To the Editor:
It seems that yet once again Mayor Davis has over promised and under delivered to the city and citizens of Bayonne. His latest retreat from responsibility involves the progress of the Port Authority’s “Raise the Roadway Project.” His promises to be a fighter for our citizens, and stand up to the Port Authority have completely evaporated as he lets the PA dictate terms and run roughshod over Bayonne. Worse yet is Davis’s inability to take responsibility for his own administration’s shortcomings. Davis tries to deflect attention from his failure to properly manage the PA by inaccurately complaining that, “This project was sold to the residents as a benefit for the city by the prior administration.” Jim Davis knows full well, or at least he should, that this project was boosted and supported by the highest levels of government, including the President of the United States (July 19, 2012 Press Release; Office of the White House Press Secretary), as well as United States Senator Bob Menendez, and the governors of both New York and New Jersey.
The economic implications for this area alone, some 275,000 jobs related to the project, along with the full support of the President of the United States, were enough to ensure that this project was going to happen, irrespective of who was the mayor of Bayonne.
Sadly, Jim Davis is quick to place blame, slow to accept responsibility, and all too eager to take credit for the many projects initiated before he took office.
Mayor Davis has had over a year in office, and I am sure he has found the job to be much more demanding and challenging then they told him it would be, but he asked for it. It is now time he grew up, stopped blaming others, and took charge.
MARK A. SMITH