Plainfield Health Center in trouble?

Is the Plainfield Health Center in trouble?

The gist of some Trenton gossip PT heard over the weekend is that PHC is in fiscal straits and has been looking to the state for financial assistance.

This is doubly troubling: PHC is a key component of health care delivery for underserved and economically challenged area residents; and the State is broke.

PHC has gone through a number of changes since its founding director, Julane Miller-Armbrister, retired several years ago. (12:30 pm: PT stands corrected: the founding director was Oliver Bartlett; Miller-Armbrister was the second.)

There has been a revolving door of executive leadership, along with an aggressive expansion into other service areas including Phillipsburg, Elizabethport and the state's northwest corner.

At the same time, eyebrows have been raised over the organization's administrative topheaviness as well as the abandonment of a professionally-driven endowment effort.

The state, PT hears, is loath to consider taking over the agency and instead would prefer finding partners to throw a rescue line if the PHC cannot make it on its own.

Muhlenberg, which has its plate full, may not be able to help more than it already has.

Which would mean other health care organizations who, no doubt, would kick the tires and check under the hood before making a commitment.

Rumors that the PHC could get some temporary relief by selling off a portion of its property behind the Comcast facility are also circulating.

Comcast, PT is told, is NOT interested in the property.

Talk of condos or upscale stand-alone housing which circulated in the early days of the Robinson-Briggs tenure has abated -- no doubt partly because of the softness of the residential development market and also the possibility of Superfund issues on the property.

Would the PMUA be interested? Maybe. But taxpayers should be alarmed if a sweetheart deal is brought forward.

The way to go would be for the PHC to put the proposed land on the market and see who nibbles. That way, the public would get to see what the PHC thinks it is worth -- and whether anyone else sees it that way.

Meanwhile, perhaps the Assemblyman, who has been curiously silent, can do some rainmaking the same way he did for Muhlenberg.

Tens of thousands of clients' health care is at stake.

---

You can check out the PHC website, but don't expect much enlightenment. The welcoming message seems not to have been updated since the site was put up in 2002. The development pages are frozen in time with 2006 activities. The most recent press release on the press page is April 16, 2006. Clicking on the 'Newsletter' link brings up a PDF file of the Spring 2005 issue -- is that the most recent? And when you click on the 'Site Map' link -- a user-friendly way to navigate -- you get the following

-- Dan Damon

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Still shovelin' out

PT is still shoveling out. See you tomorrow.

St. Paddy's Day

'Tis the day for celebrating all things Irish, part-Irish or Irish-friendly.

Want some background? Check out articles on St. Patrick's Day (Pàdraic, hence 'Paddy'), "Éirinn go Brách", and the "Batallón de San Patricio". Also, see the story in today's CLIPS on how get a piece of the 'auld sod' for yourself ("Pining for Irish Soil? You Can Buy It by the Bag").

PT draws the line at green beer.

-- Dan Damon

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The mayor's little pickle

When Mayor Robinson-Briggs enlisted police union leaders in her campaign for mayor, she put herself in a pickle.

All politics is transactional.

The day would come when she would have to pay them back for their help. That day has come -- actually it came this past December -- with the expiration of the police union contracts.

Word is that the Mayor had the temerity to ask the unions to give up the supplementary medical benefits package that favors more senior members over those with less seniority.

Daring to bring up this item was the third-rail which short-circuited any hope of Mayor Al McWilliams for support by police union leadership for a third term.

So far, the Mayor's offer to the unions has been deemed unacceptable, and although several meetings have been held, PT's guess is that the pas de deux will be executed in the usual fashion, with the matter ultimately going to binding arbitration.

Traditionally, this is a desirable outcome for the union leadership as they have usually gotten the administration to up the ante enough by the time it goes to arbitration that the arbitrator's award will be quite satisfactory to the unions.

Elected officials -- no matter how much and how loudly they protest the arbitration settlement -- are relieved of responsibility for the settlement since they can claim it was "out of their hands."

Oddsmakers are guesstimating that the settlement will come in around 13-14% for a three-year contract. With the supplementary medical benefits plan untouched. If union members are asked to chip in any more toward their benefits costs, she can kiss their support goodbye.

Taxpayers need to keep in mind not only the potential impact this settlement will ultimately have, but the fact that the police union contracts set the pattern for the fire unions, the DPW workers and ultimately the rest of the city unions.

Add to all this the full offloading of pension and benefits expenses to municipalities, which will be completed over the next two fiscal years -- and the likelihood that the deterioration of the State's fiscal position will lead to hefty increases in school taxes -- and the stage is set for a taxpayer revolt just as the Mayor prepares to run for her second term. (See the Ledger's Tuesday article, "Property taxes face 'ticking time bomb'")

So the question for the Mayor is what kind of pickle she will make of all this -- sweet or sour.

-- Dan Damon

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Fewer shell casings bad news for public safety?

9mm shell casing found curbside by pedestrian in NYC

Could fewer shell casings be bad news in crime fighting and ultimately in public safety?

Word in the street is that Bukhtiar Katchi was the innocent victim of gunplay between two Plainfield gangs.

There are rumors of other gunplay between two gangs over recent weeks. What?! You didn't read about it in the papers? No, but there have been reports by citizen groups of gunplay -- see here and here.

The Courier's story today about the young man's beef with a relative over property in Pakistan ("Victim made fake terrorist claims against a relative") -- including the mysterious reference to the British consulate in Toronto -- is an aside. The real story appears to be Plainfield gangs.

Was it only this past Sunday that PT posted an item on the rise in violent crime in cities ("Cities see violent crime surge")? It's all about guns, guns, guns, and young men.

Rumor is that the gang feud simmers and is likely to erupt in an all-out gunfight over the next few weeks. That's the BAD news.

But there may be WORSE news.

Seems that Operation Cease-Fire -- the guns- and gunplay-fighting program -- has taken so long coming that gangs are mounting a low-tech countertactic in the cat-and-mouse game between criminals and police.

Word is that they are turning to REVOLVERS as opposed to semi-automatic handguns. Reason? No shell casings left behind for forensics labs to tie to individual guns and eventually to use as evidence in prosecutions.

While there's been plenty of talk about beefing up patrols in the shopping district -- fat lot of good it did Mr. Katchi -- we haven't heard anything about getting rid of gang-related gun violence.

When will Mayor Robinson-Briggs give us a hint GANGS might be an important issue?

-- Dan Damon

P.S. -- Did anyone else find the picture in yesterday's Courier story ("Resident shot, killed in downtown Plainfield") on the murder odd? The Segway -- which PT thought was for patrol and pursuit -- appears to be cruising INSIDE the crime scene tape. Isn't that strange?

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More Plainfield needed in JerseyPride

What do Judy Blume, Sarah Vaughn, Loretta Swit, Paul Robeson and James Fennimore Cooper have in common?

They're all from New Jersey, as are Queen Latifah, Shaq, Bon Jovi and Jerry Lewis.

As are tons of other people, greatly and not-so-greatly famous.

There is a great Jersey fan site -- started by Jerseyan Jeff Kauflin, who was tired of hearing putdowns from classmates at his Vermont college.

The site is JerseyPride.com.

The fun thing is that Jeff is compiling an alphabetical list of famous Jerseyans -- and YOU are invited to help.

If you go to the "Famous New Jerseyans" page, you will find a submission link at the bottom of the page.

You can submit the names of Plainfielders -- and other Jerseyans you think should be listed.

Fill out the simple contact form with the name of the person you are submitting and their claim to fame. It wouldn't hurt to point the editor toward a reference -- online or offline.

PT was a little dubious at first -- especially since there was only ONE Plainfield listing, for Milt Campbell. But after submitting JOE BLACK and GEORGE CLINTON, I am happy to report they checked them out and posted the names to the list.

Go ahead, help yourself!

PS -- You may also want to take a look at the New Jersey Hall of Fame site.

-- Dan Damon

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The real news in the Dem news

There is a wacky scene in Disney's 1951 Alice in Wonderland, at the Mad Hatter's tea party, where the March Hare repeatedly offers Alice a cup of tea but pulls it out of her hands just as she is about to drink it.

The press may be forgiven if it feels a little like Alice after last night's re-announcement of the lineup of Democratic candidates for this year's primary.

Remember that the lineup was announced in last Friday's Ledger ("Plainfield Democrats switch allegiance"), with a note that the formal announcement would come on Monday AT CITY HALL.

ALL THE NEWS WAS ALREADY OUT OF THE BOX -- the dumping of Mapp for Van Blake and granting Carter and Storch the line.

So what was to come out for on Monday -- except maybe a photo opp?

Unless the change of venue to DEM PARTY HEADQUARTERS was the news?

The reason for the venue change heard in the street was that it seemed to the powers-that-be that a partisan political announcement at City Hall was somehow inappropriate.

To which PT says, "Who cares?"

There will be time, there will be time
To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet;
There will be time to murder and create,
And time for all the works and days of hands
That lift and drop a question on your plate;
Time for you and time for me,
And time yet for a hundred indecisions,
And for a hundred visions and revisions,
Before the taking of a toast and tea.

-- The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. T. S. Eliot, 1917.

-- Dan Damon

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PoliticsNJ website revived

Political news junkies in New Jersey just got a new I.V. drip and that is good news.

PoliticsNJ had been a daily staple for many over the past few years and developed a large and stable following.

That reputation rested -- in PT's humble opinion -- on a three-legged stool composed of

• the anonymous 'Wally Edge' who has an encyclopedic knowledge of Garden State political lore, stats, players, grudges and achievements;
  
  
• David Rebovich, the Rider College professor whose astute analysis and assessment of the odds on any given question made him New Jersey's answer to Jimmy the Greek; and
  
  
• Steve Kornacki, adept and razor-witted reporter, who had excellent smoke-and-mirrors sensors and covered the daily flow of news, puffy releases from the pols and scanned the horizon for the next big thing.

That all started to fall apart when Kornacki left. The site seemed not to be able to keep up to speed and often PT found that it was rehashing news that he had found on his own in other places and days earlier. Things got so bad that I was forgetting to check it out at all for weeks at a time.

All that has changed.

The site was bought out by Jared Kushner, owner of the New York Observer, about a month ago and the fresh, clean new iteration went live last Thursday.

Surprisingly the only notice PT spotted was an AP feed, which he first picked up from Newsday -- the LONG ISLAND newspaper -- and later spotted on the Asbury Park Press. Where was the Ledger?

Wally Edge, who keeps his anonymity, will still be involved with the enterprise. Rebovich also stays. Kornacki returns and that is great news.

Other new contributors include former US Senator Bob 'Torch' Torricellli and former Governor Christine 'Christy' Todd Whitman. That should make for some interesting reading.

The site has been completely revamped and tidied up -- boy did it need it!

Gone is the annoying mandatory ad portal that was inflicted on all comers. Though the site has an advertising link,there are not any ads as of today. PT's guess is that they are renegotiating the advertisers that were up before -- who would be well-advised to pony up whatever increase is probably being asked for and get on with it.

There are also options for registering (though it's not clear exactly what you would be registering FOR -- they need to work on that) and RSS feeds. Geeky readers will appreciate the feeds, which deliver the headlines to your news reader in real time without your having to go to the website or wait for a periodic email (if they are keeping that function).

A quick glance this morning gives an idea of the freshness of the coverage -- the Hudson County shakeup gets covered, plus the latest on who's dropping out and dropping in for the 2007 elections, and an entry titled 'Bridge for Sale.'

This is going to be a happening site, folks. Stroll on over to the new PoliticsNJ and check it out.

-- Dan Damon

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Cities see violent crime surge

(Chart, NY Times. Click to enlarge.)

As winter breaks, news comes of a sharp surge in violent crime -- murder, robbery, assaults, gunplay and shootings -- in cities across the country since late 2005.

The NY Times ran the story in Friday's editions ("Violent Crime in Cities Shows Sharp Surge"), based on a report released by the prestigious organization of law enforcement professionals, the Police Executive Research Forum.

The principal cause, as PERF sees it is --

[E]asy access to guns and a willingness, even an eagerness, to settle disputes with them, particularly among young people.

The Times continues --

Police officials say the violence tends to happen among young men in their late teens and early to mid-20s. In some cases, it is random. But in many cases, it is among people who know one another, or between gangs, as a way to settle disputes. Arguments that 20 years ago would have led to fistfights, police chiefs say, now lead to guns.

“There’s really no rhyme or reason with these homicides,” said Edward Davis, the police commissioner in Boston. “An incident will occur involving disrespect, a fight over a girl. Then there’s a retaliation aspect where if someone shoots someone else; their friends will come back and shoot at the people that did it.”

In Richmond (CA), Chief Chris Magnus said he would often go to the scene of a crime and discover that 30 to 75 rounds had been fired. “It speaks to the level of anger, the indiscriminate nature of the violence,” he said.

As for the effectiveness of some highly touted practices, Rochester (NY) Mayor Robert Duffy, who served as police chief for seven years, thinks something more is needed --

As a police chief, Mr. Duffy brought in programs that had reduced crime in other cities: a project cease-fire to end gun violence, a Compstat data collection program to identify the areas of most stubborn crime. But it has not helped.

“We’re doing all the right things consistently, but we have not seen relief,” he said. “It takes much more than law enforcement.”

All of this echoes themes that have been brought out by PT and others before.

Plainfield has had CompStat-type internal reporting and planning for several years in the Police Division. An Operation Cease-Fire program is imminent, or so we've been told for the last six months or so.

Unlike Newark, where Mayor Booker has been more proactive about keeping residents informed of the crime picture, Plainfield generally does not discuss stats except when the FBI's annual reports are issued in August or September of each year. Combined with less coverage by the daily papers, Plainfielders are generally being left in the dark about the actual state of affairs regarding crime and crime trends.

But, as PT noted in January, incidents involving guns and gunplay were up sharply in Plainfield in 2006 according to the Star-Ledger, as were robberies and burglaries. Assaults seem to have risen only slightly. And of course, murders were down over 2005 -- thank God! -- though not as a result of any proactive government effort.

How will things play out in Plainfield for the rest of 2007?

No one can know, but if Mayor Duffy of Rochester is right, there is plenty more to do and it will take much more than just law enforcement.

---

FURTHER READING

NYT - Article: "Violent Crime in Cities Shows Sharp Surge"
PERF Report: "Violent Crime in America: PERF Report" (PDF)
PERF Homepage: "Police Executive Research Forum"

Plainfield Today posts --

December 03, 2006: "Crime: Good news, bad news" -- The Ledger on guns and gunplay.
January 8, 2007: "Themes you will and [probably] won't hear tonight" -- In advance of the State of the City address.
January 14, 2007: "Guns and violence on everyone's mind"

John Farmer OpEd in the Ledger --

Sunday, January 14, 2007: "Rise in violent crime was predictable"

-- Dan Damon

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Will your computer spring ahead tonight?

Overnight tonight, we are going to adventure into the land of DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME (DST). Yes, early this year (and it will last a week longer in the Fall).

Will your computer's experience of SPRINGING AHEAD be smooth and painless or will it wake up tomorrow in STANDARD TIME?

Because the date on which DST starts and ends changes this year in most of the US and many other places, the magic trick by which our computers automatically change their internal time when we boot up on the morning of the change may need some tweaking.

First, let's count off by WINDOWS or MAC and form two lines.

MAC users will want to check out the following useful article --

• Mac: "Daylight Saving Time changes in 2007"

The gist of Apple's advice is that whether or not you think you are ready, you ought to go through the steps outlined in the article.

All you wild and wooly WINDOWS users form up over here --

• Microsoft: "Daylight Saving Time Help and Support Center"

First, note that it is best to work through the Microsoft process by using Internet Explorer rather than another browser (such as Firefox, PT's default browser). The reason is that Microsoft uses some behind-the-scenes tricks (Active X) that are most easily supported by their own browser.

If your Windows system is set to automatically update, your computer may already have been tweaked. If you are not sure, it doesn't hurt to initiate the Microsoft process. You will get an annoying 'clunk' sound along with a message box letting you know you're already taken care of.

The updating process is quite smooth. When you boot up tomorrow morning, you should be greeted with a message that your computer has updated your clock. This will mean you're covered for the extended week this Fall and until the government gets another fit of fixin' at some point in the future.

AOL users have their own reference article here --

• "Another Lost Hour of Sleep"

Don't forget to change your clocks AND your SMOKE ALARM BATTERIES.

---

Further reading

• WP's Rob Pegoraro: "Last-Minute Help With DST for computers and other gadgets"
  
• ZDNet's Tips Page: "DST: Tips for Microsoft users"
• History and Rationale of DST: "Daylight Savings Time"
• NIST's Exhibits Links: "Time & Frequency Exhibits"
• NIST's FAQ Page: "Frequenty asked questions"

-- Dan Damon

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Who will replace Van Blake?

The life cycle of some news can be measured in nanoseconds.**

In case you missed it yesterday ("Plainfield Democrats switch allegiance"), Council President Rayland Van Blake is slated to replace Adrian Mapp as Union County Freeholder. That is, of course, unless there's a GOP landslide in November. In Union County. Right.

Anyway, that was YESTERDAY'S news.

Since then, Plainfield's politerati have been busy guessing who Assemblyman Jerry Green will pick to replace Van Blake on the City Council.

PT had breakfast one day last May with the late Council President Ray Blanco. Ray told me then that it was "101% certain" that Mapp would be replaced in the 2007 lineup and that Van Blake had been tapped.

In Ray's mind, being a freeholder was like being sent to Siberia. He hadn't the slightest interest in the Freeholder Board. He regarded all the important action to take place in one of two locations: City Council or the Legislature. In-between was, in his view, smoke and mirrors.

So, who WILL replace Van Blake on the City Council?

Via email and cellphone, PT has heard the following Round 1 hunches --

• BARBARA JAMES -- The longtime Green aide now serves as 'confidential assistant' and factotum to Mayor Robinson-Briggs. But it would mean giving up that job and a cut in pay.
  
  
• ALEX TOLIVER -- Once he became a Democrat, former Republican Toliver has been a vocal supporter -- and effusive letter-writer -- on behalf of causes near and dear to the heart of the Assemblyman.
  
  
• HATTIE WILLIAMS -- Ward-heeler responsible for the Richmond Towers vote. Green owes her a lot, and Council would perhaps be better than the City Hall info kiosk. Perhaps.
  
  
• LIZ URQUHART -- Urquhart held Van Blake's seat for sixteen years before being ousted by the upstart neophyte in the 2002 election. It would mean a salary cut (Liz makes over $20,000 on the Union County Tax Board per the Courier database). But for Liz, it would no doubt be a delicious irony.

The MAGIC EIGHT-BALL says: "Don't rule out irony."

---

**Though a nanosecond has a technical definition as a millionth of a second, PT has always been partial to the folk definition: A nanosecond is the length of time between when the light in front of you goes green and the car behind you honks its horn.

-- Dan Damon

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Libby: Liar, warmonger, pornographic novelist

'Scooter' Libby's conviction certifies him a liar.

You may also have known he was a warmonger. He was a founding member of the Project For The New American Century, the organization that began promoting a war on Iraq at its inception in 1997. Wikipedia has a thorough article outlining the organization's history, platform, founders and present and former members.

BUT, did you knew Libby was also a published PORNOGRAPAHIC NOVELIST? Seems so.

His 1996 novel, The Apprentice, has been reissued in paper by St. Martin's. If you don't recall, it centers around a group of travellers marooned in northern Japan in 1903 and is -- as the original publisher put it -- "an everyday tale of bestiality and paedophilia in Japan in 1903...packed with sexual perversion, dwelling on prepubescent girls and their training in prostitution." Did I forget to mention that a 10-year-old girl has sex with a bear. In the woods. Where else? You get the picture.

The New Yorker wrote it up in a 2005 'Talk of the Town' piece (which also noted a Lynne Cheney novel where a Republican VP dies while having sex with his mistress). What makes these people so dirty-minded? Where ARE the family values?

Not that you really want to know, but the novel is available on Amazon at $12.95 -- but don't be foolish, skip on over to the used books section, where PT usually trolls; it can be had there as a NEW, REMAINDERED COPY at the amazingly low price of 1¢. That's right, for one cent plain you can get this perfectly filthy and now highly collectible item. Shipping extra. PT ordered his copy. That means you have his permission to indulge. As a piece of Americana, of course.

-- Dan Damon

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Crime on Sherman Avenue?

1030 Sherman Avenue

This cozy little 1920s colonial on the edge of the Plainfield/South Plainfield line is a candidate for a teardown and replacement with new construction.

The matter is slated to come before the Zoning Board of Adjustment this evening. Thanks to reader NP for the heads up.

The crime? Depends on your point of view.

Would it be a crime to tear it down just because it sits on a nice plump lot in a town where such are scarce? And the new construction might tower over its neighbors?

Is it a crime to leave this little dwelling standing when there is such a demand for NEW and FAUX-GRANDIOSE construction? After all, it is money that makes the world go 'round. Right?

This neat little house was once the home of David N. Kendall, Ph. D., Johns Hopkins class of 1943, and his wife and three children.

Dr. Kendall was a pioneer in INFRARED SPECTROSCOPY. What?!

Just another of those sciences that seem impenetrable yet have made their contribution to our daily well-being.

The infrared spectrum is a very narrow, precisely defined band of the light spectrum. Dr. Kendall was a pioneer in developing means of analyzing samples whose molecules 'dance' in particular, identifiable, patterns when excited and observed in this band of light.

Kendall founded Kendall Infrared Laboraties in 1953, which in 1987 became Metuchen Analytical/Kendall Infrared.

He was honored in 1973 with a gold medal for distinguished achievement by the New York section of the Society for Applied Spectroscopy.

He edited the 1966 text Applied Infrared Spectroscopy, which is still consulted.

His research has been important to the advancement of scientific ventures ranging from NASA to medicine, from the structure and development of polymers to such consumer products as sunscreens.

Change is inevitable. Perhaps the real crime would be to let his little house go without remembering the man and his contributions. And the family that lived there and took part in the common life of our community.

Ave atque vale, David Kendall, scientist and Plainfielder.

---

FURTHER READING

• Educational Resources: "Science of Spectroscopy" -- Videos, activities and articles on its contribution to everything from decoding Da Vinci to sports medicine.
  
  
• Libraries with Kendall's text, "Applied infrared spectroscopy"
  
  
• Obituary, Johns Hopkins Alumni Magazine
  
  
• Wikipedia: "Infrared spectroscopy"

-- Dan Damon

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Prowling Park-Madison on foot

Having lunch at the new Cousin's restaurant in the Park-Madison complex (see "A 'hot' downtown restaurant") gave PT an opportunity to check out the status of the previously unfulfilled promises concerning the project reported earlier (see the links to previous entries at end of this post).

First, the good news: Dumpsters behind food establishments are now corralled behind enclosures and screened from view -- as they are supposed to be.

That's it. It's all downhill from there.

Finding a parking space for the lunch date was instructive.

First, the spaces in the parking lot adjacent to the deck carried a stern message that if you were there longer than 30 minutes, you were subject to being towed away.

Stern warning on 30-minute parking limit

Not exactly a pleasant thought, so PT navigated around the block and found a metered space on the north side of West Front Street. Well, sort of. The meter was out of service, which was discovered AFTER dropping a quarter. Not wanting to risk a ticket, I backed up to the space behind me and tried THAT meter. Success.

Crossing the street to the restaurant, I noticed that the ENTIRE length of the south side of the street -- alongside the actual Park-Madison development was parked solid from Madison to Park.

Looking west in front of Cousin's




Looking east in front of Cousin's

That included parking alongside a fire hydrant.

SUV parked at a hydrant

A closer look revealed there are no parking meters on this side of the street, no space striping, and no yellow no-parking curb marking for the fire hydrant. Though it is festooned with a chain and a padlock -- perhaps to tether your vehicle so it won't be taken?

When we mentioned our parking adventure to the restaurant host, we were informed that the County Police keep watch over the lot from inside the the parking deck and only take action when people abuse the privilege.

PT was puzzled. If one couldn't reasonably expect have lunch and get back to the car within 30 minutes, how would one know it was OK to take the chance? (In Fanwood, they handle this by having the cops go through the lot EVERY TWO HOURS and mark tires with chalk. If a car is there the next time the cop comes through and has a chalk mark, it gets a ticket. Fair and square.)

But the bigger question is WHY NO PARKING METERS? Part of the agreement with the UCIA and AST was that the city was to have meters in the off-street lot. Now we don't even have them on the street. What gives?

Leaving the restaurant after lunch, PT encountered a SERIOUS gap in the sidewalk -- three fingers deep -- turns out to be over 2". An accident waiting to happen? And who would be liable? The City? The developer?

Gap in sidewalk is more than 2 inches

Closer inspection revealed the fake-brick decorative 'pavers' are crumbling everywhere. And the project isn't even two years old!

Crumbling concrete and fake-brick

Let's not even go to the RECONSTRUCTION OF PARK AVENUE BETWEEN FRONT AND SECOND, or the MOVING OF THE STREET CLOCK, or the FINAL CERTIFICATE OF OCCUPANCY or the PILOT MONIES.

As AST and the UCIA come before the Council again, will anyone be asking 'What gives?' Or offering TOUGH LOVE?

---

Previous Park-Madison posts --

• On PARKING (July 11, 2006)
• On UNRESOLVED ISSUES (October 10, 2006)
• On PILOTs -- Payments in Lieu of Taxes (October 11, 2006)
• Visuals - PHOTOS OF ISSUES (October 13, 2006)
• Background on UCIA chairperson CHARLOTTE DeFILIPPO (CountyWatchers, March 23, 2006)

-- Dan Damon

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A 'HOT' downtown restaurant

PT had lunch with friends last week at Cousin's, the Jamaican restaurant in the Park-Madison complex.

Though she got relatively busy during the lunch hour, our host, Betty Garvey, who with her husband Ray owns the restaurant, took time to answer our questions and explain items on the menu.

You can get curries (chicken, goat or shrimp), oxtail and beans, King Fish or snapper, or even a Delmonico steak.

But the house specialty is jerk cooking -- seasoning or marinating or both with sauces based on the Scotch Bonnet pepper. (Readers with an engineering inclination may want to check out the Scoville chart -- which rates peppers from zero SU's [Bell peppers] to 1M+ SU's [Naga Jolokia, an Indian pepper]; the Scotch Bonnet, cousin to the habañera, is respectably close to the top.)

After drooling over the extensive offerings, all three of us settled on the jerk shrimp, as luck would have it.

The platters came with a generous number of large, plump and juicy -- but hot! -- shrimps over a bed of white rice and peas accompanied by fried plantains. Delicious.

We were so full, the three of us didn't even think of dessert. That will have to wait for another visit, as will the oxtails, on which I had my eye.

P.S. You can tell my mother I even ate almost all of my string beans. Now that's a recommendation!

---

COUSIN'S
211 West Front Street
Plainfield NJ 07060
Phone: 908.822.1212
Fax: 908.822.0020

Website: "Cousin's"

Open to 10 PM Monday through Thursday, 11 PM Friday and Saturday.
Live music Saturday evenings. Brunch on Saturday and Sunday.
Parking on the street or in the County parking lot at the rear.

-- Dan Damon

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A real real estate puzzle

PT is addicted to the Courier's Friday real estate section, as I know many of you are also. (For some reason, the Ledger's Thursday prices in the In The Towns section just don't click the same way. Maybe because they are from different sources and seem to come later than the Courier's.)

Over the past several months, it has become clear that the real estate market is going through a serious adjustment. Though prices in sales of EXISTING homes in the area have not dropped, DOM (days on the market) has increased significantly -- a sign that an adjustment is under way.

Having been a real estate professional in the last great downturn of the late 1980s, PT is extremely sensitive to how Plainfield prices suffer from a whiplash effect -- the last to rise appreciably and the first to sink appreciably.

So, PRICES pique my interest.

On Friday, the reported sale of a well-maintained, custom-built 1960s split level home on Central Avenue (in the same block as former Councilman Malcolm Dunn and the Questover mansion) caught my eye. $405,000. Fair enough.

1094 Central Avenue

But there were two others that were intriguing. One on Willever Street and one on Manson Place, both in the West End.

Willever Street is a sleepy little street that runs from Rushmore Avenue parallel to West 3rd Street and dead ends just before the city line. The homes can be deceiving. Though rather modest in size, many owners have made great improvements to both the interiors and exteriors.

1352 Willever Street would appear to be one such. An older vernacular frame house, probably fromt the turn of the 20th century, it has been expanded considerably, including the attic, and the front porch has been enclosed. The windows have all been replaced and fresh siding and a new side entry and steps are evidence that a considerable investment has been made. The sales price was $360,00, which seems entirely reasonable.

1352 Willever Street

PT remembers Manson Place quite well because the city was never able to sell a city-owned property in the 200-block after several tries. Riding by yesterday, it was still boarded up, with the porch roof now nearly collapsed.

Homes in the 300-block are in considerably better repair and well-maintained.

But PT's jaw dropped as he pulled up in front of number 327. It was quite similar in style to the Willever Street property, but noticeably smaller and without the attic expansion. The lot was somewhat larger, and mostly devoted to a paved parking area. Though appearing well-maintained, the siding was older asbestos shingles and there wasn't any outwardly apparent investment as in the Willever Street house.

Yet it had sold for $565,000. Thats a 56% premium over its neighbor on Willever Street and a 40% premium over the custom-built split on Central Avenue.

327 Manson Place

What gives?

Then PT noticed there was a FSBO (For Sale By Owner) sign in the front yard.

For Sale By Owner sign

Now, why would it be on the market again in such a short time (sales in the paper usually appear 3-4 months after the actual closing on the property)?

But the real zinger was when I got home and downloaded the pictures from the camera. Looking more closely at the FSBO sign, this is what appeared --

'$322,000.00 will hold note'

Something fishy going on here?

-- Dan Damon

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Kerry gets a little swift [boat] justice

(Nick Anderson, Louisville Courier-Journal, 2004)

John Kerry got a little justice this week.

Seems President Bush had the temerity to nominate Sam Fox, 77-year-old Missourian and founder of the Harbour Group, to the post of ambassador to Belgium. Fox, as the AP notes in its coverage of his confirmation hearing, is 'one of the nation's most generous contributors to Republican candidates and causes.'

Turns out that among those causes was the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth committee of 2004 fame. You know, the people who trashed Kerry's reputation as a war hero.

Never mind that Sen. John McCain and Gen. Tommy Franks came to Kerry's defense. Never mind that the Wall Street Journal ran an OpEd at the time in which the author excoriated the Swift Boat travesty. The mendacious and mean-spirited media campaign cost Kerry dearly.

The great 20th-century philosopher and theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, author of The Irony of American History, would have loved this 2007 moment.

The man who contributed $50,000 toward the attack on Kerry had to answer -- or try to -- for himself. Kerry's questioning reminds us that he was once a prosecutor and well knows how to smooth the way with easy questions that lead inevitably to the zingers.

By the time he was done, Fox was caught out saying that in his view 'two wrongs make a right' and then squirming to extricate himself from the corner in which he was painted.

About Kerry's Vietnam service, Fox volunteered "Senator, you're a hero" -- what a difference a nomination makes!

Will Fox be confirmed as ambassador? Stay tuned.

---

Transcript of the nomination hearing: "Kerry Versus Swift Boat Benefactor"

Press coverage:

• NY Times: "Kerry Getting Some Payback for Swift Boat Campaign of ’04"
• Fox News: "Kerry Grills Belgium Ambassador Nominee Over Swift Boat Donation"

Fact-checking the Swift Boat Attack:

• FactCheck.org: "Republican-funded Group Attacks Kerry's War Record" -- With links to copies of the original affidavits on Kerry's medal.
• MediaMatters: "The lies of John O'Neill: Swift Boat Vets founder's repeated untruths about himself, Swift Boat Vets, Unfit for Command"
• SourceWatch: "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth"

Sam Fox's Political Contributions:

• Bush Pioneers (2000): "Sam Fox, Bush Pioneer"
• CampaignMoney.com: "Sam Fox: Contributions for the 2006 Elections"
• Mother Jones Donor Profile: "Sam Fox (with Marilyn)"
• Newsmeat: "Sam Fox's Political Contributions"

-- Dan Damon

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Is A&P deal trouble for Plainfield?

+

=

?

A&P is moving to take over Pathmark and that could be trouble for Plainfield's supermarket hopes.

You may have missed the brief business story in Wednesday's Ledger ("A&P, Pathmark confirm talks"), but the industry's 'worst-kept secret' was acknowledged on Tuesday.

Both supermarkets have been troubled financially for years -- this in an industry where profit margins can be as low as 3%.

What does this have to do with Plainfield?

Pathmark has been rumored for years to be THE supermarket that is interested in the Marino's redevelopment site on West Front Street, across from the Drake House Museum.

AST, the developer designated for the project has already missed a deadline, asked for an extension, and looks like it may miss on the extension, too. Whatever their problems have been in putting a deal together, they are likely to become more complicated now.

The reason is that A&P, the top dog in the deal, is known not to perform well in URBAN locations. Their strength has been in their SUBURBAN stores, like South Plainfield -- though you may have your doubts after witnessing their disastrous store reconfiguration of last summer.

Though Pathmark's strength is its performance in URBAN markets, expansion plans may be put on hold by the new management until the merger can be consolidated. That consolidation is likely to include the closing of stores where there is overlap and where one or the other chain has an underperforming unit. And, of course, the new management could put the kibosh on plans for any Plainfield Pathmark unit.

PT has puzzled for years at the rather drab Pathmark on Route 22 in North Plainfield. From a marketing point of view, it seems a nearly ideal location, with no competition in any direction for about three to four miles. But somehow it has never seemed to quite click, unlike the South Plainfield A&P, which was mobbed from its opening day.

What kind of traffic can a Plainfield supermarket generate? Plainfielders have resented not having a store since Foodtown was yanked after Royal Dutch Ahold took over the chain in the early 1990s. But resentment may not be enough to make a business case.

While the West Front Street location makes sense from the point of view of how close competitors are (the problem would be the Route 22 Pathmark), the real issue on the minds of store executives and the developer is probably: Who will shop there?

Desirable upscale shoppers will have to have some incentive to bring them to West Front Street.

What will it be?

-- Dan Damon

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Media update

Yesterday was Christa Segalini's last day reporting on Plainfield for the Courier News.

She wrote PT that is was a bittersweet moment -- she enjoys reporting enormously, but her new job will give her other opportunities to engage her talents. And it will have stable hours. Stable hours? What's that?

Our best wishes to her for her future and our thanks for the diligence and relish with which she undertook her responsibilities covering Plainfield.

For your reference, UPDATED MEDIA CONTACT INFO is below.

One etiquette note, though.

Email has become the preferred method of communication. When contacting the media, their preference is that your material SIMPLY BE IN THE BODY OF YOUR EMAIL MESSAGE -- no Word documents attached, no PDF files.

Why? First, attachments to email messages expose recipients to the possibility of unwanted computer viruses and worms.

Second, attachments only interrupt the flow of work, with the recipient having to fire up Word or their Acrobat reader to view the information.

What they need and want is simply to have the TEXT in the body of the message so they can cut and paste and get on about their business without unnecessary distraction. No graphics, no fancy fonts, no borders, no fancy formatting, just the words.

Your consideration will be greatly appreciated and will help the quality of your coverage.

POSTCRIPT RE: PHOTOS

PT has never known the Ledger to accept photos. The Courier has. JPGs have always been acceptable, in PT's experience. Minimum resolution: 150 dpi. They prefer 300 dpi. It's wise to call before submitting a photo if it is to accompany a press release. The rule of thumb seems to be that its OK for items that will run in the Community or Kicks sections, but they generally do not use them in the News sections. (Posted at 10:07 PM -- Dan)

COURIER

Metro Editor - (908) 707-3121 or 707-3248, fax 707-3252, email: cnmetro@c-n.com

LEDGER

Alexi Friedman - (908) 302-1505, fax 302-1510 - email: afriedman@starledger.com
Union County Bureau - (908) 302-1500, fax same - email: union@starledger.com

PCTV-74

Tony Grey - (908) 753-3301, email: agrey43@yahoo.com

NEWS 12 NJ

John Bathke - email: jpbathke@news12.com

-- Dan Damon

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