LMAO. Is Bill Calabrese Really Trying to Become Relevant by Protesting "Over-development". Please Tell Us It's a Bad Joke.

Has Bill Calabrese really written an endorsement letter for a new Village President candidate claiming he's concerned about "over-development" and asserting the "proliferation of 'multi-family for rent' units must stop"?  Did he really write "we fought for 16 years to save our Village"?

This is coming from the same guy who relentlessly pushed for classifying our entire downtown "an area in need of redevelopment" under NJ statutes.  This is the same guy who then spent $100K of the Village's money defending a lawsuit by a handful of perturbed property owners, who ironically now are endorsing the same candidate.  (Politics does indeed make strange bedfellows.)

This is coming from the same guy who aggressively pushed for the development of the largest increase in rental units in our downtown since World War II, including:

- Gaslight Commons on Third Street - approved with zoning variances & PILOT

- Chuch Street apartment buildings on both sides - approved with zoning variances

- The Avenue on Vose - approved with zoning variances & PILOT

- The Gateway (f/k/a the Beifus site) on W. South Orange Avenue - approved with zoning variances & PILOT

- 3rd & Valley Street, when he pushed for the condemnation and purchase of two commercial sites on Valley Street, and named Millenium Properties the redeveloper for the entire site -- before trying to name it the redeveloper for 14 acres extending from First Street to the Maplewood border

One has to feel sorry for a candidate who accepted his absurd endorsement, presumably without appreciating its ridiculous irony and taint.  Who knows?  Maybe because she moved to the Village right before he was drummed out of office, she was unaware of his tortured track record saving our Village.

Calabrese sent out a letter two years ago endorsing the slate for three trustee positions, which lost. My recollection is that in the letter he criticized the high taxes in South Orange. The link below  shows what the taxes were under "Diamond" Bill, who is responsible in large part for the high taxes that we are paying today, and which succeeding administrations have had to undue the damage done by Calabrese. The chart below shows what the tax increases were from 2000 - 2014. Calabrese was in office for the years 2000- 2008. The graph only goes back to 2000, but Calabrese was in office years before 2000. Although a new administration was elected in 2008, and passed the 2008 budget, they were dealing with a budget that was introduced by the Calabrese administration. 

http://www.southorange2015.com/taxes  

eta - I've often thought that the new budget caps were directly aimed at the spending policies of Calabrese. 

Does anyone know how to spell d-e-l-u-s-i-o-n-a-l?

truth said:

I wold not hold it against Candidate Hynes.

Here is the thing .. I do hold it against her. She could have asked him not to endorse her or write the letter and she did not.  She could not have associated herself with him and she choose to.  

The truly ironic thing is that none of this new development is bad for our town. Quite the contrary, it should be celebrated. And if Calabrese is partly responsible, he should be taking credit. Bizarro-world. 

An endorsement by Calabrese is a kiss of death,.