What's with the unfinished roads?

Mayor Robinson-Briggs put President Obama's
Stimulus money to work on a road-to-nowhere.

While bumping down one of Plainfield's begun-but-unfinished road projects Thursday evening, I came upon a reader out walking his dog.

'You know, the asphalt plants will be shutting down for the winter in a couple of weeks', he said, as he scuffled some of the gravel lying in the roadway (he knows about this stuff because of his job responsibilities), 'When do you think they're ever gonna finish this street?'

When, indeed.

After the embarrassing false starts on Kensington and Netherwood Avenues in 2008, Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs' administration tried to get things back on track in the 2009 roadwork season, with less-than-optimal results.

I noticed at the Drake House reopening last weekend that Geraud Avenue, on which I had to park because of the crowds, is STILL UNFINISHED. You may recall this as the road-to-nowhere project on which Robinson-Briggs used President Obama's stimulus money (see my story here), as opposed to say a truly worthwhile project like Somerset Street from Front to the North Plainfield line.

When covering the Vastine meet-and-greet the other night, I had to park in the rut along the new curbing on Kensington Avenue -- another STILL UNFINISHED street.

Checking further, I noted that Cedarbrook Road and Brook Lane are also STILL UNFINISHED, as they were weeks ago, when Gov. Jon Corzine came to campaign in Plainfield (an event for which Mayor Robinson-Briggs was, as they say, 'otherwise engaged'). See my story on the road situation then here.

Weeks after Gov. Corzine's visit,
Cedar Brook Road has yet to be paved.

Seems the ONLY projects to date that are actually finished are West 8th Street and Netherwood Avenue.

Now I know Mayor Sharon has a lot on her plate just now, what with the CFO personnel mess at City Hall and the Seniors unhappy with her over being overdue on moving into the new Senior Center, and Her Honor fretting over how to face the voters in the two upcoming candidate forums, but as far as I know, no one held a gun to her head to make her take this job.

With winter coming on and roadwork season coming to an end, you'd think Mayor Robinson-Briggs wouldn't want voters to be reminded just by driving down the street that she had let them down again.

You'd think, wouldn't you?

---

• Plainfield Today, 9/1/09: "Plainfield's Stimulus money reaches dead end"
• Plainfield Today, 9/19/09: "Welcome to Plainfield, Gov. Corzine"
  

-- Dan Damon

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Plainfield's Stimulus money reaches dead end

Crew at work on Geraud Avenue, funded by federal Stimulus monies.

President Obama's stimulus money reached a dead end in Plainfield even as authorities are concerned that the Mob may seek a cut of the stimulus pie (see story here).

The dead end?

Geraud Avenue, which begins where the Drake House sits on West Front Street and continues (now) for one block, to end at the bridge into North Plainfield which has been closed except to foot traffic for a decade now.

The leafy street, which connects the truly dead-end Brookside Place (and its 19 homes) to Front Street, gets barely a trickle of traffic compared to the thousands of vehicles a day that traverse the stretch of Somerset Street from Front Street and Park Avenue to the North Plainfield line.

Map shows Brookside Place's connection through Geraud Avenue.

Geraud Avenue work, with Drake House at right.

The Geraud Avenue bridge has been closed to traffic since 1999.

Though the teeth-rattling Somerset Street block is a memorable entrance to the Queen City, it is not 'grand' by any stretch of the imagination -- being more a rude reminder that you are leaving smoothly paved Somerset Street in North Plainfield.

The joke here is that among the 'shovel-ready' projects the Robinson-Briggs administration listed on its 'Stimulus Watch' web pages is Somerset Street (see here).

So how come the dead-end street gets top billing over the busy portal to Plainfield?

Thank God we don't have to worry about the Mob in Plainfield, but do I have to spell it out?

Dead-ends as a metaphor for this Administration's priorities?

Nah!

---

• Plainfield Today --
• "Plainfield's 'Stimulus Tracking' website debuts?"
  
• "Geraud Avenue: A bridge over troubled waters"

-- Dan Damon

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Plainfield Stimulus $$$ update: Still hokey after all these months

Surfing Plainfield's official website (see here) is always such an adventure. It reminds me of Christopher Columbus, who discovered America while looking for a way to 'the Indies'.

While looking for something else, I stumbled on what purports to be an update on Plainfield's quest for monies from President Obama's stimulus (ARRA) program (see here).

I say 'purports' because the discrepancies start right off with the opening page, which says figures are as of July 21, 2009. Really?

Highlights indicate web page 'date' versus real date created. Click to enlarge.

Looking at the PDF document's secret hiding place shows it was created on Monday, August 3, at 5:44 PM, a far cry from July 21 (two weeks, to be exact).

The web posting appears to be created from a PowerPoint presentation whose slides show various breakdowns of grants applied for (or not, if they are simply distributions by formula), and amounts awarded (or not).

Does the update include the $2.5 million for affordable housing on the PNC parking lot the city has proposed (see my post here)? You will be hard-pressed to figure it out, as dollar amounts don't align.

Alas, it also does not align well with the city's well-hidden 'Stimulus Tracking' subsite (which you can find here), and you will get a headache trying to match the update numbers with the original figures -- starting with the total amounts: $11.162 million on the original web pages, as against $20.762 million in the update document.

What?! We've asked for more than $10.5 million more since April and you never heard about it? You must have been dozing. Or maybe you blinked. Or maybe no one told you.

In any event, there is one number that may explain the update's timing and the date of its posting on the city's website.

That would be a ZERO. On slide three.

It's the ZERO as in the amount received against the $937,552.87 requested for the COPS grant.

Could this update have anything to do with the questions raised in the blogosphere by Olddoc and others about why Plainfield was not among the New Jersey communities to receive a COPS grant?

Plainfield's accounting for the Stimulus Money, still hokey after all these months.

Just can't get that Simon & Garfunkel track out of my mind.

Would I be convicted by a jury of my peers?

---

• City of Plainfield
• "Economic Stimulus Funding Update" (PDF)
• "Plainfield's Stimulus Tracking Web Pages"

-- Dan Damon

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Affordable housing grant up for vote tonight

The proposed affordable housing would replace
Appliance-a-Rama and PNC parking lot.

Plainfield Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs has called a SPECIAL MEETING of the City Council for 8:00 PM this evening to vote on the proposed application for federal stimulus monies (ARRA) to develop affordable housing on the space currently occupied by Appliance-a-Rama and PNC's parking lot on West 2nd Street, just off Park Avenue.

There are two issues here: one of SUBSTANCE, one of PROCESS.

As to SUBSTANCE, I posted last Wednesday on the questions this funding avenue raises for the future of market rate development of condos in Plainfield (see here).

This is serious business and presents the Council with quite a challenge. How do we encourage transit-oriented residential-retail projects in a challenging economic climate? What will putting another affordable housing rental project a stone's throw from the train station do to the prospects of any market-rate condo development downtown? Are there any other viable strategies? How is Mayor Robinson-Briggs justifying THIS Census Tract, which is the LEAST-IMPACTED by foreclosures in the entire City (see my analysis here)?

Additionally, comments by readers have raised other serious questions (see links at the end of this post).

Will the Council back President Burney's stance in support of balanced development for the downtown that would put Plainfield on a par with national averages of rental v. condos? How the Council handles this difficult decision will be a window into the possibilities of serious policy making and transparency in regard to other upcoming redevelopment proposals.

The PROCESS issue is just plain annoying. Nearing the end of her first term and with the prospect of another four years staring Plainfielders in the face, Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs still cannot -- or is it will not -- get the public notice thingie right.

The notice about the $15M grant application was put up on the City's website last Tuesday evening, as I noted the next morning. Yet the notice for the Special Meeting Mayor Robinson-Briggs called is dated Friday, July 10, as you an see from the scan Councilor Burney put up on Scribd (see here). So, what was Robinson-Briggs & Co. doing between Tuesday and Friday?

Is the Robinson-Briggs administration still just bumbling or is this a conscious technique of giving the public the finger?

The notice is correct on a technicality (if it's posted on the Clerk's bulletin board 48 hours before a meeting, it is 'publicly noticed'), but certainly does not meet what common folks would consider fair notice by publication in the papers. Imagine what the Robinson-Briggs administration could do if there just weren't all these pesky blogs keeping an eye on things.

Oh, and did I say that the regular agenda session was jam-packed with important items? See Bernice's post today outlining important personnel proposals and more from the Robinson-Briggs administration (here) as well as links to Councilor Burney's scans of the agenda items (here).

What was that about the 'lazy, hazy days of summer'?

Hazy, maybe. Lazy? Fuggedaboutit.

Come on out tonight!

---

City Council
Tonight
7:30 - Agenda Meeting
8:00 - Special Meeting
At City Hall Library, 515 Watchung Avenue
(Parking and entry at the rear of the building)

---

• The Grant Proposal: "Stimulus Surprise for Plainfield? (1)"
• Reader comments relevant to the affordable housing proposal are here --
• "Plainfield as a Transit Village: The worst of times is the best of times" (7 comments)
  
• "Stimulus Surprise for Plainfield? (1)" (2 comments)
  
• "Stimulus Money revitalizing the neighborhood of developer's bank account" (2 comments)
  
• Plaintalker on the Agenda Session: "New CFO, Finance Director on tap"
• Councilor Burney: "Agenda Items" | "Notice of Special Meeting"

-- Dan Damon

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Comments caught up: Four topics

Plainfield Today comments are now caught up --

• "Plainfield as a Transit Village: The worst of times is the best of times" (7 comments)
  
  
• "Stimulus Surprise for Plainfield? (1)" (2 comments)
  
  
• "Stimulus Money revitalizing the neighborhood of developer's bank account" (2 comments)
  
  
• "Muhlenberg and Pascack: Double standard exposed" (4 comments)

You will note the first three topics are germane to tonight's SPECIAL CITY COUNCIL MEETING, called by Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs to approve the city's application for federal ARRA monies for an affordable housing project on West 2nd Street.

---

City Council
Tonight
7:30 - Agenda Meeting
8:00 - Special Meeting
At City Hall Library, 515 Watchung Avenue
(Parking and entry at the rear of the building)

---

-- Dan Damon

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Stimulus Money Revitalizing the Neighborhood of Developer's Bank Account

Census Tract with most foreclosures
NOT designated for Stimulus money.

Plainfield Mayor Robinson-Briggs' application for $15 million in federal stimulus money for 'Neighborhood Stabilization Funding' to underwrite redevelopment of PNC's parking lot by Landmark Developers piqued my curiosity as to why this particular Census tract was selected.

As I wrote Wednesday (see here), HUD is offering and Plainfield is asking for the monies --

...[t]he Neighborhood Stabilization Program 2 (NSP2), authorized under the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009, provides through the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) funding to be awarded on a competitive basis to states, municipalities, nonprofit organizations or consortia of nonprofits, to stabilize neighborhoods whose viability has been and continues to be damaged by the economic effects of properties that have been foreclosed upon and abandoned. (The city's online notice is here in PDF.)

So, how does the Census tract favored by Robinson-Briggs to address the issue of damaging economic effects stack up against Plainfield's OTHER nine Census tracts?

Here is a table of Plainfield's ten Census tracts arranged in descending order by numbers of foreclosures in the tract for 2008 --

2008 Foreclosures	Census Tract
71	395
63	394
48	397
36	389
33	388
32	391
30	396
28	390
26	392
25	393
Data from the New York Times

You will note that the Mayor's chosen tract comes in dead last in terms of numbers of foreclosures.

Now, I am not arguing that the project is not worthwhile, but if you thought that fairness demanded attention to any other Census tract than this one, you are just showing that you do not understand how the game is played.

As someone once said, all animals are created equal, it's just that some are more equal.

Here are images of Plainfield's ten Census tracts, showing numbers of foreclosures for 2008, taken from the New York Times' interactive map (see here) -- as always, clicking on an image will reveal a large, crisp version of same.

Census Tract 388



Census Tract 389




Census Tract 390



Census Tract 391



Census Tract 392



Census Tract 393



Census Tract 394



Census Tract 395



Census Tract 396



Census Tract 397

---

-- Dan Damon

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Stimulus Surprise for Plainfield? (2)

Plainfield's City Administrator Marc Dashield joins other local New Jersey officials in complaining that ARRA (federal stimulus money) dollars are not trickling down to local road repair projects (see here).

The bone of contention is roads wholly contained within a community.

This should come as no surprise considering Obama's stimulus plan drives the money to the states to parcel out, and New Jersey, like most states, has highway issues of its own to address that may or may not impact local street and road repairs.

In Plainfield's case, as I previously pointed out (see here), the question really is why Assemblyman Jerry Green hasn't muscled Plainfield into line for money -- at least for the South Avenue reconstruction project, since it is part of Route 28, the state highway that runs through most of the Assemblyman's district.

Part of the problem is that the roads money is subject to stiffer conditions than localities are used to, where most monies traditionally come through HUD's CDBG (Community Development Block Grants) program, whose criteria are notoriously subject to manipulation and evasion at the county level.

Among the conditions that towns like Plainfield would have to meet include having any environmental conditions addressed and permits in place. These real-life requirements cut through the smoke-and-mirrors of wish lists like that found on Plainfield's 'Stimulus' web pages (see here).

Speaking of which, do you even know how to find those web pages, let alone make sense of them?

As I pointed out when the subsite of the City's website was launched, the devil is in the details (see here). And that includes finding out what is going on with Plainfield's efforts to get ARRA stimulus funds.

Consider this: Plainfield's website no longer offers a site search capability, so you are on your own when trying to find pages not linked to by the menu in the left-hand column.

Once you find the pages (again, they are here), would you be surprised to learn they have not been updated since April 21st -- that is, when they were first put up? Online tools provide ways to discover how recently pages are updated, and you can verify my date by checking here.

You will not learn anything about Plainfield and the quest for ARRA stimulus dollars you did not know back in April by checking these pages, despite Mayor Robinson-Briggs' assertion on the pages themselves that --

...[o]ne of the purposes of this website is to provide a communication tool that will identify the funding opportunities available and the action taken by the City of Plainfield to secure funding. (Emphasis added.)

So the surprise here is NOT that Plainfield isn't getting its share of the Stimulus money. Or that Assemblyman Green hasn't wrangled money for Route 28 improvements throughout his district. Or that the Robinson-Briggs administration hasn't kept its Stimulus web pages up to date.

No, the surprise here is that the Ledger prints Mr. Dashield's smoke-and-mirrors comment without any serious investigation into his assertions.

And what, exactly, Plainfield has done to merit any ARRA dollars for road repairs.

Good luck finding out from the city's own information.

Should that be a surprise?

---

• Ledger: "Towns complain federal road money falls short"
• Plainfield Today --
• 6/10/09: "Mr. Dashield's (misleading) history lesson"
• 4/23/09: "Plainfield's Stimulus-tracking website launches"
• City of Plainfield: "Stimulus-tracking web pages"
  

-- Dan Damon

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Stimulus Surprise for Plainfield? (1)

Plainfield's Census Tract 393

Should you be alarmed by the odd notice which appeared on Plainfield's website Tuesday night (see here)? Read on...

City of Plainfield
NEIGHBORHOOD STABILIZATION FUNDING

The City of Plainfield is considering an application with US Department of Housing and Urban Development for Neighborhood Stabilization Funding in amount of $15,250.00 through the federal stimulus program. The Neighborhood Stabilization Program 2 (NSP2), authorized under the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009, provides through the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) funding to be awarded on a competitive basis to states, municipalities, nonprofit organizations or consortia of nonprofits, to stabilize neighborhoods whose viability has been and continues to be damaged by the economic effects of properties that have been foreclosed upon and abandoned.

For Information purposes, below you will find the project description. Public comment on the application is encouraged.

The notice points to a PDF file (see here).

What caught my eye was the grant amount: $15,250. Odd that such a small amount would be so important it would be posted to the website after normal work hours (apx 6:30 PM), but it says it's about President Obama's ARRA (Stimulus) money being used to stabilize neighborhoods damaged by the effects of foreclosed and abandoned properties.

Fair enough.

The PDF document though, contains some interesting surprises --

• First, the application is for $15 MILLION plus, not $15 THOUSAND plus;
  
  
• Second, it is targeted for Census Tract 393;
  
  
• Third, it proposes development of 168 housing units (rehab and new);
  
  
• Fourth, more than 85% of the units will be developed by Landmark Developers.

Additionally, we learn that 100 of the proposed units are new construction on a single site already titled to Landmark, the 68 units are to be rehabbed in nine existing buildings.

My guess is the 100 new units would be in the parking lot on West 2nd Street behind PNC's main branch (see below).

Landmark sites.

The applicant (evidently) is the City of Plainfield, whose for-profit partner is to be Landmark, which in turn has partnered with the politically juiced nonprofit CityWorks (not Citiworks as Plainfield's document has it). To see just HOW JUICED the nonprofit is, check out its Trustees page (see here).

This is a nice piece of change, and should help Landmark make some money in Plainfield.

There will be strings attached, of course, and that is where you come in.

Those strings are that the project will be designated for AFFORDABLE HOUSING, and that will require the City to grant a PILOT (payment-in-lieu-of-taxes) arrangement. An unspoken assumption is that the units will be RENTAL, not CONDO.

The affordability requirement means that NO HOUSEHOLD will be eligible whose income exceeds 120% of the AMI (Area Median Income -- see here) which for Union County is $74,600 -- meaning a household income ceiling of $88,730. And AT LEAST 25% of the units would have to be occupied by households whose income CANNOT EXCEED 50% of the AMI -- or $37,300.

The PILOT requirement means that the state's formula for determining the payment to the City will be in place. While that may mean the City could receive as much as or even slightly more than it would under actual taxation -- the SCHOOL DISTRICT would RECEIVE NOTHING, even if families with school-age children occupy the units.

Which means, dear taxpayer, that you-know-who would have to pick up the slack.

Is the ARRA Stimulus Plan going to have the unintended consequence of miring Plainfield even more firmly in being a relatively low-income ever-increasingly rental community?

Will ARRA's help mean Plainfield taxpayers will face even higher property taxes?

Will the newly developed affordable housing just be a newer and more presentable Connolly-type absentee landlord asituation waiting to happen?

The Robinson-Briggs administration and the City Council would do well to evaluate the success of Plainfield's most recent affordable housing rental redevelopment -- Horizons at Plainfield -- in assessing the positive and negative potential outcomes for this use of Stimulus money in Plainfield.

Or would that be too inconvenient?

(Note: This is the first of two Stimulus stories; I'm still working on the second.)

---

-- Dan Damon

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Plainfield's 'Stimulus Tracking' website debuts?

A Stimulus-tracking website for Plainfield?

The devil is in the details.

Hedged about with disclaimers like 'potential', 'may qualify', 'just a list...not an application for funding', Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs administration has launched a section on the City's website that is supposed to track ARRA (Stimulus Plan) money requested and received.

The Ledger covers the story in today's edition (see here).

City Administrator Marc Dashield told the Ledger that --

A futile search [by residents] caused some citizens to assume that Plainfield was not actively seeking financial assistance...

Should a distinction be made between monies funneled to Plainfield and those ACTUALLY APPLIED for by the administration of Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs? I think so.

For instance, the Ledger says that more than $1.5 million has already been given to Plainfield.

True enough, EXCEPT THAT more than $1 million of that amount was to the Housing Authority, funded directly by the federal government. The City of Plainfield played no role in asking for or receiving those monies.

So now we're down to a little over a half million dollars.

Digging through the hokey navigation system for the Stimulus Plan subsite, it is possible to learn that the $341,635 for law enforcement was a formula grant that filtered down to the city from allocations made by Washington to states and counties. No hustle involved, just wait for grant, then spend the money.

Ditto the $186,300 for 'energy efficiency and conservation'.

Netting it out, the bottom line on monies received through grant applications made by the administration of Mayor Robinson-Briggs: Zero, nada, zilch.

Though the subsite is hokey (did Robinson-Briggs REALLY approve the unflattering graphic?), filled with enough wishlist smoke-blowing that you will need a top-grade gas mask, and organized bizarrely (why have to dig down several pages to find Plainfield stuff?), it is still of some use.

Should I mention that it was thrown together only after Plainfield Today had needled the Mayor in three previous posts (January, February and March)? Nah, that would be self-serving.

Of what use is Robinson-Briggs' new Stimulus subsite?

1. The way it is organized (not to mention spell-checked) illustrates the forethought this administration brings to bear on problems;
2. The order in which projects are presented betrays its sense of priorities;
3. It allows the reader to see that jobs for unemployed Plainfielders are not on the Robinson-Briggs radar; and
4. The quotation marks around 'shovel ready' are entirely appropriate -- some of these items are pure wishlist and the time to be 'shovel ready' is dubious at best (for instance, improving Somerset Street).

What more could be done to 'make information relevant to Plainfield easy to find online' (Dashield's words)?

• First, why not put Plainfield's grant applications online for residents to read?
  
  
• Second, why not get Plainfield listed on stimuluswatch.org?

StimulusWatch has become the de facto national go-to website for ordinary folks to track -- and comment on -- ARRA monies being spent at the local level. Many eyes watching makes for more transparency and accountability.

Isn't that a good thing?

And wouldn't it solve the problem that Dashield poses of Plainfielders turning up 'a futile search'?

---

• Ledger: "Plainfield launches site to track stimulus"
  
• Plainfield Website: 'The City of Plainfield American Recovery and Reinvestment Act' --
• "Mayor's Message"
  
• "Plainfield 'Shovel Ready' Projects"
  

-- Dan Damon

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Stimulus monies for Plainfield Schools detailed

Plainfield's public schools will benefit from stimulus monies being released to the states, according to a story in today's Star-Ledger (see here).

This will include the city's four charter schools as well as the school district overall.

In line with President Obama's warning that monies must be spent responsibly and transparently, Education Commissioner Lucile Davy has issued a memo (see here --PDF) underscoring this fact, as well as noting that districts should not plan on using the monies for long-term projects that will require repeated funding beyond the two-year period covered by the ARRA (Stimulus) funding.

Here are the figures for the School District --

PLAINFIELD PUBLIC SCHOOLS IDEA Funds
Basic Stimulus Award	$1,948,710
Preschool Stimulus Award	$70,038
PLAINFIELD PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Title I Funds	$1,662,896

And for the Charter Schools (in the order they appear in the State's tables) --

PLAINFIELD CHARTER SCHOOLS - Title I Funds
Pressman Charter School	$8,101
Central Jersey Arts Charter School	$23,474
Queen City Academy Charter School	$20,619
Union County TEAMS Charter School	$10,884

---

• Ledger: "Schools to get $609M federal cash infusion"
• Dept. of Education (PDF): "Davy: Memo on use of funds" | "Title I Funds" | "IDEA Funds"

--Dan Damon