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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Plumbing inspection? Fuhgeddaboudit!

Quick! Write this number down: (800) 521-6310.

Store it in a safe place.

A reader's contractor checked with City Hall to schedule a plumbing inspection for a home renovation project that is nearing completion, only to report to the client that there was no telling when the inspection could be scheduled.

What?

The reader checked for themselves and found that there were only TWO problems. First, the computer network in the Inspection Division was down and nobody could say when anything could happen. (Didn't the City just pay $157K to get that part working?)

Second, there would be no plumbing inspections until there was a plumbing inspector.

What?

Seems the plumbing inspector, with more than 20 years experience in Plainfield, had had it up to the eyeballs and quit last week, without notice.

Like most New Jersey communities, Plainfield's plumbing inspector is a part-time position. While there is a steady stream of inspections to perform -- between home improvement projects and new construction -- there is not enough work to keep an inspector employed full-time.

Plumbing inspectors are licensed by the State and most spread their work week around as part-time employees in more than one community.

Plainfield generates, PT is told, between 20 and 25 inspections per week, on a two-day per week inspection schedule.

Like tax collectors and assessors, the world of licensed inspectors is a rather small one, with inspectors knowing each other and the quirks of the communities for which they work. As with any small, artisan-centered trade, the treatment inspectors get figures prominently in the chit-chat in which they engage.

Plainfield has been on a tear in its treatment of inspections personnel since the beginning of the Robinson-Briggs administration in January, 2006. The 'street cred' is near zero. With plenty of work out there for inspectors and Plainfield's reputation as an abusive workplace, the Administration has its work cut out for it in attracting a new inspector.

We'll see how quickly they're able to replace the open inspector's position -- and at what price.

For now -- plumbing inspection? Fuhgeddaboudit!

Meanwhile, that phone number?

It's for Porta-John. Keep it handy. If you're doing or planning a home improvement project you just may need it.

-- Dan Damon

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What's with the Courier?

You may recently have noticed the banner above on the Courier's online front page.

What's it about?

You are being invited to help contribute content to the Courier's online edition.

Faced with declining readership for the printed editions and pressure on advertising incomes, newspapers everywhere are scrambling to reinvent themselves.

Staffwise, papers are trying to do more with fewer people. PT has commented before on the impact on local news with the broadening of reporters' 'beats'.

Plainfield used to have a reporter who did nothing but cover Plainfield news full time. Now, Christa Segalini, who has the Plainfield beat, is just as likely to file a story on another community (see her Somerville story, "Judge dismisses Pathmark lawsuit", in today's edition).

The implications are that the reporter does not get the time to develop an in-depth knowledge of a community, its issues and its players, and instead must report mostly the surface action and rush along to the next assignment. It's not pleasant for the reporter. It's not helfpul to the reading public.

But if fewer people can only grind out so much sausage, what is a paper to do to fill the pages between the ads?

One tactic is to aggregate the news from other sources. By now you have noticed the growing number of stories that carry the (AP) designation. Generated by talented but faceless writers these stories often are about events at a further remove -- state, national or world -- or about odd, outrageous or weird topics.

Another tactic, adopted by the Courier's corporate parent, Gannett, is to syndicate the stories by writers at its New Jersey papers and share them. (Besides the Courier, Gannett publishes the Home News Tribune of New Brunswick, the Asbury Park Press, and the Courier-Post of Cherry Hill.)

Lastly, the Courier has turned to letting you, the reader, be both reporter and publisher. That is what the image at the top of the page is about. Clicking on the links will allow you to submit your own stories, photographs and event listings.

Will this revolutionize the Courier? Or will it lead to a new form of online 'refrigerator art'?

We will have to wait and see. Meanwhile, PT invites you to go check out the Courier's new gambit. Oh, did I forget to mention you'd be working without pay?

---

FURTHER READING

If you are intrigued by what is going on in newspapers' struggles to adapt to this new online world, check out ("Can We Be Friends? Local Papers Building Better Relationships Online") at EContent. And sample some other newspapers' efforts to adapt -- as at the Akron (OH) Beacon-Journal and the Wilkes-Barre (PA) Times-Leader.

-- Dan Damon

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Signs of the times

SIGNS OF THE TIMES February 2007 Eye-catching construction activity around town, presented for your amazement, amusement, or consternation -- your pick. Some of these are signs of more to come. Some you may hope are NOT signs of more to come. All are making for a different Plainfield from the one you knew even a short time ago.
West 4th Street, 600 Block This surely gives a new meaning to the notion of a 'shotgun' house. It's an expansion of an existing dwelling, across from the old Plainfield Health Center.	Arlington Avenue, 900 Block This new house towers over its neighbors. Makes you wonder how that got approved. The windows may meet code, but they appear as tiny punchouts in a slab of wall -- more like portholes than windows.
Emerson School construction, view 1 While school construction faces an undecided future throughout the state, Emerson is the only project under way in Plainfield now.	Emerson School construction, view 2 If the state welches on the rest of Plainfield's school construction, will the former National Starch property ever return to the tax rolls? You REALLY want to know the answer to that one.
East Front Street, 700 Block How to develop a deep narrow lot? Putting the drive down one lot line and stacking them cheek-by-jowl? That's one solution, as in these new multi-families.	Belvedere Avenue, 900 Block What to do when your house is on a hill, with a thousand steps to the front door? Take some of the hill away. The UPS guy will be thankful.
Myrtle Avenue, 1000 Block, view 1 This classic 1920s center-hall Colonial is getting a new neighbor. Scary looking construction entrance for the new foundation has swiped the soil right up to the foundation.	Myrtle Avenue, 1000 Block, view 2 Neighborhood rumor is that this will be Plainfield's first tear-down, with the gracious colonial to disappear and be replaced by another new unit on this spacious double-wide lot. Progress?

Council Schedule - Who Cares?

The City Council seems unable to decide on a schedule for its meetings.

For more than eighty years (PT has read newspaper reports from the early 1920s), the schedule had been ALTERNATE MONDAYS. One Monday an agenda-setting session, the next the business meeting, and so on, with fifth Mondays off.

In 2006, under the leadership of then Council President Ray Blanco, the schedule was changed to a ROLLING Monday and Wednesday setup. On a Monday an agenda-setting session and the immediately following Wednesday a business session, followed by a week with no meetings.

The reason given for this drastic change was that it was to accommodate Jenny Wenson-Maier, the Director of Public Works and Urban Development, who also happens to be a Councilor (and Council President) in Rahway, where she resides. It created quite a stir in a community where so many people who follow Council meetings also attend regular Wednesday Bible study in their churches.

There has been a great deal of dithering about whether to keep to this new schedule, revert to the traditional one or choose another pattern.

On the one hand, the new arrangement gives the Councilors time to spend with their families, as Councilor Simmons has pointed out. And to study up on issues under consideration, as Councilors Burney and Storch have mentioned.

On the other hand, the compression between agenda and business meetings makes life hellish for Municipal Clerk Laddie Wyatt and her staff. The Administration also seems to have problems keeping up with the changes requested in proposed resolutions and ordinances as can be seen in the unprecedented number of items withdrawn by the Administration after being published on the agenda.

There is another alternative. The City's special charter requires only a minimum of one meeting per month. It is conceivable, then, that the Council could meet once a month to set the agenda and once a month to conduct business. The advantage of such an arrangement would be that everybody gets -- theoretically -- the time needed to do the things they need to: the Council, the Clerk, and the Administration.

Does the public care?

That, dear readers, is your cue.

Go to THIS WEEK'S POLL (upper right-hand column) and register YOUR opinion.

-- Dan Damon

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Exhibit: Landscapist Donna Grandé

Island Mist, 2006

Award-winning Montclair landscapist Donna Grandé will be featured in an exhibit that opens with a reception this afternoon from 2:00 - 4:30 PM in the Plainfield Public Library's Anne Louise Davis Gallery.

Grandé has won numerous awards for her art throughout New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maine. She is currentlly represented by galleries in Vermont and Maine, as well as by Art Forms Galleries in Red Bank.

This show, comprising forty works, focuses primarily on her landscapes in pastels, but includes some landscapes and abstracts in acrylic and oil.

Grandé, a member of the Art Students League of New York, studied at the NJ School of Visual Arts in Summit, Montclair State University and the Institute of Design in New York.

This afternoon's opening includes a reception to which the public is cordially invited. The exhibit will hang through April 21.

For more information, call Library Director Joe Da Rold at (908) 757-2305.

-- Dan Damon

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Hiring during a hiring freeze...and fundraising tactics

HIRING DURING A HIRING FREEZE

The cops fume that there is a hiring freeze and no promotions, and Mayor Robinson-Briggs hires yet another 'communications' person?

That would be Jazz Johson, just this week hired away from the Plainfield Municipal Utilities Authority. Word has it at a salary of around $65K.

And the budget the Council adopted was explained to us as having its savings over the Administration's proposed budget come to us by way of a hiring freeze. Hmmm...

Would be nice to know the exact tab for all these communications types, wouldn't it?

There's Tony Grey, who's supposed to be running PCTV-74, the cable station. And Cynthia Crawford, president of the Municipal Employees Union and wife of PBA president Andre Crawford, who is in charge of producing a newsletter (Have you seen it?). AJ, who was supposed to be minding the website is now in the Clerk's office (hovering around $70K). So, who's watching the website? No one, it seems -- but we're paying for having it anyway. Let's not forget Laurence Rice, who continues to publish his Tri-County News even though he's on the city payroll.

Should we include the Mayor's confidential aide Barbara James? If you want to communicate with the Mayor, you go through her, so I guess that counts. And what about Dr. Gerard Lee's outreach to the nonprofit community on behalf of the Mayor? There's a salary involved there, too.

Let's not leave out the erstwhile crew at the 'information counter' in the City Hall lobby -- including Piscataway resident Carmen Salavarrietta, who performed such a useful communications function for the Mayor during her campaign.

There's a whole lot of communicatin' going on here, but most of it seems to be involved in communicatin' your tax dollars away from the City treasury. How much, a quarter of a mill? Chump change, unless you're the chump, chump.

(Would it be immodest to point out that PT was the ONLY communications person at City Hall in his day, TOPPING OUT AFTER EIGHT YEARS at $65K, and that he was a City employee for three years BEFORE going over to City Hall? Of course, there is the possibility that all these people are doing a better job. Of course.)

Did I forget to mention MISSING TOYS at City Hall?

Word is that an EXPENSIVE COMPUTER (would $5,000 for a computer today be expensive? you betcha!) intended for PCTV-74 has gone missing. Or was never received? Surely someone is looking into it? And then there's an EXPENSIVE CAMERA. What's become of it?

Now mind you, these are the Mayor's handpicked people.

MAYORAL MODEL: JAMES OR BOOKER?

About that fundraiser last night for the 'Sharon Robinson-Briggs for Mayor' campaign committee.

City Hall is awash with talk about the invites and the pressure applied to get tickets sold. Word is they were produced in the Mayor's office, so that 'in-house labor' tag may be unintendedly and amusingly correct. (Hey! This is Joisey, not a Sunday School class!)

Where it gets James-like is PT is told that employees received calls from the Mayor's office, telling them to be sure and stop by to pick up their tickets -- quantities pre-prescribed.

Cory Booker, on the other hand, has eschewed this kind of old-school, political-machine fundraising.

PT will leave it to you, dear reader, to figure out the fundraising model being employed here.

Meanwhile, the cops are in complete turmoil. But that will have to be another post.

-- Dan Damon

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ARCHIVED POSTS OF PLAINFIELD TODAY FROM 11/03/2005 THROUGH 12/31/2006 ARE AT
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Alarm Grows Over Bush Drive to Iran War

Over the past week, former Bush officials and others have expressed growing alarm over the potential for the Administration to provoke a crisis with Iran and precipitate a military intervention by the US that could plunge the region from the Nile to the Hindu Kush into the conflagration of war. The list includes:

• Hillary Mann Leverett, Bush's former National Security Council Director for Iranian and Persian Gulf Affairs
• Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia, former Secretary of the Navy under President Reagan
• Zbigniew Brzezinski, former Secretary of State
• Congressman Ron Paul, Republican of Texas
• Retired U.S. Air Force Colonel Sam Gardiner

Approaches by Iran in 2003, offering to meet with Washington and negotiate all open items, were kept secret by the Administration and only became public knowledge in recent days.

That proposal was delivered directly to Karl Rove, and it appears Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice has been dissembling about her knowledge of the offer. This suggests that the Administration has been planning on war or military intervention for years and did not want to be inconvenienced by Iran's willingness to sit down and negotiate.

Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne suggests that possibly the best way forward is for Congressional Republicans to confront Bush over his failure to take the Iraq Study Group's proposals seriously. It has become evident since January that the President has no intention of paying the least bit of mind to the bipartisan group's sensible proposals for a POLITICAL as opposed to a MILITARY solution in the region.

Folks, this is serious business. Check out the stories in-depth below. Then consider contacting our Congressional representatives to urge them to demand that the Administration find a NEGOTIATED solution to the tensions in the Persian Gulf.

• Truthout: "Former Bush Officials Accuse White House of Trying to Provoke Iran"
  
  
• InterPress News Service: "Rove Said to Have Received 2003 Iranian Proposal"
  
  
• Washington Post: E.J. Dionne: "The Antiwar Rallying Point"
  
  

---

Contact information for our representatives in Washington --

Sen. Frank Lautenberg
825A Hart Senate Office Bldg
Washington, DC 20510
(202) 224-8929
or
1 Gateway Center, 1st Floor
Newark, NJ 07102
(973) 639-8700
online contact form: http://lautenberg.senate.gov/contact/

Sen. Robert Menendez
502 Hart Senate Office Bldg
Washington, DC 20510
(202) 224-4744
or
1 Gateway Center, 1lth Floor
Newark, NJ 07102
(973) 645-3030
online contact form: http://menendez.senate.gov/contact/contact.cfm

Rep. Frank Pallone
420 Cannon House Office Bldg
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-4671
or
67/69 Church Street / Kilmer Square
New Brunswick, NJ 08901
(732) 249-8892
email: frank.pallone@mail.house.gov

View today's CLIPS here. Not getting your own CLIPS email daily? Click here to subscribe.

ARCHIVED POSTS OF PLAINFIELD TODAY FROM 11/03/2005 THROUGH 12/31/2006 ARE AT
http://plainfieldtoday.blogspot.com/

East 7th Street Fire

(Photo, Cheryl Alana-Bullock)

An early evening fire erupted yesterday in a multi-family property in the 400-block of East 7th Street. PT is told that sparks from plumbing work being done in the basement ignited the fire, which quickly spread up to the attic.

The photo was captured by reader Cheryl Alana-Bullock -- on her cellphone. Thank you, Cheri!

-- Dan Damon

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ARCHIVED POSTS OF PLAINFIELD TODAY FROM 11/03/2005 THROUGH 12/31/2006 ARE AT
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Two Cheers for Robinson-Briggs

The cheers are pouring in.

CHEER 1: PAID FOR BY 'SHARON ROBINSON-BRIGGS FOR MAYOR' CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE

(Click to enlarge. Set printer to Landscape if printing.)

The Mayor will host a mingle-drink-dance-nosh event tomorrow evening "in celebration of her 'Mayor's 1st Anniversary Gala'" at an unnamed club at 111 East Front Street. Tickets are $35, but you're on your own at the bar. Dust off your tux if you're going -- formal is suggested, putting Plainfield on a par with Thursday evening Embassy parties in the nation's capital. Miss Manners, please take note!

Since fundraisers for campaign committees such as the Mayor's are scrutinized by the State's Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC), invitations routinely highlight that public monies, employees, photocopiers, etc. were NOT used in the production of the mailing piece.

So, we are comforted to note the Mayor's committee complied with the following notice --

Too bad the Council will have to be late for the festivities, if they make it at all. Seems the planning did not take into account that they meet on Thursday this week because of Monday being a national holiday. Details, schmetails.


CHEER 2: NOT PAID FOR BY ANYONE, TO PT's KNOWLEDGE

Today's Courier runs a letter to the editor by former First Ward Republican-turned-Democrat Alex Toliver, in praise of Republican-turned-Democrat Mayor Robinson-Briggs and her 'tactful and tenacious' approach to life and governance.

PT reprints the letter in its entirety, but you will also want to check it out at the Courier's online site here --

Robinson-Briggs right for Plainfield

I think it's time that we in the city of Plainfield give our mayor, Sharon Robinson-Briggs, two thumbs up for what she has accomplished with her leadership since taking office, and for the help she asked for from our city Democratic leader and state assemblyman, Jerry Green.

Mayor Robinson-Briggs has had to overcome a lot with the many dark clouds and many obstacles placed in her path by the last administration. She has used a tactful and tenacious approach to help bring about what she saw as the No. 1 need, a unified city -- not the Queen City, but a city working together to be all it can be; a place that can and will take care of its own, old and young, poor and rich.

With Mayor Robinson-Briggs as our leader, we can now start to see new development in housing, city infrastructure, a cleaner, better-looking city with the Plainfield Municipal Utilities Authority and Plainfield public works working together. It is a safer city with the addition of much-needed police officers who have made our citizens once again feel safe day or night.

The fire department is one of the best in the county, and the Plainfield schools leadership has been left intact, as well it should be. Also a strong school board is working with our schools superintendent, and Plainfield City Hall and all of its offices are open to the public like never before.

It seems as if now Plainfield, with our Mayor Robinson-Briggs at the helm, has become a city to come to, not to leave. We now have a mayor for all of the people, a mayor who is giving her city her full-time attention on a part-time salary.

Never before have we had a mayor with an office always open to the people of Plainfield. After one year and all of the negativity from many of her naysayers, as a regular Democrat, new to politics, Mayor Robinson-Briggs is proving that she is right for our city. I give her many kudos.

ALEX TOLIVER
Plainfield

Two cheers! Two thumbs!

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ARCHIVED POSTS OF PLAINFIELD TODAY FROM 11/03/2005 THROUGH 12/31/2006 ARE AT
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Scandalous conditions at Walter Reed Army Hospital

The Washington Post has undertaken a series detailing Kafkaesque conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where thousands of military personnel whose bodies have been shattered in the military actions in Iraq and Afghanistan are sent for treatment and recuperation.

How can a government which asks so much from our young men and women treat them this way?

Read the stories. If you care about the young people who have made such enormous sacrifices, consider taking some action.

Here are the stories so far --

Sunday: "Soldiers Face Neglect, Frustration At Army's Top Medical Facility"
Monday: "Survivors of War Wrestle With Military Bureaucracy and Personal Demons"
Today: "Army Fixing Patients' Housing" -- under the glare of publicity.
.......... - "Hospital Investigates Former Aid Chief" -- and a personnel scandal to boot?

An organization that is trying to help these servicemen and their families with advocacy efforts and financial assistance is Operation First Response. Their website is here.

Here is contact information for our representatives in Washington --

Sen. Frank Lautenberg
825A Hart Senate Office Bldg
Washington, DC 20510
(202) 224-8929
or
1 Gateway Center, 1st Floor
Newark, NJ 07102
(973) 639-8700
online contact form: http://lautenberg.senate.gov/contact/

Sen. Robert Menendez
502 Hart Senate Office Bldg
Washington, DC 20510
(202) 224-4744
or
1 Gateway Center, 1lth Floor
Newark, NJ 07102
(973) 645-3030
online contact form: http://menendez.senate.gov/contact/contact.cfm

Rep. Frank Pallone
420 Cannon House Office Bldg
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-4671
or
67/69 Church Street / Kilmer Square
New Brunswick, NJ 08901
(732) 249-8892
email: frank.pallone@mail.house.gov

View today's CLIPS here. Not getting your own CLIPS email daily? Click here to subscribe.

ARCHIVED POSTS OF PLAINFIELD TODAY FROM 11/03/2005 THROUGH 12/31/2006 ARE AT
http://plainfieldtoday.blogspot.com/