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Re: ox restaurant
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Quote:
I'm the awkward mother of a lovely but very active small child who, after 5 years, is just getting to the point that I can take her to a casual restaurant without wreaking too much havoc. I completely agree, theoretically, with all of the people here who want parents to keep better control over their children in restaurants, but, in practice, I'm not good at it. If there are any people from Abbey's here: sorry about the glass that broke last Friday. I hope the $5 extra tip I gave on top of the regular tip was the right amount, and, if not, sorry again. Anyhow, one thing that turned me into a pariah on this site about three or four years ago is that I suggested that it would be great if one entrepreneur (or maybe a consortium of several restaurants) could either create one kiddie playroom/child-friendly restaurant (e.g., a Chuck E. Cheese aimed at guilt-ridden Gen X parents who buy wooden Brio toys and try to serve their children reasonably healthy food) or else create a kiddie playroom in which parents of small children can bring in (or, ideally, accept deliveries of) food from other area restaurants. Example: Maybe A Sound Start could open in the evenings for, say, $10 per kid, and arrange it so that a lot of different downtown restaurants would deliver food there on an expedited basis, and maybe the restaurants could pay Sound Start a $1 per meal in exchange for the extra business. That way: - Restaurants would have a tool for getting parents of active kids out of their dining rooms without being mean to the parents and shutting out eager paying customers. - Parents would have some place to go to eat if they feel like getting out of their homes and away from their television sets. - Parents would have a chance of seeing other parents and kids would have a chance of seeing other neighborhood kids without anyone having to deal with the social anxiety of arranging a playdate. - If the playroom/dining room weren't preparing enough food that it had to apply for a restaurant license, maybe that would cut out a lot of red tape costs. Of course, one obvious possible drawback to my suggestion is that it might not be legal for a business to do this without going through huge amounts of red tape and paying huge amounts for insurance, and another possible drawback is that there might not be enough parents parents who are desperate enough to get away from their homes to make the business viable in this particular neighborhood. But my understanding is that Williamsburg has at least one kid-oriented restaurant, so maybe this is the sort of business that could work once Grove Point and Liberty Harbor North fill up. Anyhow: I'm not suggesting that Ox should be this business, just wishing some other business would be this business (if it is actually feasible).
Posted on: 2007/12/5 19:14
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Re: ox restaurant
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Of course, Madame Claude's is spectacularly wonderful, but the menu just doesn't work that great for my particular kid. I understand that the last thing on earth most people here would want is for more small kids to descend on Madame Claude's. For me personally, it would lead to a huge improvement in my quality of life if Madame Claude's served a very plain, herb-free, child-size portion of its roasted chicken.
Posted on: 2007/12/5 8:43
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Re: ox restaurant
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It could be that Ox is really successful. The other day, when I was looking at the menu, a bunch of people were going past me to go in. So, I'm not sure whether or not the Ox people actually do need more business or not. Maybe they've hit a restaurant market sweet spot, and, when I think about this all a little more, maybe the kind of restaurant I want is not economically feasible here. If it were feasible, Sweet Priscilla's probably would still be serving food. But, honestly, I think the people who did the interior design of Sweet Priscilla's, Janam, Bagua, Basic, Kitchen Cafe, Beechwood and Marco and Pepe all got the organic, brick and wood, Gen X look I prefer together really well. Maybe one reason people are so outraged by how bad the service at Beechwood sometimes is, is because it's hard to reconcile uncaring service with such a friendly looking space. On the other hand, I'm 42, and maybe this is a generational thing. Maybe people in their 20s like a glossier look. Regardless: there should be room for all sorts of different types of restaurants. I just think there also ought to be room for a Cafe Nia restaurant that's open for dinner.
Posted on: 2007/12/5 8:32
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Re: ox restaurant
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Quote:
That's good information. It's hard to tell from the menu whether (as I said in the Shoutbox) the salads and appetizers are tidbit size or small meal size. If they're small meal size, that makes a difference. Quote: Must you all doom everything to fail before it even has a shot? Seriously, I bit my tongue for what has felt like a fairly long time, because people here who know me and know the Ox people will probably be mad at me, and, of course, there ought to be room for all types of restaurants downtown. I sincerely hope the Ox people do so well that they don't need my business. But I just desperately wish there were a place around Jersey and Newark that was sort of like Cafe Nia that was actually open sometimes.
Posted on: 2007/12/4 19:54
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Re: ox restaurant
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Quote:
First, if the Ox people are successful, great for them. I sincerely hope they do well and attract a bunch of foodies who have the disposable income to pay $40 or $50 per person on a regular basis. Of course, there's room in downtown Jersey City for a wide range of restaurants, including what to me seem to be "birthday dinner" level restaurants. Second, if the Ox people do need more business, and if they're open to suggestions, and if opening up the restaurant to bistro-budget-level patrons is financially feasible, then I'd like to plant the idea that maybe Ox could have one or two $10 entrees that are equivalent to the barbecue duck sandwich at Marco and Pepe. If it's possible to get a $15 meal at Marco and Pepe, maybe it could be possible to do that at Ox, too. Third, I guess someone eventually will start a good, modern "plain old food" kind of restaurant around Jersey and Newark that will stay open past 3 p.m., but, so far, no one has. I understand that Jersey City is still barely cheap enough for people to follow dreams here and set up the restaurant (or boutique) that they dream about owning, but I sometimes fantasize that owners will actually try to meet obvious needs. Of course, if the owners of Cafe Nia would just open for breakfast and dinner, that would make a huge difference, but maybe there's some issue with the lease that keeps them from ever being open when I feel like eating there.
Posted on: 2007/12/4 4:35
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Re: ox restaurant
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Quote:
For me, Cafe Nia would be extremely useful -- it's a casual place that serves kid-friendly food on the way to my kid's school -- but it's absolutely never open when I'm walking with my kid to and from school. Also: I hardly ever go to Marco and Pepe or Beechwood these days, just my routine has changed and I don't walk up the south end of Grove Street as much. But one thing that's great about Marco and Pepe is that, if you're very careful, you actually can get a great little dinner -- maybe the barbecue duck sandwich and an ice tea -- there for less than $15. But, unless the cheese trays at Ox or some other appetizer there is really big, I don't think you can eat at Ox for less than $20, or maybe $25. One solution for Ox, when it comes to attracting people like me, would be to add one or two bistro food kinds of dishes. On the other hand, maybe the high prices there are, essentially, a defensive mechanism to keep people with kids and down market sorts of people from coming in. If that's the strategy, then my idea would be a bad idea. I guess another consideration is that maybe what Ox is telling us that the only way to run a profitable restaurant on Newark without breaking the law is to generate something like $30 or $40 per seat per seating. (Or whatever the metric is when professional restaurant people talk about this sort of thing.) Maybe all of the other new restaurants that charge less are somehow fudging some rule or another.
Posted on: 2007/12/4 4:12
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Re: ox restaurant
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I live right by Ox, and I know the people who started it are wonderful people, but, for me, honestly, it's about as useful as a nail salon.
I might need a "birthday price level" restaurant twice a year, but I actually need a place like Paulus Hook's Harvest Cafe (?? probably getting the name wrong) that serves reasonably healthy, moderately priced, kid-friendly comfort food two or three times a week. What I really, really want on Newark is a healthy version of a the pancake house and a restaurant that would serve soup, salads and sandwiches and find some way to make low-fat and low-sodium options available for people who are too tired to cook but need to cut down on salt and fat and are afraid of all of the chemicals that you see even in "organic" frozen prepared foods.
Posted on: 2007/12/3 19:09
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Re: Will JC home sellers face new fee? - Hudson Reporter
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Personally, I don't think there's anything so terrible about a tax increase, if the government is going to do something useful with the money in a reasonably efficient way.
The problem is that government agencies in Jersey City seem to be very corrupt and inefficient. If Jersey City and Hudson County want to raise taxes, for example, it seems to me that they have to start by going into 30 Montgomery with consultants and streamlining.
Posted on: 2007/12/3 18:54
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Re: 22% Increase, VVP section
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Not quite everything. What Ian wrote is important: even if a unit isn't rent controlled, it's possible that a judge would object to the increase if it's over 10%, and if the increase is really out of line -- e.g., not justified by capital expenditures or by the fact that the rent is way out of whack with the market. If, say, you're not rent controlled, but your landlord just hated you and doubled your rent, a judge might call that "unconscionable." But it sounds as if Brian's increase is just annoying, not unconscionable, and, if a tenant takes a landlord to court over something that's not obviously outrageous, maybe that would make it hard to get another apartment. In New York, it sounds as if landlords use services to find out whether prospective tenants have filed landlord claims in the past. I don't know if landlords do that in New Jersey or not.
Posted on: 2007/12/1 4:46
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Re: Jersey City ed board votes for three more years for Epps
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My understanding is that the state made the board take Epps. The board didn't really have a choice.
Posted on: 2007/11/21 16:14
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Re: Downtown: two more 48-story towers and a hotel a go - but Planning Board wants a dog run
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I think one thing that's really holding up development is that everyone assumes all kind of wonderful shops are going to go into the lobby of Grove Pointe and somewhere in Liberty Harbor North. I don't know if our area can support a bookstore much larger than Imagine Atrium (which has a surprisingly good collection), but it certainly should be able to support a decent drug store.
Posted on: 2007/11/20 15:32
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Re: Downtown: two more 48-story towers and a hotel a go - but Planning Board wants a dog run
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Maybe this is has to do with editing, or the lifestage and interests of the reporter, but I think it's interesting that the article talks about what the developers ought to do for the dogs who will live in the complex and says nothing about the children.
There probably will be a little closet-size playroom, but the article doesn't mention anything about an outdoor playground; a daycare facility; efforts to subsidize Waterfront, OLC, the River School or Lipton; or efforts to work with P.S. 3, P.S. 16 or Learning Community Charter School. And I understand that a lot of people hate children and that maybe 99 percent of Jersey City should be child free, but the article doesn't even say whether the complex will be child free or not.
Posted on: 2007/11/20 9:46
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Re: Police brass promote 34
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how well would you do chasing thugs with glocks, thru the projects in early morning hours without backup? Well, how would those officers feel about walking past the open air, apparently court-approved drug supermarket on Wayne Street in the evening hours while being 5'2" and having nothing but a Maclaren stroller for a weapon and an ornery toddler for backup? Seriously: I want officers to be well-paid and well-treated, but I think it would be good if they were relying less on fleet feet and more on courtesy. Maybe they could catch more thugs without running if regular, law-abiding people perceived them to be a source of protection rather than as a potential threat to physical safety.
Posted on: 2007/11/20 4:41
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Re: Emergency vehicles for hazardous materials on Jersey Ave
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I heard of an oil tank under a house in another city bursting.
Is it possible that the oil company discovered that a homeowner had a broken tank?
Posted on: 2007/11/20 4:21
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Re: New York Times: Coming Soon - Affordable Views - Bayonne
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I clipped out the ad and lost it, but there also was an "investor wanted" ad in the Times that was posted by a guy who wanted to turn an "old Jersey City school house" with "great views" into condos.
I know the school board is still using P.S. 3, but maybe the advertiser was referring to P.S. 3 (on Bright, between Barrow and Grove), or a school up in the Heights.
Posted on: 2007/11/20 4:18
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Re: Hudson Alliance to End Homelessness in Hudson Cnty
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One thing I wish there was, is someone I could just call informally to find out what the story is about particular homeless people downtown.
I know this is impossible, because it would violate privacy laws, but, for example, have people made thorough efforts to get the Veterans Department and all that involved with the homeless guy on Newark who looks like Grandpa Walton? If so, and he's just impossible to help, that's one thing, but, if he actually has benefits coming and the real problem facing him is bureaucracy, then it seems as if all that's standing between that guy and a retirement apartment in Florida is some red tape. Or maybe not. But it does seem as if the cast of downtown homeless guys is almost as stable as the list of restaurants, and you would think that stability would mean something if anyone were making serious efforts to get them off the sidewalk.
Posted on: 2007/11/14 18:32
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Re: Wayne & Barrow: Gambling Bust at the Hernandez Mini Market by the Special Investigations unit
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I'm sort of making that part up, but I do remember there was some restaurant downtown (maybe closed long ago) that had a hard time getting permits for sidewalk dining in Jersey City. If you're joking about the genie here: :) If you're serious: personally, I think open-air dining helps make the neighborhood safer. I guess one problem is noise, but Subia's closes at 8, so it's not as if a little noise there would interfere much with sleeping.
Posted on: 2007/11/13 15:45
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Re: Wayne & Barrow: Gambling Bust at the Hernandez Mini Market by the Special Investigations unit
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I don't honestly care whether someone is running numbers out of a bodega, but maybe the JCPD did this partly to show that they're not bought off and partly to get some leverage over people who can explain how the open air drug supermarket there works.
If the JCPD shut the drug supermarket down and a new one comes in, well, that's life, but I think just the mere act of giving sidewalk drug dealers grief is very important. People ought to know that, if they're going to sell drugs on a quiet residential sidewalk in Jersey City, someone is at least going to yell at them and issue tickets from time to time. In other words: it ought to be tougher to sell heroin on the sidewalk here than it is for a bagel place to get permission to let people eat bagels at outside tables. The idea that it's almost as hard for Subia's to have open air dining as it is for dealers to deal a few yards around the corner is intolerable.
Posted on: 2007/11/13 6:27
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Re: Question #3: yes or no - Hudson Reporter
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Would you happen to know what Herbert Shaw, the "Politicians are crooks" candidate believes? I voted for him just as a protest vote. I hope he's just a crank and not a Nazi. Anyhow: it seems to me that simply coming out to vote sends a message that the people in a ward care about the city and can't be blown off. I think Fulop gets treated the way he does partly because other people in City Hall don't think they have to take downtown JC residents seriously. I don't have any strong opinions about the Korean war memorial road/park controversy, but I think the editorial the Jersey Journal ran about that a few months ago also showed that the Jersey Journal people feel complete and utter contempt for us people who happen to live downtown.
Posted on: 2007/11/8 17:41
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I'm also in Ward 14E and at 1PM at my table, I was #37. The table across Grace Church Gym had a similar count, so hope we at least broke a hundred here. 
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Re: Where does the rent-a-cop money go?
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Quote:
In any case: the $15 an hour figure (which, as I said, could be off) isn't any big secret. If you call City Hall and ask for a permit for a construction project that requires use of off-duty police officers, they'll tell you what the cost is. (Or refer you to a security agency that will tell you what the cost is.) I know about this system because someone I know was complaining about having to make the payments through this system. The reason I don't know about the exact figure is that the guy I know made these arrangements, and he made them about a year ago. Regardless: the actual payment system is set up in a way that is not necessarily corrupt. The client simply pays someone in an above-board way, not by shoving an envelope of cash under the table. But one problem is if a security client ends up paying an officer more than JCPD does, and another problem is if moonlighting ends up interfering with officers' work during normal hours or preventing officers from taking necessary JCPD overtime work. Finally, I guess I have become very bitter about the JCPD, but I think it would be pretty easy for the JCPD to change its image by making even ineffective efforts to harass the various open-air drug supermarkets and by arranging for the city as a whole to be gentle when dealing with victims of car theft. (Note: I'm referring here to the hair-raising posts on the "funniest thing about having a car stolen in Jersey City" thread.)
Posted on: 2007/11/8 17:36
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Re: 119 Colombus is GROSS
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Would any lawyers here know whether this poster could file a suit against the construction company in civil court?
Posted on: 2007/11/7 20:27
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Re: Where does the rent-a-cop money go?
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Quote:
But did the thread talk about who got the money and how it was allocated? I think the organizations hiring the officers pay something like $15 an hour directly to the officers, but I don't remember clearly where I heard that figure and maybe it's off.
Posted on: 2007/11/7 15:55
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Re: The funniest thing about getting yor car stolen in JC...
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I think the base assumption is that the officers are somehow being paid to ignore the car theft. If McDonough is reading this thread and is incensed that I once again am assuming that the Jersey City officers are massively paid off: prove I'm wrong by having the officers show that they care about stolen cars. If the officers act THIS nonchalant, or, really, even hostile toward people who have actually gone out and found their own stolen cars, it's just very hard to believe that there's anything even a little bit honest or competent about the JCPD. If the members of the JCPD want us to take them seriously as a force for good and not view them as just another street gang, then they have to shape up.
Posted on: 2007/11/7 15:53
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Re: Question #3: yes or no - Hudson Reporter
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I wish I'd read this before I voted. I think the Jersey Journal does a decent job of covering Hudson County horse race stuff, but it didn't give me even a vague idea of what these ballot measures were about. Given that I was probably the only voter who voted in Ward 14E today, I probably did a lot of damage. :(
Posted on: 2007/11/6 16:30
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Re: 9th-10th Streets below Erie Redistricted
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Are there a bunch of Republicans or Fulop voters in the Roosevelt or Lincoln buildings? Otherwise, it's sort of hilarious to think the Board of Elections making Newport people vote across from the Salvation Army. Totally aside from all of the unmentionable third-rail issues of race and class, it seems really mean to make voters in a city like Jersey City cross major highways to vote. People really ought to be able to walk to their polling places without crossing a 24-lane highway.
Posted on: 2007/11/6 16:23
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Re: Chicago Sun Times: A 'great city' rises in Jersey
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 Seriously, Newport isn't really the luxury community that LeFrak is pretending it is, but it's no worse than a lot of Battery Park City. In the long run, because of history, architecture, interesting shopping (the India Square markets) and street layouts, Journal Square is probably the neighborhood in Jersey City with the most potential to be a really gorgeous, tourist-attracting neighborhood, but, right now, it's really a tourist-hostile area. For one thing, nothing aimed at tourists does anything whatsoever to tell them where Journal Square is. Maybe an out-of-town writer could write about the glorious of Exchange Place/Paulus Hook, but, if tourists showed up there, about the only place they would figure out where to eat would be the Au Bon Pain, and the only place they could go to shop would be the pharmacy by the Essex Street light rail stop.
Posted on: 2007/11/5 19:27
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Re: Are Cops drinking on duty in JC? you have to see this video!!!
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If you were writing this about police officers occasionally drinking in public, well, OK. But the idea that a developer systematically uses the police force as a private army to help him break the law over the course of months really is repulsive. Maybe that often is "how things are done," but I don't think it's very good if violations THAT flagrant go on and aren't even the target of ineffective legal protests. If Goldman and the city really were that awful, why isn't some lawyer somewhere still filing some kind of RICO suit against them? Or is it possible that there is a suit out there somewhere, or that the statute of limitations hasn't passed and there's a suit in progress somewhere?
Posted on: 2007/11/5 18:36
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Re: Chicago Sun Times: A 'great city' rises in Jersey
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In my opinion, what used to be holding Jersey City down was crime. If the city gets a grip on crime downtown and along the water, and sea levels stay reasonable, then real estate here will end up doing reasonably well, in the long run, even if the market goes through a few years of panic. If crime really gets out of hand, or, of course, if climate change puts Jersey City under 20 feet of water, then real estate will do badly here no matter how well the rest of the world economy starts to do.
Posted on: 2007/11/5 18:30
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Re: An interview with a PuppetMaster
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We saw this guy perform a week ago at the St. Jude's fair. He was great. What was an interesting multicultural Jersey City moment was when I realized that one of the first (maybe the first) songs he was puppeteering to was "Fiddler on the Roof."
Posted on: 2007/11/5 18:26
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Re: OWN TICKETS FIXED? 2 suspended, allegations are probed
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Re: Irwin Rosen
If it turns out the only ticket he canceled was the one given to him incorrectly for parking in front of the synagogue on the high holidays, when the city suspends the usual parking restrictions, then I think the worst punishment he should get is a warning not to handle his own tickets. If he really simply cleared a ticket that was obviously in error, then that's a lot different from clearing a valid ticket, or a ticket that might or might not be a valid ticket.
Posted on: 2007/11/2 15:46
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