By Terrence T. McDonald | The Jersey Journal


Attention, women of Jersey City: if you like sidling up to a bar for a beer or serving up a dry martini from behind the bar yourself, you have Lois Shaw to thank.

Shaw was a councilwoman whose political career lasted for just one term but who played an integral role in Jersey City bar history. In 1974, she led the charge to reverse a 40-year-old law that banned women from drinking at bars and working as bartenders.

Yes, in 1974, two years after Gloria Steinem founded Ms. Magazine and 11 years after Betty Friedan?s "The Feminine Mystique" sparked the modern women?s movement, Jersey City law said women couldn?t sit at their local pub?s bar and grab a brewski.

?The men that passed that law, years ago ... they were the most corrupt politicians we?ve ever had,? Shaw, 75, said during a recent interview. ?Most of them went to jail, you know. But when it came to women they were very puritanical.?

Her niece, Amy DeGise, 33, said Shaw's push to open up bars to women has been a part of the family's lore for decades.

"She always said, I know it sounded like I wanted to drink but I just wanted to get treated the same way," DeGise said.

More...

By Michaelangelo Conte
The Jersey Journal



JERSEY CITY -- A 49-year-old Clifton man has been charged with sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl in Jersey City and Clifton after meeting the girl on the messaging app "WeChat," authorities said today.

Mohammed Zeidan, a self-employed real estate agent, was arrested on April 19 and charged with sexual assault, criminal sexual contact, luring or enticing, endangering the welfare of a child and refusing to provide a DNA sample, Hudson County Prosecutor Esther Suarez said in a press release today.

On April 13, the girl's brother contacted Jersey City police saying he was being harassed by Zeidan and the alleged contact between the girl and Zeidan came to light. The girl told police she met Zeidan on WeChat about two months earlier, the criminal complaint says.

The girl told police Zeidan told her he was 27-year-old, but she said she believed he was much older, the complaint says. She described sexually activity she said she had with Zeidan inside his car in parking lots or in front of her home in Jersey City.


http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/20 ... saulted_of_13-year-o.html

Chris Christie really knows how to pick them.. she is so like him.

One of Jersey City?s biggest proposed residential projects is now ?in danger of collapsing,? according to the Associated Press. One Journal Square, one of the many projects that Kushner Companies is developing across the Hudson, has been stalled for close to a year, and ?a heated exchange of letters and emails with the city? have made it clear that the two sides may not be able to come to an agreement over its future.

The background: Jared Kushner paid $27 million for the vacant site, located smack in the middle of Jersey City?s Journal Square neighborhood, in 2015. The firm had initially courted WeWork as an anchor tenant, but the co-working (and co-living) company backed out of the project earlier this year, forgoing its alleged 50 percent ownership stake in the development and putting a planned tax abatement for the project in jeopardy.

Jersey City mayor Steven Fulop also announced that the city would no longer back One Journal Square, only saying that the project ?doesn?t work for us.? For a hot minute, it looked like the project could be revived, but the AP report contradicts that narrative.

According to AP, the Kushners are now ?making veiled threats of legal action,? and have alleged that politics?namely, a distaste for Jared Kushner?s role within the White House?are behind the city?s refusal to back the project. They also contend that Fulop backed out of the project in order to win votes in the city?s 2017 mayoral election.
https://ny.curbed.com/2018/4/24/172752 ... urnal-square-steven-fulop

Affordable housing expansion in Downtown Jersey City hits snag

By Terrence T. McDonald tmcdonald@jjournal.com
The Jersey Journal

JERSEY CITY ? A much-ballyhooed effort by Mayor Steve Fulop's administration to increase affordable housing options in the city's upscale Downtown neighborhoods is running into trouble.

The developers behind a planned 35-story, 432-unit tower on Marin Boulevard originally slated to include 87 affordable apartments may have zero, with the developers saying they can't build the affordable units without a state tax break that is no longer available. They are asking the city council to tear up the 25-year tax break it awarded the project in 2015 and allow the developer to proceed with a 100 percent market-rate tower.

City spokeswoman Hannah Peterson said the city had only two options here: approve a more lucrative abatement to make up for the lost state tax break, or rescind the abatement and allow the developer to pay conventional taxes.

http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/20 ... n_downtown_jersey_ci.html

By The Jersey Journal
Citi Bike Jersey City announced that it is moving forward with a plan to relocate some of its least popular docking stations in the city

The plan leaves nearly all neighborhoods south of Communipaw Avenue without access to the bike-share system.

The company will move eight stations, three at light rail stops, though it is not yet decided where the stations will be moved. They will likely be relocated to areas with higher ridership, such as the Downtown area.

In August, after saying the city was backing out of the plan to relocate stations, Mayor Steve Fulop said the city was going to work with Citi Bike to increase ridership in where ridership was low, by offering subsidies and promoting the bike-share system.

Citi Bike Jersey City launched in September 2015 with great fanfare, with Fulop at the time saying he believed it was crucial that residents in every area of the city be have access to the system.

The system is run and funded by a private company. It won a five-year contract in January 2015 to operate Citi Bike Jersey City, agreeing to pick up the roughly $2.5 million cost to pay for bikes and stations. It was only company that bid on the contract.

After the first year of service, the city was expected to get a cut of the program's profits.

Should Jersey City pull out of its contract with Citi Bike?

by BERNARD CONDON, The Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) - First, Jared Kushner's big plans for a skyscraper in Manhattan fell apart. Now, it's the turn of his major twin-tower project across the river in New Jersey.

Plans for a pair of gleaming, 66-story residential towers in Jersey City championed by Kushner when he was CEO of his family company are in danger of collapsing amid a heated exchange of letters and emails with the city.

The Kushner Cos. is now making veiled threats of legal action. It is saying the heavily Democratic city, run by Mayor Steven Fulop, ended negotiations over the project for no good reason, other than perhaps bias against Kushner because he has moved on to become an adviser to President Donald Trump, his father-in-law.

"It is crystal clear that Fulop is now playing politics," Kushner Cos. said in a statement to The Associated Press.

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/new ... 446cb4f48f4bcdda023e.html

JERSEY CITY, New Jersey (WABC) -- Authorities investigating the gruesome discovery of a child's body found in a suitcase along the PATH tracks in New Jersey have identified the victim as a missing 2-year-old girl from Virginia.

The body of Te'Myah Plummer was found around 1:15 p.m. on Wednesday, April 11, under the Tonnelle Avenue Bridge at the end of Van Wagenen Avenue in Jersey City.

Police in Richmond, Virginia, had announced in March that they were seeking the public's help in locating Plummer and her father, Travis Plummer. They had last been seen in August.

It was believed they may have relocated to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg County, North Carolina area, or perhaps Jersey City. At the time, they did not believe either was in any danger.

Now that the girl's remains have been located, police are searching for the father.

Travis Plummer, 37, is described as a black male, 5-foot-8 and 250 pounds with a medium complexion.

Anyone who could share information as to their whereabouts is asked to contact police.

If they can't fulfill their end of the contract then the city should cancel it.

By The Jersey Journal
Yesterday, at a ribbon cutting for the City Hall Annex in Bergen-Lafayette, Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop announced a second phase of the project that will see the area known as the Hub renamed "Jackson Square," according to a press release.

The mayor was joined by Sen. Sandra B. Cunningham, Assemblywoman Angela McKnight, and the Jersey City Council.

It was announced that the City Hall Annex will be joined by two new buildings that when done encompass Jackson Square and "a $68 million dollar investment in the area."

According to the city's press release, it's the largest public investment the city has seen in decades.
http://www.nj.com/jjournal-news/index ... 1.html#incart_river_index

By Elana Knopp, April 20, 2018 at 12:22 PM
Jersey City is celebrating the completion of its $24 million City Hall Annex, which will soon house the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Housing, Economic Development & Commerce.

The departments had previously rented office space throughout the city.

The project is the largest public investment to occur in the neighborhood in decades and is expected to encourage economic activity in the area.

http://www.njbiz.com/article/20180420 ... -in-jersey-city-completed

By Matt Arco marco@njadvancemedia.com,
NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

There's about to be a lot more registered voters in the state of New Jersey, which already has 5.8 million people on its rolls.

Gov. Phil Murphy said Monday he will sign into law a bill that would automatically register people to vote if they apply for a driver's license or non-driver ID card in the Garden State. Murphy, a Democrat, said in a tweet that he will sign the legislation on Tuesday.

NJVote

By Caitlin Mota
The Jersey Journal

JERSEY CITY -- Authorities are investigating the suspicious death of a man at a city park on Sunday morning.

The man was found in Pershing Field and brought to Jersey City Medical Center where he died sometime around 9 a.m., officials said.

Homicide detectives from the Hudson County Prosecutor's Office are expected to arrive at the scene to investigate the incident. No details have been released about what authorities believed caused his death.

http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/20 ... _in_jersey_city_park.html

Peeps have been driving high forever. You look confused.

JERSEY CITY, N.J. ? A baby was found dead in a suitcase left near PATH tracks in Jersey City on Wednesday afternoon, authorities said.

The gruesome discovery was made about 12:40 p.m. underneath the Tonnelle Avenue Bridge, just off Broadway, the Hudson County Prosecutor?s Office said.

A PATH train crew spotted a suitcase near tracks not far from the Journal Square stop and called police, sources told PIX11 News. When officers arrived, they found human remains in the container.

The prosecutor?s office described the victim as an infant and said homicide investigators are on the scene.

Additional details were not immediately available.

WPIX

NBC
https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/ ... are-Newark-479422493.html

Jersey City is full of haters. Go suck on some rocks!

By Karen Yikyi@njadvancemedia.com
NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Newark will be the fourth city in the world -- and the first in New Jersey -- to provide high-speed wifi "Link" kiosks that will allow pedestrians to charge their phones, make a call or download music and movies, free of charge.

The multi-million dollar investment in the city by Intersection, a New York-based technology company, comes at an exiting time for Newark, which was recently named a finalist for Amazon's second headquarters.

"Newark is here, we are on the map," Aisha Glover, president of the Newark Community Economic Development Corporation (NCEDC) said during a Wednesday press conference at NJIT. "We are claiming our space. We certainly feel like this is our moment."

http://www.nj.com/essex/index.ssf/201 ... _have_free_wifi-kios.html

Jersey City police responded to Mayor Steve Fulop's home on Ogden Avenue in the Heights around 7:30 tonight after a woman was found inside the house, according to sources.

The sources said it was the second arrest of the same stalker.

A 30-year-old female was arrested and charged with burglary, harassment, and stalking, said city spokeswoman Kimberly Wallace-Scalcione.

No other information is available at this time.

http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/20 ... aken_into_custody_at.html

By Caitlin Mota
The Jersey Journal


JERSEY CITY -- Two city police officers have been suspended without pay after getting into a fight with a Domino's manager while on duty, officials and witnesses said.

Rodney Clark and Courtney Solomon are both charged with making terroristic threats, disorderly conduct, and harassment for the incident that occurred on Tuesday, Hudson County Prosecutor Esther Suarez said in a statement.

Marina Elsamina, an employee at the Communipaw Avenue pizza shop, said they received an online complaint on Tuesday evening by one of the police officers, apparently over a delivery issue.
http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/20 ... a.html#incart_2box_hudson

Perhaps the biggest eye-opener in the report is Downtown Jersey City, which appears to have taken a pause after briefly overtaking Hoboken as the market leader last year. The average sale price of 1-4 family homes was $1.35 million, up 3% in the quarter but off 11% since last year. Condo sale prices fared better and averaged $729,000, a 2% quarterly increase and 4% gain year-on-year.

Where the Downtown market is headed remains to be seen, and some have argued home values could decrease due to significant tax hikes that are coming to many properties. However, a similar revaluation in Hoboken a few years ago did not cause a massive downturn in price appreciation and demand in the townhome market as many predicted.

While 1-4 family homes in The Heights continued their hot streak, the average sale price for condominiums in the neighborhood actually fell 28% in the quarter to $297,000, which was off 11% year-on-year. Average rent in The Heights held at $1,700/month, down 8% in the quarter and unchanged compared to 2016?s 4th Quarter.

Elsewhere outside of Downtown, sales of 1-4 family homes in Greenville averaged $295,000, while sale prices for condos in the neighborhood jumped 8% in the quarter to $410,500. West Bergen?s condo prices held steady at $325,500, unchanged in the quarter but up 12% year-on-year. Bergen-Lafayette remains the hardest neighborhood to gauge due to low inventory of home sales, but average prices of 1-4 family homes weighed in at $435,000 and condos averaged $395,000, increases of 5% and 15% respectively year-to-year.

It was another big quarter for The Heights in the latest South Hudson County Market Report, and the numbers, for the first time in a while, demonstrate that some relief for renters has finally arrived. But while there?s mostly good news for property owners, the potential effects of Jersey City?s property revaluation loom large over Downtown?s neighborhoods.

Pure Properties? report for Q4 of 2017 reflects uncertainty over the looming reval, Jersey City?s first since 1988. The Mayor?s office released preliminary information suggesting that taxes on properties in Downtown Jersey City?s neighborhoods are expected to increase by an average of 60%, and residents in Paulus Hook and Van Vorst Park are faced with 75% and 67% respective increases. On the flipside, neighborhoods such as Greenville, West Bergen, and The Heights are anticipating tax reductions of 40%, 32%, and 18% respectively.

How much impact those potential numbers have on the market remains to be seen, but buyers and sellers seem to be preparing for the new tax realities already. For the second straight quarter, the strongest year-on-year appreciation in Jersey City was found in outer neighborhoods: median prices for 1-4 family homes increased in The Heights by 40%, jumped 22% in West Bergen, went up 20% in Greenville, and appreciated 18% in Journal Square
https://jerseydigs.com/latest-market-r ... -uncertainty-downtown-jc/

A building collapsed in Jersey City as a nor?easter battered the region.


A building collapsed in Jersey City during the fourth nor?easter in recent weeks. PIX11/Ken Evseroff)

No one was injured in the collapse.

The building collapsed in downtown Jersey City Wednesday afternoon, Jersey City Fire Chief of Department Steven McGill said. Its west wall collapsed onto an adjacent structure.

The building, which was residential, had been empty for six to eight months after engineers deemed it an ?imminent hazard,? McGill said. It was supposed to quickly be taken down, but for some reason it never happened.

A private company will demolish the building Wednesday because of the possibility of danger if it collapses further. The street has been closed off while the company handles the demolition.

The area was cordoned off after the collapse. The collapse caused a power outage at homes across the street.

About 4 inches of snow have accumulated in Jersey City.
http://pix11.com/2018/03/21/building-collapses-in-jersey-city/

Just received my letter, my taxes went from $6,100.00 to $4,500.00. We Greenvillians have been overpaying for too long.

Greenville is doing better than you think.. we are actually trying to slow down the gentrification. No one wants to live in swamp of peeps from the midwest. No Thanks!

I always found Greenville to be very gay friendly. We nicknamed it Gayville.

Quote:

Amen

The assessment company predicts that the biggest impacts will be felt downtown, while residents elsewhere in the city ? in particular the Greenville and the southernmost part of the city ? will actually see sharp declines.

Greenville, the West Side and The Heights, including areas such as County Village and Society Hill, may see decreases when the final numbers are released.

Community activists have long complained that residents in poorer neighborhoods have been paying too much in taxes, artificially subsidizing lower taxes for residences downtown.

Although the numbers throughout the city have yet to be fully released, Councilman Michael Yun predicts that Jersey City Heights ? which was hit hard in the last revaluation in 1988 ? will not be as negatively impacted as downtown was.

?The Heights are still an attractive place to move,? he said, suggesting that a trend that started well before the revaluation of residents moving from downtown to The Heights might increase as the results of the revaluation push people out downtown.

The problem is that downtown residents may not be able to sell their properties as easily as they might have before the revaluation.

In some cases, pending sales of properties were held up in order to see what the new taxes would be.

?This is bad news for everybody,? said one local real estate agent. ?People looking to buy here don?t look at neighborhood by neighborhood, they?re thinking Jersey City, and this revaluation is saying Jersey City is too expensive.?

Read more: Hudson Reporter - Bad news for downtown Residents stunned when reval results mean more taxes

Most seniors in general have more money than most of us especially those living multi million dollar homes. I am against tax freezes and all the other nonsense.

Greenville and Bergen-Lafayette, Fulop said last night, have been "subsidizing Downtown or another part of the city for 30 years."

Enough said, and enough is enough!!!!