If the Federal Government can fund the levees around New Orleans and other projects all over the country they should be willing to fund a project to aid Hoboken.

Whatever is done will have to be designed to meet the extraodinary approval processes on the State and Federal levels.

Would you lease just move out of Hoboken already. We get it. You hate the mayor and anything that she says or proposes.

I'm not going anywhere K. And I dont hate the mayor. "Hate" is a word that should be left out of politics. unfortunatly the amateur hour that is Hoboken political discussion believes in the word hate.

I think the better option would be to use funds to protect all of the NY metro area.

"Re-thinking engineered infrastructure to be more dynamic is the smart way of approaching this situation. Using a combination of dynamic ecological stormwater systems will help Hoboken's flooding."

Sounds great. If only it actually meant something.

With all that fancy sounding gobbledygook we need Perry Belfiore to make sense of it for us. He might be the only person in Hoboken fluent enough in gibberish to translate this for us.

Quick version. Its all about using ecological functions to slow, absorb and treat stormwater. Constructed wetlands, bio-swales, trees and plants...etc that create a better urban experience. This will take pressure off Hoboken's combined sewer system (CSO's), which is Hoboken's biggest problem.

Walls or levees don't solve problems, they usually enhance them when a bigger storm comes. Where will all that water go if it doesn't go into Hoboken. Towns need to working together on this one, stormwater doesn't care about city lines.

Trees and plants won't stop a storm surge that put more than half this town under several feet of water. A wall or some other real barrier would have stopped it.

Sadly Beth Mason has little choice but to surround herself with negative people like Outofcontrol.

No parks?1600 Park would have come online if the incompetent minority didn't block it. Expect it in 2013. She also spoke of innovative ideas like retractable flood walls for southern and northern Hoboken. Other parks like Legion, Jackson. Jefferson, Mama Johnson, Church Sq. and Madison St parks have been renovated.

Sadly Beth Mason has little choice to surround herself with negative people like CuriousGal.

Don't worry, I'm sure that there will be an opportunity for Tim Occhipinti to vote against bonding for it and follow that up with an op-ed piece complaining about the fact that the administration failed to do it, and you can keep whining here too, just like on everything else.

Again blocked by the minority CG. Blame MORTe not Mayor Zimmer.

SS- there was more than enough money in the surplus for putting p a traffic light. If Dawn didn't want to bond for everything, putting everything on the credit card for future administrations, there would be a light up at 16th Street right now. Again, the continued lack of taking any responsibility has become a hallmark for the supporters of the current administration.

The surplus is for emergencies, not to pay for the stupidity and intransigence of the minority.

What you refer to as a "credit card for future generations" is referred to in municipal finance circles as "asset-liability matching." Of course, you just proved on another board that you either have a lying or counting problem with your assertion that the drop in the number of 11th grade students was only one year, not the 9. Someone with your track record of posting about our schools should probably have known better, but I'm sure you did.

Parks on the west side would have done nothing during Hurricane Sandy b/c the west side was under 6 feet of water. A seawall also would not need to stretch from the cliff to Stevens b/c a good chunk of uptown never flooded and already provides a natural barrier for Sandy like storms. As for the sewers, do you really want every street dug up and 2 sets of sewer lines put in to replace the 1 already there? I for one don't b/c that is a hell of a lot more expensive than any sea wall.

They have approved tons of flood control measures. They will approve just about anything this town decides to build so long as it is built on land without question.

Sadly just more of the same negativity from peterblfiore.

That is the most inane and absurd comment since "most towns won't approve a BOE November election". Mayor Zimmer is not the superintendent or on the BOE board. How often are BOE issues mentioned at the City Council meetings ? Virtually not at all. How often are City Hall issues mentioned at the BOE? Again hardly at all. It's just like Beth Mason complaining about Councilwoman Zimmer working with Kids First in 2009 and then her husband funds two BOE campaigns in a row.

The BOE worries about that, girlfriend. That's why we have our kids in Stevens Cooperative, remember? You're worrying me, honey.

Minutillo used to complain about city hall getting involved with Board of Ed elections until Dawn started supporting Kids First. Dawn has endorsed the Kids First political group for the past few elections-- telling us about what a "great job" they are doing and endorsing the ticket. Is the education of the city's children not part of the state of the city? Obama includes education in the State of the Nation. Christie includes education in the State of the State. But Dawn doesn't include education in the State of the City? Maybe because under her political cronies the school district is in need of improvement? 90% of kids attend a school that has failed to meet adequate yearly progress? A high school that went from 2nd most improved to bottom 10% according to NJ Monthly? Per pupil spending hovering around $30K? Assaults, violence and suspensions in the high school? Crony hires from Newark, Bayport, and Plainfield? Parents abandoning the schools? Hundreds of "school choice" students coming in by the busload from Jersey City?

CG, can I ask you again to respond to the 9 CONSECUTIVE YEARS of statistically significant drops in 11th grade enrollment and whether we can trust test scores and graduation rates during that period as a result? On another board, you recently claimed it was a single year, and did not reply to the posting of the actual source material showing that it was 9.
This either shows an intent to lie about the facts, or that you are so critically misinformed and unwilling to consider facts that don't support your hypotheses about the district that your opinion is meaningless.

If you think anyone is going to deny Hoboken the right to do the exact same thing so many other cities have done just b/c they have to fill out some paperwork, you don't know what you are talking about Perry. And FYI - DC put in their own floodwall about a year or so ago.

I doubt anyone expected that approvals would not be needed.

Considering all the problems from previous administrations that now must be repaired or replaced, I wouldn't want to see anything built without proper studies being done first.

I appreciate your attempts to continue to try to be negative.

NJT needs more flood protection. Their raised tracks did not protect their trains and did not protect their own equipment adequately.

Depending on geometrics and the type of signal designed, a traffic signal can cost $130,000 to $250,000. In August of 2010, Hoboken had a $20,100,000.00 surplus. The traffic light would have been about 1% of the SURPLUS-- (note: not from the budget). The result? 3+ years of no park at 16th Street.... maybe a good excuse, but not good for getting things done.

"Bonding simply increases the municipal debt burden and that is not a risk we need to take given the uncertain economy" - Councilwoman Castellano.

CG, stop lying. The city never had $20mm of cash sitting in surplus and you know that. Stop with the dishonesty already. Your constant attempts to play fast and loose w/ the truth and the constant disinformation you put out has done nothing but make Mason and company look horrible.

Sadly curiousgal is only able regurgitate Beth Mason's negativity and talking points.

Details of the $20,000,000.00 2010 surplus can be found at: http://tinyurl.com/aegjjzr
(SS has said it was more like $14 million, $11 million, $10 million, pick your number....)-- regardless, certainly enough for an infrastructure improvement. What is the cost for 3 years without a park?

Regarding "10r"-- that was explained in detail in fall 2012: http://tinyurl.com/a3t5ua4 (summary: Kids First revealed nothing)

Sadly we have all seen CuriouGal regurgitating the same lies and talking points that Beth Mason has done over and over again.

How many times are you going to change your tune when you get called out for lying? You have been repeating the $20mm surplus lie that Mason propagated for going on a year and every time you get called on it you retreat and start up with more nonsense. Good thing you aren't a journalist b/c you sure suck at fact checking.

Ah yes...a Hoboken 411 article...and a letter to the editor saying "Stuff happened, but not the stuff you thought, and none of it is our fault". Nothing like a little truthiness to start your day.

I notice that when you don't think the reading public will completely ridicule a source, you give the true URL. But when it's a clown like Petrosino or a joke like Hoboken411, you use tinyurl.

That's probably a good idea. You wouldn't want people see that your using that drek as "source material".

I believe Hoboken411 is as informative as Mr. Da Horsey and I believe the Hoboken Reporter is a reputable local newspaper. Many others do as well.

Here is another tiny url: http://tinyurl.com/af49tg8

Of course I favor having some savings in "the bank" as you point out. It is reasonable and prudent with family finances as well as municipal financing. I do find it unsettling however that the administration's financial "principles" are so fiscally extreme that they would sacrifice a thousand days of park use for tens of thousands of our citizens for less than 2% of a surplus documented to be well north of $10 million dollars.