How Pressure Mounted for Development in Hoboken - NYT
HOBOKEN, N.J. — Last May 8, a severe rainstorm left the streets of this city flooded once again, causing the mayor, Dawn Zimmer, to recall the inundation from Hurricane Sandy.
So she dashed off a letter to Gov. Chris Christie, imploring him to help with Hoboken’s “ongoing flooding emergency,” and attached photos of cars in water up to their hoods. She was due to meet the next day with officials of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, when she hoped to talk about protecting Hoboken from the next catastrophic deluge to come.
But according to newly obtained emails sent among the participants, the first topic of discussion on the agenda was “review of concepts for flood control measures at Rockefeller property,” a reference to a billion-dollar office complex proposed at the north end of town. The developer, the Rockefeller Group, which had long been trying to gain approval from local officials, sent two executives, two lobbyists and an engineer to the meeting.
The next day, the mayor has said, she received a call telling her that Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno would visit Hoboken the following Monday. Ms. Zimmer, a Democrat, has alleged that during that visit, while in the parking lot of a Shop-Rite supermarket, Ms. Guadagno, like the governor a Republican, told her that the Rockefeller project was important to Mr. Christie and that the mayor needed to “move forward” with it if she wanted Hoboken to receive the flood protection money being distributed in the wake of the hurricane.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/30/nyregion/powerful-allies-pushed-a-project-in-new-jersey.html?smid=tw-share&_r=0
= new reply since forum marked as read
thickens!
From your link..
"Ms. Zimmer became mayor in 2009, promising more transparency in dealing with developers and better planning for the city’s future.
“It was a political sea change in Hoboken,” said Thomas W. Newman, a cabinetmaker and former councilman. “Part of the machine-style politics of the past was making deals with the developers.”
Ms. Zimmer kept the developer and their lobbyists at arms’ length, saying she did not want to deal with a single project before she had conducted a planning study for the entire north end. But there was never any money in the city budget for the study."
thanks flamingdem! 
Tell me Mayor Zimmer isn't a heroine in this intriguing story of political downfall.
and her story is fantastic, I am guessing Hollywood is after the rights!
