FA2 Bergenline Avenue 1.0.0

Bergenline Avenue! 

There's a name I know all too well! It's the main shopping street in north Essex County...jammed with traffic and a heavy Latino population, which makes it highly energetic. The newspaper I worked at, The Hudson Disgrace, was on 39th Street, between Bergenline and Park Avenues. The paper is gone. The two buildings it inhabited are still there, now office space. All four-story buildings, with the first floor shops and muchos hornos music, the top three mostly residential, but some were and are office space: dentists, doctors, a variety of lawyers in different specialties, and so on.

39th Street also had the Columbus Democratic Club, the last stand of Italian power in Union City, NJ, where aging longshoremen sipped beer and played pool. As it was a "club," they avoided a lot of liquor license laws.

The weirdest thing on Bergenline Avenue was a strange man who walked up and down it all day and night long, not talking to anybody. We found out that he and his identical twin brother were both Union City cops, and the strange man had witnessed his twin shoot himself with his service weapon.

One would expect that street to be a little more seedy, but the omnipresent Catholic Church prevented that. On the other hand, Union City and neighboring North Bergen were a nightmare of corruption. Union City Mayor Billy Musto was sentenced to prison in 1982 for helping mobsters and contractors pocket public money designated for schools. When he emerged from prison, our reporter was on the scene. Musto stepped into a family car to go home. Our reporter was a sharp guy and noted that ex-cons had to go home via public transportation. Musto lost some early release time and went back to the can.

Some similar folks, people I knew, included:

Robert Janiszewski, former Hudson County executive: "Bobby J" pleaded guilty in 2002 to taking more than $100,000 in bribes. He was the highest-ranking elected official in state history ever to work undercover for the FBI.

 

 

David Friedland, former assemblyman and state senator: Friedland was convicted on racketeering charges in 1980, faked his death while awaiting sentencing and then fled the country. He was captured in the Maldives in 1987.

 

 

Paul Byrne, admitted bagman for Janiszewski: Already blind from diabetes, Byrne suffered congestive heart failure and a stroke on March 31, 2005, less than a week before he was to be sentenced on charges that he took bribes for his best friend, Janiszewski.

Joe Barry, real estate mogul: Barry paid illegal kickbacks to Janiszewski. On the other hand, when I did a $75 article for his little weekly paper real early in my journalism career, he tried to stiff me with a $70 check, his standard low-ball practice. He would intimidate most victims of that scam by yelling at them: "Hey, you'll make back the $5 when you're working at the New York Times a decade from now!" That did not impress struggling young reporters like me, who needed every penny. In my case, I had a slip of paper with his hand-scribbled "$75" on it and I handed that to his assistant. She went downstairs, came back up, gave me $5 out of her wallet...and they never asked me to do another assignment. Fine by me.

 

 

Anthony Russo, former Hoboken mayor. Russo admitted to taking thousands of dollars in bribes from city contractors between 1994 and 2001.

Peter Cammarano, former mayor of Hoboken. He pleaded guilty in federal court to taking $25,000 in bribes as part of the 2009 Bid Rig III sting. His term of office was a whopping two weeks. The FBI had been watching him all through his campaign. They hauled him out of his office. I don't know if he ever printed his business cards. "The complete papers of the Cammarano Mayoralty" are a file folder with two pages in it.

Dennis Elwell, former mayor of Secaucus. Elwell collected $10,000 in bribes as part of Bid Rig III sting.

Edward Cheatam, former Jersey City Housing Authority director: Cheatam pleaded guilty to extortion conspiracy as part of Bid Rig III sting.

My kind of leadership! 

 

Brilliant, just brilliant! It's incredible seeing so many FA buildings.

Three-storey or four-storey buildings next?

MOAR!

Ill keep mine short and simple. Thank you! 

Amazingly amazing! 

Please make more of these! They really make a city pop and add tons of realism!

thank you for continuing to create FA buildings   l like the texture and style of these buildings

Nice gridbreaking stuff! Thanks for making and sharing it!

- Tyberius

These are really fantastic!  And sorely needed. FA3 next?  Taller buildings?  I agree with the British Sausage - send MOAR!