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Re: Hamilton Park Renovation - Update
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Home away from home
 
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Quote:
It looks like a scale mistake was made like the 18 inch Stonehenge in Spinal Tap. Maybe it was a inch/metric thing: "We ordered a 15 foot fountain and got a 1.5 meter one!" I can tell you this, I was on the HPNA park planning committee and no one envisioned such a pathetic, diminutive fountain, we planned for one similar to Van Vorst.
Posted on: 2009/10/19 22:45
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Re: DUI on a bicycle?
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Home away from home
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Quote:
Which is why I said IF you do it, you must be totally yielding to ANYONE else. There are times, like biking 1/2 block illegally rather than 3 1/2 blocks to go round the 1 ways, that a cyclist is sorely tempted. I use all 3 modes, and see all the sides. If you're going to go outside the law at least be humble. My current peeve is pedestrians who have a "DONT WALK" yet won't yield to turning cars who have a green turn light. You get a short enough time to turn as it is, yet they force a confrontation. Making a L out of BJ's onto Marin is bad for this, as are numerous spots in Manhattan. When I'm walking, I respect the turn light.
Posted on: 2009/10/19 20:17
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Re: Bergen Lafayette: Victim stabbed several times in back - in front of cops -then had to be handcuffed
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Home away from home
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Can some "Law & Order" junkie explain to me why he wasn't charged with "attempted homocide"?
Posted on: 2009/10/19 2:53
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Re: DUI on a bicycle?
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Home away from home
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Quote:
I can understand the occasional desire to do so given our grid of one ways, and succumb myself while riding, but what I can't understand is doing it aggressively and in your face. When you go the wrong way, you have no rights, EVERYONE ELSE has the right of way! Cars, pedestrians, other bikes. But that's not how things are done on our "take no prisoners" streets.
Posted on: 2009/10/16 19:16
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Re: DUI on a bicycle?
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Home away from home
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Recently I was stopped at the 6th St light on Grove when a stoned clown on a bike plowed right into the back of my van making a huge dent. At first I though it was "biking while texting" but a resident told me the guy was a local fixture, always high on something. The cops and EMT's thought he was high (nothing like an incident around the corner from the precinct for instant police presence!) but he was hauled away in an ambulance and I didn't see a summons issued.
Posted on: 2009/10/16 16:30
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Re: Jersey City school board releases state testing data - Not good!
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Home away from home
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Can anyone figure out, or know, whether this is the results of last years spring 2009 tests for the "2008 school year", or it actually took 18 months to create this report for the spring 2008 tests.
Posted on: 2009/10/16 14:10
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Re: Tax Assesment
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Home away from home
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Quote:
Somebody must have struck the fear of God into him. I had the roof of my 3 car garage done without permits, and that was in clear sight of the street AND with a neighbor who drops a dime on me whenever he/she thinks I'm doing un-permitted work. But the whole permit thing is wacky. I've been told by an inspector that even to hang a wall cabinet where there had never been one before requires a permit. Any time you break the trap seal on the plumbing needs one. The list goes on...
Posted on: 2009/10/15 0:10
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Re: Tax Assesment
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Home away from home
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I've NEVER been able to fathom the voodoo of repair vs improvement. Of course any repair increases the value of the property! I've read what the IRS has to say, and it doesn't clarify anything. It seems to be subjective, whatever the authority says is improvement, IS improvement. The roof is a classic example, it's neither decorative nor optional, yet they'll try to say a new roof is an improvement. I say it's hooey.
Here's what the IRS says: "Repairs versus improvements. A repair keeps your home in an ordinary, efficient operating condition. It does not add to the value of your home or prolong its life. Repairs include repainting your home inside or outside, fixing your gutters or floors, fixing leaks or plastering, and replacing broken window panes. You cannot deduct repair costs and generally cannot add them to the basis of your home. However, repairs that are done as part of an extensive remodeling or restoration of your home are considered improvements. You add them to the basis of your home." By that definition, your roof has been repaired. Here's a page with more than you need to know, but which (of course) doesn't give you a clear answer either. http://accountant.intuit.com/practice ... ?file=tmdd_capitalization The part I find most interesting is the calculation of a deductable "repair allowance" regardless of the actual details. The big question is did you actually need that permit? Who told you so, certainly not the contractor. I've yet to meet one that would prefer pulling a permit to pulling out a tooth.
Posted on: 2009/10/14 21:01
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Re: New film counts the fleet of Mercedeses & Infinitis parked at Jersey City Board of Education.
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Home away from home
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Quote:
Sorry to flog this all the time, but McNair's placement on those lists mean NADA!! See the methodology, they should have been disqualified like Stuyvesant for being a "test in" selective school, but were given a bye because the students SAT scores were so low relative to other similar schools. Is THAT something to be proud of and crow about? It certainly isn't a proof of academic excellence. That said, we should have elected Tom Wilen & co to the school board to track down those hundreds of millions that no one knows where they go. He said an audit discovered 9 corpses on the BOE payroll. There is simply no accountability, and I suspect that's a major part of what the filmmaker is trying to show.
Posted on: 2009/10/12 20:52
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Re: Daily News on JC's double-dipping city council
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Home away from home
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Quote:
Clearly you need to read up on your Gordon Gekko. Greed is what made this town!
Posted on: 2009/10/3 17:55
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Re: Top JC High School Moving to Secaucus
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Home away from home
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Dan, that's a ridiculous spot in the butt end of nowhere, what a scary area. It's only "central" in that it's equally far from anyplace people live. If your after school schedule doesn't match the bus' you're dead. A new school location in Hudson county should at least be required to be near a light rail line.
I seem to remember that the Secaucus junction station is exclusively for transfers, is that true? Or will they at least be able to get home in a few hours via Hoboken station and light rail or PATH.
Posted on: 2009/10/2 4:03
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Re: Hazardous Waste Collection Days
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Home away from home
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Quote:
Thanks, that's more helpful than the dimwit who answered the phone at HCIA. This may be all about the difference between the Hudson County Improvement Authority: HCIA, and the Jersey City Incinerator Authority: JCIA. I guess the HCIA doesn't know what the JCIA is doing, or isn't telling. Maybe that's the CIA part showing.
Posted on: 2009/10/2 3:41
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Anyone else frustrated with the JCIA hazardous waste program?
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I have piles of old paint, fluorescent bulbs and electronics, yet the JCIA only takes these things 4 days a year, for 4 hrs, all on weekend mornings. Between kids, family, and gasp, weekend recreation I've never been able to get to one of these collection days. And they won't take it at any location other than at those dates, even on weekdays. I'd be happy to drive it during the week.
This policy is begging people to just hide the e-waste and C-F bulbs in their regular pickup. I'll bet that's what most people do. I sure want to be environmental, but this is a steep slope. Does anyone else think this is ridiculous? There should at least be an available drop somewhere in the county. Should we make a stink about it, contact councilmen and such, or am I alone?
Posted on: 2009/10/1 19:09
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Re: Tree Trimmer?
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I recently learned that Parks & Forestry will trim any street tree for free, just call them. This is REALLY IMPORTANT for those young trees we all had planted, since some A-hole trucker will inevitably try to park under your tree and break off large chunks of it unless you have those low branches over the street pruned. This was fatal to our pear planted over a decade ago. A P&F guy also told me it was a huge mistake for the city to plant all those flowering cherries, since they grow low and wide, completely wrong for streetside trees.
Posted on: 2009/9/30 17:12
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Re: Think again before running that red light
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We all agree. You can't take a 10 minute drive here without seeing or participating in at least 3 stupid ass life threatening driving situations. The lack of turn lane enforcement is simply the most ridiculous. That has to be the easiest to enforce, no one can argue about "complete stop vs roll through vs blown stop". I was hit going east on Montgomery at Jersey by a town car in the turn lane going straight, and the bastard took off.
My favorite, since I'm picking up kids from school when every school in the city is letting out, is the kids who walk across intersections regardless of the light, usually while talking on the cell, texting, or looking at their friends, often with their back to traffic, looking anywhere but at the car about to hit them.
Posted on: 2009/9/26 15:23
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Re: HOBOKEN's Rent control was lax for years, judge rules for landlord
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Home away from home
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Quote:
To get votes, of course.
Posted on: 2009/9/25 18:44
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Re: any IT/tech shops to recover laptop hard disk?
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Home away from home
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Why install apps on the data RAID rather than the OS disk? It's not like (at least in windows) you can reinstall the OS and have the apps work. Only from an image restore, in which case the apps might as well be with the OS, no? Is the point to keep the OS image small?
Posted on: 2009/9/15 22:12
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Re: any IT/tech shops to recover laptop hard disk?
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Home away from home
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Quote:
I've been intending to RAID my data disks for a while, reading this scares the crap out of me enough to revive my interest. For a SOHO desktop, would you RAID-1 two drives and set up separate system and data partitions, or put the system on an entirely separate drive(s?) from the data raid? I was planning on doing the latter, to avoid OS reinstall. With regular imaging of the OS partition, it could be worse.
Posted on: 2009/9/15 18:33
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Re: BJs - What are some of the good things to buy there?
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Home away from home
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Quote:
Hudson County's liquor laws are freakish, although if I had to choose between them and Bergen's Blue laws, I guess I'd keep them.
Posted on: 2009/9/15 16:44
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Re: NYTimes: These Downtown JC Apartment Hunters Are the Happy Renters
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Home away from home
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Quote:
The Automobile section is car porn. I get sick of them describing small sedans with 250 HP as "underpowered", and glorifying the least practical. Writers like theirs are one reason we've gone off the rails in our automotive choices. Is the same true of the RE porn, fostering bad choices?
Posted on: 2009/9/14 15:54
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Re: Blocking driveways..
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Home away from home
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Quote:
That's all anybody's been saying. You've been saying that would be a sociopathic and criminal act. Jeez.
Posted on: 2009/9/8 14:46
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Re: Blocking driveways..
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Home away from home
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Quote:
Is not. He's just calling it like he and I see it, that Americans have a problem of confusing their own identities with their car, from what the model "says about them" to the ridiculous idea that something you park on the street is sacrosanct. You park on the street, expect to get tapped. Period. Painted bumpers must have been invented by body shops, a supremely stupid idea. When plastic bumpers were first introduced, they were mostly black.
Posted on: 2009/9/7 23:07
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Re: Blocking driveways..
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Home away from home
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ah so, hmmm. Well, pretend for a moment there's no driveway. What makes this special? Someone jams in a space, something that happens all the time, in Manhattan it's practically required!
That said, I concede the " I have a driveway and that entitles me to a street space too" to be pretty arrogant and annoying. It fuels the antipathy to letting people have curb cuts for the their driveways o begin with. But if Iwitness is correct, there's not much to be done. Legally that is. Perhaps a concerted effort by all the neighbors to continually park him in by kissing bumpers might get the point across that he also depends on the kindness of his neighbors, and should exhibit some neighborliness himself.
Posted on: 2009/9/6 4:21
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Re: Blocking driveways..
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Home away from home
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Quote:
I can't get over how people can live in the city, park on the street, and still be precious about their bumpers. In tight city parking people are to be expected to park by braille. I've noticed that the JC metered spots have shrunk to just the length of a medium size car, requiring some tight maneuvering. As to the OP's driveway concern, is your driveway marked out on the street? If it actually a legal curb cut you can get the city to do it for a nominal fee, less than $50.
Posted on: 2009/9/5 17:02
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Re: Flooding advice?
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Home away from home
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I recall the specific reason pumping across the sidewalk is illegal is that if you do it in freezing conditions you turn the sidewalk into a perfect, glossy sheet of ice. Makes sense, no?
Fortunately most of us flood in nonfreezing storms. If it were snow it would melt slowly, the sewers wouldn't flood, and neither would our basements.
Posted on: 2009/9/1 5:42
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Re: Flooding advice?
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Flooded sewers don't affect sump pumps hooked into them. I've had this argument a number of times with people who don't understand how water works. It doesn't matter that the drainpipe is flooded as far as pumping out is concerned. A pump only cares how high a column of water it's pushing out, not the volume it's pushing into. The pressure is the same at the bottom of a foot long hose as 1' down in the ocean. So it's actually easier to pump into your drainline with the sewer water level halfway between your basement floor level and street level, than to pump it all the way to street level and have it run into the street drain and end up in the sewer anyway.
I believe the pumping into the sewer becomes an issue because in theory you're putting groundwater into the sewer system, when they'd like you to put into your yard. But most of the time our flooding comes directly FROM the sewer system!
Posted on: 2009/8/31 20:04
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Re: Sump Pump: Below or Above Sidewalk?
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Home away from home
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It IS illegal. But enforcement is spotty, as is most law enforcement in JC. You simply never know when the thing that's been there (or not been there) for decades will suddenly be cited by the city or state.
The one way I'm pretty sure is legal is under the sidewalk to the street, but I don't see why people don't simply hook it to their drains, it all ends up in the same place, the street sewer. Your pump will actually be more efficient pumping into the drain, it only has to pump as high as the sewer water level rather than to street level.
Posted on: 2009/8/31 15:33
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Re: BJs - What are some of the good things to buy there?
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Home away from home
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Quote:
Simple. They have to pay the transaction fee but the customer pays the card interest, no skin off their nose.
Posted on: 2009/8/27 3:41
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Re: BJs - What are some of the good things to buy there?
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Home away from home
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As I understand it, Costco asked VISA/MC for reduced transaction charges, and they refused, so Costco told them to F#$% themselves. Another reason I like Costco. Forgive me, but this is another cartel story!
Posted on: 2009/8/26 19:21
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Re: BJs - What are some of the good things to buy there?
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Home away from home
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Quote:
Brilliant idea! Maybe next time I'll bring my fishing scale, and weigh each product. Otherwise it's voodoo since "sheet count" is meaningless if the sheets vary so tremendously in thickness. Recently acquired trivia: the average american uses 54 sheets of TP per day. No report on the thickness of that TP. Comparing the comparison (?) to the great Whole Foods debate is not accurate, WF is clearly a store with a stated difference in mission from SR, BJ's has no such distinction from Costco other than inferiority.
Posted on: 2009/8/26 15:29
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