Will these kill Robinson-Briggs' plan to buy YWCA?

Senator Lautenberg secured $460,000 for use at Tepper's site.

Will Plainfield Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs continue with her plan to have the city float $5.5 million in bonds to buy the YWCA (see my previous posts here and here)?

Besides the issues already raised, there seem to be two more that are true 'deal-killers'.

TEPPERS

In his FIRST Senate career, Sen. Frank Lautenberg secured two grants for Plainfield -- one for the Plainfield Public Library and one for the city's Tepper's redevelopment project. The Library used its grant expeditiously.

The city's $460,000 grant fell in the gap between the McWilliams and Robinson-Briggs administrations. As the deadline for using or returning the grant approached in 2007, I blogged about it (see here and here).

While there was talk by the new administration of using it elsewhere, when push came to shove and the deadline was literally upon them, the Robinson-Briggs administration awarded a no-bid contract for sheetrocking the 15,000+ square foot space.

Though there was talk of using the space for the proposed business district streetcam project, that has not come to fruition and here we sit, three years later, with nothing done to put the space to good use.

Why not the Tepper's basement, which we already own, and which has been 'improved' with nearly a half million taxpayer dollars already?

Maybe the Council should take a look into this before further consideration of the Robinson-Briggs proposal to buy the YWCA.

WHO SAYS $5.5 MILLION IS A FAIR PRICE?

Cranford is buying school and property for $1.9M. 

While Mayor Robinson-Briggs somehow came up with a dollar amount of $5.5 million, no one seems to know where it came from.

Real estate professionals are asking why the typical average-of-three professional appraisals method wasn't followed, especially considering the city's fragile financial position, and the YWCA's admitted drawbacks -- of which parking availability is a critical shortcoming.

Meanwhile, we learn that over in Cranford -- where properties fetch better prices than in Plainfield -- the Township Committee is about to bond for the purchase of the former Solomon Schechter Day School building and its 3.7 acre campus on Orange Avenue, for the princely sum of $1.9 million (see story here).

So, how do we know the YWCA price is a good one?

And why bond to buy when you already own?

---

• Plainfield Today --
• 6/14/2010:  "Mayor Robinson-Briggs displays edifice envy in desire to buy YWCA"
• 6/17/2010:  "Plainfield mayor's YWCA proposal raises hackles"
• 5/21/2007:  "Will city have to give $460K back to Feds?"
• 6/26/2007:  "Lautenberg grant deadline looms"
  
• Cranford Chronicle:  "Township to bond $1.9M to buy school and 3.7 acre campus"
  

-- Dan Damon [follow]

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

Does Jerry understand the difference?

Does Plainfield Assemblyman Jerry Green understand the difference?

More on this topic later.

Am off (early) to my friend Susan Ironside's first Eucharist.

---

-- Dan Damon [follow]

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

Susan Ironside to be ordained this morning

Bishop Theodora (left) in a 9th-century mosaic
from the Church of St.Praxedis in Rome.

My friend Susan Ironside, whose husband Andrew was organist at Grace Episcopal Church in Plainfield for a number of years, will be ordained a priest this morning at Trinity Cathedral in Trenton.

Susan and Andrew lived in their very first home on Berkeley Avenue, just two doors from Cook School, until Andrew's new job at St. John's-on-the-Mountain in Bernardsville led to a move to Madison.

Susan will celebrate her first Eucharist at 9:30 AM tomorrow at St. John's-on-the-Mountain.

In July, she will begin her service as an assistant at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Westfield.

Congratulations and much love to Susan from all her Plainfield friends.

---

-- Dan Damon [follow]

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

Plainfield Assemblyman Jerry Green shows two faces on affordable housing

Assemblyman Green is not to be confused
with the Roman god Janus, who had good reason to have two faces.

Plainfield Assemblyman Jerry Green is showing two faces on affordable housing as his Housing and Local Government Services committee considers the Assembly version of the COAH-killer housing bill Gov. Christie wants passed before June 30.

Facing pressure from both the governor and Union County Dem powerhouse Sen. Ray Lesniak, whose Senate committee held no public hearing on the bill before kicking it to the full Senate, Green says he will not be rushed (see Christie demand here; Green pushback here).

Kevin Walsh, associate director of the Fair Share Housing Center, one of the groups advocating on behalf of affordable housing, saw Green's pushback as a 'fresh start' (full story here) --

..."Speaker Oliver and Assemblyman Green have stood up for working families and people with special needs," Walsh said. "People have been opposing this all along, and finally someone listened. We look forward to drafting a bill that gets housing near transit and jobs..."

Walsh and other affordable housing supporters would be well advised to check out Assemblyman Green's own words on affordable housing before thinking they are going to get a serious consideration of the matter by Green.

On June 15, Assemblyman Green took up the matter of the affordable housing bill on his blog, Jerry Green's Page (see here) --

As Chair of Housing and Local Government, I will be having a committee meeting wherein S-1 will be on the agenda. I have been working with Governor's Office, housing groups throughout the State, as well as Senator Lesniak to construct an effective bill. My approach has been to have everyone sit at the table, which will allow me to gain cohesive support.

Not everyone will be happy of course, but we must do something to ease the pain of this crippling issue of affordable housing within New Jersey. I hope to have a conscious bill drafted within the next 48 hours that deals directly with the issue at hand. I am aiming for it to be fair and hit the target of taking the first big steps of shaping an effective bill...

So far, so good. However, Walsh might not feel very reassured if he just reads a little further on --

"In the last four years, I have been able to stop, what I consider, how Plainfield has been taken advantage of ... Plainfield being a dumping ground for low-income housing ... A prime example ... the Teppers site was converted into a low-income housing facility within one of our prime locations of our downtown area."

Now, Mr. Walsh would probably need some background here. Teppers was a former Plainfield department store that had sat empty -- despite many efforts to redevelop the property -- for nearly thirty years when it was finally successfully converted into a mixed-use retail and residential project nearly ten years ago.

The developer and the mayor at the time, Al McWilliams, had high hopes that the project would be market-rate, but the only financing available through the state's Mortgage and Home Finance Authority at the time was for affordable housing.

While Assemblyman Green refers to it as 'low-income housing', it is in fact the same sort of AFFORDABLE HOUSING his committee is taking up and which Mr. Walsh seems to believe Mr. Green supports.

Far from it.

As for the 'people with special needs' that Walsh cites Green as supporting, the Assemblyman continues --

"I do not have a problem with initiating housing for individuals with social disabilities, but I do have a problem with the fact that Cory converts these buildings for personal gain, thus disarming the quality of Plainfield. Once these houses are purchased by non-profit agencies, they are taken off the tax rolls." [The reference to Cory Storch's 'personal gain' is simply untrue. -- DD]

Green supports 'special needs' but complains that when nonprofits buy properties for these uses, they come off the tax rolls. Does he propose to change that? Hardly.

So, Jerry is showing two faces on the affordable housing question, leading folks like Walsh to believe he is supportive, while to Plainfield he presents another face altogether, quite at odds with his Trenton persona.

Following Assemblyman Green's thought processes has always been tortuous, but it seems in recent months that things have taken a turn for the worse, not only with the invective and prevarications in his blog post cited here, but in the language used by Green in reference to the affordable housing bill.

The Courier-Post of Cherry Hill, the first paper to report on Green's Assembly committee hearings, cites him as saying '[w]e are committed to blowing up COAH' (Green's own words), decidedly provocative and unstatesmanlike language.

I will take up Assemblyman Green's malicious attack on Councilman Storch in a separate post, as well as begining to keep a close eye on Green's language and whether it indicates anything about his mental well-being.

---

• Ledger --
• 6/16/2010: "No vote planned as Assembly committee schedules hearing on housing bill"
• 6/17/2010: "Christie administration wants housing bill by end of month"
• 6/17/2010: "Assemblyman Green says he will not rush housing bill despite deadline"
• Jerry Green's Page: "June 15, 2010: Affordable Housing"
• Courier-Post: "COAH safe for now"
  

-- Dan Damon [follow]

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

Plainfield mayor's YWCA proposal raises hackles

1920s view of Plainfield's historic YWCA.

Plainfield Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs, who seems to have outrun her headlights, has stirred up a hornet's nest with her surprise proposal to have the city float $5.5 million in bonds to buy the historic YWCA building on East Front Street.

First off is the embarrassment she caused the YWCA's leadership staff and board, who thought conversations with the Robinson-Briggs administration last week were private and preliminary (see Mark Spivey's story in the Courier here).

Besides bringing a half-baked proposal to the Council, Her Honor's proposed largesse has drawn attention to other cultural funding in the community toward which she has been quite stingy.

Supporters of the Queen City's premier cultural institution -- the Plainfield Public Library -- which is more heavily used in the current recession than ever, wonder how cutting the library's appropriation can be justified when compared with such a vacuous proposal as that for the YWCA building.

Others who find the Mayor's proposal questionable include supporters of the city's Drake House Museum. The Historical Society of Plainfield, which operates the museum on behalf of the city, has been given the cold shoulder by the Robinson-Briggs administration over a $55,000 match needed to satisfy the condition of one of the grants used for renovations of the Drake House.

Lastly, a commenter on my previous post (see here), points out that the Armory, at the corner of East 7th Street and Leland Avenue, is a far more accommodating building -- with more parking -- than the YWCA would be for a 'cultural center'.

Assemblyman Jerry Green was featured in a large story on the Armory by the Courier's Mark Spivey back in September, 2008 (see here), where he was trying to broker a deal on behalf of Mayor Robinson-Briggs and the city to acquire the Armory building.

I modestly suggested at the time that the Armory -- which the state has been trying to peddle unsuccessfully for years -- should be turned over to the City for the princely sum of $1 as a fair deal considering the renovations that would need to be done.

Assemblyman Green subsequently picked up the $1 mantra, but we have heard nothing more in the past year and a half.

Mayor Robinson-Briggs, who did not avail herself of the opportunity to speak to the Armory purchase at the time, may now have a chance to explain why a $5.5 million (just for openers) deal is better than a $1 deal.

---

• Courier: "Council tables proposal to purchase YWCA building"
• Plainfield Today --
• 6/15/2010: "Mayor withdraws bond ordinance to buy YWCA"
• 9/08/2008: "Plainfield buying Armory? A little background and a modest proposal"
• Courier: "Deal may be near for Plainfield to buy armory building"

-- Dan Damon [follow]

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

BREAKING: Shots fired on Arlington Avenue

Shortly after the homicide at Plainfield Avenue and West 4th Street on Wednesday evening, there were reports of shots fired on Arlington Avenue near Randolph Road.

Shell casings were reportedly found, but no victims. The area is known by police to have a set of the Crips gang, distinguished by the wearing of orange as opposed to the usual Crips blue.

It is not known if there is any connection with the homicide on Plainfield Avenue.

---

-- Dan Damon [follow]

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

BREAKING: Shooting Wednesday night becomes homicide #3

The absence of shootings in Plainfield for almost two weeks was broken early Wednesday evening when a man was shot in the chest at Plainfield Avenue and West 4th Street.

I learned of the incident shortly after 9:00 PM, and saw that the intersection was still blocked by police vehicles shortly before 10:00 PM.

As of 10:20 PM the victim reportedly had died, making this the third homicide of 2010.

I am told the victim was known to police as a member of the Libside gang.

The question now is whether there will be attempts at retaliation.

---

-- Dan Damon [follow]

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

2010 Plainfield Democratic Primary: District-by-District Results

Ward maps with districts have also been posted.

For those who like to 'drill down' as Excel users say, I have posted Plainfield's primary election votes district-by-district (see here, in a printable format), along with maps of the wards showing each voting district (see list at end of post).

Readers with faulty math skills who complained about the Williams victory being a mirage because 'turnout was so low' would do well to note that with 7,384 registered Democrats in Wards 2 and 3, the turnout was 1,549 Democratic votes cast -- or 21%.

Not shabby at all, considering that in the People's Republic of Montclair the turnout was 6.7% (see their data here - PDF).

---

• 2010 Council Primary: "Plainfield 2010 Council Primary Results"
  
• Plainfield Ward Maps With Districts --
• "Ward 1"
• "Ward 2"
• "Ward 3"
• "Ward 4"
• Union County Board of Elections: "Voter Registration Summary: Plainfield" (PDF)
• Union County Clerk: "2010 Primary Election Results"
• Montclair: "2010 Primary Results" -- Table is here (PDF).
  

-- Dan Damon [follow]

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

VIDEO: The New Democrat votes

Plainfield's New Democrats not only backed Rebecca Williams in her successful bid for the Democratic nomination for the Wards 2/3 at-large seat, they also supported Linda Carter in her bid for one of three Union County Freeholder Democratic slots on the November ticket.

Here is a video made by a supporter on her iPhone, showing a typical New Dem casting their vote --

---

---

Did New Dems make a difference?

Consider that Linda Carter, in her FIRST TIME EVER running for a county office, was top vote-getter both in Plainfield (Carter 1,300, vs. 967 for Sullivan and 917 for Kowalski) and in Union County (Carter 13,601, with 13,119 for Sullivan and 12,901 for Kowalski).

How's them apples?

Also consider that Sheriff Ralph Froehlich, exposed as a double-dipper during the campaign, fell in Plainfield to Democrats For Change candidate Charles Mitchell, 922 to 862.

---

-- Dan Damon [follow]

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

UPDATE: Mayor Robinson-Briggs withdraws bond ordinance to buy YWCA

Original YWCA logo under oriel window of the Plainfield YWCA.

UPDATE: This post was originally written before Monday's City Council agenda session. The administration WITHDREW the proposed bond ordinance without comment.

Plainfield Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs has a surprise bond ordinance on tonight's Council agenda (Bond ordinance #1248), proposing that the City bond $5.5 million for the purchase of 'real property'.

Turns out the 'real property' in question is the historic YWCA building on East Front Street.

While it is not widely known that the YWCA is in very difficult financial straits, it certainly will be as a result of the mayor's initiative this evening.

The Robinson-Briggs administration is likely to face some sharp questions tonight concerning the proposal, some of which might include --

• Why, in an era of shrinking government and fiscal difficulties, would the city BUY a building?
  
  
• How was a value arrived at without having several independent appraisals done to arrive at a more or less 'professional' opinion?
  
  
• What would the building be used for?
  
  
• What would be the cost of engineering and feasibility studies for any proposed uses?
  
  
• What would be the cost of renovations?
  
  
• What would be the ongoing impact on the city budget of having another building to staff, heat, maintain and insure?

That's just for openers.

This is not Her Honor's first venture in edifice envy -- a few years ago, when the YMCA was in desperate shape, she wanted to buy it, too.

That talk has died down since Ravenell Williams has come on board.

Stay tuned.

---

-- Dan Damon [follow]

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

Mayor Robinson-Briggs displays edifice envy in desire to buy YWCA

The Plainfield YWCA in the 1920s. (Image courtesy of Nellie Dixon)

Plainfield Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs has a surprise bond ordinance on tonight's Council agenda (Bond ordinance #1248), proposing that the City bond $5.5 million for the purchase of 'real property'.

Turns out the 'real property' in question is the historic YWCA building on East Front Street.

While it is not widely known that the YWCA is in very difficult financial straits, it certainly will be as a result of the mayor's initiative this evening.

The Robinson-Briggs administration is likely to face some sharp questions tonight concerning the proposal, some of which might include --

• Why, in an era of shrinking government and fiscal difficulties, would the city BUY a building?
  
  
• How was a value arrived at without having several independent appraisals done to arrive at a more or less 'professional' opinion?
  
  
• What would the building be used for?
  
  
• What would be the cost of engineering and feasibility studies for any proposed uses?
  
  
• What would be the cost of renovations?
  
  
• What would be the ongoing impact on the city budget of having another building to staff, heat, maintain and insure?

That's just for openers.

This is not Her Honor's first venture in edifice envy -- a few years ago, when the YMCA was in desperate shape, she wanted to buy it, too.

That talk has died down since Ravenell Williams has come on board.

Stay tuned.

---

-- Dan Damon [follow]

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

Sergeant who filed report on Hellwig demoted, suspended. Time for Christie to intervene.

The Plainfield police sergeant who wrote up the report concerning Public Safety Director Martin Hellwig's alleged escapade 'hooking up' with a male prostitute has been demoted and suspended (see media coverage of the Hellwig incident here, copy of report here [PDF], a note that News12 picked up the story here, with video of News12 coverage here).

I am told that Sgt. Frederick Walz, who filed the July 27, 2009, report was demoted on Friday from sergeant to officer and served with 90 days suspension.

The report he evidently submitted through the chain of command last summer detailed documentary evidence of Hellwig's use of his city computer on city time to solicit an assignation with a male prostitute who advertised on Craigslist based on copies of emails Hellwig left in a vehicle. The report further states that Hellwig used that vehicle, an unmarked police vehicle, to travel to the alleged assignation (a further infraction since a civilian police director is not supposed to use a police vehicle).

I am told that Hellwig was subsequently interviewed by the State Police and stated that the assignation was 'not consummated'. His city computer was seized last summer and sent to the State Police lab for forensic analysis, from which it was returned to the city about a month ago.

It is also said that then-AG Anne Milgram kicked the matter down to Union County Prosecutor Romankow's office, from which nothing has ever been heard.

Hellwig was subsequently suspended for three days by Plainfield Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs for 'using a work computer for personal purposes', as reported in the Ledger on February 13 (see here) and the Courier on February 16 (articled is archived here), where Robinson-Briggs alludes to an investigation as to how the report became public.

Meanwhile, two Plainfield cops have subsequently been busted for soliciting prostitutes. Though there were no allegations they used city computers or cars or were on duty at the time of the alleged solicitations, they have been suspended without pay, and may be facing official misconduct charges which could mean the loss of their jobs and pensions as well as potential prison sentences.

Whatever you may think of the propriety of soliciting hookers, the two have ALREADY SUFFERED MORE SEVERE CONSEQUENCES THAN HELLWIG FOR LESS EGREGIOUS BEHAVIOR.

Further, an administrative law judge upheld the dismissal by the Park Ridge police department of a police captain who used his work computer to visit dating sites for --

"...misuse of public property, conduct unbecoming of a public employee and violation of the department's rules and regulations."

(see story here, or my related post here).

The situation in Plainfield stinks to high heaven.

We cannot have a situation where -- depending on one's rank or political connections -- different penalties are administered for similar situations, where one gets a little slap on the wrist and others face severe penalties.

It is high time for Gov. Christie to instruct Attorney General Dow to get to the bottom of the mess in Plainfield's police division and the Mayor's featherweight 'punishment' of Hellwig.

If SOLICITATION subjects officers to arrest, charges and potentially severe penalties, then Hellwig's SOLICITATION should be treated the same way. Whether or not it was 'consummated' is beside the point.

And, as if enough weren't enough, I am also given to understand that A FURTHER TWO COPS are facing imminent charges for soliciting prostitutes. That would make a total of FOUR.

Plus Hellwig.

Christie needs to intervene in Plainfield in the name of justice now.

---

• NJToday, 2/18/2010: "Report: Hellwig sought hooker" -- Report is here (PDF).
• Ledger, 2/13/2010: "Plainfield police director is suspended"
• Courier, 2/16/2010: "Plainfield police director looks to move forward following suspension" -- There is a cost for reading or printing archived articles.
• NJToday, 3/13/2010: "Plainfield police scandal confirmed" -- News12 video here.
• Bergen Record, 5/23/2010: "Judge upholds firing of police captain" -- And my related post here.
  

-- Dan Damon [follow]

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

Assemblyman Green's turn coming to be on affordable housing hot seat

.

Plainfielders can be forgiven if they don't spend much time focused on Assemblyman Jerry Green's SUPPOSEDLY REAL JOB as chair of the Assembly's Housing and Local Government Services committee.

Forgiven for two reasons: on the one hand, Jerry's fulminations and missteps in matters to do with Plainfield are constantly entertaining and diverting its denizens and on the other hand, Jerry never calls attention to his Assembly role if it's the least bit controversial.

Take the current situation: Jerry's blog calls attention to his bill (A-444) which would bar a person from being elected to a school board if, because of a past conviction, they would be unable to serve as a teacher in the district (see here). There are those who see this as a thinly-veiled quasi-bill of attainder aimed at longtime Plainfield community activist and BOE member Rasheed Abdul-Haqq, who has made no secret of not seeing eye-to-eye with the Assemblyman on many occasions.

What goes with scant mention is that Sen. Lesniak's bill to dismantle the existing affordable housing settlement in New Jersey and replace it with one more to Gov. Christie's liking is coming before Assemblyman Green's Assembly committee soon as it wends its way to (inevitable?) legislative approval. Jerry only refers to the matter obliquely, posting a 'statement' from Gov. Chris Christie (see here), who says he is 'looking forward to working with Assemblyman Green'.

The Lesniak bill (S-1) was moved from committee to the floor of the Senate WITHOUT A CHANCE FOR PUBLIC INPUT (see story here), where it was subsequently passed, despite considerable opposition from a wide range of groups -- not just affordable housing advocates, I might add! -- (see story, including details of bill here). Though Lesniak touts it as a better solution, you will get a headache trying to understand the ins and outs of the bill.

But the bottom line is that many (including brave Senators Loretta Weinberg, Ron Rice and Shirley Turner) are questioning the fine points of the Lesniak proposal, including the Star-Ledger, which has editorialized TWICE in recent days -- once on the failure to have any public hearings (see here), and today in an editorial entitled 'Rehab this' (see here), that the bill needs much more work.

One of the provisions that caught my eye in the bill is that developers would be allowed to fulfill their affordable housing obligations by RENOVATING OTHER ALREADY-EXISITNG BUILDINGS IN A MUNICIPALITY instead of including new affordable housing units in the projects they are building. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to see where this is going.

That, plus the continuation of the practice of allowing towns to sell their affordable housing obligations to other communities, and you note a distinct aroma emanating from the new legislation, in my humble opinion.

Besides this, the nonpartisan Office of Legislative Services suggests in a letter of April 13 that the bill will not pass constitutional muster because the Legislature lacks statutory authority to amend the Fair Housing Act (see here).

So, as Assemblyman Green prepares to take up the legislation, there are a couple of germane questions for him to answer --

• Will he schedule hearings on the bill and thus allow public input?
  
  
• Will he consider the constitutionality of the bill?

Or will he simply, 'team player' that he is, move the bill out of committee and onto the Assembly floor?

---

• Jerry Green's Page: "Green et al bill tightening requirements for serving on BOEs advances"
• Jerry Green's Page: "Statement of Gov. Christie" -- 'looking forward to working with Assemblyman Green...'
  
• Ledger: "Senate committee approves controversial housing bill without public input"
• NJ Newsroom: "Senate votes to abolish affordable housing council, move control" -- An in-depth look at the bill's details.
  
• Ledger Editorial, 6/7/10: "Major shift in housing policy deserves public airing"
• Ledger Editorial, 7/13/10: "Rehab this: Affordable housing bill needs much more work"
• Asbury Park Press: "OLS questions constitutionality of housing bill"
  

-- Dan Damon [follow]

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

Original Interstate 287 would have bisected Plainfield

Detail from 1995 plan for Interstates in NY metro area.

Reporting from an adventure down the Plainfield rabbit hole: original plans for Interstate 287 would have had it bisecting Plainfield.

While checking details on this weekend's closing of Route 78 for lane shifts during construction, I happened upon the Wikipedia article for the interstate (see here).

Besides giving an historical overview (it was originally planned by NJ as a high-speed state highway bypassing Route 22 in 1927 -- when 22 was known as NJ Route 29, I believe), and re-imagined in the 1950s as a result of the passage of Eisenhower's legislation funding the construction of a federally-funded interstate system of military highways as part of a strategic defense plan against possible war with Russia.

Sign designating the (1927) proposed NJ Route 11.

If you look closely, you will see Route 287 would have sprung from the Turnpike near Metuchen, traveling northward, apparently through the Plainfield Country Club and along Woodland Avenue (thus bisecting Plainfield) before crossing Route 22 near the Sears store and going over the Watchung hills near Bonnie Burn Road.

Some plan, huh?

Wonder what ever happened to it?

The complete 1955 NY-NJ metro Interstate proposal.
(Click to enlarge.)

---

• Wikipedia: "Interstate 78 in New Jersey"
  

-- Dan Damon [follow]

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

Assemblyman Green throws Burney under the bus

Burney was Green's hand-picked candidate in the Primary.

Those who wonder just how low Plainfield Democratic city committee chair Assemblyman Jerry Green can go need look no farther than his 'Post-campaign Thoughts' post of Wednesday (see here).

Less than twenty-four hours after the polls closed, Jerry declares that Burney, his personal pick for the Wards 2/3 at-large candidacy, did not have the support of many regular Democrats who felt he [Burney] had not been supportive of them in the past. Here are Jerry's exact words --

...[i]n fact, Rashid most likely would have won [had Don Davis not run]. Many of my supporters would not support him because he is a New Democrat and they felt he was not committed. They said other than his commitment to the Obama effort; they felt his support for the Democratic Party was very soft.

Taking this all into consideration, along with the fact that the Regular Democratic Party were not impressed with any of those running in the primary, there was a low turnout, just ask our neighbors in 3-10 and 2-11. I respect the fact that Rebecca Williams has won the Democratic primary, and I have to accept the fact that many of my supporters could not bring themselves to support a candidate that they felt has not been supportive of them in the past. [Emphasis added -- DD]

Decent folks will feel sorry over the fate that has befallen Rashid.

Whether or not one sees eye to eye with Rashid, he has been loyal to Assemblyman Green for the last five years (since the 2005 primary election) and must have swallowed his convictions more than once to support (or at least not oppose) initiatives the Assemblyman wanted to see move forward. He certainly deserves better than this for having been, in Jerry's favorite phrase, a 'team player'.

Now, with a slur on his Democratic bona fides, Green has essentially banished Burney from the regular Democratic organization.

That is a sad commentary on the 'democracy' of the local Democratic Party, but such is life under the ham-fisted leadership of 'Boss' Green.

Of course, it will not be lost on readers that Jerry is probably writing with an eye to one potential reader -- County Dem chair Charlotte DeFilippo, to whom he must once again admit (and justify) yet another drubbing at the polls.

---

• Jerry Green's Page: "Post-campaign Thoughts"
  

-- Dan Damon [follow]

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

Connolly properties slated for one-day auction

Connolly has been painted out of picture at the Ritz, 7th & Central.

The Plainfield real estate empire of David Connolly seems to be shrinking in the sunlight much like the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz.

New York City-based Sheldon Good auctioneers will sell six of the Plainfield properties at absolute auction on June 24 at the Hanover Marriott in Whippany.

Suggested opening bids range from $350,000 to $2.5 million. Sales are subject to approval by the US Bankruptcy Court.

Slated for the June 24 auction are --

PROPERTY	# UNITS	ADDRESS
Watchung Gardens	102	802-37 East Front
Netherwood Village	107	825-55 East Front
Green Brook Village	58	733-47 East Front
Liberty Arms	84	501-15 West 7th
Central Avenue Aptmts	20	831 Central Avenue
Madison Avenue Aptmts	39	609 Madison Avenue

Several other properties have disappeared from the Connolly Properties website (see here), presumably as a result of reverting to the mortgage holder after Connolly's Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition was dismissed.

Those no longer shown on the website are --

• Hickory Arms
• The Ritz
• Town & Country
• The Williamsburg

Though still shown on the website as of today, the following properties' Chapter 11 filing was dismissed on May 27; they can be expected to disappear from the roster shortly --

• Beacon Village
• Tudor Arms

Though previously reported that the lender would put rent receivers in place once they had control of the properties, tenants are still uncertain of their fates and whether and when the many issues with their buildings will be addressed.

---

• CityBiz: "Sheldon Good to auction six multi-family buildings in Plainfield, NJ"
  
• Website: "Connolly Properties, Inc."

-- Dan Damon [follow]

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

Will Christie's charity care cuts push JFK over the edge?

Will Gov. Christie's revised charity-care payments to hospitals negatively affect Plainfield residents?

The question may well be asked after reports (see the Courier here, and the Ledger here) reveal that both Solaris' JFK (Muhlenberg isn't even mentioned any more) and Trinitas (which takes Plainfield's obstetrics cases) are looking at severe cuts under the new scheme.

JFK stands to lose $2.2 million and Trinitas $923,000.

Most worrisome to Plainfielders will be the JFK loss of funding, since Solaris must not only fund the operation of the JFK campus in Edison, but the Muhlenberg satellite emergency room, under the terms of the Certificate of Need allowing Solaris to shut down Muhlenberg in 2008.

With the long-term existence of the Muhlenberg SED a concern for Plainfielders and the issue of a new ambulance for Plainfield unresolved, the funding cut puts dark clouds on Plainfield's healthcare horizon.

This comes on top of persistent rumors that Solaris is on and ever more shaky financial footing, even having gone so far as putting its -- profitable -- home health care operation on the market.

If you're needing to sell off one of your money-making 'crown jewels', what does your future look like?

What would the healthcare map look like if JFK were gone?

What would the negative impacts be on delivery of healthcare services in the Muhlenberg service area, which includes Plainfield and twelve other communities?

Would EMT services be even more stressed out, with farther distances to go?

Would Plainfielders be at greater risk of negative -- or even fatal -- outcomes for cardiac or stroke emergencies?

Is there a calculation being made here that Plainfield lives are less valuable and more dispensable than others?

---

• Courier: "NJ charity care up for some, reduced for JFK"
  
• Ledger: "New charity care funding will cause losses for JFK, Trinitas"

-- Dan Damon [follow]

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

UPDATE: Who pulled sign prank on Assemblyman Green?

Assemblyman Green's curbs bedecked with Williams signs yesterday.

Everyone agrees the sign prank pulled on Plainfield Assemblyman and Dem city committee chair Jerry Green was sophomoric (see my post of yesterday here, the Assemblyman's post here, and Mark Spivey's article in the Courier here, illustrated with his photo -- which is much better than mine).

So the question remains: Who did it?

The Assemblyman, saying he was angered and his neighbors were embarrassed, moved heaven and earth to turn it into a news item -- including getting mayoral photog Laurence Rice out to document the outrage, and filing a police complaint which incited a quotation from Public Safety Director Martin Hellwig that seems to contemplate nullifying someone's First Amendment rights to unfettered political speech.

The question is whose?

While the assumption of many seems to be that it was over-enthusiastic Williams supporters, it seems to me just as plausible that Green supporters -- bitter over their unexpected smackdown at the polls -- did it as a 'dirty trick' to cast the Williams team in a negative light.

Besides, after Green's ill-conceived last-minute mailer attacking Williams enraged so many in the community, the Assemblyman would be the most likely to want a sympathetic item in the news to deflect criticism from his disastrous 'support' of his candidate Rashid Burney.

Given the wave of gang violence that is sweeping Plainfield, we only have to wonder if Hellwig will put this item at the top of the Police Division's to-do list, or will better judgment set in, cooler heads prevail, and the incident fade into Plainfield's political folklore?

Meanwhile, I can't get those muffled guffaws from Trenton's Statehouse cloakrooms out of my head.

What WAS the Assemblyman thinking to kick up this kerfuffle?


NOTE: Comments are turned off for this light-hearted post. Enjoy it or get over it.

---

• Plainfield Today: "Jerry congratulates Rebecca?"
  
• Courier: "Plainfield campaign prank angers assemblyman"
• Jerry Green's Page: "Post-campaign thoughts"

-- Dan Damon [follow]

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

Jerry congratulates Rebecca?

Assemblyman Green's curbs are bedecked with Williams signs this morning.

Did Plainfield's Dem committee chair congratulate successful candidate Rebecca Williams after all?

Could be.

A reader alerted me early this AM that the curbs along both sides of the Assemblyman's home at Prospect and Woodland Avenues were festooned with Williams for Council signs.

Nice touch, Assemblyman.

---

-- Dan Damon [follow]

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

Yet another cop busted for solicitation of a prostitute

Times may be hard in Plainfield, but at least one area of economic activity seems to be thriving: Hooking.

As I was working as a challenger for Rebecca Williams yesterday at Evergreen School, word came that YET ANOTHER Plainfield police officer has been arrested and charged with soliciting a prostitute.

The officer was relieved of his badge and gun and his arrest was processed by the Union County police, with the alleged 'john' being issued a summons and released.

I am told he has been suspended, though with or without pay I do not know at present.

As I said before (and will be following up on soon), the real issue as I see it is whether these accused officers get any DIFFERENT TREATMENT from that of Public Safety Director Martin Hellwig, who allegedly used his city computer on city time to arrange an assignation to which he traveled in a city vehicle on city time.

What was it Orwell said?

'All animals are equal; some are just more equal than others'?

---

-- Dan Damon [follow]

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