By David Cruz
Correspondent
Driving in Jersey city can be hazardous to the health of your car and while you could blame city government and its sometimes quizzical paving schedule for some of that, Mayor Steve Fulop says the biggest culprit is the energy utility, PSE&G. “PSE&G wouldn’t do this in Short Hills; they wouldn’t do this in Chatham, New Jersey,’ said Fulop. “They do this instead in Newark, Paterson, East Orange and Jersey City and until we have some standards, we’re not gonna let it proceed further.”
What the mayor’s talking about is this, haphazard street repaving after utility work. Couple that with the already pockmarked roads and it leaves some city streets almost impassable. The solution, says the mayor, is a stop work order on all the utility’s non-essential projects, seven in all, at the moment.
“PSE&G has shown utter disregard to urban areas,” he added. “You can see here what they’ve done and what they deem acceptable.”
But the problem is not only downtown. There’s a trench down the middle of Linden Avenue, on the city’s west side. The result of another PSE&G project.
“It’s absolutely horrible. The street was torn up and it was filled in haphazardly,” said Councilman Frank Gajewski, who represents Ward A on the city’s west side. “And it’s common all over the place and, as was mentioned before, it’s something that’s ongoing over the years, and nobody’s really been held responsible over the years.”
The city council passed an ordinance in January that was supposed to hold PSE&G accountable for cleaning up after themselves, but it hasn’t done the trick. A spokesperson for PSE&G says the utility’s aware of the Mayor’s concerns.
“We are reviewing all work and will complete repairs according to our road restoration plan that has been approved by the city,” said a statement from the utility. “In restoring roads, we follow the ordinance in effect in each municipality.”
Fulop says the city spent $1.7 million on paving projects last year, that’s taxpayer money, he says, work undone when the utility then tears up the street and leaves a rutted thoroughfare in its wake. County officials were on hand at the press conference today, threatening a similar stop work order for roads under their jurisdiction.
“PSE&G is making a lot of money off all the new customers they’re getting in this city and they need to start to treat us [better],” said Freeholder Bill O’Dea. “This wouldn’t be tolerated anywhere else and I’m glad that, while it seems to be a drastic step, it’s a step that we need to take to get PSE&G’s attention and I hope that they listen quickly and take the appropriate action.”
The mayor’s made a habit of taking on big corporations — including the Port Authority, NJ Transit and chemical giant PPG — with heretofore mixed results. It’s good optics, at least, for a man who may be plotting a run for governor, even if, on the substance, it hasn’t actually amounted to much, yet.