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Re: Healy and emails
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Home away from home
 
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Quote:
Yeah, hizonner's a pig, without a doubt. But he's a hottie, right? You can't say that about Mike Bloomberg. Tho, on second thought, Cory Booker is a handsome man; but he just doesn't have the jin say kwa that Jerri the Man has got goin on.
Posted on: 2006/7/9 18:07
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Re: Newport Mall renovations
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Home away from home
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Regarding the ineffable experience of being in the
Newport Mall, always keep in mind: if it had been that the wishes of the people who lived here at the time were granted, there would be no Newport Mall today, nor no Newport anything. The only saving grace, as friends of mine frequently remind us, is that we saw it go up and we will see it fall down -- in our lifetimes. If you think the World Trade Center was made out of spit and feathers, you should have been here to watch them build Newport!
Posted on: 2006/7/9 17:58
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Re: Optometrist on Central Avenue sucks- any good JC opto recs?
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Home away from home
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Quote:
Everybody has good things to say about Dr. Savoy down by Grove St. Path. But remember that since most of his business is Medicaid/Medicare (he is one of the few eyeglass places that will accept those programs): so he is very, very busy; and his prices are perhaps higher than you might expect, -- since Medicaid/ Medicare pay only a portion of a doctor's cost, the doctor makes up the differential by pricing high and somehow it all comes out even in the end. This is common practice. This same sort of thing happened at the old Dental Clinic at St. Francis, which was mostly gov't subsidied. If you happen to be eligible for benefits, the service was great; but if you were a private pay patient, you could do much better price- wise and time-wise at a private doctor. The best bet is to take the Path into 14th St. and right there on the corner of 13th and Sixth is Lenscrafters. Same prices as over here and way more recherche stuff to choose from.
Posted on: 2006/7/7 15:29
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Re: Police Officer Domenick J. Infantes Jr. - Friday, July 6, 2001
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Home away from home
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Quote:
Agreed on that one! I remember at the time feeling that the jury should have been charged with a crime. But his honor the trial judge could have used his discretionary power to disavow the jury's panty-waist decision, --but the muther elected not to do so. He's as much at fault as the twelve peers.
Posted on: 2006/7/7 0:57
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Re: Ideas for Jersey City T-shirts
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Home away from home
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On a hot odoriferous day like today, this t-shirt
might be a smile-maker: . "Jersey City. Is that sewage I smell?"
Posted on: 2006/7/4 20:42
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Re: Assault/wilding incident on 9th and Erie
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Home away from home
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thanks for the phone numbers in your post. they are good to have.
Posted on: 2006/7/3 15:37
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Re: Assault/wilding incident on 9th and Erie
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Home away from home
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Quote:
You are so right. These are not "kids" in the sense that we all carry of kids. They are thugs. They are a menace to our neighborhoods and they should be dealt with by the police. But as I have said before in these pages, the police are very "careful" here about apprehending perps and/or potential perps for fear of legal reprisal. So, until we get a pro-active police force, we will have to be content with street criminals and their impunity. But at the same time, we really do have to make a more noticeable stink about this new bunch of dangerous young men which seems to have invaded us in the past six months or so. I have heard so many people remark that they have encountered this or similar group and been really frightenend at being followed, taunted, etc. Now that someone has, unfortunately, been injured we can use that attack as leverage to get the cops to pay some attention.
Posted on: 2006/6/30 15:24
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Re: Assault/wilding incident on 9th and Erie
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This bunch of kids has been around Harsimus and lower
Hamilton for a while now. Coming home after dark, you often see them roaming around. They clearly do not live her; probably from Holland Gardens, the project up by Salvation Army. We've always had trouble with kids from that place, who come down here at nite to have fun. The cops don't seem to take the threat seriously -- never have. My companion was followed home by this bunch the other nite, but managed to lose them by cutting in and out of cross-streets. He was very shaken when he got home. We made a phone call to the police, but what do they do if no crime occurred? Gotta wait til someone gets badly injured for some momentary police attention to happen. I hope reports of these incidents reach the neighborhood associations meetings, where the cops usually send a rep.
Posted on: 2006/6/29 21:37
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Re: Three 40-plus story towers on 110 and 111 First Street sites.
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Quote:
Perfect picture you've drawn. Thank you for the clarification. The 'impossible positions' and 'slinky toy' references are particularly apt and fragrant. Jersey City is grand guignol in real time.
Posted on: 2006/6/27 16:32
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Re: Ideas to discourage gang activity?
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Home away from home
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How about some policing?
That might do the trick, huh?
Posted on: 2006/6/24 16:48
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Re: Three 40-plus story towers on 110 and 111 First Street sites.
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Home away from home
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Goodie!!
No more sky to have to look at. Yippie!! No more daylight to brighten the drab downtown. There's nothing like several more unsightly, unnecessary, outsize condo buildings for plastic people to dorm in to make one wish and pray for a small tsunami that would overwhelm the water-front and return it to its pre-McCann condition of lovely derelict swamp -- which is what God intended. Five years ago was the time to say Bah, Humbug to waterfront rape and "development". Now, the moment has passed and it is too late. The virus has caught hold and is most likely unstoppable. Too bad. From now on in, when we all look east what we will see is a high rent version of Starrett City. Oy vey!!
Posted on: 2006/6/24 16:37
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Re: Ideas for Jersey City T-shirts
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Home away from home
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How about a color photo of the drunks passed out
on the banquettes upstairs at Grove Street station. Coming up the broken escalator and immediately encountering the comatose alcoholics is sort of an unofficial welcome to the nabe. All the hign=class condos for sale signs give the scene a nice piquant touch, too. Let's get them in the shot, also. Also, if we could package that rank smell around Grove Street, we might be able to market it in a bottle. Eau de JC.
Posted on: 2006/6/18 15:46
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Re: JC Post Office - Be Very Afraid
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Home away from home
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The Jersey City post office is simply not able to
handle packages larger than a small book or cd/dvd. If you order from Amazon, try and get things shipped separately, item by item, which costs you more in shipping but will utlimately net you more items arriving at your door. Aim for things that will fit thru your mail slot or into your mail box. Packages larger than that --- forget about it: you will never get them from USPS. Arrange to have large items come to you via UPS or FedEx or some other private carrier. If you are not home at time of delivery, UPS will leave the item with a designated neighbor. FedEx also has been very co- operative in getting packages/letters delivered. Both these carriers are supposed to return to the warehouse with their trucks as empty as possible, so they do make the effort to get your stuff to you. USPS refuses to even ring the doorbell for big box delivery. I've seen the guy time after time just jump out of the truck and slap an adhesive notice on my front door while I sit and watch him from my window. Then, if I run out and confront him, he gets all like confrontational and ugly. Calling the postmaster to complain does no good because the postmaster is either his aunt or uncle or brother-in-law, and you get the picture. Altho my daily letter carrier Nicky is the very best in the business, the guys/gals who handle the big stuff are the very worst. It's best just to avoid the whole issue of using USPS as a package carrier.
Posted on: 2006/5/2 1:05
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Re: Window Boxes & Historic Police
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Forget about these historic busybodies.
If your own building's rules will allow you to put out windowboxes, by all means do it. Let the so-called historic maven and his cronies better spend their time addressing the problem of people doing things that are really inappropriate. Good for you to want to plant flowers for all of us to look at and enjoy.
Posted on: 2006/4/28 18:30
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Re: JC is in the top 20 of best cities to eat in regards to food born maladies
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JC ranked high because all of us already have intestinal
parasites and e-coli cultures living in us. A few more bugs from the corner greasy spoon won't change the stats none. They give out paregoric at most local joints instead of after dinner mints.
Posted on: 2006/3/16 18:16
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Re: The light rail is fantastic!
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"Oh please. I've regularly taken the light rail, at all hours. I've never had a problem. I've gotten on and off at the Newport Mall stop with plenty of those "kids" coming out of the mall." .................................................................................... You clearly are not familiar with the two people who have been beaten nearly to death whilst either working on or riding the light rail at nite. Countless others have been robbed and mugged by bands of youths who are to- and fro-ing from the mall to Greenville and points south. It is also becoming increasingly clear that a goodly portion of the street vandalism and crime that we are seeing in Harsimus Cove and the two Parks neighborhoods results from kids who ride into the downtown on the light rail and jump off in our districts so they can have some fun on our streets at nite. So: Oh pleeze, yourself!! Get a grip. Just because you don't read about it in the paper doesn't mean it doesn't happen Let us drop some of the Pollyanna/Babbit trip that so many of our boosters and realtors and chamber of commerce types are perpetrating on innocents moving here from out of town. People should know what they are getting into.
Posted on: 2006/3/8 20:14
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Re: Amid the Glitter, JC's Growing Pains
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Yes, being aware of one's environment is key, here or anywhere. (But of course I am the first to break my own rules and to just wander around, head in the clouds, thinking about anything other than where I am and what I'm doing.) Keeping out of daydream mode is crucial in the urban streetscape. The Times story on downtown and crime seems to me right on target, though I no longer keep 100% up on the latest stats. The business about the mothers and old ladies being hassled is sad and a bit sick. But just as sad and sick, I feel, is the police dept.'s apparent disinterest and also their perfunctory reaction to street and property crime. What the dept. excels at is taking reports, but we could hire low-wage stenos to take reports. What we need is street policing and crime prevention/deterrent --BEFORE the crime, rather than after the crime, which is what we have now. We need an aggressive police presence that is not wary of offending the fragile sensibilities of perps. Politically correct cops belong in some place like Oslo, where they do not have crime. Whereas in downtown JC, we need cops who have the stones to do their jobs and not worry about what class action law- suits might result from their having done their jobs. Until there is a fundamental change in the philosophy of policing here, chit-chat about politicos and councilpeople and age-old animosities and blood feuds and nepotistic charades are just that -- chit chat over tepid tea. Meanwhile, downtown, people come and go, and they are not speaking of Michelangelo -- they're saying, "Thank God we got out of there in one piece."
Posted on: 2006/3/6 17:53
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Re: The light rail is fantastic!
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Do not get on that thing at night. You will not live to tell of the experience. The kids coming out of the mall and jumping on that thing and wilding to their hearts content will eat you alive. Even armed cops won't go near the light rail after dark. Forewarned is forearmed.
Posted on: 2006/3/6 17:27
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Re: Amid the Glitter, JC's Growing Pains
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Well, the "growing pains" I know about all too well, having endured and sustained them for well into twenty-three years now. But the "glitter": now that eludes me. Surely they jest when they talk about our glitter. High rents and high taxes, noise and litter, nolo contendere... But "glitter"? Come on, ladies. Get a grip. The glamour of J.C. is an invention of the real estate agents. How many people move here and stay for six months or less and then run away at the first chance. Loads and loads. And they're screaming, "Where's the Glitter?"
Posted on: 2006/3/4 18:05
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Re: Police Chief Robert Troy says -- "Stevie...has exhibited serious incompetence"
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Home away from home
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"On a side note about the quality of changes the police are putting into effect - Saturday night around midnight, I watched a JCPD car drive right past about half dozen males (some looked underage) with open containers cross the street as the cop drove by. They then proceeded to throw and smash their bottles on the street, sidewalk and someone's property. Underage with open containers in the street gets ignored - good job JCPD!!!"
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Oh, yes. How I sympathize; but it has always been the policy/non-policy of the cops here to ignore crime or the strong potential for trouble and crime. I cannot tell you how many dozens and scores of times I have seen cop cars casually cruise right past scenes and events happening right out in the open on the street or sidewalk that should have made them stop and investigate. But they never did such kind of policing, at least not since the race riots of the seventies, and probably never will again. The police dept,, being that it got into so much trouble in the seventies, is terrified of being accused of racist behavior, and so we have an over-compensation in the other direction. I have repeatedly asked at police meetings in the years gone by why it is that cops routinely drive by with their blinders on full, --and the answer has always been, regardless who was the precint captain or the police director (and since I have lived here we have had about fifty of each of those) that: We do not go out looking for trouble; We will answer a call for help, but we will not do crime prevention. We cannot afford the lawsuits that ensue from doing the latter. And so this policy/non-policy has been in effect for many years now and by now it is pretty well ingrained in the local ethos. So: If you think that the perps and the kids who hang out doing their brand of evil don't know that the cops are going around essentially hobbled and blindfolded, you have another think coming, as my Uncle Clayton (a perfect Yankee pragmatist, if there ever was one) used to say.
Posted on: 2006/2/7 17:40
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Re: What is the mission of a Historic District? (moved from What's this letter from Warren G. Curtin
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Home away from home
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While it certainly can't hurt to chat about this subject, and eventually, perhaps, to come to some sort of mutually satifying resolution/solution to the contretemps, it may also be useful to recall that: at the time, years and years ago, that historic districting first alighted in Jersey City-- downtown neighborhoods, if I remember correctly (and I think I do) were not so crazy about hitching onto the bandwagon. The various neighborhood associations opted to join up and get certified, but it was clearly remarked at the time in certain of the neighborhoods by the folks who owned property there, that the neighbohood associations did not speak for all of the people or even a majority of the people. I was involved closely with the movement to get Harsimus Cove designated, and I recall very clearly that the vast majority of people whom I talked with here, back then, were absolutely Not Interested in getting the designation. No way, Jose. The same is true for friends of mine in Hamilton Park, who at the time that that area was proposed for designation, were strongly vocal in opposition. These were folks who owned prominently located and distinctive buildings with high visibility, not shacks in someone's backyard. It is a misreading of the history to believe nowadays that the designation of these historic districts was a snap and a one-two-three done deal. More people were Against it than were For it, except that we pro-districting guys screamed louder and eventually carried the day. Based on the scuttlebut on the sidewalks, I think that today, many people find the historic districting designations, at best, a very mixed blessing. Many people contend that the commissioners are not qualified to hold office. Many people believe that the historic district officer would be better off working somewhere else, that his "style" and taste have very little to do with vintage Jersey City. Viz:suddenly we are inundated with darling little wooden reproductions of Cape Cod saltboxes in sweet pastel colors. Makes the neighbors wonder what in the world is going on. Is this Oz? You cannot discount public opinion. A lot of time has passed since the early eighties, and there has been alot of water gone, mercifully, under the bridge, but the subject of JC historic districts remains as much a talking point as ever before.
Posted on: 2005/12/15 18:38
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