In an editorial, Jersey City Heights resident Kevin Davis gives his take on what he sees as unrealistic campaign pledges from Ward D candidate Jake Ephros.
For nearly twenty years, I’ve been involved in progressive politics. I worked on Jeff Merkley’s first U.S. Senate run in Oregon, helping elect someone who became one of the most progressive voices in Washington.
I’ve also governed. I served as a Village Trustee in Croton-on-Hudson, NY, managing budgets, union contracts, and ordinances.
And I spent three years at NYC 311 taking calls ranging from “my tap water is brown” to “my neighbor is having sex too loud and I need to file a noise complaint.” Nothing teaches you faster than that about the difference between ideas and implementation.
That’s why I’m concerned about Jake Ephros. He’s offering the political version of fantasy sports: lots of imagination, zero real-world outcomes.
A Municipal Grocery Store Ward D Doesn’t Need
Jake’s proposal for a municipal grocery store solves a problem Ward D doesn’t have. There are multiple supermarkets minutes away, and Central Avenue is lined with produce markets, bodegas, Latin American markets, and Indian markets.
A city-owned grocery store isn’t innovative, it’s expensive. Government land acquisition always costs more than private-sector purchases, and municipal supermarkets often require permanent subsidies.
And let’s be honest: I love food, but even I shouldn’t run a grocery store. I’ve eaten gas-station sushi. That alone disqualifies me from being anywhere near perishables.
Promises Jersey City Cannot Deliver
Most of Jake’s platform consists of things a Jersey City council member has no legal power to enact, from statewide rent laws, to sweeping labor reforms, to immigration or voting changes.
These ideas may sound bold, but they’re impossible to deliver from a Ward D council seat.
Progressivism isn’t about vibes. It’s about deliverables.
The DSA Problem — And Why the Pledges Matter
Jake is backed by the Democratic Socialists of America, an organization that enforces ideological litmus tests and requires candidates to sign anti-Zionist pledge. This hits close to home for me.
I have close family in Israel, including a first cousin in an elite IDF unit. Because of that connection, I wouldn’t be welcome in DSA’s political lane. Candidates who won’t sign the pledge are pushed out.
And let’s be realistic:
I can’t sign any pledge forever. I can’t even keep the pledge my girlfriend made me take to stop eating White Castle. One half-gummy and I’m inhaling jalapeño cheese sliders like they’re oxygen.
And DSA expects candidates to sign lifelong purity vows about geopolitics?
And that’s the real issue: when a council member prioritizes a national organization’s pledge sheet over Ward D residents, that’s ideology over constituents.
The Traffic Safety Contradiction
This ideological rigidity already created real-world consequences here in Jersey City. DSA-backed candidate Joel Brooks signed a petition in 2020 calling for a 50% cut to the JCPD budget and a five-year hiring freeze.
And here’s where StreetsPAC NJ enters the picture.
StreetsPAC NJ, which endorsed Jake, has a board member who also signed that same defund petition.
Yet Ward D struggles daily with reckless driving, chronic speeding, e-bikes on sidewalks, and dangerous intersections. Enforcement is stretched thin as it is.
You don’t get safer streets by gutting the department that enforces traffic laws.
Why Are Serious Leaders Pretending This Is Normal?
Some knowledgeable public officials, like Assembly member-elect Katie Brennan, Commissioner Yraida Aponte-Lipski, and Councilman James Solomon, have endorsed Jake, even though they know his proposals aren’t realistic.
These endorsements aren’t about governing.
There’s nothing progressive about endorsing bad policy to avoid upsetting a faction. That’s not courage, it’s convenience.
Ward D Deserves Better
Ward D isn’t a stage for ideological experiments. It’s an area of the city with real issues that need real solutions.
Jake Ephros is offering slogans, not solutions. Performance, not progress. And Ward D deserves better than performance.
Kevin Davis
Jersey City Ward D resident
We don’t need Jake n his stupid ideas that are fantasy we needed patrick ambrosia who has done something here in the heights like Lenardo park it looks good we need in the heights the police to stop cars from doing what ever they want too speed, noise ,stop construction without permits robbies too many stores getting robbed because of fulops diversity people that come n rob so Jake is not for the heights
Did autocorrect change the n-word to “fulop’s diversity people” or do you think you’re hiding your racism?