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I don't have a new screename.

... I see people around Journal Square who are running there pitbulls off the leash, and training the dogs to be extra-agressive. That bothers me because one day someone is gonna get mauled. Especially since many owners of pitbulls refuse to get their dog neutred, because of their own machismo, and the belief that neutering a dog makes it less agressive.
... If there was a law mandating that all pitbulls in JC had be neutered and on a leash, then the dogs would be less dangerous....
....If you ban pitbulls outright, then people are just going to get rottweiler dogs or some other breed of fighting dog.

...Watch what you say, 'cause you can be sued for libel and defamation, if you don't have evidence and/or witnesses.

....As for pitbulls....I saw once a pitbull trying to eat a cat...the poor cat was trapped under a car, and the owner was goading along the pitbull.....and shouting "get him!"

Regardless of what people say about "garden variety" financial analysts the only ones being outsourced, that is how it started in 1970's in Jersey.... with the most basic manufacturing being outsourced overseas followed by the skilled manufacturing. I see the financial industry in the US heading the way of Detroit over the next 10-20 years , If I was mayor, I would do more to get biotechnology and nanotechnology firms to get space downtown. They will be the future of jobs in this city, plus it is never good to be a one-industry town.
Honestly, Americans can graduate from a top-tier university with an MBA and not have basic skills, compared to everywhere else in the world.
The H1-B Visa rules after 9-11 have made it very hard to find experienced, specialized talent ( who can speak coherent english ) within the US.
Alot of the important operations work is being done by consultants who, for example, spent 3 months at one bank and then go work at the competition. It is very hard for the banks right now to find people to take on a full time role. For example many of the trading algorithms that the companies believe to be proprietary knowledge are not. If someone wanted to they could monitor all the communications going into and out of the goldman sachs building and figure out their trade secrets. I would not be surprised if the russian banks were using old KGB connections, blackmail and dirty tricks to figure out what goldman and lehman are up too.
Also, I would trust clean living indians to handle my money over some gambling addicted coke snorting wall streeter.
( You won't believe how many banks are invested in online sports betting nowadays)
...anyways, I digress, the point is that there is a glut of office space on the market in Jersey City that could be better used by converting to condominiums. People would pay alot of money to live in the Goldman Sachs building....

The Goldman Sachs building made more sense back in the late '90's, before the banks re-located many operations to midtown. However the investment banking industry for NJ/NY hit peak employment in 1961 and has been declining in numbers of employees for the past 40 years. With increased outsourcing and more effcient technology, there is no need to have 100K analysts in Jersey City when they could be doing the same job india for 10K with better results.

I think Jersey City should do more to invite more diverse and socially conscious banks and businesses to downtown. Goldman Sachs doesn't have the best record in human rights. For example:

"On March 23, in Boston, the new abolitionists targeted Goldman Sachs. That powerful investment firm was hosting a luncheon for potential investors in an IPO (initial public offering) for PetroChina. This is a newly formed domestic subsidiary of the China National Petroleum Company, Communist China's largest oil operation.

China National Petroleum Company (CNPC) has a 40 percent stake in the $40 billion Greater Nile Project in Sudan, which involves the drilling of 4 billion barrels of oil at $10 a barrel. This enterprise, in partnership with the government of Sudan, is connected to the ethnic cleansing of black Christians and animists in the south of Sudan, who occupy lands where the oil is. The oil also provides fuel, as noted here last week, for the government's bombing of black schools and hospitals in the south."

http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0023,hentoff,14335,6.html

(please cut and paste to get link for orginal story, voice format makes direct links impossible)

The Journal Square Asian Merchant's Association hires private security to deal with issues on India row. Why can't you have the city council pass an ordinance forcing the landlords to be pro-active, by giving tax hike freezes to landlords who hire private security? That way the cops can deal with all the people shooting each other instead of moon lighting as social workers

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I agree with you on some points, and disagree with you others.
Dude, you are asking the police to harass and arrest the high school kids. That is the facist B.S. my family came to this country to get away from.... The worst "crime" you have described is jay walking, which everyone in New Jersey does. If you want to stop jaywalking then put the high metal fences along the median in the road.
I will tell you that alot police officers work undercover to protect there families and get a more honest scoop of what is really happening on the streets, so there are alot more police on the streets than you think.

What I do agree with you is that it would be re-assuring to people to have police walk a beat in uniform.

Oy Vey!
...I think there is an inherant double standard...when poor kids drink and do drugs it's considered a crime...but when middle class kids do it's called nightlife?
... I do see the police walking around from time to time, but doing "a sweep" of a block is going to just cause resentment and retalition in the short term, and is going to make it impossible in the long term to get people to talk to the police.
I see people with stop snitching t-shirts all the time...The real horror of the ghetto is someone who will shoot you and then tell on you, forget that, that is why my family left russia to get away from police state bullsh---t like that.
.... there is a nationwide shortage of police officers, so it would be much better to start a "police explorer" program so that the gangsta kids willl have something better to do with there time. Who knows, they might actucually like become police officers themselves, after interning with the police. I think it is much better in the long term to have police officers who come from the community, versuses some recruit from morris county who is going to stay on the force only 1 - 3 years until he is recruited back again in some 100K per year police officer job in morris county somwhere.
...Honestly there is very little to do in Jersey City if you are under 21. ...Why should the police be told to go harass and arrest kids drinking beer on the front steps of there building, when those kids are over 18, and everywhere else in the world they can go out down to the pub and hang out with there friends?
While it is perfectly acceptable for some trader from goldman sachs who has just spent the day trading stocks based upon the raping of the resources of the third world to go and get blind drunk? Why is a drunk suit winked at, while a black 20 year old drinking a beer considered a menace? Especially for these muslim kids in the neighborhood are caught between fundamentalist Islamic parents, racist society, lack of decent jobs (I.E. Factory UNION jobs, not fast food).
...Also, it is not fair for people under 21 to have no safe venue to play music indoors and dance...and the only place to go is outside, which has banned boomboxes.
... If anything the police should be focusing on anti-social behavior rather than breaking silly rules, like no boomboxes or drinking public. I mean where are alot of these kids going to go? They are stuck between overcrowded apartments, and the streets.
If anything the police need to focus on Drunk and reckless Driving.... I think this is the biggest problem in New Jersey right now. Drunk Driving is still winked at all levels of society, and there definatly needs to be a year round crackdown on reckless and drunk drivers, not just on the holidays.

I think the JCPD are doing a great job in the neighborhood, but it would better if they expanded community policing.

...But there is only so much you can do if any joe-shmoe can drive down to a southern state like north carolina and buy a trunkload of automatic weapons with no ID or permit and drive it up here.

I would not compare Jersey City to NYC in terms of crime and saftey because the numbers are being fudged by the NYPD in the compstat computer system so that Bloomberg can call NYC the "safest city" in north america. Check out this village voice article http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0552,moses,71322,5.html It shows how in New York, the police make it very hard to file a criminal complaint, and how violent felonies are routinaly under- reported as misdemenors by police officers when filling out the compstat forms.
Maybe Jersey City could make the position of police chief an electable office. We could do it in a very simular way to how county sheriffs and magistrates are elected in other parts of the country?
OR, how about having an intern program where you place criminal justice majors from Jersey City university at a police station to handle the paperwork and free up police officers from desk duty?

... Looks like the low-carb craze is over....

....What were we talking about...o yes, Mr. Fulop wants the mayor to fire the police chief.

....Hmmm..... if I was Mr. Fulop, I would suggest a replacement police chief, hold up a resume of some succesful cop and say to the assembled press corps "this is your new police chief".

Otherwise if Steve doesn't offer something more concrete it makes Mr. Fullop the "loyal opposition".

They have the "loyal opposition" in Russia.
Sort of like how the mayor of Moscow occasionally "critisizes" President Vladimir Putin, but everyone knows that the Mayor of Moscow is really subserviant to Putin, and merely "Critisizes" the President at certain times to legitimatize Putin's rule.

If you want to be the Mayor, then you gotta start acting like you have already been elected.

... the dealers shoot each other in the neighborhoods they live in, not the neighborhoods they work in. They are businessmen, and know that it's not a good idea to disrupt business operations.....
A bloody gangland drive by shooting in say, newport is gonna attract attention, while the dealers know the cops and business establishment only pretend to care what happens in "bad" neighborhoods. ...
Of course, the whole "war on drugs" is really a delibrate strategy orginally concieved during the cold war to distract the youth from questioning the present economic system, and to justify more facist police state measures, and economic inequality. They know that drug dealers make less than minimum wage, but with drug dealing there is always the possibility, no matter how distant, of becoming a millionaire, there is no chance of that working at mcdonald's.
... The whole strategy is to encourage gun violence and encourage the criminalization of an entire genration from trying to excercise the right to bear arms. Once "gun control" is in place, they can start chipping away at the first amendment...

"If they do not give you work, demand bread. If they deny you both, take bread. It is your sacred right!"
- Emma Goldman

Numbers do lie. Statistics can be manipulated.
For example:
In NYC the police chiefs "cook the books" on compstat to keep the crime rate low. Also, the NYPD makes it harder to report crimes, and mis-reports felonies as minor crimes.
I am sure every police department does this.

Also, I believe the yuppies are indirectly responsible for the increase in crime. The wealthy manhattan people have a taste for coke, and now the dealers over here don't have to go to manhattan for their customers because their customers now live in downtown and newport.

I would bulldoze that sucker and put in a 20 story condo and make some real money!

Yeah, it's true that the VIP is notorious for it's high turnover of foul mouthed waitresses, but some of the customers can be no better.
Once I was there and there was a nice lithianian immigrant girl serving us, and the couple in the next booth were being very rude and mean to her for no good reason.

Does anyone else hang out at the VIP Diner? What do you think? I like the stir fry steak dinner specials and strawberry milkshakes even though service is "leisurely" at times. I also like the 50's style mini jukeboxes at each booth, and how when you go there there is always some interesting conversation to evesdrop on.
I would like to hear your reviews.

VIP Diner
175 Sip Ave Jersey City, NJ (Corner of SIP Avenue and JFK BLVD)
(201) 792-1400

One reason the city is going broke is that health care insurance and benifit costs for City Workers and retired city workers are spiralling out of control. Jersey City Public employees tend to be older (and more overweight). So the city pays alot of money in healthcare premiums for complications like diabetes or expensive heart medication. Check out the article on NJ state workers below.... I am sure there are simular problems with City Workers.
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http://www.nj.com/statehouse/ledger/i ... 13514663366110.xml&coll=1

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State retirees facing big hike in drug fees
Shift expected to save program $16 million
Wednesday, December 21, 2005
BY DUNSTAN McNICHOL
Star-Ledger Staff
State officials yesterday adopted a change to New Jersey's retirement package for teachers and public employees that nearly doubles the maximum amount retirees must pay toward prescription drugs each year.

The decision to raise the maximum annual copayment for prescriptions from $552 to $1,000 is designed to save about $16 million a year from a health insurance program that is on track to cost $430 million next year. It was approved 3-2 by the State Health Benefits Commission, with little discussion.

Of the savings, about $9.5 million is expected to be realized by the state, which bankrolls retirement benefits for teachers and state workers. Local governments and workers will realize the balance of the savings.
The higher copayments will affect about 51,000 of the 208,000 retirees covered by the state Health Benefits Plan, state records show.

Union officials decried the change as an unfair and unauthorized erosion of negotiated benefits which, they said, targets the most vulnerable public employees for additional expenses.

"It's an 80 percent increase for retirees on fixed incomes -- totally unnecessary economically," said Alan Kaufman, a representative of the state's largest public employees union, the Communication Workers of America. "You can save a lot more money than by shifting $9.5 million onto retirees who can't handle it."

Tom Vincz, a spokesman for the Treasury Department, called the change reasonable and fair.

"This change will help mitigate the upward spiral of health care costs while protecting the most vulnerable," he said.

The change is part of a growing campaign to rein in public employees' pension and benefit costs, which are expected to rise from $2.3 billion this year to $6.7 billion within four years.