Ramos Supports Selling-Out Hoboken

If a picture ever spoke a thousand words, this one could write a book:

left: BoE candidate Brian Murray promotes leaving Hoboken  while he campaigns for School Board right: Murray is supported by Ruben Ramos

Somehow, one point of fact has slipped through the cracks in this BoE election cycle.

The candidate Ruben Ramos supports is a local realtor who encourages families to leave Hoboken for the suburbs in regular seminars called "Hoboken To the Burbs", presumably to list their homes or condos and earn a commission on the sales.

The realtor is Brian Murray, who with Vanessa Falco and Patty Waiters, is running on the  Ramos-backed "Better Schools Now" slate.   Murray has also been one of the loudest critics of the Hoboken School Board under Kids First, and a fan of School Board member Carmelo Garcia.  (Carmelo has been best known lately for his secret tapings and 'ethnic cleansing' lawsuit against Mayor Zimmer.)

Fan of Carmelo Garcia

In GA's view, Murray's drumbeat of negativity, his incessant harping about the "failure" of our schools is equivalent to running down the kids in our district.

At the recent BoE forum, he rehashed that discredited Truila poll which called Hoboken "America's least Attractive School District".    That BOGUS poll appeared on a real estate blog and was then picked up by the Wall Street Journal; note the WSJ Education Reporter at the time was Barbara Martinez, the President of the HoLa Board of Trustees, an opponent of Kids First.

And if you recall, in April 2012, Murray and his buddy, Joe Branco, were the "Pool Dads" who created a ruckus at a School Board meeting, blaming Kids First for lack of approval to host a kids' event at the HHS swimming pool.  In fact, Murray had dropped the ball:  he never obtained  insurance to use the pool nor did he return the Use-of-Facilities application to Marty Shannon, HHS Athletic Director. Thus, the BoE was NEVER NOTIFIED about the matter; it was never introduced in the Finance Committee to put it on the Agenda for approval.

Yet, Murray has never acknowledged responsibility and still complains about it, and has continued to be one of the loudest critics of the Hoboken School Board under Kids First.

And as he has bashed our schools, and Kids First leadership, his "Hoboken to the Burbs" seminar appears to flourish. 

Here is what a Hudson County TV reporter said in February 2013 in a piece about Murray's "Hoboken to the Burbs" group called "The Hoboken 3":  "The Hoboken 3 are hoping to drum up new business as a result of the seminars but it may take some time."  And one of their realtors said: "The schools are the number one priority for anyone moving out of town."

Now here is Murray in one of his own "Homefinder" video series talking to buyer and sellers about how LITTLE INVENTORY there is in Hoboken's existing housing stock.

 

Okay, have you got it?

Murray badmouths our schools, and hosts seminars to encourage families to move out because of "the schools". 

Back to the above photo.

That is the BoE candidate campaigning at a soccer game, advertising his seminar "Hoboken to the Burbs" with the huge banner and the Hoboken Housing Authority is the backdrop!   Is he advertising to the tenants of the HHA?  Of course not!  He is using them as a backdrop to tell the condo-owners how to get out of Hoboken and far away from the HHA!  My opinion, of course.


This photo was sent to me by several people, one called me sputtering mad,  "this is a sell-out of our city, using the residents of the HHA to market leaving Hoboken to the uptown affluent crew."

GA agrees with that opinion.  As a long-time supporter of our public schools and the great work of Kids First, such brazen behavior is shocking.

Here is a CANDIDATE for School Board, who BASHES our schools 24/7 while acknowledging to the media that "our schools are the number one reason for leaving", who then markets LEAVING our city "to drum up new business" in Hoboken's low-inventory housing market... 

If this is not a conflict-of-interest, and a failure of conscience, then I don't know what is.

And Ruben Ramos?  He's A-OK with this because:



  
"You cannot legislate character... it's not going to stop me from accepting an illegal bribe from someone"