The next abatement is on Senate Place which is one block from India Square. Parking as you know is extremely tight there. This development calls for 266 units but 128 parking spots. I call this poor urban planning. At one time former Councilwoman Nidia Lopez suggest this empty lot should be used for parking for India Square customers which comes from different part of NJ and NY to shop there. I remember when McKinley Square went down hill, the a parking lot was sold which eventually became Hudson Catholic High School. I do support Catholic education but merchants/customers could not find a place to park, business went away and the place became what it is now.

Matt, I have a time slot of 29 minutes from Comcast. I am not the Board of Education which can run a full program but chooses not to videotape speakers. I must edit in order to satisfy Comcast requirements. However, I would love to have more time so if you will tell Comcast to give me the same privileges as the Board of Ed, then I will place all comments on my program. There has been times I have spoke at a public meeting but I did not add my comments to the show. I did this when I went to Trenton to video tape public officials and the public on renewing Public Broadcast for the State of New Jersey. I deleted my comments in favor of public officials for broadcast.

I am talking about houses next to each other like JC. Bayonne, 2 family homes are actually 3 or more. People are making smaller units similar to JC. Let me repeat, Bayonne is not dealing with the skyway or traffic from the turnpike traveling on local streets to reach the Holland Tunnel. When the skyway closes, item 4g on the agenda, the city will allow York and Bright Streets to filter that traffic to the waterfront. The skyway now closes April 12. That influx has nothing to do with JC residents.

You can ban local cars but you will still have major traffic downtown, motorist leave the congested turnpike and use the local streets to go to the Holland tunnel. Bayonne has homes just as compact as JC but their streets are not congested as JC because motorist do not use their streets to connect to other places. During the Schundler administration, Council President Smith made a comment that over 100,000 cars come into JC, that number is probably higher. So reducing cars is just a way to punish residents who need them for their elderly family members, children, grocery shopping, and getting to work.

Wishful Thinking, there are people who were born here and did not move to JC. Yes, I do remember when you could drive to lower Manhattan from Van Vorst Park in less than 15 minutes. So basically, everyone must bend over backwards to reward new development, which receives abatements and crowds the street. Because guess what? Those people do bring cars but they don't pay for parking. I have said this before, JC is overdeveloped, the streets are not wide compared to NYC which can handle traffic, bikes, and pedestrians. Besides, it is not just the residents who live here, it is people traveling to the waterfront, or the skyway, turnpike, etc. So if you ban every local car you would still have traffic. In case you did not notice, many motorist, travel through downtown JC to reach the Holland Tunnel. That has nothing to do with residents.

The mayor changed the policy on parking which was one to one ratio, he promoted this policy as councilman for downtown. Why? The developer can make more money on retail space. But let?s get realistic; JC has an aging population with arthritis, heart disease, or other problems that makes walking difficult. You also have parents who must bring children to doctors, dentists, etc but the city has an unreliable transportation system. Buses/lite rail do not go many parts of the city. Why should the rest of the city inherit the problems of downtown? Also groceries stores are not close by as they are in downtown so residents use cars.

I did request to tape, it is still "illegal to tape" but many people showed up with cameras.

I just saw the lastest abatement agreement in the Journal Square area. 266 units with 128 parking spaces and 5,000 square ft of retail space. The older condos in the area has one to one parking space. This development will impact the one and two family homes plus rent control buildings. The 5,000 commercial space will bring traffic, the 266 units with limited parking will create a crisis in an established neighborhood. It is wishful thinking that everyone uses the PATH. This particular neighborhood will have residents circling the blocks for hours looking for parking spaces. I call this poor urban planning.

I brought my camera and videotape the public comments. [!IFRAME FILTERED! ]

Jersey City School Board Meeting from Speak NJ on Vimeo.

Eugene McKnight did not pay fines.
http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/20 ... html#incart_river_default

There are people who jump from buildings the world over...they can't be stopped if they are inclined to do so. Windows can be broken. The thing is most every building has some history of deaths...people dying of natural causes, accidents, or worse yet time diminishes these events and people live in these buildings completely unaware of this stuff...Think of the residential buildings in downtown JC that were once funeral parlors such as 4th & Jersey etc...Everyplace has strange footnotes attached.

Also, the MUA went into agreement with legal fees for $350,000 with DeCotis.
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B-wndx ... HlWbDdETGFjYkE/edit?pli=1

Another one of McGreevey's associates, it appears the people that surrounded the former governor are now surrounding Fulop.

So there are different rules for Fulop than Healy? Here him complain about Healy, I know this was posted before.

John Thieroff will be on the MUA board, I remember Councilman Fulop complaining that Mayor Healy is placing the same people on boards. Now Mayor Fulop is doing the same thing.

Sounds like fun !! God save the Republic...

I would use Ray Velazquez, the former councilman because he was a judge I believe in traffic court. He stepped down to run for office but his appointment was stopped. Find him on facebook.

The Port Authority has its muck encrusted footprints in two major projects that will impact us for the next several years; the shutdown of WTC service for a year and then the 33rd St. line for another year. At the same time they are bankrolling the billion dollar overhaul of the Pulaski Skyway set to start 3/29 (Star Ledger 1/7/11) They are the puppetmasters for this chaos. The only hope to loosen their grasp may have come due to the nonsense starting to unravel as a result of the Bridge closing. Let the hearings begin so these misfits can be brought to account for their abuse of all of us.

Most people think when an abatement is granted the city gets 95% and the county 5%. The original agreement was an extra 10% to the county but politics have involved so it was reduced to 5%. It is 105% not 95%. This extra 5% is not applied to affordable housing. It doesn't apply to older abatements.

The mayor created a new policy on Christmas Eve 2013 based on Tiers. You can "buy" an abatement based on the tier which is 1 to 5.

Why is the Ninth Street Urban Renewal LLC, 360 Ninth Street up for a 20 year abatement?

Jersey City is amending the food vendor license. It is a second reading ordinance 14-018, public advertisement. When this was introduced at the caucus meeting last week, Michael Yun said the ordinance should require a background check. But the council president said the city support second chances for people with record. There is a difference between a teenager who sold drugs and turned his/her life around as an adult and someone with a violent history especially sexual assault. Michael Yun is correct, food vendor should have a background check if they deal with the public. This was not a story in the JJ because no reporter was present.

If you read the story, Fulop said this is payback for delivering Sean Connors, McCann's nephew to the Healy camp. Fulop put Sean Connors on his ticket.

An old story about Councilman Fulop attacking Healy over hiring ex-convict McCann.
http://www.politickernj.com/editor/36 ... slams-healy-mccann-hiring

It has always been the rule to remove the snow first in the western slope of the Heights because ice makes the area there dangerous.

The late mayor Tommy Smith was proactive in removing snow. He worked the plows with Public Works and the Incinerator Authority (what it was called then) with a group of volunteers. He told citizens to place the snow on the corners on a particular day and the city would remove it. Smith was the last mayor we had that was that proactive in removing snow.

With all the corners needing snow removal it didn't look good to see a bobcat snowplow clearing the snow in Van Vorst Park. Where are the DPW crews who did this in past years? Not even clearing sewer grates to allow the lakes of water to go down. A horrid mess.

To JSleeze, I told Brigid to check the county tax numbers not my numbers. I don?t produce the data but I refer to it. If abatements are great can you explain why local taxes rose nearly 85% between 2005 and 2010 for the municipal portion? After all, the city is getting all of this new money through abatements!