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Sir John’s Pub in Jersey City was a Genovese/Gigante Family front.

Saturday, May 8th, 2010

SIR JOHN’S PUB

Sir John’s Pub in Jersey City represents another example of an organized crime associate having a hidden interest in a licensed establishment. John Ciani, the licensee for Sir John’s, until recently was a front for Genovese/Gigante crime family associate Anthony “Tony the Guinea” Rotolo of Bayonne. Rotolo is disqualified from holding the license himself because of a criminal record and ties to organized crime, which were summarized in State Police Superintendent Dintino’s prepared statement to the Commission at the public hearing:Anthony Rotolo of Bayonne, New Jersey, is a Genovese/Gigante associate. Rotolo has been convicted on charges of extortion, fraudulent activities, assault and public disorder offenses. 

Rotolo was a close associate of the late John DiGilio, after whose death Rotolo aligned himself with Genovese consigliere Louis “Bobby” Manna of Jersey City, who is presently incarcerated on federal racketeering charges. 

During the Commission’s investigation, Rotolo and his wife Jane were observed by its agents on numerous occasions in 1988 and 1989 acting in a supervisory capacity at Sir John’s Pub. Rotolo’s wife was the tavern’s manager of record that time. 

Despite observations by its agents, witnesses who appeared before the Commission repeatedly denied that Rotolo ran the business. A number of them admitted during interviews that Rotolo was in fact running the bar but gave different stories during testimony in private hearings before the Commission. 

Waitress Donna Isabella admitted in an interview with Special Agent Grant Cuzzupe that she had been paid under the table by “Jane or Tony,” and that Tony was the boss. But when subpoenaed to testify, Isabella denied that Rotolo was her boss or that he paid her. 

Joseph Fucci, a local building contractor, similarly contradicted himself. In an interview with Agent Cuzzupe, Fucci stated that Rotolo arranged for Fucci and his son to perform renovations at Sir John’s Pub. Fucci said Rotolo gave him a $1,500 deposit and orally agreed that Rotolo would be responsible for another $13,500 within a year. Fucci told Agent Cuzzupe that no payment schedule was set up because he and Rotolo are friends. Fucci said that Rotolo still owes $8,000 and pays “a few hundred dollars” whenever he sees Fucci. Again, however, Fucci’s story changed significantly and became confused when asked specific questions in his private testimony before then-Commissioner W. Hunt Dumont: 

Q. When you told Special Agent Cuzzupe that Tony Rotolo gave you a sum of money to start this work, that wasn’t true? 

A. I did a mistake. It wasn’t true because I didn’t know was — you know — what really I received the money that time. 

Q. When you told Special Agent Cuzzupe that Tony Rotolo gave you some money — 

A. No — Tony. 

Q. — after that first time that wasn’t true either? 

A. No, No. 

COMMISSIONER DUMONT: Are you saying now that Mr. [John] Ciani gave you the money? THE WITNESS: No, now. All the time Ciani gave me the money. 

COMMISSIONER DUMONT: I’m just interested in what you’re saying now. Ciani gave you the money? THE WITNESS: Ciani gave me the money. 

Mauro “Moe” Abbato, the owner of Complete Vending, which supplied cigarettes to Sir John’s, told Agent Cuzzupe during an interview that he has known and been a supplier for Rotolo since he started his business in 1981. He initially loaned Rotolo $5,000 that would be repaid through machine proceeds, and he supplied Agent Cuzzupe with collection slips as evidence of this loan. During his private testimony, however, Abbato contradicted what hehad said in the interview: 

Q. When you were interviewed by Agent Cuzzupe, you told him that it was Tony Rotolo who asked for the $5,000 loan and not Ciani? 

A. When I — when — when Mr. Grant [Cuzzupe] called me up and told me that he wanted to meet with me, I asked him if there was anything that he might want to know from me, should I take any information with me and he said no, so I went cold. 

To the best of my recollection, what he asked me I answered, you know. I — 

Q. And when you told him it was Tony who wanted the $5,000 loan, was that the truth? 

A. I might have thought it was, but I even thought that I gave Tony the money, but I didn’t give it to Tony…. 

Another associate of Rotolo, William Guarini, a local plumbing and heating contractor, performed renovations at Sir John’s. Work orders for Guarini’s services at Sir John’s have “Tony” written on one such document and Rotolo’s phone number on another. But in his testimony Guarini denied that Rotolo hired him and insisted instead that it was Ciani. Guarini could not explain why Rotolo’s name and phone number appeared on the invoices. Guarini also attempted to minimize his knowledge of Rotolo’s involvement at Sir John’s Pub in general and, specifically, in regard to the plumbing work at the establishment. 

Q. The first time when you did the work, at the time of the renovations of Sir John’s Pub, who hired you to do the work? A. Well, I was called down to look at it and I gave the price— well, Tony was down there when I went down there.

. . .  
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Lyle Stuart, publisher of controversial books, located in Secaucus

Tuesday, May 4th, 2010

Lyle Stuart, located in Secaucus, was the publisher of controversial titles, including Naked Came the Stranger, The Anarchists Cookbook, Martin Bormann, Nazi in Exile, — and Jersey City Mayor Thomas Smith’s The Powerticians.
# # #
. . .
Side 1 of FTR 152 is the story of the frustration of the publication of Manning’s Bormann book. When Manning was finally able to get Lyle Stuart, Inc. to publish the book, Lyle Stuart had both of his legs broken the week the book was published. FTR 125 is a spontaneous interview with Paul’s son Peter, conducted after Peter called Mr. Emory’s show. FTR 155 consists of the last published work that Paul did. Both FTR 283, and Side 1 of FTR 152 discuss Mr. Manning’s riveting professional dialogue with the Bormann group, through professional intermediaries.) Eventually, Paul’s son Gerry was murdered in retribution for the Bormann research, and as a warning against publishing a followup volume In Search of Martin Bormann. The “target selection” by the Bormann group for its retribution may well have been determined by the dedication of Martin Bormann, Nazi in Exile.
. . .
Dave Emory on Lyle Stuart and the publication of Martin Bormann, Nazi in Exile.

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Jersey City, the most important transfer point of the Underground Railroad.

Tuesday, April 13th, 2010

The Holden House is one of the many Underground Railroad historic sites in Jersey City.
The Holden House
One of many Underground Railroad historic sites in Jersey City.

The Underground Railroad In Hudson County

By Alexander Maclean

. . .
These hiding-places were known as Stations, and the friends of freedom were known as Station Agents. Jersey City, by reason of its geographical position, was perhaps the most important transfer point in the East, and it is this fact that calls for special attention at this time.
. . .
The exodus from slavery extended all along the Pennsylvania border, though the short cut across Delaware from the Chesapeake and the banks of the Susquehanna were favored routes. All these minor routes led to New Jersey, where there were four regular lines of communication, all converging in Jersey City.
. . .
After sleeping the most of the day in strict seclusion, the fugitives were brought to Jersey City. There John Everett or Peter James Phillips, or some agent of theirs, took them in charge.

From Jersey City, the escaped slaves were taken to the Hudson River Passenger Station at the corner of Church and Chambers Streets, just in time for a night train for Albany. If this station were too closely watched, the fugitives were taken to a house on West Broadway where Lewis Tappan and his brother Arthur conducted a Sunday School for adult African-Americans. This afforded temporary shelter until it was safe to travel.

Frequently it was decided to ship the escaped slaves to river ports up the Hudson. The small sloops and schooners, and even the coal-laden canal boats, were utilized for this purpose. Some of these small vessels arrived at Harsimus Cove at the foot of Washington Street with brick and building material for Washburn & Campbell. Some brought lumber for Samuel Davidson at the foot of Montgomery Street — his wharf being about where the First National Bank now stands. Others carried lumber for Morrell and Van der Beek, in the neighborhood of the foot of Steuben or Morgan Street.

The canal boats which were towed to up-river points loaded with coal were sometimes used. The skippers were willing to run some risk in exchange for free labor from the fugitives — a very desirable item in windy weather on a canal boat, which requires constant pumping because of limited freeboard. Whether each shipment was a separate transaction with the skipper or was known to the principals must remain a mystery. It seems probable that they knew of it, but prefered not to acknowledge it, for prudence dictated seeming ignorance.

The general route led by the Newark or Belleville turnpike along Newark Avenue to the ferry, and thence to the railroad station in New York. Spies watched the wagons arriving after dark. The necessity of paying ferriage on the cargo made it compulsory for drivers to tell the ferrymaster that there were passengers in the covered vehicle. Sometimes the spies caught sight of the fugitives, and captures and escapes were frequent. For this reason, there were always men in the crowd who knew how to guide the fugitives. And there were runways known to these guides which led to safety.

Sometimes the runaway slaves were hurried to the home of Dr. Henry Holt in Washington Street, where a rear entrance gave egress on Plymouth Street. Friends directed the hunted souls to New York by way of the Hoboken ferry to Barclay Street. Sometimes they were led to the foot of Washington Street or to the lumber yard wharf near the ferry. Sometimes they were taken to the foot of Hudson Street and hidden in the coal boats. Mr. Daniel Van Winkle of The Historical Society of Hudson County was a witness to one of these escapes. The guides shook off the pursuers and reached a coal-laden boat discharging a cargo. In that docked vessel, the runaway was placed in a small cave-like compartment beneath the cabin of the boat, the entrance to which was then covered in coal. There, half smothered by coaldust, the fugitive remained in hiding until the pursuit ceased. Then he could be dug out and started again on his way to freedom.
. . .
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Radio Station WFMU moves to Jersey City.

Sunday, April 11th, 2010

Escape From A Cultural Wasteland!

DJ Charlie at radio station WFMU in Jersey City
Here broadcasting is not a one-way street! Listener telephone participation is an important ingredient at wfmu, with DJ Charlie as a prime example.

WFMU is an iconoclastic, Free-Form radio station whose listening range covers Northern New Jersey and all five boroughs of New York City (at 91.1 FM), plus much of New York’s Orange County and the Hudson Valley (at 90.1 FM). The station can also be heard live world-wide via its internet broadcasts at wfmu.org. It’s radio where just about anything goes. WFMU shuns the concept of one-dimensional narrowcasting practiced by most stations. The station mixes styles, techniques, media and manners. The WFMU air staff uses the medium creatively and spontaneously, drawing on music, spoken word, live guests, listener telephone participation, and all the technologies of modern radio. The programming is exciting and highly original – to understate the facts!

In the sixties, WFMU was a lighthouse on the beach of mindless, top-forty, music radio stations. Commercial radio of that era did offer controversial, intelligent, talk radio on late-night programming. But, the AM music dial would only cough with the same string of 45 sides.

For those young, venturesome few who dared hit the button of the unknown – FM – on the radio, the result was, at first, a sea of static. Getting near the edge, and usually only after a lot of playing with the antenna and the receiver’s location, suddenly WFMU, radio station of Upsala College, East Orange, New Jersey, was there. Electric guitars broke the mind’s sound barrier. Songs just went on and on – long past that three minute limit that singles all claimed after which was dragons and the end of the world.

Without WFMU as the FM Prometheus of the Metropolitan area, many of today’s ethernauts never would have reached out for the lightning.

Radio station WFMU station manager Ken Freedman.
Station manager Ken Freedman maintains order in the vast vinyl jungle.

Over the decades the FM dial filled with commercial stations mimicking WFMU’s format. In a strange migration, the top-forty stations began to move to FM. Michael Jackson soon had squater’s rights smack-dab in the middle of the band. Eventually, through a sort of outre, deja vu, the most popular station aired nothing but oldies – played by former AM DJs.

By 1994, WFMU was again nearly alone. For those truly interested in music and ideas, “open ears and open minds,” it served as a cultural oasis. That year, a group of dedicated staffers and listeners purchased the license from the College. WFMU was now an independent non-profit. Two weeks later Upsala College declared bankruptcy.

Radio station WFMU CD collection
As might be imagined, WFMU established a CD collection early.

By the end of 1995, WFMU was marooned on the ghost campus surrounded by nothing. The location had always been something of a trek from cultural centers. There was only one thing to do – move to Jersey City.


One of a number of state-of-the-art studio facilities

Today, WFMU broadcasts from a headquarters in Downtown Jersey City; you could throw a Susan B. Anthony dollar and hit the turnstile at the PATH subway station. Airstaff, artists, and guests now reach WFMU easily from Jersey City, Hoboken, other locations in Northern New Jersey, and New York.

As the property’s value has greatly increased, WFMU’s purchase of Jersey City real estate has also been of immense financial advantage.

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Jersey City featured in the WPA New Jersey Guide

Saturday, April 3rd, 2010

From NEW JERSEY – A Guide To Its Present And Past – Jersey City
The city was an important station on the Underground Railroad. Slaves were sent North hidden in the dead air space between cabins on Erie Canal boats. During the Civil War thousands of troops passed through the railroad stations and the city contributed full quotas of men. Railroad and political battles colored the latter part of the nineteenth century. The monopolistic hold of the United Railroads (later the Pennsylvania) on the Jersey City water front was broken when the Jersey Central dumped New York refuse on tidal flats and built a terminal. Another terminal was established when the Erie Railroad blasted a tunnel through Bergen Hill.

The political struggles supplied such incidents as the Hudson County “Horseshoe,” which gerrymandered nearly the whole Democratic vote into one assembly district, and an election in which ballots were printed on tissue paper so that more could be stuffed into each ballot box. Consolidations with neighboring communities were preceded by street and sewer contracts whose addition to the merged public debt caused an intolerable tax burden. The election of Mark Fagan, a New Idea Republican, as mayor in 1901 temporarily halted political scandals.

Construction of a railroad tunnel to Manhattan had been attempted as early as 1874. But it was not until William G. McAdoo, later Secretary of the Treasury, became interested in the project that it was completed (1909-10) . The Hudson Tubes brought an increase in the number of factories and in the working population.

The Black Tom explosion on the Communipaw water front during the night of July 30, 1916, has been called the only successful German war plot in the country, although international litigation to fix responsibility and damages has not been concluded. Ammunition-laden railroad cars blew up with such violence that residents of Connecticut and Maryland felt the shock. The damage was estimated at $20,000,000, of which the greater part was in Jersey City. Loss in broken windows in the metropolitan area amounted to more than $1,000,000. Only seven lives were lost, although 75 mm. shells struck Ellis Island and other nearby places. After the United States entered the war, the city’s factories were busy supplying materials to the Government.

St. Peter’s College, chartered in 1872, closed during the war when more than half of its faculty and students enlisted. The college, conducted by the Society of Jesus, reopened in 1930 and now has more than 400 students.

Improvement of transportation facilities continued after the World War. Construction of the Holland Tunnel for vehicular traffic under the Hudson River was begun in 1920 by the Port of New York Authority and completed in 1927 at a cost of $48,400,000. The tunnel, used by an average of 32,500 vehicles daily, has been a money maker from the start. Twin tubes of two lanes each lie 72 feet below water level; the longer measures, 8,557 feet (exceeding by 342 feet the length of the new Lincoln Tunnel at Weehawken). They are handsomely finished in white tile. Patrolmen are stationed at close intervals through the tubes. If a motorist has a flat tire, the nearest patrolman presses a button and within five minutes a tractor arrives. The tire is changed free or, if the driver has no spare, his car is towed from the tunnel without charge. Blowing of horns is prohibited because the loud echo might make the nervous driver swing over into the adjoining lane, thus breaking another rule. Air in the tunnel is changed every minute and a half by blower fans.

From NEW JERSEY – A Guide To Its Present And Past – Jersey City

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The origin of the Jersey City St. Patrick’s Day Parade

Wednesday, March 17th, 2010

Gene Scanlon (Left) and Patrick Kenny, the First Grand Marshal of the Jersey City Saint Patrick's Day Parade on the occasion of P. J. Kenny's return visit to Jersey City in 1998.
Gene Scanlon (Left) and Patrick Kenny, the First Grand Marshal of the Jersey City Saint Patrick’s Day Parade on the occasion of P. J. Kenny’s return visit to Jersey City in 1998


Calling Any Cop Named Patrick

The Far-From-Respectable Origin of a Jersey City Tradition

by Gene Scanlon

The annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade along Kennedy Boulevard is such a tradition in Jersey City — with its legions of bagpipers, shamrock-wearing priests, antique cars, Miss Colleen contestants and much else that you might suppose it had gone on forever. In fact, it dates back just three decades, and its beginnings were not what you might call respectable.

It was born in the Bergen Bar on the eve of St. Patrick’s Day 1962. I should know; I was there. Five of us — sad sons of the Ould Sod — were drowning our sorrows, lamenting that Jersey City, unlike neighboring Newark and New York, did not have a big parade to honor Ireland’s patron saint. There were shouts of approval, and I was promptly named committee chairman. After ordering a round for everybody, I began a meeting that within minutes threatened to degenerate into a punch-throwing donnybrook.

It started with Tom Lally’s suggestion that a certain politician be designated at the outset as the parade’s grand marshal.

“You must be mad!” shouted Jim McLoughlin, slamming his fist on the bar. “He’s the biggest crook in creation!” He then named a member of. the City Council, evoking an equally emphatic reply from Joe (Dapper) Fallon:
“Now wouldn’t that be a thundering disgrace, him marching up front, the heathen!”

And so it went. Even Jim McCloskey’s nominee, a heavy-brogued County Corkman who was also a monsignor, was rejected out of hand. With tempers running high by then, McCloskey might have been ejected from the bar if he hadn’t been a co-owner of the place. After a dozen or more nominations, not one getting so much as a second, I shouted for attention and made a proposal: “Let’s call Dublin police headquarters, making it person-to-person to any policeman named Patrick. The first one we contact, we invite him to lead our parade. Who can argue with that?”

Nobody could, So it was that at about 9 P.M on the eve of St. Patrick’s Day 1962 (although it was atready 2 A.M. on the Grand Day itself in Ireland), a phone rang in Dublin Castle, Garda Patrick J. Kenny answered it and accepted an invitation by the Jersey City St. Patrick’s Day Parade Committee to lead its march on Sunday, March 17, 1963. Officer Kenny, then 41, father of six, had only one question before accepting the invitation: “Can I bring me wife?”

P. J. and Nancy Kenny landed at Idlewild Airport on March 7. (It became John F, Kennedy Airport after the President’s assassination eight months later.) And on St. Patrick’s Day, Garda Kenny, 6 foot 3, with a red mustache and in full uniform, stepped out alone, in military stride, leading more than 20,000 marchers. Nearly a quarter-million spectators along the two-mile parade route cheered them on.

The Jersey Journal said in an editorial that it was the grandest celebration the city had ever given itself. Taverns ran out of beer, and all-night diners ran out of food. The Kennys, who had been given a sendoff from Ireland by President Eamon De Valera, were received in Washington by Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson. (President Kennedy was in Costa Rica.)

The Kennys still live in Rathfarnham, on the outskirts of Dublin. A picture of them with Johnson hangs in their living room.

Last St. Patrick’s Day, on one of my frequent trips to Ireland, I watched some of the Dublin parade with P. J., and then we headed for Mulligan’s Pub, where we raised pints of lager to Tom Lally, Jim McLoughlin, Dapper Fallon and Jim McCloskey. They’re all gone now, but 34 years ago, a “no” vote by any of them would have killed the phone call that led to a parade that is by now a grand tradition in Jersey City — and to the adventure of a lifetime for all Irish cop named Patrick and his wife.

Gene Scanlon, a former reporter for The Jersey Journal and public relations director for Jersey City, was the city’s parade chairman for 14 years.

Originally appeared in The New York Times, Sunday, March 17, 1996

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Hoboken – Castle Point – Where Colonel John Stevens planned “Hobuck, the Beautiful,” the pleasure resort of early New York.

Wednesday, March 17th, 2010

Castle Point, Hoboken, 1832
Castle Point, Hoboken, Showing River Walk Leading Past The Residence, 1832

From Historic Houses of New Jersey by W. Jay Mills, 1902

On the highest eminence of “Point Castile,” whose “greene and white cliffes” were supposed to be “copper or silver mynes” by the followers of Henry Hudson, on his memorable voyage up the river which bears his name, Colonel John Stevens, the famous inventor, built a handsome mansion soon after his purchase of Hobuck Island, in 1784, and called it the Castle. By many of his generation John Stevens was looked upon as a mild madman, so far ahead was he of his age, and his purchase of such a large area of land as Hobuck Island created a sensation in the society of the times. Hobuck Island, or Hoboken Island, formed the largest part of the confiscated Bayard estate, and was much sought after when it was noised about that it was to be put upon the market. That noble gentleman, Baron Steuben, set his heart on obtaining it for the services he had rendered the government during the Revolution, and wrote to Governor Livingston for right of pre-emption; but Colonel Stevens was ahead of him, and became the owner of the whole property in March, 1783, for the sum of eighteen thousand three hundred and sixty pounds.
. . .
Although Colonel Stevens’s inventions occupied nearly all his time at this period, he still found leisure to devote to the improvement of his large estate, and in this he is said to have been greatly helped by the taste and good judgment of his wife. Their castle of a simple colonial style of architecture contained over twenty rooms, and it was Colonel Stevens’s boast that each of its windows afforded a prospect of surpassing beauty. Both the New Jersey and New York shore lines above the harbor presented a very rural appearance in those days. Back of the slim line of wharves were low houses and church spires, and stretches of green fields and undulating meadow-lands rolled away into a gradually rising and wilder landscape. Mrs. John Adams had a few years before this period written that the country about her home, in what is now Varick Street, between Charlton and Vandam Streets, New York City, could be compared to hills and vales of lovely Devonshire, and the views from the higher eminence of Castle Point must have been superb.

In 1 804, following in the lead of “The Jersey Associates,” the owners of near-by Paulus Hook, Colonel Stevens mapped out a part of his land and launched the enterprise under the name of “The New City of Hoboken.” Lots were offered at public auction at the Tontine Coffee-House, in the city of New York, and general interest was aroused in a spot which subsequently became the most famous pleasure ground in the United States, and the delight of the poet, the artist, the actor, and the dreamer of old New York.

So much was written about ”Hoboken, the Beautiful” in the first half of the last century that it became almost world renowned. In those summers of its popularity the gentleman and the toiler crossed over the Hudson’s sparkling waters in the comfortable boat “Fairy Queen,” from Canal Street, to enjoy the Hoboken scenery and the then delightful walks and forest glades cooled by ocean breezes.
. . .
Click here to read the complete article.

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From the Motorcycle Diaries of Jack Riepe: in Jersey City . . . the view to the west is a vision of Mordor, or hell.

Sunday, March 14th, 2010

Read Jack Riepe’s complete article.
. . .
The majestic Pulaski Skyway, built in 1932, stretches 11 miles from Newark to Jersey City like a noose. My brother, Jerry, got to Paris before I did. The first thing I asked him was, “What is the Eiffel Tower like?” His response, “Imagine the Pulaski Skyway sticking straight up in the air.”


Above — The Pulaski Skyway stretches 11 miles from Newark, NJ, to Jersey City, NJ, like a noose. (Photo courtesy of Wikipedia)

Yet it was here that my fears started to get the best of me. The fastest way to get to the heart of Jersey City was from Exit 15e… Which leads to two poorly placed lift bridges, built in 1932. (One has four lanes of traffic, and the other has six.) I remember both as having steel decks, and one with the approach ramps from the Turnpike going into a right angle turn, terminating at a “Yield” sign, at the deck’s edge.

I hate shit like this.

But a gap in traffic magically appeared and I was on the first bridge in the blink of an eye. Amazingly enough, the steel deck had been replaced by a paved roadway. No problamo. I started to laugh in my helmet. And then I was on the second bridge, sandwiched between two trucks, on a steel deck that was a slippery as the cross-examination of my second wife’s divorce lawyer. I hit it doing 55 mph, and I was over the deck in a second or two. It had been 30 years since I last rode a motorcycle over this particular bridge.


Above — The Communipaw Avenue lift bridge was built in 1932. It spans the Hackensack River with a steel grate deck that is six lanes wide. (Photo courtesy of Wikipedia)

The first traffic light brought me to the intersection of Rt. 440 and Communipaw Ave. in Jersey City. I learned how to ride a motorcycle in Jersey City, I can assure all of you it is a highly over-rated experience. Riding down West Side Avenue, and then Kennedy Boulevard on Sunday, prompted me to think, “This is some shit for the birds.”

One forgets the genteel nature of Jersey City. Arriving at the parking lot recommended by my brother, the attendant greeting me warmly by saying, “No motorcycle parking… Get that fucking thing outta here.”

My first inclination was to return this typical Jersey City salutation with a cheery, “How about I get off this bike and shove that stupid little gate up your ass.” But I didn’t think that would help the situation. Instead, I showed the man a ten-spot, which is all he wanted in the first place. Three minutes later, I was parked five feet from the elevator leading directly to my mother’s floor. We had a pleasant three-hour visit.
. . .
I dare you to stand at the intersection of the “State Highway” where it intersects with Kennedy Boulevard, in Jersey City, and not tell me the view to the west is a vision of Mordor, or hell.

At that point, you are looking at two coal-fired power plants, a gas works, endless chemical plants, closed factories, crumbling piers, radio stations with collapsed towers, no less than five landfills (15 stories high), a number of high-priority toxic super-fund sites, and a brown smudge line suspended in the air like a ribbon, indicating the exhaust cloud over the New Jersey Turnpike.

The area is lovingly referred to as the cancer strip, as neighboring communities have the highest levels of leukemia in the country.
. . .
It’s hard for someone not from here to understand what it means to cram 1,000,000 people into an area smaller than 5 square miles.., The kind of traffic this creates… Imagine the City of Key West with 1,000,000 people, require 30 different bus routes, 5 commuter train routes, a subway, and a trolley, surrounded by the wreckage of waterfront heavy industry — including refineries. It is dificult t even conceive of the garbage and human waste this generates.

It’s hard to conceive of Weehawken… Twelve blocks long, 5 blocks wide, and a population in excess of 14,000. Or Guttenburg, which is half that size and has 4,000 residents in one high-rise complex.

We never the saw the downside, until we were on the outside looking in.
. . .
Jersey City is a wonderful place… But it cetainly is the dog shit and broken glass capital of the world. And while some parts of it are gentrified, and others are capped with towering chrome and glass, its original Dickensian nature remains intact.

My brother still lives there and he loves it. I used to think he was nuts. But he has a strong attachment to the 300 years of history that stain the place.
. . .
Read Jack Riepe’s complete article.

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Jersey City contingent at the 2004 League of Municipalities convention

Friday, March 5th, 2010

Where are they now?

Here are some photos from 2004 of the Jersey City contingent in Atlantic City:



Steve Lipski was arrested for urinating on a crowd standing below a balcony.




Leona Beldini was convicted in a Dwek corruption case.




Sires inherited Menendez’s seat in Congress.




Mariano Vega was arrested in a Dwek corruption case.




Junior Maldonado lost the Downtown Council slot to Steve Fulop.




Urban Times News publisher — and Frmr. Jersey City Councilman — Bobby Jackson died of a heart attack after a Jersey City rally for then candidate Barack Obama.








Frmr. Journal Square Councilman Arnold Bettinger had been charged in a sexual harrasment case. Bettinger’s Council aide — Jimmy King — was arrested in a Dwek corruption case.








County Executive Tom Degise and Chief of Staff Bill Gaughan. The story is that Dwek arranged a meeting with Bill Gaughan and Rudy Garcia. When Dwek tried to pass Gaughan cash, the Jersey City Councilman supposedly called the FBI snitch a “scumbag” and then walked out.








Dan Frohwirth is doing OK.








“Rip Van Winkle” Becht is an attorney for the Jersey City MUA. He recently claimed that the horrendous rise is sewage rates was due to Bret Schundler — who left office nearly a decade ago.

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Illegal for women to drink in Jersey City saloons

Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010

In Jersey City, Prohibition continued up through the late ’60s — at least for women who wished to drink in a local saloon. It was illegal for people of the female persuasion to imbibe in Jersey City bars. The law was enforced by the beat cops. If a wife was accompanied by her husband, the rules were relaxed with a wink. The man could have two drinks in front of him. His spouse’s place at the bar had to display a prop bottle of soda pop.

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