PSE&G had shut off the electricity in the hallways because Rauf failed to pay a bill of almost $5,000

Jersey mayor on Ground Zero imam: “He’s a slumlord”

Mike Kelly from the Bergen Record exposes another not-so-pretty side of the slick talking Faisal Rauf. via NorthJersey.com: Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf accused of more code violations on Union City building.

 

A funny thing happened Monday as the Muslim cleric behind the Islamic center near Ground Zero basked in the glow of a diplomatically polite forum at the Council on Foreign Relations in Manhattan.

Back in New Jersey, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf was taken to court.

 

Union City officials say they are so fed up with what they call Rauf’s foot-dragging to repair dangerous code violations at a low-income apartment building that they want a judge to step in and appoint a special “custodial receiver” to run the place.

 

Rauf, who lives in North Bergen, may fancy himself as a spiritual leader who dreams of building bridges between religions with a proposed $100 million Islamic center two blocks north of Ground Zero. But his slummy apartment building on Central Avenue in Union City is such a fire trap that the police department has now assigned cops to stand guard round-the-clock until Rauf fixes the fire alarms.

On Central Avenue in Union City, Mayor Brian Stack had a decidedly different description for Rauf:

“He’s a slumlord,” Stack said.

 

As The Record reported last month, Rauf’s 16-unit Central Avenue building has been targeted with dozens of tenant complaints, from rats and bed bugs to broken lights and leaks.

 

But in recent days the problems at the building appear to have worsened.

 

Last Wednesday, as Rauf granted his first interview in months to CNN, Union City officials slapped him with 17 new code violations on the Central Avenue apartments. The city accused Rauf of not only failing to fix a variety of nagging problems but of not being responsive – or available for calls.

“We reached the end of our rope,” said Stack’s chief of staff, Mark Albiez. “There is a lack of responsibility.”

 

Then, on Friday, on the eve of the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Union City officials rushed again to Rauf’s building. PSE&G had shut off the electricity in the hallways. The reason: Rauf failed to pay a bill of almost $5,000, Stack said.

 

Not only were the hallways dark, but the electric-powered smoke detectors and fire alarms were not working. In other words, the building was now a fire trap. Read more »