A Special Invitation to Meet Hillary Clinton

[Sergei]

Please click the invitation to learn the details. There is a minimum contribution of $1,000.00.


http://www.newportvoice.org/files/hillaryPoster.png (http://www.newportvoice.org/files/hillary.pdf)

[smp9778]

It's disappointing that Steven Fulop finds time to organize fundraisers for Hillary Clinton yet is nowhere to be found when his constituents are left without running water.

[nikolaypavlov]

Come on, he is trying to ingratiate himself with a powerful political family. Of course he will do that. He is thinking for himself.

[wired]

It's disappointing that Steven Fulop finds time to organize fundraisers for Hillary Clinton yet is nowhere to be found when his constituents are left without running water.

How clever that Fulop takes the fall for this, but the other name appearing on the invite - you know, the one above Fulop's - is Jamie Lefrak. Last time I checked, Fulop wasn't the developer whose workers ruptured the water main in the first place.

Where's your outrage when it comes to the person who cashes your rent checks?

[Jeremyk]

The break was reported around 2:30 p.m. Saturday in a 36-inch-diameter pipe in Jersey City, about a half-mile from the entrance to the Holland Tunnel, Henning said. A contractor working on the demolition of the Van Leer chocolate factory on Coles Street broke the water main.Today's Star Ledger

Wired,

What meds are you on? Lefrak's workers were not responsible for the rupture to the water main, as you can see from the Star Ledger's report of the incident. Apparently, the Lefrak workers did a great job of restoring the water to the Lefrak apartments earlier today.

Where was Steve Fulop, our Ward E Councilman? He should have been on the frontline, here, helping us. Instead, he was probably off to the Shore with the other politicians, or trying to gain points with the Clintons. Only our votes are good enough for Steve Fulop, not our problems.

[wired]

Today's Star Ledger

Wired,

What meds are you on? Lefrak's workers were not responsible for the rupture to the water main, as you can see from the Star Ledger's report of the incident. Apparently, the Lefrak workers did a great job of restoring the water to the Lefrak apartments earlier today.

Where was Steve Fulop, our Ward E Councilman? He should have been on the frontline, here, helping us. Instead, he was probably off to the Shore with the other politicians, or trying to gain points with the Clintons. Only our votes are good enough for Steve Fulop, not our problems.

Meds? Funny you should ask. If you're referencing the Lefrak Kool-Aid, no, I haven't had any - there's none left to spare after the NWA trustees are done having their share.

I never once said that Lefrak's workers caused the water main break on Coles. But some developer's workers did. If any "blame" is to be laid, let it be laid upon them.

Again, the references to this thread of suggestions about Fulop ingratiating himself with the Clinton campaign ever-so-conveniently omit the fact that Jamie Lefrak's name gets billing above the councilman.

The same fols who are so quick to yell and scream about how Newport is "private property" owned by Jamie (all while disparaging the rest of the city in which they live and the government officials who operate it) are the same folks who stomp their feet about why the same elected officials they denigrate so openly do not leap to the cause.

if Fulop had shown up, Sonia would be the first person to say that he had just appeared as a publicity stunt. Fulop is damned if he does, damned if he doesn't when it comes to the vocal minority in Newport, so I don't blame him in the slightest for not being involved in the water crisis (it wasn't Fulop who sold our water system to United, after all).

[Sonia]

Wired,

Any assistance would have been appreciated this weekend. As our Councilman, Steve should have been here to help, without any thought to any publicity for himself. I'm serious when I say he should have been here handing out bottles of water. Even South City Grill invested in bottled water, and ice to help folks in our community. The difference is in caring about Newport, or not giving a damn.

As a community, the question must be asked, should we vote into office someone who has demonstrated such indifference to our plight?

[wired]

Wired,

Any assistance would have been appreciated this weekend. As our Councilman, Steve should have been here to help, without any thought to any publicity for himself. I'm serious when I say he should have been here handing out bottles of water. Even South City Grill invested in bottled water, and ice to help folks in our community. The difference is in caring about Newport, or not giving a damn.

As a community, the question must be asked, should we vote into office someone who has demonstrated such indifference to our plight?

Sonia,

I'll happily restate my theory that if Steve Fulop had shown up to hand out water bottles, you would be criticizing him for staging a publicity stunt.

I think it is reprehensible to use a crisis like this one as yet more fodder for the anti-Fulop machine. Shocking, coming from an allegedly apolitical 501(c)(3) charitable not-for-profit organization.

[Sonia]

I assure you Wired, this weekend, and this crisis, was not about politics, and Fulop and his water would have been welcomed with open arms.

What anti-Fulop machine are you talking about? Seriously, I'm not a part of any. We are a charitable organization, and we care very much about our community.

I simply don't understand why Steve would show such a lack of concern for the well being of his constituents? There are over 10,000 people living in Newport, and this Councilman acts as if our problems don't matter.

It's been an exhausting weekend, I'm calling it a night.

[Jeremyk]

The guy doesn't show his face to the community, but he sure does for the press, from today's Jersey Journal:

MAIN BREAK
Monday, July 16, 2007
By BERNETTE PEARSON
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

A water main break on Saturday afternoon caused widespread water outages and low pressure for thousands of Hoboken residents, but several city council members and residents say it also exposed the city's lack of an adequate emergency communication system to advise residents of possible dangers.

"One of the things that we noticed (Saturday) night was that everyone was so focused on fixing the problem but they were not informing the town constituents who are a part of the affected areas," said Second Ward Councilwoman Beth Mason, adding that some city officials were not informed.

Third Ward Councilman Mike Russo said he received nearly 100 phone calls from residents, most of them looking for some answers. "The problem is that we as a city have a lack of communication with the residents, especially the older residents," Russo said.

Russo said the city's office of emergency management did post information on the city's Web site, but it was late and not sufficient to reach thousands of residents.

"We will work very hard in the future to improve city communication during times of emergency but yesterday a lot of people were working very hard to alert the public the best they could," said Hoboken Mayor David Roberts.

Roberts said information was put on the Web site immediately, police cars were sent through the city to advise residents of the problem and he and others visited every senior development in the city.

"I don't know of a city that has done more," Roberts said.

Jersey City residents also suffered lack of water due to the water main break, primarily in the Newport area of Downtown. United Water, the utility that runs the water systems for both cities, stationed tankers near the Holland Tunnel to provide drinking water as thousands of Jersey City and Hoboken residents may still battle water problems today and it might be another day until the boil advisory is lifted, officials said.

However, Jersey City residents had very few complaints of communication, and help was readily given to them by police, who patrolled the affected neighborhoods to advise them of the problem, as well as emergency advisories on the city's television channel, JC1TV.

"Nobody has voiced any concern on the city's response to the situation," said Downtown Councilman Steven Fulop. "The concerns were more about what happened, not the city's handling of it."

A 36-inch-diameter pipe was hit during the demolition of the Van Leer Chocolate Factory on 110 Hoboken Avenue in Jersey City around 2:30 p.m. Saturday. United Water used media outlets to inform residents of the problem and in Jersey City, it also used its rapid alert system to send calls to those affected by the broken pipe.

However, the alert system has only been around since the beginning of the year and smaller cities like Hoboken are not wired to it yet, said United Water spokesman Richard Henning.

James McManus, a resident of Hoboken's Church Towers, agreed that residents were ill-informed.

"They (Hoboken authorities) gave no information whatsoever," said the 65-year Hoboken resident. "The cop cars used to go around and tell you whatever you needed to know. Today if you call and ask them a question they'll have an attitude with you."

Jason Royster, 42, a hairstylist at Makeovers on Washington Street, wished he was given an explanation as well. The salon turned away five customers due to the lack of water. Royster and other workers at the salon continuously called Hoboken's police department, who told them to call Jersey City.

Mason suggested implementing a system named Reverse 911, which would allow residents to give their contact numbers and e-mail addresses to fire and police departments so that when there is an emergency the resident could receive a phone call and e-mail about it.

"It (the system) gives us an opportunity to practice for things that could be bigger, like the issues with terrorism," she said. "There's a lot of talk of ideas, but now we have to fund them and put them in practice so that everyone is aware."

[Lisa]

Fulop is downplaying what happened, but how would he know, he wasn't here. The truth is the city was poorly prepared to deal with this crisis, and there was an absence of all our elected officials, including him. They were all unresponsive. One of the tenant's posted an accurate description of the scenario:


Putting aside the issue of why the water main rupture happened (and the mechanics of pumps in high-rise buildings), I think there has been an interesting contrast between how Hoboken city officials responded to the problem (putting updates on city website, sending out officials to close down restaurants, proactively working with United Water to reverse flow in the system and obtain water from Weehawken) and how Jersey City officials responded to the problem (no information on city website, restaurants and stores allowed to remain open at Newport Mall with no working restrooms in the entire mall, residents not informed of what was happening with United Water). It's been a real contrast.

I know that Steven Fulop has been busy with Hillary Clinton's fundraisers and Mayor Healy has to contend with his legal problems, but it would be nice if our city government would have been a bit more proactive during this crisis.

There were some pleas for help, that upset many of us, at 1:19 on Sunday from a resident of the Mandalay:


Here at Mandalay we still have no water at all. And nobody can tell why.

And at 7:14 PM also from the Mandalay:


7 pm and no water at Mandalay. We are filling buckets with the water of the swimming pool. The only person we can talk to is the doorman and he says that United Water has fixed everything and we should have water!
I'm wondering... the reports claim that the problem was in Hoboken and the Newport section of Jersey City...since we are not part of Newport I think they forgot about us...

Actually, the Mandalay is part of NWA's jurisdiction, but even though the NWA tried reaching out to the city by phone, no human being was available to answer the city phones, or even the numbers published by United Water.

[wired]

The guy doesn't show his face to the community, but he sure does for the press, from today's Jersey Journal:


Wow, that was right on cue. Good job, Jeremyk!

Here's what Jeremyk or Lisa would have said this morning if Fulop had shown up to hand out water:

"The guy dares to show his face to the community, but he's really doing it for the press. He should have been at City Hall dealing with the crisis, not shaking hands and handing out water just for a photo op."

sammlung04

Newsflash folks - Fulop is but one of our elected officials. He is the councilman for our ward, but there are also at-large councilpersons who are directly accountable to us, not to mention the office of the city's chief executive, Mayor Healy.

[Sonia]

Wired,

As Lisa posted, they were all absent, and I don't think they could have done much, except hand out bottles of water, and insist on more information from the agencies to update residents in the neighborhood. The Newport complex was prepared for this incident, and services were restored fairly quickly, but the buildings near to Newport, including the Portofino and Mandalay, could have used some bottles of water, or a water truck from United Waterway. Surely our representatives could have found something to do to help the people who live in this area.

I will be posting more about why Newport was better prepared to deal with this crisis than the rest of the area, later, and on the appropriate thread.

One last thing, I received a phone call this morning from Brian Stack, who informed me this was not the first time there has been such a crisis. There was a similar main break in West NY not too long ago. We are going to follow-up on this issue in the next few days. Those who let problems like this one slide, are bound to see it happen again.

[Sonia]

The Hillary Clinton event, scheduled for 5PM, Monday, July 30,2007, at Town Square Place, has been postponed.

No further information is available at this time.