The whole point of giving a ticket is to make sure people move their cars so that the streets are properly cleaned. If blowing the horns makes more people move their cars then the streets are cleaner..........no. It seems like a practical thing to do.

And regarding the cops' cars. Their streets down in Monmouth County are nice and clean, so what do they care.

Stopped in Saturday night and I can report the Beer is very good.

Quote:


oh so we're back to selective ticketing then

maybe one day I can offord to live there. I'll get back to you on your observations at that time.

I agree it kind of stinks, but on the other hand, they were under no obligation to blow their horns in the first place. The sign says when you can't park, and it's up to you to move your car during that time. I suppose it would be a hardship for a homebound person with a disability, but otherwise I don't see the big deal.

I have noticed in the past week, that it has been mighty silent while the street cleaner covers my block, and that only half the cars on my street (First Street, bteween Erie and Manila) have tickets. I asked the Parking Authority officer in the little trike what gives? She said that the cars that are not ticketed belong to policemen, and they were instructed not to give tickets on First Street or Bay Street between Erie and Manila, and not to give any warning beeps as was the practice in the past. In fact the street cleaner won't even go up Bay from Manila, it makes a left on Manila, right on Newark, Right on Erie, completely bypassing the section between Manila and Erie. and is not giving any warning beeps to make up for the shortfall in tickets. This really stinks, as you now have to look for the street cleaner so that you move your car in time.

Yes, I've noticed the trucks and idling at this location. They really are in a unique position as the only large office building surrounded by brownstones.

Because of this location they need spend more effort in cutting down on noise and air polution.

Maybe the state would like to start fining idlers at this location:
http://www.state.nj.us/dep/enforcement/otb-idle.htm

Quote:

Some friends came into town on Saturday and we dinner at Ox. It was very good. We had the same things as other people mentioned before so I won't go into details but all of us were very happy with the service and quality of the food.

Ox is definitely a nice addition to the ever changing JC restaurant scene.

For the last three years, I have lived behind 95 Columbus Ave. Their loading dock and generator exhaust vent are across the street from my home. While I understand certain discomforts attach to city living, I have noticed the following exceed "normal" expectations. Has anyone else on the 3 - 29 block of Wayne Street observed the following?

1) Brinks shredding truck - arrives between 8:30 am-10 am. Industrial shredding at a level to make me wish I had a hearing aid I could turn off. Sometimes shredding lasts until 2-3 pm, a full 6 hours.

2) Building generators - on Saturday, 9/8/07, they were on for emergency PSE&G repair from 9 a.m. - 11:15 p.m. 14 hours of diesel exhaust and the sound of a freight train running down my block. The generators were also on all night, every night last week.

3) Noise and parking issues - vendors and contractors who jockey in line to get to the loading dock keep their engines running, filling my house with fumes. They throw their trash out their windows into my front yard. They've destroyed a sidewalk planter we built last spring. I work from home and cannot work in the front of my house between 7 a.m. - 1 p.m. because of the noise and pollution.

If you live on this block and want to talk, please contact me at kimilee935@hotmail.com. I've already opened a dialogue with the building manager at 95 Columbus. But let's be frank, they'll listen if 15 angry neighbors show up to complain. They don't care if only one person complains!

The building manager is Debbie Sparks of Wells Fargo Realty. (201-432-3244). She's made herself available 9-5 M-F if anyone has complaints.

?The exposure of the local government of Jersey City has been very shameful to the inhabitants of that town."

Could this be in reference to our municipal ?judges? and the recent traffic ticket fixing scandal?



?The people who are not the beneficiaries of the corruption in the government seem to be quite hopeless and helpless, and have no more remedy to propose than mobs and vigilance committees."

Could this be in reference to Councilman Fulop?s referendums and the neighborhood associations?



Probably not, this article is from back on April 14th.


April 14th, 1890



Click here for NY Times article


the more things change, the more they stay the same...

The wait was worth it! I went both Saturaday and Sunday and I lovvvve the facility.

New York Times:

October 29, 2007
F.C.C. Set to End Sole Cable Deals for Apartments
By STEPHEN LABATON

WASHINGTON, Oct. 28 ?The Federal Communications Commission, hoping to reduce the rising costs of cable television, is preparing to strike down thousands of contracts this week that gave individual cable companies exclusive rights to provide service to an apartment building, the agency?s chairman says.

The new rule could open markets across the country to far-ranging competition. It would also be a huge victory for Verizon Communications and AT&T, which have challenged the cable industry by offering their own video services. The two companies have lobbied aggressively for the provision. They have been supported in their fight by consumer groups, satellite television companies and small rivals to the big cable providers.

Commission officials and consumer groups said the new rule could significantly lower cable prices for millions of subscribers who live in apartment buildings and have had no choice in selecting a company for paid television. Government and private studies show that when a second cable company enters a market, prices can drop as much as 30 percent.

The change, which is set to be approved Wednesday, is expected to have a particular effect on prices for low-income and minority families. They have seen cable prices rise about three times the rate of inflation over the last decade. A quarter of American households live in apartment buildings housing 50 or more residents, but 40 percent of households headed by Hispanics and African-Americans live in such buildings.

?Exclusive contracts have been one of the most significant barriers to competition,? Kevin J. Martin, chairman of the commission, said in an interview. Cable prices have risen ?about 93 percent in the last 10 years,? he said. ?This is a way to introduce additional competition, which will result in lower prices and greater innovation.?

The decision is the latest in a series of actions by the commission under Mr. Martin to put pressure on cable companies to lower their rates and make their markets more competitive. In December, in a 3-to-2 decision, the commission approved a proposal by Mr. Martin to force municipalities to accelerate the local approval process for the telephone companies to enter new markets. The phone companies had asserted that many municipalities had been delaying approvals, often in the face of cable industry lobbying.

Last month, the commission approved a rule that requires the largest cable companies to provide programs produced by their affiliates to all of their rivals, including the phone companies and satellite television companies. The commission is also considering a proposal to make it less expensive for independent programmers to lease channels from cable companies.

Mr. Martin has also pressed the cable companies to offer so-called ? la carte plans that would permit subscribers to buy individual channels, or groups of channels, at lower rates than they now pay.

The new rule would shift the bargaining power over cable and broadband services to apartment residents from landlords and tenant associations. It has been long sought by consumer groups as part of a broader effort to cut prices to the roughly 100 million households that pay for access to television.

The change would be an abrupt reversal for the commission, which only four years ago ruled that such exclusive agreements sometimes actually promoted competition by giving landlords the leverage to negotiate for the best terms.

Commission officials said they had prohibited other exclusive contracts involving telecommunications, including those in commercial buildings, but trade groups representing cable companies and building owners have indicated they may challenge the commission?s move in court.

Commission officials said the rule aims to put an end to some common practices of landlords and tenant associations that have deprived tenants of choices. They said that in many communities, there has been only one cable provider, and while landlords and tenant associations could select a satellite television provider, the competition from those companies has not led to lower cable prices.

The cable companies have also managed to shut out competition by signing long-term exclusive deals. The officials said they hoped that opening the apartment doors to the telephone companies, which offer the same packages of television, broadband and phone services as the cable companies, would force the cable companies to cut their rates.

A few states, including New York, have laws that either restrict or prohibit a landlord or tenant association from entering into an exclusive contract with a cable company. But most states have no such laws, and no state has struck down existing exclusive contracts. Commission officials, consumer groups and rival companies maintain that even in those states like New York with access laws, the rules are not uniformly enforced. They said a federal regulation would fix that.

In one area alone, Hilton Head, S.C., a small cable provider, the Hargray CATV Company, has been battling for two years with its larger rival, Time Warner, which claims to have an exclusive contract forever to provide service in developments to more than 20,000 customers. Similar battles have been waged between other cable companies and rivals involving buildings across the country.

Moreover, consumer groups said the number of lengthy exclusive contracts appears to have increased in recent months as AT&T and Verizon have begun to expand their video services and as the commission has indicated it might intervene to ban exclusive arrangements.

?For people in apartment buildings, this could be the most significant step towards bringing down cable prices,? said Gene Kimmelman, vice president for federal affairs at the Consumers Union. ?Most people in apartment buildings have been subject to a monopoly provider, with little or no local control and no federal control over pricing. This is the most significant step regulators can take short of regulating prices.?

But large cable companies, as well as associations representing building owners and tenant groups, said the change would fundamentally alter the economics of cable television in apartments in ways that would be harmful to consumers. They are threatening to challenge the commission in court.

?It is both unlawful and, as a matter of public policy, wholly inappropriate and counterproductive for the commission to bar cable operators from enforcing existing exclusive contracts,? said Daniel L. Brenner, a senior vice president of the National Cable and Telecommunications Association, the cable industry?s main trade association in Washington. ?Exclusive contracts and building-by-building competition can, in fact, promote investment, efficiency and competition.?

The commission and trade groups said they did not know the precise number of contracts, though they estimated the amount to be in the thousands.

The cable industry and the owner associations said the cable companies were often granted exclusive rights to buildings after agreeing to make major capital investments in upgrading systems, and that a new rule striking the exclusivity clauses would be an illegal taking of property in violation of the Fifth Amendment.

?The F.C.C.?s approach is wrongheaded,? said Jim Arbury, senior vice president for government affairs at the National Multi-Housing Council, which represents about 1,000 owners, managers and developers. ?They think that banning exclusives means there will be more competition, when the fact is that exclusive contracts play a definite role in the area of promoting competition.?

He continued: ?It allows the apartment owner to play the various providers off against each other and get the best deal for residents in terms of quality and price.?

Commission officials say that the agency has previously prohibited exclusive contracts in other telecommunications areas, and that the courts have upheld such restrictions.

The commission has, for instance, prohibited exclusive contracts for telecommunications services in commercial buildings. It has also required telephone companies that provide service to apartments to offer access to their wires to rival companies.


http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/29/business/media/29cable.html?

--------------------------

This article mentions Comcast:
FCC To Vote To End Exclusive Cable-Condo Building Deals

$4M uncollected by Buildings Department

Monday, October 29, 2007
By KEN THORBOURNE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

More than $4 million may have gone uncollected by the Jersey City Buildings Department over the past several years, according to a source familiar with an ongoing investigation by the Jersey City Police Department.

The uncollected money could be the result of computer glitches or employee oversight - or evidence of a crime, said the source, who spoke on condition of confidentiality. It's possible the money was collected but not deposited into the city's coffers, the source said.

There's so much missing money, and the existing records are so spotty, that an accounting firm hired by the city to conduct a forensic audit into the department is proposing to reconstruct the books from scratch dating back several years, the source said.

The investigation, which began in March, is being conducted by the police department's Special Investigations Unit.

So far, no city employee has been disciplined or referred for criminal prosecution in connection to the probe, city officials said.

The accounting firm hired by the city, Sax Macy Fromm & Co. of Clifton, has so far identified more than $1 million that should have been collected from various contractors, but apparently was never deposited into city accounts.

"We are awaiting those results and have the utmost confidence in the JCPD and the forensic accountant," Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy said about the probe.

"And as soon as their investigation is completed and the results are in we will be more than happy to share those results with all interested parties, especially the residents of Jersey City," Healy added.

Police Chief Thomas Comey did not rule out administrative discipline or criminal prosecution.

"When all information is obtained and evaluated we will make the appropriate recommendation for either criminal or administrative action at that time," Comey said. "Any comment we make prior to that could impede the investigation and be inappropriate."

Please review the list below and email us with details pursuant to the list description if you find lights out not on the list below: PSE&G Street Lamp Outage List Report, 10/28/07 Oct 27 (1 day ago) to "Dwyer, Richard F." <Richard.DwyerJr@pseg.com> cc: fulops@jcnj.org, downtownjcwatch@gmail.com, date Oct 27, 2007 11:07 PM subject Updated report of streetlights out - Downtown Jersey City (10/28/07) Dear Richard, Attached please find an updated report of streetlights that are out in downtown Jersey City area. Two of the lights are by the Roberto Clement baseball field (6th St. between Manila Ave.and Marin Blvd). Those lights have been reported several times but they still don't get fixed. Any status on those particular streetlights? This report also contains some streetlights in Hamilton Park which are out. One of the Hamilton Park area residents reported those lights to the Downtown Jersey City Watch group, along with the following comments: --- Begin Quote: "Many pole lights inside Hamilton Park along walk paths are not working. We started writing the pole light numbers down, but as we walked, there were so many lights out, we did not write all of them down, and many had no numbers on them."..."We were surprised how many lights inside Hamilton Park are not working. As I stated above, many lights that were not working did not have numbers on them. I do not know how to catalog them if they have no numbers on them." --- End Quote We appreciate your kind assistance in forwarding this report to the PSE&G maintenance department. Best regards, [redacted]

From: Captain McDonough <jcpdeastdistrict@yahoo.com> Date: Tue, 23 Oct 2007 14:04:32 -0400 Subject: Description of Actors W/Gun on 8th/Monmouth Robbery Oct. 14, 2007 [redacted] The incident on Sunday, October, 14, 2007 at 8th and Monmouth St. occurred at 12:35 a.m. The actors descriptions are as follows: 2 adult black males, thin build, approx. 5'10", one wearing a blue hooded sweatshirt and jeans, and the other wearing a red hooded sweatshirt with 'New York' written on the back and jeans. Please be advised, and inform all, that a unit is and will continue to be assigned to the Hamilton Park area on a daily basis during the evening hours. Regards. P.O. Dina Reilly JCPD East District Community Relations Officer

My first concern is regarding the illegal tear-downs, given that I have two asthmatics in the home and am genuinely concerned for their ongoing health.
That said I do believe that the new buildings are eyesores now and will be laughable down the road. The quality of the new construction is shoddy -- these buildings will be falling apart in a short few decades, whereas the buildings that are being torn down have lasted a century or more and will continue on with a decent amount of care. What kind of neighborhood will the Heights be in 20 years when, instead of having beautifully restored (or at least maintained) and attractive homes, we have deteriorating shabby boxes with absolutely no yard space? What does any neighborhood gain by replacing stoops and front windows (where we've always been able to meet with neighbors, say hi, feel like you were maybe a little bit safer while walking at night) with locked tight garages?

Good to know it includes JC now. Its advance options are amazing.

In this s6k:I exclusive, we have been provided with the honor of talking to the person who filmed the "Drunk Cops" video in Jersey City, New Jersey. We thank Lee Perry for coming forward and talking with us. For us, the key fact is the events happened without the public ever being properly informed. In a democratic society, without proper oversight AND an informed public, the facts often become blurred into opinion or disappear all together. This conversation answered some questions for us, while it has introduced a number of others. He's also a very soft-spoken individual, which is nothing like the way he was framed earlier in this public conversation. Complete information, www.s6k.com/leeperry In peace and service, s6k Media

Quote:

No, Melissa you don't "...need to read an entire thread before posting..." just the ones on the same page as your own before posting, please. Repetitive posts with the same info/comments, drive other topic threads off the main page here, particularly those relating to a"..social life...out side of a computer screen..."

Oh, and Melissa, I manage a social life quite well outside this site as some who know me beyond JCList know.

Great avatar btw
broccoli8

Quote:

I picked up a brand new DVR on 9/27 at Comcast's office on Kennedy Blvd. Maybe it is hit or miss dependly on what day you go.

I orderd the Digital Preferred plan plus HDTV. The stupid girl there added "Howard Stern" to my account. I didn't know till a few days later when I had a technician at my place because I didn't set up the DVR properly. He showed me what was on my account. The technician was good. I never had any problems with the technicians that visited my place.

thanx to super_furry for the article.

fine article but the slant strikes me as a tad negative. for balance you may want to also check out:

http://www.onthemedia.org/topics/the_internet/1 (see "cutting the cord")
http://www.news.com/Citywide-Wi-Fi-is ... /2100-7351_3-6209837.html
http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/news/2007/09/muni_wifi

some impressions and questions:

-- seems like the earlier implementors have inadvertently pointed out the pitfalls so those who follow can avoid them.

-- some of the early business models seem poor.

-- municipal networks may be more technically practical to implement in 2008 than they were in 2004.

-- wifi based applications may be more attractive in 2008 than in 2004.

-- municipal networks may not lend themselves to a "big project" approach. a piecemeal approach based on building small pieces of the network at a time, each as part of a specific application with specific benefits may work better. applications aimed at solving specific problems may be fundable with resources available for addressing those problems.

-- using the network to improve efficiency or effectiveness of existing municipal services might be a good place to start.

-- should a municipal network be free of charge to the public? or just freely available and cheap? (perhaps low cost metered service so you can use only what you can afford, a bit like pay as you go cell phone service?)

-- it may make more sense to find ways of leveraging existing infrastructure wherever possible than to emphasize building new infrastructure.

-- some general governance issues may need to be addressed before the public is likely to have confidence in a project like this.

The historic preservation, if you note from the original letter, is just one of many problems that these new constructions pose.

To address the historic issue: most homes in the Heights date from 1860 - 1920, much like other parts of the city. While many are covered in aluminum, most are full of architectural detail, as I noted in photos of 76 and 78 Booraem before demolition.

To propose that the new builds are an improvement is incorrect. First, they do not remotely approximate the design standards the city put forth and poorly upholds, and consequently, they are total eyesores, made with cheap materials. Second, they do not follow basic zoning requirements, as suggested in other responses here. Most are illegal 3 apartments in 2-family zoned areas, and when two houses are squashed on a double lot, you get parking and environmental nightmares. Greenspace, not only a beauty issue, but also one to control toxic runoff into our sewers, is never integrated into planning.

Most important, for all of us whether we live in the Heights or not, is the issue of the environmental impact of tear downs. In the Heights, many homes are covered with asbestos shingle, and are often full of asbestos tiling and glues indoors. Builders do quick, illegal, and non-State compliant demolition without notification to neighbors, and in the case of the house photos attached here, backfill was actually quickly placed over the tear down site to cover the toxic waste produced during demo.

So in answer to the question here, no, indeed the new construction is not an improvement on any front. See photos. This is an example of a house that was torn down. Note the details inside and the probable asbestos shingles outside. There was no neighborhood notification, no proper asbestos testing, and they were built with illegal basement apartments. Just click, don't sign in.

http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLand ... p%3Fmode%3Dfromshare&Ux=0

thanx.

so far the articles i've seen on this have been a bit short on basic facts. like who's being picked on, what kind of subscriptions they had, etc. (IIRC) the story on OTM mentioned that delayed transfers invovled files above a particular size and i don't know enough about bit torrent to know if that could actually have been a criterion for "special treatment."

several articles position this as a net neutrality issue. there are (at least) a couple of aspects to the net neutrality debate:

-- pay to play: should firms be allowed to pay for prefential treatment for their traffic?

-- protocal bias: should networks treat traffic using using different protocals differently?

on the first item my own answer is definately "no".

the second is dicier as different protocols have different QOS requirements. this was not a huge problem in the days when network traffic tended to reqire either low latency or high bandwidth, but not both at once (telnet vs ftp). streaming media likes both, thus the problem.

at first glance this seems like a problem that can be resolved at the technical level ("traffic shaping") and there's been some of that going on. things get messy when a particular protocol is associated with a particular business model.

if big fish and little fish both use telnet and ftp and those protocals are treated differently from each other but those differences are the same for the big and little fish, no problem. but if little fish use bit torrent and big fish don't then discrimination against bit torrent packets hurts the little fish more than the big fish. big problem.

(also raises the question of whether little fish want their interactive apps to get balky so their bulk xfers will run faster.)

so far the info i've seen hasn't made it clear whether the issue is protocal bias, xfer size bias, TOS violation, some combination of those, or someting else entirely. it doesn't seem to have anything to do with pay to play. so whether this episode is a suitable poster child for net neutrality is hard to say.

[i wrote that paragraph before reading the arstechnica article linked to above, which stresses the protocol bias angle, but it's still not clear if the other factors are involved as well. in case you missed it too:
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/ ... xplanations.html?from=rss ]

while writing the posting above i forgot one of my favorite aphorisms: "never ascribe to malice that which can be explained by stupidity."

it's quite conceivable that the notorious comcast delays started off as just a screw up; a reasonable sounding bandwidth management policy run amuck. if the system was configured to favor traffic associated with interactive applications and failed to limit how much favoritism would be provided, it's not hard to imagine how unreasonable delays of large, non-interactive transfers might result.

[in light of the arstechnica article this seems likely, but there could be confounding factors, like who's problems get priority.]

still far from a good thing, but not deliberately malicious either.

[one other correction: there was a whole series of service interuptons that were not DNS related that coincided with the roll out of a television service and whatever the problem was seems to have been resolved. ]

another note on the TOS thing:

while i haven't gone broadband shopping for a while, last time i looked around there were a variety of DSL options around with more flexible TOS than comcast's. IIRC some permitted home servers, and some even offered residential SDSL. dunno if that's still the case. (if you need a light truck you may be able to get a light truck instead of getting a car and complaining that it's not a light truck.)

oops. did it again. gotto go.

'You ain't heard nothin' yet!'

Anniversary screening of early talking pic 'The Jazz Singer' at historic Loew's

Ricardo Kaulessar
Reporter staff writer

It was known as the movie that popularized the use of sound in motion pictures and pretty much ended the silent picture era.

Now in its 80th anniversary year, people will have an opportunity to view "The Jazz Singer" in one of its few screenings on the East Coast before year's end, when it shows at the historic Landmark Loew's Jersey Theatre in Jersey City on Nov. 10 at 7:30 p.m.

The 1927 movie starring the legendary entertainer Al Jolson is the story of Jakie Rabinowitz, a young Jewish boy who bucks the cantor tradition of his rabbi father and grows up to become popular "jazz singer" Jack Robin, only to return to his estranged family as his father is on his deathbed.

The film is first-rate melodrama that doesn't necessarily distinguish it from the many of the films of its era. But it became one of the top films for Warner Bros. Pictures the year of its release and was nominated for two Academy Awards. It currently ranks No. 90 on the American Film Institute's 100 greatest films list.

It is acknowledged by film historians for being the first feature-length Hollywood film to feature sound not just for a score and sound effects but also for dialogue and musical numbers. This was done by utilizing the Vitaphone process, a sound-on-film technology used on features and nearly 2,000 short subjects produced by Warner Brothers from 1926 to 1930.

"The Jazz Singer" also benefits from Jolson's oversized presence on screen, whether it is performing show-stoppers such as "My Mammy" and "Blue Skies," or literally stopping the show to utter improvised dialogue such as the immortal "You ain't heard nothin' yet!"

The Vitaphone Project

The screening, which will also include the showing of early sound shorts, will be introduced by film aficionado Ron Hutchinson of the Vitaphone Project, a group of record collectors and film buffs who have since 1991 have sought out missing soundtrack discs and film elements of Vitaphone talkies.

"It's a great film because of its success and it gets to be seen in a historic movie palace like the Loew's," said Hutchinson about the theater that opened only two years after the Jazz Singer hit the big screen.

From LA to JC

Colin Egan, co-founder of the Friends of the Loew's volunteer group, said last week the screening is taking place thanks to help from a former Loew's employee.

"A technician who used to work with us at the Loew's now works on West Coast, and he contacted me about screenings that took place out there," Egan said.

Screenings of "The Jazz Singer" were held earlier this month in California at the American Cinematheque in Hollywood and at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Beverly Hills. There was a showing on Turner Classic Movies on Oct. 6, and a three disc DVD set has been issued this month by Warner Home Video.

Egan continued, "We weren't planning to screen The Jazz Singer, but since this is the 80th anniversary and it's a pretty important film, we felt what better place to show it than at the Loew's, one of the first theaters designed for sound."

Egan said what also moved forward the special anniversary screening was their longstanding relationship with Warner Bros., as the Loew's theater has over the years held hundreds of screenings of classic movies in new and restored prints provided by Warner Bros. including a new, pristine 35 mm. print of the Jazz Singer.

Egan said while the Friends group is elated to show this classic, he is not sure how many people will be showing up and is not going to get too preoccupied over audience size.

"To be honest, it will be an experiment, as it's slightly more esoteric than what we normally show," Egan said. "But I am not doing it for the audiences, but for the historic value of the film."

What is Vitaphone?

People think of movies before the 1930s as being all-silent, with piano music playing over the action and characters were moving quickly.

But there were attempts at meshing sound technology with motion pictures since the turn of the 20th century.

It wasn't until the late 1920s when Warner Bros. and Western Electric developed the Vitaphone process that would see its greatest success after the Jazz Singer took audiences by storm.

This is how it worked: A 35mm projector had a turntable on which 16-inch disks (about the same size as an LP record) were played just like a record player. That turntable was connected to the same gears that moved the film, and if started at the same time as the movie, both film and record would play in sync.

With the Vitaphone Project, Hutchinson has tracked over 3,000 12- and 16-inch shellac soundtrack discs around the world, and has assisted on the restoration of over 35 shorts and 12 features. Amongst those disks found were two for a 1929 MGM movie that had been stored in a cabinet in the projection booth at the Loew's. Egan said he has kept those disks in the same cabinet, and the theater also acquired two non-operating Vitaphone projectors in recent years.

He said Vitaphone helped bring top stage performers of the day to the neighborhood movie theater.

"Instead of people paying hundreds of dollars to go to New York to see Al Jolson or some other top act of the day, they could see a Vitaphone short and hear them perform," Hutchinson said.

Dealing with blackface

The Friends group also is working with the Afro-American Historical & Cultural Society of Jersey City to create a display to be placed in the lobby of the Loew's Theater on the history of entertainers, both black and white, performing in blackface.

Blackface is a style of theatrical makeup that originated in the United States, used on actors to affect the countenance of an iconic, racist American archetype.

Jolson, as was customary amongst his peers at the time, performed numerous times in blackface during his career, including several numbers in "The Jazz Singer."

Egan points out Jolson while employing blackface in the movie, does not engage in gestures in the movie that was blatantly racist, but said the public should be informed about how and why the practice was done.

"The Jazz Singer, like many movies of its time has a less enlightened view about various racial and social groups, not just with the blackface, but also the Jewish caricature," Egan said. "With that said, Jolson performing in blackface was not him trying to imitate black people, but it's just Jolson in makeup."

The Landmark Loew's Jersey Theatre is located at 54 Journal Square in Jersey City.
Admission for the Nov. 10 screening will be $6 for adults, $4 for seniors, students with ID and children 12 years old and younger. For more information, call (201) 798-6055.

For comments on the story, contact Ricardo Kaulessar at rkaulessar@hudsonreporter.com

No police officer should be subjected to this kind of attack. Ever. Are these feral wild dogs? Were these dogs released on police property with the intent to cause injury to the police?

I hate when some streets are double names and then you get 3 street signes on one pole.

I forget the street, but one I saw was something like "Dr. Rev. ... Way" At least just use the last name.

By the way, Christopher Columbus Drive was originally Railroad Avenue, it was changed in the late 1980's. Henderson, there were two created famous pottery in the Paulus Hook area of Jersey City-one of the brothers also was Mayor.
Yvonne

slacky, you sound like a fun guy on that 1010 interview. in any case my opinion is the whole thing is BS. you were exactly right, that paramedic wanted to be some sort of hero. what a joke. to top it off, its typical of the police to blow the situation out of proportion and then have the gall to say you have to walk home when they realized it was all BS. i wish you the best. cheers.

Google is crappy.