Hudson Democracy

J.C. School Bosses Want $1,000 Grant From Spectra

The Jersey City Board of Education is set to vote tonight on whether to accept a grant of a thousand dollars from Houston-based energy conglomerate Spectra Energy, the company bidding to extend a wholesale natural gas pipeline sixteen miles through Bayonne and Jersey City. This resolution appears on the board's agenda for its regular meeting:

Healy '09 Manager Cops to Dwek 'Consulting' Fees

Two Star-Ledger reporters write in a new book that Harold "Bud" Demellier, campaign manager for Mayor Healy's 2009 re-election bid, took $20,000 cash from "David Esenbach"—the infamous Solomon Dwek—as payment for "consulting". The revelation comes a year and a half after deputy mayor Leona Beldini, a close personal friend of Healy and the mayor's 2009 campaign treasurer, was arrested with more than forty others in a sting that had Dwek handing out envelopes of cash in every Hudson berg.

Mayor Healy Brings a Budget to City Council

Mayor Healy came by the Jersey City Council caucus meeting Monday night to introduce his executive budget proposal, remarkably early considering the city's switch to calendar-year budgeting on January 1. The proposal includes an overall decrease in spending but a twelve percent increase in the property tax levy. Council president Peter Brennan set April 13 as the tentative date of the City Council's yearly mandatory public hearing on the budget. 

J.C. Faces Balloon Payment to Pension Funds in 2012

Jersey City owes a combined $50.5 million dollars to New Jersey pension funds—including $44.5 million to the Police and Firemen's Retirement System (PFRS)—due in April 2012. The sums are calculated from estimated pension contribution bills released by the New Jersey Treasury Department's Division of Pensions and Benefits.

Transit Grid Pushes J.C. Beyond Internal Combustion

Streetfilms on Vimeo

'Beyond the Automobile' by Streetfilms recently featured Jersey City in this short video about transit-oriented development.

Cardwell Plea Leaves Major Question for Czaplicki

Joe Cardwell, the Jersey City political operator and back-up Municipal Utilities Authority commissioner, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to federal bribery charges, ending a case that began when Cardwell was one of dozens booked July 23, 2009, in the F.B.I.'s "Bid Rig" sting. Cardwell's plea will almost certainly result in prison time, yet in the facts of his plea, he admitted to one criminal act: he served as a bagman for Carl Czaplicki. 

Spectra Installs Some Astroturf at City Hall

Spectra Energy, a Houston-based energy conglomerate, wants to build a wholesale natural gas pipeline through sixteen miles of Bayonne and Jersey City. Residents don't want to be the pipeline's neighbor. They see the significant risk that is inherent to moving eight million cubic feet of natural gas each day through one of the most densely-populated tracts of land in the United States.

Boom, Bust, Boom: J.C.'s Population Over 110 Years

The 2010 census reports the third decade of population increases in Jersey City. The city is rapidly regaining population, an anomaly among the major cities which lost large numbers of residents after World War Two. Jersey City has 247,600 people in 2011, according to the Census Bureau. 

 Click to enlarge (U.S. Census Bureau data; 1, 2, 3)

City Council Approves Agreement With P.O.B.A.

The Jersey City Council unanimously approved an agreement between the city and the police officers' union to avert layoffs at least until January 2012. The agreement is based on a "pay lag"—basically a loan—in which officers give up their last paycheck of 2011, to be paid at retirement. It was no cause for celebration.

Council to Vote on Agreement to Avoid Police Layoffs

After the jump is a link to the agreement reached between the Healy administration and the Jersey City Police Officers' Benevolent Association to avoid police layoffs. The City Council is set to vote on the agreement tonight. If it is approved, the city has promised it will not lay off police officers this year.