Night at the Mile Square Theater

Don't you wonder what the mayor was saying when this pic was snapped? 

Well, I wasn't there, but it's unusual for a Hoboken mayor to welcome supporting players- City Council members included- onstage for a SOTC.  It's even more unusual since at least one person on that stage pays a PR firm to throw feces (rhetorically) at the mayor... can you guess who that is?

Cranks might say that the stage optics were about sharing the blame cause Hoboken is going in the wrong direction... 

The rest of us might say that the mayor brought his team and partners in government on stage to share credit, to honor their work, because Hoboken is going in the right direction.  

GA is in that group.  Props to the mayor for acknowledging the work of his partners and rivals.  He is a class act.

You know, I've lived in Hoboken since 1996-- 2 homes and 5 parking lots/garages.  In my view, some aspects of living here in Hoboken have outpaced others in terms of improvement.   At the top of the "most improved" list:  the Hoboken Police Department under Chief Ken Ferrante and the Hoboken District schools under Superintendent Christine Johnson.  Oh yeah, and the anti-corruption achievements of Mayor Dawn Zimmer and the Kids First School Board majority; it was no easy task to chase the roaches out of City government and the BoE. Subsequent Reform school boards and now Mayor Bhalla have continued that reform government legacy.   

Like his predecessor, Bhalla has prioritized open space and new parks.  In yesterday's SOTC, he highlighted several priorities for the upcoming year: moving forward on the framework for a new light rail station at 15th Street, the replacement of over 2.7 miles of water mains, an expansion on Vision Zero initiatives including a proposal to reduce the city speed limit to 20 miles per hour, and upgrades in four parks, including the renovation of Legion Park in North Hoboken, Jefferson Park in South Hoboken, the upgrades of the dog parks at Church Square Park and Stevens Park to modern canine turf, and the continuation of efforts to preserve Union Dry Dock for parkland.

Bhalla also spoke about Hoboken’s plans to replace over 7,000 linear feet and 2.7 miles of Hoboken’s aging water mains in 2020. The City will utilize independent capital investments and funding from the SUEZ agreement that now provides $33 million in water main upgrades over the next 15 years, for the upgrades.

GA hears that the Mayor did speak about the budget shortfall.* [*corrected! ]

Unless I missed it, the Mayor did not mention the MUNICIPAL POOL that always seems to be on the other side of the rainbow, next to that pot of glittering gold.  In Hoboken, developers always get the gold, but we never get our POOL. 

How about it?

TAKE GA'S FUN QUIZ: Match the community pool with the Hudson County municipality.

1. North Bergen

2. Union City

3. Jersey City

4. West New York

5. Secaucus

6. Hoboken 

(Answers: 1-E, 2-D, 3-A, 4-B, 5-C, 6-F)