Mayor Gary Minkoff gestures to a roomful of mayors, Highland Park residents, friends

On My Blog

  
  
Sheperd Pie – vegan version

Elsewhere in the Blogosphere

• Jewaicious – Film Review: A Dangerous Method
• Ilana-Davita has tips for learning a language on one’s own
• Batya posted a Caption This – care to participate?
• I neglected to post the Tevet Kosher Cooking Carnival earlier, so this week she gets two links.
• Emily has a post in which a cute boy pulls paper out of a hat, and she also shares information about Pinterest.
• Mrs. S. shares bar-mitzvah treats in the form of a menu and a dessert recipe.
• Case Study: Suggestions for a Website Strategy received a lot of good suggestions via comments for a small business owner in the UK.
• In Highland Park news, the Environmental Resource Inventory is available for public comment (and judging from Allan’s description, this was a fair amount of work on his part – thanks, Allan)

Coming Soon: Interview with an artist who illustrates ketubot (Jewish marriage contracts), draws comics, paints figures and is working on a graphic novel on new immigrants to Israel.

Gary Minkoff is Affirmed as the new Mayor of Highland Park

Elsie Foster-Dublin, Councilperson and Steve Nolan, former Mayor

“I promise I will have everyone out of here by Friday.”

Thus began Gary as he gave an (acceptance?) speech on Tuesday night. And thus I will state that I can’t repeat everything everyone said that night, but I want to summarize a few of the annual reports. Another point about Gary (you can find him selling cheesecake on this post – he is multi-talented; and marching in the Memorial Day Parade here) is he likes to tell jokes, to be personable, to make people feel comfortable. It should be interesting having him as our mayor.

A few highlights of the Annual Reports

Each councilperson talked about their areas, and I will state briefly some highlights.
Padriac Millet: Padriac talked about Raritan Avenue area improvements, such as rain gardens (? not sure what they are but we will find out) and living room areas (glass tiles, benches, lampposts, streetscape) and 75 new trees. There were also new regulations such as curb rules that caused delays in construction.
Elsie Foster-Dublin: After twelve years there is finally a traffic light at the corner of Duclos Lane. The Senior Center has some great programs, including Chinese. Because of budget cuts, Sunday hours have been eliminated at the Senior Center. The library has shown an increase in programs and may be receiving new fiber optic connection (I remember how slow my connection became as I gave my recent talk about Facebook).
Jon Erickson: Jon oversees the Highland Park Environmental Commission, Shade Tree Committee and Public Works. Highland Park now recycles once per week, and from this, the borough earns $35 per week (did I get that right? That doesn’t sound like a lot). One can now recycle pizza boxes and rigid plastics like laundry baskets. He also mentioned some Meadows trails repairs.
Gayle Britt Mittler: Gayle talked about all the wonderful volunteers she has on her committees, like the Health and Welfare and the Board of Health. An anti-fracking resolution was passed by the Board of Health. The Human Relations Commission and the Food Pantry were also active; the Food Pantry may soon be able to stock meat in addition to the current soups and vegetables.

A bit of Gary’s remarks

Gary Minkoff talked about how Highland Park, Michigan had to remove street lights because of budget cuts, but Highland Park, New Jersey has managed financially, with budget cuts, even in these difficult economic times. Gary made it clear that he is a product of the public schools, and he supports the public schools. He also thanked the first responders (police, fire, first aid squad), mentioned a possible business breakfast and teen advisory council, and he said, we need focus. We can’t do anything without focus.

And with that, class is dismissed from reading this long post.

There is a dog park (a large caged in area) for little dogs and one for big dogs. There were a lot more big dogs. They romp around and play games with each other. My daughter was following the interactions carefully.

I enjoyed the oranges, reds, yellows of the sunset. The steeple you see is across the Raritan River in New Brunswick.

Good night!

For more photos Straight Out Of the Camera:

Judaica Gallery, broken window - photo taken December 1, 2011

It did have a healing effect, the Borough Council meeting, at least I thought so. Elsie-Foster Dublin, councilwoman, led the meeting, and at one point she talked about how when the African American community had problems, Rabbi Malomet had sent her a helpful email. Now, when the Jewish community was upset by an incident, Rabbi Malomet again sent her a calming email. Several Jewish community members, including Rabbi Luban and Rabbi Kaufman, expressed their thanks to the police department for their swift action. And the police commissioner (who was thrilled with all the praise) was sure to point out that Rabbi Kaminetsky had come by the police department that day to find out how the police were doing (I think he operates as a chaplain for the police). And the meeting wasn’t just about the broken glass incident – one person who lives near Raritan Avenue has a terrible problem with noise and someone else has problems with broken sidewalks. The usual small town fare.

There was someone sitting next to me who appeared to be a journalist, as he was taking copious notes. I didn’t take any – my purpose in writing this post is just to say thank you to those who make this a nice community.

• • •

See photos of sunset at Donaldson Park and the dog park. I did update with a few more details the post on the night of broken glass in Highland Park (and in New Brunswick).

Photo by Mason Resnick: Smashed window of Park Place in Highland Park, New Jersey

I will be visiting the Judaica Gallery today because I need to make a purchase for my daughter – at least those of us that are local can support the businesses that were targeted. Rutgers Hillel and Chabad in New Brunswick also were targeted with smashed glass, as well as the restaurant Maoz. The Highland Park businesses were Jerusalem Pizza, Park Place, Judaica Gallery, Trio Gifts and Jack’s Hardware. Maybe I should go buy some light bulbs at Jack’s.

A big thank you to the Highland Park police for their quick and decisive action regarding this crime.

Update: A Letter from Mayor Steve Nolan (it ends with: “As a community, we are much stronger than a pane of glass could ever be.” – bravo)

Update: An excerpt from a letter from Rutgers Hillel director Andrew Getrauer:

Wednesday morning at 2 AM a Jewish Rutgers student, very
involved in Hillel, was at the kosher Dunkin’ Donuts in Highland Park,
when a man approached him and started a conversation about Jewish
issues. He identified himself as Jewish. This deteriorated into a rant
where the man also declared himself a neo-Nazi and told the student he
should be in a camp and killed like his ancestors, and that he would
start a ‘second Kristalnacht.’ At this point the Dunkin Donuts staff
threw the man out of the store.

Wednesday morning Highland Park woke up to find 5 Jewish-owned
stores with windows broken; 2 Judaica stores, 2 kosher restaurants, and
a hardware store owned by an Orthodox man. A Jewish-owned falafel
restaurant in New Brunswick was also targeted. Hillel staff contacted
the student who had encountered the man at Dunkin Donuts and made sure
he was in touch with police. Hillel staff contacted the ADL and New
Brunswick police to help connect the dots between the various incidents.
There was wide spread anxiety throughout the local community, expressed
thru constant phone calls, emails, Facebook and twitter messages. To
give you a sense of the feeling at the time, people were calling it
“Kristalnacht in New Jersey.”

More details were reported in the Star Ledger, New Jersey Jewish News and other press.

My daughter and I enjoyed roaming Raritan Avenue and taking in all the many booths. As you can see from her pink sweater, it wasn’t exactly summer weather.

The highlight of my summer thus far is the nest of robins growing on our front porch. Here’s a shot of a baby from last week. This week the robins already have many feathers and don’t seem as scared as they did earlier.

What’s summer mean to you? Visit more Summer Stock photos:

Every week of the summer on Fridays there is a Highland Park Farmer’s Market. I often go to the organic stand first, and for the past few weeks I’ve been looking at the mizuna. This Friday I finally bought some, and I sauteed it in olive oil and a bit of sea salt. It was very tasty; however, I only washed it twice under the faucet. I should have let it soak – it was a bit gritty, the way leeks sometimes are. Now I know for next time.

For more Summer Stock photos:

For more Straight Out of the Camera:

Roof of house and second floor, too

As you, the readers of this blog, are my cheering squad, I decided I would share with you this one black and white frame of a roof.

Blues Brothers - Soul Man Performance at NJDS Recital

On My Blog

Kosher Cooking Carnival: During the Omer Edition

Elsewhere in the Blogosphere

• Mrs. S. wrote a touching post about her grandmother, a”h.
• Lady Light shared some difficulties in her life regarding her daughter. Sometimes one blogs about pain, but it doesn’t necessarily feel much better having blogged.
• Ilana-Davita wrote about her new cookbook, Super Natural Every Day.
• Rayna Eliana remembers her father, saying “May you be with mommy, dancing the fox trot to the “Big Bands” music on the boardwalks at Jones Beach and Coney Island.”
• On Websites for Small Biz, I talked about ways to Display Information without Being Overly Geeky.

One more Blues Brothers tap shoeing girls photo:

Anyone able to identify these large leafy plants growing on the path?

I spotted a robin! There’s something green in the robin’s mouth: a worm, catepillar or a leaf?

For more Nature Notes, visit: