Tim HOPs Past the Truth

Yesterday GA reported that Timmy attended the BoE meeting to grandstand about lack of transportation for displaced Connors students to their temporary classrooms at Brandt.

To which a GA reader responded:

If he had voted for new HOP buses the Connors parents could use them.... guess he forgot.

Oh, you typed a mouthful, dear reader.

The Red and Green HOP Lines

The HOP is cheap, frequent and convenient: 'hop' on, 'hop' off wherever you need to go along it's routes.  The Red and Green lines criss-cross the Mile Square grid.  Until the Connors classrooms are repaired from the flood damage, the HOP bus would be an ideal mode of transportation for parents and their children to the Brandt school- especially in inclement weather.

Please note the HOP's Blue Line is out of service until further notice.  Perhaps we can thank Timmy and Russo, Mason and Castellano who ALL voted against funding for 5 new HOP buses last June.

That's right, Rubber-Stamp Tim killed HOP funding with his 'NO' vote- leaving elderly users and Connors students stranded without new buses to supplement the aging fleet.  Imagine, Tuesday night Tim  had the NERVE to come to the BoE with an outstretched hand, wanting the Hoboken School District to finance new  busing when we already have a city-wide bus system (the HOP) which he has starved for funds!

Starve it he did.  From Patch on June 21, 2012:

The city of Hoboken will not see new Hop buses any time soon, after a bond ordinance failed on Wednesday night during the council meeting. 

A bond ordinance for a total of almost $500,000 to pay for five new buses as well as a bucket truck needed six votes to pass. Five council members—the majority—voted yes, but the four minority council members didn't approve the bond.

Folks, it gets worse.  Sandy wiped  out TWO HOP buses and a Parks and Recreation van. Now the aging fleet of HOP buses had just lost two of its buses... and many many residents in Hoboken had lost cars, and turned to public transportation such as the HOP to get around Hoboken. 

One of the Connors parents at the School Board meting, former mayoral candidate Nathan Brinkman, spoke about how it takes him 2 1/2 hours to bring his child to Brandt because he had lost his car in the flood. The HOP is a viable transportation alternative for these parents- yet Tim STOPPED the purchase of 5 new buses and then... he's what Occhipinti SAID to Patch one month ago on December 21, 2012:

The City Council approved $2.5 million in emergency appropriations on Wednesday, to help pay for Sandy damage around town.

The emergency funds were supposed to pay for two  new hop buses — both would cost between $90,000 and $100,000 — which Occhipinti said was too much money.

"We lost two hop buses in the storm, as well as the parks and recreation van. We come to you now for the hop buses," said Business Administator Quentin Wiest.

"This thing must be a super bus," he said. Occhipinti continued that, while the Jersey coastline suffered heavy structural damage, "we had some real terrible devastation ourselves, but not the structural damage of a town washed away."

"Speak for yourself," Councilwoman Jennifer Giattino shot back.

Ultimately, the emergency funds passed, after the resolution was amended to take out $100,000. The city will be able to buy one new Hop bus with that money, rather than two.

Isn't that unbelievable? Timmy nickeled and dimed the city out of one replacement HOP bus after Hurricane Sandy. 

And adding insult to injury, tells us we didn't get "structural damage of a town washed away."


The HOP funding was revisited by the City Council AFTER Hurricane Sandy to HELP the many, those who lost LOST CARS.

What did Timmy do?

He lamented about the "structural damage" to the Jersey Shore and killed funding for Hoboken's HOP.

Hey Timmy, whatever happened to the 27 pallets of 'Train of Hope' donations from Louisiana that you picked up on November 10, 2012 at Newark Station and drove (with Beth Mason) on a ONE-WAY TRIP to Bayonne?

DId they fall in one of those Giant Zimmer-potholes?

Imagine, Occhipinti can't even distribute 5 tons of goods destined for Hoboken in Hoboken and he calls the mayor "incompetent"?