Hudson Democracy

No Shelter for N.Y.C., N.J., L.I. as Irene Moves In

Storm track, 1 a.m., August 28

Hurricane Irene is moving through New Jersey, according to the latest projections moving just along the coast, brushing the Island Beach State Park area. Heavy rains here in Jersey City at 1 a.m. National Hurricane Center predicting secondary landfall near the Rockaways. History after the jump:

Strong Hurricane Heads Toward N.Y.C.

Hurricane Irene is heading north along the Atlantic Coast, forecasts show the storm going straight up the shore to New York. Above is the National Hurricane Center's flooding map for a category two hurricane. Currently Irene is a category three storm. According to the map for a category three storm, my neighborhood would be under more than ten feet of water. 

'Jersey Sting': Corzine Paid Lynch's Connected Wife

I checked out a copy of Josh Margolin and Ted Sherman's The Jersey Sting from the Jersey City Public Library yesterday. It's really a great book—I was wary it would be another cut-and-paste job from the newspaper archives, like Bob Ingle's The Soprano State, but it is not that at all. Margolin and Sherman fill out the unimaginable story of the black-hole-sociopath-turned-rat Solomon Dwek with exactly the sort of patient, shoe-leather reporting that makes for classic journalism. 

A.P. Checks Governor Christie's Loose Talk On Jersey

Although he repeatedly and surely earnestly says he's not running for president in 2012, Governor Christie often heads out of state to talk to the people one has to talk to in order to be a known force in national Republican politics. Christie's schtick is a far-fetched tale of how right-leaning, hardhat populism fixed the supposedly hopelessly compromised New Jersey government. Most of it isn't true. The Associated Press explains:

Thought for the Week: February 28

Wisconsin and New Jersey, where public school teachers' unions are under relentless attack by right-wing governors, have two of the highest high school graduation rates among the fifty states.

Governor Christie's Lies of Omission on Pension Reform

I would think it's ironic, if I didn't think it is so sad, that Governor Christie is earning a reputation in the corporate media as a straight-talker while his official actions reveal a one-trick politician, adept at nothing but finding stooges to act as buffers against his own choices. I don't want to cut school aid, but the teachers' union gives me no choice! I don't want to take away your pension, but other politicians who aren't straight-talkers promised you too much!

Census Results Show Changing N.J. Demography

New Jersey's ethnic composition is rapidly changing, led by an increase of fifty-one percent in the state's Asian-American population. The changing map will effect redistricting this year. 

2010 Census: Newark Reigns Supreme

The local results of the 2010 decennial census were released today. Unfortunately for Jersey City boosters, Newark remains the largest city in New Jersey. Newark's population is 277,140, an increase of around 3,600 people, or one percent, since 2000. Jersey City grew faster than Newark, but still has a smaller population. Jersey City's population is 247,597, about 7,500 more than in 2000. 

Jersey, Off-the-Books Spending and the Muni Crisis

In an article on facile ways states are dealing with huge budget deficits, with gimmicks and end-runs around borrowing caps—Arizona, for example, issued notes on "rent" it would pay to itself for occupying state office buildings—Steven Malanga points out another long-term trend in which states shift expenses and debt out of the general fund budget. New Jersey is very guilty of this.

Christie Won't Make New Friends With TTF Plan

Revenues and spending over five years. (credit: NJ Spotlight)

Governor Christie's plan for the structurally insolvent Transportation Trust Fund (TTF) seems designed to anger everyone. For his conservative Republican base, there's $4.4 billion in new debt, a year after the governor came into office promising to end New Jersey's nasty habit of issuing bonded debt to pay regular expenses.