Jersey City: Events

[JCMAN320]

TAKING A SNAPSHOT OF THE WORLD
Film fest adopts global view to inform the masses

Friday, January 25, 2008
By JEFF THEODORE
JOURNAL ARTS EDITOR

In mainstream theaters, you'll be hard pressed to find movies that chronicle how Koreans immigrated to Argentina or spotlight the struggle among African-American girls to find their identities in a media saturated world that pays scant attention to their beauty.

Such is the motivation behind the African Diaspora Film Festival, which started out 15 years ago in New York City. This weekend will mark the fourth year for the festival to also screen films in Jersey City.

"The main idea of our festival is to expose people to things they don't usually know," says Reinaldo Barroso-Spech, a co-director of the festival. "We are becoming a smaller world. Usually, the film industry doesn't reflect the differences we see in the world today. It tends to play up films that make a lot of money but not necessarily tell the best stories."

When the festival searches for movies to present, Barroso-Spech says a top priority is diversity.

"We're trying to find movies without borders," he says. "Our goal is to determine the impact a film will have on the world we're living in."

Among films slated to appear at this weekend's fest are "Josephine Baker: Black Diva in a White Man's World," which details the iconic songstress' exile from America and her work as a performer and activist; "Maria Bethania: Music is Perfume," which documents the creative process of one of Brazil's most popular singers; "Return to Goree," which presents Senegalese singer Youssou N'Dour giving a concert in Goree, a former slave trading post that has evolved into a musical paradise; and "New York's Dirty Laundry," which captures the weeks after the 9/11 tragedy and how hidden prejudices rise to the surface between a Afro-Caribbean family and Arab-Muslim family in a Brooklyn laundrymat.

Also on the fest's screening list this weekend is Daphne Valerius' documentary "The Souls of Black Girls."

The film, which features interviews with celebrities and newsmakers such as Jada Pinkett Smith, Regina King, Chuck D, Gwen Ifill and Michaela Angela Davis, seeks to gauge how the self-esteem of African-American women suffers as a result of media images.

Valerius, a Brooklyn native, says the film, which was her final project as a graduate student at Boston's Emerson College, has surpassed any expectation she had for it.

"I didn't know in a million years that I would be entering it in festivals and winning awards," says Valerius, 26. "My only intention was to foster a dialogue between women of color and get the conversation going."

Valerius says the impetus for the film came from her own insecurities growing up.

"The standard of beauty in the Western society is to have blond hair and blue eyes," she says. "Only recently, have black women been embraced for their beauty. Still, we aren't gracing the covers of most magazines."

Valerius spent eight months writing, shooting and editing the documentary on "virtually no budget." Her film hit the public domain well before media personality Don Imus made his world-famous mistake of labeling Rutgers University womens' basketball players as "nappy headed hos."

"That (Imus' comment) and other isolated incidents have made people a little more open to having a dialogue," Valerius says.

Valerius has been called upon by a number of high schools and womens' organizations to share her perspective.

"People want to see this issue exposed to a larger audience," she says. "I'm finding that a lot of girls are dealing with such a higher level of misogyny and gravitating toward being viewed as objectified sexual images. My hope is that when my niece and goddaughter grow up, things will be better in terms of how they identify themselves."

Valerius says the response to her film among those who see it has been overwhelming.

"One of the biggest compliments for me is when a man gets the point of it," she says. "I was just telling my story as Daphne, but you never know how people are going to take it. One older black woman approached me and said, 'I thought I was perfectly fine until I saw this.' To get a response like that is really gratifying."

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

'Josephine Baker' at Jersey City Museum today



by The Jersey Journal
Saturday January 26, 2008, 10:33 AM

"Josephine Baker: Black Diva in a White Man's World'' is among the featured films this weekend in the fourth annual Jersey City African Diaspora Film Festival at the Jersey City Museum, 350 Montgomery St.

The festival looks at people of color all over the world.

The Baker film will be screened today along with "Dirty Laundry" and Daphne Valerius' documentary "The Souls of Black Girls," which features interviews with celebrities and newsmakers such as Jada Pinkett Smith, Regina King, Chuck D, Gwen Ifill and Michaela Angela Davis.

Valerius was interviewed herself by Jersey Journal Arts Editor Jeff Theodore, who previewed the festival in yesterday's Weekend Urge section.

Screenings start at 1 p.m. today and tomorrow.

Tickets are $8 for adults and $6 for students and seniors and can be purchased at the door prior to each screening. Call (201) 413-0303 for information.

[JCMAN320]

Hudson freeholders backing Conyers' health care bill
Thursday, January 31, 2008

The Hudson County freeholders voted to support a bill sponsored by U.S. Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., aimed at providing comprehensive universal health care to all Americans.

The resolution, sponsored by Freeholder Bill O'Dea of Jersey City, cites "the crisis in health care in the country that affects thousands of Hudson County residents."

O'Dea said he submitted the resolution at the request of Peter Busaca, head of the Hudson County Central Labor Council.

"The Hudson County Board of Chosen Freeholders endorses Congressman Conyers' legislation to expand and improve 'Medicare for all' and will work to educate the public on the importance of this legislation and send copies of this resolution to U.S. Sens. Frank Lautenberg and Robert Menendez and Congressmen Albio Sires and Donald Payne and Steven Rothman," the resolution states.

EARL MORGAN

[JCMAN320]

Lafayette gets mail unit 4 mornings a week

Friday, February 01, 2008

Bergen-Lafayette residents will have a mobile mail unit to service their postal needs while the Lafayette Branch on Pacific Avenue remains closed, Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah T. Healy announced yesterday.

The mobile mail unit, which will accept mail, packages and sell stamps, will be stationed in front of the Provident Savings Bank, at 350 Communipaw Ave., on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays between 9 and 11:30 a.m.

The mobile mail unit will also be stationed in front of the Lafayette Living Center, a senior residence, at 463 Pacific Ave., on Fridays between 3 and 4 p.m.

"We are happy the postmaster and his staff met with us, listened to our concerns and recommendations, and came up with this temporary accommodation for the people of the Lafayette community," Healy said.

Healy said federal officials who represent Jersey City have pledged to be strong advocates for opening a permanent facility in the area.

"It's a very good temporary solution," said Rosalyn Browne, president of the Communipaw Avenue Block Association. "But I think the senior hours could have been increased."

By March 1, postal officials said, they will tell the mayor if it's feasible to either reopen the Lafayette branch or open a new facility.

Postal Service brass abruptly shut the Lafayette Branch, at 322 Pacific Ave., on Dec. 21 when a bulletproof glass door that parcels are passed through fell off its hinges, creating a security risk.

Post Office boxes and employees from the Lafayette Branch have been shifted to the Bergen South station on Martin Luther King Drive, which is nine-tenths of a mile away, said USPS spokesman George Flood.

KEN THORBOURNE

[JCMAN320]

Race under microscope at LSC

Friday, February 01, 2008
By PAUL KOEPP
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Just days before New Jersey Democrats vote in a presidential primary increasingly marked by a racial divide, an exhibition challenging widely held ideas about race is set to open at the Liberty Science Center in Jersey City.

"RACE: Are We So Different?"- a mix of videos, artifacts and computer programs - shows that race is a fairly recent invention with no basis in human biology, according to exhibition director Peggy Overbey, of the American Anthropological Association.

It will open tomorrow in the 7,000-square-foot gallery on the museum's top floor, and runs through April 28.

Overbey says that while assumptions of racial difference are "embedded" in everyday American life, visitors at the exhibition's previous stops - St. Paul, Minn., Detroit, Mich. and Wichita, Kan. - have seen for themselves how closely all humans are related, thanks to one interactive display.

A large video screen shows the migration of humans out of Africa and across the globe starting about 200,000 years ago. The movement of the various groups, controlled by visitors at the turn of a wheel, is based on research on similarities in the genomes of people from around the world by Yale University geneticist Ken Kidd.

"Basically, we are all Africans," Overbey said. "We're not as different as people like to think." She added that many misconceptions about race grew out of the slave trade in the Americas in the mid-1700s.

The museum will not insert itself in any political debate, said LSC President and CEO Emlyn Koster, but the exhibition may have "extra relevance" with the focus on race in the Democratic primary. It's designed to "promote a better understanding of what race is and what it is not," he said.

Another video display features a scene familiar to all, a recreation of a high school cafeteria that shows how racial stereotypes and preconceptions dictate where students sit - and don't sit.

RACE will be especially valuable for middle-school students who are reaching the age where they start to give more weight to ideas about their own identities and their relations to others, Koster said. "None of us are born with racist attitudes."

The exhibition is funded by the Ford Foundation and the National Science Foundation. To learn more, go to www.understandingrace.org.

[JCMAN320]

Orson Welles celebrated at historic Loew's today

by The Jersey Journal Saturday February 02, 2008, 8:49 AM

Step into the past this afternoon or tonight with a trip to the historic Loew's Jersey Theater on Journal Square in Jersey City and enjoy some film classics the way they were intended -- in black-and-white on a 50-foot screen.

The theater, just across the street from the PATH station, continues its Orson Welles festival with three of the director's greatest hits.

At 3 p.m., check out 1948's "The Lady From Shanghai,'' starring Welles and Rita Hayworth.

Then at 6:30 it's time for "The Magnificent Ambersons,'' a 1942 retelling of the Booth Tarkington novel starring Joseph Cotton and Anne Baxter.

The crowning piece in today's showings comes at 8:40, when a newly struck print of 1958's "Touch of Evil'' has its premiere screening in celebration of its 50th anniversary. The crime drama stars Charlton Heston, Janet Leigh and, of course, Welles himself.

Previewed in yesterday's Jersey Journal Weekend Urge section, the festival is a must-visit for film buffs.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Orson Welles takes on the Loew's

Friday, February 01, 2008
By AUGIE TORRES
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

T he Loew's Jersey Theatre in Jersey City's Journal Square is screening a quartet of classic films over two days that were directed by creative force Orson Welles.

The mini-festival begins at 8 tonight with "Citizen Kane," still considered by film fanatics as the greatest movie ever made. No sense in going into detail here. If you have not seen it or did so a hundred times, it still looks good on the landmark theater's large screen.

If there is one movie to choose from among the cinematic treasures being offered, it has to be "Touch of Evil." It screens tomorrow at 8:40 p.m.

In 1958, it was a box-office bomb and dismissed as trash. Perhaps because it was based on a pulp novel, "Badge of Evil."

Heed this warning for anyone thinking about bringing

children - don't.

"Touch of Evil" is a mesmerizing portrayal of sleazy characters seen in darkness, shadows and light with themes of racism, betrayal, sexuality and police corruption.

The backlot story is that Welles was hired by Universal to direct the film to attract Charlton Heston to the B-movie project. The protagonists are a reversal of past movies in which the good guy is Heston (Mike Vargas), a Mexican police officer, while the villain is Welles (Mike Quinlan), an American racist police detective in a border town.

"Touch of Evil" also has that legendary opening scene. It is an audacious lengthy, seamless shot of someone on the Mexican side of the border putting dynamite in the trunk of a car, the camera following the vehicle with the driver and his mistress going through customs and into the U.S. town where it explodes just as Heston is kissing his new American bride, played by Janet Leigh.

Tomorrow at 3 p.m., "The Lady of Shanghai" is the Loew's matinee offering. It is a film noir piece that does not have the usual heavy Welles touch but has the director playing a character enmeshed in a deadly relationship with a femme fatale and her aging husband. A rather complicated "Double Indemnity," the film is wide-angles, close-ups, and fractured shots depicting an unbalanced mind with a climactic scene in a carnival's hall of mirrors.

At 6 p.m., an underappreciated gem "The Magnificent Ambersons" is available. It is Welles' second offering to the silver screen. It took the wunderkind nine days to write the screenplay about a spoiled son, played by Tim Holt, of a turn-of-the-century rich family and that family's eventual ruin.

This movie has an infamous history because of the RKO studio's decision to cut the film down from its original length of 131 minutes to 88 minutes.

The movie received four Academy Awards nominations, including Best Picture, and it is worth watching because of the acting, stunning (but truncated) shots and the great Bernard Herrmann score that went uncredited.

[JCMAN320]

'Black Widow' breaks in Beacon's

Saturday, February 09, 2008
By PAUL KOEPP
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

billiards room with amazing display

Professional pool star Jeanette Lee wowed a crowd of about 50 residents of The Beacon Thursday night with a dazzling trick-shot demonstration.

The "Black Widow," dressed in black from head to toe - as usual - helped inaugurate the billiards room in the former main lobby of the old Jersey City Medical Center.

Lee, 36, a native of Brooklyn who became the world's top-ranked player in 1994, just a year and a half after turning pro, also took on a number of challenges from Beacon residents, and emerged unscathed.

"There's something about beating men that never gets old," Lee said, as she schooled Patrick Healy, a Jersey City firefighter and son of Mayor Jerramiah T. Healy.

Alex Stavrinoudis acted as a prop for one of Lee's trick shots, holding a piece of cue chalk with his teeth to steady a ball that she struck out of mid-air and into a pocket. Her performance was "phenomenal," he said. "We really have great events here."

Lee has suffered from severe chronic back pain since she was a child, undergoing nine surgeries, including the insertion of two 18-inch metal rods in her back.

She serves as a national spokesperson for the Scoliosis Association.

Still, she keeps up a busy schedule, traveling all over the world to compete and do exhibitions. Lee was impressed with the Beacon's billiards room, which features a bas-relief by artist A.G. Newman. "The room is beautiful. They've done some great things here."

A Beacon spokeswoman said the Rialto and Capitol buildings are about 80 percent full, with over 200 residents moved in, and a third building, the Mercury, will be open soon.

Beacon developer George Filopoulos was among those cheering Lee's every shot. Michael Cox said he was excited to be one of the residents who won a chance to play against Lee.

Asked if he was a fan of hers, he said, "I am now!"

PAUL KOEPP can be reached at (201) 217-2400.

[JCMAN320]

Healy: City needs $8M state aid to ease the burden on taxpayers

Monday, February 11, 2008
By KEN THORBOURNE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Jersey City has applied for $8 million in state aid to fill a budget gap for the fiscal year that ends June 30.

In a Feb. 4 letter to Department of Community Affairs Commissioner Joseph V. Doria Jr., Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah T. Healy says the city needs the money to ease the burden on taxpayers whose "obligations" have risen "precipitously."

"Since 2005, the municipal tax levy has increased 38 percent, from $105 million to $145 million," Healy says. "The total tax levy (the amount to be raised by taxation) has increased 26 percent, from $251 million to $371 million.

"Although we continue to work on cost saving efforts, it is clear the city will face a shortfall of $8 million for fiscal year 2008," Healy adds. "During this economic environment, a property tax increase will be especially burdensome to our community. That is why I am writing to request supplemental municipal aid."

The DCA didn't return phone calls to comment. Doria, the DCA commissioner, is the former mayor of Bayonne. Richard Turner, the mayor of Weehawken, sits on the state's Local Finance Board that signs off on the supplemental aid.

Healy said last week he expected the City Council to introduce a budget in the next few weeks that calls for raising between $149 million and $151 million to meet municipal expenses. If the state comes through with the requested aid, city residents might not see a tax hike given the expansion of the tax base, Business Administrator Brian O'Reilly said.

The city is also counting on receiving $15 million from the settlement with Honeywell to clean up and sell chromium-tainted sites on the west side of the city, as well as roughly $4 million from the sale of a building on Newark Avenue.

[JCMAN320]

'HYBRID' SCHOOL BOARD?

Monday, February 11, 2008
By KEN THORBOURNE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

As part of the ongoing process to return the Jersey City public school system to local control, state officials have said an election must be held within a year for voters to decide if they want to keep an elected school board or switch to one appointed by the mayor.

But Mayor Jerramiah T. Healy wants a third option - a "hybrid" board consisting of three elected members, three appointed by the mayor, and three positions that would be reserved for higher education officials in Jersey City.

"This isn't my idea," Healy said during a meeting with The Jersey Journal's editorial board last week. "This is something a study group commissioned under former state Education Commissioner (William) Libera came up with during the (Gov. James) McGreevey administration. This idea comes from those who know the business."

The three standing members should be deans of education - or their designees - from St. Peter's College, New Jersey City University, and Hudson County Community College, Healy said.

Healy said he planned to speak with Hudson County state legislators about the idea since current state law only allows for an elected or appointed board.

State Assemblyman L. Harvey Smith said he'd prefer the board members be appointed by the mayor.

"If I'm the mayor of Jersey City . I would want to make sure I have a board that reflects my best interest," Smith said.

State Assemblywoman Joan Quigley declined comment since she hadn't yet spoken to Healy.

School board member Gerald McCann thinks board members should continue to be elected by the public.

The current board, McCann noted, consists of a former Jersey City schools superintendent (Franklin Williams), a former dean of graduate studies at NJCU (Peter Donnelly) and two former mayors (himself and Anthony Cucci).

"They (the public) chose him (Healy)," added McCann. "He's now questioning the public's ability to choose competent people."

Healy responded that voter turnout in school board elections have been "historically atrocious."

"Sometimes you do get lucky and get people who have been involved in the educational system," he added. "But for the most part, they (voters) see a name they recognize and they pull a lever. I could probably run and get elected even though I don't have any particular expertise in education."

[JCMAN320]

NEW BUS FOLLOWS CUTS
No. 6 will start Greenville-Square service Monday

Tuesday, February 12, 2008
By AMY SARA CLARK
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Good-bye No. 99, hello No. 6.

New Jersey Transit yesterday announced the new No. 6 will replace the soon-to-be-canceled No. 99 connecting the Greenville neighborhood and Journal Square.

"I'm very happy that NJ Transit recognized that this was a necessary line and a necessary aspect of mass transit and that they're stepping up to the plate," said Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah T. Healy. "The 99 was important to a large segment of our population."

The bus will follow a similar route as the No. 99, but will detour off Baldwin Avenue between Academy and Montgomery Streets, allowing the route to serve the soon-to-be-completed county administrative buildings on Cornelison Avenue as well as the residents at Montgomery Gardens and the Beacon.

The replacement comes as a spate of bus cancellations have plagued Jersey City. Three bus lines operated by Red and Tan/Coach USA - the Nos. 3, 5 and 16 - have been canceled since September. The No. 99 will be discontinued after Sunday and the No. 4 is on life support.

The No. 6 goes into service Monday.

Earlier this month, NJ Transit announced that it would continue to subsidize the No. 4 line, but would not say for how long. The line had been slated for cancellation Jan. 14.

Lillian Jordan, a Greenville resident who has collected more than 500 signatures for a petition protesting the bus cancellations, said the new bus will be helpful, but not enough.

"To me, if they're going to step in, why don't they take over both lines?" she said, referring to the limping-along No. 4. But, she added, "Anybody who picks up this bus line will do this neighborhood a better service than Coach USA."

Healy said the replacement bus was just a first step. "It'll help fill the void, we're grateful for that," he said. "And we hope, obviously, to do more."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Heights residents get Palisade Avenue bus back, sort of

by Amy Sara Clark Tuesday February 12, 2008, 10:39 PM

NJ Transit's 123 bus, which connects Union City with Port Authority, will soon continue an extra 1.1 miles down Palisade Avenue to Christ Hospital to serve residents of the Heights, officials announced.

The extended route will begin April 5 and continue until at least Jan. 1.

NJ Transit said if there are "enough" riders taking advantage of the extended route, it would continue indefinitely, said Assemblyman Vincent Prieto, who made the announcement at the Riverview Neighborhood Association's monthly meeting tonight.

Prieto could not say exactly how many riders constitute "enough" but urged residents to give up their jitney habit.

"You have to make sure that if we get if for you, you use it," agreed County Executive Tom DeGise.

(Resident reactions after the jump.)

The RNA has been advocating for a return of Palisade Avenue bus service since the 99s as rerouted to Central Avenue at the end of August.

Susan Higgins, who used to take the 99s to her job as a fashion designer in Manhattan, said she'd be willing to forgo the jitney for the new 123.

"It sounds feasible," she said, "as long as it comes on time."

The meeting was attended by more than 100 residents, as well as Mayor Jerramiah T. Healy, State Sen. Nicholas Sacco and Council members Bill Gaughan and Steven Fulop.

RNA president Becky Hoffman said it would be better to have a direct bus to Manhattan that bypassed Union City, but called the extended 123 "a major step in the right direction."

[JCMAN320]

If not them, who'll clean dirty streets?

Wednesday, February 13, 2008
By EARL MORGAN
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Jersey City Economic Development Director Gene Nelson was on the hot seat at Monday's City Council caucus over delays in awarding a contract to clean the city's sidewalks and streets.

Heights Councilman Bill Gaughan pointed out that since the contract with the nonprofit agency Ready, Willing and Able expired several weeks ago, the streets have been visibly dirtier.

Jersey City has advertised twice unsuccessfully for bids on a new contract, so must try again before the streets are cleaned.

A resolution on the agenda for tonight's City Council meeting, if approved, would allow Ready Willing and Able, also known as the DOE Fund, to continue operating the program for 20 more weeks while the EDC issues its third advertisement for the program's contract.

After noting that the Doe Fund's bid was $13,000 higher than the only other bidder, Hudson County Enterprises, Gaughan said it didn't seem fair to allow the higher bidder to continue running the program.

Instead, Gaughan suggested that the Jersey City Incinerator Authority, which ran the program in the past, take it over until the situation is resolved. Nelson assured Gaughan and the council that by May a new vendor will be selected.

Nelson said it was necessary to advertise for bids again because the state Department of Community Affairs, which finances the program from the city's Urban Enterprise Zone funds, would not have provided the money since the last advertisement removed a required social service component needed to receive the money.

"But I am meeting with the state people (today) and I'm sure we'll get on the same page," Nelson said.

[JCMAN320]

Art, Love, and Condos

by Journal staff Thursday February 14, 2008, 11:19 AM

"Love is for Lovely People," a collaboration between Victory Arts Project, a community arts center in Jersey City and K. Hovnavian, builder of 77 Hudson, opens today at the condo's sales center at 101 Hudson St., 17th floor.

This first of a series of shows features artists considering modern love and its many varied relationships - from weddings to honeymoons to homes.

The exhibition hours will be Monday, Wednesday, Friday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Tuesday and Thursday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

The condos for sale at 77 Hudson range in price from $500,000 to $2.75 million or more.

[JCMAN320]

Canco Lofts hosts grand opening Sat. Feb 23

by Journal staff Thursday February 14, 2008, 10:48 AM

Canco Lofts, Jersey City's largest single-building industrial-to-residential conversion, will host a grand opening reception 1 to 6 p.m., on Saturday, Feb. 23, at the Canco Lofts sales center, 50 Dey St.

The Canco Lofts design and marketing team will give 30-minute seminars describing the unique features of the project.

An art exhibition, sponsored by the Jersey City Museum, will follow the grand opening from 7 to 9 p.m.

[JCMAN320]

Healy to speak about the city

Monday, February 18, 2008

Having recently completed his third year in office, Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah T. Healy will be touting his accomplishments in a "State of the City" speech tomorrow.

The speech is scheduled for 7 p.m., at the new Franklin L. Williams Middle School 7, 222 Laidlaw Ave.

The mayor plans to discuss the city's drop in crime, development beyond the waterfront, increased open space, and new jobs for Jersey City residents, according to a release about the event.

JOURNAL STAFF

-------------------------------------------

Being a committee man in JC I got an invitation to the event so I will be there as my civic duty and wanting to be an informed resident. I will give a brief summary tomorrow night or the next day.

[JCMAN320]

POLICE TO DIVERSIFY

Monday, February 18, 2008
By MICHAELANGELO CONTE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

With the make-up of its police department out of whack with the demographics of the city, the Jersey City Police Department is launching a major recruitment campaign aimed at attracting minority officers.

According to the 2006 census, Jersey City's population is 34 percent white, 28 percent Latino, 28 percent African-American and 17 percent Asian/Pacific Islander. (The numbers add up to more than 100 percent because several persons report more than one race.)

But the 889-officer police department is 70 percent white, 20 percent Latino, 7 percent black, and 2 percent other ethnicities, according to figures supplied by the department.

And of the department's 300 higher ranked officers, 84 percent are white males. Just 48 of the 300 officers holding a rank of detective or higher are female, black or Hispanic. The highest ranking non-white male is a white female captain; there also is one black female lieutenant and four male Hispanic lieutenants.

"We want the police department to reflect the different minority groups in our city," Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah T. Healy said. "We will not stop until we achieve this goal."

Lt. Edgar Martinez said the department is advertising in ethnic newspapers, The Jersey Journal and on cable television, as well as speaking with community and religious leaders about the importance of encouraging people to apply to take the next police test, which will be offered in June or July. They also are sending officers to malls, schools and other locations to get the message out.

"It's an unprecedented recruiting effort," he said.

The deadline for filing an application to take the exam is March 31.

Delores Jones-Brown, director of the Center on Race, Crime and Justice at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in Manhattan, said recruiting minority officers is difficult.

In urban communities, "there have been arrests and/or incarceration of a high percentage of black and brown males," she said, making it "difficult to find candidates that are qualified."

The negative relationships that have existed between police and people of color make them reluctant to don the uniform, Jones-Brown added. Former cop and Ward F Councilwoman Viola Richardson, an African-American, said Jones-Brown "hit the nail on the head."

"Their (the police department's) job is to bridge that gap, rather than just stay in lock-up mode," Richardson said.

In 2006, the U.S. Department of Justice told the 818-member Virginia Beach Police Department to increase its minority makeup. This week the department inducted 30 new officers, half of which were minorities.

"It's mostly do to with recruiting and the Department of Justice realized we have the same problem the everybody else has, and that's getting applicants," said Virginia Beach Capt. Wray Boswell.

[JCMAN320]

There's less crime, more jobs, Healy boasts in State of the City

Wednesday, February 20, 2008
By PAUL KOEPP
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Having recently notched his third year at the helm of New Jersey's second largest city, Mayor Jerramiah T. Healy used his second "State of the City" speech last night to highlight accomplishments ranging from putting a crimp in crime to fostering development in long dormant areas of the city.

Before a politician-packed auditorium at the Franklin L. Williams Middle School 7 in the Heights that included Gov. Jon Corzine, Healy called public safety his "number one issue."

To polite and steady applause, Healy boasted an 11.5 percent overall drop in crime last year, but said more officers are needed and promised 30 more officers would be paid for from state Urban Enterprise Zone funds.

Healy cited the December 2007 unemployment rate of 5.1 percent - compared to 8.2 percent in January 2004 - as proof of job creation in the city and he touted the city's recently created apprentice program to put locals to work on construction sites.

A similar program would target Fortune 500 companies who have set up shop Downtown, he said. Healy laid out plans to increase open space across the city, with the goals of adding 100 acres in new parks and improving at least one park in every ward in each of the next 10 years. The J. Owen Grundy Pier should reopen this summer, he said.

On education, Healy urged the Board of Education to trim excessive spending, saying the city is entering a "new era" with more local control of schools.

Development, he said, should extend beyond the waterfront, pointing to a recent deal with Honeywell International to clean up and develop chromium-tainted sites on the city's west side; a $500 million, two-tower mixed-used development planned for the heart of Journal Square; and the $350 million transformation of the old Jersey City Medical Center into a swanky condo complex.

Corzine sat in the front row next to Hudson County Executive Thomas DeGise. Roughly 500 people attended the event.

The loudest applause was for the mayor's summary of bus lines that have recently been saved or replaced. "We have convinced NJ Transit that it is not acceptable to let private bus companies abandon their urban routes," Healy said.

Councilman Steven Fulop, a likely challenger to Healy next year for the city's top post, said he liked elements of Healy's 45-minute speech but wanted to hear more in the speech about taxes.

While the mayor said the municipal tax rate remains steady in his proposed budget, Fulop said property taxes have increased 35 percent in the last three years.

"That's what's killing the residents right now," Fulop said. "We need more controls on spending."

Healy has blamed rising taxes mostly on school and county budgets not under his control.

But according to city officials, the municipal portion of the budget has risen $4 million since July and $9 million since tax bills were sent out this time last year. The city has applied for $8 million in aid from the state to avoid dramatic tax hikes for the fiscal year that ends June 30.

PAUL KOEPP can be reached at (201) 217-2400.