Congratulations, George

I don't live in the South Ward, but know a few folks there, so I thought I had some idea about their politics. I hoped common sense would prevail and Paul Harris would not be elected, and that indeed came to pass, so I guess I know a bit about the tone of the ward.

I hadn't realized how well George Muschal knew his ward, and I wasn't aware, until after the election, how well he hustled during this short campaign season. It makes sense a former police officer would know the hearts and minds of his neighbors, and would understand how to connect with them. So, I am pleased he took the most votes on Tuesday, and I wish him the best. I hope he kicks some ass, and provides us all with some much needed inspiration. We need it.

Tolerating Failure

Today is Election Day, and I voted. My polling place is the Hedgepeth Williams school, which is a mere two blocks from my house. I walked over today with Matthew in tow, allowing him to walk for part of our journey, and when he became too distracted by the litter on the sidewalk, I opted to carry him the rest of the way. I always hear kids screaming in there. I can hear the screams from my house when my windows are open. I can hear them screaming right now. Because I'm a relatively positive person, I'll say that it sounds like there's a permanent pep rally happening in that school, but if I were a negative person, I could easily say that it sounds like bedlam.

The grounds are often strewn with the aforementioned toddler-distracting litter, and in the later months of the year, dead leaves. A couple of weeks ago, I watched a couple of kids throwing rocks at the windows along the Gladstone side of the building. I stopped the car and rolled down the windows, unsure of what I was going to say to the little punks, but they ran off before I made a fool of myself, and I hoped for the next few days that they didn't know where I live, lest my windows become their next target. The sign for the employee lot is on the ground, and the building is usually decorated in one spot or another with graffiti. On my way home, an elderly woman asked me if this was our voting spot, and I said yes. She asked me where the entrance was, and told her that it was on the Olden Avenue side of the building, and that there was a flag hanging on the fence near the door. I wanted to mention the graffiti, but I figured the flag was description enough.

You'd think that school officials could slap a bit of brown paint on the door to cover the graffiti, at least on Election Day, when the school should be saying, "we take the honor of being the area's polling station seriously, and we want you, the community, to admire us, and feel safe within this building." Alas, that is not the case here at Hedgepeth-Williams. I'm thinking about going over on Saturday morning and taking care of the graffiti myself.

When I got home, I grabbed Steve, and the three of us had a bite to eat and then a walk in the park; it's a beautiful autumn day. But I couldn't stop thinking about that school. We don't make a lot of money and I have no freakin' idea how we'll get Matthew educated, but he's not going to that school, even though it's two blocks from my house, and has an impressive history. That makes me sad. In the 1940s, two mothers in my neighborhood, Gladys Hedgepeth and Berline Williams, took action against the Trenton Board of Education because their children were not permitted to attend that school, then known as Junior #2 (some locals still call it that), simply because they were black. The Hedgepeth-Williams case was the precursor — by 10 years! — to the Brown v the Board of Ed case which outlawed racial segregation. So, the school should be an immense source of pride for Trenton, but instead, the school has slipped into academic embarrassment and is an eyesore. It's not all Mayor Doug Palmer's fault, but he appointed the school board, and he's been running (if you can call it that) Trenton for nearly 20 years, which is ample time to make the place shine.

I'm not one of those white parents of previous generations who chose to send her kid elsewhere simply because there were black kids in the school. I don't want to send my child to a school that is a complete failure. The Times of Trenton's Meir Rinde reported back in February that one of the state's lowest scoring middle schools was the Hedgepeth-Williams school, with proficiency in language somewhere around the 50% mark, and math around 40%. Egads. All the kids at one of Hamilton's schools passed the same test, just to put this in perspective. The fact that my kid and I are white makes me feel icky about my "I won't send my kid to that school" proclamation. Still, I'm not going to send my kid to a school that has no expectations, and I won't send him off to a place where failure is perfectly okay, if not outright celebrated (which seems to be commonplace here in Trenton). Maybe if I bitch enough — and in the off-chance, I'm joined by other local parents who find the current conditions at Junior #2 to be an insult the legacies of Mrs. Hedgepeth and Mrs. Williams, and, simply, an unacceptable environment for children — conditions will improve. We've got a few years before Matthew is school-aged, but I'm not sure if that is enough time to turn that school around.

Why I love Trenton

Some things in Trenton are way cooler than other things. Many of my neighbors are not so cool. Trenton politics are not so cool. But, where else can you hit the Villa Park Halloween Parade, grab some lunch at Pete's Steak House, and on the way home, witness the take-down of a heavily tattooed man wearing nothing but a loincloth held up by suspenders? Why, that would be no where else but Trenton!

The parade was fun, and Pete's is always a treat, but I admit, the coolest thing I've seen in awhile is the mostly naked guy getting arrested on one of the busiest streets in the city, around 2 in the afternoon on a Saturday. I'm disappointed that I was unprepared to get the full frontal shot of this guy, but I'm pleased that once I recognized my good fortune, my photo-taking reflexes kicked in immediately to get the shot, below. Call me simple, but the experience has made my week, and has even made me less angry about the knuckleheads up the street. At least for now.

I know you can't get this kind of fun where you live, so, please, live vicariously through me. Enjoy.

The 400 block of Hamilton Avenue, Saturday, October 31, 2009.

Using us since 1990

Inspiring leaders

I watched Newark Mayor Cory Booker kiss and make up with late night talk show host Conan O'Brien last night, after they spent the better part of recent days trading insults. It started, not surprisingly, with Conan mocking Newark. Newark, and the other New Jersey cities, and, come to think of it, the whole damn state, are often the punchlines to many jokes, and usually, I don't care much because there are 8 million of us jammed into the little telephone booth of a state, and it's because this place is great. It's where everyone wants to be. The way I figure, those on the outside looking in are just jealous.

Sometimes, though, there are morsels of truth in teasing. Newark, like other New Jersey cities, are gritty and suffering. But occasionally, special leaders come along and give everything to improve the lives of those they represent, and they work to honor a place's history. Conan, I'll bet, saw that quality in Mayor Booker, and it moved him. It moved him enough to donate $50,000 of his own money to Booker's Newark Now initiative, and the talk show host was able to get NBC to match that donation, sending Booker home with $100,000. Newark Now helps to provide Newark residents with skills, tools, and support to transform their neighborhoods.

I admit, I once accused Booker of being a big baby because former hockey announcer, Barry Melrose, warned visitors to the Devils' arena of the dangers of Newark, and it sent Booker into a tizzy. What I didn't know is that Melrose had never even BEEN to Newark. When he made it to the city, Melrose was fed and watered and shown about, and he apologized. Although, in my experience, Canadians — and Melrose is Canadian — are very quick to apologize. But I think he, at least, did it publicly.

I think if Trenton had a leader willing to freak the hell out at all of the criticism coming from outside our city, we'd be in much better shape. Instead, our mayor poses for Esquire, and makes cameo appearances in Tyler Perry productions, and buries his face in the buttocks of the Clintons. It's all about Doug, and never about Trenton. You're planning to run again, aren't you Doug? Your big ticket appointments have not been realized, Doug, and somehow, we still have some meat on our bones. Please stop using us, Doug. Please. For all that is good and right.

Why was it an ordinary citizen who delivered the Trenton care package to the jackass who wrote the nasty letter to the editor about our city? Why is it ordinary citizens who tout the city's strengths (and, okay, the weaknesses, too) with their blogs and Twitter accounts? Why are the residents organizing the rallies and vigils?

I'm not looking for the government to do everything for me, but I am looking for my leaders to inspire. That's not happening in Trenton. Doug needs to go.

A quick note to Bill

Dear Mr. Clinton,

I like you, and I reflect back on your years in office as good times in my life. But I can't understand why you've been chumming around with my mayor, Doug Palmer. He supported your wife during her presidential bid, and I can see how that may leave you with an obligatory affection for him. But he was unable to deliver his city's vote to Mrs. Clinton, and I'm quite sure it's because he's so disconnected from the people he's supposed to be serving that he is no longer able to inspire.

He has an adversarial relationship with many of us, and the rest of his constituents are lured to the voting booths with promises of gift cards and fast food if they cast a vote for him.

And yet, he's asked you here to support his green initiative, which is, if not a full-blown sham, way-too-little-too-freakin'-late for him. Sure, Trenton could green up, but it will not happen under Palmer, even though he's been yapping his fool head about the idea to the US Conference of Mayors for the last few years. He's all talk. And back at home, his actions are petty and the backstabbing variety. Speaking of green, he did away with City Hall's recycling program because the guy who headed it up ran against him in 2006. And, oh yeah, then Palmer saw to it that the same guy got fired a short time later.

He's a charismatic man, and he can talk a mean green line, most notably with the "Live Where You Work" campaign, but Palmer, an elected official does not live where he works. Did you live in France while president of the US? No. Because that would be stupid. And wrong. Compounding that lack of green is the shocking amount of waste that gets him back and forth from his Hunterdon County estate to Trenton. He has two drivers, police detectives, actually, earning police detectives' salaries. The car is city-owned and city-fueled. There is a paid police dispatch in front of his abandoned Trenton home. Did I mention that Trenton is a fiscal mess? Did you know he gave himself and his top pals a big raise earlier this year?

Trenton faces the highest urban unemployment rate in New Jersey — higher than Camden, Paterson, and Newark — and has a dense population of unskilled, uneducated workers, a group Palmer brought to the city en masse. I have nothing against the poor; their conditions are heartbreaking. But while Palmer was trading low income housing for quick, suburban cash, Trenton's businesses left. The schools fell apart, both physically and academically, making it nearly impossible for the city's massive poor population to improve their lives. So much of this happened while you were in office, and the rest of the country was booming.

Palmer has missed the boat on every federal or state appointment/endorsement he wanted, but it wasn't for lack of pimping himself. I believe most good politicians look at someone like Doug, then the state of his city, scratch their heads, and decide to call Cory Booker, or some other functioning urban mayor, instead.

I believe in your heart, you are a compassionate, humanitarian sort, and if you have a few minutes next week while you're in town getting adored by our mayor-in-name-only, please take a drive around some of the Marriott's surrounding neighborhoods. I suggest Passaic or Spring Street. Or, head toward Olden on Calhoun. All of Trenton is not like that, I promise, but there are other similar, shattered neighborhoods and compromised lives all over this city. It's unfathomable. It's unacceptable. And, to be fair, it's not 100% Doug's fault, but he dug the graves for so many of Trenton's once flourishing neighborhoods, and you know what? He was too busy trying to impress your wife or make nice with our governor to even attend the funerals.

I hope you get to see some of the other side of Trenton while you're in town. I bet it boggles your mind to be confronted by some of the ruins of Trenton, ruins that stink of the Third World. In the state capital! In New Jersey!

Please do not associate with our mayor. He's just going to use your visit as a way to impress the large amount of people in this city with voter cards, but without the resources to buy a newspaper to learn about what's happening here. To them. And, under Palmer's watch, the public libraries almost fell apart, and now hours and resources have been cut, making it more difficult for the city's poor to get online. Palmer is charming and dangerous, like a snake, and you need to know that.

I'm not saying don't visit Trenton. We'd love to see you. Instead of hanging with Doug, please consider visiting one of the many groups here who actually works with, and cares about, the city's poor. Not that I'm opposed to a green initative, but since it's coming from Doug, I'd rather see your time and efforts in this city actually count for something.

Regards,
Christine Ott

Patricia Stewart for South Ward

I live in the East Ward, and therefore, my opinions on the goings on of the South Ward may seem irrelevant. No matter. I'm going to offer them anyway: there are only three serious contenders for the council seat vacated by Jim Coston.

Paul Harris
In the world outside of Trenton, Paul Harris would not be a serious contender for the open council seat in his ward, but this IS Trenton, where things do not always, or often, make sense. He's received some important endorsements, and to his credit, Paul has an ability to communicate well, and I admire his persistence. He is clearly the most interesting and complicated candidate, which — I'll say this up front — is by no means an endorsement, even if I use more words and space to explain him.

A few weeks ago, someone — not Carlos Avila, who is running against Paul Harris for the open council seat — logged onto the Trentonian's comment section on their website, posed as Carlos Avila, and made some racist comments. Oddly, The Trentonian, considering the plethora of shockingly depraved comments that go unchecked every day, traced the IP address. It was discovered that the comments made by El Carlos Falso came from Paul Harris's computer. Paul quickly blamed his campaign worker, much the same way Ashley Simpson did a jig and blamed her band after her botched Saturday Night Live performance a few years ago. Of course, I think Paul's story — like Ashley's — is fishy. Campaign worker? Who was immediately dismissed? My ASS. I'm not terribly surprised, because Paul has also engaged in questionable antics on the TrentonSpeaks website, namely, posting, and then deleting, a load of inflammatory commentary he posted himself.

I'm not dismissing Paul's — err, his campaign worker's — behavior, because posing as your rival and posting racist comments is pretty deplorable, but I can't get totally lathered up about this, because the comment section of the Trentonian's website is a total cesspool of racism, sexism, and pure, undirected hatred, with the bulk of the regulars having, at most, a second grade education. Whoever thought the comment section of any online news outlet would be an area of intelligent debate must be bitterly disappointed, because no one with half a brain could take anything said on any of those sites seriously, and remember, we're talking about the Trentonian. I mean, this is the same paper with the hate-filled "Back Talk" column, the Page Six Whore, and (in my opinion) a racist, albeit award-winning columnist. Besides, there are probably 100 people a day who should be arrested for what they write on the Trentonian's site, with people posing as other people ALL THE DAMN TIME, because of the free-for-all way the geniuses at The Trentonian decided to run their comment section. Frankly, it makes no sense to me they'd trace the IP address of some obviously idiotic political comments, when there's probably not a single registered voter (or anyone else) who takes that drivel seriously. Still, shame on Paul.

If I put this incident aside, which is difficult, I see an underdog — a newcomer who rents — who seems to care about the city's biggest problems. He seems absolutely intolerant of crime and quality of life issues, and that impresses me. He's intelligent, well-spoken, and also immature, kind of emotionally disengaged from the other humans, and completely in love with his own reflection (make sure you get your collar up perfectly, Paul).

Paul Harris and council president Paul Pintella have a contentious history. Despite this, I see Harris as part of the same-old, same-old crew, which Pintella belongs to, too. He's too easily wooed by those with power and money, and that's just kinda yucky.

Despite all of this, if Paul wins, I wouldn't be THAT upset. After all, the position is for just for a few months. Maybe, he'll prove me wrong, which would be ideal. But mostly, if Paul wins, I'm hoping for some epic feuds between him and the Idiot Prince Pintella. If that's not a reason to attend council meetings regularly, I don't know what is.

Carlos Avila
In American congressional history, 7 women in the Senate and 35 in the House have assumed their seats through the deaths of their husbands. This trend is called the Widow's Mandate, and has also occurred in other areas of politics. But what happens if the politician is only dead to us, and is moving, along with his living wife, to Waco, Texas, and the intended successor is a dude? Well, then, Carlos Avila is appointed to finish the term! At least, that's what could have happened in the South Ward had The People not freaked the hell out. An appointment is less than ideal, but historically, those appointed to the unexpired term do no harm, since presumably, they share attitudes and philosophies with the elected-but-now-gone. I don't see it as an affront to American democracy, even if the practice of an appointment is a bit old-fashioned. It doesn't bother me one bit that Jim Coston, prior to his departure, wanted Carlos to finish the last few months of his term; it IS just a few months, after all; and while it boggles my mind that Coston couldn't have just hung on until May, what's done is done. Jim, one of the only members of council with a consistent backbone and brain, trusted Carlos enough to suggest he continue his good work, and maybe it's stupid or unamerican for me to admit this, but the Widow's Mandate-style appointment of Carlos really was good enough for me. But now that there's an election looming, and I've had a chance to get to know a bit more about Carlos, I still can't complain. He is young, and maybe naïve, and his expectations might be a bit off-base for what the position actually entails, I do think he's more than capable of finishing Coston's term and serving his ward effectively. This will allow him to find his own footing so that he could run for a full term in the near future. This is a great opportunity for Carlos, and it could be good for the South Ward, as well.

Patricia Stewart
If one of the two guys above wins the South Ward seat, honestly, I can't be too upset because I think The Paul Show will be "must-see," and I think Carlos will do his very best. And the position is just for a few months. And I don't live in the South Ward, anyway. There's another election in May, so if whoever wins blows it — or not! — we will have to endure all of this crap again (thanks, Jim!). In the best case scenario, it makes the most sense to get someone in that seat who knows the ropes, who isn't full of ego, or horseshit, to help get this city back on track, and right away, because Trenton is a disaster, thanks to years of mismanagement and neglect. Pat Stewart, a long-time resident of the city, successful career woman, and community activist, has the right blend of experience, toughness, insight, and love of Trenton, to finish out Coston's term, and hopefully, she can go on to win a full-term seat of her own in May. She isn't a politician, yet her years of attending council meetings and appointments on various boards have taught her how the system works. She often does not agree with the Powers-That-Be, but she seems to have a good working relationship with that entity, and everyone else in the city. She's able to do that without making the mistake of trying to please everyone: she's simply respectful and dignified. If you have a question about Trenton, Pat can either answer it or direct you to the person who can. She has the smarts to know the important issues facing Trenton and her ward, and the ability to get us back on track. I love her no bullshit attitude, and the fact that she's willing and capable of putting aside her own opinions to better represent the whole. She is not running to launch a career in politics: she has seen what those sorts of people have done to the city, and I hope she can clean up their mess.

An aside, but an important one: Pat lost her husband too soon, forcing her to raise her son in Trenton alone. Not only has Pat been able to manage single motherhood and a career in city where many can't handle just one of those things, she excelled at it. And her success in raising her son is an inspiration to me, as a mother of a little boy in a tough city, myself. Nick has grown into a fine man, and it's because Pat has her head on straight, and is able to navigate through adversity. Her ability to prioritize shows that she's more than capable of holding a council seat to help our city through this adverse period. Besides, Pat Stewart knows the mayor, but if her son, Nick, were pulled over by the police, I'd bet good money he wouldn't call his mom at the scene to bail him out, and I'd bet even more, she wouldn't show up and berate the officers. And, that's the way it should be.

Trenton needs Pat Stewart.