For the record, GA opposes Rebuild-by-Design's Concept Plan A. It sucks.
The suck-i-ness of putting walls on 'interior' residential streets, the unsuitability of Plan A for Hoboken, is the alleged premise of a "new grassroots organization" called Save Our Streets ("SOS".)
Well folks, before you 'hop on the bandwagon' and join any organization which purports to serve the public interest, first ask: WHO are the organizers, and WHAT do they really want?
The SOS narrative that walls going up on our R-1 residential district streets are "being considered" is a frightening, disturbing call to action. "FIGHT THE WALL!" cry posters which appeared overnight on Hoboken streets, and "SAVE OUR STREETS!" SOS posters threatened: "DO YOU KNOW THAT A PLAN IS BEING CONSIDERED THAT WILL DIVIDE HOBOKEN?"
These 'midnight fliers' (did anyone actually see who put them up?) included a logo- a pretty professional effort for an overnight 'grassroots' organization; they've also put up a well-maintained Facebook page.
This logo and Facebook presence are strikingly similar to that September pop-up political interest group whose anonymous founders pushed a vehemently anti-Zimmer, anti-Reform agenda.
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| SOS soliciting "requests" for a "Save our Street's website"- that's NEXT |
People, please read before you "like."
You have just joined a group whose anonymous founders
are fomenting fear and anger with a FALSE narrative of "hasty actions of storm walls to be built in our town," and demands to "IMPROVE INFRASTRUCTURE FIRST!"
THAT is the real SOS agenda.
To misinform the public about Rebuild-by-Design. SOS wants to redefine the ENTIRE $230M Rebuild-by-design PROJECT as a hastily-built "wall that will divide Hoboken." In my opinion, this group doesn't want to stop Concept Plan A- they want to sink the entire project. SOS poses a false dichotomy: you can't proceed with both Rebuild-by-design AND infrastructure repair. No, says SOS- it is one or the other.
In my OPINION, SOS is using fear to grow an anti-administration political movement. Their GOAL: to kill the flood protection initiative, a $230M grant won by Hoboken, so they can call the Zimmer initiative a "failure," then tell residents Zimmer "blew it," she failed to protect residents from flooding.
This tactic is a repeat of the effort to kill our hospital sale.
People, do not fall for the "shtick."
Do you need more convincing that SOS is a well-financed effort with anonymous backers- like "Citizens for Accountability"?
The image below is a Photoshop of a giant wall on a residential street created for SOS by SOS to misrepresent Rebuild by Design's proposals. This illustration that does not exist in the Rebuild by Design proposal. It was "liked" by NBC star and Hoboken resident, Natalie Morales.
Folks, by all means oppose Plan A. I do, too.
Raise your voice at public meetings, make yourself heard.
Ask WHO is behind SOS, ask WHO is financing SOS.
And don't donate one penny to them; they seem to have plenty.
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| SOS links to Hoboken411.com, liked by Mike Russo |
I wouldn't be surprised if Beth Masons new hobby was making trouble for RBD so "Dawn goes down the tubes."
ReplyDeleteNow I feel like a jerk for liking them on Facebook.
ReplyDeleteUNLIKE THEM.
DeleteThe old guard strategy has always been to delay action and then run based on the lack of action. With a 7-2 council that won't be possible. So create public outcry through a campaign if disinformation which is little more than an upgrade of midnight fliers about the projects being converted to condos. Expect the same for Washington St and Observer Hwy.
ReplyDeleteIt looked really suspicious when Russo, Ramos, Biancamano and the whole dark side mob turns up for these meeting. I guess it was.
ReplyDeleteI have to disagree with the entire premise of this. The dark side may be latching onto the issue because of the reasons you highlight and the fact that it paints Mayor Zimmer in a not so perfect light, but the genesis of the SOS group is a direct result of Option A and the impact it will have on NE Hoboken. It is a single issue group trying to save their neighborhood.
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't look or act like a legitimate grass-roots organization.
DeleteWe have all seen this sort of deceptive ploy used many times before and most of the time the same people are hiding behind the curtain of anonymity. I certainly would not help fund or lend my support to this latest pop up organization
I don't think you can paint with the same brush here. Well, you can, but I think you would be wrong. Take a look at the page, see who contributes, see the message continuity, the statement coherency. These are people who live there and are genuinely concerned. Not sure how a grass-roots organization is supposed to look, but this is one coming from an reasonably educated group concerned about Hoboken, their property and well being. They are not saying to do nothing, just not to do this.
DeleteThey are interested in raising the issue and I haven't seen anybody looking for money.
Except for the politicians from other parts of town piling on of course.
DeleteAce @ 3:35 PM--How can you be certain what the genesis of this group was when the creator(s) are anonymous? "Option A" is not prominently featured in SOS' literature, not even mentioned in their "About" on SOS Facebook. Why do you say it "paints Mayor Zimmer in a not so perfect light?" How so? It sounds like you wish to politicize Rebuild by Design like I believe the SOS group does.
DeleteI don't wish to politicize. I don't live in that neighborhood but have several friends who do. I have been asked to sign the petition, have seen much of the dialogue put forth through groups online and understand their concerns. This post goes the other way and drags them into territory that I don't think represents what they are trying to do.
DeleteAs for the Mayor Zimmer comment, it might be better if I had phrased it as it give others the opportunity to latch onto a disagreement and paint her in a negative light. I don't think either party deserves to be in this case.
Ace- 4:11 PM, Concept Plan A stinks, we can all agree. Statement coherency? There is nothing coherent about the misinformation being blown by SOS, and tying it into infrastructure repair. NOTHING. It is political messaging, and coordinated apparently with "Anonymous" who printed midnight fliers, posted them, created a web page with a photoshop of a giant IMAGINARY wall on a Hoboken street scape.
DeleteI do not denigrate a single concerned person- I hate the idea of walls on interior streets. But this is a misinformation campaign run amok, which SOS appears to be sponsoring AND tying to politics. People should attend meetings, write letters to appropriate persons and agencies, make themselves heard.
Ace 4:35- I don't see the "SOS" group as sponsoring the petition. I don't disagree with the spirit of the petition, though some of the FACTS in the preamble are wrong, and the sponsors should consider amending the paragraph.
DeleteIt falsely claims: "The mayor now wants to spend that money on A WALL ON GARDEN STREET from Weehawken Cove as far as 12th Street, destroying a historic residential neighborhood..."
Umm, no she doesn't. IMO the concerned citizens ought to drop the alarmist rhetoric and stop taking shots at the mayor, and focus on opposition to concept plan A.
The wall imagery is definitely hyperbole, and tying it to infrastructure is definitely misguided on someone's part at this point in the process. Also, I think they are linking any and all media giving the concerns play as someone's misguided attempt to use social media. Certainly linking anything to Al Sullivan's crappy column is misguided at best.
DeleteI don't know who is behind the page, but the people I know that are lining up behind it is for one reason and one reason only-stopping Concept Plan A- and there is very little time to get the word out prior to the 12/31 deadline for public commentary.
Ace 5:00- Fair enough.
Delete"They are not saying to do nothing, just not to do this."
ReplyDeleteBullshit. That's precisely what many (though certainly not all) are saying: "do nothing." At the museum meeting many people were literally chanting "do nothing give back the money." They weren't saying Plan A sucks but plan __ has potential let's explore it and make it better. That's what people who actually care about solving the problem are saying. That's what GA is saying but then she like thousands of her neighbors flooded and I doubt Natalie Morales and the "do nothing" NIMBY SOS crowd who didn't flood care a hoot about the rest of the City that did.
Hiding behind meaningless mantras like "fix the infrastructure first" is just putting lipstick on the pig. If you're not for doing something real that actually addresses the problem of storm surge then you're for doing nothing.
The reality is that the just like with the pump by Maxwell the nature of the problem requires a solution that isn't located in the areas most at risk and that's exactly when NIMBY always rears its ugly head.
The distortions perpetrated by the SOS crowd are NIMBY at its worst and as GA points out you can always count on the dark side (my guess is Liebler but that's only an opinion) to try to exploit both NIMBY as well as the more legitimate concerns of residents whenever and wherever it rears its ugly head. Does anybody remember the "Municipal Garage is moving to Pino hoax fomented by Mike Russo a few years back?
Any web site or organization that is based on misinformation and continues to put that misinformation even when the real true facts have been made public is sketchy and I would consider suspect.
ReplyDeleteMikey Russo needs talking points on a 7-2 council. I can hear him now, bloviating how the city shouldn't "rush" into a "hastily designed plans." What me worry- the flood waters didn't reach Mikey's apartment at Church Towers. I wonder if this is payback for tanking Vision 20/20 which anyone can guess came with Russo bennies.
ReplyDeleteIf the Mayor had not pursued every avenue open to Hoboken to help prevent another Sandy, including getting this 230 million grant and beginning these studies, she'd be taking criticism for doing nothing.
ReplyDeleteEven if SOS and the other groups didn't have their own agendas, which they do, the fact is that all of that noise is meaningless unless people take their ideas and opinions and share them at the public meetings and submit the forms to the appropriate entities.
In the social media echo-chambers that have popped up, and on email chains withe more names than a Manhattan phone book, apparently, not participating in the public process lo these many months does not prevent people from hurling accusations at the administration, screaming at those they don't agree with and reacting out of fear to the misinformation they've been fed, including Natalie Morales's specious claims. She should know better.
This is important: Show-up and grow-up.
Based upon personal information, Ms. Morales is, IMO, a clueless and blithering idiot. Her moronic comments came as no surprise, as, besides being as dumb as a rock, she is very impressed with herself.
DeleteSerious members of this group must know what it looks like.
ReplyDeletePeople seeking to protect their homes who keep their identities secret? And so close to the now-infamous Citizens for Accountability repackaging of MSTA? And attracting the likes of the always-on-the-make Russos, Castellanos, Garcias and the eternally batsh!t Melina White (and "liking" all her posts)? And you can't see the website without requesting access? And pretending a federal grant can but used however the city would like so it can "FIX THE INFRASTRUCTURE FIRST"?
It's an awful lot of fog and mirrors and bullsh!t and machinery to shoot down one fore-doomed proposal, dontcha think?
Shoot the messenger if you like, but no one is going to trust you until you come out of the shadows.
Bingo. Shocked at the misinformation (and unsubstantiated allegations) spread by Natalie Morales.
DeleteMorales is claiming that Zimmer wishes to protect the real estate owned by the Rockefeller Group, the very organization she didn't personally usher through the approvals process at Christie's request?
ReplyDeleteDoes she hear herself?
She (morales) sounds like a moron.
DeleteI am not sure what the official qualifications are to be a MORON are but based on her past support for the Carmelo Garcia she certainly qualifies for a honorary moron or at very least a deceitful political opportunist... just my opinion.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteWell, that got ugly and personal fast, now didn't it? Reminds me of my elementary school children. Nice..
DeleteWhatever you want to call it, Natalie's intentions are very clear, regardless of the vastly superior intellectual muscle you may show on the internets. Its about her home, nothing else.
I M 1:34 - My mistake I confused one Morales for another.
DeleteYou would think someone who is a credentialed TV news person would not make public accusations without proof no matter what her own personal finances are.
Yes, I was actually thinking about Lane B myself
DeleteAnon @ 1:34 pm- How do you know Morales supported Garcia? Never heard that.
ReplyDeleteAce
ReplyDeletePffftttt!
I just scrolled through some of the names on the change.org petition these folks put up. I was shocked to see Stan Grossbard's name there. Any idea if that's actually the Mayor's husband? He said, "Because the DEP has clearly mismanaged this project and must eliminate Plan A."
ReplyDeleteyou could write ANYONE's name on that petition. Remember that Dual Job Dawn nonsense Beth tried to stir up years ago? THat petition had names Like "Mama 5 Bucks a Tow" "Belmar SHore House". It's a joke
DeleteAnon 5:56am- Grossbard has a right to voice his opinion, like every Hoboken resident. He has not accused anyone of a crime or corruption. Btw, I disagree with him- DEP engineers are probably a bunch of geeks and nerds drafting up a range of possibilities "FOR DISCUSSION ONLY." That is what they do. Some really suck, some may work for us. That is the purpose of this exercise. And residents are rejecting the idea of walls on our streets. No more, no less. I don't understand how that translates to "mismanagement." Well, everybody knows about Grossbard. STAN + A = SATAN.
DeleteIt seems that the pot stirrers need to fixate on someone who is the alleged puppet master that is really running the Mayor's office. It used to be those damn Lenzbians, and now it is the Stanophiles. It is great comedy watching them get all lathered up with faux indignation in their zeal to paint the Mayor as a know nothing dilettante.
DeleteScrolling through a petition's comments at 6 am. Sounds like the work of a politico or a loon like assilem who does their commenting in the wee hours
Delete