Our Digital Archive from 2000 – 2016
Dear Editor: In a closed meeting on January 14th of this year, the Jersey City Board of Education ended its policy of broadcasting the public comments portion of its monthly meetings. Several concerned citizens have challenged the decision in court. Mayor Fulop has criticized the Board’s move, calling it a “step backward” for governmental transparency. …
Continue reading “Are the views of the public really less important?”
Dear Editor: Public speaking has been harmed by the city council which plans on reducing speaking to five minutes on all new ordinances; the final hearing for this is August 20th. The city’s ordinances are complicated and some ordinances are the size of non-fiction books so any reduction in time is a serious problem. Issues …
Dear Editor: It was about a year ago that the Motor Vehicle Commission (MVC) began mailing its first batch of Skip the Trip notices to our customers, affording a majority of New Jersey citizens the opportunity to renew their driver’s licenses or non-driver IDs by mail. The Christie Administration and the MVC are pleased to …
Dear Editor: Last weekend the drinking water of 400,000 Toledo residents was fouled by animal waste. With unfettered growth of animal agriculture and ineffective discharge regulations, it will happen again in our own state. The problem has become pervasive. Waste from chicken farms has rendered ocean off the East Coast unfit for fishing. Waste from …
Dear Editor: Over the years I’ve attended hundreds of city council meetings and many times it’s quite apparent that many council members, both now and in the past, don’t have an understanding of the ordinance that they are about to vote on after the close of the public speaking. The same holds true for the …
Dear Editor: Tuesday, Aug. 5 is again Universal Peace Day. It is the 69th Anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima, a day that forever changed our world. The Universal Peace Initiative asks for the ringing of bells throughout the world and calls it “A Peal for Peace”. Their mission is: • To bring people around …
Dear Editor: Volunteering is quite a remarkable thing. One gives up one’s own personal time for it, without pay, and often one is never thanked for the effort involved. The driving force of volunteering results from a passion to accomplish some good deed such as helping to preserve something important which would otherwise be lost. …
Continue reading “The volunteers, the movie palace, and a slap in the face”
Dear Editor: The massive movement of unaccompanied children from Central America across our southern border has the potential for massive exploitation and trafficking of those children. All these unaccompanied children are extremely vulnerable to being exploited and trafficked both in the U.S. and on their way to our border for sex trafficking and sex tourism. …
Dear Editor: As a long-time resident of Jersey City, I want to thank Mayor Fulop for his decision to restart the process of selecting Jersey City’s EMS provider. I am a strong supporter of the Jersey City Medical Center and it was clear that the hospital didn’t get a fair shake during the first round …
Dear Editor: In the turmoil of the last Jersey City municipal election, our city council considered two competing “Pay to Play Reform Ordinances,” both seeking to expand pay to play restrictions and include school board candidates. Neither ordinance was adopted. The first ordinance proposed by then Mayor Healy’s administration and supported by Citizen’s Campaign was …