2008 Woodie Awards
Urban City Mayors Gather for Distinguished Lecturer Series
Michelle DeMartino
Issue date: 3/31/08 Section: News
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The crowd, including Arnold Speert, president of William Paterson University, participated in a recent taping of "One on One With Steve Adubato: The Future of the American City" as part of William Paterson University's Distinguished Lecturer Series within the Shea Center of Performing Arts.
Surrounded by cameramen, Mayors Jeremiah Healy of Jersey City, Douglass Palmer of Trenton, and Joseph Torres of Paterson, sat stage center with Adubato as preparation for the taping began.
"OK, a couple of more seconds, folks," said Adubato, as he relayed information from his earpiece to the audience.
A woman, carrying a foundation compact, entered from stage left to apply last second touch-ups.
"She just used the same one on all of us," said Healy, as laughter erupted.
"Has it been entertaining so far?" said Palmer, president of the U. S. Conference of Mayors, the official nonpartisan organization of cities with populations of 30,000 or more.
Adubato presses his fingers to his left ear.
"OK, now we're ready," said Adubato, who then pointed to Speert. "Arnie - you ready?"
With the crowd compliant to the applause signal, the show began taping. Standard introductions were followed by Adubato's questions, with crime as the first major topic.
"Crime is something that is on the minds of every mayor," said Palmer, Trenton's mayor since 1990. "We have reduced our crime in record numbers."
However, there is still a battle with surrounding states' law, said Palmer. Pennsylvania permits the purchasing of rifles, shotguns, and handguns without permits, registrations, or licenses as long as the weapon has a locking device, according to the National Rifle Association's Institute for Legislative Action.
"Pennsylvania has liberal gun laws," said Palmer. "Prevalence of illegal hand guns is being driven by some of the laws."
With Trenton still at battle, Jersey City adopted a new plan of attack.
"We have a Gang Squad in Jersey City," said Healy, mayor of that city since 2004. "We're the first ever to do this."
A Gang Squad refers to synergetic efforts of Jersey City officials, the National Gang Targeting Enforcement and Coordination Center (GangTECC), and the National Gang Intelligence Center (NGIC). Their goal is to gather lists of gang-bound juveniles by assessing their criminal records against related statistics. This is one effort in the right direction until the NRA stops preventing laws to be enforced, said Healy.
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