As 2014 began, many Bayonne residents may have suspected it would be a year of change for the city, with an impending municipal election, continued negotiations on a teachers’ contract, and major renovation work being done on the city’s landmark bridge.
But few probably realized just what a ride the year would be.
From the election defeat of the city’s incumbent mayor, to the departure of a longtime civil servant who had served under several mayors, to the death of a local icon known for a career of public service, 2014 was a year of passages.
It was also a year of milestones, with the appointment of Bayonne’s first female firefighter, the selection of the city’s first woman council president, and the opening of the first new firehouse in decades.
The incendiary year began with a four-alarm fire on West 10th Street on Jan. 9 that displaced 25 people. It was the city’s first multi-alarm fire of that stature in years, according to fire officials.
Later that evening, a seemingly innocuous gathering at a downtown restaurant set the stage for explosive political events later in the year. The event was the campaign kickoff of third mayoral candidate Anthony Zanowic, whose entry into the race would not be totally appreciated until late into the night on May 13. One-and-a half-term Mayor Mark Smith and Police Capt. James Davis had already announced their decisions to run.
While most in Bayonne were consumed with the upcoming Super Bowl and its first-time presence in the Garden State, big things were being announced in the city. In mid-January, the City Council voted to approve a study to examine the options for a section of the west side of Broadway, from 23rd to 24th streets, and possibly label it a blighted area to open it up for a wholesale remake into a medical facility. The block featured only two viable businesses, with the rest of the lots shuttered and/or in disrepair.
Later in the month, the city made headlines across the globe as the departure point for the cruise ship that had the most onboard illnesses for a cruising vessel ever. Royal Caribbean Cruise Line’s Explorer of the Seas returned to port on Jan. 29 after more than 600 passengers and crew members contracted a highly contagious gastrointestinal illness.
The city’s council races were highlighted on Jan. 31, when longtime gadfly and four-time political candidate Leonard Kantor announced he would forgo his previous independent campaign status and join the Zanowic slate as an at-large candidate.
On Feb. 12, Mayor Mark Smith surprised no one when he held his campaign kickoff at the Chandelier Restaurant. What did surprise some, however, was that his council slate was completely intact. Rumor had had it that one or more members might not run again – this after Smith’s team had only four years earlier become the first to completely sweep an election since Bayonne had adopted the mayor-council form of government through the Faulkner Act in the 1960s.
While the elections were heating up, the city was cooling down. Bayonne experienced one of its most severe winters in recent history, with at least 15 significant snowfalls. Snow plows and pothole refill teams were dispatched with regularity.
In mid-February came the news of the guilty plea of former city official Anselmo Crisonino. Crisonino had admitted to taking $65,000 in bribes while awarding Housing and Urban Development grants, according to U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman.
Later in the month, it was back to the races, as Davis made official his run for mayor, with an announcement at his campaign headquarters on 16th and Broadway. With his launch, the campaign became a two-ticket run. Though Zanowic had officially announced first, he was not seen as a real threat to Smith. In fact, only three days before Davis’s event, Zanowic had experienced the defection of two of his council candidates, Washington Flores and John Sebik, over internal disagreements.
Over the next two and half months, the city endured one its most contentious mayor-council campaigns in its history. The election included charges of voter fraud from both sides, an election-cycle publication attacking Smith no one would take responsibility for, and the vandalism of up to 200 Davis campaign signs the day before the St. Patrick’s Day Parade.
At two public debates, the first at the Hudson Reporter newspaper headquarters in Hoboken on April 10, and the other, a Bayonne Rotary Club-sponsored event on April 24, the public got an unfettered look at the mayoral candidates. Both debates featured questions not disclosed in advance. At each event, the personal sides of Smith, Davis, and Zanowic were revealed when they were asked questions about their life experiences.
The May 13 election produced results that shocked many in the city. The counting of ballots went deep into the night, with only the First Ward results uncontested. In that race, Davis’s running mate Thomas Cotter upended sitting Councilwoman Agnes Gillespie.
But residents’ decision on the mayor’s post and the balance of the City Council seats would be settled on another day. Smith bested Davis only by about 170 votes and a 49 to 47 percent margin – not enough when he needed 50 percent of the vote plus one ballot. Zanowic was the game changer. Had he not run and even half of the 500 votes he collected had gone to Smith, there would have been no change in the mayor’s seat.
The council seats were another matter. With multiple candidates in the Second and Third Ward, and at-large races, including five in the Third Ward alone, the sheer numbers didn’t allow for a 50-percent-plus-one win.
These remaining four races were effectively ties, and both sides said they would use the stalemates as springboards to unequivocal victories come runoff day June 10.
Third Ward Councilman Raymond Greaves, a state labor leader, opened his own runoff office uptown and brought in dozens of his labor friends to walk the streets and knock on doors on his behalf during the second election.
Members of the Davis team, led by campaign manager Joseph DeMarco, could be seen in suits on weekends hitting the pavement around town.
What was not known to the public at the time was that Davis’s “just miss” in the May 13 election emboldened not only his previous supporters, but a whole new legion as well. Sources said that money and manpower flowed in to Bayonne from elsewhere in the county, and even outside Hudson County.
On June 10, the runoff was held. This time the mayoral margin was more decisive, about 400 votes – but now in a different direction. Upstart candidate Davis had clinched victory, waving from a second-floor window over San Vito’s pizzeria on Broadway to celebrate. Scores of supporters, who had gathered on the street underneath Davis’s election-night headquarters to wait for the decision, applauded and cheered loudly. Other winners that night were Salvatore Gullace, Gary La Pelusa, Sharon Nadrowski, and Juan Perez. Besides Smith, those who lost that night were Council President Terrence Ruane, Second Ward Councilman Joseph Hurley, Greaves, and At Large Councilwoman Debra Czerwienski.
Davis’s inauguration on July 1, and his resulting reshaping of the city administration, caused a domino effect of departures.
Assemblyman Jason O’Donnell, also the public safety director under Smith, lost his municipal post, replaced by longtime Davis police department associate and friend, Robert “Red” Kubert. Joseph Waks, municipal services director, and Charles D’Amico, city attorney, moved on. Police Chief Ralph Scianni retired. In the fall, Stephen Gallo, business administrator and executive director of the Bayonne Municipal Utilities Authority, accepted a deal to leave the administration, sources said. Gallo, who had also served in various paid positions during the terms of Mayors Len Kiczek, Joseph Doria, and Smith, is now the business administrator for Keyport in Monmouth County.
The Davis City Council included a former member (La Pelusa), former county sheriff (Perez), and Bayonne’s first woman council president (Nadrowski). His administration also brought back city attorney Jay Coffey, who had served under Doria.
Other politics
The surprise outcome of the municipal elections gave rise to speculation about the futures of two political figures later in the year. Where would the Smith loss leave O’Donnell, the sitting 31st District assemblyman, now that Davis was mayor? And would the Smith and Greaves-backed Kenneth Kopacz, running in place of the departing Bayonne Freeholder Doreen DiDomenico, still achieve primary and general election victories?
The latter question was answered easily, as Kopacz won against the Davis-backed freeholder candidate, Rafael Augusto, in the June 3 Democratic primary. No candidates ran on the Republican side. Kopacz, the Washington School principal, easily dispatched independent candidate Michael Alonso in the Nov. 4 general election.
As for O’Donnell’s future, nothing has been announced publicly. But although Davis had not announced his pick for Assembly candidate by the winter holidays, multiple sources confirmed that Davis would tap former Bayonne Local Redevelopment Authority head Nicholas Chiaravalloti for the Democratic Assembly choice in 2015. Late in 2014, there were already rumors of an O’Donnell mayoral run in 2018.
The schools, the schools
Almost no issue in the city’s history had caused as much turmoil as the four-year-plus unsettled teachers’ contract as Bayonne geared up for a new school term. Many credited the defeat of Smith to the fact that he could not broker that deal.
The news on Labor Day weekend sent shockwaves through the city. When scores of teachers descended on Davis’s Meet the Mayor night on Tuesday, Sept. 2 to apply pressure for a contract resolution, little did those teachers know that their pact was in the last stages of completion.
Instead of a raucous, impromptu City Council Chamber meeting came the announcement by Davis, School Board President William Lawson, and Bayonne Teachers Association President Alan D’Angelo that an agreement had been reached.
Referenda, and their decisions
Two petition drives in Bayonne captured the attention of citizens.
One, closely related to support for teachers, was for an elected school board. Michael Alonso and Bayonne School Board Choice led the effort on this. Though proponents couldn’t get enough valid signatures to put the matter on the May ballot, a vote by the new City Council in August assured that the issue would get its day in the voting booth later in the year.
The effort, strongly supported by Davis, was passed in the November election.
The return of traditional rent control, an effort in 2012 that was just barely beaten that year, was more soundly defeated in 2014.
Playing ‘bridge’ in Bayonne
The Port Authority of New York & New Jersey’s $743 million “Raise the Roadway” project, to increase the height of the Bayonne Bridge’s roadway to allow larger ships to pass underneath it, was a source of constant controversy throughout the year.
Residents complained of loud noises, basement flooding, house-shaking vibrations, air pollution, a lack of parking, and other quality-of-life issues. At Port Authority and city-sponsored meetings on the topic First Ward homeowners also complained of being ignored by the Port Authority and the city.
By year’s end, however, some residents agreed that the the worst of the project was now over and seemed resigned to letting the effort run its course.
Development moves forward
Longtime construction projects began to bear fruit in 2014.
The Camelot at Bayonne (Kennedy Boulevard) and SilkLofts (Avenue E) developments opened to tenants.
The block-long project slated for 23rd to 24th streets by Rendina Healthcare Real Estate for St. Barnabas Health Systems was delayed when Barney Stock owner Mel Stock sued the city in a bid to be excluded from the undertaking. At the end of 2014, the project was wending its way through city boards in a redrawn form.
Development at the Peninsula at Bayonne Harbor, the former Military Ocean Terminal, was primed to start in the new year, according to city officials. The last three lawsuits filed against the city were being settled, and the economic driver Bayonne has sought since the decision in the 1990s to close the base was expected to begin with shovels in the ground at Harbor Station North in the spring or summer of 2015.
Cruising to success
Related to the Peninsula development was the success of the Royal Caribbean Cruise line at its passenger port there.
In October, a new $55-million passenger terminal was opened, one of the most technologically advanced in the world and featuring almost instantaneous boarding for the preregistered.
Just a few weeks later at the port came the arrival of the new $1 billion Quantum of the Seas, the third largest vessel in the world and what the cruise line called the “first smart ship.” In mid-November, mini-cruises for travel agents, the media, and others packed the ship three times for voyages on the Atlantic.
Businesses in Bayonne
The sale of two Bayonne institutions, International-Matex Tank Terminals and Muralo Paints, within days of each other, raised eyebrows of those worried about the city’s industrial base, on the decline for years.
Meanwhile, the Bayonne Chamber of Commerce flexed its muscles with its annual holiday party, held at The Chandelier and heavily attended, where it was announced that membership had climbed above the 120-member mark, not bad for a city whose retail industry has been written off by critics for years.
That’s Entertainment
Entertainment in the city, by natives or former residents, continued to make news.
In October, the Bayonne Urban Enterprise Zone and downtown merchants staged the first Bergen Point Fall Festival, attended by thousands and received well by virtually all.
In December, Barbara Walters continued the praise heaped on the city’s own George R.R. Martin, creator of the Home Box Office hit “Game of Thrones,” by naming him one of her “10 Most Fascinating People of 2014.” The Hudson Reporter’s fledgling magazine, “Bayonne: Life on the Peninsula,” bagged an interview with the famed author, who came to his hometown to chat with the publication.
On Christmas Day, the city’s contributions to world entertainment continued, with the opening of the major motion picture “Into the Woods,” featuring Meryl Streep, Emily Blunt and Bayonne’s own Tammy Blanchard.
Arts renaissance
Bayonne had a rebirth in 2014 in the areas of art, music, theater, and town beautification.
When the city’s Art Circle had become dormant in the spring, possibly a victim of city politics, many artists in town worried there would no longer be venues to display their works. But a June exhibition at Bee’s Art Studio uptown all but doused that doubt. Twelve artists displayed their works to a standing-room-only opening-night crowd, and then successful multi-artist shows flourished later in the year at the Bayonne Museum, Hendrickson’s restaurant, All-Fit Studios, and again at Bee’s. Several solo shows were also held around town.
Local performing arts continued to find their audiences. Bayonne and Marist high schools staged their annual productions, with BHS’s “Hairspray” receiving much acclaim. The Jewish Community Center, a new All Saints Catholic Academy troupe, and others offered live performances at affordable prices.
City bars offered local musical talent on a regular basis, and a two-church musical program featured Big Band music in a holiday exhibition.
Keeping Bayonne a beautiful place was the goal of hundreds of residents in September, when they donned T-shirts and grabbed brooms in a citywide effort to stem the tide of litter and bring pride back to those who live, work, or visit the city.
Religion and faith
The impending sainthood of a local religious icon and the plan to consolidate city churches were the talk of the town in the fall.
Bayonne native Sr. Miriam Teresa (Demjanovich), the daughter of a Hudson County shoemaker, was honored with two Masses in October. The first, on Oct. 4, was held at the Sacred Heart Basilica in Newark, where she was elevated to “Blessed,” in another step toward her sainthood. On Oct. 5, at St. John the Baptist Byzantine Catholic Church in Bayonne, she was honored locally.
In contrast to the euphoria being felt about Sr. Miriam, Catholic faithful in the city gave their feedback in November and December about whether a proposed church consolidation in Bayonne by the Newark Archdiocese should proceed.
Bayonne’s seven Catholic churches have a combined debt of more than $3 million, and a decreasing number of church attendees, so some churches will be combined with others, and some possibly closed.
Sadly, Bayonne Hadassah, after nearly 80 years in the city, dissolved itself on June 10. The organization could not overcome thinning ranks.
Arrivals
2014 was a year of positive change for the city. Bayonne welcomed Cailin Brodel, the first female firefighter in the department’s history. At that same ceremony, six other firefighters were added, and Salvatore Gaetani was promoted to the rank of captain. The department also saw the completion of the long-awaited firehouse at the Peninsula, the first standalone firehouse in the city in several decades.
With the retirement of Ralph Scianni as police department chief, Drew Niekrasz was promoted to the position of top cop. Drew Sisk, the cousin of former police chief James Sisk, was elevated to deputy chief.
Departures
At least three people who contributed to the rich history of Bayonne died during the year. One was Brigid Breivogel, the retired city health director, who had served on many local boards and associations. Robert Mangum, a retired New York State judge and founder of The One Hundred Black Men, Inc. in New York and a Bayonne resident, and Theresa Crisonino, a well-known city restauranteur, also died.
Joseph Passantino may be reached at JoePass@hudsonreporter.com.