Which, of course I've done...and I've turned on the air conditioner and a white noise machine.

Okay, I realize that this is a "first world problem" and that I live in a noisy city with lots of other people, but here goes:

We have a loud, often drunk-sounding neighbor living on the other side of our backyard fence who has suddenly decided to take his jumbo screen tv out to his backyard and to watch football games with his pals. The tv itself is not all that loud, but all the yelling and screaming from the viewers often is. I asked him last year through the fence if he could keep the noise level down (this was pre-jumbo tv, when he and the pals were just doing their regular guffawing and yelling obscenities at each other) and was met with a lot of drunken hostility, so I'm really loathe to confront this dimwit--I'm predicting that it would make him turn the volume and the yelling up even louder. Is there any way that other people have dealt with this, or is it just a shut up and deal with it situation?

I think so! I have both taught classes and taken classes at the Brainery and I love it.

Did anyone else see this?
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/14/nyr ... afety.html?pagewanted=all

I was just walking up Central Avenue when I came upon a storefront at (I think) 398 Central Ave...used to be a Hallmark store, then it was a cellphone store, and now it has a sign in its window that says "Olive and Orange Catering". I went on their website and they look like a catering company with a small seating capacity. They seem to be organic, locavore, etc. AM I DREAMING????? Does anyone have any information on this? Wow, that would be a great addition the neighborhood.

I'm curious about this house, too. I attended that estate sale and was blown away by the house and its potential---huge spaces, beautiful moldings, grand staircase, amazing pierglass in the front parlor. According to the man who was running the sale, the family who lived there made coffins in that parlor!!!

We live on Webster between Congress and North...a great block: quiet, cool neighbors, lots of trees. The light rail is a seven minute walk, and the 123 bus to Port Authority is about 4 blocks away: I timed it this past weekend and it got me door to door in 17 minutes! Truly! To be honest, though, at times the transportation situation up here is not the greatest. The #87 bus into Hoboken can't always be counted on to be punctual, and I've had some frustrating times waiting FOREVER for a bus when I've decided not to take the light rail. I feel safe walking on our street at night because it's wide and open and well-lit...there are some streets that seem a little too quiet at night. If you stay on Congress or Palisade you should be fine. C-Town on Central is okay (they have started carrying organic milk), but we usually go to the huge Shop Rite in Hoboken, which is about a 12 minute walk and which has recently been completely redone after Sandy. They deliver, too. I do wish there were more close-by stores that sold fresh produce. Although I really love it here, sometimes I'm nostalgic for the days when I lived in Hoboken and could run across the street for a head of lettuce or a package of chocolate chips.

Generally, yes...however, there was a time last year when they had just started their horrid weekend service that makes people from the Tonnelle Avenue direction have to go to Newport and change trains to get to Hoboken. The trains are supposed to be synced up, but at that time it hardly ever happened. I was trying to get on the train in the early evening when a lot of people were going home from the mall...there was a huge group of rowdy teenagers who had just been escorted out of the mall (I don't want to know why) They were pushing each other, up on each other's shoulders, screaming and laughing---when the crowd of people getting off the train met with these guys, it was ugly. I was very nervous that some kind of fight was going to break out on the train, and annoyed that there was no security anywhere in sight. Luckily no fight happened, but on the weekends I always feel a little more vigilant. I do wish that they would step up policing on the trains AND that they would add at least one more car to their trains that go in the direction of the mall.

I love it!!! The little things ARE important.

Does anyone know anything about this? I was walking back from the grocery store this afternoon and saw a small "crow's nest" mobile police station set up in the empty lot alongside the Light Rail station at 9th and Congress. Couldn't be a bad thing to have some police presence there...just wonder what it's all about. Anyone know?

...because my husband and I wanted to not only buy a house, but buy a DETACHED house, which pretty much cancelled out Hoboken and Brooklyn (my husband is a musician and wanted to make music without having to worry about noise/neighbors.) We bought in the Heights and have a beautiful, detached 120 year old house with a front yard and a back yard which we've made into a gorgeous garden. We have gotten to know and become close friends with many of our neighbors. The only thing we wish was that there was just a little more going on in this neighborhood. They roll up the sidewalks at about eight o'clock here.

Hey, does anyone know who to direct a suggestion/complaint to about bus service in the heights? To make a long story short, some of the bus stops around Palisades and Congress have been changed in ways that don't seem to benefit anyone (one of which is actually dangerous.) When I wrote to NJ Transit about this, I was told that the power to make changes to bus stops is under the jurisdiction of the municipality...which doesn't tell me much. Anyone know who in "the municipality" is in charge of bus stop changes?

I haven't been there in a while. The food was good, but the atmosphere and set up were, um. eccentric, to say the least. We had to walk through the somewhat dirty-looking kitchen and prep area through a dirty door out to a dark cement backyard area to get to a table. No lights, not even Christmas tree lights. Very weird. Didn't make me want to return. Is it worth it now? Have they made the place a little more palatable?

There's a sale of artist-made goodies at Woolpunk Studios Saturday and Sunday, 10-8....298 Newark Avenue, around the corner from Madame Claude's...

They should do what they did in parts of Brooklyn: give big tax breaks to people who open small businesses. I know this is a pipe dream in this economy, but it's what made places like Smith Street in Brooklyn go from a dicey, deserted street with a couple of check cashing places and a handful of taxi store fronts to a vibrant stretch of retail and restaurants. It happened in the space of about two short years.

Thanks for reminding me! I wonder how much different it will be this year with the new 'zero tolerance"....last year I forgot that it was Fake St. Patrick's Day and I ran down to Hoboken to do a couple of errands. Ew. I was appalled by so many things I saw, but most of all by a poor twenty something year old girl all by herself, dressed all in green and passed out in a fetal position next to a small pool of vomit against a wall in the walkway from the PATH to the train station.
And it was only about two in the afternoon.
Erin go bragh.

As of last weekend, the light rail no longer runs directly from Tonnele Ave. to Hoboken---riders now have to transfer at Newport for a Hoboken-bound train. Taking the train to Hoboken today was annoyingly crowded, but the transfer train was waiting on the platform when my train arrived and it was inconvenient but okay. Coming back was another story: I took the 22nd Street-bound train to Newport and was uneasy to see a sea of people waiting for the Tonnelle Avenue train. I counted 120 people, and, in the 17 minutes that we waited, another 40 joined the throng. Then a very loud and restless group of about 30 teenagers was escorted out of the mall by security guards (there were three cop cars there with their lights flashing), and most of them made their way on to the already packed platform, some riding on each other's shoulders, lots of yelling and pushing. When the train finally arrived in the station, it was really scary..people were pushing to get on and pushing to get off, and there was yelling and a feeling of menace in the air, the way the atmosphere on the subway felt back in the early 80's . Of course, there are no security guards ever to be found anywhere near that station. The train that this huge gang of people were pushing to get on was made up of only two cars , which would barely be able to accomodate a Saturday mall crowd with the old schedule, but now with the new schedule is a safety hazard. I was so happy to finally get off at my stop in one piece. can't imagine what idiots thought this up...I can imagine that they need to save money, but really? On the most heavily traveled of the lines, and during the weekend when everyone and his brother is going to the mall???

I have been riding NY Waterway for probably about 12 years now, and yes, once upon a time there was frequent weekend ferry service, as well as late night service...it was great. We used to nip over to the Regal Theater over by WTC for a movie and dinner. I think they stopped weekend service about five years ago.

We went to dinner there tonight...the service was great...they gave me a taste of two different wines so I could decide which one I wanted. However, we were not really impressed with the food...pretty mediocre. Liked the look of the place, though. Quote:

No one ever looks at whether or not a highway "loses money" or "makes money" every year...they just keep building them, seemingly with no questions asked, because we live in such a car-centric country. The money generated by new businesses, housing developments, etc. that have sprung up near the light rail is never factored into the earnings.

I lived in Hoboken, alone and then with my husband, since 1984. We had a lovely apartment on Washington and third, but we were getting tired of the frat boy atmosphere (people throwing up in our doorway three times a week,sports bars galore, etc.) We looked around Hoboken to buy, but anything that we would even consider was $700,000 or more. An artist who we met took us up to the Heights and drove us around..I wouldn't say we fell in love, but we were intrigued. We found a place on Webster and put in a bid, which was accepted, and then I panicked. I was so sad to leave Hoboken, sure that I would never feel at home up here. I was so wrong...that was seven years ago, and I've never looked back. We have met the most interesting neighbors. It's like Mayberry here on our street...i always run into friends, and people stop by for coffee or to chat on the front porch. We love our house and our gorgeous, lush backyard. There are some drawbacks, of course (extremely loud neighbors across the backyard with thumping music sometimes) and there are hassles that one doesn't encounter in a more gentrified place (garbage on the street, indifferently timed public transportation, etc.) but we also have a lot of dedicated friends/neighbors who are working tirelessly to make the place better.

I have heard from two different people that there was a drag race that took place on Friday night which originated at the bar called Caribbean Nights on Palisade and Congress in the Heights. According to these two people, there was a crowd of loud revelers and several cars were burning rubber at about three in the morning, one of them taking off at about 70 rpm down the wrong side of the street on Palisade. One of these people called the police several times...the police finally came by about forty five minutes later and didn't even stop (the guy who called was standing outside of his house trying to flag them down.)
Is there absolutely no recourse for this sort of behavior in JC? I have heard lots of other horror stories about this bar before, but I think that the average person who lives around it is either fatalistic or considers himself powerless and thus doesn't make a fuss and call the police when there is unsavory activity going on. What can be done about this kind of incident?

We have had consistently excellent food and have never had a problem with the service (except for once, when they had a grumpy server who was also working at the Cottonwood Cafe across the street--an unpleasant young woman who must have been a relative of one of the owners but was only there once. )

Great food, and I'm a food snob.

I would be very interested in that...I would be most interested in late afternoon/evening classes---perhaps a model to draw from, but also specific classes in oil painting, watercolor, etc.

I would prefer someplace that is accessible by the dollar van on Palisade (ie, Grove Street area or thereabouts) or somewhere that is close by the Light Rail, as I don't have a car.

BTW, I am a fan of your work! Beautiful.

When they say "Journal Square", they actually mean a block away...the way the streets are set up around there would make it really hard for them to actually take you to Journal Square, so you get off a block to the side of it. You pay when you get off. Most of the drivers are fine (especially during the day), but at times you can get a scary ride. I ride them all the time, though. Very convenient.

"We do not expect to get, nor are we trying to get, Union City or West New York or Jersey City residents to come to this. This is a Hoboken cinema," Bado said.

What the what? I live in the Heights and am offended by this.

I will show up at that !@#$ theater whether they like it or not.

While I agree with IanMack47, I'm just pleased with any positive publicity about JC!

Argh! I plan to attend that transportation meeting...it makes me angry to stand at the Hoboken bus terminal in the evenings and see, for every one #87 bus, at least five # 126 buses--and half of them leave empty, while there's often a line extending out from underneath the canopy for the #87! Come on, NJTransit--- I can't imagine that there's really that much of a call for the #126, but, because it serves Hoboken (where the money is) there is prompt service. We Jersey City riffraff evidently don't deserve the same level of service.

I realize this subject has probably come up many times, but I am new to the board, so bear with me.

Because I don't own a car, I frequently use the dollar vans to get downtown or to go visit friends in Union City. Most of the time the trip is unremarkable, but there are other times when the ride is more.um, memorable. For instance, I took one to come back to the Heights from Journal Square last Friday night: the driver had his music jacked up so earsplittingly loud that he couldn't hear anyone's stop requests AND he flooring it, fishtailing all over the place, almost pressing up against the back bumper of another dollar van, and hanging out into the left lane into oncoming traffic on Palisades as if to pass the other van! I got out about 6 blocks from my usual stop because I was really afraid for my safety, and as I paid I told him that he seemed like a really unsafe driver. He said that I had to chill out, and as he sped away, he flipped me the bird. Classy.
So who is in charge of these bozos? Who can one complain to?

I'm not an enormous fan of Michael Moore's, but I do think his take on this mess has some validity:

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/message/index.php?id=235