate for Mayor of Hoboken," attorney Eric Dixon wrote, in a Sept. 8 letter submitted to Hoboken City Clerk James Farina. "State law prohibits not only the simultaneous holding of multiple elected offices, but also the simultaneous candidacies for multiple elected offices in the same election." 

Now Romano of course disagrees but for now we'll need to hear from the courts on this one. There's much more on this breaking story from Steve Strunsky that you'll want to read up on. Again, follow this link and it's all right there.

Right about now Hoboken mayor Dawn Zimmer is holding a press conference...

...and in moments she will be announcing she will NOT seek re-election in Hoboken and that it has nothing to do with any supposed spot in a possible Phil Murphy administration should the Democrat win the governor's race in November. More throughout the day on this at the Jersey Journal.

Don't worry kids, the Jersey City Desk Action Weather Team will be here for you

We'll be right here with you all through #WinterStormPorkRoll. We'll be here with updates, silly and necessary and hopefully some pics from Johnny and the staff and maybe one or two you send in.

19.4" is Johnny's best call on this.

Snow Snow Snow, Blizzard Blizzard Blizzard

Do we have your attention. As much as Johnny and the crew like to have fun with big snowstorms, Tuesday is serious business. Accuweather, Wunderground, our good friend Weather Willy, and the National Weather Service have all begun calling for huge piles of snow and blizzard conditions. One forecasting service is saying, well, it's incredible. The call right now is 14-20" but some are easing that upwards of 24" inches with that one service calling for areas of northwest New Jersey to get 30+ inches of snow. All this snow (NWS has NYC pegged for 18 currently") will be accompanied with 30-40mph winds with gusts of 50-60 possible. It will be a LONG storm. Starting very late Monday night and ending very late Tuesday night.

If you need to set up care for a senior or older relative, or get to the store tomorrow instead of with the panic shoppers on Monday, make your plan on working from home Tuesday or just get a strategic parking spot, now is the time.

Ready, Steady, DRINK!

It's just before 9AM on the Eastern Seaboard and half of Hoboken is probably already drunk as Lepre-Con is back. While some of the more bawdy actions from say 3-4 years ago have been scaled back, one gets the feeling it just needs a really nice 65º day for it to maybe pop off again.

That will not be today. LepreConners will be inside most or all of the day as baby, it's cold out there and by tonight, well, it'll be colder yet.

This one should pass unnoticed by most police blotters hopefully, thanks in large part to Mother O' Nature.

Get ready for the big blow

This nor'easter coming in tomorrow morning with heavy rain and up to 70mph winds and sticking around until Tuesday night is going to create all kinds of messes around town. Here's a link with what you'll need to know.

The Port Authority Police Benevolent Association thinks their cops sleeping are keeping you safe

Johnny was going to do a write up on the fact the NY Post's video story of Port Authority/PATH cops who were sleeping away large chunks of their shifts had now become a FEDERAL investigation. It has and we'd hope you'd go read all about how your money is being spent and how your safety is being put at risk by Port Authority cops. Then he got to the end of the article and Red Forman came to mind.

According to the Port Authority Police Benevolent Association this sleeping on the job en masse (44 cases) is no big deal because crime on PATH is down which to them (Specious reasoning alert) means the investigation is overblown, these guys are doing a great job:

A spokesman for the Port Authority Police Benevolent Association told NJ Advance Media that the agency's low crime rates at PATH stations is proof the officers were doing their jobs.

"The PAPD is doing its job to keep our patrons safe, contrary to the Port Authority's attacks," the spokesman said. 

Incredible. Forget for one second it only takes one small window of success for a terrorist to get his job done. One small window where someone isn't where they are supposed to be. One time. One missed assignment. Secondly, what horseshit. Do your fucking job. Sleeping? Playing cards? Video games? Bzzzzt unacceptable. Maybe, and this may be hard for the PAPBA to understand, maybe people just respect the train. Maybe they have more things going on in their own lives than to rob and pilfer the PATH system.

Proof jobs are getting done while sleeping. Time for one last Red Forman dumbass award for 2016.

Johnny's just gonna go ahead and post our number on this morning's snow total

NJ.com only had two places reporting on snow totals, Harrison at 2.5 inches and Hoboken at 2.8. Johnny's gonna go ahead and take the Jersey City Desk Action Weather Team's word and say Jersey City had an even 3.0 and we won.

It's good to be the king...

Getting heated in Hoboken

A story by our old friend Grafix Avenger up to FuHo over some slimy board of education election tactics and even uglier humans caught Johnny's eye and he wanted to share it. Imagine here in Jersey City if during a debate or open forum for school board or board of education one side decided to thug things up and have a dongbeaver hold a flash on a camera phone open while the side he's told he doesn't like is talking, trying to blind or distract them, then shuts it off when the other side talks. That's just one off-putting tactics which can be seen in images quite clearly. Grafix Avenger and commenters discuss more. Here's the link to the top of her site, just read down and be prepared to shake your head in disgust at how some people think local elections should be run.

Her Graphix are always so much better than ours.
(Artist rendering of meeting)

With the Hoboken's Lackawanna Terminal in shambles from the NJ Transit train...

...Johnny's first going to send his condolences for the three confirmed dead and his best thoughts for the over 100 injured.

Secondly, today Johnny is going to do something he never does, he's re-running a post from last year about Positive Train Control and how our local congressperson, Rep. Albio Sires was part of a cowardly voice vote to give the transportation companies an additional 3-5 years to add PTC. Sires never stood up in an area rife with train commuters and pushed the issue. He didn't stand on the floor of Congress and demand a quicker fix. Nope, Rep. Albio Sires simply joined everyone with a voice vote, the coward's way out so as not to put your name to a vote, and now we have a huge train crash that quite possibly could have been mitigated by PTC. Time will tell.

SHAME on you Rep. Sires and here is that article:
http://jerseycitydesk.blogspot.com/2015/11/every-so-often-you-have-to-hold-your.html

Get an important first look at local BOE ballots

When you go to vote, its usually a good idea to look at the ballot online before you vote. That way you won't be flummoxed and or flustered for you can't find your candidate. The Jersey Journal has a list of all the local BOE ballot orders with asterisks pointing out who is an incumbent.

If you're a Jersey City, Bayonne, Hoboken, Guttenberg, Kearny, Secaucus, and West New York,voter and plan to vote in your next board of education election, go take a look. 

A Hudson County hero of Titanic fame remembered in Jersey City

Robert J. Hopkins, of Irish descent and living in Hoboken at the time of the fateful Titanic trip, was remembered in a ceremony in Jersey City's Holy Name Cemetery. Hopkins is credited with saving around 130 passengers as he was instrumental in cutting lifeboat #13 free just before lifeboat #15 lowered on top of #13, destroying both and plunging all into the icy Atlantic Ocean.

Truly a fascinating story of a Hudson County hero. Follow this link for a great Monday read.

Jersey City and FuHo lock horns over bike sharing

A feud has erupted between the city governments of Jersey City (Yeah!) and Hoboken (Boo Hiss!) over bike sharing programs. Johnny has read what each side has said, the timelines, and here's his analysis. Hoboken better learn it's place. That's right, you chose Hudson Bike Share despite Jersey City making the easy NYC choice in Citibike. Jersey City residents have been rightly complaining since last fall that Hudson Bike was dropping off, ne, dumping clusters of their bikes at public bike racks at Exchange Place making it impossible for taxpaying residents (or renters) to park a bike because a subsidized private entity doing business with Hoboken thought they could simply pile bikes here to get people to use them between the cities. Our own Candice Osborne tried working out a plan wherein in the idea of partnership in spite of dueling bike share companies, Jersey City would put in three bike racks dedicated to Hudson Bike Share at Exchange Place if Jersey City could put three Citibike dedicated racks in Hoboken, one near the train terminal to make it that much easier for JC residents commuting there.

FuHo Mayor Dawn Zimmer said no to that plan. So in essence at this point FuHo wants full Hudson Bike access in Jersey City but no Jersey City linked bike program there. To hear The Mayor Zimmer tell it Jersey City is out to crush all kinds of ride sharing:

"What’s next? Will ZipCar drivers be barred from using public parking in Jersey City?"

Well if you choose to fill up all the Jersey City lots waiting for your contracted company to make you money here while JC residents can neither park here nor in FuHo then YEAH, DUH!

We understand all your carz and bikez are regular flooding victims but if you want to use up our higher ground make a deal, Jersey City isn't your parking lot.

Again Hoboken, you better learn your place in the county power structure and fast. If you keep dumping Hudson Bike Share Bikes here we're going to start dumping them into the Hudson River. No Starvin Marvin those are Jersey City's bike racks.Think of it as a tea tax revolt where your business deals don't extend here without a signature on a piece of paper.

Jersey City and the surround is now on a blizzard watch for Saturday

Johnny is gonna go ahead right now and rate this a 5 Dr. Smith storm

You can't do any worse than a blizzard in the winter can you? Maybe that one movie where winter killed everyone but those people in the New York Public Libarry but this is pretty bad. Predictions are running around 8-14" of snow with winds that, well, take it away Jersey Journal:

Winds: Sustained winds of 15 to 35 mph are expected during most of the day on Saturday, with gusts up to 35 mph inland and up to 50 mph further east.

If this storm turns northward we might have to add a Dr. Smith. Spare us oh Winter Storm Ethel Merman!

PATH, they're working on the problem, you assholes

A message from the Port Authority and PATH (as far as you know):

PATH and the Port Authority want you to know we take your complaints and concerns to heart by offering very little to no update information, and replying only to concerns like which cars lack air conditioning. We wish you'd all just shut up and fuck off but we can't say it outloud. Just swipe or tap your cards and deal with the fact once that happens, you can pound sand for all we care. If you complain too loudly we'll close Exchange Place on weekends this winter too.

Happy Holidays from Your pals,
Port Authority and #PATH