Days after an ally on the city council called for a halt to the Washington Street redesign project in Hoboken, 1st Ward Councilman/mayoral hopeful Mike DeFusco is calling for a special meeting to address concerns such as destroyed sidewalks and tree removal.
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
“No one would dispute that Washington Street is in desperate need of repair, but the current administration’s handling of this vital project has raised an enormous amount of concern throughout the community,†DeFusco said in a statement.
“Businesses are suffering, quality of life is being disrupted, and most alarmingly there is irreversible damage being done to our city’s character in the removal of trees and destruction of a historic bluestone sidewalk in front of City Hall.”
The upstart councilman goes on to state that the issues of destroying the bluestone and removing trees were not discussed as part of the plan, which was approved last June and didn’t commence until January of this year.
DeFusco also said he had submitted a formal request to Council President Jen Giattino, another mayoral candidate, regarding a special meeting, but she told Hudson County View no one had asked her about such a meeting and she was going to be away most of next week.
4th Ward Councilman Ruben Ramos criticized Mayor Dawn Zimmer over the project earlier this week, claiming curb bump-outs had become a major hindrance to residents and commuters alike.
Zimmer retorted that the curb extensions are necessary safety measure to prevent illegal parking and improve visibility – among other things.
A spokesman for Zimmer’s office did not return an email seeking comment regarding DeFusco’s call for a special meeting.
Tonight I came home and there was a flier under my door from DeFusco. On the front page, under the title “A Record of Success”, DeFusco states: “As Chair of the Parking and Transportation Committee, worked with businesses, City Council and the Administration on a plan for an overhaul of Washington Street”.
Sounds like this moron is now admitting that he didn’t pay attention to the details of the plan he so proudly credits himself for promoting. Clearly DeFusco is Confusco! Either he admits in the above article that he is incompetent or he is lying about his role in the Washington Street debacle. This is the problem with DeFusco: He’ll say and do anything to grab a headline regardless of the truth.
From where I sit, DeFusco not only helped craft the Washington Street plan but is willing to take full credit for the mess it has become and then blame others for a plan he approved when that plan goes wrong.
After just under a year on the City Council this moron has mastered the art of talking out of both sides of his mouth. His problem,however, is that his ego forces him to put his stupidity in writing for all to see.
Within hours of Mike asking for this meeting, the city sent out an email admitting that they didn’t review the engineer’s report on the tree removal and promised to stop it until they did a proper review. It sounds like DeFusco was spot on here. The City Council approves the plan but it’s the Mayor that is in charge of implementing it. It’s way behind schedule and it’s a mess. If he didn’t push them to fix Washington Street it never would have moved in the first place, they had 8 years. If he didn’t call them out on the trees and sidewalk, they would still be destroying them. Those sound like two examples of success for residents in spite of the mayor not doing a great job holding up her end. Keep up the good work Mike.
The City Council approves and allocates the funding for this project. Numerous votes were cast by DeFusco approving the project. As he points out, he is Chairman of the Transportation Committee and as such, it is his committee that made the recommendation that the rest of the Council approve funding. HE had an obligation to review the plans. He didn’t and now we’re stuck with his mess.
Nice spin, “Ken Osmond” – here is the City’s press release. FLIPPER DeFusco strikes again!
“The City is adding over 50 new trees through the Washington Street project. This is in addition to approximately 30 new trees that were planted between 1st Street and 5th Street in the past few years through the Shade Tree Commission’s Washington Street Beautification Initiative. For this project, three trees have been removed and 16 more are planned to be removed due to utility conflicts such as drainage improvements. We are working to save or replant existing trees where possible, including an evaluation by the project engineer to determine if possible drainage alternatives would result in keeping some or all trees. No more trees will be removed until the City has reviewed the engineer’s report. The City also conducted a walkthrough with the Resident Engineer of the project and a representative from the Shade Tree Commission to evaluate which trees were likely to survive a replanting. An arborist and landscape architect are also evaluating if the t rees can survive replanting and where they could be replanted.”
Now, as you see the “engineer’s report” which the city is evaluating is a NEW evaluation by the city engineer for DRAINAGE ALTERNATIVES in order to save trees.
This “Ken Osmond” is another DeFusco operative doing damage control.
DeFusco’s operatives will be putting in plenty of overtime trying to do damage control. He’s almost as bad as Trump when it comes to sticking his foot in his mouth.