Kansas.

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The Loews at Journal Square !!!

Tear the white elephant down and build something that will bring tax revenue. It's a relic and a plaything for yuppies.

I tend to think Grove Pointe looks a lot more like a college dormitory. But there are worse buildings than Grove Pointe. Mostly my issue is with the choice of facade, the mix of that white and gray brick along with the red. I think on the Newark Avenue side they did a decent job of creating multiple elevations, but the uniform red, white and gray brick ruins the illusion created by the setbacks. There are several varying rooflines on the Newark Avenue side which I think nicely transition the main tower from to the smaller buildings at the western side of the plaza.

However, the parking garage, while I appreciate that its not a tumor off the side of it, still has turned Morgan Street into a cold place to experience the building as a pedestrian. Its a serious architectural failure on the north face of the building and something easily corrected by installing some smaller sized retail on Morgan Street. They have in effect created a building with a rear, even though the back of the building is actually on a street.

I also think the Marin Blvd side of Grove Pointe is extremely harsh; its the full height of the building straight up to the top roof, and while the short little width of the building on Columbus has set backs every ten floors, this does nothing to minimize the scale of the Marin Blvd side. From Steuben Street, Grove Pointe is simply a giant vertical wall. Also the facade here doesn't help either. The uniform size of the windows and the generally uniform color of the brick enhances the vertical elements of the building rather than reducing the impact of the height.

The Trump Tower! How on earth could anyone build such an ugly thing next to the Powerhouse, it is truelly saddenning.

I was looking up from the Paulus Hook side the other day and thought, oh it isn't as totally horrible as I thought, at least they have some black patterned varaiation on this side. Then I realised I was mistaken and was looking another tower to the West instead (50 Columbus perhaps?).

The Trump Tower itself is just unmittigatingly bad. Horrible, horrible, horrible.

Robin.

Anyone know details on the hit and run that happened around 3:00 am this morning (June 22). We heard the loud crash and someone saw one vehicle keep going....

Last week, as I was walking home from BB&B, I saw this chi-chi young Japanese couple wheel a blue ShopRite cart down Marin. She was decked out in high heels, minskirt and the latest LVMH bag and yakking on her cell phone while she pushed the cart at a snail's pace. They must've managed to find a cart without the wheel-lock feature. From the looks of it, they were probably headed for either 50 Columbus or Grove Pointe. I was tempted to say to them that they, or their building's valet, should return the cart to the store - but I'm such a wuss sometimes!

ogden ave is really nice and scenic, but there have been notable crime incidents (at least from what i can remember reading in the JJ) in that area in the past few months. just don't expect it to be like hoboken and you'll be fine.

like people have said though, palisade (1 block away) isn't exactly a great area, so take that into consideration.

parking sucks everywhere in that whole area.

How about Grove Pointe. The irony here is that it looks just like a hospital, and the hospital might make a better apartment building facade. How in the 21st century, above a major transportation hub, someone decided to put up a big red brick monstrosity is beyond me. I'm more apt to let the others slide, but not when building something NEW. Anytime someone new comes to visit, they ask, "oh, is that the hospital?"

Crocheting and Knitting isn't just for old stinkers , it's good clean fun that's even better shared over strong coffee with some like-minded "hookers" and "needlers".

Brooklyn and Manhattan have their share of funky, young knitting and crocheting circles, and JC finally has one too:

Stitch N Bitch JC

Once a good bunch of like-minded crafty people join up we can decide where to have our first meetup. If you know of a good place to sit & knit suggest it on the Stitch N Bitch message board.

Thanks guys!!

My girlfriend and I went to the new M&W yesterday for a full-blown stocking-up session and I have to say we think it's probably the nicest grocery store in the area overall. We were familiar with the chain as GF lives on the Upper East Side and we had shopped there a number of times; we have not been overly impressed. However, this new M&W blows those in the City away.

The new place still has some teething problems (the poor checkout clerk had to get a price check on about half a dozen of my items), but it's well stocked and the staff very friendly--the cheese guy especially. Great selection of international products too (we saw Korean, Japanese, Chinese, British, Irish, Polish, German, Austrian, Thai, Indian, Pakistani, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese). I imagine this will narrow as they see what sells but it's great now. They also have a huge selection of D'Artagnan products and section dedicated to a full range Boar's Head brand packaged goods. While we didn't buy any, the prepared foods section looked great with at least four kinds of rotisserie chicken and two dozen prepared salads. The fishmonger was pretty nice, with a good selection of whole fish as well as the usual fillets and steaks. And I too was a little confused by the Shop-Rite brand products--maybe Shop-Rite is doing wholesale to smaller chains?

I think the only weak spots were the produce section and the butcher counter. The produce section had a ridiculous variety, but was lacking some obvious stuff, like mint leaves and the fruit selection was not as good as the A&P. They did not seem to carry much that was local. The butcher counter seemed a bit lacking in variety too, although all they did stock all the basics, much of it organic.

As for pricing, M&W seemed to be on par with A&P, but with a wider selection of international and imported goods, it could turn out to be more expensive, depending on your tastes.

A word about the validated parking: while the clerk will validate your ticket without a hitch, the parking garage attendant (at least the one we encountered) was not up to speed on the process and had to make a five minute phone call to someone before he let us out. Probably growing pains here too.

All in all, we liked M&W very much and think it's a great addition to the area.

Finally, some advice: never, never go grocery shopping on an empty stomach....

Ogden is a nice quiet street but Palisade Avenue a block away is not.

I moved away from the Heights to downtown some time ago and the only issue for me was that I was feeling less and less safe as the years went by in the Heights.

It was an EXPENSIVE choice but in retrospect, getting out of the Heights was the right thing to do...even if it meant giving up a beautiful cheap rent-controlled apartment. But then drug dealers with lines of clients in the hallways was getting off-putting.

Oh, yeah, my cars were always fair game for hit and run drivers. I think Jersey City raises hit-and-run to the level of ART!

Jackson,
Unless you are getting a GREAT financial deal or a huge place at a good rent, stay in Hoboken.

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And this OTHER Manhattan with easy parking is located in which state?

Wow. These people are super douchebags.

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They will be divorced within 5 years.

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Moving to Montclair in 3.... 2...

He's chef for the 'Greatest Show on Earth'

By Lauren Bull
Newhouse News Service
Sunday, June 22, 2008

Lesson learned - grandma is always right. When Michael Vaughn was just a kid, his grandmother began baking individual pies as a way to supplement her income. As the business started to take off, Vaughn was asked to help out. The future chef was less than thrilled.

"I hated every minute of it," he says, laughing.

Despite the lack of enthusiasm, his grandmother must have seen some potential.

"She said, "Oh, you never know, you might do this for a living one day,"' he recalls. "I thought that was the craziest thing I ever heard in my life. And the craziest thing was that she was right."

But one has to wonder whether his grandmother could have even predicted the kind of kitchen Vaughn would end up in. The Louisiana native, who now calls Jersey City, N.J., home, spends most of his time in the mile-long train owned by the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, preparing daily menus for 350 circus performers, crew members and their visiting families.

Vaughn, however, didn't so much run away with the circus, as follow it reluctantly in 1992.

"Initially, it was only supposed to be a temporary thing. I was only supposed to help them out for one weekend in Louisiana," he said. His response to their requests for a more permanent position was fairly straightforward: "You're out of your mind."

Vaughn eventually agreed to go for a month and was sold on the idea. And though he left the circus for two years to pursue other work, he found himself, not surprisingly, bored by those jobs.

He is now the director of food and facility services, handling the daily needs of circus employees as well as the company parties and events, "whether it be a black tie event or a barbecue."

One of the main challenges Vaughn faces in designing menus for a business that is constantly in motion is finding local vendors to supply ingredients.

"You never know what you're going to run into in terms of cost," he says. Delivery can also be tricky considering that the vendors are trying to locate a train (albeit a mile-long one), where Vaughn's staff does most of the cooking.

Vaughn must also be mindful of the range of people for which he prepares menus. Performers often want salads; crew members tend to prefer meat and potatoes. On a pre-show day, the menu typically includes fare like beef, fish, two soups and three different desserts to choose from.

"I try to mix it up a lot," he says.

But despite any minor challenges, Vaughn has the kind of upbeat attitude that could only come from spending so many hours with circus folk. The schedule is tough, but he manages to see his wife and child frequently. "I have zero complaints," he says.

And perhaps one of the reasons for that is the constant variety - cooking for so many nationalities at such a wide range of events. It's not every chef that's preparing grilled cheese one day and filet mignon the next.

"We cook from one extreme to the other," Vaughn said. "If you could make it in this job for a year, you can make it in any kitchen."

Here is one of Michael Vaughn's menus:
Adventure Menu:

Entrees, all served with red skin garlic mashed potatoes and flame-roasted corn and black beans: Potato Crusted Cod Fish Filet, Fried Chicken, Meat Loaf.

Salads and sandwiches: Eggplant Parmesean Sandwich, Grilled Ham and Cheese, Grilled Turkey and Swiss, Jumbo Chicken Chef Salad.

Soups: Cream of Broccoli, Mexican Tortilla.

Desserts: Strawberry Cheesecake, Mini Chocolate Bundt Cake.

The Columbus Health Service Building at 115 Columbus Ave. Between Grove and Barrow. This maroon/brown structure is hideous in every respect.

We went to court on this issue on May 19, 2008. The Judge was trying to get both sides to resolve and settle it.

I was asked what I wanted which was and has always been to have the building resurveyed and the purportedly incorrect master deed corrected; the response of the defendant's was that it would be done only if I personally paid for it.

I then asked it the Board would Host an open meeting for all of the members of the association explaining the facts and allowing the association to vote on it and was then told no, the Board had made a decision and was sticking to it.

I voluntarily withdrew some of my claims in order to preserve my equitable claim which is to have an equitable reformation of the Master Deed. In the interim I have found out that over 70+ unit owners are negativeley affected by the purportedly incorrect Master Deed. And yet the Board REFUSED to present the issue in an open forum to all members of the association and vote on it. It is just one of those things that makes you go HMMMMMMM.......

I will continue to fight because I believe it is unfair and am considering my legal options for moving forward at this point. What actually amazes me is that apparently unit owners in this building have known about this issue for YEARS, previous Boards have known about the issue and yet NOTHING was done about it.

Signed: Pissed Off Owner at 2600 Kennedy!

PS if you know anyone who is thinking of purchasing here definitely inform them of this issue.

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We can only hope that will be the case this year.

A new building on Grove Street, in Jersey City, was behind the buyers? old condo.

Staying in the Comfort Zone

New York Times
The Hunt
By JOYCE COHEN
June 22, 2008

NEARLY two years ago, Lana Walsh helped her future husband, Marco Tartaglia, choose his bachelor pad at the Zephyr Lofts condominium in Jersey City, just over the Hoboken line. She joined him soon afterward. They knew they wouldn?t be living there long.

Though it was a generous 900 square feet, the apartment was still only a one-bedroom. The closet situation ?got a little crazy for me,? Mrs. Tartaglia said. ?There is no way I could have fit all my stuff in there even if I were alone.? Mr. Tartaglia had bulky snowboard and golf equipment. When she arrived and assumed most of the closet space, he shoved his sports stuff into the little laundry room.

?I always felt it was Marco?s place,? Mrs. Tartaglia said. ?It wasn?t our place together.?

Mrs. Tartaglia, 26, grew up mostly in Holmdel, in central New Jersey. After graduating from Loyola College in Baltimore, she earned an M.B.A. at Seton Hall University in South Orange and became an agent at Caulfield Real Estate in Hoboken. She was living with her parents four years ago when she met Mr. Tartaglia, 36, who works as a sales manager for a developer.

At that point, Mr. Tartaglia, a Florham Park native and a graduate of Montclair State University, was renting an apartment in Summit with a roommate. When Mr. Tartaglia bought his home in the Zephyr Lofts, his roommate bought a condominium in Morristown. (?He had a girlfriend and I had a girlfriend,? Mr. Tartaglia said. ?He married his and I married mine, so it worked out for both.?)

Last summer, as they were planning their fall wedding, the Tartaglias began the hunt for a two-bedroom, two-bath condo. In the Zephyr Lofts, the only big units available were duplex lofts that seemed too open. They wanted a better setup for overnight guests.

It was tempting to buy a suburban house. Near Holmdel, ?those beautiful houses that two years ago were going for $750,000 are going for $600,000,? Mrs. Tartaglia said. Unfortunately, ?I wasn?t really ready for the house.?

The couple expected to end up in a small Hoboken condo building. ?I know Hoboken inside and out,? Mrs. Tartaglia said. ?We always walk to the same little Italian restaurant. It is a comfort-zone thing.?

But their price range, around $600,000, proved low for Hoboken. ?That kind of inhibits your square footage,? she said. ?You are not going to find anything unless it?s a walk-up? ? or a trek from the PATH train and the waterfront.

A huge top-floor duplex, with 1,400 square feet of space and a price of $639,000, was available at 1021 Grand Street. Mrs. Tartaglia loved its big roof terrace and location near Columbus Park. ?It looked better in the pictures than it did in person, but I thought it had a lot of potential,? she said. Mr. Tartaglia argued that it would need at least $60,000 worth of work to upgrade the bathroom and refurbish the scuffed wood floors.

The condo later sold for $656,500. ?I threw it in his face: ?See, I told you ? it went to a bidding war,? ? Mrs. Tartaglia said.

They considered the Oz, a five-year-old building on Adams Street. But the price for a two-bedroom, around $589,000 with no doorman, didn?t seem like a bargain. ?To me, it didn?t matter, but Marco likes the whole doorman thing,? Mrs. Tartaglia said.

They nearly placed an offer on a unit at 1028 Hudson Street. This one, a 1,000-square-foot two-bedroom with just one bathroom, was near Elysian Park. The listing price was $565,000. ?I fell in love with the location because Hudson Street is a beautiful, charming street,? Mrs. Tartaglia said.

But the unit?s railroad layout wasn?t ideal. Mr. Tartaglia also feared that the ground-floor location would be noisy, with people coming in and out. ?We wouldn?t have much privacy,? he said. ?They would hear our TV on and would hear us talking.? It lacked parking, and there was still the matter of the one bathroom.

The couple wondered whether Hoboken could offer what they were seeking in their price range. So last fall, when they returned from their honeymoon in Italy, they resumed the hunt in Jersey City.

?Although Hoboken has arrived, I think Jersey City has potential and is going to grow a lot over the next five or 10 years,? Mr. Tartaglia said. ?It made sense from an investment standpoint.?

But most of the new condos there seemed ?kind of plain Jane,? Mrs. Tartaglia said. ?Nothing really appealed to us.? Layouts were impractical. ?When you are strapped for space and every square foot is $500 or $600, you don?t want to waste it on a hallway,? when it could be better used in a kitchen or bedroom, she said.

Mr. Tartaglia had his eye on one unit at Canco Lofts, where he is a sales manager. But the timing was bad. The building, formerly an American Can Company factory, is being fully rehabilitated and won?t be ready for closings until next fall.

Meanwhile, the couple watched 700 Grove rising directly behind the Zephyr. The buildings share a parking garage and a courtyard. Mrs. Tartaglia often showed the building to clients.

?Every time I was taking out a client, I was looking for myself, too,? she said. ?We already know the neighborhood, we like the location, we are comfortable here and the building has the amenities that Marco likes ? the gym and the doorman.?

Over time, ?it kind of grew on them, bringing other people in and seeing them get excited about the building,? said Shirley Saez, the sales manager for 700 Grove.

Last winter, the Tartaglias bought a two-bedroom, two-bath apartment of 1,200 square feet, paying just over $600,000, including $30,000 for a parking space. Monthly charges are nearly $640, and taxes are less than $10,000 a year.

They have set up the second bedroom as an office and guest room, and now have plenty of closet space. Most significantly, ?two bathrooms makes for a happy marriage,? Mr. Tartaglia said.

Their friends are always amazed at how close Jersey City is to Manhattan ? a seven-minute drive. They drive in only on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday nights, when traffic is thin and street parking plentiful. On other days, they take the PATH train. ?We have our set thing,? Mrs. Tartaglia said. ?We know the restaurants and the streets well enough.?

A few weeks back, they made the mistake of driving in on a Saturday night. They ended up circling for two and a half hours looking for parking. ?We were, like, never again ? let?s just go back home,? Mrs. Tartaglia said.

Earlier this month, they added the final touch to their new home ? a screen on the sliding door that leads to their balcony. That was necessary to keep Lola, their new kitten, safely inside while they sit outdoors at night, enjoying wine and the Manhattan view.

A Quest That Brought Lady Liberty Closer

The New York Times
By KEVIN COYNE
Published: June 22, 2008

Jersey City

LEGACY Sam and Judy Pesin celebrated the role their father, Morris, had in a movement to create Liberty State Park.

ANYBODY else sneaking up behind the Statue of Liberty the way Sam Pesin was on this sunny postcard morning ? in a 14-foot rowboat, aiming for a small beach beside the ferry dock crowded with tourists arriving in the sanctioned manner ? would get a stern bullhorn warning to back away, immediately. He got a round of applause instead, and a fireboat spouting arcs of red, white and blue.

Fifty years and one day earlier, his late father made the same short trip in an even smaller craft, a canoe, the first leg of an 18-year quest to transform a decaying industrial waterfront of defunct piers and railyards into a more fitting backdrop for the revered landmark that stands at the front entrance to New Jersey, and America.

?There?s nothing like it in the world, and it?s right here in Jersey City?s backyard,? Sam Pesin said when he reached Liberty Island, quoting his father, Morris, to the group of 65 who had gathered on June 14 to celebrate the anniversary of the eight-minute canoe trip that started the movement to create Liberty State Park, which opened in 1976. ?The waters today were a lot calmer than when my father went on that drizzly, misty day.?

Morris Pesin was among those New Jerseyans who believed their home state deserved better than it got, and could do better than it did. He started off wanting to change the world, and then realized that the best place to start was with his own city.

His parents were immigrant Jews from Russia, and he absorbed the kind of progressive politics that pervaded many such families that sought refuge in the United States from czarist pogroms. He met his wife, Esther, at a meeting at the city?s Jewish Community Center in support of the anti-Fascist forces during the Spanish Civil War. ?Both my husband and I supported the right people,? said Ethel Pesin, 93, who lives in Journal Square.

He was a lawyer, but so were several of his brothers, and when clients came to the law firm of Pesin Pesin Pesin & Pesin, they tended to ask for the older, more experienced Pesins. After World War II, he and Ethel opened a clothing store to outfit the waves of young baby boomers.

?My husband didn?t care about business, he didn?t care about money,? said Mrs. Pesin, who would buy new shoes and jackets for him because he couldn?t be bothered to buy them for himself. ?He never even looked at the register to see how we were doing that day. I said, ?Let?s open another store,? we were doing so well, and he said, ?No, what would we do with the money?? ?

What he cared about were larger issues: integrating local restaurants; ending racial restrictions at Palisades Amusement Park; pressing for state anti-bias laws; organizing interfaith programs between blacks and Jews. And finding a way to connect his home city more firmly to the Statue of Liberty that had greeted his parents, and that he had such a hard time visiting with his wife and two children one May day in 1957.

?We had to go to New York, and we couldn?t find a parking space, and we had to ride around and around,? Mrs. Pesin said of a trip that took three hours. ?Coming home we were on the Turnpike and my husband looked at me and said, ?Ethel, look how close we are, I could touch it.? ?

It just wasn?t right, Mr. Pesin believed, that the statue wasn?t more accessible from New Jersey. ?I remember him ranting and yelling and being so angry in the car,? said Sam Pesin, who was 7 at the time. ?I don?t remember what he said, except him just really being mad about the whole day.?

He encouraged the city?s newspaper, The Jersey Journal, to take up the cause, and the editor finally suggested the canoe trip as a publicity stunt. ?The son of immigrants paddling out to the statue that greeted the immigrants and all their struggles, and here he had an opportunity now to do something for the country that was doing so much for immigrants ? I know it sounds a little corny,? said Sam Pesin, 58, who has been president of Friends of Liberty State Park since 1995, and who often tells his father?s story to the students at the Jersey City preschool where he teaches. ?He wanted to make the world a better place, and it came from his love of America.?

When Morris Pesin ran as an independent for the City Council in 1969, he covered the loudspeaker atop his car?s roof with a doghouse. He would be the city?s watchdog, he promised, and he won. He closed the store in 1974, rejoiced at the park?s opening in 1976 and then, after leaving the council in 1977, worked ? full time, but declining a salary ? for the city?s cultural arts commission and what was called the City Spirit office. A few weeks before he died in 1992, on his last visit to the park, he watched his 5-year-old granddaughter ride her bicycle on the sidewalk along Freedom Way.

After the anniversary speeches were finished, the friends, family and admirers of Mr. Pesin rode a National Park Service boat back to Jersey City, the gateway now for 800,000 visitors each year who, because of Morris Pesin, no longer have to make the long journey to Lower Manhattan first to get to the Statue of Liberty.

Liberty State Park is the busiest state park in New Jersey, with five million visitors each year, and several hundred of them were gathered in the shade of the sycamores at the picnic grove where the large Pesin clan used to gather for family reunions.

?The last big one was the year before he died,? Sam Pesin said. But other families gather here for their own reunions regularly, and his father, he is sure, would have counted them as part of his own.

E-mail: jersey@nytimes.com

Downtown Newark's rental market on the rise

BY JASON SHEFTELL
Daily News
June 19th 2008

For years real estate developers and government officials thought no one would want to live in downtown Newark. Developer Arthur Stern and his Cogswell Group just proved them wrong.

Recent rentals at Eleven80 (1180 Raymond Avenue), Cogswell's 317-unit 35-floor residential building, show 45 rentals in the past six weeks, putting the building at almost 85% rented in just over a year.

"People still don't understand how this revitalization occurred," says Stern, who credits a strong city government, the new Prudential Center Arena, and his company's persistent effort for the turnaround. "It was a six year odyssey of council meetings and presentations to banks to get people to understand that this building and downtown could work."

Drawing renters priced out of Hoboken, Jersey City, and Manhattan, Eleven80 has been transformed from a rotting downtown commercial building into the city's tallest residential structure. For 21 years, the former Helmsley-owned building lay abandoned. The nationally registered historic landmark is the first market-rate downtown residential building since 1961.

Sitting two blocks from the Prudential Center and at the southern edge of Military Park, Eleven80 is five to ten minute walk from Newark's Penn Station and a 15 minute Path Train ride to downtown Manhattan. Stern thinks location, the building's amenities, gracious apartment sizes and a changing perception of Newark are reasons for this building fast success.

"For years Newark was an easy target for people to poke fun of," he says. "The reality is there are good areas and bad areas. When someone gets killed in East New York, it doesn't scare a person in Chelsea. There are areas of Newark with no crime."

Municipal Council Member Carlos M. Gonzalez calls the downtown area in Newark one of the city's safest places.

"There is more of a police presence downtown than almost any other Newark neighborhood," says Gonzalez, the Newark North Ward resident who joined the city government two years ago when Cory Booker became mayor. "We're working now on bringing businesses and residents back to downtown and employing our citizens. Investment in downtown is increasing at a very fast pace."

Renters are 1180 Raymond feel the new downtown energy. This past week alone, Tom Petty, Alicia Keys, and a McDonalds-sponsored Gospel show packed the new Arena, amicably called "The Rock" by locals. New restaurants, the New Jersey Performance Arts Center, and symphony add to the list of things to do downtown.

"I decided to take a chance on Newark and all the things happening here," says Tracey Alexander, a board member of Newark's Habitat for Humanity who moved from the East Village in January. "It was the best move I ever made. Weekends are quiet but that's nice. The building has a sauna."

Built in the 1930s, the building also has concrete balconies built into its penthouses, a marble lobby, and gold gilded elevator doors. The modern update includes a four-lane bowling alley, an indoor half-court basketball hoop, and a lounge area nicer than any area club. Leather chairs, funky clocks, stainless steel lighting and a wood d?cor make the second-floor wireless lounge area a frequent amenity choice for residents.

There's a small supermarket and bank across the street from one of the building's two lobby entrances. Valet parking is also available for residents and guests. A media room has an X-Box and Playstation with a Nintendo Wii allegedly on the way.

"Our competition is Jersey City, Hoboken, Williamsburg, Long Island City and any other area trying to offer superior quality and more affordable rental units than Manhattan," says Stern. "In three days last week we had 11 sales. Eight of them came from people previously living in Manhattan."

Rentals in the $130 million project are being handled by The Marketing Directors, Inc. One-bedrooms rent for $1,695, two-bedrooms for $2,450. A similar apartment rents for $2,850 in Hoboken. Two penthouses with outdoor terraces with Prudential Center, Newark Airport and Manhattan skyline views are under renovation.

Last Friday, downtown Newark was beginning to bustle towards rush hour. Street corners and store fronts were crowded with people heading to public transportation for the ride home. A few families played on the grass in Military Park. The circular plaza of PSE&G's world headquarters saw one person enjoying the built-in modern waterfall.

"I saw an unbelievable transformation during the 14 months spent on the job," says William Gilbane III, Business Development Manager for the Gilbane Building Company, the construction company who built the Prudential Center Arena. "Newark grows more into a 24-hour thriving city each time a new development is announced and a new apartment is rented or sold."

the monthly fee will go up $5 as of July 1. They've been doing some upkeep/trimming since they've announced they're taking over, and say they plan on paving the lot, installing a gate and passkey system and giving assigned parking spots. they're definitely talking a good game, and if they follow through and keep their word, it will be pretty impressive.

shopping carts cost the stores anywhere from $200-400 a piece...sometimes more if they have the electronic immobilizer. if people purchased those folding carts so that they could carry their groceries home in that in the event that they were car or cab-less, maybe the stores would be able to maintain an appropriate amount of carts (think marshalls on 440, we all know they are very low on carts.) also, there should be no need for bj's to have a truck going around to pick up carts. carts are for store use only, not a convenience for people to take home and leave them wherever they feel like. technically once the cart is off the premises it is considered stealing.

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Crash!
New set of measures to offset Erie Street accidents
Ricardo Kaulessar
Reporter staff writer | 06/20/2008

Erie Street in downtown Jersey City is a narrow one-way road going south to north from Newark Avenue to 16th Street - but that banal description belies how popular this thoroughfare has become with morning rush hour commuters looking for a shortcut to the Holland Tunnel or the Turnpike.

There were 89 accidents in 2007 on Erie Street - more than one per week - with a whopping 62 of them happening just between 12th and 14th streets.

The other 27 accidents occurred within the stretch from Newark Avenue to Sixth Street, according to Jersey City Police Captain Brian McDonough, who heads the department's East District Precinct on Seventh Street.

Residents of the area have been complaining at community meetings and in phone calls and e-mails to Councilman Steve Fulop about speeding traffic and accidents on that street and others leading to the tunnel.

"In the case of traffic throughout the city, speeding and cutting through residential streets is a quality of life issue that needs to be addressed," Fulop said last week.

Accidents on Erie
McDonough said that so far this year, there have been 22 accidents, with 17 of them occurring between 12th and 14th streets. He said this represents a decreased number of accidents on Erie between Newark Avenue and Sixth Street.

He said the police are diligent about cracking down on speeding by issuing tickets ranging from $85 to $200. McDonough also has a personal reason for wanting to slow down speeding on this road.

"Two of our police officers were patrolling late at night a few months ago on Erie when some car going eastbound was speeding and went right into their patrol car," McDonough said. "One of those officers is still out of work because of the injury he sustained from that night."

More stop signs on the way
In March, Fulop sponsored legislation to place stop signs at every intersection on Erie Street up to Tenth Street (this section of Erie Street is predominantly residential) to curb speeding and reduce the potential for accidents.

But the legislation had to be amended since there were disagreements with various agencies such as the Jersey City Police Department and the Department of Public Works over the solution, with some officials claiming it would slow traffic. Instead, a compromise was reached and several deterrents were agreed upon in April to implement:

* A stop sign will be placed on Erie at Third Street.
* The Parking Authority will step up enforcement on parking at the curbs.
* Crosswalks will be repainted.
* Additionally, the blinking light on Erie at 10th Street might be switched to a standard traffic light in the near future.

However, Fulop said he would like to see some additional measures implemented to complement the others.

"The administration and Director John Yurchak [of Public Works] doesn't believe in speed bumps, which may sound ridiculous ... not even in select locations," Fulop said last week. "[Yurchak] believes in rumble strips, which serve no purpose as they have them on Kennedy Boulevard, but cars still speed 50 miles per hour over them and the only purpose they serve is to make noise."

Resident also wants safety
Dan Levin lives with his wife and two children on Third Street near Erie. His night's sleep has been disturbed by sound of a crash on Erie Street several times in recent months.

He said he welcomes any effort to prevent future accidents from happening - such as the speeding car that ran into a section of Grace Church Van Vorst on Second and Erie streets, knocking out a gate.

He has several suggestions, such as police cracking down on people parking close to the intersections, which blocks visibility and causes drivers to pull out into oncoming traffic.

"We all benefit from having safer streets," Levin said.

Quote: LMAO!

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Someone I know who has had a space there a long time said that effective July 1st the operator of that lot will be the developer who bought the space from the Parking Authority. Contact Max Russo at 973-420-1948.

I'm under the impression that the new owners intend to conduct business as usual, but check.

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Thanks for posting this update!

I also like what the Newsweek article said below:

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So do you have a solution ? I guess what has been provided is better than nothing.

I have been parking at the duncan/bergen lot (lot #1) for a while now but received a letter from the parking authority that their lease will be up on July 1 and they're recommending lot 28 on montgomery/orchard which is a lil far for me.

Does anyone know who is taking over the duncan/bergen lot #1? Will it continue to run as a parking lot?

Thanks