Blank Canvas(er)


Woosh! The 4th Ward is flooding!

Not with water--with developer money, in an effort to influence the outcome of next month's special election.

A friend who lives in the 4th Ward just called me to recount a mysterious visitor who knocked at his door earlier today. A canvaser.

This is how the conversation went as he remembered it:

Canvaser: Are you interested in answering a survey about development in the Western edge and are you concerned about development in Hoboken?

Friend: Who's asking the questions?

Canvaser: A group of concerned residents in Hoboken.

Friend: Reeeeeally? A group of conerned residents have asked you to canvas the neighborhood?

Canvaser: A group of 72 concerned residents.

Friend: Oh? Who are they? Maybe I know some of them.

Canvser: You don't have to answer the questions.

Friend: I just want to know who's asking.

Canvaser: (backing off, put hands up in the air) No problem, don't worry about it. (walks off)

Hmmm...

My friend believes the canvaser was from out-of-town-- not Hoboken, a hired 'professional' (as opposed to the unpaid Lenz volunteers) and noted he was carrying no literature or hand-outs.

Leave no tracks. Just leave an impression. Anti-Lenz. Anti-Zimmer administration.

Kind of a door-to-door push poll. From a shadowy group who would not identify themselves. On development in Hoboken.

My friend caught a glimpse of the canvaser's notes: "Are you concerned about growth in Hoboken and transparency in planning?"...

How fascinating that the topic and questions mirrored last week's 4th Ward telephone poll where recipients were invited to call Mike Lenz then the caller gave out Lenz's cell phone number.

Mischief. Developer money. Shadowy canvasers. Trying to knock out Mike Lenz.

3 more weeks of this.

Comments

  1. As Jackie Gleason used to say on "The Life of Riley"
    "What a revoltin' development".

    Wait, I'm confused. I thought I was a "concerned citizen". Did they form another group without telling me again? Where do I sign up to become a "concerned citizen"? Certainly they could use a 73rd.

    BTW - great graphics, Avenger!

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  2. Well, as Lt Columbo used to turn around and say after ending a conversation, ""Wait - just one more thing ma'am".

    What are they concerned about?

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  3. This is a fine piece of work, and no I don't mean the developer hit job going on. Although MSV expected, admittedly this is an impressive effort by the hidden hand of the developer(s) who want to kill off both Mike Lenz and the Western Edge Plan.

    The idea is obviously to leave behind no fingerprints.

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  4. AARRGGHH!!! Just came back from a beautiful vacation in Italy...only to find that the dark forces are still alive and bigger than ever in Hoboken! They move, Dracula-like (nice shadow of Nosferatu, GA), from one corrupt pol to the next. Now that they've latched onto Timmeh O., whose only qualification for the job of 4th Ward Councilman is that he's lived in the 4th Ward of Hoboken for three years, they'll be funnelling money to every wannabe like Perry Belfiore and the out-of-power Russo Mob like there's no tomorrow.

    You just have to step back and ask yourself why a young man like Timmeh O. would want to prostitute himself for Belfiore, et. al., Mason and the Russos. He really should be asking himself why members of the former Cammarano Love Fest are now being so nice to him. Don't you get it, Timmeh??? These people want jobs, public money for nothing and a seat on the Gravy Train, just like in the Good Old Days. They don't particularly care about you...you're fungible, like Cammarano. You are their Means to an End. Wake up before you end up in a cell right next to your spiritual predecessor, P.C. God help you!

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  5. rudydawg, so sorry to swap out those lovely scenes in your head with Nosferatu, the clinking of developer $$$, the rustle of absentee, uh... 'mail-in' ballots...

    Welcome back.

    Just remember what Dorothy said when she was clicking the heels of her ruby slippers together:

    "There's no place like home, there's no place like home, there's no place like home..."

    Got it?

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  6. I'd be interested in what the questions were

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