Bamb00zle wrote:
Of course Dan doesn't follow the City Ordinance ? he and the HPC never have, issuing demands that go way beyond the authority granted them by the enabling NJ MLUL.

Their regulatory powers are limited by law to ?preservation? - that's the language in the legislation. However, Dan and the HPC operate by withholding permits until owners give into their demands for extensive, expensive, ?restoration? and ?reconstruction? work. The enabling law does NOT give the HPO or HPC authority to demand restoration or reconstruction of things that were removed or destroyed years ago. If a historic feature was removed ? it's gone, and there is nothing to preserve. You can't preserve something that doesn't exist.

Go and carefully read the statue and the City Ordinance. You'll find that neither contains any language that compels owners to undertake ?restoration? or ?reconstruction.? The complete absence of such language is significant, as it indicates the law or ordinance was not written to compel these particular activities. If an owner wants voluntarily to do that type of work they can do so after permits are issued, and in doing that work they must follow the Ordinance. But it is beyond the City's authority to force any owner to undertake any activity other than ?preservation?, if the owner doesn't want.

Bottom line: if you have a historic fence, you'll need to proceed with preservation. However, if your fence is NOT historic, then Dan is beyond his authority in demanding you ?recreate? a historic fence. Some other requirements come into play ? chain link fences aren't allowed, but those requirements aren't for historic purposes.

Unfortunately, as I've noted before, it will take a law suit run by a smart, knowledgeable attorney to stop the arbitrary, and ?ultra vires? abuse by Dan and the HPC.

brewster wrote:
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JoeGee wrote:
2 20 plus apartments went up on Erie in the last two years, how is that historically correct?

Dude, that's not how the historic district works. They don't care about infill construction, some of the true believers actually don't want it to look old fashioned because then the museumgoers might be confused about which are the "real" historic homes. Those are the ones subject to the historic board.

jc_dweller wrote:
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JoeGee wrote:
Walk down either Jersey Ave or Erie, changes are made consistently and the developers put up new buildings how the see fit.

this is patently false

brewster wrote:
Does anyone know if things have gotten better from when an owner with a rusty chain link fence was told that he couldn't just buy new cast iron fence? To match the historic photos he needed to "borrow" one of his neighbors fence sections and have a foundry make custom molds to cast new ones at a cost of $100k.

bodhipooh wrote:
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ianmac47 wrote:
...unions are undermined in their political power...

Quote:

ianmac47 also wrote:
The best way to fight the negative effects of gentrification is through building a strong middle-class that has the economic power to resist gentrification and the political power to defend themselves. That means stronger unions, higher corporate taxes, and better public services.

Your post was well reasoned and you had me until you said the above. Unions are way too powerful (particularly in our region) and I don't see how you draw a link between unions and gentrification and middle class. From where I stand, I see unions as nothing more than power hungry organizations, led by wolves in sheep's clothing that claim to be looking out for their members but are drawing exorbitant salaries and/or perks and are nothing short of extortionists.

7thstreeter wrote:
I'm in for dinner for 2 and can't wait!

Love supporting Jersey City entrepreneurs and small businesses :) I just realized that you can do a search by city on Kickstarter and see what other local projects are happening.

greenville wrote:
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JoeGee wrote:
Just get Fios...

Football season...