- Christ Hospital: The for-profit company that may purchase the financially troubled Christ Hospital, California-based Prime Healthcare Services, has been accused of everything from canceling contracts when it takes over hospitals to boosting revenue by admitting an unusually large number of patients from its emergency rooms into its hospital beds.

- Pedestrian Killed on JFK Boulevard: A 47-year-old Bayonne man was killed in a hit-and-run on Kennedy Boulevard in Jersey City Friday night; it’s the second pedestrian fatality this summer on JFK, which is repeatedly dubbed Hudson County’s most dangerous road for pedestrians.

- Hispanic Political Leaders in JC: “Jersey City seems to be a desert when it comes to Latino leaders,” the Insider opines, in an item on Hispanic politicos.

- 9/11 Victims’ Fund Meeting: Several people who flocked to Ground Zero after 9/11 lashed out angrily at a town hall-style meeting Thursday night in Jersey City, saying they were disappointed that a $2.8 billion federal fund for people suffering from sicknesses linked to the attacks will not cover cancer.

- Fire Death: An 81-year-old Jersey City woman who led her church choir and had a knack for Scrabble was killed yesterday in a four-alarm fire that tore through her two-story Glenwood Avenue home and spread to three other buildings.

In Statewide News:

- Brownfield Cleanups: Since 1994, New Jersey has doled out $281 million from the fund to investigate and clean up contaminated land, but in what would seem a fairly monumental oversight, state officials acknowledge they have never kept track of whether the roughly 1,600 sites were actually developed and are now on the tax rolls.

- IT Issues: A New Jersey Senate panel will gather this week to consider potential ways to improve the state’s aging technology infrastructure.

- Bus Driver Death: Officials are trying to determine why a NJ Transit bus with a dead driver inside idled for nearly five hours at the Port Authority terminal in New York.

- Obama Taps Clement Price for Preservation Post: President Barack Obama announced Friday that Rutgers professor and Newark expert Clement Price will be appointed vice chairman for the president’s Advisory Council on Historic Preservation.

- Museum’s Lord Byron Letter a Fake: It turns out a nearly 200-year-old letter donated to The National Historical Park in Morristown wasn’t written by English Romantic poet Lord Byron.

“America prides itself as being a land of justice and equality,” the group notes on its invite. “Over the past 10 years, however, many communities that call America home have been targeted through unfair policies and xenophobic rhetoric.”

The event, part of SAALT’s An America for All of Us campaign, will include appearances by Jersey City school board president Sterling Waterman, along with Teaneck mayor Mohammed Hameeduddin, Hoboken City Council president Ravi Bhalla, and Passaic school board member Salim Patel. They will be joined by White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) commissioner Amardeep Singh, Engy Abdelkader from Muslim Women Lawyers For Human Rights, and Aparna Garg of the Asian American Legal Defense Fund.

THE DETAILS

South Asians in New Jersey Community Hearing – Ten Years After 9/11; Saturday, July 30 from 10 am to noon; McIntyre Lounge in Dineen Hall at St. Peter’s College, 2641 John F. Kennedy Boulevard. For more information, or to RSVP, email navneet (at) saalt.org.

As a mixed-raced child — Williams mother is white and his father is black — a pivotal early experience in which he was perceived as white and rich by a black woman in a “working class section” of Plainfield kindled in him a strong desire to be black. And it wasn’t enough to just be black. What he learned from the other boys in the barbershop that he patronized twice a month was that he had to learn to talk, walk, and carry himself with a particular kind of swagger, as defined by the 1990s hip-hop artists he and the other boys came to idolize.

But Williams, who is speaking tonight at NJCU, was different from those boys, and from the rappers they admired, in more ways than simply his mixed race; Williams’ father — who they called Pappy — held a PhD in sociology. His parents moved from the West Coast, where they met in what Williams describes as “the West Coast front of what at that time was called the War on Poverty,” to Newark, where Pappy ran anti-poverty programs for the Episcopal Archdiocese before opening his own academic and SAT preparation business out of their home in Fanwood. Pappy’s instruction was not limited to paying customers; from a very young age both of his sons, Thomas and his brother Clarence, were subject to a rigorous extracurricular study schedule.

It was Pappy’s persistence and his love, Williams says, that made it possible for he and his brother to escape the fate that befell so many of his peers who bought fully into the lie that is manufactured and sold to them by hip-hop culture. Hence, the subtitle of Losing My Cool is “How a Father’s Love and 15,000 Books Beat Hip-hop Culture.”

Williams doesn’t hate hip-hop culture, and he’s careful to prove that it is still a part of his life. (See, for example, the playlist that he posted on his website.) But, he is critical of it. His memoir, in fact, began not as a memoir at all, but as a bit of cultural criticism. Back in 2007, while a student in NYU’s Cultural Reporting and Criticism graduate program, he was asked to write an op-ed piece as a class assignment. The essay he wrote, which was eventually published by The Washington Post, sought to separate black culture from hip-hop culture, as he noted, they had become conflated since the 1980s.

His professor at NYU, the author and journalist Katie Roiphe, was impressed with her student’s work and suggested that the argument he was making — that what many perceived to be black culture was really just street culture, and that street culture was not the best representation of black culture — could be more thoroughly expressed in a book-length work. With her encouragement, he took a semester off from NYU to write a proposal. After several months of writing and rewriting he secured an agent and then interest from no less than eight publishers.

As he composed his argument, he found that an effective way to flesh out each of his points was with a bit of personal narrative, anecdotes from his days growing up in North Jersey. It became clear as he worked with his agent on his proposal that these stories were the most captivating moments. The publisher he ended up choosing agreed that, as Williams puts it, “It’s probably not that interesting to read a whole book that’s an op-ed, or just an argument.”

As he shifted the direction of his book, he matched his reading to the style and tone he sought for his argument. He read a lot of James Baldwin, who he aptly describes as a “serial memoirist,” as well as fellow Jersey writer Junot Diaz, and Joan Didion and Ralph Ellison. From Ellison, he says, he learned how to approach his own argument effectively. In addition to his literary influences, the voices of his professors Roiphe and Paul Berman, and that of his father, informed his style and, he notes, allowed him to teach himself to write a memoir as it was happening.

From the very first chapter of Losing My Cool, New Jersey is more than just the setting, it becomes a character itself, informing and creating the world in which Williams came of age. Williams attributes this to what he calls Jersey’s provincialism. That is, even though it is at the heart of a major metropolitan strip that runs from Boston to D.C., one can feel rather insulated in the suburbs. He notes that the limited engagement he experienced with outside cultures, beyond the immediate hip-hop culture he and his friends adopted, is necessarily a result of place.

But more important to Williams than place is circumstance. He acknowledges that many people do not have the same advantage that he had in his highly educated and strict father, and yet he acknowledges that to a certain extent, an individual must be responsible for bettering him or herself. Quick to offer a helping hand, however, Williams acknowledges that as a writer he has the opportunity to put forth a positive example.

“As a black writer, it’s almost a moral obligation to show that there are different ways of being black than you’ll see on Black Entertainment Television,” he says, acknowledging that he doesn’t have the perfect answer, but hopes to be one of many positive examples.

The heart of Williams’ argument is actually inspired in no small way by Plato’s notion of “Allegory of the Cave,” the idea that many people are like prisoners trapped in a cave staring at the shadows on the wall and believing that what they are seeing is reality. The philosopher, Plato says, has the ability to see from outside the cave, to recognize that the shadows are cast by events happening behind the prisoners and the true form of reality is more than just the shadows.

“There are good things and there are real things and it takes thought and sense of purpose to seek those things out,” Williams says. “Kim Kardashian is on the cover of every magazine right now, and that’s a shadow.”

His Platonic reading carries into hip-hop culture as well. He has come to believe that the best way to encounter that culture is with an ironic tone — not ironic in a funny sense, but in the sense that “there is a difference between what is being said and what is meant,” he explains. “You don’t actually have to believe that keeping it real means that if someone looks at you the wrong way you have to respond in a violent manner.”

Though many already look at hip-hop with this detachment, it was a lesson Williams had to learn with the help of his father and his insistence on education.

Williams will be speaking on this very topic this evening at New Jersey City University. Additionally, he will be reading from his book and talking a bit about how he came to write it. This is one of many speaking engagements for Williams since the book was published last year; in each lecture he makes an effort to be the positive example that he insists young people need. He talks, particularly, to young men and women of color and reminds them that there are many ways to “be black.”

“Young people respond to that,” he says. “They’re happy that someone who is not 75 years older says that to them.”

THE DETAILS

Thomas Chatterton Williams will be speaking at the Michael Gilligan Student Union at NJCU tonight at 5PM. His book, Losing My Cool, will be released in paperback on April 26.

Posters created by students in the Jersey City school district as part of the district’s new anti-bullying campaign

The Jersey City school district is set to unveil its latest campaign to stop bullying in schools with a two-hour rally on Tuesday. The campaign – “Be Bold Ban Bullying” — is part of the district’s long-term push to end bullying that includes incorporating anti-bullying education into school curriculum, an anonymous anti-bullying survey and bully report by students and anti-bullying workshops. The district has already formed an anti-bullying task force consisting of administrators, teachers, students and parents. And the district solicited over 800 poster submissions from district students for the upcoming campaign.

This is all part of the district’s reaction to a spate of youth suicides attributed to bullying that have gained nationwide attention, some of which were closer to home than others, like the death of Rutgers University student Tyler Clementi, who jumped off the George Washington Bridge in September following the filming and web-streaming of one of his sexual encounters.

In part due to fallout from Clementi’s death, Gov. Chris Christie signed the state’s “Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights” earlier this month; it is considered the toughest anti-bullying law in the country.

But what is the impact of the local school district’s efforts upon its students?

School board member Carol Lester says the campaign is a “good start” toward showing students and parents how the district takes seriously the issue of bullying.

“At least it shows children, who didn’t think anyone cared, that people do care,” she says.

Nearly one in three students between the ages of 12 and 18 reported being bullied in school, according to a 2009 report by the National Center for Educational Statistics. And New Jersey’s 600 school districts saw 2,847 incidents of harassment, intimidation and bullying in the 2009-09 school year, according to the Commissioner’s Annual Report to the Education Committees of the Senate and General Assembly on Violence, Vandalism and Substance Abuse in New Jersey Public Schools.

In Jersey City, there were 51 such incidents in the 2008-09 school year, and 89 the following year, according to district spokesperson Paula Christen. She says the district doesn’t have numbers yet for this year, since they are compiled and reported after the year is completed.

The “Be Bold Ban Bullying” campaign is a public-outreach effort designed to complement its already existing anti-bullying policy, which is part of its Student Code of Conduct.

Under the policy, those responsible for the bullying are subjected to punishment that starts with admonishment and could end with expulsion. Bullies could also be subject to remedial measures, including mediation and student therapy.

On the other end of the equation, the policy sets up services for the student victims of bullying, including intervention by school staff, adjustment in student traffic in schools and supervision of students before and after school.

School board member Sterling Waterman says that even with a robust policy on the books, the new campaign is needed to bring attention to new types of bullying like cyber-bullying and “sexting.” Waterman says he knows of a few Jersey City students subjected to cyber-bullying that started outside of school but later followed them to school.

“I think the reason the issue has come up again is because technology has evolved,” Waterman says. “The anti-bullying campaign is trying to improve upon the current policy to include things that [have] not happened before.”

But even with technology offering new mediums for bullying, parents and students in Jersey City remain most concerned with race-based bullying, according to Waterman. He cites the October food fight at Ferris High School that caused several injuries and drew police into the fray, leading to a lockdown as well as the suspensions of six students, and the arrests of two. This melee, Waterman says, was seen by students and parents as the result of groups of African-American kids and Dominican kids both trying to assert their dominance.

Sonia (who did not reveal her last name) is an African-American parent of an 11-year-old attending Middle School 4 in Downtown Jersey City. She agrees with Waterman that race issues are still prevalent in the schools, pointing to an incident two years ago at her daughter’s previous school.

“A black kid was making fun of a white kid, calling him ‘white trash,’ and picking on him in school,” Sonia says. “Things got so bad for that white kid that his parents transferred him out of the school.”

Sonia says she also agrees with the district’s anti-bullying campaign, but adds they need to publicize it more, as she only found out about it from this reporter.

THE DETAILS

“Be Bold Ban Bullying” kicks off Tuesday, February 8 with a 9:30 am rally at St. Peter’s College that will be attended by students from all the schools in the district. The rally will include the showing of a short film about bullying and a new public service announcement by the district to invite students, parents and staff to take the district’s “Bullying Prevention Pledge,” which they may do so during the rally.

- ARC Tunnel & Port Authority Spending: A week before Gov. Christie froze construction on the ARC Tunnel, the Port Authority paid $95.5 million to rent a Manhattan waterfront parcel officials said was critical to the commuter-rail project. The payment on the 10-year rental agreement was made as a lump-sum advance.

- Plan Would Cut JC Preschool: A proposal being pushed by Senate Republicans would shift state money to cash-strapped suburban districts by cutting back preschool for Jersey City and the state’s other neediest students.

- NJCU’s Graduation Rate: New Jersey City University’s graduation rate is consistently among the lowest in the state. In 2008, just 6 percent of incoming freshman graduated in four years. Within six years, 34 percent had graduated.

- New Light Rail Station: The Hudson-Bergen Light Rail’s new 8th Street station in Bayonne is set to open today.

- Passaic Valley Sewerage Commissioners: According to state campaign finance filings, those who work at the Passaic Valley Sewerage Commissioners (PVSC) over the years have given more than $100,000 in contributions to elected officials who have long held sway over the commission. The PVSC has come under fire in recent weeks amidst charges of patronage by its members, including Jersey City official Carl Czaplicki. He resigned from his post at the PVSC last week. A trip that Czaplicki was scheduled to take to Florida for the National Association of Clean Water Agencies was canceled by the PVSC; Czaplicki tells the Journal he would have paid for it out of pocket.

- Starting Points: This Jersey City nonprofit offers education classes, many of them to women in a welfare-to-work program, as well as on-the-job training to would-be child-care specialists.

- Homeless or ‘Criminal Elements’? Local residents are still complaining about vagrants who spend time on the Armory’s steps, saying they represent a “criminal element.”

- State of the County: The Insider says Hudson County executive Tom DeGise’s annual State of the County speech last week was a “dark monologue” that focused on the budget and keeping afloat.

- Egypt Protest: Dozens of protesters gathered in Journal Square Friday afternoon to support the end of the 30-year-rule of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who is struggling to hold on to power.

- Savon Huggins: The St. Peter’s Prep star running back — New Jersey’s top high school football prospect — has chosen to go to Rutgers, saying he wants to stay in Jersey.

- Armstrong Avenue Fire: Three Jersey City residents were left homeless Friday night after a fire damaged their Armstrong Avenue apartment that day.

In Statewide News:

- Hispanics & Redistricting: Early in the process to redraw the state’s 40 legislative districts, battle lines are already forming over how to represent New Jersey’s growing Hispanic population.

- Police & Fire Unions to Come Under Fire? The Asbury Park Press says it’s clear that Gov. Christie will soon focus his cross hairs on the state’s police and fire unions.

- Power Plant Subsidies: Gov. Christie has quietly signed a controversial bill that would give power plant developers a lucrative ratepayer subsidy to build up to 2,000 new megawatts of generating capacity in New Jersey. NJ Spotlight says it is “likely to be challenged by numerous parties,” and points out the administration seemed to want to bury the news by releasing in late on Friday.

- Foreclosures Hearing Postponed: For the second time, the state has postponed a hearing for six of the country’s biggest mortgage lenders called to court to defend their foreclosure practices.

- Teacher Contracts: The New Jersey School Boards Association says that new teachers’ contracts continue to come in at historic lows, with contract settlements in the last quarter of 2010 averaging below 2 percent in salary increases. On the other side of the coin, concessions are showing up in the contract areas of healthcare and length of school day and year.

- Moon Rocks: State police are looking for leads on a set of missing moon rocks, whose estimated black-market value is $5 million.

- Keeping Panasonic in NJ: Panasonic Corp. of North America is thinking of moving its headquarters and 950 jobs from Hudson County to Newark or elsewhere in the nation. So the New Jersey Economic Development Authority on Tuesday agreed — over the objections of the Secaucus mayor — to give the electronics company tax credits of up to $102.4 million if it moves into a 250,000-square-foot space to be built in Newark. MORE from NJ Biz.

- Man Jumps into Hudson: A 35-year-old man who police say jumped into the frigid Hudson River near the Colgate Clock was pulled out of the water suffering from hypothermia yesterday morning.

- JC Native Pens Environmental Book: Thomas Belton, 61, who works for the state Department of Environmental Protection, shares his personal and professional memories of researching pollution in his new book, Protecting New Jersey’s Environment: From Cancer Ally to New Garden State.

Today’s Best Bets:

- Roland Ramos bring his Tempest Jam Session back to the Lamp Post for its second week; the jam/open mic is open to musicians and poets (sign-up at 8:30 pm, music begins at 9 pm). And Bryan Beninghove’s weekly jazz gig at Bar Majestic begins at 8:30 pm.

In Statewide News:

- State of the State: In Gov. Christie’s first State of the State address yesterday, he said in one year he’s moved New Jersey away from severe budget problems, high taxes and record unemployment toward fiscal health and economic growth. Christie specifically took aim at the state’s pension system (more on that from NJ Spotlight) and teacher tenure (more on that from the Wall Street Journal). Leading Democrats criticized the governor for not putting forth any plan to get the state’s unemployed residents back to work. MORE: You can check out the full text of Christie’s prepared remarks here.

- Race & Redistricting: As it did in 2001, race is likely to play a major role in this year’s redistricting effort as census data is expected to show a rise in the state’s Latino population over the past 10 years.

- Tainted Meat: An Elizabeth company is recalling more than 200,000 pounds of ground beef products after an inspection found them may be spoiled.

- GOP Elects New Chair: The new chairman of the state’s Republican Party, Saddle River Mayor Sam Raia, was sworn in last night.

- JCFD: Jersey City’s new fire chief Darren Rivers talks to the Reporter about the state of the department, and his goals as he takes over. Rivers says the Healy administration has told him the department may have to scale down from 26 active fire companies to 18 in the near future.

- Assembly Race: Denis Wilbeck’s attempt to have Jason O’Donnell thrown off the ballot for Tuesday’s special 31st District Assembly election for failing to file petitions was denied by a Superior Court judge Friday. Meanwhile, pointing to racist fliers that have appeared in connection with the campaign, the Insider says it ended “on a sour racial note.”

- Bedbugs: Bedbugs have been found recently at both the Hudson County Plaza building and the Jersey City Municipal Court.

- New Turf Fields at Washington Park: Hudson County’s plans to fund installation of a synthetic turf field on the Union City side of Washington Park came under fire from a neighborhood group at a Thursday public hearing on open space grants. But Union City and county officials are defending the plans to build a new field, saying that not enough fields exist in the area.

- Van Leer Place: The Jersey City Planning Board has approved the final site plan for Van Leer Place, a development on the former Van Leer chocolate factory grounds near the Hoboken border that promises to use 90 percent less energy than conventional buildings and emit fewer carbon emissions through geothermal and solar energy as well as other green technologies.

- ARC Tunnel: In the aftermath of Gov. Christie officially scrapping the trans-Hudson rail project, NJ Transit officials are scratching their heads over what to do with $47 million worth of property the agency purchased in North Bergen to create a tunnel entrance.

- Jail Medical Contract: The Hudson County freeholders voted Thursday to once again scrap proposals to provide medical services at the county jail and juvenile detention center and instead extend the contract with Verona-based Correctional Health Services through June 30, 2011.

- Chinese Educators in JC: A delegation of 23 educators from the city of Nantong, China learned something in Jersey City last week, and Jersey City educators learned about the Chinese school system, during a visit that resulted in the promise of a new exchange program.

- Heights Shop Owner Sentenced: A 54-year-old Jersey City man who was convicted of sexually assaulting a 9-year-old girl at his Heights electronics store has been sentenced to six years in a state hospital.

- Hudson Camera: The longstanding Newark Avenue camera shop has a Notice of Seizure sign on its door, according to Dislocations. It is not clear if the store is closed for good, or just temporarily.

In Statewide News:

- Ballot Question: New Jersey voters will decide Tuesday whether the state Constitution should be amended to bar lawmakers from raiding state workers’ benefit funds. If approved, the question would end the practice of using surpluses in the Unemployment Compensation Fund, the State Disability Benefits Fund and similar funds for other programs or to help balance the state budget. MORE from the Asbury Park Press.

- PSEG: We’ll Leave: Behind the scenes and without any public discussion about it, PSEG has told state officials that the company could take its 1,550 headquarters employees to another state if the Christie administration didn’t approve a request for millions of dollars in credits under a tax credit program set up to lure companies to move here.

- Christie on the Stump: Gov. Christie’s nationwide political tour, which ended Saturday, included 15 states and about 20,000 miles. His political consultant said he’s raised more than $8 million for out-of-state candidates.

- Students & Immigration Status: Acting state Education Commissioner Rochelle Hendricks this month sent guidance to all school superintendents reminding them that public schools are prohibited from requiring students to prove citizenship or legal status when registering for enrollment, and telling them to remind their principals and other administrators as well. But advocates are pressing the state to do more, saying the memo is a start but the state must back it up with enforcement.

- Employee Credit Checks: Legislation that would mostly bar employers from requiring credit checks before hiring someone in New Jersey may soon be considered by the full Assembly.

The curators are looking for “artists that look at race through a variety of different lenses, painting in different shades or carving through different layers.”

The deadline for entries is this Saturday, September 25.

To submit an entry, email the following to gabriel (at) distilleryart.org: maximum of five jpg image files, a biographical art resume and a slide list.

In addition, the Distillery is charging a $10 entry and processing fee for each artist; you can make that check or money order payable to The Distillery Gallery & Artspace and send it to The Distillery Gallery & Artspace, 7 Hutton St., Jersey City NJ 07307.

Artists will be notified if they’ve been accepted by Monday, September 27.

Photos: Steve Gold

Turnout was relatively light at Wednesday’s meeting of the City Council, the first regular meeting since late April. About 25 people were in the audience for the meeting, which lasted a little less than two hours. Among them was newly elected Ward C councilwoman Nidia Rivera Lopez. Council president Mariano Vega kicked off the meeting by acknowledging her presence and congratulating her on her victory. She will replace incumbent Steve Lipski, who chose not to run.

“You’ll have to wait five weeks to take a seat,” city clerk Robert Byrne told Lopez as he congratulated her. The new council, of which Lopez could be the only new member, takes over July 1. (The Ward A and F seats will be decided by a June 9 runoff election.)

Animal Control Commission Tabled

As we reported prior to Wednesday night’s meeting, an ordinance creating an Animal Control Commission to provide what critics say is much-needed oversight of the Animal Control division was tabled. The city’s law department has issued a memo saying that the ordinance cannot be legally implemented, as it conflicts with New Jersey’s Faulkner Act, which dictates how municipalities are governed.

But the animal welfare community and Ward E councilman Steven Fulop, who introduced the ordinance, say the city is misreading the act. Corporation counsel Bill Matsikoudis says his office will review everything and, if necessary, he will revisit their legal opinion.

As he pointed out on Wednesday, though, those are just the legal questions surrounding the ordinance. “The policy of it is a whole different issue,” he said, noting that Health & Human Services director Harry Melendez expressed some of those policy concerns to the council at their caucus meeting this week.

The council tabled the ordinance before taking any public comment on it, to the disappointment of several residents who spoke later in the meeting.

Council gadfly Yvonne Balcer said the commission should make sure that Animal Control isn’t concentrating only on dogs and cats. She said that wild animals often show up in her Downtown backyard and that Animal Control doesn’t offer much help when she calls about these appearances.

“I am not qualified to catch a possum,” she said.

Resident Catherine Grimm asked the council why the terms of the first commissioners began with different lengths. The ordinance calls for five of them to serve two-year terms, and four to serve three-year terms to start out. After that, all will serve three-year terms. Byrne explained that this was standard operating procedure, designed to avoid a full slate of vacancies all at one time on any given commission or board.

Grimm also wondered if any of the commissioners would receive compensation or benefits, a question Fulop was quick to answer.

“The answer is no,” he told her, stressing that it is a volunteer board.

If no further delays are encountered, this ordinance will once again be up for a vote — and a public hearing — at the June 3 council meeting.

Friends of the Loew’s

The lease of the Loew’s Jersey Theatre between the Friends of the Loew’s and the city was amended on Wednesday, via a memorandum of understanding between the two parties. The lease, which was signed in 2004, had been contested by the city in the past, and the memorandum seeks to formally resolve the “differences [that] have arisen” between the city and the nonprofit group.

The agreement slightly tweaks the lease agreement, upping the number of appointments to the board made by the mayor, and implementing more oversight of the nonprofit’s finances. The lease expires this October, but can be renewed for another five-year term. Friends of the Loew’s president Pattie Giordan urged the council to vote yes to the amended lease, which they unanimously did.

“[The Loew's will] become the centerpiece for the arts in Journal Square,” Vega proclaimed. “The best is yet to come.”

Steve Hyman Makes His Case

Developer Steve Hyman once again stopped by the council meeting this week. He was there, he said, because he’d been “maligned” by Mayor Healy and he needed to defend himself.

In the weeks before the municipal election, as JCI readers know, Hyman launched an aggressive campaign to force Healy into a runoff by courting Jersey City’s black residents.

“I tried hard, but not soon enough,” Hyman said, noting that Healy avoided a runoff by a few percentage points.

Vega, however, had a different perception of the election results.

“You can say it: land … slide,” the council president said, hammering home his point by enunciating as if talking to a child learning to read.

Hyman said that, sure, he’d made the anti-Healy fliers, but claimed he had no part in a “newspaper” called the Jersey City Informer that popped up in the weeks before the election in the city’s black communities. Hyman said Healy accused him of being behind the publication.

“I want you all to know that I had no part in this,” Hyman said, adding that he didn’t have any idea who was behind it and that he’d take a lie detector test to prove it. “If I did do it, I’d tell you I did it.”

Ward F councilwoman Viola Richardson was incensed.

“Are you actually telling us that you’re innocent in all this?” she angrily asked Hyman. The two then jawed at — and over — each other, with Hyman saying “I didn’t do it and I don’t have to listen to you.” Richardson then got up and left the chambers while Hyman continued to speak.

Richardson, who is facing a runoff for her seat, has reason to be upset with Hyman. He helped out the campaign of one of her opponents, LaVern Webb-Washington, who narrowly missed a runoff with Richardson.

Hyman went on to tell the council that corporation counsel Bill Matsikoudis had been aggressively trying to reach a settlement with him on the 6th Street Embankment but that he had no interest in settling.

“I’m not going to roll over for anybody,” he said.

He then said he was going to get into “the real stuff” that he wanted to talk about, but he was informed that he’d already gone over the 5 minutes allotted to public speakers. He then returned to his seat, only to stand up and have what can only be called an animated conversation with Matsikoudis as the council meeting continued.

A Question of Chromium Standards

Felicia Collis, the president of the Jersey City community group GRACO, once again spoke before the council about the ongoing concerns over chromium cleanup in Ward F. She asked the council to consider signing petitions for rulemaking that GRACO and other advocates have sent to the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) that urge the DEP to adopt more stringent hexavalent chromium cleanup standards.

As we reported earlier this month, the groups are calling on the DEP to adopt the cleanup standard 1 of parts per million (ppm) recently recommended by the department’s own Division of Science, Research and Technology (DSRT).

Vega appeared hesitant to sign on to this kind of petition, saying that the council’s “capacity to understand the standards” is lacking, since they aren’t scientists.

Fulop, however, told Collis he would certainly sign such a petition.

He said that the standard he’d use in regards to any environmental cleanup is whether or not he’d live there in the face of any potential health hazards, and as such was happy to advocate for the strictest possible remediation standards.

“You can count on my support,” he said.

Ward A councilman Michael Sottolano snapped at Fulop after his pledge of support with implications that Fulop was grandstanding and that the entire council felt the same way. However, Fulop was the only member to say in no uncertain terms that he would sign on to the groups’ petition.

Deputy mayor Kabili Tayari said the city was also pressing the DEP.

“They need to go ahead and, as soon as possible, decide what the standards should be,” Tayari said.

“We’re in unity with the community,” he said, noting that the city was sending a letter to the agency urging action.

The letter, which is signed by Mayor Healy, says the “lack of a formal position” from the DEP in the wake of the DSRT report “has led to uncertainty and concern.”

It continues: “I strongly urge you to complete your review of this recommendation” and “issue a formal position on whether or not [the DEP] will promulgate regulations to modify the chromium soil remediation standard.”

Other Second Reads

In addition to the ordinance concerning the Loew’s, the council unanimously passed ten ordinances. You can read about them here or see them in their full-text glory here.

First Reads

All five first read ordinances were introduced unanimously. You can read the full text of them here, but as always we’ve got the skinny for you.

* Ordinance 09-064 turns Clendenny Avenue between Route 440 and Mallory Avenue into a residential-parking zoned area. The residents of Clendenny Avenue are apparently upset that visitors to the car dealerships in the area have been parking on their street, thereby reducing the amount of parking available for residents and resulting in various types of illegal parking. The Ward B residents collected nearly 40 signatures for the change and sent a letter to Mary Spinello in December, who was their council member. Spinello stepped down in March, and Phil Kenny was appointed to replace her. This marks one of the first ordinances he’s brought before the council since he took over.

* Ordinance 09-065 officially vacates Ludlow Street between New Street and Cator Avenue. The land on that block, which is all owned by the city and the New Jersey School Development Authority, is needed for the expansion of PS #20 and improvement of Ralph Taylor Park.

* Ordinance 09-066 alters a deal made between the city and Stegman Realty in 2005. Both parties owned 10 units in a building at 228-230 Stegman Street near Audubon Park. Four years ago the city conveyed its units to Stegman, requiring the company to renovate the building and sell the units as owner-occupied residences. Stegman, however, has apparently had a hard time with the selling, so this ordinance would negate the owner-occupied provision and allow the company to rent the ten units to senior citizens (62 and up) whose incomes don’t exceed 60 percent of Hudson County’s median income.

* Ordinance 09-067 authorizes the imposition of a conservation easement and deed restriction for the so-called “Gateway Sites” at the former Honeywell site on the city’s west side. As part of the settlement with Honeywell to clean up chromium contaminated land, the city agreed to keep these “Gateway Sites” as recreational sites in order to preserve the remediation being done there.

* Ordinance 09-068 allows the city to issue $24 million in bonds or notes in order to purchase land that will house the new Jersey City Incinerator Authority and Department of Public Works buildings. The property, at 15 Linden Ave. East, is currently owned by Liberty Self Storage.

Odds & Ends

* William Dorrity, who battled his building’s management company over a bedbug infestation last year, told the council that the company is skirting the law again. Dorrity said Norman Ostrow Inc., which manages the Grandview Terrace Apartments on Kennedy Boulevard, is not paying taxes and is also not abiding by rent control laws. Grandview Terrace is a building for seniors, one of many that the company manages in Hudson County. City business administrator Brian O’Reilly said he’d pull the company’s file and get to the bottom of it. If they are raising rents on seniors and making money, O’Reilly said, “quite frankly, they should be paying more in taxes.”

* Environmental activist Jayson Burg was on hand to urge the council to activate the city’s Environmental Commission and its Shade Tree Commission. Burg also questioned the city’s green cred that it has been touting. “This city needs to look at how green it is — and isn’t,” he said, suggesting, among other things, that the city implement a composting plan.

* When voting on a renewal of a contract with the United States Postal Service (USPS) to provide postage to the city, several council members couldn’t help but share their true feelings about the USPS.

“It’s a shame how we’re being treated by the USPS,” Ward D councilman Bill Gaughan said. He said the postal service had treated the city poorly, and he urged people to use anything but USPS for their postage needs. He wrapped it up succinctly: “The US postal system stinks.”

At-Large councilman Peter Brennan seconded that emotion. “Like Gaughan said, it stinks,” he said. Richardson agreed, and pointed to the closing of the Lafayette branch as an example.

Vega took it one step further, suggesting that the Parking Authority should perhaps begin towing postal service vehicles that are parked overnight in metered spots.

* At-Large councilwoman Willie Flood has a new council aide. Ayesha Johnson will replace Yvette Gore-Bell, who has been terminated. Gore-Bell was appointed Flood’s aide last June. Gore-Bell, a former county corrections officer, was removed from that position in 2005 “on charges of inability to perform duties and other sufficient cause,” though she appealed that ruling and was eventually able to tender a “resignation in good standing.”

* The city designated $500,000 to demolish blighted and abandoned buildings, as part of the $2.15 million in money it received from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for “neighborhood stabilization” in the wake of the foreclosure crisis.

* The city laid out its plan for the $2.7 million in stimulus money it expects to receive as part of the Homelessness Prevention Fund. The money will be allocated mostly to rapid re-housing of homeless individuals and short- and medium-term rental assistance.

* The city received a $274,437.12 Clean Communities Grant from the DEP; the Incinerator Authority will manage the grant funds.

* The license to create the “100 Steps” walkway from Paterson Plank Road up the palisade into the Heights was approved.

* The city settled a handful of property tax appeals, to the tune of $322,018.68.

* The city extended its contract with attorney Charles Montange for legal work related to Conrail’s abandonment of the 6th Street Embankment. Steve Hyman has said at previous meetings that Montange should not be allowed to represent the city.

* The JCPD received a $7,500 grant to help combat underage drinking and a $197,935 grant to pay for a portion of eight officers’ 2009 salaries.

* The city settled a lawsuit brought by Secaucus judge and former Jersey City assistant corporation counsel Kathleen Walrod, who had been accused by first assistant corporation counsel Joanne Monahan of ethics violations. Walrod filed a civil suit against the city in 2007, apparently thinking that she might lose her job over the accusations, although she never did. Under the settlement, Walrod will resign her position in Jersey City on May 31 and defer her pension until age 60. The city, in turn, will provide her with a one year salary increase of $35,000 and health benefits as if she’d retired after 25 years of service. The city will also give her a one time payment of $5,000.

* The city also approved an ordinance urging the state to revise its definition of “hotel” in its law that allows Jersey City to impose a Hotel Occupancy Tax. There was a long-term stay establishment that apparently didn’t want to pay the city’s hotel tax, and they were able to get around it because of language in the state law. The city wants the law to change so it can collect the tax revenue from every hotel. “We want the full loaf, not the half loaf,” business administrator Brian O’Reilly explained.

What are we buying?
The council approved the following purchases on Wednesday:

* $447,195 for 15 new police vehicles.
* Up to $235,720 worth of grant management services.
* An additional $175,000 worth of data circuits from Verizon.
* $155,720 for five 2009 Toyota Highlander hybrid vehicles.
* Up to $125,000 worth of legal services for the city’s activity on the tax-exempt securities market (bonds, notes, etc.).
* Up to $90,000 worth of professional planning services in relation to a Smart Future 2008 grant.
* $89,405 for the replacement of wayfinding signs around the city.
* $83,006 for 11 Dehydrator dryers, which are used to dry firefighters’ gear.
* $79,980 in telecommunications equipment (and its installation) for the city’s IT department.
* $75,000 in legal services relating to the relocation of the Department of Public Works and the Incinerator Authority.
* $42,997 for one Ford F350 XLT Supercab, used for animal transport.
* $39,800 in design and surveying services for the expansion and renovation of Boyd McGuiness Park in Ward B.
* $37,000 in design and surveying services for the renovation of Muhammad Ali Park in Ward A.
* $35,000 in design and surveying services for the new North District police station.
* $21,150 in engineering services for improvements to Greene Street and Washington Boulevard.
* $19,961 for one Pitney Bowes postage machine.

The flyer, which you can see here, cites the closing of Greenville Hospital and the Lafayette Post Office as well as the loss of bus lines in Ward F as proof that Healy is “no friend” to the city’s black community. “African Americans Suffer; He Laughs!,” the ad says, while urging people: “Don’t Plead, Don’t Pout, Vote Healy Out!”

The ad is paid for by 415 Brunswick Street LLC, one of several corporations the Hymans own that owns land in Jersey City.

Hyman says that he’s distributing 30,000 of the flyers, predominately in Ward F but also in Ward C, by putting them on cars and handing them out after church services, as part of a broader effort to mobilize minority communities against the administration.

“What I want to do is get the minorities together so that they can vote as a majority,” he says. Even if Healy wins reelection, he says, at least the administration would recognize that minority groups are a force in city politics. He says that currently the city doesn’t truly accommodate minority groups and only does enough “to keep them out of the game.”

The Healy campaign says it is confident the black community “will reject the patronizing and negative attack” and support the mayor.

“It’s absurd that Mr. Hyman thinks he can speak for the African American community and offensive that he thinks so little of the community that he believes he can sway the vote with such a foolish ad,” Healy campaign spokesman Bud Demellier says. “His concern for any group of people in the city is certainly not his primary objective. Profit, as a result of a land deal, is his primary objective and he wants an administration that won’t fight as hard as the Healy administration to save the Downtown embankment.”

Hyman says he’s willing to spend $250,000 running anti-Healy operations, efforts that may include more brochures and transporting voters to the polls on election day in an effort to force a runoff, where he feels Healy would be vulnerable. To avoid a runoff, Healy needs to win more than 50 percent of the vote.

“Healy doesn’t deserve to be reelected,” he says. “Whoever is number two, that’s who I am behind. As long as it’s not Healy.”