Hudson Reporter
North Bergen Township Administrator to retire
Chris Pianese has been on the job since 1989 ×
Pianese will stay in his position until June while helping to find his replacement.
After more than three decades in public service, North Bergen Administrator Chris Pianese will retire later this year to seek new opportunities in the private sector.
Pianese has worked for the township since 1989 and was named Township Administrator in 2002. He worked closely with Mayor Nicholas J. Sacco and the Board of Commissioners in efforts to revitalize the community and complete vital initiatives.
“Chris Pianese is one of the most dedicated, accomplished and hardworking people I have ever met, and it has been a true pleasure to have him as our trusted partner in government during the majority of my tenure in office,” Sacco said. “His policy advice and his ability to complete projects efficiently and find new solutions will be deeply missed, but on behalf of t
arrow TopView sightseeing bus going over the Manhattan Bridge, with enclosed top. Coco McPherson / Gothamist
In pre-pandemic years, few locals paid much heed to the doubledecker buses packed with sightseers from across the globe that careened down 5th Avenue and up the West Side Highway. That changed in 2020. In late summer, when the buses were permitted to operate again, one leading tour bus company said most of the 8-10 riders typically perched on their upper decks were locals eager to see something, anything, just eager to show their ravaged city some love.
They purchased $60 downtown tickets to watch the Empire State Building come into dramatic view on 34th Street; and uptown tickets to pass the Apollo Theater marquee almost at eye level. At 110th, they took in the historic La Hermosa Church and the Harlem Meer reflecting the cool afternoon light. They booked Brooklyn tours to snap photos of Lower Manhattan’s spiky skyline from Furman Street, and for the fleet
2020 was a year of unprecedented challenges for higher learning institutions around New Jersey. While the hurdles and priorities were similar at all schools, Rutgers University, New Jersey’s largest public university, faced the crisis on an almost unthinkable scale. Rider University and Fairleigh Dickinson University, two of the state’s largest private institutions were in the midst of several reforms, including tuition cuts, when the pandemic began to rage.
Totty the Englishman
Among them was Charles Totty, an Englishman who in 1896 moved to Madison to work on the Twombly estate (now home to Fairleigh Dickinson University). Totty, then 23, eventually opened his own greenhouses, operated a retail store in New York City and sold throughout the region through a mail-order catalog, according to his New York Times obituary. To promote it all, he organized the first of the city’s long-dormant International Flower Shows in 1913.
Totty grafted his own specialty Australian chrysanthemums and tea rose hybrids and sold them to Rose City s growers. Among them was Joseph Ruzicka, Coultas’ grandfather. Ruzicka ran a 65,000-plant greenhouse through Madison s most productive years.