Re: City Council to Renegotiate Abatement For Developers
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Home away from home
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Yvonne, based on the examples you cite, it sounds like your real issue should be with lying politicians rather than PILOTs and abatements.
Posted on: 2009/6/2 16:16
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Re: New Buidlings, New Restaurants, for example
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Home away from home
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Um, yes - you are missing something. Namely, the Hilton Hotel. Ground hasn't broken on it and it's less and less likely that it will in 2009. I'm guessing you are referring to the rental apartment building going up at Grand and Marin.
Posted on: 2009/5/27 20:36
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Re: RECYCLING BINS for Jersey City - Change We Want to See
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Home away from home
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So... how do you "correct" that type of behavior? This doesn't seem to be someone who should have a "different cultural norm" that causes her to behave this way (as was suggested earlier in the thread). I don't expect an answer to my question. I certainly don't have it. But I am looking forward to working with Stani and Jaah and whoever else gets on board to try to figure out the answer. It seems to me with such a basic quality of life issue you should be able to hit a point of progress where you start to turn a corner and you see actual change. I'm not naive enough to think that Jersey City will soon become litter-free, but I am optimistic enough to believe that change can happen and it has to start somewhere.
Posted on: 2009/5/27 20:16
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Re: Two JC cops arrested over Memorial Day weekend
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Home away from home
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+ 1,000!!
Posted on: 2009/5/27 20:07
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Re: RECYCLING BINS for Jersey City - Change We Want to See
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Home away from home
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Stani - I don't see why we can't go down both roads. The opportunity to sit with Fulop and the JCIA face to face, I would think, is a great place to start.
Jaah - I threw out, off the top of my head, a half dozen ideas. If I spent a few hours online, I could probably come up with a dozen more. Would I have to audition to come to your meeting? Is there a committee???
Posted on: 2009/5/27 0:52
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Re: RECYCLING BINS for Jersey City - Change We Want to See
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Home away from home
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First off - Alan: I like the new avatar. Major improvement!
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alanwright wrote: .... What's needed is more contact, more lobbying, and more responsibility by citizens. The government will not do the job right or well, with or without Milton Friedman. That said, my friend has a solution few would go along with: he volunteers his time, seeking no reward or recognition and responding to no directive... and picks recycling from local trash bins. He also attaches buckets to the garbage bins to serve as recycling containers. This is just one option for community-led change. Trash "brigades" would be another, was suggested. Or, the Doe Fund could be expanded through community donations which request expanded coverage. Etc. ...and, one day, rubbish bins will be designed and procured for modern rubbish: mostly recyclable, mostly packaging, mostly hand-held, and mostly reflecting an unnecessary short-term use (wrappers, baggies, napkins, to-go containers, and other commercial refuse which is definitionally a negative externality).
Posted on: 2009/5/26 15:50
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Re: RECYCLING BINS for Jersey City - Change We Want to See
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Home away from home
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Alan - I think we're largely on the same page. I'm not so quick to concede the importance of voting, however. Yes, voting will never be the solution in itself, but how can you dismiss it so readily? It should be the price of admission for receipt of municipal services. It seems to me that to think otherwise is just another in the long series of diminished expectations.
And while Minnesota may not be New Jersey, St. Paul, MN (and certainly the combined Minneapolis/St. Paul) is not a bad proxy for Jersey City. St. Paul is a bit larger (about 40,000 people) and has had major influx of Hmong, Vietnamese and Ethiopians. Very disparate cultures that don't find a welcoming, multi-generational base of antecedents upon arrival. I am so tired of these conversations that invariably end in some form of "It's always been that way and will always be that way" simply because we're in New Jersey, or Jersey City or the Heights or Healy is the mayor or whatever the excuse of the day is. I really am not convinced that Jersey City is any more transient or has more poverty than many coastal cities and certainly there are cities out there doing a better job than JC is. Quote: alanwright wrote: You lost me here, though. Why shouldn't I expect a civil servant to do his/her job??? Maybe accountability among civil servants is exactly what we need to start to change the culture. Someone is hired to give out littering tickets and won't do it? We need to remove that person from his/her job, no? It all starts at the top and that civil servant is a representative of the top. Seriously - what does it take to get a meaningful number of people involved in an issue like littering and what steps can we as individuals take once the obvious steps are exhausted? Group litter clean-ups? Purchasing cans privately and placing them on street corners? I'd love to hear suggestions...
Posted on: 2009/5/23 1:36
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Re: Trash Cans for Jersey City - Change We Want to See
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Jimmy/Jaah - I agree completely with both of you that this situation is intolerable and something should be done about it. What strikes me, though, is that litter just seems to be one more symptom of a deeper problem. (Feel free to insert your own symptoms here. There are many to choose from.)
I\'ve lived in a bunch of different places and Jersey City has stumped me. There seems to be an embedded indifference - almost a proactive indifference, if that were possible - toward many of the things that matter. I\'m not talking about the small (10? 15?) percentage of people who are engaged and trying to improve things in the ways engaged people do. Think about it - all of the registered members of JCList, seemingly a large, diverse group of people (certainly diverse in opinion) only account for a little more than 2% of the city\'s population. Everyone agrees the schools are a mess but 95% of the people don\'t vote in the school board elections because they don\'t think anything will change. (Hopefully that\'s why they aren\'t voting and it\'s not entirely laziness...) People bitch and moan about the \"corrupt machine\" that governs the city, but 75% of the people don\'t bother to vote, even though most of them have been bombarded with reminders to vote and suggestions on how to vote for weeks. People drive insanely through residential streets (admittedly, many of those people don\'t live here) but pedestrians are almost as bad, slowly walking out into streets in the middle of blocks, not bothering to look in either direction all the while talking on a cell phone or texting and seemingly daring you to hit them. Policing is erratic at best. In significant chunks of the city, kids roam unchecked with no regard for the safety or property of others. Trash is strewn everywhere. It\'s as though no one cares about the city in which they live. Maybe most people take adequate care of their individual homes and some will have a radius that extends to the end of their block or even their neighborhood, but why is it that everything seems to break down when it becomes a citywide issue? I think the biggest difference between Jersey City and (pick another city that doesn\'t suffer from the same issues - I\'ll choose St. Paul, Minnesota) is that there is nothing that binds people together here. Many white-collar professionals live downtown for a while and then flee to their breeding grounds when the time comes. Many parts of the city seem to be divided into their ethnic components and once people are outside of their neighborhood they may as well be in another state. I\'ve lived here for several years and can\'t remember walking down the street and having a serendipitous conversation with a stranger outside of my neighborhood. People don\'t say \"hello\" or make eye contact. I run in Liberty State Park most mornings and say hello to most people I encounter - some are shocked. The reason I picked St. Paul is because in addition to being very diverse, like JC, they have had an advertising campaign for years to promote \"Minnesota Nice\". People who have moved there from other states and countries know about \"Minnesota Nice\" and residents there live the motto. It sounds incredibly hokey, I know - except that it works. Maybe a\"Hello Jersey City\" campaign would be money better spent than some of the other things on the city budget? Sorry this grew into a book. I just don\'t understand how as a city, we all tolerate such low standards and seemingly have no expectations for better. To me, trash is an indicator of a much bigger problem!
Posted on: 2009/5/22 22:47
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Re: Healy wins by a landslide - How did mayor crush opponents by more than 2-1?
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Home away from home
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I'm not entirely convinced of the conventional wisdom that Healy won't run again in four years. I think he tried to cut as many deals as possible to keep the most threatening contenders on the sidelines with promises that he's only in it for one more term. Asuming he avoids further legal missteps and he's healthy, why wouldn't he run again? I'd be curious to know how much of the $3 million he actually spent and how much remains in his war chest.
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Posted on: 2009/5/18 14:03
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Re: Gulls Cove info, any residents here?
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Unfortunately, control of the association does not convey to the homeowners until 75% of both phases are sold, which equates to roughly 100% of Phase 1. .
Posted on: 2009/5/13 20:48
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Re: Gulls Cove info, any residents here?
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Wibbit - the building remains about 75% sold. Many of the units on the market were bought speculatively by realtors during pre-construction with the intention of flipping.
There is development slated for the south - a 16 or so story rental bldg. across the light rail tracks and the Hilton beyond that, further south. To the west will be phase 2 of GC (probably not too soon) which will be 8 stories high. To the north is the rental bldg. currently under construction. Nothing will be built immeiately to the east - St. Peters prep owns that land and paulus hook height restrictions prevent anything higher than 6 floors from going up (except for the waterfront). I've heard varying things about Geibel an MetroHomes, including default. Seems like Trump is his albatross.
Posted on: 2009/5/13 20:03
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Re: Jerramiah Healy re-elected mayor of Jersey City on first ballot
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Home away from home
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Quote:
Ward A had the highest turnout for council with 5,138 votes cast vs. Ward E's next best of 4,970. Ward E had almost exactly 1,000 more voters yesterday than in 2005 - 3,971. Fulop beat Junior Muldonado four years ago by a 2,165 to 1,802 count. Among non-at-large council candidates, Fulop's 3,142 votes were more than 1,000 greater than Ward C's Nidia Lopez's 2,028 votes. Lopez received the second-most votes among non-at-large council candidates citywide. http://www.hudsoncountyclerk.org/ http://www.jerseycityonline.com/elect ... _jersey_city_election.htm 30,657 people voted in the mayor's race, compared with 24,414 in a less contested 2005 race. The county only reports county-wide turnout, which was 27% - seems like a decent proxy. (Would imply that there are ~ 113,500 registered voters in Jersey City.)
Posted on: 2009/5/13 17:12
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Re: Steven Fulop & Guy Catrillo, trying to turn it into a two-man Downtown council race; accusations fly
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Just wanted to throw in a hat's off to Azam Riaz. I was at the debate two weeks ago and thought he had a lot of good things to say. He strikes me as a man of high integrity and deep commitment to his family, neighborhood and city at large. I hope he remains an active voice in the city.
Posted on: 2009/5/13 16:06
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Re: Jerramiah Healy re-elected mayor of Jersey City on first ballot
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Chet - seriously, I'm awfully disappointed that Healy won, but you have to give him his due. He more than doubled the next candidate and five candidates in the race (even if they weren't all as strong as the top two) is a huge drain on a candidate's ability to get a lot higher than Healy did. (Fulop's results were off the charts - to get more than 60% in a five man race is insane.) Healy certainly had a convincing win. The Manzo showing was surprising - I can't imagine they considered a scenario where they did as poorly as they ended up yesterday.
Posted on: 2009/5/13 16:03
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Re: Steven Fulop & Guy Catrillo, trying to turn it into a two-man Downtown council race; accusations fly
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HMMMM indeed, Ogden. Perhaps the Fulop team paid a few folks to campaign - I don't know for sure, but it's certainly legal and done all the time. The difference would be that, if they did, THEY paid for some of their workers as opposed to the Healy team - YOU paid for a good number of their team; municipal workers who were on the clock and "reassigned" to their posts on the street today. So be it - the people have spoken. Four more years of jackassery at the top.
Posted on: 2009/5/13 3:50
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Re: Healy Volunteers removing signs from doors
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And to be clear, Capn - removing signs that have been illegally posted on public property and trespassing on someone's property to take down opposition signage are not the same thing.
Posted on: 2009/5/12 15:09
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Re: Steven Fulop & Guy Catrillo, trying to turn it into a two-man Downtown council race; accusations
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Good night, Guy4downtown. Thanks for playing. Looking forward to tomorrow when the intellectual dishonesty ends - at least in this race. Maybe you can twist the truth for the mayor for the next month.
Posted on: 2009/5/12 14:24
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Re: My choice for Mayor and Council on May 12, 2009...
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Home away from home
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+1
Posted on: 2009/5/12 9:00
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Re: Steven Fulop & Guy Catrillo, trying to turn it into a two-man Downtown council race; accusations
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Home away from home
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Guy doesn't have positions. Guy takes down messages when the mayor calls. And because the mayor must not believe Guy has a shot in hell of winning, the mayor hasn't bothered to give Guy any messages. Seriously, how many times have you seen Healy with Catrillo at an event where Catrillo was the primary event? Hopefully, Guy's fifteen minutes are about to end.
Posted on: 2009/5/12 8:58
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Re: Steven Fulop for Council - Ward E
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Home away from home
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Vote early - Vote Fulop!
Posted on: 2009/5/12 1:53
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Re: Catrillo's weekly NEGATIVE HUDSON REPORTER ADS
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Home away from home
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That ad was as tacky, mean-spirited, wildly inaccurate and ultimately ineffective as you can get. When you stake your whole ability to hold office on the notion you won't argue with people and then you spend your whole campaign arguing with someone (who, much to your frustration, won't argue back).... kind of makes the whole exercise rather pointless, no? The "Army of One" attack took tastelessness to a new low, though. To co-opt a slogan used for military recruitment and use it against someone who put aside self-interest to serve his country seems ignorant beyond words. In the end, I'm sure anyone with an IQ high enough that they are able to read will see that ad for what it is - the desperate ranting of someone with nothing to say and no one to listen. Would be nice if those providing the funding for this kind of garbage could meet the same fate!
Posted on: 2009/5/10 21:36
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Re: At Large Candidates: Andrew Hubsch & Emilia De Lia
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I met both Mssrs. DeLia and Hubsch recently and was impressed with their commitment and passion for the city and willingness to work for a city we can all be proud of. They have my vote!
Posted on: 2009/5/10 21:11
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Re: Mayoral Race: Compare 2004 to 2009
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Home away from home
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+1 Strong turnout should work against the Healy team. Their voting block is probably pretty fixed. It's going to be the people upset with the status quo who decide late in the game to vote who could make the difference. At least that's my hope...
Posted on: 2009/5/10 1:35
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Re: Jersey City property taxpayers will see virtually no increase in municipal taxes this year
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In cities with engaged leadership, qualified financial management and transparency, the budget for the 09/10 fiscal year has already been introduced to council and in some cases approved. Did we get any idea last night as to when we can expect the next budget???
Posted on: 2009/5/9 0:33
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Re: Mayoral Race: Compare 2004 to 2009
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Home away from home
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I agree with you WG, but sadly "them" is us. Fewer than 25,000 people voted last time? That's outrageous! I don't know the exact number, but if I prorate the Hudson County voter turnout last November, there are more than 100,000 registered voters in Jersey City, so 75% of the people gave their tacit approval of status quo last election - they are "Them". (Okay, there are probably several thousand registered voters who should be purged from the rolls, but you get the point.) Given all that is at stake over the next four years, including: A looming real estate revaluation Bloated municipal budget during a recession The need to address the school situation and greater local funding responsibility for the schools it shocks me that people can't find ten minutes out of the fifteen hours the polls are open to get out and vote. Clearly there won't be long lines if historical turnout is any indicator. Much, much more is at stake next Tuesday (with far greater personal consequences) than voting for the President or even your Senator or Congressman. Them will continue to be Them as long as We continue to be We. So for God's sake: GET PEOPLE OUT TO VOTE!!
Posted on: 2009/5/8 11:35
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Re: Steven Fulop & Guy Catrillo, trying to turn it into a two-man Downtown council race; accusations
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It is also consistent with the intellectual dishonesty and mischaracterized "less-than-half-truths" demonstrated by the challenger last night at the debate.
Posted on: 2009/5/7 22:02
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Re: Steven Fulop & Guy Catrillo, trying to turn it into a two-man Downtown council race; accusations fly
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Home away from home
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Whospeaksforyou: I don't think you have your facts right and there isn't much your candidate has to say that I agree with, but I'll say this - you should be speaking for him. You string together coherent thoughts into standard written form in a manner that is understandable to the reader. I've heard your Guy speak several times and... Whew! I walk away with a headache because it is so hard to follow what it is I think he's trying to say. Maybe he could hold up cards to music like in that old U2 video (the one where all the words rhymed with "eight" - can't remember the name.)
Posted on: 2009/5/7 20:40
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Re: Election Gets Nasty: Embankment's Developer, Steve Hyman Launches $150G "Anyone-but-Healy" Campa
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"The first wave of fliers, Hyman said, cost him $50,000."
Of course the math doesn't work - he's making it up. You could wallpaper all of Newport for $150,000. If I spend a few thousand dollars on leaflets and bombard a small area with them and tell you I'm going to spend some large amount to keep it up, the message comes across almost as well as if you actually spent the money, no?
Posted on: 2009/5/7 2:47
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Re: Election Gets Nasty: Embankment's Developer, Steve Hyman Launches $150G "Anyone-but-Healy" Campaign!
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Cheese and rice! Never heard that before - classic! Can't help noticing though that the mayor's guy whining about Hyman being a non-Jersey City resident. The mayor isn't choosy about where his money comes from (Bloomberg fundraiser comes to mind); he shouldn't be so quick to complain about criticism.
Posted on: 2009/5/6 16:41
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