The Jersey City Independent "

In the May 12 election, the race for Ward F’s City Council seat was one of two in which the leading vote-getter failed to cross the 50 percent-plus-one threshold required for outright victory. Incumbent Viola Richardson received the most votes — around 40 percent of the total — with Ron-Calvin Clark finishing second in a tight contest with LaVern Webb-Washington. Richardson and Clark will face off in a runoff election on Tuesday, June 9.

Clark is the pastor at Jersey City’s Anointed Gospel Christian Center Church, and community director of the Jersey City Urban Coordinating Council. He ran in this election on Lou Manzo’s ticket, and previously squared off against Richardson in the 2005 race for this seat.

Richardson was first elected to the Ward F seat in 2001, and was reelected in 2005. She ran with Mayor Healy in this election. Richardson is now retired from a 21-year career with the Jersey City Police Department.

They both recently answered questions from JCI on crime, economic issues, open space and constituent services.

Your ward has been one of the areas hardest hit by violent crime. What would you do as a council member to try to reduce the level of crime?

Clark: One of the ideas I have is to bring about gang intervention and mentoring for our young people. I think part of the problem that Ward F has is that we need more mentoring. I propose to involve the local churches, which we have been doing for a while — many of our churches are opened during the week to the community — and with me on the council, that would only bring them more resources.

We want to engage the kids that are in these gangs and move them from the street into a more productive environment. I’d work with nonprofit groups — the Urban League, Friends of Lifers, and others — to bring about an environment conducive to learning. Instead of putting a gun in their hands, we can put a book or a computer, or perhaps some studio time — a lot of these kids are very involved with the arts, they have a lot of talent. If we give them a vehicle to do these things, it would better serve our community and help reduce the crime.

They’ve talked about the gun buyback program, but I’m not sure how effective that has been over the years. One of the problems that we face in Ward F is that often things are started as an initiative but there’s no follow-through. That’s been one of the challenges.

I would partner with the Jersey City Board of Education — having been a board member — to open the schools up. I’ve also proposed a Recreational Trust Fund, to have some of these developers give back to the community. We’ve also talked about having a neighborhood house — when I was growing up we had the CYO, we had the teen post, we had the Oxford Hall and different venues. My idea is to have the community operate these proposed neighborhood houses. For example, we would hire someone like the block association president to actually be the one to operate that house. We hope to be able to do that as well.

Richardson: As a mother, grandmother, and a former police officer, of course I am very troubled by the level of crime in Jersey City, and in particular, in my ward. Over the last several years, I have worked with Mayor Healy to increase the number of police in Jersey City as well as to diversify the police force. These efforts led to a significant decrease in violent crime. However, due in large part to our nation’s ongoing financial crisis, cities across America are seeing a spike in crime.

If the voters in Ward F give me the privilege of serving them again, I will continue to aggressively advocate for both the hiring of additional police officers and for an increased police presence in my ward. However, more police is only part of the solution. It is critical that we have more programs designed to provide our young people with constructive activities. Early in my tenure, the Police Activity League (PAL) in my ward only had 2 programs and 50 students. I am proud to say that the PAL currently has 14 programs and over 1,000 students. Nonetheless, I am committed to further expanding these programs.

Job creation is also a necessary component of crime reduction. We created the Jersey City Apprenticeship program, which requires developers to place residents in union apprenticeship programs. My goal is to significantly grow this program so that Jersey City residents and residents in Ward F can benefit from all of the development that is occurring. We have also been successful in reinstituting the Second Chance program, which gives opportunities for employment to those who may have had a brush with the law in the past. Far too often, people in this circumstance are completely ruled out by employers, thereby forcing them back into a life of crime. We want to show them that there is a chance for redemption and that they can be contributing members to society if they stay on the straight and narrow — this is what the Second Chance program represents.

Ward F is an epicenter of environmental problems. What is you position on the PPG settlement with the city to cleanup chromium on Garfield Avenue? And what is your position on the open-air wood mulching being done in Ward F?

Clark: There are 300,000 tons of chromium in Ward F. My position is that PPG should pay for excavation and they also should provide more than just 12 painting jobs for this community. The settlement of $1 million that the city gets in this deal is crazy, coming from a billion dollar company.

I’m a proponent of medical monitoring — actually I was the first candidate to fight for lifelong monitoring. If someone decides to move out of Jersey City to, say, New Orleans, that health care should follow them. In addition, I think that there are jobs that can come about out of this settlement.

I am a supporter of the settlement, but only if its done in a way that benefits the community, not PPG.

Richardson: I do not agree that my ward is the epicenter of environmental problems. My ward, Jersey City in general, and many urban centers across America have until recent times been the victims of lax environmental laws and environmental injustice. I have worked hard to force polluters to clean up their shameful sites. I have also aggressively fought against environmental injustice in my ward.

To this end, I supported the mayor wholeheartedly in the legal action that he took against PPG. And thanks to our efforts, progress has been made. However, I have said on the record that I do have some concerns about some of the specific terms of the settlement, which is why I pushed for the public hearing that was recently held in City Council chambers. At this meeting, I stood with my constituents and challenged the representatives of PPG on the concerns raised by the community. Additionally, I brought these concerns to the city’s Law Department, and it is my understanding that these issues are now back in negotiation. I look forward to seeing the revised settlement.

In regards to open-air wood mulching in my ward, I oppose it and am addressing it.

Your ward has also been hit hard by the foreclosure crisis — what would you do as a council member to keep people in their homes and also mitigate the effects of foreclosures on your neighborhood?

Clark: I think the federal stimulus money should be used to help the foreclosures. I’m a advocate for reducing the number of foreclosures we have in Ward F — I believe we have the largest number across the city. I’m hoping that we can bring resources to the homeowners like refinancing, and loan modification awareness, so they don’t leave their homes — we need to help them stay in their homes.

I was a victim of the foreclosure process, and so I know there are resources out there that I can connect the Ward F residents to. I would also have someone from my cabinet, if you will, reach out to the homeowners and see what we can do personally to help link them to those services.

I have a number of Realtor friends and colleagues who are very much interested in partnering with me to help these foreclosed properties, so we don’t continue to lose them to developers. I’m encouraging people not to leave their homes — there are so many programs out there that they can use, rather than just walk away.

Richardson: Actually, my ward has not been hit as hard as equivalent wards or districts in other cities across the country. Nonetheless, I take the foreclosure issue very seriously and am committed to ensuring that residents, who are either in foreclosure or on the brink, can stay in their homes. Job creation is a crucial part of addressing the foreclosure crisis, and as I mentioned, I have and will continue to make job creation one of my top priorities. Moreover, I worked with the Jersey City Housing Economic Development Corporation to develop an advisory guide to educate homeowners, who are either in or are close to foreclosure, on their options as well as the resources that are available to them.

Do you believe there are enough parks and open space in your ward? If not, do you have concrete plans on how to create more?

Clark: As far as actual parks are concerned, we do have a number of parks. But there need to be events and activities in the park that can bring about the recreational and community interaction; whether its midnight basketball, baseball, swimming pools. That’s what this community needs.

Often I ride by the parks and you see the little kids playing, but there are no structured activities for our community. There haven’t been in the last 4 to 8 years.

You have the city recreation department, but it needs to do more for this community. We have the highest crime rate, we have the highest unemployment rate and we have the lowest amount of recreational activities in the city. We do have Caven Point and the activities there, but we need more inner Ward F activities.

The Mary McLeod Bethune Life Center is a building that many people are excited about, but the community doesn’t see the building as a community center. There are so many programs and services that have lost the ability to work in that building due to the astronomical rent. That building needs to become a real community center, one the community can actually use without having to pay these rents and these fees.

I think that Mary McLeod Bethune would be kind of insulted by the usage of that center at this point because it doesn’t help the community. We have programs like the Hudson Repertory Dance group that serve a hundred and something kids a day, and they weren’t able to maintain their space there. A lot of the money they were raising went to the rent, not to developing the programs the community needs.

Richardson: Historically, there has not been enough usable open space or parks in my Ward, but the mayor and I have taken some bold steps to address this issue. We are embarking on an unprecedented citywide plan to build 100 acres of new parks and to restore older parks. In Ward F, we have upgraded the equipment in Arlington Park. We are also restoring several other parks that are in disrepair, and we are building a beautiful new park, Berry Lane. Berry Lane will include 13 acres green space and a state of the art recreation center.

Jersey City’s unemployment rate, particularly in your ward, is the highest it has been in the last decade or so. This is a two-part question. First, what would you advocate for, in terms of policy, to help get more people working, particularly at living-wage jobs? Second, how would you work with community groups to make productive use of the people that are unemployed in your ward?

Clark: The city has a consolidated plan, and in that plan it talks about the creation of jobs. I will look at that plan intensely, and work with the local businesses and other companies that want to be here to make sure they employ residents from Ward F.

The first source agreement that the city has with these companies is something that has not worked effectively. I think that on the council I would be able to work with these companies to employ Jersey City residents.

For example, there’s the second tunnel that’s being built to New York — that’s a possibility to give some Ward F residents jobs for the next 10 years. We need to make those jobs available.

There’s a lot of development and construction going on in Ward F. I would also work with the local unions, who I’ve already met with, to bring about opportunities for residents with the unions.

I’ve also developed a program where young people give back to their community by helping seniors. They go wash the dishes, take out the garbage, and go to the grocery store for the seniors. That program has already started, and I would look to make that a Ward F project for community service.

I’d also work to get the young adults who are unemployed to give back to the community, whether its through training, teaching about resumes, or mentoring. The Big Brothers and Big Sisters program, which I was the executive director of and chairman of the board, is a good example of how to bring mentoring possibilities to the young adults that are struggling out there in our community.

There’s also the Second Chance program that Glenn Cunningham started — I think that we need a new look at the Second Chance program. It doesn’t look good when you have Newark residents coming to Jersey City to get a job when there are so many Jersey City — and Ward F — residents who are in need of employment.

The Ready, Willing and Able program helped so many people get a new start; for that to be taken away does a disservice to the community. I’d fight to bring that program back and bring some new innovative and creative ideas for it too.

These young men and women deserve a second chance. We can’t stop fighting and we can’t give up on our community.

Richardson: As I mentioned in response to a previous question, I worked with the mayor to develop and to create the Jersey City Apprenticeship program, which requires developers to place residents in union apprenticeship programs. In a very short period of time, the program has been extremely successful with over 100 residents having been placed. While serving on the City Council, I also worked with my colleagues to pass a living-wage ordinance.

With respect to working with community groups, I am working with them to ensure that our residents are properly trained so that they can access more of the opportunities resulting from the economic development in Jersey City. I am also working with the mayor to make sure that community groups in Jersey City and in my ward in particular are able to access the federal funding that has been allocated for workforce training through the stimulus.

What would you do to encourage small business development in your ward?

Clark: There are a number of business resources from the state redevelopment authority and business alliance that we can tap into to help local nonprofit and for-profit organizations start businesses. There’s a nonprofit organization on Martin Luther King Drive that has students in an apprenticeship program; it teaches them how to write business plans and that kind of thing. I will work with them to ensure that they have the resources that they need to help better the quality of life for the residents of Ward F.

There are nonprofit organizations that need additional funding. I’m certified by the Grantsmanship Foundation, and I will use my experience and skills to help them tap into additional money. But it’s not enough to just get the money, so I’d also help teach them to best use the dollars to service their constituents through their programs.

Richardson: Working with the mayor and his administration, we have instituted policies that require redevelopers to use locally based small businesses on their projects. In addition, we have taken advantage of UEZ funding that supports business startup and business relocation grants. If you were to tour parts of Martin Luther King Drive and Monticello Avenue you would see how these programs have developed streetscape initiatives to help new businesses get off the ground and to produce new storefronts for dilapidated business zones.

Do you feel that your ward is adequately served by mass transit?

Clark: Absolutely not. I know that we have the light rail, and that’s great, but the light rail doesn’t service the inner city of Ward F. That’s a problem. Residents are also screaming at the top of their lungs that we need bus lines to get to the inner city or other areas in Jersey City, like Journal Square or Newport Mall or Bayonne city line.

It seems that we’ve lost transportation services; we need to have them restored. No one should have to walk from Randolph Avenue up to Bergen Avenue just to get a bus. We need to make sure that the services that Ward F needs are given to us, not taken away from us. It seems like that has been the temperament of prior and present council members — they are letting the services go in our ward. We need someone that can fight to maintain these things.

There is an opportunity for us to partner with NJ Transit and to perhaps bring the jitney buses that are up in the Heights to Ward F. If they’re going to get rid of the bus lines, then bring the jitneys here to ride up and down Ocean Avenue and take people where they need to go.

I think Ward F deserves the same opportunities that the other wards have; to be able to have transit operating to the needs of the community instead of the dollars they’re looking to save.

Richardson: We have made exceptional strides in improving mass transit in my ward. We built the Martin Luther King Drive light rail, which has added tremendous value to our residents from both a transportation and economic development standpoint. I am also working with the mayor to secure additional state and federal funding to add more bus lines especially in areas which have been drastically cut or reduced. Furthermore, there are plans to expand light rail service through the ward that will eventually cross over Route 440 and provide access to the shopping and future residential areas there. Better access will also aid those who are seeking employment.

Do you feel that your ward has a sufficient amount of affordable housing?

Clark: Well, what’s affordable to you and I may not be affordable to the majority of residents in Ward F. It all depends on the definition of “affordable.” They’ve seemingly gotten rid of low-income housing, but Ward F still needs that low-income housing. People cannot afford these rents and I understand that, on the other end, homeowners have a hard time keeping rents low, with taxes going up and maintenance costs.

At some point, what do they think is going to happen — where are we going to go? Are we looking at gentrification here?

We need to make sure that the residents of Ward F are able to purchase homes through the city’s first-time homebuyers program. I would continue to advocate that residents participate in that.

Although Ward F is changing drastically, we still need to make sure there’s a mix of residents that are going into these redevelopments and that we’re not being gentrified as a community. Although Jersey City is the most diverse city in the county, I think we need to ensure that people who choose to live here the rest of their life can stay here. They shouldn’t be forced out of Jersey City.

Richardson: During my tenure, we have built hundreds of new units of quality affordable housing with several hundred units under construction. Moreover, we have had tremendous success with workforce housing. Late last year we cut the ribbon on the Harriet Tubman Homes, which are high-quality, mixed-income townhouses. With the rise in housing prices often outpacing the rise in salaries, we can never have enough affordable housing. However, I believe that our neighborhoods should be a blend of affordable, market rate and low-income housing — not polarized and segregated by class. Nonetheless, I will continue to work to increase the amount of affordable housing in this ward and the other wards throughout the city.

How do you, or would you, handle constituent services? How can residents of your ward get in touch with you to voice concerns and how can you, in turn, reach out to the community to make sure your finger is on the pulse?

Clark: This has always been a challenge for Ward F residents — having access to their council representative. It’s particularly been a challenge to connect to the council person in the last 8 years. I will change that.

For example, in all of my literature since I started campaigning, people had my personal cell phone number. I was very accessible — I’ve had people that call me at 1 or 2 am or 6 am, and I’ve been accessible. The only time that I’m asking the community to give me is my Sunday mornings for church. Outside of that, I don’t have 3 or 4 jobs. I’m not taking any other jobs — that’s my commitment to this community. I will be here full time. I also propose having a community newsletter that will go out on a monthly basis, and an internet service that will be separate from the city’s website, where people can have a community bulletin board.

I will also make sure there are ongoing community meetings — to bring them up to speed as to what developments are going on, should be going on and will be going on. This will allow them to take part in that process, rather than having things getting built before they even know about the plan. Ward F is always the last one to know about what’s going on in this community. After we find out, the building is already up, the program is already here, so what say does the community have if that’s the case?

I want to make sure that the residents are not just aware, but engaged, in that process so they can decide what’s best for their community. With that in mind, they’ll be pleased to have a councilman that’s accessible.

I also anticipate opening up an office in the community. It will be like Ward F City Hall — they’ll be able to access services right in Ward F to do what they need to do. During this campaign, people saw me in the streets, knocking on doors. Once I’m elected, I will continue that same grassroots approach, where the community can touch me and I can touch the community.

Richardson: One of the areas about which I am most proud is my constituent service work. I work very hard to be both accessible and responsive to my community. In addition to my office in City Hall, I have a satellite office in the Mary McLeod Bethune Life Center, which is in the heart of my ward. I also have a dedicated phone line for constituents to call with questions or concerns. These calls are returned expeditiously by me, my aide or the respective department representative. I am also actively involved in several organizations and am very visible in the community by attending community meetings and functions.

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