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Drooling on the Pillow

Tuesday, May 03, 2005

Melissa Holloway 

Tris McCall is providing an huge public service to Jersey City voters by running a series of interviews with the candidates for mayor.

Today I read his interview with Melissa Holloway, former Ward F councilwoman. She comes off as intelligent and plenty rough enough for Jersey City politics.

What interested me the most was her take on the business curfew.

TM: The recent curfews have hit Ward F harder than any
other part of Jersey City. Have business owners complained
to you about the effect of the lockdown on their bottom lines?

MH: No, no businessman has come up directly to me and
said that the curfew is hurting them, but I can see that
consumers are irritated. Consider: we are now forcing
people to leave town at night to get goods and services that
they used to find right on their street corners. We now have
to tell a mother who has run out of Pampers or milk at
eleven o’ clock at night that she must go to another city to
get what she needs. But my bigger problem with the
curfew is its philosophical implications. Imposing a curfew
means that we, as a city, are surrendering to crime. Instead
of taking the fight to the criminals, we are shutting down
our city blocks and giving up. It’s up to the police to be out
here on the streets, making our neighborhoods safe.

Ms. Holloway ran on Bret Schundler's ticket in his last victory. She's not a philosophical ally of Schundler to say the least, but she worked well with him. For Healy to get my vote he'll have to demonstrate a marked independence from the Hudson County Democratic Organization. Otherwise, I have an alternative.
Posted by: Sluggo / 3:03 PM
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