Dear Editor:
As residents at Marine View Plaza since 1987, my wife Chris and I want to tell you why we are working for the election of Ravi Bhalla as the next Mayor of Hoboken. I first met Ravi Bhalla in 2007 in the MVP Community Room when we both attended the Marine View Plaza Tenants Association meeting which first discussed the MVP owners’ plan to sub-meter our buildings, to impose, as Ravi put it, “a de facto rent increase on the MVP tenants”, by making us pay extra for our electricity. The Tenants Association had invited Ravi, a young, civic-minded lawyer, to the meeting. As you may recall, in spite of the MVPTA and Bhalla’s best efforts, the owners did sub-meter our apartments. But Ravi didn’t stop there – he, with the active support and involvement of our State Senator Brian P. Stack and the MVPTA, led the legal battle to discontinue the sub-metering, which effort proved ultimately successful.
Ravi is the biggest reason why we don’t pay extra for our utilities to this day. He cares about affordable housing, and will continue to work in the best interests of the residents of MVP. He has already committed to finding out what will happen to the buildings when the MVP mortgage comes due in 2024 – and will keep fighting for the residents, just as he has done in the past.
Ravi has lived in Hoboken for 17 years. He came to town in 2000 as a bachelor – and now is married, with a daughter and son. The reason Ravi first became involved in civic affairs was because of his desire to make sure that Hoboken would continue to be a good place for parents to raise their children. He has served on the Hoboken City Council for eight years, including as Council President.
Although Bhalla has been endorsed by Mayor Dawn Zimmer, he has his own distinct vision for the future of our city. He intends to build on the successes of the Zimmer administration, and correct its shortcomings. He stands for curbing overdevelopment, furthering the repair of over 50 years of infrastructure neglect, and continuing the long, hard process of improving our public school system – which his two children attend. And he has proven track record of actually getting things done. For his many other principled stands on the issues, I refer you to his web site, www.teambhallla.com. Chris and I urge you to consider supporting Ravi Bhalla to be Hoboken’s next mayor, along with his Council slate Councilman Jim Doyle, Emily Jabbour, and John Allen.
Martin and Christina Andersen
