I am interested in a unit in 140 Bay Street. I understand there were some roof leaking issues in 2010. Does anyone know if this has been dealt with? Does anyone have any thoughts about purchasing in the building?

Thanks for the input

The door hinges are not set correctly so the door will not close properly. Thanks for any repairman suggestions you can provide!

I have a brownstone front door that needs repair. Does anyone have a suggestion of a person to use?

Thanks for the help!

I suggest Chill Town Studio. They are quite knowledgeable and have equipment to rent if needed.

http://chilltownstudio.com/

THE EPC IS CURRENTLY RANKED #5 out of 100.... Keep the votes coming and spread the word. For instructions go to www.embankment.org
_____________________________

Help Us Win $25,000
for the Historic Harsimus Branch Embankment
and Make Our Park!
THIS PLACE MATTERS!
Community Challenge
WE NEED YOUR VOTE
The National Trust for Historic Preservation (NTHP) has selected the Embankment Preservation Coalition from 250 entrants for its "This Place Matters" Community Challenge. One hundred projects were chosen to compete for three top prizes of $25,000, $10,000, or $5,000. You can help us win a prize by giving us your vote!

Anyone with a valid email address may vote. You do not have to be a New Jersey resident.

To Vote for us, you must register with the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

How to Vote :
1) CLICK HERE TO REGISTER AND VOTE ? enter your email address and click ?Submit?. A password
will be instantly emailed to you - you may need it later.
2) On the list of sites that comes up, scroll down and click on Embankment Preservation Coalition - Harsimus
Branch Embankment.
3) On the Embankment page click on "Vote Now" to cast your vote.

IMPORTANT: Some browsers, do not enable the Vote Now button. If this happens to you:

> Close the browser. Then get the username and password emailed to you in step 1.
> When you have your username and password click here to LOG IN and VOTE EMBANKMENT ? login with your
email address and password and click on ?Vote Now? and you?re done!!

NOTE: **For multi-voter households - You must log out of the Embankment voting page before someone else can vote from your computer. Each email address may only vote once.

After you vote, be sure to spread the word through Facebook, Twitter, and personal emails to your friends and family.

The vote was 4 to 3 that the structure was not considered commercial. Now the process continues as the certificate of appropriate stage of the hearing begins. There will be several more meeting on this.

Does anyone have a good general doctor they would recommend - Either in downtown NYC, Hoboken or Jersey City.

I went with my dogs and the church was locked up tight. I also went to the recreation room and they had no idea what I was talking about.

Did this happen today? Please do it again so I can bring my dogs.

Here's a link to a campaign contribution filing for "Healy for Mayor 2009" from 2007.

http://www.speaknj.com/Jan%2016,%202007.pdf


Page 7 - Vickie Hyman $2,000 and Mark Hyman $2,000. Wife and relative of Steve Hyman, who is trying to develop the 6th Street Embankment..... follow the money!

As found on NJ.com

= Later in the day, Vega's attorney, Christopher Patella, said of the charge that his client accepted $30,000 for favors: "My client is totally innocent and we look forward to our day in court. He believes in his innocence; I believe in his innocence and his family is standing beside him."

The plane flew over my office in NYC twice. It is circling and a fighter jet is following it. It is NOT a normal flight pattern. I am not sure why there is no news on it.

Looks like there is a new "plan" from the developer. Apparently, all he wants to do is make a profit from the City on land that he does not own. I guess he has no case for his Hardship Application.

Great, go for, try to sell 12 $5 million dollar homes!

http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/20 ... sal_for_sixth_street.html

Facing a failing economy and stymied by a lack of progress on his proposal to put 600 units of housing, a park and a light rail line on top of the Sixth Street Embankment, developer Steve Hyman has come up with a new plan.

The plan scraps the park and light rail and instead proposes putting 12 multi-million dollar houses on top of the historic six-block embankment stretching along Sixth Street, from Marin Boulevard to Brunswick Street.

"The theory behind these houses is that even though the economy is in tough shape, there are still a lot of wealthy people out there, and you only need a few people to make this work," he said.

He also said the new plan is more likely to be approved by the Historic Preservation Commission, since 96 percent of the wall would remain intact.

"I got back to the basics and said, 'I'm in front of the HPC and (historic preservation) should be their only charge. If they can't deal with the fact that I need to remove (from the wall) 60 feet out of 1000 feet on each block to get an economic return, there's nothing that will satisfy them," he said.


Courtesy of Dean Marchetto Architects
A rendering of what the patio of one of the houses proposed for the top of the Sixth Street Embankment in Jersey City could look like. The openings in the walls would allow for garage and pedestrian entrances for the homes, Hyman said.

He said he hopes to sell the homes for $5 million each.

The fate of the embankment has been under debate since Hyman's wife, Victoria, bought the land for $3 million from Conrail in 2005 to build housing. The Embankment Preservation Coalition wants to preserve the land as open space. Mayor Jerramiah T. Healy wants a combination of open space and a light rail link.

But Hyman said he has included those amenities in his previous proposals and has made no progress.

"I tried to accommodate them in every plan and every scenario, but the basic request is to save the wall," he said.

Courtesy of Dean Marchetto Architects PC
A view of what the garage opening in the wall of Jersey City's Sixth Street Embankment would look like in developer Steve Hyman's new plan.

Even if the HPC were to approve Hyman's proposal, he wouldn't be able to begin building anytime soon due to a ruling in August 2007 by the obscure federal Surface Transportation Board, which determined that Conrail never properly "abandoned" the site.

Attorneys hired by the city believe the ruling could mean that Hyman no longer owns the land and the city has to be given the opportunity to buy the land for the $3 million it sold for in 2005. But Hyman has appealed the ruling.

Hyman said if the city really wants the park and the light rail, it should condemn the land and give him fair market value for it, which he puts at around $20 million.

City officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

An Embankment Preservation Coalition official said the coalition needed time to consider Hyman's proposal before responding.

Stay tuned.

Point 3 - I agree that there are toxins in the Embankment. The demolishing process would unleash those into the air for all to breathe.

Points 7 and 9 - The EPC has raised more than 7 million dollars for the creation of a park. This is NOT Jersey City tax payer money. The EPC has worked with Park Architects to create and price a viable design.

Point 8 - I am not aware of one person that is trying to "save a parking space".

I appreciate your opinion but please get your facts straight.

If you have never seen the top of the Embankment, here is a photo. Each Embankment is one acre of greenspace. I hope you do not find this to be an "eyesore"....

Just received from the Embankment Preservation Coalition

Here is the website link -

http://embankment.org/whitesite/Emban ... /EmbankmentTracks_11.html

Demo Permits Back on Table
All Hands on Deck! March 2 Meeting

The Historic Preservation Commission has been ordered to hear applications for Certificates of Appropriateness for demolition of the landmark Embankment. If the Commission denies the applications based on historic merit of the site, it must then hear applications for hardship exemptions. The first hearing is scheduled for Monday, March 2, 2009, at 6:30 pm, City Hall Council Chambers, 280 Grove Street.

The Commission previously dismissed applications based on federal Surface Transportation Board rulings that stated the property remained part of the national rail system. Conrail and its partner developer are appealing those rulings. Although the STB ruling is in effect and not stayed, Superior Court Judge Maurice Gallipoli has ordered that the Commission hear the applications without regard to the STB rulings, title, or ownership.

The Coalition will testify at these hearings. All supporters of Embankment preservation should attend the meetings and testify. If you can attend, testify, or would like to coordinate your testimony with ours, please let us know by sending email to Maureen Crowley, moher1@aol.com . Put HPC in subject line.

I use Pet Patrol and they are AWESOME. My dogs love them and so do we!

Below is their contact information:

Vanessa & Liz
Pet Patrol
201.963.9913
www.petpatroljc.com

I am not sure what meeting Bill Gaughan was at. The EPC's volunteer landscape architect discussed and showed a clear plan. The EPC presentation was thoughtful and well put together. However, the politicians do not want to hear it.

Hyman is a rich developer and has millions to spend on creating wonderful presentations which mask the reality of FIVE 30 STORY buildings on or around the Embankment.

All the politicians care about is themselves and the political contributions that they receive. They are the ones that are holier than thou.

It was really a wonderful night for Green Space and the interests of the people over development. Going into the meeting it was thought there was little to no chance that they would deny the developer's request for sub division of the Embankment blocks. In the end it was nealy 100% against (one abstained).

It started with the developer's lawyer stating plans to demo all blocks and build 2 family houses. He brought visuals of the proposed units.

There were about 25 people who spoke against the proposed subdivsions of 4 embankment blocks. People talked about a wide range of topics including ownership issues, open space, flooding, light rail, East Coast Greenway, historic preservation and disruption to the area if the 2,500 pound each stones were removed. It was one citizen after another opposing the sub division. It got to the point where one person said that she felt bad for the developer's lawyers because they must be asking themselves "why are we suggesting this when there are so many compelling reasons to not develop it"

In the end, they brought forth a motion to "deny the sub division".....(motions are normally to allow something and then people could vote for/against). All but one voted in favor of the motion to deny. The reason most gave was because the Embankment is mentioned 3 times in the County Open Space plan (including being #3 on the acquistion list) and they had all voted in favor of that plan.

Thanks to everyone that came out. It really made a difference and thanks to the Embankment Preservation Group for organizing the response.

I just got this email this weekend. It proves even more how uncommitted the city and council are to open space.


Dear Friend of the Embankment,

Strange but true: Mayor Healy and the Municipal Council say they want to acquire the Harsimus Stem Embankment on 6th Street, but they sure seem to be doing their best to lose this historic and open space resource for the City.

Most recently, the Council refused to support an application for a New Jersey Environmental Infrastructure Trust loan that would have provided ready money for the City to acquire the Embankment.

While Council President Mariano Vega, Councilwoman-at-large Willie Flood, and Ward E Councilman Steven Fulop wisely and consistently supported the application, the four other Councilpeople present (Councilman-at-large Peter Brennan, Ward A Councilman Michael Sottolano, Ward B Councilwoman Mary Spinello, and Ward F Councilwoman Viola Richardson) voted no. Some of the comments made by the no-voters were astonishing in their misunderstanding of the issue or parochial ("it's not in my ward") mentality.

The application would have enabled the City to access $5 million to acquire the Embankment when the federal Surface Transportation Board rules on its status--a decision expected imminently. 75% of the loan was at NO interest with the rest at lowest market-rate interest - making the overall interest about 1%. The loan would have been repayable by a pledge and reimbursable grants already awarded in the amount of $3.7 million, as well as by highly probable grant awards for which Mayor Healy is now refusing to file applications.
These actions (or inaction) make no sense, unless the City wants to lose this site and previous positions of the Administration and Council were mere political posturing. After all, three Administrations and two Councils have acknowledged the historic importance of the Embankment. They made it a Municipal Landmark. They endorsed its reuse as open space and greenway. The Council authorized the Administration to proceed with acquisition. Both the state and federal governments have awarded funds for acquisition. Now, however, this Administration and Council is crippling its own ability to acquire the site, by stalling paperwork and refusing to pursue this bridge loan. The Mayor says he wants the Embankment for light rail, but he has identified no funds for light rail. He is walking away from state and federal open space funds already awarded.

These elected officials owe the public a rational explanation. The question they should answer is: "Now that you are walking away from state and federal funding for the Embankment, what is your plan to acquire it?"

Sincerely,
Jennifer Meyer, President
Embankment Preservation Coalition

Ask what our leaders are doing to acquire the Embankment:
Email the mayor at MayorHealy@jcnj.org or call 201-547-5200. Call the City Council office and leave a message for all Council members: 201-547-5204.

Mayor Healy is quoted on page 42 of the recent issue of JC Magazine as saying " I think we have enough open space. I think anyone who's coming to Jersey City and wants to partake in lounging and walking nature's paths, I think they've probably come to the wrong place".

It must be nice that Mayor Healy has a summer house and can get out of the city. That is not the case for many of us who live in one of the states most densely populated areas. The ratio of park space to people is one of the lowest in the nation. The recreation master plan states that Jersey City does not have nearly enough park space and states that open space acquisition should be the city's highest priority.

This is a very dangerous comment that the Mayor makes and we should make him answer for it.

It would not have made a difference if 2,000 people were there. As was the night that Pay to Play came before them when the place was packed and they had no regard for the citizens.

It is very important that we show the City Council that we support open space in our congested downtown area. If you cannot attend the Council Meeting, please call your Council Person and ask them to vote in favor of applying for the loan application.

The STB ruling is still pending and this loan would enable the city to act quickly in the event there is a favorable ruling. This loan would provide the immediate funding needed to purchase the Embankment and could be paid back with grant monies already secured. As I understand, 75% of the loan is 0% interest and remaining is approximately 1% interest for 20 years.

Also to clarify, the issue in front of the Council on Wednesday is to submit an application to apply for the loan. The next step would be to actually apply for the loan and then to use it when needed.

Here are the telephone numbers for the Council. Please call and have your friends do so too.

Council President Mariano Vega, Jr. 547-5268
Councilwoman at Large Willie Flood 547-5134
Councilman at Large Peter Brennan 547-5363
Ward A Councilman Michael Sottolano 547-5060
Ward B Councilwoman Mary Spinello 547-5092
Ward C Councilman Steve Lipski 547-5159
Ward D Councilman William Gaughan 547-5485
Ward E Councilman Steven Fulop 547-5135
Ward F Councilwoman Viola Richardson 547-5338

Whether the embankment is ugly or not could be debated for a long time.

What is known for sure is that Downtown would be A MESS during the take down process. There are known cancerous substances that would be unleased into to air - blocks from an elementary school. The pounding required to take them down would surely cause damage to the foundations of all the houses around. There would be trucks, noise, dust, debris, rats and flooding. Are we prepared to live through that?