Issue 147: What about the 10th?
Also: The Historic Preservation Master Plan, an amazing tiger, and more!
Hello everyone! Happy Sunday — I hope your weekend is going well.
A quick programming note: I will be publishing a very short version of the newsletter for the next two coming weeks. My job is crazy right now with the end of the semester, and I just need a little break. Paid subscribers — you’ll still get your exclusive; also, for free subscribers I’ll be back in action with longer newsletters in mid-May.
But here’s a regular, full-on issue for you this week. As always, thank you for reading! — Amy
What’s going on in the 10th District?
Last week I published my Congressional Q&A for NJ 08 — if you missed it, it’s linked here. That led a few of you to ask, hey, where’s the Q&A for NJ 10 (which covers another chunk of JC, including me)? Well, the answer to that has gotten a little complicated over the last week, but let’s start with the basics.
Congressman Donald Payne has been representing the 10th district since 2012, and the initial reason why there’s no Q&A for him is that he is running unopposed in the Democratic primary (which, given the makeup of this district, basically assures him reelection). This is in large part based on the power of The Line, which has endorsed Payne and supported him after his father, Donald Payne, Sr., became the first Black congressman in NJ back in 1998 and was elected eleven times.
It’s also based on the the fact that for voters in the 10th who are left of center, Payne’s been a pretty good congressman. Not only is his voting record significantly left compared to his colleagues, he has been involved in securing major federal funds for his district. (Read more about his voting record here.) Overall, voters — again, if they are left of center — have had little to complain about his record. He’s been called out a few times for not responding to constituent issues in a timely manner, but overall he’s been a pretty good congressman all things considered.
While he’s technically up for election now, and The Line (and yeah, I’ve just decided I’m capitalizing it now because it reads weirdly to me otherwise) is now essentially gone, it’s important to remember that it wasn’t gone in time for some upstart candidate to really challenge Payne. This accounts for him running unopposed. His seat will likely be in hot contention in two years, assuming the ruling on The Line still stands. So while there’s some question as to whether or not a candidate from the left can even really challenge him on his record, the timing wasn’t exactly right to support such a thing happening this election.
Now things have taken a turn. It was announced to the public back on April 9th that Payne had a “cardiac episode” which was downplayed — to read early accounts of it, it sounded like something that maybe wasn’t such a big deal. The congressman had been struggling with poor health for many years, and this just sounded (at first) like another part of that — a temporary situation that would clear up like so many others had before. Nothing to really worry about, right?
But in an article that came out on April 17th, it was revealed that actually he was in a hospital on a ventilator and had been in that state since April 6th after what his office now says was a full-on heart attack. This is clearly much more serious than we were initially led to believe. His office is still saying he’s expected to make a full recovery, and certainly I hope he will. But 65-year-olds — especially those who were already struggling with complications from diabetes and kidney issues — don’t bounce back from heart attacks overnight, and it certainly is worrying to consider how long he may be out of commission and unable to do his job, even if everything goes exceptionally well as he heals.
I’ve seen a few NJ GOP members tweeting about the death of Lt. Gov. Sheila Oliver, whose death came as a shock to residents and comparing this incident with that, and while I suspect they’re doing this not out of a genuine concern for the health of our elected Democrats, they’re also not totally wrong to raise alarm. The public doesn’t have a right to know every tiny thing that happens in our elected officials lives (I absolutely hate it when the news makes a big deal about the transfer of power between the President and VP when the President gets a routine medical test like a colonoscopy), but we definitely do have a right to know if they’re facing a prolonged health catastrophe that might render them unable to do their job for months on end, let alone potentially die in office. We’re constantly being told that every vote counts especially in something as serious as our Congress, and the idea that our representative could conceivably be out for months at a time if not worse seems like a pretty big deal.
The timing of all of this also strikes me as seriously suspicious and perhaps even very cruel. As party leaders in our state are watching power slip from their hands, I have to wonder if someone like Payne is being propped up and kept in office way beyond what is reasonable and ethical1. The job of a congressman is a stressful one, and maybe it just makes sense for this guy to take a break and focus on his health, away from the public eye and the pressures of the job. Yeah, no one wants to be forced out of a position they love because of health concerns — I get it. But also, there does come a point where focusing on yourself and your family is the right thing to do, and it becomes time for the people around you to let you know that you really need to go and do that.
Had he announced his retirement months ago, that would have meant that there’d be a war brewing for his seat now. It’s wild, and potentially a little disturbing, to imagine what this race would be like with The Line gone, a new party-favorite candidate and an upstart (or two or three) vying for the spot, all while the incumbent candidate is in the hospital on a ventilator. Now, instead, we have his position being like a black hole where the public doesn’t really know what’s happening or what the future will bring, or who will be representing us and our district going forward. And we’re expected to think this is all fine and nothing to worry about — just trust our party leaders (who we never voted for and probably, in the case of most voters, struggle to identify) have our best interests in mind.
I’ve brought up this point before but I think it’s fair to do it again: it’s always been so important that Americans have faith in our system operating fairly and transparently, but it’s even more important now than ever before. The signs are all there that people are losing faith — you see it in events like those of January 6th, but you also see it in low voter turnout and the overall lack of civic engagement. We have to claw that faith back, and you don’t do it by keeping very vital information about the well-being of an important elected official secret from the public. All this situation does is cast doubt in people’s minds: what else is being hidden from us?
I wish Congressman Payne a speedy and full recovery. And I’m sorry for him and his family that this private time has to be made so public. But, this is the kind of thing that comes with the job, and keeping secrets from us is not the answer to anything good. I really hope we can start to do better about sharing this information with the public in an effort to build trust and faith in the system. We don’t want the alternative.
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One more bit of info on the congressional race — this time back to NJ08:
The Van Vorst Neighborhood Association is hosting a candidate forum on April 24 and all 3 Democratic NJ08 candidates have confirmed, along with a handful of the Senate candidates (Hamm, Campos-Medina). The Republican candidates have been invited too, but not responded.
Event is Wednesday, April 24 at 6pm at the Jersey City Free Public Library, 472 Jersey Avenue. Registration highly encouraged and people can submit questions when they register at: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/872192861327?aff=oddtdtcreator
Sounds like a great opportunity to meet the candidates and talk to them about your concerns!
Historic Preservation Master Plan
A reader wrote in to alert me to this — here is a link (go to this link and then you can download the PDF) to the Historic Preservation Master Plan. It will be heard by the Planning Board on May 7th, at which time it may be codified if there is enough support by that board. I attempted to find the Planning Board’s agenda for May 7th, and it doesn’t appear to be listed yet, but that link will have it when it’s available.
This Master Plan is a mere (ahem) 226 pages, much of it including dense text and lots of legalese. When the initial document was released in January, the fifteen day period of public comment was extended due to 45 days, due to numerous errors that were identified in it, according to this reader. Now, with a vote coming up, and there’s some question as to whether or not the public has been fully notified. In fairness to the city, this (extremely confusing?) image was included in the PDF I linked above showing their public notification process noting several meetings, but communication in JC is very, very difficult and these meetings are all news to me:
Again, in all fairness to the city, I get that it’s very hard to be in touch with residents about anything, let alone changes to a complicated policy that takes over 200 pages to communicate. I do not have a solution; I don’t know what the answer is. But if I’m looking at all this stuff as a Very Online Person who also is a native English speaker and relatively plugged into JC stuff and I don’t know about any of this, I think it’s fair to say that the current way of notifying people isn’t working and that maybe the word isn’t truly out about this document. (Also, I’m sorry, but that graphic above really doesn’t help.)
I will be totally honest with you: understanding this document is well above my pay grade. We have many advocates in this city who stand for historic preservation and while I support their work overall, I lack the ability to wade into a document like this one and tell you what I personally think in terms of its good and bad parts with anything even resembling authority. But transparency never hurts and so I’m writing all this for you so that you can access the document, know when the meeting is, and make up your own mind. And if you have concerns, put that May 7th meeting on your calendar.
ICYMI
O’lala Empanadas has closed: Beloved family empanada shop O’lala — which basically started the whole JC empanada craze — has closed. The Jersey Journal headline says it all: Jersey City empanada restaurant bids farewell after being pushed out by development. This is a huge loss to our community and yet another example of a Jersey City success story forced out to make way for more luxury housing. Ugh, don’t get me started.
Mayoral candidate fundraising: John Heinis of Hudson County View dug into the Q1 fundraising totals of The Candidates That Would Be Mayor. You can find that article here.
Eater.com highlights Jersey City restaurants: Robert Sietsema — my second favorite food critic after JC Eats — highlighted twenty-two local restaurants in his newest list of must-eat-at places. Yes, Razza makes the list, but so does West Side fave Samakmak and other small places, making this a truly great list!
There is a Gofundme to support the efforts of local volunteers who are attempting to find new homes for cats that are part of not one but two Jersey City Heights hoarder situations. This is a massive undertaking, involving over sixty cats. Thank you to all the volunteers helping with this, and if you’re able to donate, please do.
Hudson County Incinerator Authority’s Earth Day celebration
Earth Day was on Saturday, and the event they had at Lincoln Park was really lovely. I just wanted to share with you these really cool art pieces by JCPS students — it’s the first through third pieces in an art competition they had. Congratulations Yuvika Singh on your first place prize!!! That’s an amazing tiger!!! And congrats to all the kids who had their artwork up. We have some very talented young artists in JC!
Completely self-serving post
Lastly…
This is not JC related at all, but I wanted to let you know that I’m in a show starting next week in NYC. I don’t normally hype my shows outside of JC, but this one looks really great and I am very excited about it. It’s at South Street Seaport, in a cool historic building, it’s free and open to everyone, and it looks family friendly (I have not scoured every single piece closely — I was only there for the installation when maybe 50% of the work was up, but what I saw looked totally fine. If you have concerns, let me know and I can report more once the show is up). It’s sixty+ artists, all working in fibers, and from the bits I’ve seen it looks truly fantastic.
Here is the basic info about the show, and if you would like an essay to read plus a full list of artists, you can find it here. If fiber art is your thing, come through!
Ok, let’s talk about the elephant in the room: if Payne dies, who replaces him? “According to the New Jersey Constitution, state legislative vacancies are filled by the political party of the last incumbent. However, the seat will be on the ballot in the next general election, unless the vacancy occurs within 51 days of the election. If that is the case, the appointment would stand until the following general election.” (Link)
Elephant number two: it goes without saying that the incumbent has an advantage — perhaps a slight one, but an advantage all the same — in the next election. So, the party gets to pick who the next congressman is, which would in turn give them an advantage in the next election. This is… great.