I know you have a soft spot for Healy, grovepath and I wish you good luck for his success but I'm of the mind that we need change with no favors - with all the financial drama's and retrenchments now occuring, why was it necessary to handout huge abatements for corporate american in JC to secure jobs when they are getting laid off.
With all the abatement savings, corporate america should be able to hang onto their staff to ride the wave.

Wow! Those are some nice apartments. I cannot even imagine living in a place that nice. It reminded me of a room with no specific purpose that my aunt would never let us go into when we were younger.

Quote: I can't fault that teaspoon of logic you're working with, but let me remind you: The rich in our society benefit directly not only from our roads, "cop services", and schools. They benefit from our labor force and the fabric of our society. The rich stand on everyone's shoulders. I'll put it this way... If Donald Trump was born in Somalia, he wouldn't be a billionaire (unless he immigrated to the U.S.). He would be maybe an owner of 50 bodegas or perhaps an import/export "tycoon" making about $100K/ year. Or he'd be dead. But because he lives in the U.S. and has a great empire employing thousands of leeches, er, workers, he must pay taxes. Long story short, you and I both benefit from the very society we live in. If we work hard and leverage the resources available to us, it's only logical to pay back into it. Why doesn't Trump pay less taxes and his workers more? Well there are solid economic as well as philosophical reasons for that. Think about it and then ask if you're stumped. Quote: Nobody is "attacking" the rich. Really. In Zimbabwe, they attack the rich 'cos they're the only ones with food. Here, nobody routinely attacks the rich. It's not quite that simple. China owns about 50% of the U.S. government right now*...do they have pride in the USA? *I exaggerate. They don't own our government. We just owe them our newborns' money.

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The moment you typed Obama Hussein you lost all credibility.

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More trains should've been put in service, I mean Hello, it was Halloween. This was outrageous and absolutely inexcusable...

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Oh yeah, forgot to mention that McCain isn't by far the best candidate...

You see, Senator Obama happens to share a middle name with the former Iraqi dictator. But "McCain" rhymes with Hussein, so if anything, he's only a slightly better candidate.

Governor Palin would've been far and away the best candidate 'cause it doesn't have any ethnic color to it and only barely resembles Putin's last name....

Speaking of lies, here's what Factcheck.org says about the claims about Obama's tax plan.

Spread the Tax Hooey!
October 26, 2008
New GOP ads recycle old, debunked claims about Obama's tax plan.

Summary
Republicans are misrepresenting Obama's tax proposals right down to the bitter end. New radio ads from the McCain campaign and a TV spot from the pro-Republican group Let Freedom Ring are targeting voters nationwide with some of the same tax deceptions we've been hearing all fall, rolled in a bundle and flung through the airwaves. One of the radio ads features Hank Williams Jr., the other Florida Gov. Charlie Crist. But new packaging doesn't make the charges any less false.

Taxes wouldn't have gone up on "families" making as little as $42,000 under the budget resolution passed last spring, as the Charlie Crist ad says. Try $90,000 for a typical family of four. And anyway, that measure doesn't at all resemble what Obama's actually proposing to do.


The Let Freedom Ring ad claimed that Obama has "voted to allow the Bush tax cuts to expire," meaning "our income taxes will actually go up." But Obama only voted to let some of the tax cuts expire, and at any rate nobody's taxes are going up as a result of that vote. The group yanked this ad off the air rather than try to defend it.


Echoing a recent McCain theme, Crist says, "McCain knows that people don't want to 'spread the wealth,' " condemning Obama's use of the phrase when he talked to "Joe the Plumber." Actually, McCain has supported taxing high earners more than low earners. Not so long ago McCain said, "Wealthy people can afford [to pay] more." Obama's tax plan would "spread the wealth" more than McCain's, but it's not as though McCain wants to do away with the progressive tax system we currently have.

Analysis
The McCain-Palin campaign and Republican National Committee are running the Charlie Crist radio ad in Florida, while the Hank Williams Jr. version is running in Virginia, Colorado, Missouri, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Ohio and several other states, according to Politico. Let Freedom Ring was airing its TV ad in battleground states as part of a million-dollar ad buy, but pulled the spot from the airwaves because the group felt it couldn't stand behind the ad's assertions. Nevertheless, the ad was still prominently displayed on the group's Web site, neverfindout.org, as of Oct. 25.



McCain-Palin 2008/RNC Radio Ad: Hank Williams Jr.



Hank Williams Jr.: Hello, this is Hank Williams Jr. When Barack Obama said folks like you and me were bitter, and clinging to guns and religion, I knew he just doesn?t understand small-town America. We love our God, and we love our guns, especially handed down from our grandfather. We resent it when liberals like Obama question our way of life. Don?t be bitter. Vote McCain.

Announcer: Congressional liberals want to increase spending by nearly a trillion dollars. And raise taxes on folks making $42,000 a year to pay for it. Congressional liberals call it ?taxing the rich.? We call it ?out of touch.? No wonder they criticize our values, but expect us to accept theirs. Congressional liberals: Out of touch with our America.
Paid for by McCain-Palin 2008 and the Republican National Committee.
I?m John McCain and I approve this message."Folks"-y Deception


The radio ads present us with a slight variation on an old theme, telling us that to pay for new programs, "congressional liberals" want to raise taxes on "folks" making $42,000 a year, in the case of the Williams ad, and "American families" making that amount, in the case of the Crist ad.

The claims refer to the budget resolution that Obama and others voted for earlier this year, which we've written about over and over. First off, a budget resolution is a kind of rough budgetary blueprint that Congress passes each year. Its specific provisions can't take effect without further legislation, and lawmakers have taken no action to implement this one, which in theory would have allowed Bush's tax cuts to expire for people in the 25 percent tax bracket, allowing their tax rate to revert to 28 percent.


Even if it had been enacted, though, there would have been no tax hike for "families" (as one ad says) making $42,000 a year. (The other ad says "folks," a somewhat less precise phraseology). No, nyet, non, nein. We have nightmares about our very own version of the film "Groundhog Day," in which we wake to Sonny and Cher's "I Got You, Babe," then stagger to our laptop and type these sentences: While it's true that a single taxpayer making $42,000 a year would have seen his or her taxes go up by about $15 if this provision had been followed up and enacted, a family of four would have had to hit an income level of $90,000 before experiencing a tax hike. For couples, the figure would have been $83,000.

And, once again, Obama himself proposes tax cuts for 95 percent of families with children. Only families with more than $250,000 annual income would see an increase.

We could say that we didn't think the McCain campaign had heard a word we've said over these long months, but we know it has: It cites our work in its back-up for the Crist ad. The article it quotes from though ? "The $32,000 Question" ? doesn't support what the radio ad says. What we said is this: "The resolution Obama voted for would not have increased taxes on any single taxpayer making less than $41,500 per year in total income, or any couple making less than $83,000."

Maybe the campaign is only half-listening.

The Let Freedom Ring TV ad is even worse. It claimed that "100% of America" would see taxes go up because Obama "voted to allow the Bush tax cuts to expire." This is so far from reality that we had to ask Let Freedom Ring what vote it could possibly be referring to. And a spokesman said it was Obama's vote on the same budget resolution just mentioned. But as we noted above, the resolution only would have let some of those tax cuts expire. It would have preserved provisions that benefit families ? "marriage penalty" relief, child tax credits, a 10 percent tax bracket for the lowest-earning taxpayers. It did not call for letting the cuts expire for "100 percent of America." So the claim in this ad is 100 percent wrong. And Let Freedom Ring appears to know that. "We weren't comfortable" with the ad's assertion, the spokesman told us, and the group has taken it off the air. It still appears on the Web site for the group's ad campaign, however.

Looking forward, Obama's actual tax plan would indeed allow Bush tax cuts to expire, but only for the top two income tax brackets. Those would revert to pre-Bush levels, and the brackets would be adjusted if necessary to ensure that they include only individuals making more than $200,000 per year, or couples making more than $250,000. (Two percent of the population will make more than $250,000 next year).

Obama proposes a number of tax cuts for lower- and moderate-income people. According to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, by 2012 middle-income people (those in the middle one-fifth of all households) would get to keep an extra $2,200 per year in after-tax income on average under Obama than they do now. Under McCain, that figure would be $1,400. The top 1 percent of earners, on the other hand, would have to pay an average of $19,000 more in taxes under Obama, while under McCain they'd see their taxes cut by an average of $125,000.

The Crist ad refers to the phrase "spread the wealth," which was used by Obama in his now-familiar conversation with Joe Wurzelbacher in Toledo.

What Obama was saying is that giving tax breaks that have disproportionately benefited upper-income taxpayers leaves those further down the scale "pinched," with the result that "business is bad for everybody."

Obama, Oct. 12: [W]e've cut taxes a lot for folks like me who make a lot more than $250,000. We haven't given a break to folks who make less. It's not that I want to punish your success, I just want to make sure that everybody who is behind you, that they've got a chance at success, too. And everybody is so pinched that business is bad for everybody. And I think when you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody.

Obama was wrong about one thing; the Bush tax cuts did in fact give tax breaks "to folks who make less," including the previously mentioned 10 percent tax bracket, "marriage penalty" relief and an increase in the per-child tax credit, all of which Obama proposes to keep. What his plan would do is provide even more tax benefits at the middle and low end of the scale, while increasing taxes at the top.

This way of "spread[ing] the wealth around" is hardly a new concept. The United States already has a progressive tax system by which high earners are taxed at higher rates than those who make less. Obama would make it somewhat more progressive. (The Williams ad uses the term "taxing the rich.")

McCain himself hasn't always seemed so opposed to progressive taxation. Here's what he said in a 2000 meeting with college students sponsored by the MSNBC program "Hardball," when questioned about the issue:


McCain, Oct. 12, 2000: [W]e feel, obviously, that wealthy people can afford more.
....
And I think middle-income Americans, working Americans ... all of the taxes that working Americans pay, I think they ? you would think that they also deserve significant relief, in my view.
...
[H]ere's what I really believe, that when you are ? reach a certain level of comfort, there's nothing wrong with paying somewhat more.

In fact, the system would remain progressive under McCain's tax plan. His argument with Obama isn't about whether to "spread the wealth," but by how much.

Also, as we now know, Joe the Plumber would almost certainly be entitled to a tax cut if Obama's plan were implemented ? and a larger one than he'd get under McCain's.

Say It Ain't So!


The Hank Williams ad says that "congressional liberals want to increase spending by nearly a trillion dollars." (The other ad uses almost identical wording.) In this case, "congressional liberals" seem to be standing in for Obama, judging from the back-up material sent to us by the McCain team. And this is an old claim, based on the McCain campaign's estimate that the cost of Obama's various proposals would be $860 billion (the ad rounds the figure up rather, um, liberally).


It's certainly true that Obama proposes large new spending programs, while McCain proposes large but unspecified spending cuts. But the trillion-dollar estimate (which would be spread over four years) doesn't factor in any of Obama's proposed savings or cuts. For example, he proposes to eliminate $15 billion per year in subsidies given to health insurance companies for Medicare Advantage programs, which are insurance plans offered by private companies as an alternative to traditional government-sponsored Medicare.

Outside analysts like the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget have found that neither Obama nor McCain would come close to balancing the federal budget without additional spending cuts or tax increases that they have yet to specify.

?by Viveca Novak and Jess Henig

Ok the work leach is too much....but the rich already pay too much. Everyone should contribute to society. Ie pay for the roads, teachers, policemen etc, not just the rich.
The only cap with regards to taxes should address the total amount paid. For instance, no matter how much one makes, that individual should pay no more than 100k a year in taxes. Does this rich person use more roads, cop services, publis schools, I doubt it.
I still have my doubts if O'Hussein is American, He lies so much. His records proves he is affiliated with the far left and lies about it. He lies about his Muslim faith.
How many LIES, do democrates have to overlook, or does it not matter.
Attacking the rich is not a solution, Everyone must contribute to society, ie ownership-stake. it is the same thing as owners vs, renters. Renters care less. Owners have more pride in their residences...ie the USA.
Oh, and he endorses killing unborn children. great guy!
Wake up Democrates, O'Hussien is not the right guy, ..maybe in 2012, your candidate will be a solid true American.

Say what you will, but I think Healy is a pretty honest Mayor - and I think he is by far the most likely to win next year.

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But surely he agrees with Biden that it is patriotic to pay taxes, so why would he do that?

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He's planning on making it available to illegals too (not included in the 48%, or whatever the number is). "Rich" is currently anyone making more than $120,000 but the number is coming down virtually every day.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/10302008/ ... ainst_the_wall_135896.htm


Ankur Randev and his wife, Rachna, live at Trump Plaza Jersey City.


Ankur Randev and his wife, Rachna, departed Midtown for Trump Plaza Jersey City.


Sean Corolan and his wife, Magdalena, recently purchased a condo at Ivy House.


AWAY FROM THE FRAY: Pink Elephant's Rocco Ancarola moved from NoLita to a three-bedroom rental in Jersey City.


READY FOR THE SPOTLIGHT: The Beacon condo development (top), which used to be a hospital, now has amenities including a screening room (bottom), a swimming pool and a sauna.

UP AGAINST THE WALL -- JERSEY CITY TAKES STOCK

By ADAM BONISLAWSKI
New York Post
October 30, 2008

James Keating doesn't work on Wall Street. But living in Jersey City, he's had a front-row seat to the financial sector's recent traumas.

Keating, a resident of the Beacon condo development, takes his building's free shuttle to the PATH train each morning. The day of the Lehman Brothers collapse, he sat across from two of his fellow residents - one an employee at Lehman and the other an employee at Merrill Lynch (which sold itself to Bank of America just a few days later). They were, of course, discussing what fates awaited them at the office.

"One of them was saying to the other that he wondered if he should have brought a cardboard box with him to collect his things," recalls Keating, vice president of marketing at Shopwiki.com.

Such is life these days on "Wall Street West," as Jersey City is often called, given the area's close ties to Manhattan's investment world. Home to some 24,000 finance jobs and to thousands more residents who work in the industry across the river in Manhattan, Jersey City's fortunes are very much entwined with those of Wall Street.

Which, given the markets' current woes, probably isn't the most reassuring fact in the world. Especially if you're trying to sell Jersey City real estate.

"What's going on right now is scary," says Dean Geibel, managing partner of Metro Homes, the development company that built the Trump Plaza Jersey City condo tower. "It has a lot of people sitting on the sidelines. Sales haven't come to a halt, but it's slower because people are being cautious."

The 440-unit building (plans for a second 417-unit tower are on hold) has sold 375 apartments since going to market at the end of 2006. With the market slowing, however, the building is offering concessions like six months of free parking, although Geibel says he has yet to resort to price cuts (currently, one-bedrooms start at $495,000, two-bedrooms at $799,000 and three-bedrooms at $899,000).

Sales are similarly slow at developer K. Hovnanian's 77 Hudson, which, with prices averaging around $850 per square foot, is one of Jersey City's priciest buildings. On sale since July 2007, apartments in the 420-unit building are only 30 percent sold.

Tom Graham, the building's senior community director, says that K. Hovnanian is covering transfer taxes and other closing costs in an effort to lure buyers to the building. Nevertheless, Graham admits, sales office traffic is down 15 to 20 percent since September.

Curiously, though, Graham notes that the week Congress began discussion of the bailout plan, sales at 77 Hudson were relatively strong, with five units purchased - all by international buyers. Which raises the question - just how essential are Wall Street workers to Jersey City's housing market?

"When we first started marketing, our target market was the Wall Street buyer," Graham says. "But it turns out that's not who's been buying."

Then again, with close to 300 units still unsold, it's going to take more than foreign buyers, who have also been hit hard by the world's falling markets.

Still, Jamie LeFrak, managing director of the LeFrak Organization, similarly suggests that Jersey City's Wall Street ties have been overblown.

"The whole region is in the same boat together. Brooklyn is tied to the financial sector. Queens is tied to the financial sector. You could make the same exact statement about Bergen County, Westchester County, Nassau County," says LeFrak, whose Jersey City projects consist of nearly 5,000 residential units and will soon include the new 350-unit Aquablu rental building (studios start at $2,079, one-bedrooms at $2,257, two-bedrooms at $2,808 and three-bedrooms at $3,885).

Then again, Keating estimates that more than a third of his neighbors at the Beacon work in finance.

"You can definitely see the fear," he says. "People are going around asking each other, 'Are you going to be all right?' "

And Beacon developer George Filopoulos has changed his plans to build an adjacent 103-unit condo building, opting instead for 26 3,000- to 6,000-square-foot live/work lofts (with prices starting around $900,000) - a hedge against reduced demand.

"I wanted to offer something different from what's on the market," Filopoulos says. "We have to admit that there may be less buyers to go around than there were in 2005."

The Beacon's first building had nearly sold out by early 2008, with apartments in the 315-unit building going for under $500 per square foot. Fifty of those sales fell through, however, when the buyers were unable to secure financing. Since those 50 units returned to the market this September, five of them have sold.

But there are signs of hope in Jersey City. Near the Grove Street PATH station is Ivy House, a boutique condo building from Fields Development Group and TreeTop Development, which has sold 15 of its 18 units since going on sale at the beginning of July. With prices around $500 per square foot, the units are aimed at entry-level buyers, a demographic, says Fields principal James Caulfield, that's been under-served by new construction.

Retail planning director Sean Corolan and his wife, Magdalena, bought a two-bedroom in the building. Although nervous about the effects of the downturn, he's convinced that the area's relatively low prices will help protect his investment.

"We definitely talked about it: 'Is this a good time to buy with everything that's going on?' " he says. "But the thing I always come back to is that I see such a big discount in price per square foot. You can't even get close to this on price in Brooklyn."

And, of course, the proximity to Manhattan (the Financial District is just a five-minute PATH ride away), which helped tie Jersey City to Wall Street in the first place, won't be going away - regardless of what the market does.

"I'm still very confident that this area is going to appreciate," says hospitality industry executive Ankur Randev, who, with his wife Rachna, moved from Midtown to Trump Plaza Jersey City in June.

"At the end of the day, you're five minutes from lower Manhattan, but you have a $500-per-square-foot spread in price."

And then there are those who don't want anything to do with living in New York, anyway.

Manhattan nightclub owner Rocco Ancarola (of Pink Elephant fame) moved from NoLita to a three-bedroom rental by the Grove Street PATH stop three years ago. Since then, he's gotten hooked on his neighborhood's peace and quiet.

"I wake up in the morning in a Zen-like atmosphere," he says. "I can't wait to get back to New Jersey after my work in the city."

And, by the way, if you're a developer worried about luring buyers from across the river in this current climate, well, listen up - Ancarola has some good news.

"You put my name and picture in the paper, people will be flocking to Jersey City," he jokes.

So there's that, at least.

----------
Market watch

TRUMP PLAZA JERSEY CITY

The 440-unit tower (one-bedrooms start at $495,000) has sold 375 condos, with units averaging around $700 per square foot. Plans for a second building are on hold.

77 HUDSON

The 420-unit building, with condos averaging around $850 per square foot, is 30 percent sold. One buyer bought two penthouse units, a combined 4,188 square feet, for $6 million last year.

THE BEACON

Fifty units in the 315-unit building, with condos selling for less than $500 per square foot, returned to the market this September. Five have sold. In early 2007, a two-story penthouse sold for $2.3 million.

IVY HOUSE

This 18-unit boutique building, with prices around $500 per square foot, has sold 15 condos since hitting the market in July.

==============================================
Also curbed had this:
http://curbed.com/archives/2008/10/30 ... o_be_feeling_the_hurt.php

Jersey City Appears to be Feeling the Hurt
curbed.com
Thursday, October 30, 2008, by Joey

The condo boom that swept over the city and settled across the Hudson (it managed to survive fording the river, unlike so many cattle in "Oregon Trail") is now looking like a condo bust, at least in Jersey City. Not too long ago, blog The Life Vicarious wrote that the waterfront Trump Plaza Jersey City (name licesned by The Donald, 'natch) was delaying the start of construction on its second tower. If fact, TLV wrote, "The Trump building is looking more and more like a headstone for Jersey City's highrise boom." Today the Post provides an update on the Jersey City market, and while the paper isn't ready to bury the whole town quite yet, there are some troubling tidbits. First, on Trump:

The 440-unit building (plans for a second 417-unit tower are on hold) has sold 375 apartments since going to market at the end of 2006. With the market slowing, however, the building is offering concessions like six months of free parking, although Geibel says he has yet to resort to price cuts (currently, one-bedrooms start at $495,000, two-bedrooms at $799,000 and three-bedrooms at $899,000).

But Jersey City's dependence on Wall Streeters and foreign buyers isn't hurting just the Trump building, of course:

Sales are similarly slow at developer K. Hovnanian's 77 Hudson, which, with prices averaging around $850 per square foot, is one of Jersey City's priciest buildings. On sale since July 2007, apartments in the 420-unit building are only 30 percent sold. Tom Graham, the building's senior community director, says that K. Hovnanian is covering transfer taxes and other closing costs in an effort to lure buyers to the building.

Will things get worse in Jersey City before they get better? Well, if the empty lot that was supposed to be Trump Jersey City II becomes a huge Tent City, do let us know.

Quote: Both your spelling and your reasoning are wrong, "teacher". While it's true that the working Americans who happen to make a bit less than you or I don't pay taxes, they are hardly leeches. They work, therefore they produce. Specifically, they produce for their employers who then pay taxes. "...the top 300,000 Americans collectively enjoyed almost as much income as the bottom 150 million Americans. Per person, the top group received 440 times as much as the average person in the bottom half earned, ..." Being a believer in capitalism, I don't begrudge the wealthy for earning 440x what their brethren do; they are often just rewards for hard work, vision and risk-taking. But it's a give AND take. You can make your money, but you gotta pay for what you benefitted from. i.e., pay taxes. You seem to lack reason and your assertions give capitalism a bad name. Quote: see above. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/29/bus ... 38-1H7fTm3awiZDNW9fFVsZBw

Obama Hussein will destroy this country. 48% of working Americans will no longer pay taxes. Leaches on society. He will tax the rich out of the US workplace. By by jobs. O'Hussein will also have the rich contribute 68 billion in support of healthcare to the 48%.
O'H will increase capital gains taxes. This will hamper its efforts to retrace its past gains.
O'H will legalize 12 million illegals ...further increase the burden on the actual tax payers.
O'H endorses fraud....Acorn, pre-paid credit card donations.
VOTER Fraud.
Its not that I love McCain, it just that he is by far the best candidate in this two horse race.

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Isn't that the Libertarian position?

http://www.theweek.com/article/index/ ... _rise_of_the_Libertarians

-snip-

Where do they stand on the issues?
They?re all over the map and therefore don?t fit neatly into the conventional Right-Left divide. For instance, they are decidedly on the left in their support of free speech, open borders, legalized drugs, abortion rights, and all forms of adult consensual sex, including prostitution.

We really need to sweep out all the bad history out of JC and have start fresh.
If Fulop wins as Mayor, he should and we should demand ethical standards so high as though a person was running for President. NO CONVICTIONS OF ANY SORT (except minor traffic offences). If its good for the country, its good for JC.

These 3 stooges should never hold public office here or anywhere. We deserve better then them !

When I left NY at 1:00 am at Christopher, the crowd was not so bad. There was no fee for the ride and the police just let people through, pointing them to then front of the car and filled the cars front to back. I think the majority of the traffic is on Christopher, so they need to devote entire trains to moving this traffic along. Maybe alternate some way. The PortAuthority should have a better plan in effect for these types of crowds.

Wow, it sounds like what you all need is more entrances to the Newport PATH station.


(I'm kidding. If you don't get it, just skip this post entirely.)

I have to agree, this is just silly. Does she have no family, friends or someone who could do it for her? I'll go to Costco and buy enough batteries to last 5 years. I could see if the smoke-detector was broke, but this is just a joke.

After dealing with the latenight JSQ-Hob-33rd after 9/11 I avoid it like the plague. The thought of them deliberately closing WTC on any weekend next year is a nightmare.

I'm all for this.

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It sounds horrible, but unless the Governor is going to hold the Port Authority accountable, it will require a tragedy before anything is done. Consider what happened with DYFS; it was neglected and falling apart until a few kids died and made national headlines. Only then did it start getting the attention of the state. Its unfortunate that we have accepted a government that is merely reactionary, but that is the only sort of thing that gets results.

I tried to get onto this death-train last night around 3:30. When it pulled into 14th it was already packed to the gills, but for some reason the jackasses in front of me (probably from Hoboken) decided to take running starts and push their way in, giggling like a bunch of drunk asses the whole time. It was really inconsiderate, even for a bunch of Jersey guys.

My gf and I eventually just decided to go up to the street and ate a diner till about 5AM until we thought the PATH would clear up. It was still bush at that time, but at least we got on.

I know that they run trains infrequently at night, but would don't they add more trains on nights like this? They already know what's coming.

Lately cause of work, I have the privilege of enjoying a PATH ride from around 2 to 4am sometimes from 9th street to JC. There is an annoying but tolerable pattern to using the path train at night (even on the weekends). The trains usually show up on time because they work on a schedule. The real pain in the tuckus is the drunks friday/sat night who most of the time all get off at Hoboken. When I'm not in the mood for them - I take a cab to the WTC (which is a pretty silly answer since I work around st.marks... but its a works).

Last night, I tried to get a cab to the WTC.... near damn impossible around where I was at. Traffic was pretty bad downtown. I took my chances with the 9th street and it sucked. Sucked bad.

I heard from the attendant at the 9th street station that instead of running 2 trains at night ... somehow - she didn't know - they were only running one. That's why many of us where told to take the uptown path train and were forced to make a loop up and then down into JC(through Hoboken..thanks).

Beyond that retardness, really someone at the PATH should've thought ahead and ran more trains last night because it was a holiday. Halloween happens every year... its the same shiat. I declare that person who makes those decisions a total idiot based on last night. It was very dangerous and they really risked alot of peoples lives.

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A faint praise followed by a devastating right hook, Loopy.

The Economist is on record (according to Wikipedia) endorsing legalized drug use and legalized prostitution, a pretty lefty social position if you ask me.

As to the economic issues thay are a tad more "conservative". I only read The Economist when I get it for free on British Airways (which is infrequent).

But let's not nit-pick - I agree with their editorial on McCain vs Obama.

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Yeah, one could hope, right?

WTF is wrong with you?

I agree this did sound like a terrible and an inexcusably negligent ordeal.

But why would anyone have stayed on the train or even boarded at Christopher St? The safest alternative would have been to hop in a cab. While it's a little expensive, probably about $60, it sounds like it would have been worth it for this occurrence.

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Hmm.

The newly renovated apartment that I just moved into two months ago has the connected kind as well. There are two problems with mine: 1) They are so sensitive that I have to turn them off by the circuit breaker every time I cook and 2) they don't have a battery backup so I installed a normal $15 one. Does four smoke alarms sound a little excessive for a 440 sq/ft apartment?

Some wired ones have battery backups so the beeping is letting you know that the batteries are dying and need replacing.

Uncourted Voters, Too, Hope for a President Who Mirrors Them

New York Times
By PETER APPLEBOME
Published: November 1, 2008

You don?t need to stop by Sign of the Times, sort of a hippie toy store on Main Street here, its window full of Obama T-shirts (?Jan. 20, 2009. The End of an Error.? ?I?m Voting for ?That One? ?) and a leftover flier from the Oct. 17 Boogie for Obama concert, to see the signs of the times.

Instead, in our forgotten corner of the national political landscape, you can?t miss them: the Martha Stewartesque tableau of Obama signs and stickers outside Joan Silbersher?s antiques shop in the quiet hamlet of Pound Ridge in Westchester; the front page of the student newspaper at Norwalk Community College in Connecticut (?N.C.C. Students Choose Obama ? Student Poll a Landslide Victory?); the Obama-Biden poster at the rear of the kitchen at the Shadman Pakistani and Indian restaurant on Grove Street in Jersey City.

It?s not about figuring out who wins New York, New Jersey and Connecticut on Tuesday. Barack Obama?s chances of winning this corner of the country are no more in doubt than John McCain?s in Texas, Utah and Alaska.

Instead, if you drive around New York and its environs at the tail end of this tumultuous and lovely autumn, trees awash in orange and gold, it?s hard to miss something else. In the heart of Blue America, along with judging the candidates? positions on taxes, the war and health care, there?s almost a palpable yearning for a president who, for once, seems like us.

So Craig Machado, the director of the English as a Second Language program at Norwalk, likes Mr. Obama?s positions on issues, though he doesn?t think either candidate has leveled with the American people about what?s really possible given the floundering economy. But he also likes the idea of a president whose symbolic signals and dog whistles aren?t about clearing brush, professing his faith or conjuring up the campaign trail?s nostalgic vision of heartland America, half true, half illusion.

?I like the way he presents himself, his self-confidence, his intelligence, his poise,? he said of Mr. Obama. ?Unfortunately, what?s gone on in the country is this kind of bashing of intellectuals, bashing of people who have educational credentials, as if there?s something wrong with that, that it?s not valuable. There?s the appeal of Sarah Palin, that?s she just a hockey mom, just a Joe Schmo, and that?s what we need. I don?t know where we got that idea.?

You hear something similar from Ken Jablonski, rigging stage lights at the Riverspace Arts center in Nyack, and from Natalie Giusio, sitting outside a coffee bar in Jersey City. They cite friends abroad ? Europeans for Mr. Jablonski, Argentines for Ms. Giusio ? who are baffled by and contemptuous of the past eight years of American life and figure that maybe it?s time for a political vision of America that?s more like the world they see in front of them.

Sometimes you hear anger, the other side of the rancor that courses through the McCain and Palin rallies. Asked whom he was voting for, a man in a sweater and sandals at the Shadman restaurant in Jersey City who declined to give his name said, ?Obama.? Asked why, he said: ?Because America in the last eight years has been more like barbarism than anything else.?

No one expects miracles, but Mr. Obama?s supporters here seem to believe that if he wins, he can deliver on at least some of the hope he?s selling. Robert Suda, who is 77 and works at the antiques shop in Pound Ridge, can remember Franklin D. Roosevelt and how much difference a president who is smart, confident, upbeat and focused can make. Almost every Obama supporter seemed to cite the immediate, galvanized boost Mr. Obama would provide to America?s esteem abroad.

Some caution that more changes will take patience, a quality in short supply.

?America wants a microwave,? said Pernell Vassell, 40, an assistant manager of a gas station who hopes to go back to school in Norwalk. ?We have to slow-cook our way back. It?s like if you have the flu. You don?t expect to be all better tomorrow.?

Others said that whatever Mr. Obama?s faults, the alternative was much worse.

?If we don?t change direction, we?re going to end up in some kind of ?Mad Max? post-apocalyptic situation,? said Kerry McCrohan, 32, an assistant director of television programs, who is from Jersey City.

There are plenty of skeptics here, too. At his florist shop, Peter Korek says business stinks, but he?ll still take Mr. McCain?s experience over Mr. Obama?s promise of change, which strikes him as more na?ve than substantive. ?You can?t always get what you want,? he said, as the Stones? song played on the radio.

The general election has played out far away, as if in a different country ? no rallies at a hip river town like Nyack, a green Westchester suburb like Pound Ridge, a Fairfield County community college like Norwalk. Certainly, there have been no set pieces like Grove Street in Jersey City, with its acupuncturist and Ibby?s Falafel; El Sason de las Americas restaurant; New Mashallah Grocery; Sava Polish Diner; La Conga Supermarket; Soul Flavors restaurant and the rest of the new urban polyglot.

Maybe it?s the most audacious hope of all. But Mr. Obama?s supporters here still dream that after the countless rambles through the Midwest and the South, his improbable caravan will finally end up in a place where it has hardly ever been.

E-mail: peappl@nytimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/02/nyregion/02towns.html

My wife and I waited over an hour for a train from Christopher St. last night and unfortunately the train that came was the 3:30 am train you speak of. People were were fighting, screaming, and shoving the entire ride. I have never seen it as bad as that in my life. People were forced to ride in between the cars and hold on to what they could in order to not get crushed to death. I would not have been surprised if anyone was seriously hurt after that ride.