creativeconquests wrote:
I would stay if I was a renter. But as of now I will be paying huge property taxes and dealing with the city as an owner in JC is by far the most frustrating experience I\'ve ever had in my lifetime. If I had the time and energy to share the stories, I\'m sure other homeowners could tell me the same. The city does not work for the taxpayer. It\'s beyond shocking. I have experienced with the city (particularly the permit and codes department) crooked behavior, illegal situations, contradictions of huge proportions, negligence at the risk of myself and my family.

If only I was renting I\'d love this city and let go of the feeling I need to depend on the city in some manner. I\'d use the area for it\'s nice parks, location to Manhattan, play with the people I\'ve met, I\'d invest in it without putting my blood, sweat and money of huge proportions. You caught me on a bad day, sigh. I\'ve never run from anything but this is a fight that gives me so much fatigue and angst, I\'d rather sell and live somewhere else. I\'m looking.

GrovePath wrote:
Crime dip credited to smarter policing, more residents' participation

Thursday, January 28, 2010
GEM JEFFERSON
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Jersey City officials yesterday credited smarter policing, increased participation from residents, and expanded enforcement of the city's business curfew law, for the marked drop in crime last year.

Robberies dropped 30.4 percent, car thefts by 27.9 percent, burglaries 25.3 percent, simple and aggravated assault by 10.5 percent, and rape by 8.8 percent between 2008 and 2009, Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah T. Healy and other officials said.

The homicide rate nudged upward, from 26 to 28.

Officials said block associations and special police units - assigned based on the close tracking of criminal incidents - played key roles in bringing down the crime.

Also, prompted by citizen complaints, the city has revoked exemptions for 17 businesses that were allowed to operate beyond the city's normal business curfew hours. According to the curfew law, businesses cannot operate between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m.

Officials expressed concern about the prevalence of illegal handguns, but said increased youth involvement with the Police Athletic League (PAL) and with the new Gang Resistance Education and Training (GREAT) should help.

Police Chief Thomas Comey said the city also plans to install more surveillance cameras.

ErinMaiden wrote:
i think it really depends on where one works. There are more ways into the city than just the path. I work in midtown and take the hoboken bus. yes, i live near the elevator, and my walk to the bus is 10 minutes (clinton & 9th), and my bus ride to the city is about 15-25 (25 when its bad traffic). Coming home, i luckily leave a bit early (5.18 bus) and its a 35 minute commute home (bus ride and walk to my front door). Way faster than when i lived downtown jc and took the path.

There are many other options than just the path depending on where you work, and there are buses a short walk down in hoboken.

snorky wrote:
Bring in the yuppies.
Bring in anyone that respects others' property.
Bring in anyone that does not crank terrible music until 2am every weekend, even after the cops have stopped by several times that summer.
Bring in anyone that will invest money into their home and neighborhood.
Bring in anyone that wants a better place to live and is willing to try to make that happen.
Bring in anyone that does not think the streets are meant for tossing trash and hocking snot.
Bring in anyone that is willing to fight for change.

I HATE Starbucks, but if bringing in people that want to see the area flourish (for whatever reason) leads to more corporate businesses/restaurants rather than the bodegas and poor quality restaurants then bring it on. In time it will lead to higher end unique restaurants.

I live here in the Heights. I like it. I don't like the inconsiderate neighbors that think they are in their homeland (where ever that may be), the scary figures that I often see around at night, the roach filled restaurants (cafe at the corner of Manhattan and Central - first week in town had breakfast there - terrible service and two roaches ran across the counter and onto my plate - I have not been back).

I want to see it flourish. I want my children to be safe. I don't want to have to call the cops on EVERY summer night so my family can go to sleep before 2am (the music starts at noon, ends at 2am - the screaming over the music goes on throughout - luckily there is cold weather or they would be outside cranking music all year). The Heights has the potential, but without some money moving in you will have to deal with all the things that must be overlooked.

DowntownSteve28 wrote:
Quote:

Jeebus wrote:
If one didn't want to park there without the discount, or if it bothered you on principle, you were free not to patronize the garage. Why shouldn't the owner be free to charge whatever he wants?

I don't think you're grasping the basic issue at stake here. Maybe if we change some words around in the article, you'll see what the problem is:

The complainant noticed a sign that offered "special parking up to 10 hours" for $5 at the Journal Square Ramp on Saturdays and Sundays for white people. The price for everyone else was $8.

The Civil Rights Act, New Jersey state law and the city code of Jersey City do not distinguish between different forms of diversity. As an atheist living in an overwhelmingly religious society, I'd think you would be a little more conversant in what our rights are.

T-Bird wrote:
Quote:

DirtMcGirt wrote:
I?d rather keep it local. More accountability and at least a chance of efficiency.

But how local do we need it? Some 560-odd municipalities in a state that isn't even a quarter the physical size of the average state? Sure it's a densely populated state - all the better in terms of rolling up some of these insane "municipalities" such as East Newark and Guttenberg.

I have to agree with Wibbit (which is quite unusual) - start gutting the administrative ranks of the schools. 26 deputy and assistant superintendents in the Jersey City school district all of them making between $110,000 and $160,000 per year??? For what??? Oh right - the $285,000 per year superintendent was also a state assemblyman until 2008 and in Trenton two days out of the week. I guess he needed the 26 others to do the day job he was supposed to be doing himself.

Accountability will come when someone (hopefully Christie) makes it clear that local politics is not a synonym for racketeering. This state, this county and this city are all embarrassments.

EthanCrane wrote:
Yep, that's it exactly: the smug I-was-here-first attitude that so often shows up on JC List.

BTW, being here 11 years doesn't make you a long-timer. I also moved here in '98 and I'm happy with the neighborhood improvements.

No, the Hard Grove isn't what it was. I guess that's white people's fault.

DowntownSteve28 wrote:
This is great news for anyone who understands what equality actually means.

pooper wrote:
Domestic migration? City Journal? oh ok. Yes, we know it's expensive and people leave all the time. It seems they found new ones to take their place.

NYC workforce from the Bureau of Labor Stats:

Jan 2000 9157152
Aug 2009 9749217

shakatah wrote:
Article is not saying JC is one of the best places to raise kids, instead it is comparing only large cities. So we shouldn't compare JC to towns, like Princeton, Montclair, etc..

Fact that JC is 13 and Newark 46 may say more about how bad most large cities are when it comes to providing a great environment for raising kids compared to JC, instead of how great JC is compared to all other places, including the plethora of towns in NJ and the country.

I don't think anyone is arguing that all of JC is great to raise kids, but to echo Brewster, the city actually has alot to offer, most of it within walking distance, especially for downtown residents. If the JC public schools were in great shape, JC would be much closer to the top of that list.

pooper wrote:
You make it sound like there's some mass exodus or the one factory in town is leaving. You're completely delusional.

ianmac47 wrote:
The problem here is that we live in a regional economy that doesn't really care about artificial boundaries on a map. Services are regional. People play, shop, and live regionally. New York's loss is our loss, and our loss is New York's loss.

Thieving a few hundred jobs from NYC at the cost of tax avoidance schemes doesn't help the regional economy. Having large businesses threaten to leave Manhattan for New Jersey and receiving heavier subsidies from NY doesn't help the regional economy. Instead, NYC and Jersey City and both states need to be working together to bring new businesses to the region and stop the unproductive game of undercutting the other.
[snip]

GrovePath wrote:
[snip]

But the subsidies were criticized by a nonpartisan research group called New Jersey Policy Perspective. The group said the state offered Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation many advantages that even the company cited, from lower cost real estate to mass transit.

Referring to the office complex, Naomi Bressler, a policy analyst for the nonpartisan New Jersey research group, said that "although the addition of new jobs to the state is always welcome news, we are concerned that providing Newport with nearly $12 million and Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation with another $74 million in tax breaks that should be going to the state will further hurt New Jerseyans."
[snip]

pooper wrote:
"[My only three black neighbors are] Mary J. Blige, one of the greatest singers of all time, Denzel Washington, one of the greatest actors of all time, and Jay-Z, one of the greatest rappers of all time." His white neighbor? "A dentist. And he isn't like the greatest dentist in history either. I had to host the Oscars to get that house ? a black dentist in my neighborhood would have to invent teeth."
- Chris Rock on living in Alpine

jclxz wrote:
Quote:

heights wrote:
I love it all the tell tale signs were there. Newark, gangs, age, and arrogance. That guy shouldn't have dozed off though. These hoodlums were on a free for all, how would they even remember that cop but the nerve to threaten him. Well at least it was the PATH if it was the Nyc MTA forget about it that guy would have been a gonner. Remember this when or if you decide to bash the PATH.

You have no right to defend yourself in New Jersey, so what does being awake matter? You have a "duty to flee". In fact our victim here could end up in trouble for demanding his cigarettes back.

wibbit wrote:
both sides are on welfare. The tenant expects his rent to be below fair value, the landlord wants to change the agreed term of his purchase(property) so he can get more money.

i was just thinking with all the debate around capitalism and find it rather funny. If you think about it, around here if you own a property you get taxed to death, a 400k house with a 10k tax is all too common, on top of paying rental tax if investment. In china, which is a communist country, the government doesnt tax their citizens much. The same 400k (dollar to dollar) property, you pay maybe $100 a year on tax, and if you rent it out there is no additional tax and those are in the big cities, in the countryside it's even much less.

And there is very little tenant protection, if tenant cannot pay the rent, they get kicked onto the street the next month no question asked. If landlord wants to increase the rent by 200% next year, they are free to do so as long as someone is willing to pay for it.

Shouldnt it be the other way around, i thought communism is based on everyone contributing to the state and divide up the wealth. While capitalism is the opposite. Now it seems everything is reversed.

Just some thoughts....

Bogart wrote:
Quote:

tommyc_37 wrote:
Are the uncreative digs at the "mysterious land known as NJ" really necessary? Holy crap, does everything NY have to frown upon NJ? Downtown Jersey City is leaps and bounds above about 80% of NYC's outer boroughs. But this guy would never write anything bad about those ghetto boroughs because hey, "it's still NYC". Getting around Jersey City is a nightmare??? Um, I think it's a bit easier than getting around your beloved NYC, Joe Pompeo.

Unreal, unacceptable, and uncreative. Maybe it's time for NYC to pick on Connecticut. I'm so over these types of hack writers.

I think he was being ironic about NYCers attitudes toward setting foot in NJ.

Also, he didn't say getting around JC is a nightmare. He said "finding your way." And that's true if you don't know your way around the canals, harbor inlets, rail yards and changes in elevation that make getting from point A to point B by following a straight line potentially impossible.

wibbit wrote:
Quote:

Jeebus wrote:
The Wall Street job market has only gone from huge amounts of layoffs to no new hiring. I don't see that as a positive for the number of people who will buy $500K+ condos.

huge layoff to no layoff is significant. As for the rest, you should really read my post first...

wibbit wrote:
yes a 10-15% drop is very possible, as confidence overall is still very low. The nyc/wall st job market is weak but has improved quite a bit since sept/lehman, i guess the important part is they are not doing massive waves of layoffs anymore.

Supply wise, i can only speak for downtown jc, yes it's still high but not increasing only going down. I cant think of even one high rise in the paulus hook/newport area that will come online (the last new construction i believe is crystal point). So supply increase for the area has pretty much stopped you are only left with resales. LHN is a different story though ;)

mfadam wrote:
I know rent v buy has been talked about, but the point I was trying to get at is just how huge the spread is on this specific property (albeit about as nice as they come near VVP).

I mean it's one thing if a market is off by a bit but in this case the monthly nut to buy is effectively double what the owner's seem to think they'll get from renting out the two duplexes. In an efficient market the spread would be nowhere near this wide. Guess that's what I was trying to point out/get opinions on....

weinish wrote:
the owner of rustique paid for the oven, and then his rent was TRIPLED! he told me he expected it to go up, and he didn't have a long term lease because he figured the guy would be realistic. the owner saw the improvements, and recognized the opportunity to eff the owner of rustique. it's that simple.


it doesn't help that the prices he charges for alcohol at his corner store are also astronomical. i have no reason to go over there for liquor or pizza at this point.


and yes, rustique pizza gets cold almost the second it gets into your hands. it's very good, but the product is too heavy, and gets cold fast. ask anyone who has ever ordered a pie to an office in newport.


not a game, not a game, not a game:


http://deadspin.com/5301145/this-is-outstanding?autoplay=true

jsqfunk wrote:
I walked past the M650 building today, there is a banner hanging on the front saying "25% Sold" ... I really wish the developer the best (I live in the neighborhood) but it just looks so sad.

Also, up the block at bit is an old police station that is being turned into condos, a sign on the building lists them as starting in the 200s, which is starting to get a bit more reasonable for the McGinley Square. area, not sure if the police station will have heated towel racks like M650.

GrovePath wrote:
Luxury Condos, All Bids Considered

New York Times
By ANTOINETTE MARTIN
Published: June 12, 2009
[snip]
At the auction, which is to be held at the Hyatt Regency Jersey City, a few blocks down Montgomery Street, 12 units will be sold ?absolute? ? that is, regardless of the suggested starting bid.
[snip]

GrovePath wrote:
Further step toward 'Powerhouse' neighborhood in JC
[snip}

The stabilization project is set to include replacing the windows and roof, as well as installing new drainage systems to mitigate any further deterioration of the structure. The stabilization process is anticipated to take three to five months. The process will start this month and will be completed by October.

By 2013, when all the renovations are complete, the Powerhouse is expected to be a retail and entertainment showpiece of the Powerhouse Arts Entertainment District, offering modern facilities and infrastructure to consumers and commercial tenants. The $90 million development will feature 180,000 square feet across five floors, filled with galleries, restaurants, and offices.