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+1 Makes sense.

I'm with slim26 and stillinjc, take the deal. It'll cost $400 or $500, but no points on your license.

For a certain range of offenses you have the option of pleading down to a no-point offense, but, you've got to pay $250 on top of the regular fine, whatever it is. The idea, in effet, is for the city to get the money that your insurance company would otherwise get by increasing your premium because of the points.

Ah, the JCList Limbo:"How low can you go?"

From today's NYTimes:

The new study shows that several of the states doing the best anti-corruption work had to endure years of scandal to get there. The state with the best grade (B+) was New Jersey, which may be surprising considering its reputation for cronyism and payoffs. In 2005, however, after years of embarrassing scandals, the state passed some of the toughest ethics laws in the country. Lobbyist gifts are prohibited, state contractors cannot give to campaigns, ethics training is mandatory for state employees and an ethics board has real power to enforce the laws. New Jersey still has problems, including lax financial disclosure laws and no ban on lawmakers? holding two public jobs, but it is doing much better than New York, which got a D.

FWIW, Corzine's most recent adventure, MF Global, went down the tubes last Fall with well over a billion dollars in customer funds still missing.

I've been living at Lafayette and Communipaw for almost a year and I'm happy. I've had no trouble with on street parking and I feel safe walking the street in the evenings. There are active neighborhood associations in the area. You might want to go on Facebook at check out the Lafayette United Neighborhood Association.

Being near Liberty State Park is great.

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Yes.

From a NYTimes editorial:

It is a distressing fact of life that mistreatment of Muslims does not draw nearly the protest that it should. But not just Muslims are threatened by this seemingly excessive warrantless surveillance and record-keeping. Today Muslims are the target. In the past it was protesters against the Vietnam War, civil rights activists, socialists. Tomorrow it will be another vulnerable group whose lawful behavior is blended into criminal activity.

Edith Wharton, The Age of Innocence: https://www.google.com/search?q=%22age ... official&client=firefox-a

Miles - Like T-Bird I'm registered as a Democrat, so I can't help you. But I'm sympathetic to Paul's candidacy and I sure hope he gets on the ballot. I run a blog that's RP friendly:

http://truthandtraditionsparty.org/

Some more views from up on the embankment.

Last night three neighborhood groups held a joint meeting to address this issue: Lafayette United Neighborhood Association (LUNA), Morris Canal Community Development Corp., and Communipaw Avenue Block Association (CABA). Forty or fifty people met at the Monumental Baptist Church and there was a Spanish language interpreter present.

Deputy Mayor Kabili Tayari spoke, and there were representatives from Bayonne and the transportation union as well. Tayari indicated that solutions were being discussed for the current problem and that things looked good. But no papers have been signed, much less sealed and delivered. He also said, and others agreed, that this is a chronic problem and must be addressed as such. We can?t limp along putting band aids on top of band aids.

DanL is right. We need a permanent solution. And we?re going to have to demand our leaders, politicians and businessmen, to come up with one. They aren?t going to do it themselves. We need to hold their feet to the fire.

I second Joe's.

Also AGM Transmission on Communipaw.

@pferm201, thanks for your support. We're talking about growing this city by realizing the potential of the people who live here.

Last week I posted a link to an ambitious (aka crazy in JCspeak) plan for a cultural corridor in Jersey City, built around a SK8 park and graffiti. Some of you were skeptical, a properly so. But some 60 or so actually took a look at that report. I you are one of those, you?re not alone. Those of you who read it know that it: 1) builds on thinking and initiatives already in place, and 2) that it is not at all-or-nothing deal. It?s something that could, and should, be done in pieces. Will it happen, no. But some of the pieces. . . . We do need a park for skateboarding and BMX-biking, a good one. MonsterIsland complained that SK8boarders have taken over, and ruined, the skate rink in Enos Jones park. I suppose so. But I note that that happened after the park they built themselves, albeit illegally, was destroyed by a developer who, naturally and properly, wanted to take possession of his property. Here?s that story, what little of it that I could see from the outside. Guerilla SK8 Park in Jersey City: Part 1, and Part 2. I have placed a set of photos of that park in the New Jersey room of the public library.

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No point and shoot.

Hey people,

It's not like ALL good things happen to the PEOPLE OVER THERE. And nothing good ever happens in Jersey City because JC is, like, the garbage dump of the universe. We're part of the good part, too, you know. Dream about something good for a change. It won't hurt, I promise.

@Bobblehead: And they're not going to get there if everyone just punts. But glad you see the awesomeness. It's not a Martian dream. Us Earthlings could do it, if . . .

@PBW: Not if enough people tell them differently. It's YOUR city, YOU live here. THEY don't own it. Don't let them rule it.

@CSXrailfan: Come clean, are you a writer? Or do you just like to trespass like writers do.

@MonsterIsland: Tell your councilman.

Hey! thanks for reading (at least part of) the report.

The Newport "Wall of Fame," between Jersey & Erie at 10th. The wall's still there, but the source of the fame (1st class graffiti) is much degraded.

Jersey City: From a Skate Park to the World A Cultural Corridor Through Downtown and Journal Square EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Jersey City has an unparalleled opportunity for developing park space and cultural amenities in a two-mile corridor running from the Powerhouse Arts District in the East, along the Sixth Street Embankment to the Palisades, then up the River Line to the Bergen Tunnel, and west through the Erie Cut-Bergen Arches to JFK Boulevard. What is unique about this strategy is that is builds on both abandoned railroad properties and on Jersey City?s status as a center for graffiti art of the highest caliber.* By capitalizing on its graffiti heritage, Jersey City can attract tourists from around the world and establish itself as an international center of cutting-edge art. This development strategy includes three park-garden areas: 1) Sixth Street Embankment, 2) River Line Walk, and 3) Bergen Arches Erie Cut. A skate park is already being planned for the River Line Walk area. At full development the Erie Cut would have a series of small gardens in various national styles ? Indian, Chinese, Spanish, etc. ? and a conservatory linking the bottom of the cut to the street-level surface (Route 139). There would also be two modest museum complexes: 1) a graffiti museum at 12th and Monmouth, and 2) a railroad museum nearby at the Bergen Tunnel. These complexes would include restaurants and shops. A thumbnail calculation indicates that these developments could bring new tourist revenue to the city in the amount $36 to $90 million (or more) annually. Other benefits include increased property values along the corridor and new businesses. Download the full report here. *Did you know that? Well, it's true.

I've not seen anything happening in there in over a week. And I've heard a rumor (from a loyal patron of the Maggie-era Ale House) that there's been trouble transferring the lease to the new tenant so that things have been called off.

Sorry that's so vague, but that's the state of my knowledge.

Thanks for the link, dewelch. Yes, that's how it was. FWIW the very same brass band mentioned in that article will be playing at Skinner's Loft on December 15th, starting at 5pm.

I took a walk around the park this afternoon -- and saw Sam S on his own inspection run, Hi Sam! -- and thought it was AWESOME. I repeat: AWESOME. In particular, I imagined that I was only 8 years old and, man, the possibilities of that playground just blew me away. There's East Slidestan, and the Kingdom of Swingmania, and Mount Hamilton, and all those cool inner passages and climbing stuff. All WAY COOL.

6?