The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey picked a fine time to raise PATH fares. Problems on the Hoboken and Jersey City lines to 33rd Street left people scrambling for two days last week to get to and from work. Even when the problem was fixed, a fire from the adhesive that the repair crews used caused more delays.
Raiz Wahid, a community leader in Jersey City, complained that while the Port Authority provided buses as an alternative, it took many local commuters two and a half hours to get home from work.
While some of those who go to and from Manhattan daily via the PATH trains have lucrative jobs connected to Wall Street, most don’t, and Wahid pointed out that the problems with the PATH placed an additional hardship on working people.
In early October, PATH fares are set to rise again, adding more cost to the trip.
Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop has raised questions about the problems, creating even more animosity between Jersey City and the Port Authority, which runs the PATH system, and against whom the city has filed a lawsuit to collect $400 million in allegedly unpaid municipal taxes.
Meanwhile, the Port Authority has been spending money throughout the area on things like repairs to the Pulaski Skyway, the raising of the roadway for the Bayonne Bridge, and other projects. And the recent announcement that the Port Authority intends to rebuild operations in the Greenville Yards to receive containers shipped over by barge from Brooklyn has raised some red flags – especially since Gov. Chris Christie cancelled the proposed ARC Tunnel that would have made the out-of-date barge system unnecessary.
In fact, only one barge-rail system remains intact, it is owned by the Port Authority, and has exclusive rights to ship freight over the two and half mile stretch of New York Harbor from Brooklyn to the Greenville Yards in Jersey City. The Port Authority intends to invest more than $356 million in Greenville Yards for a system that will transport only 4,000 containers a year.
Former assemblyman Lou Manzo, a critic of the Christie administration, questioned whether the governor’s move to stop the ARC Tunnel (which would have allowed much more train traffic to directly access the Croxton Yards in Jersey City) was designed to protect the Port Authority’s exclusive monopoly over container transport from Brooklyn.
McGreevey reinvented?
The Greenville Yards announcement comes at a time when there appears to be a number of political moves being made in the PA, including the shocking notice that Christie has named Jamie Fox, a prominent Democrat, as the commissioner of the State Department of Transportation, which has oversight into many PA activities.
Fox was a key person in the administration of Gov. Jim McGreevey, who appointed him as a Port Authority commissioner that allowed Fox to survive an internal Democratic conflict, one that tried to force McGreevey to resign early after the now-famous “I am a gay American” speech a decade ago.
That battle pitted McGreevey and his key people, including Fox, against then-U.S. Sen. Jon Corzine and U.S. Senator Robert Menendez. Corzine was looking to move into the State House early. McGreevey, however, held out against his early removal. But the feud left some bitter feelings against the two senators among his closest associates, apparently including Fox.
This move to appoint Fox may be a tip of the hat to McGreevey. Christie and McGreevey have become closer lately, even though McGreevey appears to be the kingmaker behind the eventual Steve Fulop run for governor, once Christie vacates the seat, as expected, to run for president in 2016.
Fox is not the only McGreevey insider who appears to be back in power. Gary Taffet, who served on McGreevey’s gubernatorial staff but was caight up by questions involving alleged use of connections to the state Department of Transportation to get approvals for billboards along the Turnpike, resurfaced at a fundraiser for Fulop, and apparently is doing insurance work for the city.
Roque team confident on BOE elections
West New York is gearing up for a second round of school board elections that will decide the future control of the board. Last year around this time, when charges of hacking were still hanging over Mayor Felix Roque’s head, momentum was building for a new, anti-administration Board of Education. This helped the ballot question sail through to create an elected board last November. Indeed, even after Roque had been acquitted, the first round of school board elections to expand the number of members from seven to nine went to anti-administration candidates.
But the second round of elections that would put up some of the existing seats for a vote was stalled until November, and Roque has since regrouped. Behind the scenes, the Roque team has been working hard to get their candidates before the public, and with a shift in public perception, Roque-supported candidates appear to be in good shape.
Because of two resignations, five seats are up instead of three.
A victory for Hoboken’s Old Guard?
Although still split, the Hoboken old guard may still retain its two seats on the nine-member Board of Education, and may be able to pick up a third seat this November, although they cannot still gain control of the nine-member board.
The same political divisions that caused a three-way race in last year’s municipal election still exist, but won’t have the same impact. Two of the three old guard candidates are incumbents and are considered likely to retain their seats.
When yes means yes
Bayonne rent control advocates have won a decisive victory on the wording of the referendum to be presented on Nov. 4, avoiding the disaster Hoboken suffered a few years ago when “yes” meant “no” for keeping control, and tenants nearly saw rent control gutted.
If the language of the Bayonne referendum had not been changed, yes would have meant doing away with rent control, not saving it. As it is, yes means keeping it.
Al Sullivan may be reached at asullivan@hudsonreporter.com.