The People V. Joe Santiago

The battle over Trenton Police Director Joe "Crime is Down" Santiago has ebbed and flowed over the past several weeks, with emotional arguments to be found on both sides of the issue (though logical ones seem to be a bit more reserved for one view).

To recap...
Those who feel the city's top cop should call the Capital City home say he should because:
a) it's the law,
b) not abiding by the law would set one hell of a double standard for those who abide by the requirement, and even moreso for the folks who have been fired for not adhering to the residency restriction,
and c) because it's the law.

Those who feel it's ok for the city's top law enforcement agent to ignore, um, the law, argue Santiago should be granted a waiver because:
a) the director is afraid of alleged, unconfirmed gang threats left at his home (in Stirling, Morris County) and he'd rather have his family live 50 miles away from where he works and has, um, an entire police force at his disposal to protect them,
b) the director is also afraid of pornography that was sent to his wife's at-work computer, an occurrence which everyone knows would only increase in frequency and severity if he and the fam resided in T-Town,
c) Santiago has already said he'd rather quit than move into a godforsaken hell hole like Trenton (where crime is down though), and if he were to leave, then the city would fall apart, no one else would want his job, and there would be no one around to say "Crime is Down,"
and d) the only people who want to force the director to abide by the law are racist, disgruntled haters, so if those kinds of people want it, well it must be wrong.

Well, gee, looks like the pro-Santiago folks have at least one more "reason" on their side. Guess they win.

Looks like they could too, since a once-unified-against-Mayor Palmer-City Council (a rare bird in these parts) is seemingly starting to crumble under Hizzoner's pressure. (What happened to that 7-0 informal Trentonian poll taken of City Council members regarding their stance on residency?)
Now it seems council is considering an amendment to the residency ordinance to allow for Joe's exceptions. Will it be called the "Santiago Clause?" That sounds nice and festive for this time of year.

But a groundswell seems to be, um, swelling, with city residents exploring the possibility of gathering signatures for a petition aimed at fighting whatever knew law the council crafts for Santiago. Read more about the new effort here http://www.trentonspeaks.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=568 on the Trenton Speaks forum, or make some comments and get the discussion going here. Let us know where you stand on the issue Trenton!

Why is Palmer against police referendum?

You've heard by now that the New Jersey Supreme Court yesterday overturned Mayor Doug Palmer's 2004 attempt to block a referendum that challenged his decision to do away with the city's deputy police chiefs.
The move solidified the power that Trenton's controversial civilian police director has over the department.
Critics of the move used a provision in New Jersey law that allows voters to collect signatures and force a citywide referendum asking that a particular city ordinance be overturned.
Palmer and the city council went to court to block that vote in 2004, and the case culminated yesterday with the Supreme Court restoring sweeping rights for voters to use this referendum process throughout the state.
Why did Palmer spend so much taxpayer money challenging this? Why did he care in the first place if voters had a say?
The best theory we can come up with is that Doug Palmer knows that the civilian police director system in Trenton has fallen out of favor. That may or may not be tied directly to the personality and performance of the person who has the job.
Putting this referendum out to voters could be the first step in a groundswell among the public to going back to the old days of having a traditional police chief.

Hot air on global warming

Mayors from across the country will be in Trenton Friday to address the problem that's most imminently facing our inner-cities.
What's that, you say ... gang violence, drugs, poverty, homelessness, urban decay?
Wrong.
Come on, get with the program.
The biggest concern of the nation's mayors, led by Trenton Mayor Doug Palmer these days, is ... global warming.
That's right. Global warming.
Hey, while Rome is burning, maybe it's good to stop and think about how those flames are affecting incremental temperature change over the next 1,500 years.

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.

Lofton's response

In Tuesday's Trentonian, you'll read about Trenton School Superintendent Rodney Lofton's response to the fiasco that left hundreds of city students corralled into a gym rather than attending classes the first few days of school last week.
We were pretty harsh with our school superintendent-as-a-clown front page, and Lofton - as the school district's top official - deserved it.
But you've got to respect his response to such harsh criticism, and Mayor Doug Palmer's subsequent public flogging of him.
Rather than cry about being picked on unfairly, scream racism, or point the finger at someone else, Lofton's only public statement has been to own up to the problems, apologize to students and parents, work as fast as he can to fix the problem, and pledge to do better in the future.
That was the public response.
Let's hope the behind-the-scenes response is the only thing that's going to make a dent in problems like this in Trenton's schools ... a take-no-prisoners assault on the tenure system and protection of incompetence.
Lofton needs to fire some people ... maybe a lot of people ... and he needs Doug Palmer's support to do it.

Who's running this circus?

Where do we even begin when it comes to the disaster that was the first day of school in Trenton?

Hundreds of students show up for the first day of school, and are corralled into the gym to twiddle their thumbs because ... AGAIN ... the school district was unable to do something as basic as schedule classes for everyone.

And that's after the district spent $500,000 of taxpayer funds to hire an outside firm to handle scheduling.

Apparently, the scheduling of classes ... something that's been done in every school district in the country every year since the beginning of modern public education ... is too complicated for the bozos running the Trenton School District.

And that's why we ran with the front page you saw on today's Trentonian. Hard-hitting? Yes. But also well-deserved.

And if we did anything to help create an environment that led to Mayor Doug Palmer going ballistic and ordering an immediate fix to this problem, that's great.

His outrage today and our front page are an understatement of the anger that this situation ... the latest in a long string of failures by the Trenton School District ... has sparked among parents and taxpayers.

That sparkling new empty building

Doug Palmer is drawing a line in the sand. And the much-heralded $37 million renovation of a downtown high-rise is doing nothing to revitalize Trenton while his pissing match with developers continues.

Palmer claims that the building's developers "want to change the deal" that they made with the city, and he refuses to budge.

The gist of it is that Palmer insists that the developers charge higher rent than they want to. The not-veiled-at-all goal of the mayor is to gentrify downtown.

Not a bad thing in this case, but Trenton's revitalization can't be forced if no one wants to rent at that price.

Downtown Trenton - and who is ultimately responsible for this other than the city's top elected official? - doesn't have a lot going for it right now.

It's a chicken and egg thing. More upscale residential housing will bring money into the area that will feed new retail, restaurants, etc. And having these kinds of businesses open after 6 p.m. and on weekends might attract more higher-income residents.

But the former won't happen overnight without some of the latter.

You've got to start somewhere, and that's why Palmer should compromise on the Broad Street Bank.

Not to mention that a great new building that could be the start of something in the downtown is sitting empty while he squabbles.

Every voter crazy 'bout a sharp-dressed mayor

Well, he can't solve the gang problem, put much of a dent in urban decay or keep the school district from teetering in the brink of a state takeover, but he sure does look fine!

That's right. Trenton Mayor Doug Palmer has made Esquire magazine's list of the nation's best-dressed mayors.

He's pictured above wearing a "two-button wool suit ($1,995) by Dolce & Gabbana; cotton shirt ($490) by Domenico Vacca; and silk tie ($125) by Dunhill."

A typical liberal tax-and-spend non-solution

Maybe you just can't teach an old dog new tricks.

Trenton's school department is so screwed up, so much on the brink of failure, that the state has come out and said it is on the verge of seizing control from city officials, just like it did in Camden.

Parents and the public have lost confidence in the integrity of school administrators in the wake of the Sherman Avenue school report card tampering scandal.

And what is Mayor Doug Palmer's solution?

Extend the school year and the school day.

And of course, you'd have to spend big bucks on more staff, and of course, you'd have to pay the teachers' union through the nose for cutting into their lengthy summer vacation by a few days.

Another tired, unoriginal, tax-and-spend solution that was predictable from a leader of establishment liberal Democrats who know no other solution than to throw money and more government bureaucracy at every problem.

How could keeping students longer in schools that are failing them every day possibly be the anwer to Trenton's problems?

Trenton schools get an 'F'

Despite this morning's headlines about the state possibly taking over control of the Trenton school system, the likelihood of that actually happening, for a variety of reasons, is slim.

But holy crap! It's hard to believe the city would need a wakeup call after the report card-tampering scandal at the Sherman Avenue School earlier this year, but they sure as hell got one yesterday with this announcement.

We are so bad at running our public school system that the state is talking about seizing control away from city leaders.

From Mayor Palmer to the city council to the board of education and on down, we should be ashamed of ourselves.

One would expect these leaders to be tripping over themselves today to do something about this. Instead, silence.

Police fighting police

You'd think that the shooting Sunday afternoon of Mercer County Sheriff's Department officer Joshus Hahn might serve as a wakeup call, or a reminder, that the enemy our police officers should be fighting is "out there," not within the walls of the station.

So it was sad at the very least ... and a frightening statement about how this crap might be putting our public safety at risk ... to see open hostility among officers at the scene Sunday, while the punk suspected of shooting the unarmed Hahn in the chest at close range was still at-large.

The tension within the Trenton Police Department boiled over this past week when critics of Police Director Santiago and Mayor Doug Palmer made public a photo of Capt. Paul Messina, a Santiago ally, sleeping while on duty.

Messina, understandably feeling victimized by critics of the administration but ready to serve his suspension, had to endure chants of "Capt. Sleepy, Capt. Sleepy!" as he worked the crime scene of Hahn's shooting yesterday.

Blame Santiago and Palmer for this situation, as a number of disgruntled cops do, or blame the disgruntled cops for poisoning the atmosphere in the department.

Either way, it's up to the top leaders of the city - Palmer and the council - to do something about Santiago, do something about the disgruntled cops if they are acting inappropriately, or do something about all of them!

Let's get the focus back on crime fighting, instead of infighting.

Jobs leaving Trenton

Mayor Doug Palmer called a press conference yesterday to blast Capital Health System over plans to move its Mercer campus out of the city and into Hopewell Township.

That means 1,500 jobs moving out of Trenton, less accessible health care for some city residents and a sucker punch to efforts at revitalizing the city, Palmer said.

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

We are so sick of this victim mentality coming from Trenton's leaders. Instead of blasting a business or organization for choosing another community over yours, why not put your effort into convincing them that your community would be the better location?

If, as Palmer said, the "move comes just as our city is making significant strides toward revitalization and improved quality of life," then he should be able to sell those qualities to Capital Health System and other employers.

Instead, Doug Palmer's looking for another handout. Locate in Trenton not because we put together the best deal, or will be the best place for your employees. Locate in Trenton because we deserve another welfare check, another subsidy. Locate in Trenton because we'll shame you into it by holding a press conference to say you're discriminating by not "helping us out."

That's not the way this country's most successful mayors have turned things around. They've done it with corporate partnerships that have benefited corporations as much as they have the city. By showing that an investment in urban areas can be BETTER than the suburbs. If city leaders do their part, instead of looking for another handout.

Yet all Palmer can do is call a press conference and blast Capital Health System for "making a business decision," and caring about turning a profit, like those aims are evil.

Hello! That's what businesses are supposed to do. If our mayor doesn't understand that, this city's going nowhere fast. We are doomed.

Doug Palmer, TV star

Agree or disagree with Doug Palmer's record as Trenton mayor or his political agenda, Trentonians couldn't help but be proud earlier this week as he ... and our city ... basked in the national spotlight that comes with being elected president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

Palmer's week in Los Angeles included two major national television appearances, and it was an interesting example of the difference in substance between public television and your typical late-night network fare.

On the Tavis Smiley show Monday night, Palmer appeared with Miami Mayor Manny Diaz and discussed Palmer's 10-point agenda as the new president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. They talked about race, poverty, the environment, the 2008 presidential election and the relationship between the federal government and America's cities.

Tuesday night's appearance on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (you know, the guy with the Scottish accent who comes on after Dave Letterman) couldn't have been more different. The president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors is an atypical guest for this kind of show, which usually focuses on celebrity and pop culture. Palmer's brief appearance consisted of him talking in the most general terms about Trenton (remember, we were key to beating the British in the Revolutionary War, and remember, "Trenton Makes, the World Takes") and the mandatory jokes about New Jersey when Palmer mentioned that "the enviornment" was one of his priorities.

Overall, it was the first of hopefully many opportunities during Palmer's tenure over the next year in which the city of Trenton was portrayed in a positive light in the national media.

Satisfied or not with his job as mayor, it's not some fluke that he rose to the position he found himself in this past week.

Doug Palmer is handling the national spotlight very well, and it's going to do wonders for Trenton's image.

Doug Palmer on national TV Monday night

This just in ...
Trenton Mayor Doug Palmer wil appear Monday night on the Tavis Smiley Show, which airs on PBS. It airs at 11:30 p.m. on WHYY Channel 12 in the Trenton area.
Palmer is in Los Angeles, where he is being sworn in as president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors.
It will be extremly interesting to see how he uses this national platform to help Trenton

Palmer in national spotlight as violence makes news again in Trenton

It was supposed to be Trenton Mayor Doug Palmer's weekend to shine.

But while he was basking in the limelight of being sworn in as president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors and rubbing shoulders in Los Angeles with the likes of presidential hopefuls Hillary Clinton and Bill Richardson, back home some all-too-typical problems were plaguing his city.

Palmer's coronation as a spokesman for the nation's cities would have made front page news in The Trentonian today, but instead the city was hit with its 14th murder. Another possibly gang-related death. This time, in broad daylight.

And more troubling to some, violence was even hitting a Trenton neighborhood that typically is an oasis from the rest of the city's problems. A shooting in the Mill Hill section of the city has merchants on edge.

As he rubs shoulders with some of the most powerful politicians in the country, what does Palmer have to say about the problems back home?

And perhaps more importantly, what can Palmer's newly important status do to help him fix some of those problems?

When's the last time you heard Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Bill Richardson or even Jon Corzine make news calling attention to the plight of small, troubled urban cities such as Trenton or Camden? Or offering some real solutions.

They're in a position to bring the resources of the state and federal governments to Trenton to help.

Maybe Palmer's rise to prominence and all that out-of-town hobnobbing with the rich and powerful can be used to get some help for the city.

The People V. Joe Santiago

The battle over Trenton Police Director Joe "Crime is Down" Santiago has ebbed and flowed over the past several weeks, with emotional arguments to be found on both sides of the issue (though logical ones seem to be a bit more reserved for one view).

To recap...
Those who feel the city's top cop should call the Capital City home say he should because:
a) it's the law,
b) not abiding by the law would set one hell of a double standard for those who abide by the requirement, and even moreso for the folks who have been fired for not adhering to the residency restriction,
and c) because it's the law.

Those who feel it's ok for the city's top law enforcement agent to ignore, um, the law, argue Santiago should be granted a waiver because:
a) the director is afraid of alleged, unconfirmed gang threats left at his home (in Stirling, Morris County) and he'd rather have his family live 50 miles away from where he works and has, um, an entire police force at his disposal to protect them,
b) the director is also afraid of pornography that was sent to his wife's at-work computer, an occurrence which everyone knows would only increase in frequency and severity if he and the fam resided in T-Town,
c) Santiago has already said he'd rather quit than move into a godforsaken hell hole like Trenton (where crime is down though), and if he were to leave, then the city would fall apart, no one else would want his job, and there would be no one around to say "Crime is Down,"
and d) the only people who want to force the director to abide by the law are racist, disgruntled haters, so if those kinds of people want it, well it must be wrong.

Well, gee, looks like the pro-Santiago folks have at least one more "reason" on their side. Guess they win.

Looks like they could too, since a once-unified-against-Mayor Palmer-City Council (a rare bird in these parts) is seemingly starting to crumble under Hizzoner's pressure. (What happened to that 7-0 informal Trentonian poll taken of City Council members regarding their stance on residency?)
Now it seems council is considering an amendment to the residency ordinance to allow for Joe's exceptions. Will it be called the "Santiago Clause?" That sounds nice and festive for this time of year.

But a groundswell seems to be, um, swelling, with city residents exploring the possibility of gathering signatures for a petition aimed at fighting whatever knew law the council crafts for Santiago. Read more about the new effort here http://www.trentonspeaks.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=568 on the Trenton Speaks forum, or make some comments and get the discussion going here. Let us know where you stand on the issue Trenton!

Why is Palmer against police referendum?

You've heard by now that the New Jersey Supreme Court yesterday overturned Mayor Doug Palmer's 2004 attempt to block a referendum that challenged his decision to do away with the city's deputy police chiefs.
The move solidified the power that Trenton's controversial civilian police director has over the department.
Critics of the move used a provision in New Jersey law that allows voters to collect signatures and force a citywide referendum asking that a particular city ordinance be overturned.
Palmer and the city council went to court to block that vote in 2004, and the case culminated yesterday with the Supreme Court restoring sweeping rights for voters to use this referendum process throughout the state.
Why did Palmer spend so much taxpayer money challenging this? Why did he care in the first place if voters had a say?
The best theory we can come up with is that Doug Palmer knows that the civilian police director system in Trenton has fallen out of favor. That may or may not be tied directly to the personality and performance of the person who has the job.
Putting this referendum out to voters could be the first step in a groundswell among the public to going back to the old days of having a traditional police chief.

Hot air on global warming

Mayors from across the country will be in Trenton Friday to address the problem that's most imminently facing our inner-cities.
What's that, you say ... gang violence, drugs, poverty, homelessness, urban decay?
Wrong.
Come on, get with the program.
The biggest concern of the nation's mayors, led by Trenton Mayor Doug Palmer these days, is ... global warming.
That's right. Global warming.
Hey, while Rome is burning, maybe it's good to stop and think about how those flames are affecting incremental temperature change over the next 1,500 years.

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.

Lofton's response

In Tuesday's Trentonian, you'll read about Trenton School Superintendent Rodney Lofton's response to the fiasco that left hundreds of city students corralled into a gym rather than attending classes the first few days of school last week.
We were pretty harsh with our school superintendent-as-a-clown front page, and Lofton - as the school district's top official - deserved it.
But you've got to respect his response to such harsh criticism, and Mayor Doug Palmer's subsequent public flogging of him.
Rather than cry about being picked on unfairly, scream racism, or point the finger at someone else, Lofton's only public statement has been to own up to the problems, apologize to students and parents, work as fast as he can to fix the problem, and pledge to do better in the future.
That was the public response.
Let's hope the behind-the-scenes response is the only thing that's going to make a dent in problems like this in Trenton's schools ... a take-no-prisoners assault on the tenure system and protection of incompetence.
Lofton needs to fire some people ... maybe a lot of people ... and he needs Doug Palmer's support to do it.

Who's running this circus?

Where do we even begin when it comes to the disaster that was the first day of school in Trenton?

Hundreds of students show up for the first day of school, and are corralled into the gym to twiddle their thumbs because ... AGAIN ... the school district was unable to do something as basic as schedule classes for everyone.

And that's after the district spent $500,000 of taxpayer funds to hire an outside firm to handle scheduling.

Apparently, the scheduling of classes ... something that's been done in every school district in the country every year since the beginning of modern public education ... is too complicated for the bozos running the Trenton School District.

And that's why we ran with the front page you saw on today's Trentonian. Hard-hitting? Yes. But also well-deserved.

And if we did anything to help create an environment that led to Mayor Doug Palmer going ballistic and ordering an immediate fix to this problem, that's great.

His outrage today and our front page are an understatement of the anger that this situation ... the latest in a long string of failures by the Trenton School District ... has sparked among parents and taxpayers.

That sparkling new empty building

Doug Palmer is drawing a line in the sand. And the much-heralded $37 million renovation of a downtown high-rise is doing nothing to revitalize Trenton while his pissing match with developers continues.

Palmer claims that the building's developers "want to change the deal" that they made with the city, and he refuses to budge.

The gist of it is that Palmer insists that the developers charge higher rent than they want to. The not-veiled-at-all goal of the mayor is to gentrify downtown.

Not a bad thing in this case, but Trenton's revitalization can't be forced if no one wants to rent at that price.

Downtown Trenton - and who is ultimately responsible for this other than the city's top elected official? - doesn't have a lot going for it right now.

It's a chicken and egg thing. More upscale residential housing will bring money into the area that will feed new retail, restaurants, etc. And having these kinds of businesses open after 6 p.m. and on weekends might attract more higher-income residents.

But the former won't happen overnight without some of the latter.

You've got to start somewhere, and that's why Palmer should compromise on the Broad Street Bank.

Not to mention that a great new building that could be the start of something in the downtown is sitting empty while he squabbles.

Every voter crazy 'bout a sharp-dressed mayor

Well, he can't solve the gang problem, put much of a dent in urban decay or keep the school district from teetering in the brink of a state takeover, but he sure does look fine!

That's right. Trenton Mayor Doug Palmer has made Esquire magazine's list of the nation's best-dressed mayors.

He's pictured above wearing a "two-button wool suit ($1,995) by Dolce & Gabbana; cotton shirt ($490) by Domenico Vacca; and silk tie ($125) by Dunhill."

A typical liberal tax-and-spend non-solution

Maybe you just can't teach an old dog new tricks.

Trenton's school department is so screwed up, so much on the brink of failure, that the state has come out and said it is on the verge of seizing control from city officials, just like it did in Camden.

Parents and the public have lost confidence in the integrity of school administrators in the wake of the Sherman Avenue school report card tampering scandal.

And what is Mayor Doug Palmer's solution?

Extend the school year and the school day.

And of course, you'd have to spend big bucks on more staff, and of course, you'd have to pay the teachers' union through the nose for cutting into their lengthy summer vacation by a few days.

Another tired, unoriginal, tax-and-spend solution that was predictable from a leader of establishment liberal Democrats who know no other solution than to throw money and more government bureaucracy at every problem.

How could keeping students longer in schools that are failing them every day possibly be the anwer to Trenton's problems?

Trenton schools get an 'F'

Despite this morning's headlines about the state possibly taking over control of the Trenton school system, the likelihood of that actually happening, for a variety of reasons, is slim.

But holy crap! It's hard to believe the city would need a wakeup call after the report card-tampering scandal at the Sherman Avenue School earlier this year, but they sure as hell got one yesterday with this announcement.

We are so bad at running our public school system that the state is talking about seizing control away from city leaders.

From Mayor Palmer to the city council to the board of education and on down, we should be ashamed of ourselves.

One would expect these leaders to be tripping over themselves today to do something about this. Instead, silence.

Police fighting police

You'd think that the shooting Sunday afternoon of Mercer County Sheriff's Department officer Joshus Hahn might serve as a wakeup call, or a reminder, that the enemy our police officers should be fighting is "out there," not within the walls of the station.

So it was sad at the very least ... and a frightening statement about how this crap might be putting our public safety at risk ... to see open hostility among officers at the scene Sunday, while the punk suspected of shooting the unarmed Hahn in the chest at close range was still at-large.

The tension within the Trenton Police Department boiled over this past week when critics of Police Director Santiago and Mayor Doug Palmer made public a photo of Capt. Paul Messina, a Santiago ally, sleeping while on duty.

Messina, understandably feeling victimized by critics of the administration but ready to serve his suspension, had to endure chants of "Capt. Sleepy, Capt. Sleepy!" as he worked the crime scene of Hahn's shooting yesterday.

Blame Santiago and Palmer for this situation, as a number of disgruntled cops do, or blame the disgruntled cops for poisoning the atmosphere in the department.

Either way, it's up to the top leaders of the city - Palmer and the council - to do something about Santiago, do something about the disgruntled cops if they are acting inappropriately, or do something about all of them!

Let's get the focus back on crime fighting, instead of infighting.

Jobs leaving Trenton

Mayor Doug Palmer called a press conference yesterday to blast Capital Health System over plans to move its Mercer campus out of the city and into Hopewell Township.

That means 1,500 jobs moving out of Trenton, less accessible health care for some city residents and a sucker punch to efforts at revitalizing the city, Palmer said.

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

We are so sick of this victim mentality coming from Trenton's leaders. Instead of blasting a business or organization for choosing another community over yours, why not put your effort into convincing them that your community would be the better location?

If, as Palmer said, the "move comes just as our city is making significant strides toward revitalization and improved quality of life," then he should be able to sell those qualities to Capital Health System and other employers.

Instead, Doug Palmer's looking for another handout. Locate in Trenton not because we put together the best deal, or will be the best place for your employees. Locate in Trenton because we deserve another welfare check, another subsidy. Locate in Trenton because we'll shame you into it by holding a press conference to say you're discriminating by not "helping us out."

That's not the way this country's most successful mayors have turned things around. They've done it with corporate partnerships that have benefited corporations as much as they have the city. By showing that an investment in urban areas can be BETTER than the suburbs. If city leaders do their part, instead of looking for another handout.

Yet all Palmer can do is call a press conference and blast Capital Health System for "making a business decision," and caring about turning a profit, like those aims are evil.

Hello! That's what businesses are supposed to do. If our mayor doesn't understand that, this city's going nowhere fast. We are doomed.

Doug Palmer, TV star

Agree or disagree with Doug Palmer's record as Trenton mayor or his political agenda, Trentonians couldn't help but be proud earlier this week as he ... and our city ... basked in the national spotlight that comes with being elected president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

Palmer's week in Los Angeles included two major national television appearances, and it was an interesting example of the difference in substance between public television and your typical late-night network fare.

On the Tavis Smiley show Monday night, Palmer appeared with Miami Mayor Manny Diaz and discussed Palmer's 10-point agenda as the new president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. They talked about race, poverty, the environment, the 2008 presidential election and the relationship between the federal government and America's cities.

Tuesday night's appearance on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (you know, the guy with the Scottish accent who comes on after Dave Letterman) couldn't have been more different. The president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors is an atypical guest for this kind of show, which usually focuses on celebrity and pop culture. Palmer's brief appearance consisted of him talking in the most general terms about Trenton (remember, we were key to beating the British in the Revolutionary War, and remember, "Trenton Makes, the World Takes") and the mandatory jokes about New Jersey when Palmer mentioned that "the enviornment" was one of his priorities.

Overall, it was the first of hopefully many opportunities during Palmer's tenure over the next year in which the city of Trenton was portrayed in a positive light in the national media.

Satisfied or not with his job as mayor, it's not some fluke that he rose to the position he found himself in this past week.

Doug Palmer is handling the national spotlight very well, and it's going to do wonders for Trenton's image.

Doug Palmer on national TV Monday night

This just in ...
Trenton Mayor Doug Palmer wil appear Monday night on the Tavis Smiley Show, which airs on PBS. It airs at 11:30 p.m. on WHYY Channel 12 in the Trenton area.
Palmer is in Los Angeles, where he is being sworn in as president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors.
It will be extremly interesting to see how he uses this national platform to help Trenton

Palmer in national spotlight as violence makes news again in Trenton

It was supposed to be Trenton Mayor Doug Palmer's weekend to shine.

But while he was basking in the limelight of being sworn in as president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors and rubbing shoulders in Los Angeles with the likes of presidential hopefuls Hillary Clinton and Bill Richardson, back home some all-too-typical problems were plaguing his city.

Palmer's coronation as a spokesman for the nation's cities would have made front page news in The Trentonian today, but instead the city was hit with its 14th murder. Another possibly gang-related death. This time, in broad daylight.

And more troubling to some, violence was even hitting a Trenton neighborhood that typically is an oasis from the rest of the city's problems. A shooting in the Mill Hill section of the city has merchants on edge.

As he rubs shoulders with some of the most powerful politicians in the country, what does Palmer have to say about the problems back home?

And perhaps more importantly, what can Palmer's newly important status do to help him fix some of those problems?

When's the last time you heard Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Bill Richardson or even Jon Corzine make news calling attention to the plight of small, troubled urban cities such as Trenton or Camden? Or offering some real solutions.

They're in a position to bring the resources of the state and federal governments to Trenton to help.

Maybe Palmer's rise to prominence and all that out-of-town hobnobbing with the rich and powerful can be used to get some help for the city.