The country's mayors arrive in Trenton
Thursday's Trentonian will include an editorial on the arrival of 38 mayors from across the country for a two-day meeting in Trenton of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, led by Trenton Mayor Doug Palmer.
It’s tempting to join Palmer’s critics at this high-profile time and say, how can the mayor of a city with so many problems, and so little going for it after more than a decade of his leadership, be held up as a leader among city leaders from across the country?
The instinct of Palmer, his staff and his supporters, on the other hand, is to put some lipstick on this pig and try to highlight our small city’s good parts before we shuttle these bigwigs back out of town on Friday. Take them to a Trenton Thunder game, show off a nice restaurant or two, talk about the Broad Street Bank building, maybe. (OK, we’re grasping here.)
Oh, and enact some swift, meaningful changes to make Trenton look better, like requiring taxi drivers to wear collar shirts and maybe some deodorant ... at least for a few days.
The editorial goes on to suggest that instead of pretending Trenton is something that it's not, or blasting Palmer again, we should urge the mayor to put his colleagues from across the country on a bus, take them around our city, and ask THEM for advice on how they would tackle our problems and opportunities.
It’s tempting to join Palmer’s critics at this high-profile time and say, how can the mayor of a city with so many problems, and so little going for it after more than a decade of his leadership, be held up as a leader among city leaders from across the country?
The instinct of Palmer, his staff and his supporters, on the other hand, is to put some lipstick on this pig and try to highlight our small city’s good parts before we shuttle these bigwigs back out of town on Friday. Take them to a Trenton Thunder game, show off a nice restaurant or two, talk about the Broad Street Bank building, maybe. (OK, we’re grasping here.)
Oh, and enact some swift, meaningful changes to make Trenton look better, like requiring taxi drivers to wear collar shirts and maybe some deodorant ... at least for a few days.
The editorial goes on to suggest that instead of pretending Trenton is something that it's not, or blasting Palmer again, we should urge the mayor to put his colleagues from across the country on a bus, take them around our city, and ask THEM for advice on how they would tackle our problems and opportunities.
Labels: Doug Palmer, U.S. Conference of Mayors
posted by Trentonian Editor at
7:56 PM
4 Comments:
During his 18 years in office the City of Trenton has not improved. There may now be new venues for people to come and enjoy sporting events etc but how has that translated into opportunity for trentons residents. Parking lot attendant jobs? Popcorn hawkers during events? Granted the Trenton School district is particularly adept at preparing students for these types of opportunties. 18 years. 18 wasted years, billions of educational dollars to create a handful of well rounded students every year but also put a Lexus or Infinity in the driveway of those on the district teat. A job mill is all the district is. The Mayor's capacity to select good people has repeatedly been shown in his board selections and his empty promises. My street was safe when Palmer became Mayor. My entire neighborhood is now too dangerous to even consider again. I may be gone from Trenton. But I will forever consider myself a Trentonian and mourn all the opportunities lost over the years. Congratulations to Mayor Palmer and his legacy. Perhaps one day he will receive the ultimate honor of having a gang chapter named after him.
Dan Mileaf
formerly of 581 Second Street from 1983 to 1999
I am sure that the mayors received and eye and ear full of information about how dissatisfied the citizens of Trenton are with him. Yes, he still has his supporters however a large number of residents wish that he would either do his job or leave. Oh, I forgot that he has already left the city and Doug is so busy networking in anticipation of finding another job that he does not give two hoots about Trenton or its residents. A three hundred million dollars ($300,000,000) school district is incapable of providing the city with an efficient school system. Corruption is the rule rather than the exception and the new super is inexperienced and utters the most ridiculous comments in response to tragedies within the educational organization. I guess that is why he was referred to as a buffoon. The Trenton school district is an employment mill for Doug's political cronies, Abbott money is squandered, board members and administrators travel globally and bring nothing back to the district and administrators are inept and incompetent and their travels have done nothing either to enrich their brains. In fact, their dendrites are really getting smaller because they cannot even perform the simple task of scheduling students. Teachers take their paychecks and run and many do not educate the youth. Illegalities are allowed to occur and the guilty go unpunished.
Crime is at an all time high, no one in Trenton is fined for littering, and Palmer allowed gangs to escalate by his denial of their existence years ago when gangs could have been wiped out of the city. Eminent domain is a joke and instead of promoting from within the ranks, Dougie goes to Newark to hire people. A city official went off the chain and threatened to sue a resident for asking questions and Dougie supported the official. What message is he sending to the residents of Trenton.Well the residents are sick and tired of being sick and tired therefore they sent him a message at the Marriott .Citizens of New Jersey are tired of throwing good money at Trenton and having it wasted. It should be only a matter of time before Chris Christie graces Trenton with his presence and he should start at the Trenton Board of Education and then Dougie’s office or vice versa.
Many months ago a department administrator was quickly ushered from City Hall. Supposedly, due to suspicion of malfeasance within their department. After spotty details of the incident were released, Palmer and his Chief of Staff went directly on the offensive in an attempt to manipulate public outrage. His cronied administrative staff, ran like rabbits in an attempt to closet the truth regarding their false accusations against a proven, trusted employee. After a shotgun investigation, she was hurried off, with complete disrespect and no regard. In the attempt to defame her character, she was never to be seen or heard of again, within the Palmer administration. This was surprising. Fact is, Palmer is well aware that his, cronied Trenton School Board members, who exhaust us with their long winded speeches about educational opportunities, used state supported Abbott Funds, as their opportunity to travel the world in search of educational interventions. While the man he made king, James H. Lytle by way of autonomy towards being questioned about the Sherman Ave incident, had more consultants than any other superintendent in the boards history. Consultants being compensated $2,000. per week. With the amount of corruption going on within the City of Trenton's governmental offices, not to mention the Trenton School Board, we can be sure, Mr. Christie's eyes have been wide open.
In response to the last anonymous I feel the same as you do and I think the lady was dismissed to divert attention to the major corruption within city hall and the Trenton board of Education. Most people feel that the school district is corrupt and many of the teachers talk about it behind closed doors particularly those consultants. What does the school district get back from the travel , information? No. Turn-keying through workshops? No absolutely nothing.Doug appoints people who have little or no knowledge nor concern for the student. Most are self serving.
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