One way of providing more affordable housing is to use means criteria for the city's remaining rent controlled units. Landlords who balk at renting to tenants in need of low rent housing should then have their properties assessed as if the units were decontrolled.

Not having to own a car has to be tops on my list.

A house and garden a 7 minute train ride to work is wonderful.

I love the Grace VV Church booksale

Got to agree with the previous poster - it is a dump. You can tell, because they are showing a movie called The Devil Wears Phat Farm. The addition of Kohl's will just make it worse. The best shopping news for the 'hood is that the World Financial Center is expanding its retail space and is looking for an upscale department store. Think Nordstrom's.

I appreciate making your top 3 Minnie, but I think I wrote we put the FUN in SuperFUNd. My (maybe too subtle) point was that JC is one of the few places where people earning top salaries live in luxury on or next seriously polluted or remediated sites.

If I were musical, I would probably rewrite the lyrics to the song Greensleeves and name it Brownfields and suggest it as the JC official song. Anyone know a word that rhymes with chromium?

I second Steveiken's welcome, JCLaw. Now I'd like to pick your brain on a related issue - I have been told that the county gets gyped when the city gives an abatement, but that the city collects more taxes than it would under a straight tax scenario. How does this impact my tax bill? Does the increased city revenue balance out the need for higher county taxes? Are we paying Jerrimiah and robbing Tom?

Do we unleash our full fury now or when Goldman is granted abatements? If he doesn't get an abatement and goes ahead with the project, does this mean that we've been snookered into giving abatements to projects that were financially viable without them?

If he overturns the zoning, does that establish a precedent so if someone buys three continuous 2 family houses along 5th street, for example, the owner could request, and receive, a variance to put up an apartment building?


Do I get a pat on the head for not suggesting that downtown should be an independent city? See the meds are working.

okay, I'll bite - why is this a terrible time to start a tower project?

Jersey City - We've put the FUN in SuperFUNd

I like the city's unofficial motto:

Jersey City - Vote Early, Vote Often

I know, I know - I post the same comment at least four times a year. If you think you are going to have sewage backing up - even the slightest chance - get Hep A & B vaccinations.

It is possible that debris is preventing the checkvalve from closing completely.

Sorry for sidetracking the thread.

I had mine done by Miller Roofing. I had a lot of trouble getting someone because it was impossible to get a long ladder through my rowhouse. The guy literally had to hang from the roof, but he did a good job. I had been having my gutters cleaned by Ned Stevens and gave them the job - on the scheduled day they backed out.

Same here - I bring a personal check down every quarter - they give me a receipt. The check is usually cashed in 3-4 days. It is the most efficient process in JC.

I wish they would have electronic transfer. There are quarters when my JC taxes is the only check I write.

I wonder if your bank screwed up or if your taxes are so high that the bank distributes the money over a few days.

You're absolutely right - I missed the meeting. I was doing my work and Steve was doing his. What can I do to catch up?

I'm glad that Steve keeps fighting for us.....

Fighting doesn't mean crap, winning does. The streets are still filthy, crime continues to increase, taxes went up, developers continue to get abatements and the fate of the embankment remains in limbo.

When you run for office you tell people what you are going to do, when you are in office you show people what you've done.

Try Miller roofing. I got the recommendation from another post on JC list, andwas very happy. I've also used Capital and I was very happy with them too. Don't wait - when the temperature gets too high they cannot work on roofs - too dangerous, and their insurance doesn't cover them (or so I was told).

Look at the northeast corner - the inlet between JC and Hoboken: Future filling in of Long Slip Canal. What is that about? I thought a footbridge was going across there. Anyone know?

1. The lease holder at WTC is Silverstein, not Silverman as I wrote in a previous post.

2. Where do I think most people will be working? From their homes - the need for face to face interaction is perceived to be too costly. My conservative work place already has people working at home as much as 2 days a week - made possible by investment in computer systems that allow access to files, same time conferences, etc. I am told (but have no proof) that already there are companies with expanded work at home programs that have cut back on their office space. Desk sharing has come into play.

Whether this makes for an enjoyable worklife is questionable - will people like the lack of comraderie that the watercooler conversation provides? I am not sanguine about the future of office buildings - any being built should probably have alternative plans for conversion to residential.

From Brewster: What a crock. Anyone following the Battle of Ground Zero knows that one of the issues they're duking it out over is the fact that no one but Silverman sees a need to replace the amount of office space destroyed.

If that is the case - and I suspect you're right - why:

1. is there so much concern that Silverman doesn't have the finances to build the whole project?
2. did LMDC and others go nutty when it was suggested that part of the site be used for housing?
3. has the space allocated to cultural institutions been so limited?

I think the general public is being snowed.

Why is so little square footage devoted to retail/commercial? Based on the information provided in the recent Whole Foods thread, this project won't provide enough space for even a decent size supermarket. Does the developer decide this, does the city have some kind of ratio that must be adhered to?

I am really concerned about this. Look at Metro Plaza (Shoprite/BJs) - how much longer will that last? It looks like prime highrise development land to me.

My personal hope for this neighborhood is that people can do as much of their shopping and recreation as possible without having to get into a car.

Any idea how large the Whole Foods is in places like Montclair? What about the one in Chelsea - it seems much smaller than Columbus Circle or Union Square. I think parking is a non-issue if population density is high.

Maybe Trader Joe's and Whole Foods could form a joint venture and JC could be the first place with a Trader Joe's Whole? Sorry, but this Lucent Alcatel thing has just gotten me thinking about M&As in a big way.

I really don't understand Dan's opposition to retail. It is much easier to target retail tenants than to select who you rent or sell apartments to - the former is called appropriate usage, the latter is called discrimination. In any case, I believe we are underserved as far as day to day amenities go. We need more small shops - foods, books, gyms, doctors, clothes, gifts, etc. to make the neighborhood more desirable. I hate to read posts where people say they had to drive to Edgewater or someplace else to get food that meets their needs. One way to cut back on car usage and maybe even the need for a car (or second car) is to increase the amenities available within walking distance of someone's house. As far as stores being located on corners - Morales (RIP), Michael's Pizza and the closed store two doors down, the bodega on Jersey between 5th and 6th, etc. I wish there were city programs to encourage merchants to bring these spaces back to life.
***********************************************

And here's a thought about Newark Avenue - tear down the block between Newark, Columbus, Grove and Barrow - rezone for medium rise apartments with mandatory retail at ground level.

Here's some information that might help you ask the right questions to potential contractors


http://www.epa.gov/swerust1/faqs/index.htm

Actually, there was a lot of neighborhood participation on the Grove Pointe project and Liberty Harbor is getting lots of notice from the architectural and planning professions because it is one largest projects using the principles of New Urbanism.

As far as the other projects - same old crap.

As far as I know, there are none for owning. I believe there still exist tax breaks for restoring and retaining, as rental property, historic structures.

Two questions:

1. Dan, are you certain that Fulop is behind this article? I haven't reread it, but I don't recall his name being mentioned - just a councilman (unnamed) calling for Troy's resignation.

2. What should our councilman be doing? I think most people could reach consensus on what Healy and Troy's responsibilities are, but what should Fulop be doing as part of the effort to combat crime?

Personally, I think he should be doing more to make the area look less "lawless" - getting on the city to keep the streets clean, going after the quality of life violations like speeding, noise and double parking that give people the impression that petty crime is tolerated.

Tomorrow's NYTimes (3/5/2006) has a very lengthy article - a page and a half on the crime situation in JC. Four separate pictures of the Guardian Angels on patrol. This is the kind of article that should topple the mayor and his police commissioner and all of their cronies and hangers on.

Unfortuneately, the article is in the NJ section and will not be seen by many people considering relocating here.

To clarify my calling downtown an "inner city" neighborhood. The population density, the types of housing available, the availability and dependence on mass transit and the diversity of the population - ethnic, economic, age, etc. are the variables I think define downtown as an inner city neighborhood. This is hardly a ghetto.

People are spending enormous amounts of money to live here - complete guts of houses bought for 500+K are going on everywhere. The census tract that includes Newport was the second wealthiest in the state. A golden ghetto, perhaps.

As far as gang activity, I only know about it from what others have posted on JCList. I have lived downtown almost continuously for 25 years. I didn't feel unsafe when I moved here and I don't feel unsafe now. The two biggest changes are the improved shopping and restaurants and the decrease in broken glass on the sidewalk. The latter change has to do with the beverage industry switching to plastic and nothing to do with improved city services which come to think of it are of ghetto quality.

Hamilton Park is fine as are the other three historic districts , but you are in an inner city area. As far as investment return - literally 1000s of condos will be coming onto the marketin the next few years - I would be concerned about oversupply and quickly selling if I had to.

Good idea Pisces - I hate crossing Washington at Pavonia (although Marin at Newark/Columbus is my least favorite). I think the PATH runs under Washington, which might be a reason the light rail doesn't run above.

Does anyone remember when they had a model of the light rail in the waiting room of the Hoboken train terminal? Wasn't the station in the middle of the plaza north of the waiting room? I don't remember how they proposed going of the NJ Transit tracks, but I was shocked the first time I took the light rail to find the Hoboken station so far south.

Also - aren't two more light rail stations opening this weekend?

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0299 ... -9149707?%5Fencoding=UTF8

Following up on Kermit's obsrervation:
I read about this book, A Passion to Preserve, in a recent article by Herbert Muschamp - it deals with the role of gay men in restoring urban neighborhoods. I have not read it yet, Amazon is not as fast as it claims to be. For me, the irony is that gay men are probably the wealthiest minority in America because they had the balls to pioneer and make serious money in urban real estate. There is a prescient scene in Blow-Up (1966) where a wealthy man is driving thru a rundown area of London and he calls his broker and tells him to start buying up property in the area because he sees queers walking around.