STOP BRET SCHUNDLER.COM

JC  STREET CONDITIONS

8/11/01  last update...

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If you haven't been in Jersey City, drive over and take a look at the horrendously potholed and filthy  conditions of the streets.  Prior to Schundler, there was a scheduled 10 year street repaving cycle but under Schundler, it's gone...  His "Slice of Heaven" theme which he consistently used in his "Ethnic Festivals" and personal propaganda didn't include street repairs... 

IS FILLING POTHOLES EMPTYING OUR POCKETS?   (Jersey Journal, John Petrick, 4/26/2000) 

"Director of Public Works (Kevin Sluka) claims roads are beyond fixing, need resurfacing....   'After 10 years of neglect, these roads are falling apart.' he said. 'It's like fixing your car.  Sooner or later, you have to spend the money to buy a new car instead of getting it fixed again.... The streets where we're filling in potholes need to be resurfaced.  Until you resurface the street, it's a waste of money.'"    ( Schundler was mayor from November 1992  to June 2001....)

Just to give you an example of Schundler's   total lack of concern and disregard for maintaining infrastructure....   In November 2000 Jersey City was awarded $1.5 million in state grant monies from the State Transportation Trust Fund.  Hoboken got $394,000.   Schundler elected to spend the  $1.5 Million on tourist signs, his "Wayward Sign program" while Hoboken designated resurfacing Sinatra Drive, which is in better condition than 90% of Jersey City's streets!!!   The other Hudson County cities also designated various street repavings with their monies, the intent of the grant...    Dozens  of people constantly complain in the local papers about the pervasive pot-holes/ craters throughout the city,  but Schundler could care less!!!  Close advisors to former City Council President Tom DeGise,  who lost the election for mayor, cite the street conditions and overly generous tax abatements as being reasons for the voters rejecting his candidacy.   Under Schundler, State roads could easily fall into the same lack of repair as in Jersey City!!!    State voters beware....I hope it doesn't end up that ... .. "I told you so"...

The photo  to the right is Palisades Avenue by Christ Hospital. The entire street is a mass of holes and patches.  See Neighborhoods- Palisades Ave battle in which the Schundler/DeGise/Gaughan carpetbagger team lost the blighting battle (neighborhood organized against it) and Schundler agreed to use the grant money to repave Palisades Avenue and replace the crumbling sidewalks.  In the end, Schundler used $250,000 of the highway grant funds to "help" plug the deficit for the $11 Million Museum with no parking lot building project which the State had not approved for capital bonding,  so they took out a more expensive mortgage with a local bank even though the taxpayers couldn't afford it.  The City is in hock up to the taxpayers' eyeballs!  The City is over their bonding limit by 57%+.   Now the Museum is without a Director since May and has so little operating monies that they will only be open for limited hours!   They don't have enough money to operate full-time in their first year!   With Bret, whether the taxpayers can afford it, and practically of the project means nothing  --- it's all about spending, spending on big projects for those campaign contributions from the contractors, architects, developers.  They call it "Pay to Play Politics"... more on that later....

Downtown JC   (The Gold Coast)

The street scene to the right  is Newark Avenue between Grove and Jersey Avenue in the Downtown area of Jersey City...  It's the same everywhere...  trash, broken filthy sidewalks but we have the red pots!   In 1994,  Schundler laid off 75% of the Planning Department, 75% of the Food, Health, and Housing Inspectors....  he loaded up the payroll with NIDs' but that experiement, as all his other brain twisters, was all about patronage and city paid campaign workers, not about providing city services...  You have to be licensed, pass a state exam, before an inspector   can issue any tickets.... None of the NIDs' were....  So it's the wild west with no enforcement  and a barebones city staff ....  Result:   filthy city.....

If your car doesn't get stolen in JC, then the front end gets destroyed by the ubiquitous potholes... 

 The photo to the right is my block with a sink hole that has happened at least 3 times in the last 8 years.  The street hasn't been repaved since 1985, I'm there from 1983.  It's constantly patched as all the streets in Jersey City...

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