WERE YOU ONE?

By Ricardo Kaulessar  Photo by Ricardo Kaulessar 

Reunions usually happen due to a shared experience: graduating from the same school, serving in the same military unit or working in the same job. But it is almost unheard of to hold a reunion for those who were born in the same hospital.

That is, unless you first came into the world at the Margaret Hague Maternity Hospital.

The legendary facility in Jersey City that for over 40 years, until its closing in 1979, had more than 350,000 babies delivered there was in the spotlight on May 16 when some of those “Margaret Hague Babies” – now full-grown adults – gathered at Zeppelin Hall in the cityâ€s Downtown section.

The event, organized by the Jersey City Medical Center and the LibertyHealth Foundation, was attended by over 200 guests including well-known figures such as former New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey, now the executive director of the Jersey City Employment & Training Program, who was born at the Margaret Hague in November 1957, and Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop, who was not born at the Margaret Hague.

McGreevey, 56, checked out a wall of fame of those born in the hospital that featured his photo. He then spoke to a reporter about the place where he first saw life just like the other two children of Veronica and Jack McGreevey.

“Jersey City has its own unique folklore and traditions, and Margaret Hague was that great maternal center that seemingly gave birth to at least half of New Jersey,” McGreevey said.

He also said that the Margaret Hague was one of the best examples of the public works projects built in the 1930â€s under the Democratic machine run by Jersey Cityâ€s longest-tenured mayor and political boss Frank Hague, who named the hospital after his mother.

Along with McGreevey, others who attended spoke about the space that has been a source of pride for decades for numerous Jersey City residents.

For Shirley Hardhouse, the affection for the Margaret Hague has been a family affair as her and two of her siblings along with several of her cousins were all born there. And 20 years after her birth, it was déjà vu with her daughter coming out of the womb in the same location.

“I remember that the nurses were wonderful, they were outstanding, they were kind,” Hardhouse said.
“They gave you flowers and they gave you diapers, both the paper and cloth kind. They gave you everything to take care of the baby.”

Hardhouse then said it was “mindboggling” that the Margaret Hague does not exist anymore as a maternity center for future generations and that many people like herself laments its absence. Currently, it is one of the remaining buildings of the old Jersey City Medical Center currently being converted into condominiums as part of the still-developing Beacon residential complex.

Mark Rabson, director of public affairs for the Jersey City Medical Center, said there was discussion about holding the reunion on the premises of the original Margaret Hague at some point in the five years since the idea for the reunion first took hold. However, the developer of the Beacon told Medical Center officials to wait a few more years for the renovation of the building to be completed.

But Rabson said the success of this first reunion, which saw many attendees wear t-shirts that proclaimed ‘Born at the Margaret Hague,†will probably lead to future ones being held at the actual location.

The post Born at the Margaret Hague first appeared on River View Observer.

The odds of Governor Chris Christie, Jersey City Mayor

Steven Fulop, New Jersey U.S.

Attorney Paul Fishman and former NBA player Jayson Williams all being at the same place seems highly unlikely. Unless the issue is prisoner reentry.

The topic of ex-offenders coming back into society was what brought the four men into the same space as they were all keynote speakers at the Prisoner Reentry: Breaking the Cycle conference held on April 17 at Saint Peters University in Jersey City.

The event, sponsored by various entities including the Jersey City

Employment and Training Office, Integrity House and Saint Peters University, is an extension of the policy goal of the new Employment and Training Office Director, former Governor Jim McGreevey, to help those coming out of jail to integrate back into society.

Williams, the onetime New Jersey Nets star, shared his powerful personal story of rebuilding his life after serving time in prison for several brushes with the law including the accidental shooting death of his limousine driver, Costas “Gus” Christofi, in 2002.

He broke into tears on several occasions when he spoke about such matters as how his reckless behavior took an emotional toll upon his family, the difficulty of finding a place to live (especially in Jersey City) after leaving jail in 2012 and finding a new purpose in his life by helping others who were formerly incarcerated.

“I want you all to know that Iâ€m here for one reason today, and thatâ€s because I believe that I can help my colleagues,” Williams said.

Williams also thanked Fulop for meeting with him during the conference and even having his picture taken with Williams when considering Fulopâ€s political ambitions, a reference to Fulop being considered a contender to become the stateâ€s next governor in 2017.

Fulop had opened the conference earlier in the day by addressing how Jersey City dealing seriously with the matter of prisoner reentry with a three-pronged strategy of providing employment, housing and addiction treatment. Fulop would later, during a break from the conference, address the media about crossing paths briefly with Christie – before the governor spoke at the event – for the first time since last July as Fulop has since had a political falling out with the governor for not endorsing him for reelection.

Adding to the drama was the guest speaker who followed Fulop and preceded Christie.

Paul Fishman and his office of prosecutors are currently investigating the closing of lanes leading to the George Washington Bridge that occurred last fall, which involved Christie administration allies and aides.

However, Fishman did not bring up that subject as he was focused on what the New Jersey U.S. Attorneyâ€s Office has done on the prisoner reentry front. In particular, he described how his office put together its “ReNew Program” that has provided services to onetime inmates from proofreading resumes to helping them find apartments.

“We will never arrest our way out of the problems of crime. Only by emphasizing prevention and reentry, together with enforcement, do we have a chance to make a real and lasting impact on the violence and other issues that plague our communities,” Fishman said.

After his speech, Fishman greeted Fulop and took pictures with him, but left the conference before Christie arrived.

Christie, who came to the conference due in part to his friendship with McGreevey, was listening intently to a panel of speakers before he was scheduled to speak but was also looking over his shoulder from time to time in the direction of the media, whom he has avoided for the most of the past three months to sidestep questions about the Bridgegate scandal.

He would be more comfortable on stage with McGreevey as the two engaged in a conversation about the stateâ€s efforts to bring drug courts to all NJ counties in the next four years, and also wanting to bring about bail reform so that for first time offenders for drug possession there would be a pretrial services situation where bail would not be set but other conditions would have to be met before trial such as treatment.

Christie went on to show a sympathetic, more liberal side of himself when he said that drug addiction is an “illness” that will not be cured by putting people behind bars.

The post Prisoner Reentry from Personal Testimony to Politics first appeared on River View Observer.