Local Man Doesn't Give A Flying Duck
Plus local elections, cliff drama, mail theft ring busted, and more!
Hello & Welcome!
Lotta new subscribers, and new info, so before we start, here’s a few deets. We started in April 2024 and were:
The first to write about the hip new cafe in Houdini’s old film lab.
The only ones to cover the hydrangea thieves who terrorized our gardens last year.
The only publication to investigate the Edgewater parrots moving south, the young’uns moshing in a Mediterranean restaurant, the Hudson River rascals, and much more.
But seriously, we also curate a lot of local NoHu news you can’t get anywhere else, and link through to resources. e.g. the upcoming municipal elections. More on that below.
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Weehawken Police Bust Multi-State Mail Theft Ring
Since January, local police had been tracking a spate of mail thefts in the area. Then, one night in March, Weehawken Police Officer Joseph Caputi took notice of a double-parked Honda on Shippen Street and Hudson Avenue, and a man in dark clothing dashing away from a mailbox, according to the Weehawken Police Department.
This led to them finding stolen checks and mail, and devices used to fish envelopes out of USPS mailboxes. Police say they found the suspects in possession of mail from NY, PA and NJ. When they came to pick up their impounded car, they were arrested.
And although mail was found from Weehawken, Union City, Secaucus, North Bergen and Jersey City, the two suspects, a young woman and her boyfriend, are from Yonkers and the Bronx, if it matters, which it totally does — to us at least.
Detectives are still seeking information about the scheme, and there’s a lot more to it, so head to Patch for the whole story including, yes, mug shots of the suspects.
The whole story: patch.com/new-jersey/hoboken/hudson-county-pair-charged-mail-thefts
🗳️ Weehawken Election May 12: Early Voting Has Begun & Some People Have No Idea What Is Happening
Election Day in Weehawken is Tuesday, May 12 with polls open 6A to 8P. Early voting started May 4, and goes through the 10th.
So many people have no idea there’s a municipal election, or who is running. This is not their fault. Other than what we shared last issue, and this post on Hudson TV News, there has been no news. Seriously, it’s shocking. Even Bayonne elections are written about in a few online news sources, but not Weehawken.
Wee Are A Wee Bit Confused
The other day I texted with a young professional who recently moved to Weehawken and she said she didn’t know what ward she lived in. I also talked to a group seniors who were long-time Weehawken residents, and they also didn’t know what ward they lived in.
We did a poll on Instagram. Not scientific, but results bore out our suspicions.
😧 From our poll, 49% of people don’t know what ward they are in, or aren’t sure.
👉 And 65% of people thought there are more than three wards, but the correct answer is there are only 3 three wards in Weehawken. They are as follows:
Facts About This Municipal Election
In this election there are five Township Council seats to fill.
Each is for a 4-year term.
You vote for 1 Councilperson in your ward, and for two At-Large Councilpersons.
There will be a total of 5 people chosen.
There are non-partisan elections, meaning the fact that people are on different lines, doesn’t mean they are in different political parties.
The only ward that has a challenger candidate on the ballot (meaning a choice to be made) is in Ward 2. There hasn’t been a challenger candidate on the ballot in over a decade. Here’s a better view of Ward 2 with the different districts highlighted:
The two people running for Ward 2 are Tina Iordamlis and Susan Morales-Jennings. All other seats on the ballot are uncontested.
About the Ward 2 Candidates
The biographical info below is taken from their official pages and the links on their names are the fliers that were sent to the Weehawken Gazette to share.
Tina Iordamlis is a lifelong Weehawken resident. She graduated from Fordham University with degrees in Finance and International Finance. She spent 23 years working on Wall Street in risk management, private equity, bonds, and mortgages. For 10 years she worked for the municipality of Montclair as the Finance Manager for the Parking Authority. In January 2020, she opened Bagels On Park, a cafe on Park Avenue in Weehawken.
Susan Morales-Jennings is a lifelong Hudson County resident. She has served on the Weehawken Board of Education, Township Planning Board, and Library Board, and currently serves as a Board Member of the Hudson County Schools of Technology.
👉 Helping to run a township is hard, and anyone who steps up to be a public servant should be applauded. Union City has municipal elections at the same time, but they have 5 seats and 5 candidates, so no choices there. Let’s celebrate having a choice and VOTE. See Weehawken polling places here and the ballot here.
Related: Results of the April 21 Weehawken Board of Education election are here and results on the public question for school funding (it passed with 80% of people saying “Yes”) is here. Interestingly a total of 1,898 cast votes for the slate of BOE candidates (they were all unopposed), but only 771 people voted on the school funding question that was on the same ballot. 🤔
🦆 Out Of Water, Literally
Christian Santiago is a professional documentary photographer/videographer. But on April 23rd, he also became a hero. Here’s why.
Walking home from the store, he came upon a dude on Maple Street in need of help:
The duck is beautiful, but although Santiago is a professional photographer, he didn’t try to capture a perfect shot. “I went into full lifesaver mode and didn’t even think to take some really nice photos of him with my actual camera,” he told us.
Why did he decide to stop and rescue this fowl creature? In his own words:
I found him and just couldn’t leave him there. He was trying to crawl into the street. So I ran home got a bin and a sweater to wrap him and I brought him home. Once in my yard, I named him Rudy The Ruddy Duck. He was super scared and had ‘help me’ eyes.
He needed assistance. According to the Audubon Society, Ruddy ducks are “almost helpless on land due to their legs being positioned far back on their bodies.”
But what do you do when you are in the exurbs and are in possession of a literal duck out of water? Well, Santiago smartly contacted a wildlife photographer friend, Bobby Stormer, who posted on Jersey City Birds Facebook Group. With the social assist of bird advocate Lorraine Freeney, who founded the group during Covid, that is what got Carol McNichol, a freelance do-gooder, to help out and transport Rudy to The Raptor Trust in Millington, NJ. The Raptor Trust is a 40-min drive each way, so this is no small thing.
The happy news? Rudy was examined and later released! Yay!
Let’s support our hometown hero by following Christian on Instagram here and checking out his website here: christiansantiagophotography.com. Oh, and check out the Instagram of his wife, who is a dessert designer and food stylist: see/follow Duchess Delights.
Note: If you love birds, Freeney says they regularly need help with transport. She wrote, “If you have a car and can get to Raptor Trust, great. If not, we also make use of public transport and Uber, and we’ll reimburse expenses. Please get in touch if you might have a couple morning/afternoon hours free now and again.”
Mary Rogers: Unearthing A Grisly Unsolved Hudson County Mystery
The Mystery of Marie Rogêt is a short story by Edgar Allen Poe, later made into a Hollywood movie, and it is considered to be the first murder mystery based on a real crime. Poe’s story takes place in Paris, but the origins are from New York City and NJ, and the still-unsolved 1841 murder of Mary Rogers, a beautiful cigar girl found floating in the Hudson.
Wikipedia will tell you this took place in Hoboken, but the Weehawken Historical Society makes a great case that this incident actually took place in Weehawken. And in 1938, the NY Times wrote that Mary Rogers was last seen in Weehawken on the Lossburg steps, in the company of a man. Was it murder? A botched abortion? When you start digging, there’s a lot more to be found, even tales of Mary haunting people as far away as Paris. Why are we telling you this? Well speaking of digging, the area where the Lossburg steps were is currently being excavated…
The Big Dig Under Troy Towers
On Wednesday, April 29, I was driving to Hoboken and saw the cliff on Hackensack Plank Avenue in Weehawken being excavated by a digger. A guy on the side was spraying liquid — water for dust control? Compaction? Cooling? Weigh in if you know — on the newly-exposed cliff. Ripping out the Palisades for a drug store or condo is something we’ve come to expect in Edgewater, but not here. Whatever was going on, the exposed area revealed some historic wagon elevator tracks. We wrote about and shared a pic of this ye olde wagon elevator here in May 2024.
Here’s what happened next:
Went to the Weehawken Building Department and they told us it was a 48-unit building that was going in. That’s all we learned.
Made a super quick video along with some visual context. Posted on Instagram and it currently has more than 23,000 views.
Later that day, or the next day, a stop work order was placed on the site, and Township Manager Gio Ahmad said they “issued a stop work order on the project at 19th and Hackensack after observing the extent of the excavation…no further work is permitted until we meet and determine what was and wasn’t authorized.”
On May 5, we heard from a neighbor and a DPW worker that the stop work order was lifted. We have not yet been able to reach the building department to confirm if this is true.
🪨⬇️ Zone?
Beyond worries about overdevelopment, many people have expressed concerns about the potential for rock slides. In 2021, just north of this site, there was a Hurricane Ida-induced mudslide. People were displaced, the road was closed for two weeks, and it caused havoc for people above and below. Story here from the now-dead Jersey Journal: Weehawken’s Hackensack Plank Road slated to reopen after workers clear ‘literally tons of mud.’
Our take: it’s not a good idea to make the Palisades angry, especially when you also might have the ghost of Mary Rogers to contend with. 👻
Classifieds!
This one comes from a neighbor and we can also attest to her being a a lovely, smart, and responsible human. But act fast, because she will surely be snapped up:
Hi! My name is Charlotte and I am an 18-year-old babysitter with CPR and Babysitting certifications from The American Red Cross. I’ve worked with children for the past six years and have gained experience with kids ranging from newborns, to toddlers, to tweens! Whether it’s caring for an infant or keeping an older child engaged and supported, I am confident handling all ages and personalities.
I can drive, and am willing to work almost anywhere in Hudson County! I am also very flexible and can work all summer on weekdays, weekends, evenings and really anytime.
I truly enjoy creating a safe, fun, and positive environment for every child I work with, and I’m excited to help families who need a reliable and caring sitter.
Email Charlotte for more information: charlotteguberman@gmail.com
Until Next Time…
Did you get this far? Well done! Here’s a fun thing, this Thursday yours truly is hosting this fancy benefit at Salesforce Tower in NYC for a charity celebrating its 80th year. Did it last year, and I guess I wasn’t terrible. Huzzah!
Note about the Weehawken election coverage: I am a paying subscriber to NJ.com, northjersey.com and the NY Times. Contacted all three since I hoped they might cover it, just to help spread info, and not have this pub be the only source of info… and only heard back from one reporter at the NY Times who said since it wasn’t national, they didn’t think their editor would go for it. Many smaller outlets have not responded either. Yikes.
Anyway… many thanks to our super secret unpaid copyeditor this week who would like to remain anonymous. Hugo was unavailable this week as he was on a pizza pilgrimage in NYC, but he did take the photo just above.
Feel free to leave a comment here or email us tips: susie@bignoyes.com
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Susie
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