Happy Veteran's Day!

Seems somewhat glib to ask you to have a happy Veteran's Day since the day isn't about happiness, it's about remembrance and honor but "Remembrance & Honor on Veteran's Day" makes for one awkward headline. So, honor the day and those who served and you should be fine.

Johnny's dad serving in Korea.

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On this day in history, November 10 1969, Sesame Street debuted.

It's a fact!

Time for Jersey City, After Dark

Earl Morgan, for the win

Every so often Earl has a pearl of Jersey City wisdom, this is one of those columns.

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“November comes
And November goes,
With the last red berries
And the first white snows.

With night coming early,
And dawn coming late,
And ice in the bucket
And frost by the gate.

The fires burn
And the kettles sing,
And earth sinks to rest
Until next spring.”
 -- Clyde Watson

Time for Jersey City, After Dark

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.

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Thinking isn't agreeing or disagreeing. That's voting.
 -- Robert Frost

Time for Jersey City, After Dark

Election night clusterfuck

Hudson County is having all kinds of problems getting anyone the Jersey City election totals so, sadly, Johnny is going to have to have an election result and analysis post tomorrow instead of tonight as he has to be up at 4 bells tomorrow.

So far though, so good for the adults being back in charge tonight nationally.

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Time for Jersey City, After Dark

Vote for Steve Fulop.....IF

With tomorrow being the election here in Jersey City and everywhere else in America, Johnny wanted to touch on the importance of the one who gets elected at the top of the ballot, Jersey City Mayor. With Bill Matsikoudis set to face incumbent Steve Fulop on the 'morrow, Johnny wanted to take a close look at the race and offer some salience to Jersey City voters before the big day.

Vote for Steve Fulop.......IF

Vote for Steve Fulop if you liked him making every decision for the first three years as to how it would be viewed through the lens of a statewide governor's race and not how it would benefit Jersey City residents.

Vote for Steve Fulop if you think a mayor should have to be shamed and dragged to fund schools the state just gave Jersey City control back of because he's a shill for developers and doesn't want to inconvenience their bottom lines.

Vote for Steve Fulop if you think thugs should be running around on behalf of the mayor to 'recommend' certain vendors get certain contracts, you know, if you know what's good for you.

Vote for Steve Fulop if you think him using the JCPD as props in his ads is OK while the city bargains in questionable faith knowing they'll get relief vs police union on pay with mediator.

Vote for Steve Fulop if you think it's ok for cops to be pulled off active to duty to stand around and protect empty buildings.

Vote for Steve Fulop if you still defend that very program.

Vote for Steve Fulop if you think the utter hash he's made of the JCPD is fine.

Vote for Steve Fulop if you think the big change at Jersey City Parking worked....at all...in the least.

Vote for Steve Fulop if you think it's OK to badger a local artist to paint an ad for his real estate company buddy into a Monopoly board.

Vote for Steve Fulop if you think those on city payroll telling residents they live like pigs and in filth should keep their job.

Vote for Steve Fulop if you think looking the other way while one of his useful idiot buddies gets drunk, crashes into three people, lies on job timesheets as long as he votes for his items on council AND deserves a stack of the mayor's campaign cash is good by you.

Above all, vote for Steve Fulop if you think entire swaths of the city are ok to be ignored while almost $100 million dollars comes off the tax rolls downtown, ensuring those ignored neighborhoods will have no money to help grow and can't get the least bit of their fair share of Jersey City goodness.

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For general consumption, a nice high resolution picture of Jersey City from high atop the World Trade Center for you to use if you'd like a computer desktop or just want to use it to show where you live. Johnny's not crapping it up with his name or 'property of' because that just kind of defeats the purpose.

When you speak of Johnny, speak well.

Time for Jersey City, After Dark