gdp's Comments

Mile Square View : Charitable activist Nadia Brice passes after battle with cancer

Wed, 8 Apr 2015 00:18:57 +0000

Tears fall my brother. The apple did not fall far from the tree. You have set a bar so many can only aspire to. Horsey, she must look down and be so proud. It's been a long day. I would appreciate if you could take it on out Dylan. Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Though wise men at their end know dark is right, Because their words had forked no lightning they Do not go gentle into that good night. Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay, Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight, And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way, Do not go gentle into that good night. Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay, Rage, rage against the dying of the light. And you, my father, there on the sad height, Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray. Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Mile Square View : City Council: Enter 2014 and the Death of the Log Jam

Tue, 7 Jan 2014 23:40:36 +0000

So petty that there are those on here that want to stir up manufactured, out of context crap a handful of days after the inaugurations. Mr Mello has done nothing to be bashed about, as a matter of fact he has my respect. There are too many people out there that want to perpetuate the "two Hoboken factions" rhetoric. Reform has has won the majority. The need for vigilance to protect that margin is self evident. To go around painting people as "good" or "evil" is counterproductive to the healing process this town deserves. These are our neighbors and contemporaries. Deal with it, or pretend you don't see these people when you are both in the grocery store or the bank. It's your life. Personally, I don't need the negativity, and I want a re-united Hoboken that doesn't have the inmates running the asylum. I think we have pretty much gotten there, but there is always more to be done. Relax with the bile, and yes, remain vigilant.

Mile Square View : MSV: now over 3,000,000 served. Thanks Hoboken!

Sun, 5 Jan 2014 03:51:34 +0000

As proven, the Horsey can do 3 million hits standing on his head. Case in point, I was toying dangerously with a 2014 "Happy New Year" piece for the esteemed MSV readership, despite what I believe you might call a lawsuit, which I decline to mention, but as John Lennon observed "Life is what happens when you are making other plans". Point being, I couldn't pump out one piece on a timely basis, while that big-toothed horsey guy makes it all look effortless. The Hoboken Horse has under-promised and over-delivered. One doesn't see that much in our culture anymore. Happy New Year Horsey, and as well to all that love political freedom without strings attached. Unheard of in these parts. Thank you. And yes, if you really want that piece I will deliver it. Roman and Nancy (helllo, GA, Happy New Year!) take the heat and most everyone else outside the truly concerned lets them take the heat, judges them, reaps the rewards of their efforts, and then many decide the minutiae is the story. That's wrong. - And, in brief, thank you Horsey, you are a gigantic piece of the puzzle in straightening this town out. Peace.

Mile Square View : Sign of the Times: Sinatra Park is back!

Sun, 17 Nov 2013 05:10:28 +0000

What a score, after years of fielding challenges trying to kick off getting this park up and running with guarded optimism, many toe-to-toe struggles with the EPA, running defense against political opponents not wanting to foot the necessary bill, while trying to hold the line with the public who naturally grew offensive from previous mayors booting it on this restoration and selling us up the river. Let us all cheer and come two terms with the City Hall administration team for peer-lessly going the whole nine yards by pursuing this goal, with the net result that we reclaimed our turf, and sporting life on the Jersey waterfront can once again truly be a ball.

Mile Square View : HOW SWEEP IT IS!!

Wed, 6 Nov 2013 13:45:51 +0000

Sorry, but just to be clear, not to be oxymoronic, but Mr Occhipinti has dropped below the bar of being worthy of comment, other than as a joke. The numbers tell us he should drop out of politics. I wonder how long it will take for him and his "angels" to get the hint.

Mile Square View : HOW SWEEP IT IS!!

Wed, 6 Nov 2013 13:40:54 +0000

I love. love, LOVE when you drop the term "inimitable". Happy day for Reform, as the Old Guard marches further down the road of irrelevance. Imagine how many Sandy victims could have been helped with the spray of money from Hudson Street, or how many hot dogs could have been served up with the 100K flushed down the toilet from our clueless friends at the Citadel. Oh well.

Mile Square View : Numbers coming in!

Wed, 6 Nov 2013 03:15:01 +0000

...and still dare's no parkin' on the council ! !

Mile Square View : SOUTHWEST PARK VICTORY: Landmark purchase passes 5-1-1

Wed, 4 Sep 2013 22:27:47 +0000

puzzledone, I agree with your remarks and we are good. I was the one veering off topic without explanation or apology after our esteemed Horsey specifically asked posters not to wander off track. My bad.

Mile Square View : SOUTHWEST PARK VICTORY: Landmark purchase passes 5-1-1

Wed, 4 Sep 2013 20:14:41 +0000

Note: The above of course is my thoughts on the new northeast park, which one might be well advised to keep in mind when navigating the equally treacherous path to the current effort for a south west park. As to the ruminations of "puzzledone", while it is disheartening to see an adjacent high rise residential tower to our new north east park, we might be wise to spare the criticism of Weehawken until Hoboken can boast as many playing fields and basketball courts as Weehawken, or Hoboken is able to rival the magnificent waterfront park acreage that Weehawken has installed of late. Why, they even have had a municipal pool for many years, isn't that quite a concept? The beat goes on, and the current administration and Reform council is on the right track, but we in Hoboken collectively have many miles to go before we sleep, and thanks to a previous history of many years of greed and associated irresponsible public land policy, quite a glass house to defend.

Mile Square View : SOUTHWEST PARK VICTORY: Landmark purchase passes 5-1-1

Wed, 4 Sep 2013 17:37:14 +0000

I just wanted to say that many thanks are in order for the realization of this park opening. To my experience, there were originally slated to be a pair of high rise towers on this plot of land. Back then, in the late 80's or early 90's as I recall, a grassroots group of local activists stood up and said "no thanks, developers", the group with a vision of looking to have this land as public space, a proper greeting to those entering Hoboken from the north. If memory serves, this group had to wade through any number of council meetings to comment and vote on this topic, since on a regular basis said meetings were delayed at the last minute/ re-scheduled, in what I personally interpreted to be a deliberate effort to have such a group disband through frustration. That is my opinion. A sub-set of this group of activists then took the step of suing to have this land dedicated to public use. The struggle was long, tedious and at great cost, ultimately ending in success against the odds. This effort has more currently been championed by the tenacity of the Zimmer administration, and by a group which has more or less become what we currently know by the banner "Reform". The road has been long, hazardous and wearying. The names of those who began this effort have in large measure been lost to the ages, but I for one want to step back and thank them all, and all the more current activists, wherever all of you may be. In particular, I would care to single out Mr Juan Melli, who has seen to it during his tenure that the proper information has been made available in the proper amounts at the proper time, and who has patiently and courteously weathered a fair amount of needling by myself as to if and when this park was going to happen. All of this was done by me in the spirit of progress and I hope in retrospect there are no hard feelings from my frustration with the meandering process. I will leave the so-called "Old Guard" to wrestle with their consciences in the hope that they one day see the light. Indeed, the process can be overwhelming, but I must say that ribbon cutting the other day was the culmination of a dream for Hoboken which many believed in for many years, even long before it really made any sense to reach so high and so far. I am so proud of all of you, thank you, and will close with the thought "yes, dreams do come true". As you were, amigos.

Mile Square View : Witness: Mason employee "caught" on video in voter fraud

Mon, 6 Aug 2012 23:41:49 +0000

Disclaimer to Avoid Controversy From Anyone Feeling a Need to Report This Posting: The following song includes references to eventual mortality (I would endeavor to say by natural causes for our purposes here) and other references to one getting one's comeuppance as a result of one's actions. All of these allusions are made by an lyricist whom is now deceased, referring to persons other than ourselves or the MSV readership, and by extension no imminent or eventual threat of any kind to anyone, anywhere, alive or dead, is suggested or should be implied herein. Where was I? Oh, yeah...... [youtube EqP3wT5lpa4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqP3wT5lpa4 youtube]

Mile Square View : Whatever happened to Beth Mason's confessed FBI correspondence

Mon, 6 Aug 2012 19:54:26 +0000

No offense, Mattaccino, but what the heck, for a change of pace let's be frankly realistic about this. Unfortunately, the premise is as always that these types of deceptions and villainous tricks are hard to prove and go unpunished by law enforcement, a law enforcement that at the end of the day does nothing effective about it. Case in point :what percentage of people in Hoboken and law enforcement who have any knowledge of local voting don't believe that vote buying is an Old Guard matter of course in Hoboken? I'd say less than 1%. But what really gets done about this corruption of one of the most cherished tenants of our democracy, one person/ one vote? (Insert pregnant pause here, insert sound effect: pin dropping) Yet it's as rampant but not as victimless as jay-walking, this vote-buying criminal activity has a most definite pool of victims: you and me and our money are parted and Hoboken remains a third class town and a consistent source of tainted revenue for the connected. That having been said, do you really think anyone with the power to do anything about it is actually going to do squat about lies on the telephone? C'mon. No one is going to hold them to task and they know it. That's why they do it. It's only when they get power-drunk and do something apesh!t stupid that they get any enforcement raining on them or any penalty, and then usually it's a slap on the wrist after mountains of elusive denials. Sorry for being negative, and occasionally some inroads are made against corruption, but usually I find it a stretch of the imagination that any even marginal sort of justice will prevail. The apathy is systemic, and by the time the grassroots resistance kicks in, it's 99% of the time too little too late.

Mile Square View : Hoboken411 100% wrong again on latest City claim

Thu, 2 Aug 2012 03:05:10 +0000

Hey k Love ya! This one's for you. Pop a beer, kick back and enjoy. If you don't have time for the whole thing, pick it up at the 1:50 mark. Personal favorite: the way the teacher pronounces "Mafia". Disclaimer: These are fictional characters. Any resemblance to any person alive or dead is purely coincidental. [youtube YlVDGmjz7eM&feature=player_embedded http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlVDGmjz7eM&feature=player_embedded youtube]

Mile Square View : Hoboken411 100% wrong again on latest City claim

Wed, 1 Aug 2012 17:36:30 +0000

Agreed, FAP. You know, it's funny. Sometimes a good gauge of a town's success at redevelopment from leaner times is the type of retail they attract, the bigger chains and franchises, like say Nathan's Famous, Sam Goody, Burger King, Chicken Galore, The North Face, Boston Market, Kinko's, we could go on and on. Hoboken is more defined by the by the fact that over time these chains and more have elected to get the heck out of here, they've come and gone. Guess they decided it just wasn't worth the hassle. I have been told that the CVS downtown is the busiest CVS install in the country, so it would seem walk-by traffic volume and demographics isn't the problem. Yet a Rite Aid four blocks away just decided to close up shop and skedaddle after many years. Why is that? I know there are a number of reasons a chain store might decide to close, but let's to some degree consider that trend on the scale it exists in Hoboken. The flight is not completely about changing business models. Think of the things like attire, books, entertainment retail, appliances, etc that one must now leave town to buy that used to be available locally. BTW, not even counting Barnes & Noble closing, that chain is collapsing wholesale for reasons having nothing to do with Hoboken. Who else can remember back a few years (and for many, many years) when any business in the food industry took easily a year, sometimes closer to two years from when the lease was signed and the permitting and construction began to when they were actually open for business. I remember a handful that were works in progress for a year and a half and never opened. Why was that? What small business can survive over a year with continued expenses like rent and utilities with zero revenue coming in during a year long or longer fit-up, which we have to assume is largely a function of municipal delays? It would be impossible to calculate the magnitude of loss to Hoboken's quality of life and financial engine due to how long it took to get a restaurant open. Now I'm sure that went on so long that word is out in the retail community, and most just avoid Hoboken like the plague unless they are masochistic and have a gigantic war chest and a legal team. And it's going to take time to get the word out that things are normalizing now.

Mile Square View : Transcripts are coming!

Tue, 31 Jul 2012 17:18:17 +0000

Horsey, nice post. I now realize that the "guest" in question had initially posed the questions you are answering to me. To do an out of character short post, let me just say that I agree with your responses well enough to under the circumstances consider the matter attended to. Quick completely unrelated science joke: A neutron walks into a bar and says to the bartender "how much is a beer?". The bartender responds "for you, no charge". How's that for irrelevant content?

Mile Square View : Hoboken petition will Let the People Decide when to hold municipal elections

Mon, 30 Jul 2012 22:21:14 +0000

Interesting with the Mr Obama/ Ms Clinton competition. If one really thinks about it, speaking strictly on a municipal level, Hoboken is about as close to a two party system as one can come. If there is fracturing on message or philosophy, it almost all happens on the Reform side, and is usually all distilled to one candidate well before the election. In terms of power struggles, it almost all happens on the Old Guard side. Those struggles are almost never resolved before election day, a particularly strong example being Ms Mason who can simply self-finance when she invariably advocates "my way or the highway" candidacies in term of Herself being at the head of the ticket. Reform can not count on that advantage in perpetuity. And, to wit, Ms Mason may sooner or later have her allowance taken away for squandering it all at the political beauty parlor chasing the increasingly impossible dream. Which returns me to a central theme of my of late commentary: if the Old Guard is successful with checking the egos at the the door of the smokey back room, and is able to say "lets all get behind ______________ for Mayor and slate, stop competing for pecking order and there will be enough gravy to satisfy everyone, in the first place we've got to get back in power, Reform is systematically making us extinct" the Old Guard could well be a juggernaut. Will this come to pass, I don't think so and I hope not, but it could. I support the reelection of Mayor Zimmer and Reform At-Large candidates, but in no way is any of this election even close to predetermined. Lose one At-Large seat (like the Old Guard did through a few small mistakes in the ward elections), and the majority is shot. Even if Ms Zimmer is reelected, that's a big deal. Reform would be wise as well to drop what I personally perceive to be too often a how shall I phrase this, "naive" undertone of having some kind of upper hand. As they sing in "Porgy and Bess", "It Ain't Necessarily So". Getting elected in Hoboken is NOT about right and wrong and Jimmy Stewart sentimentality (even though I admit to acting that way on occasion, such rhetoric does have it's place). We all know that routinely all kinds of election cr@p goes on that is not in the Girl Scout Handbook. However, no one has figured out a way to put an end to the back door voting intrigue so it remains a force to reckon with and therefore getting elected is simply about who gets the most votes, NOT how they get them. Sorry if I'm repeating myself. Related: http://www.scribd.com/doc/12891646/Tennessee-Will...

Mile Square View : Hoboken petition will Let the People Decide when to hold municipal elections

Mon, 30 Jul 2012 17:36:26 +0000

You had to mention the 2000 Bush - Gore election!!! No one has mentioned that election to me in years! Slowly I turn....... [youtube _yJBhzMWJCc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yJBhzMWJCc youtube]

Mile Square View : Hoboken petition will Let the People Decide when to hold municipal elections

Mon, 30 Jul 2012 16:59:14 +0000

Thanks for the feedback. No, no one wants anyone winning with 17%. Nor am I concerned per se about vis-a-vis direct cost of runoff elections. I might be wrong but in my mind if there weren't run-off elections the nuisance-crony candidates wouldn't run against their cronies in order to have some bargaining chip to support them later. Let's have those deals cut earlier in the game in a primary. Anyone familiar with the historical Hoboken nine candidate Mayoral elections in the 80's should know of which I speak. Person A runs against person B, gets to run off, person A makes it, person B who got 20% of the vote but was eliminated from the run-off says to person A, "well, I'll support you in the run-off for the guarantee of __________________(fill in name of easy money City Hall position here), since we both HATE candidate C, as we both have known all along". That way, in a real sense both candidates A & B win, both have $ and sway from City Hall and from the get-go they were on the same team in the first place. It's a shell game only the wired-in and/or wealthy can play.

Mile Square View : Hoboken petition will Let the People Decide when to hold municipal elections

Mon, 30 Jul 2012 16:05:19 +0000

Well put, Mr Kurta. My two cents- as forwarded above, when it is know there is great likelihood there is going to be a run-off, then by nature "run-off dynamics" candidates start to spring up. If it was known that there was not going to be a run-off, these candidates would have to fall in line behind another candidate by forming alliances earlier in the game and not muddy the waters or land patronage jobs. Might make for more boring election debates, but having no run-offs would eliminate an expensive process that feeds on the fact that it exists in the first place. I for one have had it with non-viable third candidates running to get some low-show or otherwise "go away" job to fall in line behind the candidate they knew the day they started their petition they were going to eventually fall behind. Eliminating run-offs in my book eliminates game playing, and to possibly extrapolate from what Mr Kurta states, in certain ways actually empowers lesser funded candidates to weigh in on a consolidated campaign, not "hold out" for a fair-weather friend backroom deal. I've seen enough "musical chairs" Hoboken political alliances to believe that both ends are often played against the middle, only to run against each other anew in the next election cycle. An election ballot shouldn't be a game of strategy akin to a chess board.

Mile Square View : Transcripts are coming!

Sun, 29 Jul 2012 01:49:16 +0000

Somewhat interesting banter on this thread, particularly by "guest", a guest who honestly, I seek to discuss matters with evenhandedly and non-confrontationally. I'm not sure why anyone would attempt to second guess the nature of content on a site like this, but I can tell you if they start to cover things like the latest local pie eating contest or "feel good" pieces about the Church Square Park renovation here, I personally will be skimming over those parts. Also might be worth mentioning that neither the MSV or Grafix Avenger blogs are authored by persons who get as much as one thin dime for their efforts (although I am admitted unsure why the comparative thickness of the dime is important in said analogy). If anything, they are rewarded for their vigilance with a negative cash flow for giving a crap about the integrity of government in this town, and also rewarded with heaps of trouble from opponents, many of who ARE on a payroll, as we learn from the soon-to-be-in-hand court transcripts. The Callicchio /WWE story is relevant as to the nature of those on political payrolls, as is following him as a member of a political operation who basically can be proved to be politically "outed" officially once these transcripts are had (that's right, actual transcripts instead of what is currently word-of-mouth accounts from those who attended to proceedings). How relevant? I guess "guest" can decide for them selves as can we all. Making too much of a "big deal" out of it? Well let's suffice to say I am of the belief that what is reported here is on the whole true. Transcripts are official and not hearsay. Do these story lines expose certain "ironies" by an elected official, someone affecting millions and millions of dollars worth of public policy as a member of the City Council? I would tend to say yes. Does this elected official purposefully condone and underwrite the manufacture of distortions and lies to hurt those who oppose them? I might think so. Is Mr Callicchio an innocent victim? You decide. But the fact remains his actions in our community are consistent with the agenda of those who pay his wages, an employment which has been IMO purposefully shrouded in mystery, purposefully being relegated to the realm of that part of the political sausage manufacturing this same politician didn't want us to see. In terms of dwelling on story lines for inordinate amounts of time, well let's dwell on this: The Old Guard is not by and large transient. They have a pretty well entrenched voting "base". A base that many of which derive DIRECT BENEFIT from voting the Old Guard party line through $, paid positions or covert threat through lies. Those on the Reform side of things DO have a transient base. They tend to have to be mostly motivated by "doing the right thing" and deriving long term, indirect benefit from their vote. Those Reform voters who are trying to extract the systematic corruption in Hoboken are of a demographic which is on average much more likely to come and go at a much, much higher frequency. A pretty healthy percentage of those who will seek to re-elect Mayor Zimmer for example will probably be about (help me out here, Mr Kurta, because I'm guessing at this percentage) 30% different people than elected her the first time, just based on persons moving in or out of town or becoming more or less interested in municipal elections. So in essence, repeating a story today about an Old Guard abuse from three years ago is falling on perhaps an audience which is 30% different. Combine that with the fact that the Old Guard has a perpetual spin machine in place on sites like Hoboken Patch and Hoboken411, then, yes, "guest" these stories of Old Guard corruption, it's story lines, and it's permutations IMO bear repeating and dwelling on. The battle to keep those who would be attracted to removal of corruption through Reform is ongoing and opposed by a very consistent Old Guard well oiled machine effort. And that's my opinion.