fedupman wrote:
Did anyone notice how many strange people there are in Jersey City? I live downtown and some of the people that pass you on the street are very odd.They stare at you in a funny way and even if you say hello to some they either ignore you or look right through you. Some look as if they,re high as if on drugs.There are some nice people who are friendly but some are so weird.It,s almost like a zombie movie. I think some may be homeless and it,s unfortunate how lax this area is in taking care of the homeless..

They should look into this more.I was just wondering if anyone else noticed that there seems to be more weirdos now than a few years back.

BrightMoment wrote:
Quote:

dtjcview wrote:
Spectra are using classic divide and conquer tactics. Hoboken and Bayonne have come out against this project. I'm sure neighborhoods in PA also are against this. Any way we can get everyone on the same page to magnify the opposition across county and state?

Only Mayor Healy and NO Gas Pipeline have "declared" their intent to intervene. Only intervenors have legal standing before Federal Courts who have ultimate jurisdiction over FERC rulings. Coming out against the project is a start but anything less than intervention is just conversation.

Call Governor Christie and Demand the Attorney General declare to intervene at first legal opportunity (likely Dec according to FERC).

Call Governor Christie's office at (609) 292-6000.
Suggested script:

My name is ______ and I live in Jersey City. Please demand the Attorney General intervene at FERC to stop the natural gas pipeline, proposed to run through Jersey City, Only intervenors can overturn a FERC ruling through the Federal Courts.

Mayor Healy has declared to seek Intervenor standing. We ask the Governor to demand our New Jersey Attorney General declare to seek intervenor legal standing with FERC before upcoming deadlines are announced.

HamiltonParker wrote:
I hired Nicolas Corrado to represent the property tax appeal on my narrow brownstone in the Hamilton Park area. We did a gut/rehab renovation and the city came in with an appraisal that equated to $800,000. A woman working in the Tax Collector's Dept commented that my taxes seemed "unusually high for the area and that I might want to appeal them." I could have kissed her (!).

We had recently applied to our mortgage lender to refinance and the bank appraisal, based on 6 comparable property transactions in the past 6 months (they are not interested in the past year) came in at $600,000.

We rejected the mortgage lender's assessment and requested another. Second assessor was sent out and arrived at the exact same figure.

I approached city's Tax Assessment dept. with the paperwork from the bank and asked that my assessment be reviewed - they flatly refused to consider it.

I cited my neighbor's home, which had been rehabbed in tandem with mine - and was valued at $575,000 - despite being the same dimmensions and materials as mine - again they flatly refused to consider or discuss how they arrived at his assessment. In further discussions with the city Assessor I mentioned the abatement that I had received - which they could find no record of. Shuffled back to the Tax Collection Dept. and produced the paperwork - the Assessor told me that she'd file the necessary paperwork on our bahalf.

{In clarifying which paperwork she'd be filing, turns out that she was attending to the abatement, which would be not be back dated, and the assessment would remain as it. Why it couldn't be back-dated, when the city had misplaced the info, was not open for discussion. I was informed that if I tried to challenge the assessment, then the abatement would be removed.

We're reasonable people and believe in paying our fair share of property taxes but these discussion with the city were simply aging me. I couldn't make sense of any of the above and finally caved in with a call to our attorney. His terms seem quite fair in that the attorney and his property assessor will take 2/3 of the first year's property tax deduction if we win and -0- if we lose. Our hearing date has yet to be assigned but I'll update this post and advice the outcome.

HamiltonParker wrote:
Updating on my own post from several months ago - my tax case was heard and the result was a -15% reduction in my property tax bill.

Costs incurred to me were as follows: the tax overpayment check will be forwarded to our attorney in mid January and he'll take a 1/3 share, the appraiser will take a 1/3 share and I'll be left with the reamaining 1/3 share.

After that no further costs will be incurred and I'll enjoy the reduce tax bill.

Again, tried really hard to work with the city here before hiring an attorney and the folks in the tax office kept telling me "don't bother, you'll never win as your house is properly appraised". But Nick Corrado's office does these tax appeals all day long and wouldn't have even taken on the case had he agreed with the city.

Pretty painless all around and again, I've always enjoyed my interaction with Nick and his professional office support team.

Good luck to others.

yourdogisbored wrote:
Yes, there is and I kept expecting him to mention that, but he never did!

yourdogisbored wrote:
I had a bizarre run-in with a member of the JCPD myself recently. Nothing nearly on the level of what OP experienced, but the officer's arrogant, dismissive, and subtly aggressive manner was strikingly similar to that of Officer Melendez.

I work for a company that takes small groups of dogs to local dog parks for off-leash play time. We transport the dogs in our SUV's and all of our clients are aware that this is how they're transported. I arrived at the Lincoln Park dog run and proceeded to let the 5 dogs I had riding in the rear of my SUV out of the car. They were all leashed, they came out one at a time, and in the pack were only 2 dogs that were over 45 lbs, the other 3 are under 15 lbs each.

I walked the group into one of the entry areas, and as I was unleashing them, a detective (I assume he was a detective, as he was wearing a dress-shirt, tie, and suit jacket) walked over, showed me his badge, and asked how many dogs I'd had in the back of my car. I was confused, sure that he was going to ask me if I'd witnessed any suspicious activity in the area or something along those lines, but no. Turns out, he accused me of "cruelty to animals" for "cramming" too many dogs in the back of my car. He read the company sign on the side of my vehicle and wrote down our info, claiming he was going to file a complaint with the ASPCA! Of course I questioned him, thinking this can't be real. Surely, this detective has more important crimes he should be investigating. Don't get me wrong, I am thrilled that a member of the JCPD cared enough to question the welfare of the animals, however misguided he may have been in this particular instance.

Anyway, I tried to explain to him that the dogs were perfectly comfortable, I had all the windows rolled down completely & they're in the car for 15 minutes, but he just walked away, wouldn't give me a chance, wouldn't give me his name or badge info, yelling that the ASPCA was going to hear about it. A woman who was leaving park at the time with her dog came over right after he left and offered her name and number to be a witness that the officer was way out-of-line and that the dogs seemed perfectly happy, comfortable, and well-cared for. It was very weird and for a second I though I was being punked or something, but apparently this behavior is typical of the JCPD...

Xerxes wrote:
It's hard to identify the offenders from their behavior on a website. Their behavior on the STREETS is regulated by law but the Jersey City policea are too lazy to enforce the law.

As far as recommending people pee on the doors of dog owners, are you HONESTLY going to tell me that any of this sanctimonious group of polluters, ANY at all, is picking up his dog's PISS?

So yes, I can generalize that dog owers are careless, thoughtless slobs unless they use only their OWN property for dog wastes, and in Jersey City the sidewalk slobs are the huge majority.

If the wastes are so innocuous why not keep the dogs in apartments 24/7 and clean up your own carpet with a paper bag and scrub brush.

I had 2 cats and there was never a bit of cat waste even one inch outside my bathroom...I didn't share with neighbors. What makes Fido and his lazy owners special?

tern wrote:
What does "curb your dog" actually mean?

Does it mean dog owners are supposed to make their dogs go to the toilet on the curb? Does that mean it is illegal for them to do a crap in the middle of the sidewalk, even if they pick it up afterwards?

Robin.

Josiered wrote:
Dear Jackey -

What planet do you live on. You bet your A$$ "I" paid the bill for the construction cop to be here. When they hooked up our new sewer line "I" handed the cop $140. in CASH.

When we poured the foundation in my house you bet your A$$ "I" again paid the cop to stand there for another $140. in CASH.

When we put in the driveway you bet your A$$ "I" again paid the cop on construction detail YET another $140. in CASH.

I am not a contractor I am a private citizen who has a house in JC. The taxpayer DOES NOT pay for this, the homeowner does.

If you do anything in JC that requires a "COP" to be there to shut down the street because you need a concrete truck to pour concrete YOU PAY FOR IT ! Anything you do in JC requires a permit and a COP. Yes, I paid for it in CASH ! Two years ago they only accepted CASH and you gave it to them on the spot.

Would you like the names of all the officers that worked the construction detail that I paid in CASH? Get your facts straight before you open your mouth.

hero69 wrote:
Recently I was reading article about an effort to amend the Florida constitution to require voter approval of developments and alterations. I was thinking something like that is needed in New Jersey to curb all of the excessive abatement!

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/28/us/ ... 8florida.html?_r=1&ref=us

Xerxes wrote:
It's not really too hard:

Give every man and woman a $30,000 standard tax deduction per year. For each child $10,000 is removed from that deduction for each parent. With the 4th child $10,000 is ADDED to the adjusted gross income.

Just WATCH how fast family size drops. "Hey honey, do we want a "bundle of love" enough to pay the tax on $20,000 every year." (Ten grand each.) If the answer is yes, you can believe they will make good caring parents who truly want their child.

To make sure the rich are not encouraged to spawn prodigiously because $10,000 is negligible for them, another constraint to add is to increase the top 2 brackets by 1% for each child PER PARENT...no joint accounts.

Just from a practical point of view, schools cost money, sewage removal costs money, and environmental degradation per person is considerable over a lifetime.

Instead traditional religious power in the United States writes the tax code in exactly the opposite way, rewarding those who breed like roaches.

La_Verdad wrote:
Quote:

robotjustin wrote:
Sounds awful.

No doubt. If Ireland is so great, how come everyone leaves?

heights wrote:
This year's festival had to be the greatest and greenest yet. It was the old Jersey City, what better event and place to celebrate local culture. Everyone came out of the woodwork. There were familiar faces all over it felt like a wedding or a reunion of what was. The gift of gab was at it's best along with the tremendous weather and the Hudson as a beautiful backdrop put smiles on every face in the crowd. They had some really great upbeat music some mentioned that there should have been more Irish music but hey it was still a blast. Plenty of food and beer vendors Argyle Fish & Chips was one of them, and many Irish goods for sale along with some interesting trinkets. There was enough going on to entertain the most mundane minds out there. Hopefully some of our newer residents got a chance to get back to their roots or at least see what this town was all about.

GrovePath wrote:
Jersey City mayor says he's looking for 'best qualified' to replace disgraced councilman

.......
Ward E Councilman Steven Fulop blasted Vega's delayed resignation.

"The resignation after the deadline was both to secure an existing rubber stamp and guarantee them a new improved rubber stamp," Fulop said. "No matter what excuse they make the facts are the facts."

Healy sees nothing suspicious about when Vega relinquished office.

"A plea negotiation and any understanding among an accused person, his or her attorney, and a prosecutor means nothing until acted upon by entering a guilty plea before a judge in open court, which didn't happen in Mariano Vega's case until last week," Healy said.

brewster wrote:
Too bad you didn't innocuously flip the cam to video and capture the audio track of her tirade. That would have been fun to post.

I agree with your decision to comply eventually. Had you not, you could be facing not just all sorts of trumped up charges but perhaps a significant dental and orthopedic bill.

This is not just the cops running wild. From the buildings inspectors to the parking drones, there are city officials out there making it up on the go and violating our rights as a matter of course. We either have to comply with their nonsense, or be willing to spend thousands on lawyers to protect our constitutional rights, something I had to do recently. I found it money well spent.