Incidentally, in an area where the taxpayer-supported U.S. Housing Mission has helped jack housing prices sky high, bozos and crooks garner a lot of support via control of subsidized housing.
Three weeks after being put in office by "those populations" and by gushy Gold Coasters who thought him a good looking symbol of change, Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammerano was busted in a sweet FBI action that swept the state like a broom. Hudson County had the largest number of dust bunnies. Including Jersey City Deputy Mayor Leona Beldini, a venerable Realtor and campaign treasurer for Mayor Jerramiah Healy. Most of the indicted were caught in a real estate sting. Solomon Dweck, a crooked developer busted for large scale bank fraud in 2006, had turned co-operating witness for the Feds. In a bit of genius casting he acted the part of a crooked developer loaded with graft. Numerous public servants fell over themselves (allegedly) to assure Dweck his projects would pass through the system like s*** through a goose. Some promised grease at the state level.
Along with busting the bunnies (and a bunch of money laundering Rabbis but that's another story) the FBI also raided the home and office of Joseph Doria, Commissioner of New Jersey's Department of Community Affairs (DCA) and removed boxes of documents. Doria hasn't been indicted. Yet. Joe Doria, a mighty machine man from Hudson County, was elevated to his state position by Governor Jon Corzine. As DCA Commissioner, Joe Doria had extensive power over development projects in Jersey. Note past tense. After the raid Corzine asked Doria to resign.
The July 23rd roundup is part of Operation Bid Rig, a statewide anti-corruption FBI initiative that began ten years ago under the auspices of former U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie. To date, some 120 New Jersey public servants have been convicted via Bid Rig and other prosecutions. Disclosure: Christopher Christie is currently running for New Jersey governor. I can't say whether or not he'd make a good governor. I prefer my pols populist, libertarian, even contrarian. But I still thank the man for putting so much sludge in the can.
By the time Bid Rig began I was no longer living in Jersey City. I don't want to return, except in dreams or in writing. But then, I don't want to live in any city ever again. Jersey City isn't singular, just a wee bit extreme. It took more than one city, in one state, to make me throw in the towel on urban living. There's something rotten, policy wise, in the whole city-state of Denmark.
Part of my heart remains in Jersey City, particularly in the Heights area circa early 80s. But I just can't get over how our taxpayer-supported U.S. Housing Mission turned chronic corruption into a raging epidemic, and how like a war zone the Gold Coast's inner city has become.
*Jersey City Neighborhood Knows Violence, Drugs , Barbara Nevins Taylor, MYFOXNY.COM
**Cops Hope Video of Man Being Shot in Jersey City will Help Catch Thugs , Michaelangelo Conte, Jersey Journal, 07/09/09
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