The Annual Blessing of the Bikes hosted by Bayonne Elks #434 began on Saturday, April 19th.
Bayonne Mayor Jimmy Davis stopped by with members of the Municipal Council. Pictured with Mayor Davis, 2ND Ward Council Member Jacqueline Weimmer, Council Member at Large Loyad Booker, Council Member at Large Juan M Perez, and members of the Bayonne Police Department
Live music is provided by “She Said No”
Bayonne Mayor James Davis
This month, much of the world will celebrated St. Patrick’s Day, March 17, the anniversary of the death of the patron saint of Ireland. St. Patrick is credited with converting Ireland to Christianity in the fifth century after Christ.
Today, there are well over seventy million people around the world of Irish descent. For Irish-Americans, this feast day is a time for us to celebrate the contributions that Irish immigrants and their descendants have made to this country.
There is scarcely an area of American life that has not been touched by Irish-Americans. Just to take a recent example, a few weeks ago, the NBC television network celebrated the 50th anniversary of Saturday Night Live. During its history, that show has featured such Irish-American cast members as Jane Curtin, Bill Murray, Will Ferrell, Jimmy Fallon, Chris Farley, Colin Quinn, Molly Shannon, Julia Sweeney, and Nora Dunn, among others. Martin Short, another former cast member, is Irish-Canadian.
Elsewhere in television, Irish-Americans have made their mark as great talk show hosts: Stephen Colbert, Conan O’Brien, Steve Allen, Merv Griffin, Mike Douglas (real name: Michael Delaney Dowd, Jr.), and Jimmy Fallon (after leaving Saturday Night Live).
The ancestors of many American presidents came from Ireland: John F. Kennedy, Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan, Barack Obama (on his mother’s side), Richard Nixon, James K. Polk, Andrew Jackson, Woodrow Wilson, Ulysses Grant, William McKinley, and others.
Here in Bayonne, the Irish began arriving in large numbers in the 1800’s. Most came here with very little money and a willingness to work hard. Many of the early Irish immigrants lived in the old Fourth Ward (now part of the First Ward) in the Bergen Point area. Bayonne’s Irish-American community has been noted for its large presence in the government sector. Irish-American elected officials, police officers, firefighters, civil servants, school administrators, and teachers have played major roles in our city’s history.
Wherever the Irish have gone, they have brought their religious faith, great music, and gift for language with them. The Irish also carry memories of suffering from religious persecution, poverty, foreign occupation, and the Great Hunger of 1845-51.
Millions of Irish-Americans are grateful for the opportunities this country has provided. Irish-Americans should be proud of our progress in this country and of our cultural heritage.
On Sunday, March 23, when Bayonne is having our annual St. Patrick’s Parade. We begin marching at 1:00 p.m. at 5th Street and Broadway. The parade will move up Broadway to 39th Street. It will move westward on 39th Street to Avenue C, and then will march northward up Avenue C to the viewing stand between 40th and 41st Streets. Finally, the parade will finish up in the front portion of Gregg-Bayonne County Park. I look forward to seeing you at the parade!
Donation to special needs sports: The Winning Events Group, which creates local health and wellness events, has donated $1,000 to the special needs sports programs sponsored by the Bayonne Recreation Division. The donation will go towards the purchase of special needs sports equipment. Pictured left to right: Bayonne Recreation Superintendent Pete Amadeo, Winning Events Group CEO Elvi Guzman, and Bayonne Mayor Jimmy Davis.
Mayor Jimmy Davis announced that the Winning Events Group has donated $1,000 to the special needs sports program of the Bayonne Recreation Division. The Winning Events Group, which is based in Hudson County, creates local events to support health and fitness programs in communities in Hudson County and New York City.
Elvi Guzman, the CEO of the Winning Events Group, said that the funds for the donation came from the Turkey Trot, a run in Gregg-Bayonne County Park on November 27, 2024. He said that 378 runners took part in that event.
Mayor Davis and Pete Amadeo, Superintendent of the Bayonne Recreation Division, thanked the Winning Events Group for its contribution to the special needs program. Superintendent Amadeo said that the donation would be used for special needs sports equipment.
Founded in 2013, the Winning Events Group states on its website that it has donated over $800,000 to charity since it started.
This week, our friends and neighbors in the Jewish community will be celebrating Hanukkah, which is known as the Festival of Lights. The festival recalls the events in the years 167-165 B.C. when the Seleucid Empire outlawed the Jewish religion in Israel. The Seleucid king ordered the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem to be turned into a place of worship for the pagan god, Zeus. That king also ordered that pigs be sacrificed there. Pigs are considered unclean by Jews and many others, and their meat is not kosher under traditional Jewish dietary laws. The Jews rebelled successfully against the Seleucids and rededicated the Temple to the Jewish faith. Although there was only enough oil to light the Temple for one day, the oil provided light for eight days. This miracle was the origin of Hanukkah as the Festival of Lights. A special lamp called a menorah contains spaces for candles or lights that can be illuminated for each of the eight days of Hanukkah, plus an extra one in the middle. The menorah is one of the national symbols of the Jewish people.
My fondest memories of the holiday season go back to Thanksgiving nights growing up. After Thanksgiving dinner at my grandmother’s apartment in Jersey City, my father would drive us back to Bayonne. My sister and I would always anticipate what would happen after our car made a right onto 29th Street, and then a left onto Broadway. Suddenly, there it was – the sight of holiday lights and decorations on Broadway. We would drive down the whole shopping district seeing lights. In those days, big decorations crossed Broadway from one side of the street to the other. The anticipation of getting there was a big part of childhood.
Litter is a problem that all cities must address. There are several ways of dealing with this issue. In Bayonne, we have mechanical street-sweeping to remove litter on scheduled days from several major streets. Throughout the year, our Urban Enterprise Zone/Special Improvement District has a crew that removes litter from Broadway with tools and barrels on wheels. The Public Works Department uses the Glutton, a device that picks up litter. In the summer, young seasonal workers remove litter from side streets and other locations. Now that the fall has arrived, let’s make sure to remove litter before it becomes stuck under autumnal leaves or ice and snow in the coming winter.
The rest of us are responsible for doing our part to keep Bayonne clean. All responsible parties should take the time to remove trash and debris from residential, commercial, and industrial properties.
Household garbage and recycling can become major sources of litter when they are not handled correctly. In some cases, garbage and recycling come loose and blow around the street. When you set your refuse at curbside, please make sure it is secure. Residents and businesses are encouraged to put out cans and bottles in tied, plastic recycling bags, in order to prevent them from creating a mess on the street. If you are in charge of garbage and recycling for a large building, please do not allow refuse to overflow and grow around your garbage barrels or dumpsters. Business owners and building managers should check their dumpsters to make sure that the lids are closed.
Anyone who transports cargo in open vehicles should make sure that everything is secured and completely covered. Loose items that come flying off a car or a truck can pose a hazard to drivers and pedestrians. The same loose items turn into litter once they land on a street, sidewalk, or nearby property.
Please dispose properly of cigar and cigarette butts. Do not toss them onto the streets or sidewalks of our community. These butts can take years to degrade. Fish, birds, and other animals often mistake cigarette butts for food.
If you receive flyers or leaflets that do not interest you, please add them to your paper recycling. Do not let them blow around your property or settle on the pavement as rent-free tenants.
For several years, we have had successful Earth Day community clean-ups in Bayonne. There have been additional clean-up drives at other times by the Nature Club, schools, Scout troops, and other organizations. I commend everyone who has taken part in these efforts to improve the appearance of our community. I would like to encourage everyone to fight litter in our neighborhoods throughout the year, too. Let’s take pride in our neighborhoods and in our entire community.
Today, Monday, September 2, our nation will observe Labor Day, which is an occasion to honor all of America’s working people. The concept for the day began with the trade union movement in the late 1800’s. The federal government adopted Labor Day as a national holiday in 1894.
Labor Day is a good time to reflect on the rights of workers. In many countries, workers are not allowed to organize trade unions or to bargain with their employers. In some dictatorships, no independent labor unions are permitted; only labor front organizations operated by the ruling party are allowed to exist.
In the United States and other advanced democratic countries, working people have the right to establish independent labor organizations that are not controlled by the government. That is why there is a strong connection between free labor movements and democracy. Unions help improve democracy by giving workers a voice in the workplace. There are dozens of labor unions in the United States. Most American unions belong to one of two major labor federations: 1) the AFL-CIO (American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations), or 2) CTW (Change to Win). The AFL-CIO was founded in 1955 when the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations merged into a combined labor movement. CTW was founded in 2005 as an alternative to the AFL-CIO.
American labor unions have been responsible for a variety of reforms such as the eight-hour workday, overtime pay, paid vacations, worker health benefits, employee pension plans, workplace safety regulations, and grievance procedures. By gaining strength in the 20th century, American labor unions raised the living standards for millions of people. They helped raise workers from poverty into the middle class. Rising wages enabled American workers to buy homes and cars, to take their families on vacation, and to send their children to college. When unions were strong in the 20th century, they helped raise wages and living standards across the country for union and non-union labor alike. We need to raise the American standard of living again in the 21st century.
In Bayonne, union members work in a variety of trades and economic sectors, such as building & construction, petrochemicals, maritime, education, healthcare, transportation, retail, and government.
We should respect the contributions that all American workers make to our families, our communities, and our national economy. Let’s all work together to improve wages, working conditions, and economic opportunities in the years to come.
THE LAST WEEKS OF SUMMER
As we approach the end of the summer vacation season and the beginning of school, there are some good things to do before the season is gone.
Clean up the litter: During the summer, a lot of people have been walking around outside. Some of them have dropped litter in front of homes and businesses. Now would be a good time to clean up any litter that has accumulated over the summer. It would be best to get litter off the streets, sidewalks, and ground before it gets caught under the leaves of autumn and the snows of winter.
Cut and trim the trees and bushes: If you have grass, trees, or bushes on your property, please cut the grass and trim the trees and bushes. It is best to make sure that your grass does not grow too tall at this time of year. During the remaining part of summer, cutting the grass keeps down the number of mosquitoes and other bugs on your property. It is easier to trim trees and bushes before the ice and snow of winter make it too tough to do the job.
Clear out those backpacks: Those of you who have children in school have probably not looked in their backpacks since the end of the last school year in June. There may be crumpled-up papers still in them. You should check the papers for anything important, and then throw the unneeded ones out. Otherwise, they will be taking up space that should be saved for items your children will receive in the new school year.
Go to our final Summer Sounds concerts: There are three remaining concerts in our Summer Sounds series:
On Wednesday, August 21, at 7:00 p.m., weather permitting, Super Trans Am will play arena anthems and top radio hits of the 1970’s. The group performs masterworks from such acts as The Eagles, Hall and Oates, Queen, The Doobie Brothers, Paul McCartney and Wings, Peter Frampton, Foreigner, Kiss, Boston, and Journey.
We have set aside Wednesday, August 28, as a rain date, if needed, so that a performance that was rained out could be rescheduled.
The concerts will take place at the amphitheater on the lower level of DiDomenico-16th Street Park. The concert site is located below the foot of West 16th Street, between Avenue A and Newark Bay. The number of chairs available in the park is limited. The Recreation Division suggests that members of the audience bring their own chairs.
In the event of inclement weather, please call 201-471-7590, or visit www.leaguelineup.com/bayonnerec, or view the City of Bayonne’s Facebook page to check on the status of that night’s performance.
For more information about the concerts, please get in touch with Pete Amadeo at 201-858-6129, or email BAYONNEREC@AOL.COM.
Please take advantage of the time remaining in the summer of 2024!
Mayor Jimmy Davis announced that Super Trans AM will perform in the Summer Sounds by the Bay concert on Wednesday, August 14, at 7:00 p.m. Super Trans AM is a unique and innovative theme band. They play all of your favorite arena anthems and chart-topping radio hits of the ‘70’s. Combining unparalleled musicianship with artistic and inspired A/V production, you’ll enjoy revisiting classic sing-alongs from one of the most definable decades in American history.
The concert will take place at the amphitheater on the lower level of DiDomenico-16th Street Park. The concert site is located below the foot of West 16th Street, between Avenue A and Newark Bay. The number of chairs available in the park is limited. The Recreation Division suggests that members of the audience bring their chairs.
On music days during the summer concert season, in the event of inclement weather, please call 201-471-7590, or visit www.leaguelineup.com/bayonnerec, or view the City of Bayonne’s Facebook page to check on the status of that night’s performance.
For more information about the concerts, please contact Pete Amadeo at 201-858-6129, or email BAYONNEREC@AOL.COM.
Mayor Jimmy Davis announced that the City of Bayonne’s Independence Day Celebration will be held on Tuesday, July 2, at the lower level of DiDomenico-16th Street Park, beginning at 6:30 pm, weather permitting.
There will be a rain date of Monday, July 8, if needed.
On July 2, there will be plenty of attractions for both children and adults.
Free children’s inflatable rides will be available from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. The rides will be stationed in the old amphitheater, which is located at the southeastern corner of the park’s lower level.
The fireworks are scheduled to go off at approximately 9:15 p.m. The fireworks show will run for about 30 minutes.
