JPhurst wrote:
States have been able to balance their budgets and fund necessary programs by raising taxes on the highest bracks. California and Minnesota are examples. Meanwhile, Kansas's experiment with uber-supply side economics fared poorly.

But it is equally true that.

a) Relying too much on high bracket income taxes makes a state more vulnerable to economic swings.

b) The money has to be spent wisely.

Adonis wrote:
Has anybody thought about the possibility at all that the incident did it go down as she described it and that it was essentially consensual?

Up until the point that she realized she was going to get busted when her husband came home.

It?s gone through 2 separate, independent criminal investigations and both times a crime was not found.

Is that not possible???

Mao wrote:
The Middlesex Prosecutor did not even interview her husband and best friend whom she had called immediately after the rape?

Jersey, especialy Dems and the GOP in bed with them, are so corrupt. The open secret is that Hudson County is probably one of the cleaner Counties. Middlesex County is so corrupt.

She sounds ridiculous, though, when she invokes anger at Kavanaugh and Tump.

JCGuys wrote:
Another week and another legal defeat for Jersey City. Next Mayoral election, I'm voting for the candidate that won't continue pissing away valuable tax dollars on legal fees fighting lost causes.

brewster wrote:
As for rental agents, consider they're the bottom of the realtor food chain, trying to work their way up to sales, most of whom are also don't listen or want to work hard for you.

MDM wrote:
Quote:

JoeGee wrote:
Just wondering why you do not use a realtor? They perform background checks and charge the tenant the fee.

I have generally found realtors to be rather worthless.

JCGuys wrote:
Quote:

bodhipooh wrote:
Quote:

JCGuys wrote:
They're right though. This is a city issue and they are skirting on their responsibility.

Just because something might be right, it doesn?t make it correct.

The sole purpose of NJ Transit is to provide transportation solutions to NJ residents. They can?t do this if the infrastructure to do so is buried in snow. Instead of throwing their hands up in the air and exclaiming ?... nor does NJ TRANSIT shovel snow at bus stops. Keep the phone number of the local municipality handy in order to request a bus stop to be shoveled.? they could be proactive about the situation and, as part of the job of route supervisors that do spot checks along bus routes, those same clipboard toting supervisors could call the appropriate city or county agency that can help clear or shovel a particular stop. Heck, drivers themselves could make a notation of inaccesible stops and turn that in after completing their runs for someone to call theight agency.

This sounds reasonable to me. But let's take it a step further. Bring in the heavy hand of the state to order municiaplities to maintain NJ Transit stops. Right now if NJ transit called a municipality about the bus stops, I'm not sure if they will respond in a reasonable amount of time.

Also, why should NJ transit be calling hundreds of municipalities about the bus stops. Local citizens should do their part instead of relying on a transit agency to make the calls.

I dont disagree with anything you said though.

JCGuys wrote:
They're right though. This is a city issue and they are skirting on their responsibility.

Annod wrote:
From Twitter:

@NJTRANSIT

NJ TRANSIT does not own bus stops, nor does NJ TRANSIT shovel snow at bus stops.

Keep the phone number of the local municipality handy in order to request a bus stop to be shoveled.

#NJTWinter http://bit.ly/2W5URIR

https://twitter.com/NJTRANSIT/status/1086677925057970182

https://en.seeclickfix.com/jersey-city

heights wrote:
Quote:

meltedopsicle wrote:
Quote:

mastablasta wrote:

I haven't tried to use the ferry yet on the weekend, but let me get this straight. I live by Exchange place and even if my commute is just from Exchange Place to WTC, they still make me pay a PATH fare even if I don't have to ride PATH to get to Exchange Place?

Correct, you pay a PATH fare at Exchange Place to get the round-trip ferry ticket, and on the way back, you don't pay another PATH fare.

I assume you can still buy single ferry tickets (more expensive than PATH fares) or use your monthly pass.

So for the price of a single PATH fare you get a round trip ferry ticket ?

Dolomiti wrote:
Quote:

bodhipooh wrote:
Not sure why so many people felt triggered or bothered by this, other than they are making it something it is not.

People are reacting to claims that the dress code was selectively applied, as an excuse for racial discrimination.

The title of the articles about the Ashford are poorly written, as the dress code itself is not racist. It's the way it was allegedly used.


Quote:

Restaurant and bars can't win in this environment: if they try to keep out troublemakers and riff raff, they are automatically labeled as racists....

Yeah, that's not what is happening here. There is no problem whatsoever with ejecting a customer who is causing trouble. What a bar or restaurant can't do is eject every customer with brown skin because the owners or managers or bouncers suspect they will cause trouble.

(It should be fairly obvious that wearing baseball caps, sunglasses, cargo pants and work boots doesn't mean you are "riff raff." It means you're wearing a cap, sunglasses, cargo pants and work boots.)

I also don't hear of a lot of bars in the greater NYC area getting dinged with allegations of racism because they are throwing out troublemakers.

DouglasReynholm wrote:
http://www.dolyacafe.com/

It is ??? Was a google review just yesterday.

135jc wrote:
Quote:

dr_nick_riviera wrote:
Quote:

Yvonne wrote:
There are signs in many shore restaurants that says: No Shirt, No Service. That means restaurant owners can discriminate.

Of course it makes sense a person like Yvonne, who never saw a form of discrimination she didn't like, wouldn't understand the fact that this is selectively enforced and intended to keep out people of color at the bouncer's discretion.

Not really. More to the point is people like you trying to make it about race. The bar simply feels that people who dress a certian way act a certian way and they dont want that aggravation

T-Bird wrote:
Quote:

brewster wrote:

T-Bird: you seem to have no notion of how conservative the Feds are about navigable waterways, from bays to creeks. Just look at the craziness at the Portal Bridge on the Hack, where a barge coming through can snarl commuter trains carrying thousands. There's no way they would close the door on shipping taller than 50' ever using the entire Hudson, which is navigable up to Albany. As for your "just land it at the Oculus", have you actually looked a map and photos of that area? Snaking through the forest of buildings, and not passing over sacred Ground Zero would be quite a trick.

Just think how much free or subsidized ferry service could be provided for the tremendous cost of allowing a few fitness freaks to walk or pedal across the Hudson.

I'm looking out the window from my office at the occulus. (If I ever figured out how to post pictures on here, I'd show you!) I'm intimately familiar with the landscape of the area. You could run the tram/cc through Vesey street. It isn't going to be used for regular vehicular traffic again. You could land the cars at the SW corner of Greenwich and Vesey - across Greenwich from the Oculus. I could see concerns about needing to harden the freedom tower in the area the cable car passed by, but perhaps there is a solution. I really don't know.

So, because the portal bridge hasn't been addressed, all bridges everywhere can't be touched, built or otherwise thought about? I didn't suggest an specific height and said "I'm guessing." Unlike several of the resident experts here (I'll leave that to you to determine whether it applies), I don't spout off with firm expert opinions about things which I actually have just passing familiarity.

But... the google tells me that the low clearance up to Albany
is 134 feet at the Mid-Hudson Bridge at Poughkeepsie. (The new Tappan Zee bridge is only 139.) So right off the bat we've shaved 80+ feet from bodhipooh's pulled from a hat 215'. I'm sure further study by people who actually think about these things for a paycheck could determine how much lower you could go.

I'm all for ferries, tram/cable cars, and pedestrian/cycling infrastructure - all of the above. But to think "fitness freaks" are the only audience for a pedestrian/bike bridge misses the mark and to me is another symptom of the chronic obesity that plagues our country. Walking a mile and a half several times a week is the bare minimum of activity an adult should be getting. Fitness is not a reason I'd advocate for a bridge, but definitely a nice benefit.

As I said - such a bridge isn't something I'd expect to gain traction any time soon, but a President Bloomberg using revenue generated by a carbon tax? It would at least enter the realm of possible, were those events to transpire.

T-Bird wrote:

The ramp length/height argument is a red herring, predicated on the belief that cruise ships need to be accommodated. They don't.

That's the problem with you luddites - you only see things how they are. The cruise lines are private enterprises. Why would we allow their profitability to dictate infrastructure decisions, if we decided to go in that direction? To provide clearance for essential water traffic (I'm guessing here), you probably only need to get 60 or so feet above the water.

Dolomiti wrote:
? Like the ferries, you have to wait for the tram and to buy tickets; the only way you'd wait for the pedestrian bridge is if it is incredibly crowded

? It's a much bigger engineering challenge than a pedestrian bridge (or adding ferries)

zmeyka wrote:
Someone has a bunch of great photos of the upstairs area on Flickr here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/flickr4jazz/albums/72157626392500513

Go toward the middle/end of the album to see them.

Bike_Lane wrote:
I somehow got into a ?behind the scenes? tour of Hoboken Terminal around the time the article in the OP was written (2005 or so). The upstairs area is HUGE. There were still black coverings on the skylights dating to WW2.

The rep from NJT on that tour said something about turning it into a rentable ballroom for events, a food court, offices, or some combination of all of those things. Would love to see something come of it. Such a great space, but it needs a lot of work for sure.

Somewhere in my archives I can probably find pics

Yvonne wrote:
Two weeks ago some brain-trust engineers stepped forward with
a plan to prevent the 24 hour year long shutdown of the L train.
Only after a year of chaos particularly in Brooklyn where shops
closed, tenants left and properties sold. Where were these brain-
trust engineers for the last year? PATH should consult with this
team to see if the two year shutdown could be reduced so it's not
24 hour work.

brewster wrote:
Quote:

JCGuys wrote:
The answer is not everyone heads to Manhattan. There are a lot of folks that get on in Journal Square going to Newark.

I would not have thought 1/6 of all PATH traffic was intra-Jersey.

brewster wrote:
Quote:

hero69 wrote:
maybe a cable car across the hudson could be made to make sense

http://www.bbc.com/future/gallery/201 ... se-of-the-urban-cable-car

That was very interesting. I guess it's viability depends on the numbers, but it still faces the "eyesore" hurdle and land use issues. I'm impressed that "One line in the Bolivian capital La Paz carries up to 65,000 people every 24 hours". That would be about half the capacity of the WTC PATH line, nothing to sneeze at, and a Hudson crossing would probably be a tourist draw on the order of the London Eye. What would be fascinating would be to have it multi-station, like Lincoln Park to McGinley Sq to Exchange Place to BPC.

Something is perplexing me about the numbers here https://www.panynj.gov/path/pdf/2017-P ... thly-Ridership-Report.pdf. It appears only 80% of the people who arrive in Manhattan by PATH leave by PATH. The ridership is quite asymmetric. What can account for this? Fare evasion in on the NJ side? It seems unlikely that 20% of riders who arrive by PATH would exit by NJT bus or train.

K-Lo2 wrote:
Wild Fusion is dead. Cherry Picked has been closed all week. Anyone know? And Battello is reopening at the end of January, with family and friends next week.

Had a great meal last night at Kitchen Step. All new menu. My son's gf ordered the burger..."this is probably the best burger I've ever had in my life."

Toonces wrote:
If walking is really an option people are seriously suggesting, how about using the upper portion of the Holland Tunnel? Now, I don't know what sort of infrastucture is in there, but the tunnel itself is round - yet when you're driving, the visible "ceiling" of the tunnel is apparently 8-10 feet below the top of the circle (demonstrated, in part, by this picture taken during construction). Seems to me there's plenty of room above the roadway for a pedestrian/bike path.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/67827566@N00/11639849305

jerseymom wrote:
Quote:

terrencemcd wrote:
Quote:

JCGuys wrote:
One last thought - did the city give advance warning to the developer that they were failing to meet the conditions of the tax abatement? Was the developer given an opportunity for due process or an opportunity to correct deficiencies with the tax abatement while the building was under construction.

The tax abatement agreement says if the city warns of default, the developer has 30 days to fix the problem. There is the opportunity for a default.

The city issued the default on Oct. 23. 30 days later was Nov. 22.

The developer's lawyer last night claimed they didn't know until Dec. 17 about the potential revocation of the abatement, so he claims the 30-day period is still happening.

But wasn't construction completed already? Could the developer even have an ample opportunity to adequately address the default? I wonder if that will play into the legal argument. While I applaud the city's efforts to make sure that developers play by the rules, this does seem punitive. I wonder what other forces are at work here.

hero69 wrote:
common sense approach. give a big stake in PATH to MTA and extend 7 or L train to Hoboken and beyond. Extend the HBLR to Staten Island and Teaneck NY (maybe even run it over GWB)