Getting ready for 2020

The GOP on impeachment, then and now.

  Siddeeq el-Amin and I were not the only ones to have this thought.

Coming in 2020.

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  -- Dan Damon [follow]

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A perfect Christmas present for these times

The note accompanying the perfect Christmas gift.

Detail showing the dumpster fire pattern. Apropos of 2019.
Let's hope not 2020.

Well, it certainly has been one 'bumpy year' as Queen Elizabeth put it in her annual Christmas address.

And my goddaughter -- a Plainfield native now living in Chicago -- and her husband hit the spot with a gift of a pair of socks featuring, what else -- a dumpster fire.

We'll see where things go in 2020, but I am expecting the Senate to acquit Trump -- if not in the process attempting to exonerate him.

(That will be difficult unless they allow the calling of witnesses, which puts them in something of a bind -- because the relevant uncalled witness are all folks who witness behavior that will not benefit Trump.)

So I think we can plan on seeing a wounded president up against an as yet unknown candidate from the Democrats, who at this point are offering their own multi-ring circus.

But things will get serious real quick.

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  -- Dan Damon [follow]

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Rethinking Christmas

The Nativity at the Methodist church in Claremont, CA
has focused many Christians' Christmas attention on
President Trump's border policies.

Thanks to Donald Trump, people of faith -- among whom I count myself -- will never be able to think of Christmas in the same old way.

Growing up with images of angels singing to the newborn Babe, living creches with farm animals, and Christmas mornings with piles of presents under the tree, I never dreamed Christmas would assume a new dimension.

But Donald Trump's policy of separating immigrant families at the border has focused attention on another aspect of the Christmas story -- there all the time, but not in focus.

The baby Jesus, his mother Mary and her spouse Joseph were undocumented immigrants.

The Holy Family fled to Egypt from the murderous Herod, who was intent on murdering all male children in the area under the age of two (Matt. 2:16-18).

The image of an immigrant family fleeing for its lives has reframed the Christmas celebration for many, who now place an emphasis on helping refugee families trapped in Trump's cruel border policies.

Here is a list of organizations helping families at the border for those who wish to help --

"Seven activist groups helping families at the border"

  -- Dan Damon [follow]

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Pemberton Avenue closure update

I noticed this detour sign on Randolph Road for
the first time on Thursday (12/12).

Map shows location of bridge repairs (and also
indicates where Pemberton Avenue starts).

 
When barricades went up in Cedar Brook Park a couple of weeks ago preventing through traffic, Plainfield social media erupted with questions.

No one seemed to know what was going on.

Here's an update based on answers to some questions I asked --

• The bridge over the Cedar Brook, which runs through the eponymously named park, is being replaced by the County, which is responsible for the roadway between the beginning of Pemberton Avenue and Park Avenue.
  
  
  
• The work is estimated to take several months and may not be completed until the spring of 2020.
  
  
  
• Folks who use this as a direct route to Park Avenue should plan alternate routes. Detour signs have popped up on Randolph Road.
  

Users of the sports fields can still get in from Park Avenue to the parking lots and Arlington Avenue extension.

The Shakespeare Garden is accessible from Rose Street.

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  -- Dan Damon [follow]

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Paul Volcker, Plainfielder who saved the U.S. dollar, dies

Always a smoker, Paul Volcker in 1980.
You can see the dime-store cigars in his hankie pocket.

  Paul Volcker died on Sunday. A few will remember him as chairman of the Federal Reserve under presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan.

Fewer still will remember him as a Plainfielder, but indeed he was.

Born in Cape May in 1927, where his father was the city manager, he grew up in Teaneck, where his father had been lured to save the town from bankruptcy.

His father's sense of public service led him to consider public service the highest good in his life.

A graduate of Princeton, he combined an interest in economy, history and public administration.

In the early 1950s he returned from the London School of Economics, where he had studied on a Rotary scholarship, and went to work as a staff economist for the New York Federal Reserve Bank.

Always frugal -- and notorious for his dime-store cigars and ill-fitting ready-to-wear suits (he was 6-foot-7) -- it seems likely that Volcker and his new wife Barbara Bahnson came to Plainfield after getting married in 1954.

In line with his reputation as unostentatious, the Volckers did not pick one of Plainfield's leafy historic areas or a tony street with the up-and-coming, but instead settled for a modest new home on what was then a raw-looking Carnegie Avenue. 912 to be exact.

The house at 912 Carnegie Avenue where the
Volckers lived from 1956-1962.

One anecdote told of him -- and it may well fit with his time in Plainfield -- is that when the front seat in his old Nash Rambler gave out, he removed it and replaced it with a wooden chair whose legs had been cut down.

It was probably here at Muhlenberg Hospital that their children and Janice and James were born, and they may have attended Evergreen School for a few years before the family relocated to Washington, DC, in 1962 when he joined the administration of John. F. Kennedy.

Paul Volcker is most remembered for his shock therapy to get inflation under control. Under pressure from the oil crisis of the early 1970s, by 1979 inflation in the U.S. had reached 1% per month (we now get palpitations if it exceeds 2% per year!) -- or more than 12% per year.

President Jimmy Carter offered him the job at the Fed in 1979 and the first thing he did was announce an all-out war on inflation, which was destroying the value of the U.S. dollar.

But instead of manipulating interest rates as was the expected maneuver, Volcker decided to limit the amount of money in circulation, allowing the market to set interest rates on its own.

Within a short time, interest rates had risen to more than 21% on mortgages and auto loans. (Memories of selling homes in this market were still coin of the realm among veteran realtors when I began my real estate career in 1986.)

Though the recession this brought on probably cost Jimmy Carter a second term, Volcker was kept on by Ronald Reagan until 1987, at which point he retired. Within two years the runaway inflation had been brought under control.

He was brought back by President Barack Obama to deal with the economic meltdown of 2008 and once again recommended strong medicine. Relations with Obama's advisers -- mostly Clinton-era deregulation advocates -- were tepid at best.

Under pressure from Congressional Democrats on the Obama administration, we have him to thank for the 'Volcker Rule' announced by Obama in January, 2010.

This rule prevents banks from making investments only to increase their bottom line, instead of benefiting their customers. Banks have never been happy with the rule, and President Trump has signaled he wants to dismantle it.

Pretty heady stuff for someone who lived in our quiet little community.

He was literally a giant among men, and before we are finished with Donald Trump I think we will rue the loss of Paul Volcker.

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  -- Dan Damon [follow]

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Dan is back from a week in the hospital

To understand stents, one of my doctors suggests thinking
of the Chinese finger traps we played with as kids.

 Well, I'm back from an unexpected week in the hospital. Actually 6 days, but who's counting.

After suffering increasing pains in my chest and shortness of breath over several days, beginning with Thanksgiving, I finally cut the macho crap and had Nat take me to the JFK Emergency Room on Monday morning.

I spent four days at JFK, two of them (to my mind) unnecesary.

Monday was entirely in the ER. I sat in the lobby for a more than an hour while everyone else before and after me was ushered into the ER. When I walked to the bathroom and back and had shortness of breath and asked at the desk, they rushed me back.

Once in the ER, I was given a gurney in the hallway. They were jammed. They were very busy. My nurse told me I was her 8th patient. Without pain and not complaining I sat on my gurney until 4:30, when they put me in a curtained cubicle. Later that evening they transferred me to the Access Center, which is for patients who will be there a couple of days but not fully admitted.

Tuesday, in the Access Center, I was given dialysis, which I had missed at DaVita on Monday.

On Wednesday, I had a catheterization which determined there were serious blockages. My cardiologist, Dr. Mahmoud Alam, determined that because I was a 'high risk' patient (with a triple-bypass already) I needed further treatment at a facility that also has a heart surgery license -- just in case.

Thursday was spent deciding whether I would be sent to Beth Israel or Robert Wood Johnson. It turned out to be RWJ-New Brunswick.

At 2:00 AM Friday morning I was transferred to RWJ by ambulance. This is because Medicare required billing to start on a 'new' day -- which means after 12:01 AM.

At 6:30 AM Friday, I was the first -- and only -- patient in a 20+ bed area reserved for angioplasty and cath patients. Dr. Hussein and crew worked diligently, using the 'roto-rooter' to remove calcified plaque and place four stents. I was back in my room by 8:30 AM, in time for breakfast.

Since I needed dialysis to remove the dye used in the procedure but was exhausted from it, it was decided I would get dialysis on Saturday AM and be discharged afterward.

Dialysis on Saturday was long (four hours) and after getting a sandwich and waiting for an hour for a doctor to discharge me, I was finally out the door somewhat around 3:00 PM.

Now look, kiddies, I have some advice: Do not try to self-diagnose if your symptoms could be of something serious.

I told myself it was indigestion and took some Alka-Seltzer. However, I am very rarely subject to this complaint and never two days in a row. With shortness of breath on top of it.

Listen to your body. It's telling you something important.

I am glad to be back and putting Plainfield Today and CLIPS together for all.

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  -- Dan Damon [follow]

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Plainfield Council agenda-session looks harmless. Is it?

Google satellite view shows the small NJ Transit
lot on North Avenue adjacent to the station.

Plainfield City Council meets Monday at 7:00 PM for its December agenda-setting session.

Amid much routine business -- the annual Free Holiday Parking, a resolution thanking Councilor Cory Storch for his 16 years of service, another by Councilor Davis noting the 400th anniversary of the arrival of enslaved Africans in America -- there are several items of interest.


The proposed NJ Transit agreement may spark some discussion, as well as the health benefits contract.

197 PROPERTIES PLAN - 5th Revision

Ordinance 2019-28 is removing 28 properties from the remaining total of 78, leaving just 50 in the remaining plan. A scan of the list reveals all but one are now privately owned (several are vacant, undersized lots); the one city-owned property being an undersized lot on Carnegie Avenue. With nearly 3/4 of the properties in the original plan now disposed of, I think we can declare it mostly a success -- after more than 20 years.

MOU WITH THE BOARD OF ED

The City of Plainfield and the Plainfield Board of Education are renewing the Memorandum of Understanding entered into some time back, whereby each is able to use the facilities of the other without fees. This has certainly been a boon for the City when meetings are held that are designed to appeal to the different wards.

SALE OF CITY-OWNED PROPERTIES

Tax Assessor Tracy Bennett is preparing for another auction of city-owned properties. Of the 16 on the current list, 14 are vacant land, one is a 2-family residence, and one is a commercial property.

HEALTH CARE AIN'T CHEAP

A resolution for a short-term renewal of the City's medical and prescription benefits for active and retired employees with Aetna suggests that the City's annual tab for benefits is in the range of $15M per year. As we all know, healthcare ain't cheap.

NJ TRANSIT AND PEDESTRIAN MALL

The City proposes to enter into an agreement with NJ Transit to take over the small NJT-owned parking lot on the North Avenue side of the station as part of the proposed North Avenue Pedestrian Mall project (see satellite view above). NJ Transit is attaching several conditions, including how the City is to replace the displaced parking spaces. In planning for over a year now, I hear constant murmurs of concern from the merchants who will be (along with tenants in upper floor apartments) vastly affected by the proposed mall.

GATEWAY REDEVELOPMENT (MUHLENBERG)

The Economic Development is moving quickly to designate the large former Muhlenberg parking lot on Park Avenue across from the hospital complex as a non-condemnation redevelopment area. Anyone want to bet there's someone waiting in the wings? It's a juicy piece of property. Apartments? Retail? Medical offices? Stay tuned.

MISCELLANEOUS

Evona Avenue: Because necessary tree removal in the project is not covered by CDBG grants, the City must make up the $2,000 cost.
Garfield Avenue: The City will use the Morris County Co-op to replace sidewalks on Garfield Avenue for $18,000.

City Council meets in an agenda-setting session at 7:00 PM in the Council Chambers / Courthouse at Watchung Avenue and East 4th Street. Parking available on the street and in the lot across from Police Headquarters.

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  -- Dan Damon [follow]

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