I wish that would happen to my neighbor. They aren't indian. They're French, which has nothing to do with anything other than the fact that they are on work visas and they suck! So deportation would be WONDERFUL!!! (I speak on behalf of my entire building). Sorry, just had to throw that in.

I seriously doubt Indians are getting hit any harder than anyone else. It's a bloodbath in the financial industry. They get hit especially hard, though, since if they're on an work visa and don't immediately get a new job -- which they won't in this environment -- they get deported.

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There are not enough Americans with education profile/level that these foreign nationals offer.

not to be cheeky, but whatever happened to seeing the beauty in ugliness... can someone pls start a 10 most beautiful bldgs in JC string, pls... I can think of at least 20 that I totally dig for various reasons.

and, for what it's worth, Williamsburgh is full of the same claptrap homes that JC is full of, so, quit it with yer dang inferiority complexes people.

Brooklyn is so over y'all... I mean, honestly, peeps. Get a grip on yourselves.

man, this guy was great.

I had the pleasure of seeing him one time in Vegas (maybe 4 years ago), but was surprised at his act. Reason being, he used a notebook. I don't know if it was because he was getting older, he had a bad day, was hungover from the night before, but he had a book of notes he had to continually refer to in order to continue with his act. Strange part was, it wasn't like it was a new act, I had seen basically the same act already on TV quite some time before.

anyway, total bummer. one of the only few famous people willing to speak freely, and that is what made him a good and honest man.

First come first served, as foreign workers it should be expected that Americans get first preference for employment such as a candidate for the U.S. presidency. As for anything else the United States should give a native born citizen preferential treatment before any foreign-born individual. I'm still having trouble with trying to decipher foreign tongues speaking broken English (accents) in jobs that require verbal communication it tries and tires my patience.

pathmark on 440 has a quarter lock thing on their carts, you pay a quarter to unlock the cart, use it, then lock it back up to get your quarter back.... the only thing is 440 is a lot more desolate than downtown jersey city, so there's not much you can walk to other than society hill, and i highly doubt the people at the gate at society hill would allow a shopping cart through to just linger there.

It's unfortunate but this is going on across the board in America. I having worked in retail management in my previous life and have gotten a number of calls from friends and past colleagues of which several have been laid off. I know of 5 Mgrs in one particular Department Store who have gotten laid off in the past 2 months.
These individuals are of diverse backgrounds but well-paid and so I don't believe that the effects of the recession is limited to the Indian Community...

Above and Beyond (Section)

The New Yorker
June 30, 2008

?BROOKLYN RECORD RIOT?

Everyone knows that the music business is in turmoil and that CD sales are collapsing. (According to the Recording Industry Association of America, sales fell more than seventeen per cent last year and just over twelve per cent the year before that.) Suddenly, though, old-fashioned vinyl records are hot: the R.I.A.A. says that sales of LPs jumped thirty-six per cent last year. How many people know that? Though only 1.3 million LPs were sold in 2007 (compared with more than five hundred and eleven million CDs), the group of vinyl lovers is growing, and retailers have responded. ?Target is now selling turntables,? says Steve Gritzan, the proprietor of Iris Records, an eleven-year-old vinyl-record shop situated in a converted Jersey City pharmacy. On June 29 from 11 to 8, Gritzan is inaugurating the ?Brooklyn Record Riot,? at Warsaw, a club in the ballroom of the Polish National Home, in Greenpoint. It brings some thirty-five dealers from as far away as Quebec to hawk platters at all price points and in all genres. Check your iPod at the door. (261 Driggs Ave. For more information, visit www.irisrecs.com.)

7 schools have lead in water

Monday, June 23, 2008

Jersey City public school officials have announced that 13 water outlets at seven schools tested positive for elevated levels of lead even after the water was allowed to run for a while.

Tests were conducted at McNair Academic High School, Ferris High School, Schools 3, 15, 40, and 41.

In February a water "flushing program" to let the water run for a few minutes at each water source in all the schools was initiated after elevated lead levels were found at six elementary schools - Schools 6, 25, 27, 31, 11 and 23.

The district is now conducting tests on water taps at all the schools that will be completed by July 1, officials said.

Earlier this month, school officials announced that 335 water sources in seven Jersey City public schools - Snyder High School, Schools 20, 29, 29A, 30, 34 and Academy 1 - have elevated levels of lead.

The EPA guidelines stipulate that remediation of any affected water sources should not begin until all of the test results are compiled and the EPA approves the Board of Education's remediation plan, officials said.

KEN THORBOURNE

Is it that companies are laying off workers that are here on work visas? Securing the visas costs the companies money, so the cutting of costs could be 2 fold - not just the employee salary, but also all the paperwork in securing the visa.

Lance Stephenson -- School Night

by Josh Hersh
The New Yorker
June 30, 2008

Lance Stephenson, the best high school basketball player in New York City, was in midtown one recent Monday night to watch an early cut of a new documentary in which he stars. The film, ?Gunnin? for That #1 Spot,? was directed by Adam (MCA) Yauch, of the Beastie Boys, and it chronicles an exhibition game that Stephenson played in, at Rucker Park, in the summer of 2006. The movie, which comes out this week, the day after the N.B.A. draft, includes quickie portraits of eight young basketball players who participated in the game, several of whom?Michael Beasley (Kansas State), Jerryd Bayless (Arizona), Kevin Love (U.C.L.A.)?are expected to be top picks. Stephenson is the youngest of them?he is just about to finish his junior year of high school?and was the only one who showed up at the screening.

Half an hour before the film began, Stephenson sat on a bench outside the screening room, typing into his Sidekick. His phone had run out of juice during the school day, and so he had taken a seat near an electrical outlet. His entourage milled around nearby: dad, Lance, Sr. (Stretch); mom, Bernadette; two-year-old brother, Tookie; an aunt; a teacher. His uncle, Lawrence Britt, who is only a few months older than Stephenson, sat beside him, typing on his own Sidekick. Britt had a curly figure, like a misshapen paper clip, shaved into his hair, and someone asked him when he?d had it done.

?I dunno,? he said, reaching up to trace the pattern with his fingers. ?A few days ago maybe??

?What, are you kidding?? Stephenson said, looking up from his Sidekick. ?You did that yesterday. You don?t remember??

?Oh, yeah,? Britt said. The boys laughed, and then went back to typing.

Stephenson plays for Abraham Lincoln High School, the public school in Coney Island that produced Sebastian Telfair and the Knicks? enigmatic star Stephon Marbury. In their youth, Bassy and Steph were already viable celebrities?talkative, full of smiles. Stephenson, by contrast, can be remote, almost sullen, but, by most people?s reckoning, he is the superior athlete. That afternoon, Lincoln had played a scrimmage against St. Anthony?s, a Catholic school in Jersey City that is ranked first in the country. Stephenson scored twenty-six points in the game, which ended in a draw.

The screening finally began. Stephenson and his dad sat in the front row. They both slouched low in their seats, their long legs stretched out. Stephenson appears only briefly in the first forty minutes of the film, so he got up to check his phone. At one point, the cameras follow Kevin Love around the relative luxury of his home in Lake Oswego, Oregon, where his mother discusses his nutritional plan. Later, Love is shown working out with a personal trainer and shooting free throws using a rebounding machine. When Stephenson?s image was finally projected onto the screen?he is two years younger, walking down a Coney Island street with his father, and pushing Tookie in a stroller?he straightened in his seat. In the game scenes, Stephenson appears to be having a lot of fun, throwing down slam dunks, and even, at one point, dancing a little jig. In the fourth quarter, muscling his way to a rebound, he smacks Love in the face with his forearm, busting open his lip.

When the film was over, Bill Feinberg, a sports marketer, and a close family friend of Love?s, found Stephenson at the back of the theatre, checking his messages.

?So how did you like the movie?? he asked.

?Oh, uh, I liked it a lot,? Stephenson replied, barely looking up.

Feinberg told Stephenson that Love had called and sounded angry about his lip. Stephenson looked stricken. ?Really?? he asked softly, missing the joke. ?Kevin?s not mad at me anymore, is he??

By the time the screening was over and the crowd spilled out onto the sidewalk, it was almost ten-thirty. A homeless man tried to sell Yauch an issue of a street paper with the Beastie Boys on the cover. ?This is so weird,? Yauch said. (He bought five copies.) A few feet away, Stephenson and his family discussed getting dinner at the Hawaiian Tropic Zone, next door, but Coney Island was a forty-five-minute drive away. ?It?s pretty late,? Bernadette said as they headed toward the car. ?And, anyway, Lance has homework to do.?

http://www.newyorker.com/talk/2008/06/30/080630ta_talk_hersh/

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I know some will disagree, but I find even Hoboken's infill construction to be leaps and bounds better than JC's. I haven't noticed a real POS (like all over the Heights) go up there in a decade. JC is just a race to the bottom.

This article should have ADEVERTISEMENT written over it.

What a disgusting puff-piece thinly disguised as journalism.

BTW - 700 Grove must not be selling that well (hence the article) - they are in the middle of no-man's land between Hoboken and JC, hard on the railroad tracks (with attendant train noise), and overlooking New Jersey Transit Depot.

Great.

If I were buying, Athena is so much better - next to Trump, the Powerhouse, and the future Koolhaas.

Building above the tracks
First of three meetings for $500M train terminal/condo development plans

By Timothy J. Carroll
Reporter staff writer 06/23/2008

?RAIL? ESTATE ? Plans to build over NJ Transit?s property on Observer Highway were presented last week at the Hoboken Terminal. The complete plan is estimated to cost more than $500 million.

Community members, civic leaders, and other interested parties gathered at the Hoboken Terminal Thursday night to look at the grand plans for the development of the NJ Transit rail yards.

The plans are for most of the 54 acres owned by NJ Transit in Hoboken and Jersey City, including the Hoboken Terminal and ferry station and the agency's land Observer Highway. About 70 percent of the land is within Hoboken's boundary, and the rest falls into Jersey City's jurisdiction.

The plans at this point are very nebulous, but the planning firm that NJ Transit has hired, FXFOWLE, is trying to involve the community in the process.

Mayor David Roberts said at the meeting, "We are hoping to encourage the community in discussion and capture the excitement that's coming."

The redevelopment plan calls for a mixture of uses on the site: residential condos, office space, and retail areas, and other edifices.


Mark Strauss, senior partner for FXFOWLE, called for the transformation of Hoboken's "main gate to the city," with smart development, infrastructure enhancement, and environmental sustainability that will connect the site to the city.

The overall cost of the plan is upwards of $500 million, although it will come from the designated developers and not from taxes. The developers have not yet been chosen.

The site planners are also communicating with Jersey City to assure there is no conflict in development.

Under consideration

Thursday night, the planners presented background on the site, including information on the impact of prominent issues in town: traffic, flooding, open space, and historic preservation.

Traffic patterns and improvements were on display, setting forth various options like roundabouts to alleviate traffic congestion at the base of Hoboken.
________

Planners handed out questionnaires for residents to submit their ideas and concerns about the site.
________


Flooding issues were addressed, with upgrades to existing sewer systems along Observer Highway and rainwater collection as part of the proposed solutions.

Open space, though not extensive, was addressed. The planner said the agency would opening up access to piers currently used for ferry docking as well as improve the plaza space next to the Hoboken Terminal.

The funding for the project should also help pay for already planned preservation of the terminal and ferry building.

Concerns of many residents centered on the density and height of the proposed buildings on the site.

Build over train tracks and old yards

Building on top of and over train tracks is part and parcel of the plan, as well as removing some of the N.J. Transit's unused tracks, maintenance facilities, and other existing structures, according to planners.

The rail yard area was the focus of a redevelopment study done by the city in 2006, and the planners are also consulting Hoboken's master plan.

According to planners, there is a precedent for this kind of redevelopment. Park Avenue in New York City was once an area built on tracks that went through Grand Central Station.

Planners said that Hoboken is home to more forms of transit than anywhere in the U.S., and the connection to mass transportation is an important aspect of the development.

Planners believe the close proximity to mass transit should decrease the amount of cars owned in the area, minimizing traffic and parking concerns.

Public input

Planners handed out questionnaires for residents to submit their ideas and concerns about the site.

The questionnaires asked residents what aspects of the plan excite them the most; what uses - residential, office, or retail - do they prefer on site; what infrastructure changes do they want to see; what is their take on the traffic issues; and what concerns they have.

A recent phone poll has also been asking residents for their opinions.

The questionnaires also asked whether residents were very or somewhat supportive of the plans, or not at all.

Finally, they wanted to know what "extra touch" could make the development "uniquely Hoboken."

The next meeting, in mid-July, will present resident input and a more complete plan.

A final meeting in late August will showcase the completed blueprint of the massive development of the largest un-developed area left in Hoboken.

For questions or comments on this story, e-mail tcarroll@hudsonreporter.com.

==================
also from the Jersey journal
==================

RAIL YARDS PLAN
Are taller buildings coming to Hoboken?

Monday, June 23, 2008
By AMY SARA CLARK
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

HOBOKEN - A redevelopment plan for the NJ Transit rail yards along the south side of Observer Highway will likely require the city to permit taller builders, according to an architect of the plan.

At a forum held Thursday, Mark Strauss, senior planner for the New York architectural firm FXFOWLE, said the planned commercial and residential development calls for several amenities, including a waterfront park, an improved sewage system and a landscaped Observer Highway.

"There's over $500 million worth of investment that's necessary to achieve these public improvements," Strauss said. "This is the gateway into the city but it looks like you're on the edge of an industrial area."

But in order for a private developer to raise enough money to pay for these amenities, the city is going to have to allow higher density limits, he said, which likely means taller buildings,

Two local residents, Dan Tumpson and David Axelrod, objected to this part of the plan.

"There will be more traffic, more congestion," Tumpson said. "I guarantee when you see the 'improvements' you'll see we're going to get screwed."

Another resident, Joan Abel, an architect, disagreed.

"I don't have a problem with density," Abel said. "I like dense environments in an urban setting."

FXFOWLE distributed about 60 surveys, and will get back to the public with a compilation of the comments in July. The firm expects to bring a plan to the City Council for approval in the fall.

Will this ever end??? Fraud and corruption is still neck deep in this city. Will we as taxpayers ever feel like our taxes are legitimately going to the right place with council people making decisions that aid corruption?

I was lucky enough to see him live a few times. He will be sorely missed by all who knew of his work. I hope somewhere now he is telling someone whats wrong with the afterlife.

But the rest of the country is doing great? How is this isolated to the "young Indian professional"?

Its simply just a sign of the times. Young and old professionals alike are being laid off all over.

I have a friend who is a business man in the area. He goes to a local restaurant where the workers sit at the bar at lunch and drink. Drink a lot. One guy wears garlic around his neck because he thinks that the working situation is cursed.

But the drinking is what scares me, trust me - my pal takes the long way back to the office to avoid being under that building.

The surfeit of information on the dynamics of their relationship aside, the one thing that really irks me about this article is the whole "seven minute drive from Manhattan" thing.

Does anyone really move to Jersey City (or Hoboken for that matter) so they can drive into Manhattan? Isn't the whole reason for both towns' increasing prosperity that they are accessible to Manhattan via 24-hour public transport? Heck, the PATH train from Hoboken only takes 5 minutes, so why not plug that?

I wonder if this has anything to do with the dude's position as a sales agent for Canco. Their assertion that the McGinley Square or Journal Square areas are "10 minutes from Manhattan" are ridiculous and I suppose assume that you are driving in at 3am on a Tuesday morning.

Meter made?
State police look into missing parking $$$

By Timothy J. Carroll
Hudson Reporter
06/23/2008

City Attorney Steven Kleinman confirmed on Thursday that the state police are looking into possibly missing money from the Hoboken Parking Utility's collections from parking meters.

The city may file litigation against the coin collection company, United Textile Fabricators, a Toms River-based company that allegedly misplaced as much as $582,352 last October that they counted for the city. The money was returned in installments beginning in November 2007, but without interest.

The owner of United Textile Fabricators is Brian Petaccio, former co-owner of Grayhound Electronics, who was indicted to state Grand Jury racketeering charges on March 7, 1991.

According to Kleinman, the company has since surrendered the funds to the city, but without interest. He said that the city has stopped using the company and is with holding payments until the matter is settled.

"The administration is looking at all aspects of United Textile Fabricators," Kleinman said Thursday.

HPU Parking Director John Corea had previously said at the Dec. 6 council meeting that his agency's most recent internal audit only showed $34.61 missing.

Follow the cash

At a City Council meeting on Feb. 6, both 2nd Ward Councilwoman Beth Mason and 5th Ward Councilman Peter Cunningham questioned the parking revenue reports in a city audit conducted by an external firm, Garbarini and Co. There had been talk among city officials of missing money and conflicting numbers for more than six months.

Cunningham said at the meeting, "Clearly this audit indicates that we've got money going out the back door." At that meeting, Cunningham also stressed the need for a forensic audit of city finances overall.

Dollar-a-year mayoral advisors Richard Tremetiedi and Maurice "Mo" DeGenarro were critical at the February meeting. Tremtiedi warned, "Like the police say, 'Follow the cash.' "

Roberts said last week in an interview that once he received a memo from the finance department on the missing funds in October, he took it to the prosecutor's office first thing the next day.

Coin operated

The administration hired United Textile Fabricators in December of 2005 on the recommendation of Corea, and the company was vetted by Roberts' then-city attorney Joseph Sherman. The City Council also approved the company in a no-bid process, using a resolution that Kleinman later called "odd" in its design.

United Textile Fabricators is primarily a crane machine sales company, but they also handle Hoboken's parking meter collection, making the over-70 mile trip to Toms River.

In November of 1990, the state Attorney General's office "filed a major civil forfeiture action seeking to take title to Grayhound Electronics, Inc. of Toms River, a manufacturer of amusement games," according to a report on illegal gambling machines made available on the New Jersey state website.

"The complaint alleges that the firm was 'created by and is controlled by associates of' the LaCosa Nostra family of Nicodemo Scarfo and their designees," the report states.

Another account in the report describes the connection between the business owners and the crime family.

It states that George Fresolone, "a 'made' member of the Bruno/Scarfo crime family ... had been assigned by Nicodemo Scarfo, Sr. (now incarcerated head of the Bruno/Scarfo crime family) to collect tribute from Carmen Ricci and Brian Petaccio, the owners of Grayhound Electronics."

"Ricci and Petaccio not only manufactured the [illegal gambling] devices, they distributed them in South Jersey and Philadelphia through a company called B & C Enterprises," the report said.

The same report mentions Hoboken, as broached by John Januska, who like Fresolone was a key witness in racketeering cases.

Januska said when questioned about the operation, "Well, let's put it this way. You see, between Passaic County and Hudson County, that's a little bit of Hoboken, Jersey City, I did 290,000 [dollars] in the numbers business. I kept three per cent on the side for the politicians and the cops."
________

"Clearly this audit indicates that we've got money going out the back door."
- Peter Cunningham
________


Checkered past

Corea was given the job of parking director in 2004 over former Hoboken Parking Authority Executive Director JoAnn Serrano, who sued the Roberts administration for discrimination and was awarded $400,000. (The city is appealing the case.)

Roberts hired Corea, a failed City Council candidate, during a City Council-imposed hiring freeze in January 2004 even though Corea did not apply for a job in a national search that brought in roughly 25 resumes.

Corea was originally given the title of "monitor" because calling him a "director" would have required the approval of the City Council.

Roberts hired Corea for $24,500, just under the Council's hiring freeze cap of $25,000, and later gave him a large pay increase.

Carol Marsh, a council member at the time, put forth a resolution to rescind the hire, but city attorney Joseph Sherman deemed it "inappropriate" and said the council was "stepping on the feet" of the administration.

Corea had no previous experience in parking management, and was a member of the New York Stock Exchange before being found guilty of improper trading and subsequently banned for life from trading on the exchange.

For questions or comments on this story, e-mail tcarroll@hudsonreporter.com.

Indian techies hit by US recession

Lalit K Jha
Freelance Journalist,
June,23 2008
New York

A friend of mine, this past week, called me on my cell to give me a bad news. "I lost my job," she told me. "What?" I asked. "Yes, the boss called me this morning to inform that the company no longer needs my services. Now I am without a job," she said.

Based in Edison, New Jersey, she works for a US multinational. Along with her, about half-a-dozen colleagues of her's were also laid off the same day. "There was no notice. There was no prior information. All of us were given a month's salary," she said.

For privacy reasons, I am not revealing her name in this column. About two weeks ago, her husband, coming from the same part of India where I am from, lost his job too from the IT company he was working with. A fortnight ago, her brother-in-law, a software professional was also fired. Seems like difficult days for her family!

But she is not the only one. Hundreds and thousands of people are being dropped from their jobs; it is the Indian Americans among the expatriate communities in this country, who seem to be the worst hit by this economic slowdown.

There are no official or unofficial figures available to back this argument, though. The companies, which are firing its employees, too would not reveal anything in this regard, even as I tried to get in touch with a few of them this past week for doing a story.

It is only through the network that I have developed as a reporter in my three-year stay in this country, which indicates that all is not well among the young professionals of the community. It must have been at least a dozen times in the past two weeks, that I would have overheard such conversations while travelling on the bus from Jersey City the Indian neighbourhood, in mid-town Manhattan.

While, some are on their way back to India, others are probably talking to their friends about their job loss and have begun their search for a new one. In the past one week, I have come across at least ten such cases of people being fired with all different kinds of stories, but the bottom line is that the American economy is not moving in the right direction and companies are fast reducing their work force.

And when it comes to narrowing the work force in the software sector, which has been a forte with Indians in this country, is considered to be first option. This is because, first leadership of these companies believes they can hold on development of new software and programs for some time or else they can get it done from India.

Two months ago, when another friend of mine called me up from Boston to inform that he has lost his job, I thought this was an isolated incident. He was lucky enough to get a new job after six weeks; but with less pay and perks. "At present, there is no other option," he said.

Earlier this month, another acquaintance of mine working with an IT giant in Cleveland, Ohio was told over the phone that he did not have to go to his office and was being laid off along with four others. They were given a fortnight's time to find a new job for themselves so that their H-1B visas could be transferred, or else the company asked to surrender them.

Two of them have returned to India since then, while the third one managed to get another job. The fourth has not got the job yet, but is still in this country as he has a Green Card. This software professional, in fact, did manage to get a job down South, but was laid off in less than a week; apparently the company got someone who can work in less than him.

In fact, this is another trend, which I could notice in all these instant firings, at least in the software sector. Majority of those, who have been laid off in my knowledge have experience of five to eight years and earn in the range of 80K to 100 K.

At a time, when every dollar counts, these companies prefer to fire a mid-level executive and replace them, if need be, with someone with lesser experience, who can work for say 50 K. This is how it is- all in Columbus' India.

(Lalit K Jha is based in New York and writes on Diaspora affairs. Reach him at lalitkjha@gmail.com)
http://origin.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/showcolumns.aspx

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So long as you don't kvetch about my hanging my laundry out back to dry (and thereby lowering the neighborhood's property values), I think we'll get along grandly!

http://safety.blr.com/news.aspx?id=109862

Concrete Company Cited for Alleged Fall and Protruding Rebar Hazards

OSHA has cited a New York City-headquartered company for numerous alleged safety and health violations, proposing $877,000 in fines. The company is the concrete contractor for the construction of 77 Hudson, a condominium project involving two 50-story condominium towers in Jersey City, New Jersey.

OSHA initiated its investigation on December 19, 2007, in response to a complaint alleging several fall hazards. OSHA investigators found that the company failed to provide adequate fall protection for employees exposed to falls from as high as 25 stories above the ground. The company also failed to provide protection from protruding rebar. According to OSHA, most of the violations were willful because the company was fully aware of OSHA's fall protection requirements. The company's superintendent for the 77 Hudson project, as well as its vice president were previously managers at other concrete companies that had violated the same standards on many previous occasions. In this case, OSHA visited the 77 Hudson project seven times between December 19, 2007, and January 24, 2008, and found the same violations on each successive floor as the building's height increased. Despite OSHA's repeated admonishments on each of these visits, the company's managers still failed to comply with the OSHA construction standards. As a result, OSHA cited the company for 15 willful violations, with $870,000 in penalties, and two serious violations, with $7,000 in penalties.

OSHA defines a willful violation as one committed with plain indifference to, or intentional disregard for, employee safety and health. Serious violations are those that could result in death or serious physical harm about which the employer knew or should have known.

Another cart taken by your favorite Neighborhood Yuppie Scumbag. This was at 1st and Coles.

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Nothing at all wrong with it, as long as you understand that you're I'm-so-superior attitude is humorous.

You may well be superior to these people, but basing your opinion on an typical real estate section puff piece (the idea of which - suburban couple tentatively moves to a new development in JC to be near Manhattan - was probably preconceived and the editor was looking for a couple to shoehorn into the mold) and a handful of quotes is kind of silly.

It's good to see the usual cliches in action, though. "I'm not so wrapped up in myself I'm so out of touch, especially in these tough times." You can expand on that with the oft-cited "I'm more grounded" or "at least I'm real," for added flavor - none of which are probably true, but if it makes you feel better then knock yourself out

I hope the city also recognizes how bad Newark Avenue is -- it certainly is in need of resurfacing right away.

Has the city applied yet for grants to do Newark Avenue and is it scheduled to be paved soon?

I hope that when it happens, the new paving goes all the way to the Fire Station on Fourth and we don't just get a partial job of just the first few blocks near Grove Pointe and the PATH Station.

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I bet a lot was given back to the then current politicians and their friends. " The mayors office in Jersey City is the road to riches and a jail term"

I've got 2.

One is my complete agreement with ianmac on the JAMES MONROE (at Newport)...it is modular poured concrete units with holes that were attached to lifting bolts, but they never filled in the ugly boltholes.

And the other is one of the mingiest buildings I've ever seen...the new WILZIG HOSPITAL on Grand Street. It looks like prefab temporary junk built on the cheap.

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These new people moving in are younger/better looking, richer, more successful in their careers at this time in their lives than the bashers ever were or ever will be. There's a lot of envy and jealousy involved, people love to bring others down to their level.