Greets and saluts from the NYC metro area. It’s already snowing, and sticking, here in Lower Manhattan, and they’re predicting up to a foot here. The morning commute was pretty quiet, but the evening commute is going to suck.

Gov. Christie’s inauguration is today, and his team has cancelled the inaugural ball scheduled for tonight at Ellis Island due to the weather.

Christie cancels Ellis Island event | Politicker NJ http://t.co/skChb1fOtU

— PolitickerNJ (@PolitickerNJ) January 21, 2014

Much of NJ is going to be hit hard by the snow (lower amounts N/W of NYC), so that’s probably a good thing.

I’m still in the air about the revelations by Hoboken mayor Dawn Zimmer and that there was a quid pro quo for storm relief aid flowing into Hoboken in exchange for getting a politically connected real estate development deal fast-tracked.

It’s something that sounds plausible considering what we’ve learned from the GWB mess, but I’d need to see more evidence that this quid pro quo actually occurred.

I’d say in Zimmer’s favor is the slow pace of recovery funds. A few GOP/conservative pundits were busy complaining over the weekend about how much money was supposed to flow into Hoboken, ignoring that it’s a major community, and part of a regional transit hub. Reducing flooding through the city is going to take significant funding, and the city had built a flood pumping system to handle rainfall events that used to flood the city. They’re going to need something significantly bigger to handle storm surges up the Hudson. It’s also going to take a rethinking about how development occurs along the rivers and coastlines.

We shouldn’t be making it easier to build just anything along the coasts. It has to be done with an eye towards elevation changes and rising waters due to climate change and coastal storms. It takes a reform of building codes, and buying up properties along the coast to build buffers.

None of this is cheap. But to do nothing is grossly irresponsible and will be even more costly.