Last week, an article in NJ.com informed the public of 18 Jersey City police and fire dispatchers taken ill by COVID19, with one in hospital. It is our understanding that one employee has passed away. This is a concern for various reasons including the response time in answering 911 calls for dispatching public safety personnel, and the health of municipal employees.
While it may be the case that dispatchers must work on site due to the type of phone and computer systems necessary to perform their duties, those requirements are not the same for all municipal employees such as those that work in administrative functions.
In January, Jersey City municipal employees were notified by HR that they were no longer required to take COVID testing every 30 days. This change of policy came at a time when the number of positive COVID tests were increased and on an upward trajectory according to the Jersey City Tableau chart for COVID-19 cases.
According to the Tableau, the number of positive cases in March 2021 fall within the same range as spring 2020 and are nowhere near the low numbers we saw during the summer of 2020. The NY Times Covid tracker classifies Hudson County at an “Extremely High Risk” of exposure to Covid19 with only 14% fully vaccinated as of April 6th.
In the interest of the public, CivicJC would like to see the following information made available:
-What is the contingency plan for emergency dispatch in the case of reduced number of dispatchers or in the event that all dispatchers are out
-Copy of the uniform practice of informing employees when someone tests positive in the same building
-Schedules of building sanitation and vent cleaning including the protocols that are followed
-The number of employees that tested positive for Covid (including dates and work location)
-Will Council members, Planning and Zoning Board members, and Municipal Court meet with each other in person for meetings
Tuesday’s announcement to mandate employees back to the office in full force does not seem to follow a logical safe practice for a return to office given the current high positive rate and the non-requirement of Covid testing for employees.
While we recognize that not all employees can perform their duties from home, where it is possible employees should continue on a work from home with a rotating schedule for onsite work to keep contact and possible transmission to a minimum.
We value the health and well being of our municipal employees and recognize that keeping distance helps to minimize transmission of the virus which is in their best interest and the best interest for the public as well in reducing COVID19 transmission numbers.
Hudson County Prosecutor Esther Suarez has announced that an undetermined amount of cash held for safekeeping has gone missing. The cash was reportedly held for “temporary storage in locked safes” and was seized from crime scenes.
In response, Suarez has ordered an “immediate” internal affairs investigation to be conducted by the office’s Public Integrity Unit, Internal Affairs Section.
According to a press release, Suarez has notified the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General of the investigation. Suarez has ordered a full audit of other cases and a review of the procedures for the safe keeping of cash and property.
The press release describes the investigation as being “in its very early stages” and goes on to say that “it has not been determined yet if this was limited to one or more of the investigative staff.”
Said Suarez, “This is a sheer betrayal and disgrace of the sacred oaths taken by those who wear a badge and were involved in these appalling acts. What compounds this even more is the fact that members of the Prosecutor’s Office are held to an even higher standard when it comes to integrity and trust. Every angle will be examined and we are confident that we will find who was responsible for this and hold them accountable under the law.”
The announcement comes at a sensitive time for Suarez who, according to reports, is being considered to fill the post of United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey. U.S. Senator Bob Menendez is reportedly championing Suarez for the job.
In the last week, Star Ledger columnist Tom Moran alleged that Suarez’s office and blogger and former Bridgegate conspirator David Wildstein, joined up to smear him following articles that questioned Suarez’s fitness for the U.S. attorney position.
On December 3, Mayor Steven Fulop, local officials, and representatives of environmental groups gathered on a windswept field underneath the Pulaski Skyway to announce the construction of Skyway Park, a thirty-two acre park along the Hackensack River on the former site of the notorious PJP Landfill. Standing quietly among the assembled audience was Mario Verdibello.
Thirty-five years earlier as a young engineer Verdibello had masterminded the cleanup of the chemical soaked site. Now a new park would feature walking paths along the Hackensack River and a grove of 500 trees to commemorate Jersey City residents who died from Covid-19 but did not receive proper funerals due to safety protocols in place at the time.
Mario Verdibello
But back in 1985 when Verdibello went to work, the idea that the land would one day become a park would have been laughable. Since its closing, the PJP Landfill had literally been on fire, an apocalyptic hellscape belching toxic gas across Route 1 and 9 into the nearby Marion neighborhood. Indeed, the federal government had declared it a Superfund site. Putting the fires out and removing the thousands of barrels of toxic waste would fall to Verdibello and his crew.
I thought it would be interesting to sit down with Verdibello and hear how he got it done.
Verdibello tells the story of the PJP cleanup with the enthusiasm of a proud father. And like any good parent, he has multiple photo albums of his baby. I’ve included some of the images here.
JCT: I understand that you that you got involved with the PJP landfill early on. Can you just talk a little bit about when you first realized it was a problem and something that you needed to get involved with?
Verdibello: It was 1984, and my boss told me that he had a new assignment for me. ‘We’ve got this big job in Jersey City,’ he said. I said, ‘Jersey City, wait a minute! I live in Jersey City. What are you talking about?’ He says, ‘There’s an environmental project at the bottom of Duncan Avenue.’ I said, ‘Wait a minute, I live at 47 Duncan Avenue. What the hell are you talking about?
Aerial photo of PJP Landfill before the cleanup
We were having this conversation on the 90th floor of Two World Trade Center. He says, ‘Let’s go to the window, I’ll show it to you.’ So we go to a window, and he says, ‘You see that smoke over there?’ I said, ‘Oh, my God, you’ve got to be kidding me. My wife and I and a bunch of my neighbors have been demonstrating against that problem for something to be done for years.’
And he says, ‘Well, guess what, it’s your job. You’ve got to fix it.’ So, that was my introduction to PJP.
[Verdibello submitted his plan to clean up the site and waited for his boss’s response.]
At the beginning of April, 1985, [my boss] walks into my office with a big smile. And he says guess what? Everybody agrees that your recommended way to go is the best way. My recommended way was to excavate the whole thing. Wet it down with a special wetting agent to kill the deep fires that existed there for decades and then re-compact the whole thing. Take away some bad stuff if we found it while we were doing the excavation. And then cap the whole thing.
JCT: During the time that this landfill was on fire from the seventies, were you aware of people in and around it getting sick?
Verdibello: Oh, yeah. That’s exactly what drew the attention because this partial combustion gives off carbon monoxide. In fact, it was so bad that many times the traffic on the Pulaski Skyway had to be stopped during rush hour. And that’s why we had demonstrations — myself and my wife included — because when the wind shifted especially in summertime sleeping with your windows open, and all of a sudden you wake up and your bedroom smells of smoke like there was a fire around. We had to close the windows in the middle of the summer because this smoke was horrendous. It was very upsetting. So, when we started hearing the word ‘demonstrations,’ we participated.
And there was a big housing project right across from PJP, and those people had been living with those fumes for years, and they were having asthma problems and other respiratory issues.
Verdibello’s team taming the PJP Landfill
JCT: Do you know how many years this had been going on for?
Verdibello: You know, the fires apparently were burning since the seventies, but PJP had been a problem for years before for my father-in-law, who was at the time in his high seventies. He remembers going there as a kid, scratching around for unburned pieces of coal to bring home to his mother to burn. And he remembers that even then it was a mess.
JCT: That’s in the early 1900s.
Verdibello: Yeah, that’s when it started. But the real problem with the fires from what I understand dates back to the seventies.
JCT: Was your contract with the federal government?
Verdibello: No, the contract was with the NJ DEP [Department of Environmental Protection]. They took the responsibility to do something. Because PJP had been put on the Superfund list, but it was like 13 hundred down the list. And they said, Jesus, you know, by the time the federal government gets around to remediating PJP, people in Jersey City will be dead from inhalation of this smoke that was coming out. And so, the state decided to actually take it upon themselves to do something in the interim.
And then it was our luck that there was this engineer at DEP by the name of Marwan Sadat.
If it hadn’t been for Marwan, probably the DEP would have done nothing, and we would have waited for God knows how many more years for them to get around to it.
JCT: What was actually burning?
Heavy equipment under Pulaski Skyway
Verdibello: These were deep pyrolytic fires because PJP for years had been illegally dumping all sorts of substances. Some of these things started chemical fires down deep.
[Pyrolysis is the thermal decomposition of materials at elevated temperatures in an inert atmosphere.]
JCT: So, they were just spontaneously combusting these chemicals?
Verdibello: Yeah, it was spontaneous combustion, if you will. And now you have to appreciate in order for me to write the specs, I had to really learn a little bit about this thing. But I was not allowed to go on site. It was too risky not only because of the fires and the gas but the risk of craters opening up and swallowing you since the fires were burning underneath. So, I was not allowed to go anywhere near it.
So, we did two things: Number one, I flew over the site several times in a helicopter to see where it was smoking the most, where the hot spots were. That was number one. And number two, we did what is called a thermographic study, which is a thing that is done during the night in the dark. And we did it with these special sensors from the Pulaski Skyway. I have movies of that, and it gives you goosebumps when you see it because you really see the smoldering hot spots. So, with my observation from a helicopter and the thermographic study, I was able to establish where the really bad areas were.
So, the first step is to really squash down the fires before we got to the excavation or re-compaction. And for that I hired this famous company from Texas called Boots and Coots. They were the ones that were called to put out oil well fires not only in Texas but in Saudi Arabia and all over the world. But I told them it had to be done in a very controlled fashion to not only put out the fires and really wet the massive stuff that we were excavating but also squash the odors and dust.
Mayor Steven Fulop announcing the plan for Skyway Park
I got the green light to start preparing the engineering specifications so we could actually go out to contract with some subcontractors to do the actual remediation. The plan was to excavate the entire area, douse it with a wetting agent to kill the fires, and remove in the process anything we found that was highly objectionable like a highly contaminated material, drums of material, etc., that I had been told by DEP that I may find once I started excavating. And then once we did all that we would re-compact the whole thing, the whole mass of soil and garbage, and then cap it with an impermeable cap sheet, and leave it until such time as the EPA would get around to do the final remediation.
JCT: Do you know specifically what chemicals they were?
Verdibello: [Laughs] You name it, and we found it. When we actually started digging, we found all sorts of terrible stuff that had been dumped there: petrochemical residues, other chemical residues. We even found near the Broadway ramp, picric acid, which is actually an explosive. If you handle it roughly, it could explode. And that was only one of many, many things that we found in there. In fact, the Jersey City Fire Department tried many times to put out the fires by dousing the place with tons of water. And incredibly after a few days the fires would be back worse than before. They were scratching their heads what’s going on over here.
What they didn’t realize is that by hitting the surface of the landfill with these high-powered jets, they were stirring it up. They were allowing oxygen to get down to the deep fires. So, while the fire seemed to be squelched on the surface, only a few days later with the additional oxygen, the fires were back worse than ever. So, you know something’s wrong.
Former Jersey City Corporation Counsel Bill Matsikoudis conserved the land for Skyway Park and worked with Mayor Fulop to bring the plan to fruition
Parenthetically, since I lived in Jersey City, I had been breathing those fumes every time the wind changed direction.
JCT: What did you do with all of the chemicals and the drums?
Verdibello: This is another little side story. When I started writing the specification, DEP said to me, ‘Mario when you write this, include a little spec for moving the drums because you may find some drums with objectionable materials.’ So, for the purpose of engineering cost estimates, I’d assumed a thousand drums. And when they saw that they said, ‘Are you crazy? We told you a few drums.’ So, I said, ‘Listen guys, it’s only an engineering estimate. If it’s less, you’re ahead of the game, and it means we will spend less.’ Well, by the time we got through with the actual thing, I found over 5,000 drums that could actually be handled as drums and probably over 20,000 drums that could not be handled as drums because they were rusted and decayed.
JCT: Had, they just buried them?
Verdibello: Yeah, this was all illegal. So, we found at least 5,000 drums that were actually recognizable as drums. And those we picked up using a special drum handling machine. It was like a backhoe fitted with a grabber at the end instead of a bucket. And we grabbed those drums, and then we over-packed them in steel for safety. And then those drums were sent to licensed facilities. The other drums had deteriorated beyond human recognition. You could see parts of the drum that contaminated the content, so we scooped up many thousands of cubic yards of those highly contaminated materials, and those were actually sent to a licensed facility.
JCT: You capped it with probably some kind of a plastic?
Verdibello: Well, we had that, but mostly the cap is a composite consisting of three layers. You have initial drainage. Then on top of that, you have a compacted and impermeable clay layer. And then on top of that, you have a layer of topsoil to actually establish and maintain a vegetative cover. The topsoil had to be at least six to eight inches. I think the clay layer was two feet, and there was a drainage layer to allow somebody to lay some gravel or something as a support. The key element was the compacted and impermeable clay layer.
Bill Sheehan of Hackensack Riverkeeper which worked to conserve the land to become Skyway Park
JCT: How many years did the whole process take?
Verdibello: We started in October or early November 1985, and we finished the beginning of 1987, so about 18 months.
I remember the timing because I entered PJP in a contest for the outstanding environmental engineering achievement for 1987 sponsored by the Consulting Engineering Council of New Jersey, and we won.
When the federal government finally came around, they sent their own team to inspect. They found that what we did was all that could have been done short of removing the whole million- and-a-half of cubic yards of soil there. So, they said that there’s nothing else we can do except continued monitoring.
JCT: Basically, you took that job off the federal government’s plate.
Verdibello: Essentially, yes. What we did as an interim remedial measure was above and beyond. It was in fact as good a final measure as they would have done, so they didn’t do anything else.
JCT: By the way, you speak English like a college professor, but you have a slight accent, just a slight accent. Where were you born?
Verdibello: I was born in Italy. I came to the United States when I was 13 years old not speaking one word of English.
JCT: Did you come straight to Jersey City?
Rendering of the future Skyway Park
Verdibello: No, no. I lived in uptown Manhattan. I went to George Washington High School in Manhattan, and then I actually went to a City College of New York. This is where I got my degree in civil engineering.
JCT: Back in the day when City College was considered the Harvard of the poor?
Verdibello: Yeah, it was the called the Harvard of the proletariat. At that time City College was an incredible institution with one requirement: You had to have a 90 average from high school in order to be accepted. And you had to maintain a minimum of a C average to stay in. If you didn’t, you were expelled to make room for somebody who was more serious about studying than you were.
I married a girl who was born and probably will die in Jersey City. And so she dragged me to Jersey City at the time kicking and screaming, and now Jersey City is my town.
JCT: Fantastic. That’s such an amazing story.
Verdibello: That year-and-a-half was, you know, like the love of my life.
JCT: It’s your magnum opus as an environmental engineer?
Verdibello: Right. And it’s obviously very meaningful work. So, yeah. This was an incredible start on my environmental career, which lasts until today.
Note: The final remedial work was done and a cap implemented in 2011 after the Healy Administration acquired the property. The site is expected to be officiallydelisted from the Superfund in the next year.
Governor Phil Murphy announced today that all individuals ages 16 and older will be eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccination on April 19 – two weeks ahead of the state’s initial target of May 1.
New Jersey’s phased vaccination rollout has administered 4.7 million doses of vaccine to essential frontline workers, educators, high-risk groups, and other eligible adults who live, work, or study in the state. According to the governor, with 1,796,798 adults already fully vaccinated, New Jersey is on track to meet his goal of fully vaccinating 4.7 million adults by June 30.
“Over the last several months, our Administration has worked closely with our communities and federal partners to ensure an efficient, accessible, and equitable vaccination program,” said Governor Murphy.“Together, we have administered 4.7 million doses of vaccine and opened more than 750 vaccination sites across the state, with 98.7 percent of all New Jerseyans living within five miles of where they can receive a vaccine. With an expected increase in vaccine allocation from the federal government, coupled with our extensive network of vaccination distribution sites, we can confidently expand our eligibility to all individuals ages 16 and older who live, work, or study in New Jersey on April 19.”
For more information about current eligibility, statewide vaccination site locations, and to preregister for a vaccination, visit https://covid19.nj.gov/vaccine.
For more information on current CDC criteria for eligibility, please click here.
Jersey City Board of Education trustees and city council members who met for a joint session on Wednesday are in agreement: to solve the public schools’ funding crisis, they must work together. City council members did not promise any specific amounts of funding at the session, but the two governing bodies planned to form subcommittees and reconvene for another meeting in May.
Conversation among the officials who met at the Hank Gallo Community Center in Lincoln Park was congenial, although due to WiFi problems that made the livestream unwatchable, members of the public could not view the meeting in real time.
The school board has passed a preliminary budget for the 2021-22 school year that includes an $85 million increase in the tax levy. The preliminary budget would raise school taxes on the average Jersey City home assessed at $461,925 by an additional $993 per year – or $83 per month – in school taxes, according to the district.
Superintendent of Schools Franklin Walker has said the budget will repair years of underfunding for the district of 30,000 students. School Board President Mussab Ali, who is a graduate of McNair Academic High School, put that in concrete terms at the session. “The students who are graduating this year, the class of 2021, from kindergarten to 12th grade, have never had fully funded Jersey City public schools,” Ali said.
Ali said the state of New Jersey has been cutting aid to the district based to some degree on Jersey City’s growth in ratables, which he said have risen from $20 billion to more than $40 billion. He also pointed out that the only 27% of the city’s revenue goes to the schools, while the state average is 53%.
“Jersey City, as a city, can afford to put more money in, but the question is how are we going to do it sustainably and in a way that doesn’t hurt homeowners,” said Ali.
The school board’s 2021-22 budget includes $86 million in payroll taxes from the city, even though the city has only certified $65 million of this owed amount.
Ward E Councilman James Solomon spoke about working together to come up with “additional revenue raisers,” such as cigarette taxes. “We don’t know what the future of the commercial waterfront is going to be that was supposed to fund a good portion of the payroll tax,” Solomon said.
In agreement Solomon’s ideas for local revenue sources was Ward D Councilman Yousef Saleh.
“We as a council should be looking at recreational cannabis and passing that as soon as possible, sort of creating the framework for how we’re going to tax it,” he said.
Saleh, along with others on the board and council, said pressure needs to be put on state officials.
“This is an election year, so that is front and center in mind. You can’t come get votes from our area and then meanwhile hurt a district of majority Black and brown students,” said Saleh.
Councilman-at-Large Rolando Lavarro said there are only two ways to alleviate the taxpayer burden and adequately fund schools: “by either substantially reducing the city’s levy, so as to offset the increases on the school side, and/or having the city contribute revenues to the Jersey City Public Schools.”
Lavarro had proposed a meeting between the city council and school board during public comments at a recent Board of Education meeting. He is being mentioned as a potential challenger to Mayor Steven Fulop in this fall’s citywide elections.
Council President Joyce Watterman and Ali said the next step after the session is to form subcommittees, which will focus on legislative outreach, finances and operations. Watterman said “we can come back to the public as a unified body once the subcommittees know what they have to do.”
“If we all live here, I think we should all get along and put everything on the table,” Waterman said.
The preliminary 2021-22 school budget is currently awaiting approval from the county superintendent. The district’s budget calendar lists April 22 as a tentative date for a board meeting on budget adoption and April 24 as the earliest date for the next public budget hearing.
A 16 year-old Jersey City boy was fatally shot last night in the vestibule of a building on Bergen Avenue near Dwight Street.
Just after 10:30 p.m., members of the Jersey City Police Department responded to a report of shots fired in the area of 83 Bergen Avenue. When they arrived, they found the boy, Kaheem Taylor, with at least one gunshot wound to the upper body. Taylor was transported to Jersey City Medical Center where he was pronounced dead.
The cause and manner of death are pending the findings of the Regional Medical Examiner’s Office.
No arrests have been made at this time.
Anyone with information is asked to contact the Office of the Hudson County Prosecutor at 201-915-1345 or to leave an anonymous tip at: http://www.hudsoncountyprosecutorsofficenj.org/homicide-tip/.
Heights resident Danielle Freire announced her candidacy today for the Ward D city council seat currently held by Yousef Saleh.
Saleh was appointed to the city council on April 30, 2020 following the death of Michael Yun. He won a special election for the seat on November 3, 2020.
According to a press release, Freire holds a master’s degree in nonprofit management from The New School and “worked in the nonprofit sector for close to a decade and has a focus on raising resources for social justice issues that impact marginalized communities.” Freire is the daughter of Ecuadorian immigrants.
“Having grown up in the Heights, I hold a unique perspective on how the community has changed in both good and bad ways. I want to empower my community to realize that OUR perspective is valuable and essential to policy making. Both my life and work experiences prepared me for this leap into politics, which I never imagined for myself. Frankly, there needs to be more “leaps” and there are many residents with talent, experience, and skills to contribute to their city. Together, we can promote a just and equitable city for all residents to thrive,” said Freire.
Freire has been endorsed by local activist Beverly Brown Ruggia who said “It’s exciting to have a young woman like Danielle Freire join the race for city council in Jersey City. Her personal story is one that reflects the great diversity and wealth of professional talent in our city and her candidacy speaks to the gifted generation of leaders entering the political landscape in the state.”
On Wednesday, March 31, at 7:30 p.m. Friere will live stream an official announcement of her candidacy. It will include musical performances by Mary J. Sansait, Jenna Toulantis Leggio and Summer Dawn Reyes.
This is the final installment of a four-part series. To read earlier installments, begin by clicking here.
“Very Costly Penalties”
For over two years Jersey City developer Peter Mocco had stalled, postured, obstructed, litigated, and cajoled. And by any reasonable measure he had come out ahead. His oversize penthouse—recast by city Zoning Officer Nick Taylor as an attic—was still standing albeit with a few inexpensive “wellness” and “sustainability” tweaks that gave it a patina of environmental and social responsibility.
I was curious what Gerry Bakirtjy and Eric Hofmann, two local architects intimately involved in local development issues, thought of Taylor’s decision.
Said Bakirtjy, “In my professional opinion it isn’t an attic. The definition [of an attic] talks about a sloped roof. Any reasonable person would say this isn’t an attic.”
Hofmann agreed. “The text seems crystal clear to me.”
To drive the point home, Hofmann pointed to a passage in the International Building Code Handbook, that provides that “once such a space is utilized for some degree of occupancy, it is no longer deemed an attic.” With its two kitchens, bathrooms, a game room, a lounge and bar, a reception area, and a tele-conference room, “some degree of occupancy” was the very purpose of Mocco’s penthouse.
No one I talked to could offer an explanation for Taylor’s decision. But what is clear is that after the fact Mocco had succeeded in forcing Taylor to unilaterally change the well-settled definition of “attic” so he could renege on his promise to take down the illegal penthouse. Why would Taylor have agreed to do this?
I decided to put the question to Taylor’s boss, Mayor Steven Fulop, by way of his press secretary Kimberly Wallace-Scalcione. Had the mayor, who is known to have a longstanding relationship with Mocco, interceded on his behalf?
She replied tersely. “Peter Mocco’s actions resulted in the largest penalty ever rendered in the history of Jersey City.” She added that “the Mayor does not get involved in decisions with the Planning Board as it is an independent body. The Board’s strict and very costly penalties imposed on Mr. Mocco due to his violations sends a clear message that Jersey City is not the place to come and try to build outside of approvals, unless you want to pay severely.”
I asked Wallace-Scalcione if I could interview Taylor. I received no response.
Wallace-Scalcione’s claims, though, begged another question. Had Mocco really paid “severely” as she had asserted? Without access to Mocco’s books, arriving at a precise cost-benefit calculation is impossible. But using some commonly known metrics, one can arrive at a rough answer.
Take 333 Grand Street, where Mocco illegally added 6,198 square feet to his penthouse. According to Realtor.com, each of those square feet is currently worth approximately $840. Thus, the penthouse enlargement added the equivalent of $5.2 million in value to the building. After deducting his additional building costs of $1.5 million [assuming an estimated building cost of $250 per square foot], Mocco’s property is now $3.6 million more valuable than it would have been had he followed the law.
Union rat outside Mocco building
In addition, a source close to Mocco reported that he saved approximately $1,000,000 by using the unapproved EIFS (exterior installation finishing system) bringing his total gains to $4.6 million. (In order to keep things simple, this analysis leaves out the numerous other improvements Mocco made without approval.)
In the end, after paying the fine of $580 thousand—apparently the largest penalty ever rendered in the history of Jersey City—Mocco’s gains on 333 Grand Street may have totaled as much as $4.1 million.
Given this windfall, the fine may not have sent the “clear message that Jersey City is not the place to come and try to build outside of approvals” that Mayor Fulop thought it would.
At 245 Newark, Mocco’s gains are a little more difficult to calculate with any certainty. If the mezzanines remain closed off and unusable as the city has apparently ordered, he will undoubtedly take a financial hit. But those who know Mocco consider that outcome unlikely.
Insuring that the mezzanines remain unused would require the city to make yearly inspections for the life of the building. Most observers consider it doubtful that the city will have the will or resources to do so.
Just as Mocco was able to make massive changes to both buildings during construction without the city’s officials knowing about them, so too would he, or a subsequent owner, likely be able to reopen the mezzanines unnoticed. This is because the city doesn’t have enough manpower to inspect new construction let alone follow up on completed buildings.
Commenting on the Mocco case, Ward E Councilman James Solomon said that the city is dealing with a “resource crisis.” Solomon continued, “We don’t have enough construction code officials…The city’s leadership is doing the best it can, but we don’t have the tools.”
Hofmann agrees with Solomon. “As a decade-long Jersey City resident, I believe development is so prevalent there is definitely a staffing issue [in tracking and monitoring projects]. Getting boots on the ground and policing what’s happening is a monumental task.”
And indeed, I asked Wallace-Scalcione if the city had inspected the building. She responded by saying that the penalties against Mocco were being “strictly enforced by Planning and Zoning.” However, when asked for dates of such inspections, the spokeswoman did not respond.
If Mocco reopens the mezzanines as seems likely, he will enjoy another windfall. The spaces added a total of 7,500 square feet of usable space to the building. At $678 per square foot, the additional space may have added as much as $5.1 million in value. After deducting $1.9 million in building costs, Mocco would still have netted $3.2 million in increased property value.
While Mocco did reportedly pay the neighboring building $100 thousand in settlement over its blocked views, he likely offset most or all of that with his unapproved use of EIFS on the façade, which lowered his building costs substantially.
It’s “an attic…or a penthouse or a level”
There was one piece of unfinished business.
To settle his lawsuit with the Planning Board, Mocco had made two concessions. First he agreed to make the “wellness” and “sustainability” changes to 333 Grand Street.
The second concession involved a future building at Liberty Harbor North, 333 Morris Street (not to be confused with 333 Grand Street).
On October 5th, the Morris Street piece of the settlement came before the city council at its caucus. Director of Planning Tanya Marione called in to explain the deal. Her words immediately highlighted the confusion that Taylor had wrought. As punishment for his violations, Mocco, she said, “would lose an attic…or a penthouse or a level. So, it’s a penthouse for a penthouse or a top floor for a top floor.”
No one noticed that Marione had conflated three words” “attic,” “penthouse,” and “top floor.” But it spoke volumes. The words’ differences had been eviscerated in service of Mocco’s need to keep his penthouse, which was now officially an “attic.” Apparently, in Marione’s mind, the words were now interchangeable thanks to Mocco.
Mocco had succeeded in getting the rules changed ex post facto. In building a penthouse over twice the permitted size, he had won a seemingly calculated bet that he could skirt the city’s rules. But he had done one better: With Taylor’s help, he had re-written them.
It isn’t clear whether anyone on the city council fully appreciated the deviousness of Mocco’s feat. But when Marione had finished, Ward C Councilman Richard Boggiano, clearly sensing that Mocco had pulled a fast one, shook his head and said, “What a joke.” City Council President Joyce Watterman laughed. Her words can’t be made out.
And, as it turns out, Boggiano’s reaction was fully justified. A review of the redevelopment plan shows that at 333 Morris Street, Mocco gave up only an “attic story,” not a future penthouse as Marione, Mocco’s lawyers, and the administration wanted to spin it. The zoning didn’t permit a penthouse on the “M class” 333 Morris building.
So, in the end, Mocco with Taylor’s help had outmaneuvered everyone. He had “given up” a “penthouse” on 333 Morris Street that he didn’t have to give up in the first place to save a penthouse at 333 Grand Street he had never had the right to build. It was a trick that would have made illusionist David Blaine proud.
Mocco did not accept Jersey City Times’s request for an interview and declined to answer questions put to him in an email.
Epilogue
Eric Hofmann (who is president of the Village Neighborhood Association in addition to being an architect by profession) commented that, “Peter Mocco was the straw that broke the camel’s back…Now we are all poised and alert.”
“The big lessons already learned from our experience have to do with vigilance on behalf of the community” because “there’s no mechanism in place for the city to catch deviations during construction.”
But some would ask whether the future that Hofmann describes is a solution. Should neighborhood associations have to shoulder the responsibility for policing developers’ compliance with the zoning laws, a core responsibility of the city?
Mocco looks on (in grey sport jacket) as Mayor Fulop speaks at October, 2020 fundraiser at Surf City.
The building 333 Grand Street is a prime example of the pitfalls of such an approach. The often-litigious Van Vorst Park Association was apparently lulled into grudging acceptance of Mocco’s behavior believing that the fix was in. Architect Tom Ogorzalek, who, along with his architect-wife Ceci De Leon, heads up the VVPA construction committee, explained, “I reached out to somebody at city planning and said what’s the story with this? They said it’s a fait accompli, it’s a legal matter; nothing can be done.”
Of course, had the city forced Mocco to take down the penthouse and deconstruct his mezzanines, some feel a message would have been sent that the city was serious about enforcing its rules. Then, the thinking goes, civilian enforcement of the zoning laws would be less necessary. But the city appears to have little incentive to hold developers’ feet to the fire when so much real estate money finds its way into the campaign war chests of city officials.
The “Coalition for Progress” political action committee linked to Mayor Fulop and managed by his wife’s business partner has received 3.2 million in donations largely from developers. Dixon Advisory, a property owner and developer in Jersey City which figures prominently in a scathing article about the mayor in Bloomberg, gave the PAC $300 thousand. Roseland/Mack Cali donated $250 thousand. Many other developers have made contributions to the Coalition for Progress ranging from $15 thousand to $50 thousand dollars.
Whether the mayor pressured Taylor to cut Mocco a break is unknown. His relationship with Mocco is opaque. While he has used Mocco’s Zeppelin Hall and Surf City bars almost exclusively for local fundraisers and victory celebrations, he or his committee did pay for the use of these venues on several occasions, according to public records.
I asked Wallace-Scalcione whether the mayor has received cash or “in-kind” donations from Mocco. She did not respond.
There are few people familiar with Jersey City who haven’t heard of Peter Mocco. His ambition, audacity and cynicism are the object of both derision and grudging respect. How, people wonder, does this guy get away with it again and again?
In a 2012, The Jersey Journalwrote, “With his political acumen, Mocco has been sought out by almost every city administration. What is the main thing people should know? Whatever Peter wants, Peter gets.”
It appears that nothing has changed.
Header image is of faux stone façade at 333 Grand Street.
Ron Leir assisted in the preparation of this article.
The Hudson County Regional Collision Investigation Unit is investigating a hit and run incident in which a 31-year-old Jersey City woman was struck and seriously injured while crossing Palisade Avenue just south of Bowers Street in the Jersey City Heights shortly after 9 p.m. Wednesday night. The driver who struck the woman fled the scene and the HCPO is seeking the public’s help in identifying the driver.
Members of the Jersey Police Department responded to the area at approximately 9:09 p.m. on reports of a pedestrian struck with serious injuries. The victim was transported to the Jersey City Medical Center, where she is listed in stable condition.
The vehicle is described as a four-door sedan, consistent with a 2012-2014 Black Toyota Camry LE, with New York registration. This vehicle notably had a missing hubcap on the right, front passenger wheel.
The Hudson County Regional Collision Investigation Unit and Jersey City Police Department are actively investigating this incident. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Office of the Hudson County Prosecutor at 201-915-1345 or to leave an anonymous tip at:
http://www.hudsoncountyprosecutorsofficenj.org/homicide-tip/. All information will be kept confidential.
A 54-year-old Jersey City man has been charged kidnapping and sexually assaulting a 14-year-old boy.
According to The Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office the defendant, Robert Harper, met the teen at Berry Lane Park on Wednesday. Harper
Robert Harper
allegedly invited the teen to his house, barricaded the doors and proceeded to sexually assault him. The teen immediately ran to the police to report the incident.
Yesterday, Harper was arrested at his residence on Union Street.
Harper was charged with Kidnapping; Aggravated Sexual Assault; two counts of second-degree Sexual Assault; Aggravated Sexual Contact; and Endangering the Welfare of a Child.
Prosecutor Suarez credited the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office Special Victims Unit and the Jersey City Police Department for the investigation and arrest.
A detention hearing for Harper is tentatively scheduled for Wednesday, March 31, 2021.
