Thursday Morning News Roundup

By • May 14th, 2009 • Category: Blog

- Mayor Healy reportedly spent nearly $180 for each vote he received, while on the other end of the spectrum, Dan Levin reportedly spent about $6 per vote. Explaining the popularity of donating to incumbents, the chair of Common Cause New Jersey says it’s “kind of like rooting for the Yankees.”

- Meanwhile, a ward-by-ward breakdown of the mayoral votes shows Healy winning by at least 20 percent in each ward. The closest races were in Wards E and F. Lou Manzo — who did best in Ward A (30 percent) — finished second in each ward but F, where Harvey Smith had his strongest showing and was the runner-up. Not surprisingly, Dan Levin had his best result in Downtown’s Ward E, where he received 19 percent of the vote. Phil Webb’s strongest showing was in Ward F, where he garnered 5 percent.

- Politicker has quickly released a special Winners & Losers breakdown of the Jersey City elections. Among the winners: Corporation counsel Bill Matsikoudis, Healy campaign managers Bud Demellier and Craig Guy, and Sean Connors (it’s with an “o” not an “e,” guys). Among the losers: developer Steve Hyman, Harvey Smith, Healy campaign managers Bud Demellier and Craig Guy and former mayor Anthony Cucci.

- PATH ridership decreased in the first quarter of 2009 for the first time since the fourth quarter of 2003. The Port Authority says the “declines are due primarily to the economy.”

- A 34-year-old ironworker was replacing a metal staircase on a Hackensack River railroad bridge tower in Jersey City when he fell to his death Tuesday night.

- GlobeSt.com has a report from last month’s Gritty Cities conference, held here in Jersey City and organized by the Jersey City Redevelopment Agency.

- A Jersey City woman who had just buried a cousin suffered a broken leg when a tombstone in Harsimus Cemetery dislodged and fell on her yesterday.

Today’s Best Bets:

- NJCU’s Media Arts department will be hosting its annual screening of films by graduating seniors at the Loew’s Jersey Theatre (54 Journal Square) at 7 pm. There’s a suggested donation of $3.

- Jersey City historian Bob Leach will read from his new book, Young Frank Hague and the Lucky Horseshoe, at the Heights branch of the public library (14 Zabriskie St.) at 6:30 pm. The event is free.

In statewide news:

- A coalition of labor unions, environmental groups and other liberal organizations is asking Gov. Corzine to fix the state’s budget problems by raising taxes on the wealthy.

- The first contract for the massive $8.7 billion second Hudson River rail tunnel project was approved by NJ Transit’s board Wednesday, the same day that U.S. Transportation Secretary Raymond LaHood made favorable remarks about the project while in New York.

- Rutgers University has released a report touting the institution’s impact on the state economy and how much its alumni pay in state and local taxes, just as legislators prepare to consider a state budget that would slash higher-education aid.

- Reforms designed to eliminate racial profiling by the State Police would become law under a bill introduced this week. It is one of the final steps needed before the state will agree to end federal monitoring of the force.

- The state Supreme Court says towns can make builders pay to replace trees they cut down for developments. The court’s decision overturned an appellate court ruling. The NJ Sierra Club chapter says the ruling is “a victory for trees.”

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is the founding editor of the Jersey City Independent; he now works for a public-policy nonprofit in Trenton.
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  • Alb

    I was trying to think through the problem of, “How do non-Machine candidates get around the lack of a serious, citywide media vehicle?” My first idea was creating some kind of irregular “shopper” paper that would supplement the Jersey Journal and the Jersey City Reporter. But, of course, the problem with that is that it would probably cost tens of thousands of dollars per issue.

    Web news sites are great, but, sorry, they still don’t have much reach, and their readership probably overlaps quite a bit with the Jersey Journal’s readership.

    Possible solution: the Web news sites should get together and try to produce a weekly (or, if necessary, monthly) Jersey City news show that would air weekly on the cable access channels, and maybe also at randomly scheduled times in the middle of the night. Basically, a micro-budget YouTube video kind of show. Maybe even get Journal and Reporter people to participate, if their bosses will let them. I think that even very bad video would be better than an audio-only show, because using even very bad video would help viewers get to know the people on the show.

    The goal should a little bit be to turn the local movers and shakers — Healy, Manzo, Levin, Smith, the city planner, the head of the historical preservation board, etc. — as nonfiction characters that viewers feel as if they know and understand, as opposed to abstract names in a dry, just-the-facts newspaper story.

    If possible, maybe arrange to have this show replace the regular programming on News 12 New Jersey on some evenings.

    If there were a good, friendly, not-to-harsh, non-partisan, straight-down-the-middle kind of news show, or panel discussion show, the Machine people probably wouldn’t have a huge objection, because it would end up featuring their people a lot, and it would help them cut down on the $180 they’re spending per vote. But it would also give the Fulops, Levins and Manzos of the world to introduce themselves to voters.

    Viewership of any given newscast might not be that high, but, especially if the show were re-run a lot, the cumulative viewership might be fairly high, and the penetration rate among people who vote in local elections might be very high.

  • enoch needles

    The problem isn’t really the lack of a vehicle, but that you’re dealing with an apathetic electorate that doesn’t read. The JJ could certainly not be called pro-machine, yet their endorsements seemed not to help at all. Yvonne. Mia, and Pat drool all over Manzo on their respective “shows” – did that help? Nobody watches Channels 51 or 190. No, it’s too much work gettin’ edumacated about civics. If reformers like Levin want to build their own machine (and like it or not, that’s how you win elections), they need a different approach.

  • Alb

    Are you sure nobody watches Channels 51 and 190? I watch them a lot. Maybe other people who actually vote do, too. Not that many people can stand to watch those channels for half hours at a time, but maybe a lot of people watch them for a few minutes at a time.

    Anyhow: people are apathetic all over the place, but the difference in New York, for example, is that New York has TV stations that show people like Bloomberg and Mark Green. I know more about Mark Green than I do about almost any of the challengers in Tuesday’s election just because he was a publicity hound, and the New York stations put him on the air a lot.

    And this is a huge problem for businesses here, too. I was in the art supply shop near Coles and Newark a few months ago, and the owner was complaining that there was almost no way to let anyone outside his immediate neighborhood know that he was there.

    I guess I know about Steve Fulop because he walks all over Ward E and meets everyone all the time. He probably visits more homes more often than anyone but the letter carriers. But I also know about him because he (along with Healy, Manzo, Schundler, Sandra Cunningham, Epps, and maybe, a little bit, Dan Levin) is one of the few candidates who gets covered in the Jersey Journal, in either a fair or unfair way, as a full-blooded character, rather than just as an abstract name.

    Mariano Vega, for example, is actually worthy of the full-blooded character treatment. My understanding (which may be incorrect; sorry) is that he’s sort of an older former Steve Fulop type of guy who held the Ring of Power too long and went over to the dark side, but might actually still be responsible for a lot of whatever manages to go right on the Jersey City council. But I only have even that kind of questionable insight because I saw the guy speak at length at a neighborhood schools meeting. I’ve never seen anything whatsoever in print, on a Web site or on cable TV that would give me the least bit of insight into Vega’s character.

    So, certainly, walking around is a great “media vehicle,” but I think the walking around would be more effective if it were supplemented by some kind of cable TV coverage.

    Also: even if the viewership were low, the people who do watch those shows probably all have a little bit of influence on at least one or two other people, so there’d be a multiplier effect.

    And making a micro-budget show that attracted, say, 20,000 views per month might cost a penny or two per viewer reached, compared with a cost of maybe a dollar per voter reached through a mailer or shopper paper, or maybe $2 to $10 of candidate time per voter reached through walking around.

  • Jon Whiten

    I’d like to speak to a slightly different point, but keeping it along the same lines:

    While the recent election’s turnout is rather appalling, that’s part of life. Not everyone cares about Jersey City, even if they live here. Do we wish more did? Of course.

    However, I am confident in saying that the people who *do* care have a real hunger for substantive news coverage. With no real promotion to speak of, I’ve watched this site double and triple the number of visits it gets each month as we have rolled it out and have heard from countless people involved in the community that it’s a welcome addition.

    The problem is making this — or any — news venture sustainable. Real news costs real money, and every single *news* outlet in this town — us, the Journal and the Reporter — is feeling the pinch. As a result, writers and editors are overworked and sometimes unable to do everything they’d like (a “full-blooded character treatment” of Mariano Vega, for example, or a TV show).