Re: Pipe under city's street, but repair bill is all owners
|
||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Home away from home
|
Quote:
Well this sounds like a more unfair situation than the Jersey Journal story. If the city actually caused the damage when it did the paving, shouldn't they have to fix the pipe? If I cause damage to someone's property (unintentionally or intentionally), I would be sued and would likely have to pay damages. Seems pretty unfair that you have to bear all the costs of damages that the city caused.
Posted on: 2008/9/26 3:12
|
|||
|
Re: Pipe under city's street, but repair bill is all owners
|
||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Home away from home
|
Quote:
Since you did mention insurance, is it possible to insure oneself against something like this?
Posted on: 2008/9/26 3:02
|
|||
|
Re: What Jersey City Restaurant Do You Miss the Most?
|
||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Home away from home
|
The Tunnel Diner just out by the Holland Tunnel entrance. Good food, inexpensive and the people running that place were always so pleasant. Plus it was a genuine, authentic, honest-to-God diner, meaning it had once been a dining car on a train and was converted into a restaurant. Those places are so few and far between.
Posted on: 2008/9/12 2:04
|
|||
|
Re: Outrageous... out-of-town board-of-ed kids going to McNair
|
||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Home away from home
|
Quote:
I agree with you and I'm not even a city employee. There's just no way a city of Jersey City's size could have all of its employees live within the city limits anyway. Other cities (albeit larger ones than Jersey City) have tried that policy and it generally hasn't gone well. Washington,DC in the early 90s comes to mind- it was a total disaster. They couldn't find enough qualified people in the city to fill police officer vacancies, so they ended up hiring people that had felonies on their record. Uh huh. Great policy. But as far as the matter at hand goes, exactly what were they thinking when they set non-resident tuition at $1200? You have to be kidding me. Even back in 1992, that would be incredibly low for non-resident or private school tuition. But then again, many of our city officials, elected and non-elected, are known for acting in a way that defies all logic. Hopefully they will successfully raise the tuition ten-fold or more and this problem will solve itself.
Posted on: 2008/9/10 3:01
|
|||
|
Re: towing at shoprite?
|
||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Home away from home
|
Quote:
That would be nice - simple tickets instead of towing - but the owner/manager of the lot is not a law enforcement agency and wouldn't be able to enforce the tickets. People could simply ignore them, throw them out. So that would never happen. Now, super-sized signs, that would be more than fair, and something worth pushing for, both on the owner/manager of the lot, and asking the council member to put a little pressure on them as well. I prefer to keep this thread alive, despite the protests of others, in order to expose the injustice that exists at the ShopRite lot. But I try to do most of my grocery shopping at the A&P and things I'd normally buy at Bed,Bath & Beyond I buy at Linens n Things (also in the same shopping plaza as the A&P). So I vote with my feet. Never a problem at that lot.
Posted on: 2008/8/28 3:31
|
|||
|
Re: how is there only ONE post office in downtown JC?
|
||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Home away from home
|
Well, there's one on 645 Newark Avenue in Five Corners, another at 899 Bergen Avenue in Journal Square, and another at 392 Central Avenue near the Parking Authority.
Only the one on Central Avenue is open on Saturdays in addition to the one on Montgomery Street, and I will agree that the Montgomery Street location sucks. Understaffed, long lines and sometimes a less than competent staff. Never been to any of the other locations.
Posted on: 2008/8/22 3:43
|
|||
|
Re: Jersey City Parking Authority now only takes cash & money orders for guest parking permits
|
||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Home away from home
|
True, but you still need cash to get a money order at the post office, which pretty much defeats the purpose in this case.
Posted on: 2008/8/20 21:59
|
|||
|
Jersey City Parking Authority now only takes cash & money orders for guest parking permits
|
||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Home away from home
|
I'm sending this out as a warning/notice in the interest of being a good neighbor and preventing others from having to learn the hard way like I did (I do not work for the JCPA either). If you want to flame me in response (like so many people do on this board), that is your right but remember, I was trying to be nice.
As of today, 8/20, if you want to buy one of those $3/day guest parking permits at the Jersey City Parking Authority, it is CASH or MONEY ORDER ONLY now. Apparently they were getting too many bounced checks from nonresidents. They also said that you can still write regular checks for residential permits (but don't hold your breath on that one). Bear in mind they tell me this when I am at the window with my checkbook in hand and very little cash on me. I had called the day before to ask when they were open and after they told me until 7:30pm, they also said that if I wanted to get more than one guest parking permit, it HAD to be a check or money order and CASH would not be permitted (I had also paid by check before). But virtually overnight, the director decided to change the policy (well apparently they had been contemplating it for some time because of all the bad checks). The closest ATM is Washington Mutual, and that one charges a $3 fee if you are not a Washington Mutual customer. Just trying to help.
Posted on: 2008/8/20 17:31
|
|||
|
Re: REMINDER! TONIGHT Tuesday August 19!
|
||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Home away from home
|
Well, did anybody go to this? If so, how was it? Did you get a chance to talk to Mr. Fulop personally?
Posted on: 2008/8/20 3:54
|
|||
|
Re: Frank, the pizza man is running for city council ( Frank's Famous Italian Pizzeria on Monmouth )
|
||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Home away from home
|
Quote:
I'm sure they are honorable and compassionate people, but can they keep the sidewalks clean, particularly on Monmouth Street between 3rd & 4th? By the way, he may have opened up the pizzeria if he "believed in the neighborhood" as so many would-be politicians like to say, but do you really think he would have opened it up if he didn't think he could make money? Not that's there anything wrong with that, but most people don't open up an eating establishments out of the goodness of their hearts.
Posted on: 2008/8/19 3:16
|
|||
|
Re: Towing: Now at Morton Williams
|
||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Home away from home
|
M-W has just lost my future business too. Not that it matters, I didn't know about them in the first place until I read this thread.
Posted on: 2008/8/8 4:43
|
|||
|
Re: How do I Plead?
|
||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Home away from home
|
Quote:
It's a pain in the butt, I know, I've been there. Not for parking in a handicapped spot, but for leaving my car on the street for more than three days (down at the shore, Bay Head specifically). Walking to the towing yard to get my car and paying the towing charge in cash was only the beginning of the aggravation. The ticket I was given by the police was for an "abandoned vehicle" charge, which apparently is a violation of state law and not local municipal code. I would assume that parking illegally in a handicapped spot is also governed by state law and that's why you have to appear in court. I asked the people in Bay Head over the phone if I could just pay the fine by check or cash and they said no, there is no set fine for this offense, although the judge usually imposes $100, so you have to appear. I wasn't too happy about having to appear and now that I am aware of the abandoned vehicle law in New Jersey, taking a day off work serves as a much more adequate deterrent than the monetary fine. If Jersey City court operates like most municipal courts in this state (I've never been) where they deal with minor traffic offenses and things like public drunkenness what will happen is they will separate the people with lawyers from the people without lawyers. The people with lawyers will go negotiate with the prosecutor(s) out in the hallway while the judge is calling off the names of people without lawyers and asking how they plead (and nothing else). The people with lawyers will have their pleas negotiated down to lesser charges. Then the judge will read off the names of people with lawyers who have by now gotten their charges reduced but more importantly gotten to the "front of the line" so to speak and can get out of the courtroom more quickly. The judge will read the reduced charge and impose the punishment (i.e. the fine) and then you can go pay the clerk and be on your way. As it happens, I'm a lawyer so I was able to represent myself, spoke to the prosecutor, spoke maybe three sentences before he agreed to downgrade my charge to a municipal code violation and got in and out the courtroom quickly. Otherwise you sit and wait until the judge gets back to the people who are not represented by lawyers and the people who pled guilty get their punishments imposed while the people who pled not guilty have their trials and sometimes the trials have to be scheduled for another day depending how long everything took. So at that point, pleading guilty will get you out of there faster. If you don't want to wait so long and your time is more valuable to you then having to wait for the judge to get through all the represented people before he can talk to you, pay a lawyer to show up and talk to the prosecutor. It will cost you considerably more than that $250 fine but paying a lawyer in this instance is not about saving money rather it is so you can get in and out of there quicker. I gotta say, watching the other people plead, having their punishments imposed and hearing minor details about their cases when they were questioned by judge was quite a hoot and I almost didn't want to leave after the judge imposed my fine and court fees totaling $50. Go figure... I was more than willing to pay $100 ahead of time, but they had to haul me into court to tell me I had to pay half of that. Oh wait... my charge was downgraded from the state offense to a municpal charge. A lawyer friend of mine told me that municipalities only get to keep 25% of the fines imposed on people breaking state laws whereas they get to keep ALL of the fines imposed on people for municipal code violations. I guess that 25% of $100 is less than 100% of $50. Hope this helps. Good luck! Oh, and wear a suit to court. I couldn't believe the number of people I saw in shorts and t-shirts and the judge was definitely harder on them.
Posted on: 2008/8/8 4:31
|
|||
|
Re: Frank, the pizza man is running for city council ( Frank's Famous Italian Pizzeria on Monmouth )
|
||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Home away from home
|
Quote:
Well I just went by there and I must say that while his pizzeria was always messy out front, today it was as clean as it has ever been. Either he's taking his run for city council seriously or he actually reads these message boards.
Posted on: 2008/8/2 15:25
|
|||
|
Re: Is being ignorant a requirement to work for the JC Parking Authority?
|
||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Home away from home
|
Well I think its fair to say that this thread has completely gotten away from the topic at hand and somehow dissolved into the classic "private sector employees are hard working and government employees aren't" argument which permeates many more discussion boards all over the WWW, bars, parks and dining room tables.
I really don't have any opinion about that, but I thought I'd maybe get this thread back on what it was supposed to be about by bring back another issue that sort of deals with both discussions here (unfairness/inconsistency of JCPA policies & government employees not doing their jobs): private sector companies doing government jobs. Namely, Paylock, the Somerville-based company that gets a cut of that $110 everytime someone calls to have the boot removed from their car. How many cars get booted a day in Jersey City, so we can get a rough estimate of how money Paylock is making from it, and why they have every incentive to see as many cars as possible get booted? I would guess that they see at least $55 (half) of every $110 paid to remove a boot. Anyone else care to offer an opinion?
Posted on: 2008/7/31 3:31
|
|||
|
Re: Is being ignorant a requirement to work for the JC Parking Authority?
|
||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Home away from home
|
tess1 hit the nail on the head about the absurdity of the system.
If anyone wishes to know about the city contractor that is at least partly (certainly not entirely) to blame for this nonsense, it is a company called Paylock based in Somerville. Their website is www.paylock.com. Of course, I don't know for sure, but I don't doubt that they receive a substantial cut of that $110 every time someone calls them to get the boot removed. I have no idea how they were able to get this contract with Jersey City, and the state Election Law Enforcement Commission website doesn't show them as a campaign donor anywhere in New Jersey (at any level) but I also don't know who they are owned by and where they make their campaign donations in New Jersey, or if they just have friends at the Parking Authority. It's no surprise that a lot of city contractors were not necessarily the best contractors for the jobs they do or that kickbacks still happen today. I'm not accusing this company or its owner(s) of doing anything associated with political corruption, but this seems to be the ideal situation for that to happen. Just my 2 cents, and how I feel about the fact that a private company having a stake in as many cars as possible being booted in JC is not a good thing.
Posted on: 2008/7/29 1:20
|
|||
|
Re: Kabili Tayari in the news again...this time he didn't return his rental car
|
||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Home away from home
|
So I guess they're trying to let this story quietly die in City Hall. What do the deputy mayors do anyway?
Posted on: 2008/7/21 1:26
|
|||
|
Re: JCTransit.com - New Transportation Directory
|
||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Home away from home
|
Quote:
What a great website! Thanks Ken. I always wondered how to contact the local cab companies, since I can never find a cab in my neighborhood. This is badly needed. I hope the advertising funds it successfully. Good luck!
Posted on: 2008/7/15 4:09
|
|||
|
Re: Kabili Tayari in the news again...this time he didn't return his rental car
|
||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Home away from home
|
Jersey City Deputy Mayor Kabili Tayari charged with theft
by Michaelangelo Conte Thursday July 03, 2008, 12:47 PM Journal file photo Kabili TayariJersey City Deputy Mayor Kabili Tayari was arrested by Port Authority police yesterday, who pulled him over in a rental car that had been reported stolen, reports said. Tayari was charged with theft under his given name, Randy Brown, officials said today. He was arrested in Jersey City and charged with theft by failure to make proper disposition of property received, based on allegations by a car rental business at Newark Liberty International Airport, said Jennifer Frieberg, a spokeswoman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Tayari was arrested at 9:30 a.m., fingerprinted and booked by Port Authority police and later released, said Frieberg, adding that the charges against him are being handled by the Essex County Prosecutor's Office. The vehicle Tayari was in when he was arrested was returned to the airport rental service, Frieberg said. The charge apparently stems from his failure to return a rental vehicle, officials said. It's not clear how long he had the car or what the circumstances were but the Essex County Prosecutor's Office is expected to provide additional information on the charges later today. Tayari, who is in his late 50's, has been a Jersey City employee for the past 12 years and has been president of the Jersey City branch of the NAACP at least as long. He got his start in city government in the administration of Mayor Bret Schundler and has also served as president of the Board of Education and interim Municipal Court director. During the administration of Jersey City Mayor Glenn D. Cunningham, he was an assistant business administrator and an adviser to the mayor. As of October 2007, his city salary was $104,871, officials said.
Posted on: 2008/7/3 20:17
Edited by Webmaster on 2009/6/12 3:10:17
|
|||
|
Kabili Tayari in the news again...this time he didn't return his rental car
|
||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Home away from home
|
I can't believe this hasn't shown up here yet. The real kicker is that this rental car was routinely ticketed every week for being parked on the wrong side of the street during alternate side parking days. I guess I shouldn't be that surprised.
WCBS AM 880 continues to report it but it doesn't look like any print publication has mentioned it. Unfortunately, whatever they've put on their website shows up in google searches but somehow doesn't stay on the website - you can't actually get it when you search on the website. But I don't think they purposely removed it as I just heard it reported again on the radio. But I don't have any link or source I can quote. Just listen to WCBS AM 880.
Posted on: 2008/7/3 14:55
|
|||
|
Re: Computer Repair in JC
|
||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Home away from home
|
Microtech Computers, 2810 John F Kennedy Blvd, a little ways up from Journal Square. They charge very reasonable rates, work quickly and are nice people. I believe that's the same place JCRegister is referring to.
Posted on: 2008/7/3 2:14
|
|||
|
Re: Is Jersey City One of the Brainiest Places to Retire? -- Hoboken is.
|
||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Home away from home
|
I have no clue how I would retire in Jersey City or anywhere in the greater NYC area for that reason, given the cost of living. I was thinking I'd have to retire to one of the states with no income tax to have any hope of surviving - Texas, Nevada, New Hampshire, Florida, Washington or Tennessee (none of which are on the list).
Posted on: 2008/6/9 7:04
|
|||
|
Re: JCPA's booting policy called unfair
|
||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Home away from home
|
Just out of curiousity, not that I would ever try to do it but has anyone ever tried and/or been successful at removing a DMV boot on their own? Or know anyone that did?
I've heard stories about people removing the boot successfully (without a blowtorch or anything too sophisticated) and driving away, but maybe all that is just urban legend. On another note, if the whole point of having zones, two hour parking limits, and alternate side parking is so that street parking will be readily available to city residents as well as allow street cleaners to get through, how does booting cars really advance this goal? Wouldn't towing just make more sense?
Posted on: 2008/5/28 0:39
|
|||
|
Re: towing at shoprite?
|
||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Home away from home
|
Quote:
Yes, I guess it would be trespassing and perhaps some sort of theft charge too. But my friend never heard anything from anybody (police or otherwise) after he took his care back, albeit illegally. As for me, I'm willing to cough up $1 to park at the mall's garage rather than risk being towed as well. I've never had the misfortune of being towed by Danny's myself. As for Danny, I wouldn't imagine him to be a very nice person, but then again, when did you ever find a friendly person doing that type of work ?
Posted on: 2008/3/25 4:00
|
|||
|
Re: Problems With RobinsOak Management
|
||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Home away from home
|
Quote:
We have LaBarbera managing our small building. I wouldn't classify them as terrific, but at least they return phone calls and emails. Sometimes they are slow with our requests but then they sometimes have the very daunting task of dealing with the different Jersey City agencies for requests that involve obtaining a work permit of some sort. I can't really compare them to any other management company because I haven't lived in any other buildings managed by another company. But from the sounds of it, I'm glad to have them instead of RobinsOak. It sounds like these companies enjoy a sort of "shared monopoly" - relatively small number of family-run management companies that control a large number of all the small buildings in Hudson County that wouldn't be worth the time of the larger, more professional companies. They all seem to be glorified real estate agencies. If a building association gets ticked off and fires its management company, they don't care because there aren't many other companies to take their place and you'll come back to them sooner or later when your association gets pissed off at the next management company. Still, their neglectful attitude is no way to win the potential business of being your real estate broker when you're ready to sell your unit, because there are plenty of real estate agencies and agents to choose from in the area.
Posted on: 2008/3/24 3:54
|
|||
|
Re: towing at shoprite?
|
||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Home away from home
|
Thankfully, I've never had the problem of being towed and I'm willing to pay $1 for the privilege of parking in the mall, although I believe there is only one machine for purposes of paying the parking ticket and it is a real pain in the ass, takes forever to process the ticket and often there is a line of people behind it waiting to pay.
Anyway, as it happens Danny's towing yard is just a few blocks from where I live and I frequently see the gates to it open when I'm walking over to the gym or out jogging. A question here...a friend of mine had his car towed some time ago and discovered that the towing yard where it was taken had its gate unlocked and no one was around. So he opened the gate and drove his car out and never looked back. Was he committing a misdemeanor by "stealing back" his own car ? Does the towing company automatically have some sort of lien on the car once it is towed for towing and storage fees that theoretically has to be paid, even if the owner takes the car back without paying ?
Posted on: 2008/3/24 2:33
|
|||
|
Re: i can volunteer - does jc have a free inc tax prep program for low income residents?
|
||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Home away from home
|
I've been doing VITA myself for years, since graduate school. At present I volunteer with an organization in Newark, known as Newark Now. I looked around for an organization in Jersey City myself with no success either - supposedly a non-profit known as ACORN runs (or used to run) a VITA site in Jersey City but I emailed and called them several times with zero response. I don't know anything about them really, much as I've tried to find out.
So I volunteer with Newark Now instead. Even though I have to take the PATH to Newark, I really like volunteering with them because they are super-organized like no other VITA site I've seen. They have staff who screen all the clients first to make sure they don't make more than the $40,000 annual maximum (to be eligible for our assistance), and everything is done on computer with a very easy to use program called TaxWise that guides you through everything, and gets the returns done quickly. They are filed electronically and several printers spit out copies for the clients. As I'm sure you know, people making less than $40,000 really don't have that many complicated tax issues. Anyway, if you're interested in volunteering, go to the website www.newarknow.org, 973-733-3460. As for places other than Newark, there is of course Community Tax Aid in New York City, who I volunteered with before also but they're not as well organized because they don't have enough computers to go around for their volunteers and aren't even able to set them up at some sites (where returns must be prepared by hand), and aren't able to file returns electronically. Here's their website: http://www.volunteernyc.org/org/1888463.html In any case, very nice of you to volunteer your time to do this - I get a lot of satisfaction out of doing it myself, especially knowing that we're taking business from the likes of H&R Block and Jackson Hewitt, their poor service, outrageous fees and their usurious refund anticipation loans. Good luck and hope to see you this tax season or next.
Posted on: 2008/3/16 7:46
|
|||
|
Re: Music Box 7th and Monmouth
|
||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Home away from home
|
Quote:
That bar still has Christmas lights up. Didn't Christmas end more than 2 months ago ? Things like that just irritate me. Although I'm the easily irritated type.* *Cue the sarcastic replies
Posted on: 2008/3/3 6:49
|
|||
|
Re: Dealing with the Office of Construction Code Official...anyone have insight?
|
||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Home away from home
|
Okay, good, this is useful and also confirms what I thought to be true. Because I live in a condo building and it would be all too easy for my neighbors to report me (not that they have any reason to but you never know) I'm too scared to build without a permit.
For the record, the Historic Preservation Commission was very professional and easy to deal with in obtaining a "certificate of no effect" which I needed to get because I am in the historic district. They could serve as a model for the rest of the Jersey City bureaucracy.
Posted on: 2008/2/15 3:08
|
|||
|
Re: Did the Tunnel Diner close? Say it ain't so!
|
||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Home away from home
|
Quote:
I liked the food there. It was open 24 hours and yes, I know there are other 24 hour places to eat in JC but this place was great - I like diners and it was convenient to where I lived. Not to mention that it truly met the definition of a "diner" - not just the fact that it was open 24 hours, breakfast available anytime AND not part of a chain BUT judging from the inside and outside structures, once upon a time it was truly a diner car on a train. There's nothing like eating in a place like that - for me anyway. Places like that are disappearing faster than the ozone layer.
Posted on: 2008/2/13 3:48
|
|||
|