|
Re: Not only the building is ugly. So is the company. Goldman Sachs.
|
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Home away from home
 
|
That was my point about Obama, Dirt. He's not better.
Um - you may disagree with Krugman on an issue, but in general, I'm more inclined to respect his opinion than the nice lady from The Atlantic. Or an anonymous poster on JCList. But that's just me. I'm kind of silly that way. Quote:
Posted on: 2009/7/18 18:05
|
|||
|
||||
|
Re: Not only the building is ugly. So is the company. Goldman Sachs.
|
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Home away from home
|
Gee - isn't that Nobel prize winning Paul Krugman? What a populist hack he is! What does he possibly know about economics and markets???
 Are banks self-interested and profit driven? Of course. Does Goldman seem to take it to an absolutely different level? Definitely. To have the head of the NY Fed be on your board (as was the case for the first five months of this year)? To be able to insist the CEO of AIG resigns before you bail out AIG and then put a Goldman board member in his place so that AIG will funnel $13 billion in AIG bailout money to Goldman so they recoup 100 cents on the dollar in stupid CDS bets? To engineer the placement of John Thain as Merrill's CEO along with the failure of Lehman? (Remember, Merrill was acquired at an astonishingly high price smack in the middle of the emergency Lehman negotiations. Participants were directed by treasury halfway into the weekend to ignore Lehman and focusing their efforts on Merrill.) Do these sound like standard "invisible hand" situations? Goldman probably can't single-handedly manipulate the oil markets, but they played a very large role among a small number of players who did. Shorting your own sh!tbag CDOs and screwing your own clients isn't exactly admirable, either. Laddering definitely was a very real (and illegal) concept that GS employed during the heyday of the tech boom - why someone questions the veracity of these facts is in itself questionable. Taibbi did write a biased piece - no question. But you know what? This isn't a standard "business is greedy" kind of story. It demands all caps and swearing and outrage. Mainstream reportage on Goldman that points out in neutral language that the bank has closer ties to the government than its competitors and that gee! the bank is profitable when no one else is, without explaining why in any great detail, gives the average person the impression that there isn't anything out of the ordinary with GS. And there certainly is. Check out the Carlyle group sometime. Look at its founders and their very close relationship with GS. Sadly, the Obama administration doesn't seem to be much better in terms of its dealings with GS, if at all.
Posted on: 2009/7/18 17:35
|
|||
|
||||
|
Re: Where to find J.C. budget details
|
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Home away from home
|
Quote:
Here: http://cityofjerseycity.com/uploadedF ... /aaaaagenda%20placeholder(25).pdf
Posted on: 2009/7/17 22:36
|
|||
|
||||
|
Re: Jersey City council votes for an 11.25% tax hike - ( Will add $450 for a home assessed at $100,000 )
|
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Home away from home
|
What's with the call for a revolt, Dan? You said earlier that you want no part of a recall effort - to my way of thinking that is where a revolt would most likely lead. What then is the ceiling on your appetite for revolt?
Quote:
Posted on: 2009/7/17 20:12
|
|||
|
||||
|
Re: Five Police Officers wounded in Jersey City shootout
|
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Home away from home
|
I noticed at work that once the match on the 401k program was increased, office supplies seemed to disappear at a much higher rate...
Quote:
Posted on: 2009/7/17 20:07
|
|||
|
||||
|
Re: Crime is Down, but 4 Cops Shot on Bergen
|
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Home away from home
|
Never mind what I was saying about waiting a day....
http://www.politickernj.com/matt-frie ... 3/healy-shows-obama-rally What an absolute idiot. On a tragic day for Jersey City, Healy shows up to Obama/Corzine rally By Matt Friedman, PolitickerNJ.com Reporter *Update: President Obama referred to the situation in Jersey City at the beginning of his speech. ?I know many of you heard that five officers in Jersey City were shot in the line of duty this morning. I?ve been in contact with Mayor Healy about this issue, and obviously all the families are in our thoughts and prayers. It?s a reminder of what our law enforcement officials do each and every day to protect us and protect our families. Continue to keep them in mind as we go forward," he said. HOLMDEL -- With five members of his city?s police force wounded in a gun battle with two suspects this morning, Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy came to see President Obama to push for federal legislation to ?staunch the flow of illegal handguns into our city,? according to spokeswoman Jennifer Morrill. Healy had long planned to attend the rally, but was faced with grim news early this morning upon learning that two officers were in critical condition. He made it to the Jersey City Medical Center at 7:15am and stayed until 11:15am When he arrived at the hospital, the life of one officer was in serious jeopardy, but his condition has improved. Healy said that the department has not yet identified the officer. ?It was very gloomy prognostication, but it?s gotten better and better,? said Healy. ?By the time we left, the surgeons, nurses and staff at the JCMC had basically accomplished a miracle and brought this one guy back from the edge? This could be a very happy ending? Around 2pm, Healy, his wife Maureen and Corporation Counsel Bill Matsikoudis arrived at the pre-rally fundraiser, with Healy sporting a Jersey City baseball cap. He said it would be a short stay. ?I just came down to greet our president and express to him the skill and valor of the JCPD, and make sure we get what we think we deserve,? said Healy as he walked in. Matt Friedman is a PolitickerNJ.com Reporter and can be reached via email at matt@politicsnj.com.
Posted on: 2009/7/16 20:55
|
|||
|
||||
|
Re: Crime is Down, but 4 Cops Shot on Bergen
|
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Home away from home
|
Seems like we could wait a day (or at least until the condition of the officer in critical condition stabilizes) before we get into ripping the administration and sniping over who knows which block better, no?
Posted on: 2009/7/16 18:19
|
|||
|
||||
|
Re: 10 to 20 shots heard in shootout with cops; that block is trouble, neighbor says
|
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Home away from home
|
Why is that, Ian?
Quote:
Posted on: 2009/7/16 15:11
|
|||
|
||||
|
Re: Jersey City council votes for an 11.25% tax hike - ( Will add $450 for a home assessed at $100,000 )
|
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Home away from home
|
Voter apathy is not a problem. Voter apathy is THE problem. If you add in a reasonable number - say, 25,000 - adult citizens who were not registered voters at the time of the election, you get to somewhere around 140,000 people who could have voted for the mayor in May. A little over 16,000 voted for Healy, meaning that we have a mayor that about 88% of the people who could vote didn't vote for. If you went around any part of the city and generically described policies and behaviors of the mayor and his administration (including his gang of 8 council people), I'm sure the overwhelming majority would not support his policies and behaviors, on an unnamed basis.
We, the 6,000 people of JC List - a mere 5% of the city's registered voters, can sit here and scream and yell every time something like Crystal Point, Nidia Lopez, unsubstantiated tax increases, school administration patronage, indifferent policing, Steve "the urinator" Lipski, the mayor's drunken stupors, DWIs, drug-dealing councilwoman's son, etc. happens. And then what? The abatements will still get sweetened. Taxes will go up. The Floridian will represent Ward C and the rest of us will still get pissed on. Until people actually reach this point, nothing is going to change 
Posted on: 2009/7/16 14:39
|
|||
|
||||
|
Re: The NJPP Report on Tax Abatements in JC
|
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Home away from home
|
Carolyn,
Are you the co-author of the report? What a wonderful piece of information this is. Digging into anything related to how city government works can be extremely frustrating, particularly anything fiscal. Outstanding job!! Thank you. The lack of oversight and audit over abatements is glaring, isn't it? Again, the mayor, et al seem to be able to do whatever they please in the plain light of day and obfuscate the truth, knowing full well that apathy will save them in the end.
Posted on: 2009/7/15 19:00
|
|||
|
||||
|
Re: Councilwoman Elect Lopez a Florida Resident?
|
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Home away from home
|
Please, please, please let her be dumb enough to fight Florida.
$30 g only covers what she owes Florida. Florida has no state income tax and we all know that NJ has a very hefty one - she'll probably owe NJ something considerably more than $30 g for the past eight years - even before you get to penalties and interest. Is the $40,000 city council seat worth all that???
Posted on: 2009/7/14 19:27
|
|||
|
||||
|
Re: Councilwoman Elect Lopez a Florida Resident?
|
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Home away from home
|
Lipski? ...... Lipski!! There has to be someone who actually lives in Ward C who doesn't have a record or a history of substance abuse. C'mon Ward C - you can do better than this!
In Jersey City, Lipski leaves possibility of return to council open By Matt Friedman, PolitickerNJ.com Reporter What?s bad for Jersey City Councilwoman Nidia Lopez could be good for her predecessor, Steve Lipski. If former council candidate Jimmy King?s challenge to the validity of Lopez?s May election is successful in forcing her to step down, Lipski might be willing to replace her. ?That option ? this is the first I?m hearing about it. I?m somewhat dismayed that the election would be questioned. I think the world of Nidia Lopez and if in the end the seat becomes vacant, I would have to consider whether I would want to step back in and take it,? said Lipski, who declined to seek another term after being arrested for urinating from a balcony onto a group of concertgoers in Washington, DC ? an incident that made international headlines and became fodder for late night television jokes. Lipski said he barely caught wind of the controversy surrounding Lopez and her Florida house, for which she received a tax exemption meant only for permanent residents. He had been vacationing in Maine, where he stayed in a cabin without electricity or running water. He talked to PolitickerNJ.com on the phone from a hospital, where he was at the bedside of his wife, who broke her leg on the trip. Former council candidate Jimmy King, who lost the Ward C election to Lopez last May, charged in a complaint that Lopez is technically a permanent resident of Florida, and Florida officials are reportedly seeking repayment of the exemptions Lopez claimed in her property taxes there. Further complicating matters for Lopez, the Jersey Journal reported today that Florida election officials say Lopez violated the law by voting in a 2003 Orlando election after registering in Jersey City in 2001. Lipski, who is the founder and director of CREATE Charter School, said he has not discussed running again with anybody, although Jersey City political circles have been abuzz about the possibility over the last couple days. He did say that a friend at the incinerator authority text messaged him today saying ?Did you see today?s paper? I?ve got boys ready to do a recall.? ?Anything is possible,? said Lipski. ?I love the Party and I?d love to redeem myself, but I can?t make that decision right now.? Mayor Jerramiah Healy backed up Lopez after King?s allegations came to light, saying that the lawsuit was part of a pattern by former mayoral candidate Lou Manzo and his political allies and has ?no chance? of succeeding. If King?s challenge to Lopez is successful and she has to vacate her seat, the council will have 30 days to pick a successor. A special election will then be held in November to fill the remainder of the term. Matt Friedman is a PolitickerNJ.com Reporter and can be reached via email at matt@politicsnj.com.
Posted on: 2009/7/13 21:17
|
|||
|
||||
|
Re: Is Her Home in Jersey City or Florida?
|
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Home away from home
|
Hi Jersey City,
Having a wonderful time here in Disney! Florida is great - wish you were here!!  Lots of Love, Nidia!!
Posted on: 2009/7/11 20:22
|
|||
|
||||
|
Re: Jersey City council votes for an 11.25% tax hike - ( Will add $450 for a home assessed at $100,000 )
|
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Home away from home
|
Quote:
In theory, that's correct. But since Wednesday's "not a tax increase" (I like that - thank you!) only raised total tax revenue by $17 mm and the city is short anywhere between $42 mm and over $60 mm, depending on who you are listening to, it's quite likely that the revaluation will be done in conjunction with the other shoe dropping (i.e. the second "not a tax increase".) And while even if that weren't the case, if you are one of the majority of people who will see a large individual increase at a time of extreme economic distress, do you really care whether or not overall taxes went up?
Posted on: 2009/7/10 19:08
|
|||
|
||||
|
Re: Most of the City Council is an Embarassment
|
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Home away from home
|
Me neither - not the mayor and his gang of eight anyhow.
Posted on: 2009/7/10 15:33
|
|||
|
||||
|
Re: Jersey City council votes for an 11.25% tax hike - ( Will add $450 for a home assessed at $100,000 )
|
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Home away from home
|
Yeah that's kind of the point, isnt' it Icechute? Selectively, abatements are good tools to encourage development of areas that otherwise would remain idle. But c'mon - this isn't the Jersey City of 1980. There are no smoldering car fires and garbage heaps along the river. You don't need to provide an incentive for a Crystal Point to be developed, let alone answer the door when they come back looking for more.
Seems like there is little if any thought put into what is given, either. It seems to be a standard 16% 20-year package, regardless of the need or particulars of a given project. Of course, to be responsive and creative, you'd need someone in city hall who understands how markets work and what motivates development.
Posted on: 2009/7/10 15:32
|
|||
|
||||
|
Re: Is Her Home in Jersey City or Florida?
|
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Home away from home
|
So she keeps her husband in Jersey City and her clothes in Florida. Sounds like a very modern relationship.
All that aside... Are you kidding me??? At this point, I'm waiting for Premiere Healy and his duma to announce they will be forgoing future elections and that Healy will appoint his ministers as it pleases him. Why bother with the formality of elections when you end up with these messy situations. Much simpler to declare yourself Mayor for life and have any opposition dealt with severely.
Posted on: 2009/7/10 14:55
|
|||
|
||||
|
Re: Jersey City council votes for an 11.25% tax hike - ( Will add $450 for a home assessed at $100,000 )
|
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Home away from home
|
shakatah - I'm with you brother. (Or sister, as the case may be.) I'm not native to this city and what I've seen and learned while I've lived here has made my head spin. All the way around. Several times at once. I am itching to see something done that brings about real and lasting change. Recalls. Indictments. A long term strategy that puts professionals with vision, compassion and dedication into office. Anything!
The problem with a massive appeals-based strategy, as I see it, is that you would think the people with the best case are those who bought within the past four or five years, right? They are the ones who were revalued at the time of purchase, during the runup in property values, and probably have a strong case to make that they are significantly overvalued currently. The catch is that many of those people are tax abated. They pay fixed PILOTs and to appeal your valuation, you have to give up whatever is left of your 20 year abatement and float with whatever tax rates the city applies. It's a very risky strategy if you have an abatement to give it up - it depends on your likely time horizon for owning your property to figure out whether or not it's worth it. You might not be able to get as many people as you expect to participate if they risk losing their abatement. Maybe I'm wrong - maybe the abated make up a much smaller proportion of the overall market activity of the five years. It just seems to me that with all the new development, those buyers would make up a lot of the activity.
Posted on: 2009/7/10 14:25
|
|||
|
||||
|
Re: Jersey City council votes for an 11.25% tax hike - ( Will add $450 for a home assessed at $100,000 )
|
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Home away from home
|
Ironically, while you are talking about property tax appeals, what is coming next is the revaluation. The increase approved at yesterday's council meeting generates $17 mm of new revenue. Current estimates of the shortfall in revenue for this year vs. last year are $42 mm. That exercise yesterday didn't even raise half of the gap in revenue. I wholeheartedly support property tax appeals. It seems as though the administration has a different idea.
Quote:
Posted on: 2009/7/10 3:15
|
|||
|
||||
|
Re: Jersey City council votes for an 11.25% tax hike - ( Will add $450 for a home assessed at $100,0
|
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Home away from home
|
Quote:
What has been cut? What still remains that either is poorly run, overstaffed or dysfunctional?
Posted on: 2009/7/9 19:14
|
|||
|
||||
|
Re: Jersey City council votes for an 11.25% tax hike - ( Will add $450 for a home assessed at $100,000 )
|
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Home away from home
|
Quote:
Exactly - and when you have zero accountability (i.e. you can submit the budget when the year is practically over, like last year) no one can hold you to hollow, feeble promises like "department directors will cut their budgets by 10%." How can they cut their budgets when there is no budget?? Clock is running on the current fiscal year - it began last Wednesday - a mere 50 days after the previous budget was approved. There actually is a state law that requires the budget to be submitted by July 15th. Why do they even bother with laws like this?
Posted on: 2009/7/9 17:46
|
|||
|
||||
|
Re: Jersey City council votes for an 11.25% tax hike - ( Will add $450 for a home assessed at $100,000 )
|
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Home away from home
|
Quote:
You just described the eight council members who voted for the tax hike.
Posted on: 2009/7/9 17:12
|
|||
|
||||
|
Re: High-price Call Girl Ring Taken Down in the Heights
|
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Home away from home
|
Drugs Won the War
New York Times By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF Published: June 13, 2009 http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/14/opi ... p=1&sq=drugs%20won&st=cse My favorite excerpt: This year marks the 40th anniversary of President Richard Nixon?s start of the war on drugs, and it now appears that drugs have won. ?We?ve spent a trillion dollars prosecuting the war on drugs,? Norm Stamper, a former police chief of Seattle, told me. ?What do we have to show for it? Drugs are more readily available, at lower prices and higher levels of potency. It?s a dismal failure.?
Posted on: 2009/7/9 14:19
|
|||
|
||||
|
Re: Councilwoman Elect Lopez a Florida Resident?
|
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Home away from home
|
TBG - do you care when she gets the NJ drivers license? Because that didn't happen until June 15 - five weeks after the election.
Posted on: 2009/7/9 3:02
|
|||
|
||||
|
Re: Councilwoman Elect Lopez a Florida Resident?
|
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Home away from home
|
This is the only thing I've been able to come across that has any reference to residency requirements: http://www.state.nj.us/state/election ... ological-guide-060509.pdf
P. 21 seems to indicate (depending on your interpretation of "Independent Election" and "other" for officeholder) that you need to be a resident for a minimum of 1 year to be elected to municipal council in NJ. NY may have loose residency standards (1 year), but at least Hillary met them. I'd bet the liberal environment and prominence of NY had a lot more to do with her choice of NY than if, say Alabama or Oklahoma had even looser residency requirements.... Just a hunch. 
Posted on: 2009/7/8 16:48
|
|||
|
||||
|
Re: Will We have a Tax Hike?
|
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Home away from home
|
Right down the fairway, shakatah - long and straight.
The question that comes to mind for me is: Why is this being considered at a "special meeting" at 5pm? Do you think maybe the number of people who showed up and were very vocal at the Crystal Point giveaway meeting had anything to do with their seeming desire to sweep this under the rug? It's hard to tell from the typically cryptic Journal reporting, but it seems as though there is a two-step process, no? The ask tomorrow is for a 12% increase in the tax levy and then punt for two quarters until they come back to deal with the $62 million revenue gap, right? And of course, there's the standard problem of the lack of budgeting accountability: Who the hell knows what the budget will be because we won't see it for months and months. (For the record, the new budget year started last Wednesday - July 1. No proposed budget in sight.) Strange that people are being asked to pay more taxes when no one will say how much will be (and has already been) spent and for what!!! Anyone going to the meeting tomorrow??
Posted on: 2009/7/7 15:54
|
|||
|
||||
|
Re: Population of JC
|
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Home away from home
|
Next census is 2010. (They occur every ten years.) It's a long jump to 300,000 people - think about it: How many people does a new hi-rise add? 1,000? So you have had A, Liberty Towers, Gull's Cove, the Shore and a few others - that's a far stretch to 60,000. I'd be surprised if there are more than 600 or 700 people currently living in all of Liberty Harbor.
Getting a more accurate count would help though. Most estimates agree that Jersey City was undercounted somewhere around 7,000 people in 2000. At around $10,000 per person in state and federal aid directly tied to the census, that's $70 million - which would go a long way to solving the city's current and ongoing financial mess. There are laws prohibiting any legal actions or enforcement arising from the taking of the census. Census counters even take an oath that reaffirms they will do nothing but count people and ask their proscribed questions. (Funny, I just read this this morning.)
Posted on: 2009/7/7 15:23
|
|||
|
||||
|
Building at Newark/Bay/Erie
|
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Home away from home
|
Anyone know the story behind the building that sits in the triangle formed by Newark Ave, Bay and Erie Streets - sits at the end of Barrow St? It's a gorgeous building, but it seems to be grossly underutilized. Except for the first floor dentist office and small retail store on the corner, there doesn't seem to be much going on there - maybe I'm wrong. Hard to tell from the street. The Bay Street side looks like an abandoned building.
Posted on: 2009/7/6 16:46
|
|||
|
||||
|
Re: Bike Shop on Grove St?
|
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Home away from home
|
My wife bought a bike over the weekend from Grove St. Great guys, very knowledgeable and no hard sell. They seem to be moving through inventory pretty quickly. Great to see them doing well!
Posted on: 2009/7/6 16:40
|
|||
|
||||
|
Re: Most of the City Council is an Embarassment
|
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Home away from home
|
Seriously? Who would replace Healy is the biggest obstacle in your mind to pursuing a recall? I could go into Liberty State Park this evening and pull out the first adult I see and he/she would be at least as qualified and do, at minimum, the same quality job Healy does. Guaranteed. In fact, I don't think we need to limit ourselves to adults.
Not sure where you get your numbers - full time city employees number about 2,550 - slightly over 1% of the population. Probably about 2.5% to 3% of the working adult population. Could definitely be reduced though. Quote:
Posted on: 2009/7/4 19:46
|
|||
|
||||