MWA is right and I was wrong, they moved them above the fruit in prodcue, but they have only the large jars left.

Thanks for posting the official rules bodhipooh. My comments are directly at the rules not you personally...

The Path is unfortunately not very bike friendly.

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If the PATH had built elevators at all stations I wouldn't use the escalator. But try lugging a heavy bicycle up the Pavonia stairs or the Grove Street stairs. Then you'll see why some people like myself use the escalator.

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Good luck on that on 5-borough bike tour day; it is impossible not to have more than 2 bicycles per car.

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Also an impossible rule... Wherever you a move a bicycle to you will be blocking either a door or aisle, think about it for a minute.

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Wow! excellent analysis!

I beleive gentrification is a myth because there is a larger economic issue at hand here that is much bigger than all of this. Real estate price inflation is eroding each next generations standard of living and we are living in era of high inflation. It doesn't matter if you live in an urban or suburban area. I grew in CT in an area that in the 70's and 80's was middle class but now had changed so much that only the rich can now afford to buy homes there. I moved to Jersey City many years ago becasue this is what I could afford at that time. If I were moving here today I would not be able to afford to live where I do. Yes renters will be pushed out of so called gentrifying areas but people who buy property are pretty much anchored.

Honestly I think it's become more difficult to find banks willing to let you opt out because of the risk. In a foreclosure the city is first in line for back taxes. More and more banks are forcing escrow accounts on consumers to make sure the taxes are paid. I asked my bank about it a couple of times and they wouldn't allow an escrow waiver and I didn't really push the issue after that. Yes I trust myself to pay the taxes, but I can see their point of view. I don't really care that much about the miles and it's one less bill for me to worry about. So I think of it more of a service they provide for the consumer. The only cost is the lost interest I would have if the money were invested which would be minimal or nothing in my case since I'm terrible at picking stocks.

If you can refinance to a different bank I highly recommend GMAC mortgage. I've had them for over 10 years. Only once did they send me a notice about flood insurance and like the previous poster said were giving me 45 days to resolve the issue. All I had to do was fax them a letter stating I'm not a in flood zone and I never heard about it again. They do accrue an escrow but only reassess at the end of the year, if there is a shortfall they ask for a check or notify me that the want to accrue for more in the following year. One year they accrued too much and when they reassessed at the end of the year my escrow charge went down for the following year. My escrow is stictly for the local taxes so it is easy for me to match up the charges at the end of th year. I feel confident they?ve been honest with me. They also gave me a good interest rate on a refinance as well.

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Actually they did move them. Most of the time these days they have them in the baking isle all the way in the front near the flowers, bottom shelf. Cost is for $10 for a douzen.
You can also buy them and other canning/pickling supplies online at:
http://www.canningpantry.com/

It's from an interesting angle, implying that displacement of poorer under-educated locals is a myth. I kind of agree. Some of the original locals have moved away on my block However I know of at least a two instances where they moved to improved standards like a house in the suburbs or to the countryside. Other than those two families when I think of my block it hasn't changed that much in the last 10 years. It's all the same faces. Actually it's the yuppies/hipsters/whatever you want to call them who have moved more often on my block.

A new article came out today in NY Mag regarding this topic:

What?s Wrong With Gentrification?

I haven't read it yet, but I thought some of you might be interested.

What about Grace Van Vorst Church on Erie Street? They might be game since it's a food donation drive.
If you want to do it at a bar, try Bar Majestic, LITM or Zeppelin Hall. If it is an afternoon gathering the bars will be pretty empty anyway.

What a great idea! I'm cooking soups all the time, my freezer is full already. I'm def interested and no plans for January yet.

Here's a link to the article. OMG you have to read the comments, it's just bizarre.

I know you asked for downtown, but if you ever want to venture into the city Unique Threading has locations near both 23rd and 33rd Street stations. They have a buy 10 get 1 free plan for eyebrow threading which doesn't use any wax. And have good rates on body waxing services too. The ladies there are really professional, imho.

WTF?!! Why am I not surprised. Ok so I intend my residence to be in Brooklyn at my bf's apartment, that doesn't make it so. She should still be charged for tax evasion and voter fraud.

Not sure if it's true but Gothimist is reporting that deer usualy die after being tranquilized:
http://gothamist.com/2009/12/02/deer_ ... m_jersey_to_governors.php

mmm venison sausages! Seriously why are they releasing this guy back to the wild? Deer are totally overpopulated and a menace on the highway. Can't they humanely slaughter him to feed the homeless or something?

Though I do feel sorry for the obviously frightened thing.

Ok I have something I'm looking for the holidays...
Gl?hwein or Gl?gg. It is a type of mulled spiced wine served hot in the winter. You can find non-alcoholic versions at Ikea and German stores in and around the city. But the alcoholic version is really hard to find. I have a recipe to make it myself but I rather just buy bottles of the ready made stuff for the holidays. I found a Shoprite in south Jersey that has it, but the Shoprite in Jersey City claims their distributor can't get it. I tracked down an importer but they don't sell to consumers, have a two case minimum and wouldn't disclose who they sell the stuff to.
Some liquor store on the upper west side claims to have it, and as a last resort I'll go there, but I was hoping to find a local liquor store.

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Yes both Shoprites have them all the time, at the Marin location it is usually in the meat cases on the floor at the back of the store next to the liquor store.

I guess what I'm so surprised about is they would so willingly tell my mother everything so casually as if it's no big deal. If I was running an illegal operation I would be very careful about narcs. She didn't think to ask them where to get some drugs until she already left.

What's even more disturbing is I think she was pointing to a block of low income housing buildings. But like I said she doesn't know the streets well enough around here. I only know of three social clubs off Columbus: one near the intersection of Barrow and Wayne, and two on opposite sides of Columbus where Coles and Varick meet. However both of those clubs seem harmless to me and occasionally have little kids running around.

Ok I'm quite disturbed about something my 66 year old mother discovered on Wednesday...

My mom arrived from out of town a little earlier than I expected before I was able to get home from work on Wednesday, so she walked around the neighborhood exploring. She said she found a Hispanic social club down the street on or off Christopher Columbus with two ladies hanging out in front collecting money. My mom is really down to earth and friendly so she starts chatting the girls up and discovers they are collecting an entrance fee for gambling den and they also offer "services" So my Mom doesn't flinch but is all casual and says "oh do have any guys for me?" "how much?" "is it hard sleeping with strangers?" "how much money do you make?" The girls tell her Thanksgiving day is their biggest day and they expect to get about $700 for the night!

I find it so unbelievable I think they were probably pulling my moms leg.

Unfortunately my mom wasn't able to give me the exact location because she doesn't know the street names around here, but has anyone else heard of this?

This has to be a joke right?

I doubt it will happen but I hope the security cameras are posted on the web. And the footage should be made public.

If you want to play sports, Lincoln Park is actually pretty nice, you guys should check it out sometime, lot's of tennis courts, cricket, soccer, basketball.
As for Hamilton Park - A park that size is too small for sports activity. I'm looking forward to the new and improved park and I'm grateful that we have so many good parks in our city. And that's all I'm gonna say about it.

The Real Deal
Condo clearance in Jersey City
Auctions become more widespread, and now even kick off sales at new projects
November 02, 2009 07:00AM

By Barbara Thau
After the binge comes the purge. The condo auction market is heating up in Jersey City, as developers look to move the glut of apartment inventory amassed during the heady building boom in recent years.

Distressed sales of properties are also expected to accelerate in the area, with lenders increasingly looking to wipe their hands clean of troubled mortgage loans.

The urge to purge is the fallout from a frenzied period of condo construction in Jersey City -- a stone's throw from Wall Street -- where about 5,000 new units came on the market at premium prices, sources estimate.

Condo prices in Jersey City, which saw a steep run-up during the boom, have dropped between 15 and 25 percent since the height of the market in 2006, experts estimate. Meanwhile, the number of condos closing today in Jersey City is down about 45 percent compared to the peak of early 2007, according to the Marketing Directors, which sells new developments in markets across the country, including Jersey City.


Selling at auction

To nudge condo sales in a market saturated with inventory, marketers are increasingly turning to auctions.

The Saffron, a new 76-unit luxury condo in downtown Jersey City, is taking an unprecedented tack in the market with the one-day auction of nine units before its official grand opening next month.

Developers typically leverage auctions to close out sales at a building, not launch them. But current market conditions have changed the mindset, said Jeff Hubbard, senior marketing director of Sheldon Good & Company, which is conducting the auction.

"An accelerated marketing strategy is now being used to increase the velocity of sales," Hubbard said. Auctions create "some urgency that doesn't exist."

Opening bids at the auction, which will be held on Nov. 8, start at $175,000 for a one-bedroom, compared to standard opening prices, which range from $340,000 to $415,000. The developer is angling to sell between 15 and 20 percent of the inventory, Hubbard said. It's an absolute auction for nine units, so there is no reserve price, Hubbard said. "The rest [of the units] are subject to seller's acceptance."

In June, Sheldon Good & Company also conducted a condo auction at the Beacon in Jersey City to close out phase one of the project.

Meanwhile, Accelerated Marketing Partners is gearing up to conduct auctions at "iconic properties" in Jersey City, said Jon Gollinger, CEO and cofounder of the company, which specializes in auctions at luxury high-rise buildings.

Part of the reason why projects are not moving is because consumers don't know the fair value of a property these days, Gollinger said. "They don't want to catch a falling knife," he noted.


In distress

Some of Jersey City's new condo constructions and rental conversions that sprouted during the boom have now moved into the distressed column.

As The Real Deal has reported, 333 Fairmount Avenue, a 53-unit Art Deco condo conversion, is one of them.

The property went into foreclosure this summer, and the lender, Chinatrust Bank, enlisted Eastern Consolidated to sell the nonperforming commercial mortgage.

After about 90 days marketing the property, Eastern Consolidated now has a contract out with a buyer that has "substantial experience owning and managing similar projects and in purchasing imperiled projects," said David Schechtman, senior director of the firm's turnaround and distressed group. Eastern expects to negotiate more bank dispositions akin to the Fairmount, in both Jersey City and the surrounding areas.

But until recently, there's been resistance from lenders, who had been taking a wait-and-see approach.

"For the past two years, tons of brokers have been calling up banks and saying, 'You have a project in trouble; I have someone who wants to buy your problem at a discount,'" Schechtman said. "Banks were saying, 'We are comfortable with our position. We don't want your help.'"

Today, the banks are becoming more receptive to the idea of selling their interest in a failed condo property at a loss, he said.

One question is how much trouble nonforeclosed condos are in.

According to Gollinger, a property that is only 50 percent sold is likely to be under some kind of "duress."

At Trump Plaza Jersey City, a luxury condo development, iStar Financial took control when only about half the units were sold, Dean Geibel, chief executive of Metro Homes, the codeveloper of project, told The Real Deal in August.

Brokers said the condos were overpriced. "The developers just didn't lower their prices to where the market was," said Tom Pichi, a broker with Metropolitan and Waterfront Residential Brokerage.


Discounts and abatements

To steamroll sluggish condo sales in Jersey City, new developments are looking to leverage multiple tax abatements, and are signing on portfolio lenders to sweeten the deal for buyers.

Crystal Point, a 269-unit luxury condo on Jersey City's waterfront, raised some eyebrows this summer when it requested -- and was granted -- a second tax abatement from the city because sales were slow.

According to Adrienne Albert, the chief executive of the Marketing Directors, the exclusive sales agent for Crystal Point, the development opened with prices adjusted for the downturn. Prices for a one-bedroom currently start at $505,000.

Crystal Point is now about 40 percent sold, and should be fully completed in 2010.

Meanwhile, the 420-unit, 77 Hudson development finished construction this year, and dropped prices 15 to 20 percent over the summer, from $781,000 for a one-bedroom to $669,000, said Dawn Tsien, executive vice president with Prudential Douglas Elliman, which is helping to market the property.

"Obviously, the economy has affected everyone, [but] the building is holding its value" and sales picked up in August, she said.

Nonetheless, the development has a second tax abatement pending. The feeling was, if Crystal Point could get another abatement, why couldn't 77 Hudson?

"It's [about] a sense of fairness in the marketplace," said Tsien.

Beyond tax abatements and discounts, developments like Crystal Point and 77 Hudson are lining up portfolio lenders to secure end-loan financing for prospective buyers. That's because the market downturn has made it increasingly difficult for developers to meet the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac requirement that 70 percent of units in a new development be sold before they will back loans in the building.

Portfolio lending has become "an important element of a developer's marketing program in today's environment," Hubbard said.

The Jersey City condo market is expected to see further downward pressure due to the ongoing softening of the Manhattan market, sources said.

Many of the people buying luxury condos in Jersey City had been priced out of Manhattan.

"Now they don't have to go to Jersey City -- they can go to Manhattan," said Laura Skoler, owner and broker with Century 21 Plaza Realty.

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Hi Tommy, As the others have explained there is a major discount in purchasing the SmartLink card. If you're a daily commuter such as myself you can either pay $54 for unlimited 30 days or $52 for 40 trips. Since I get the monthly it averages the cost out for me to less than $1.20 per trip since I use it about 42-44 times in 30 days (and sometimes more depending on the month).
You can't buy a monthly Metrocard for the PATH. And even though you get a 15% discount for purchasing $54 on the Metrocard you still get charged $1.75 per trip when you use it on the PATH. So in Metrocard math:
$54 on the card would give you $62.10 on the card which you could only use 35 times on the PATH with $0.85 remaining.
Before I purchase a monthly I do the math and calculate how many times I expect to take the PATH for 30 days (including vacations, weekends and holidays) to see if it makes sense. I do the same for the Metrocard because in the winter months esp December I take the subway almost everyday too. In the summer I walk the 10 blocks to the PATH station to save myself a few bucks.

My issue is not with the SmartLink program itself it is with the $5 fee for replacement cards. I think it is a big rip off of the public. Everytime you want a new card you have to spend $5 regardless if it was lost or stolen. I doubt the cards cost more than a few cents to manufacture so this is big money maker for the Port Authority. I bet when the MTA switches over to it there will be a big public outcry about this bait and switch. $5 for card that you have to pay to replace for another $5 is outrageous imo. I think it should be replaced for free at least one time before you have to pay again or you should be able to turn in the old card for a replacement if you find it again.

They claimed on the phone that my previously lost card cannot be reprogrammed. So I wrote to SmartLink complaining about the situation:

"I?m disappointed with the SmartLink card program. I lost my $5 SmartLink card a couple of months ago and then found it again. I called customer service to have it reactivated and found out that once the card is reported lost or stolen it is permanently disabled. I find that extremely disappointing since I paid $5 for a card that is only replaceable for a fee. So I?ve paid $10 now for 1 SmartLink card.

You should really consider allowing people to reactivate cards if found, giving people a 1 time replacement or allowing people to return them for a free replacement. It?s a lot of money you are charging people for a plastic card that probably costs your company not more than $0.10.
Thanks for taking the time to read my concerns."

And this is the stupid answer I received from them:

"The card isn't killed when you report it lost it's hotlisted. We disable the card once you call and replace it with a new one because we transfer your trips from that card to the new card. If we don't disable the lost card then you will not be able to receive those trips from that lost card.

Thanks for your inquiry and feel free to contact us any time.

Sincerely,
SmartLinkService (AK)"

Typically, they didn't address my complaint and white washed it with some public relations bull crap.

Anyhow I just wanted to point this out to people in case they weren't aware of it. I don't know if SmartLink is a private company or what but somebody, either SmartLink or the Port Authority is making huge profits off these cards.

Nobody else seems to be as outraged or pissed off about it as me, so I'm letting it go now. Thanks for letting me vent.

Does anyone else think this SmarkLink card is a rip off?
So I lost my SmartLink card a couple of months ago. I thought it was stolen, so I reported it. Well it's $5 to replace the card (that I already paid $5 for). Silly me I assumed the replacement cost is free, at least I thought that's what they were saying when they were pushing the thing back in the begining. Well I paid the $5 fee because I get a monthly and I need to use SmartLink for that. Well it turns out the card fell out of my pocket at work and I found the card last week under one of my file cabinets. I thought "Yay I'll just have it reactivated and now my BF can have one too". I called customer service and guess what? Once you deactive the card it can never be reactivated again. So there's $5 down the toilet.
So I've spent $10 on plastic cards that probably cost 10 cents to produce. I wrote to the SmartLink people "voicing my concerns", but I doubt I'll get a reasonable response. So I just wanted to give all you SmartLink folks out there a heads up: hold on to your card for dear life.

"He who would trade liberty for some temporary security, deserves neither liberty nor security." Ben Franklin

I don't know if it's the same cop but I have also had a similar experience with overly agressive cops at LSP on the 4th of July last year. I had a very similar situation as yours having a 4th of July bbq with friends. We brown bagged all the beer. The cops were watching us all afternoon waiting for someone to forget to conceal thier beer. Sure enough they came over and asked us where the beer came from. I was very humble and appologetic to the cops. They agreed to let us remove the alchol from the park and my brother would have to leave and not come back. As we were removing alchol from the park one of my friends at the bbq made a joke to me about something that was unrelated. And the cop tore me new asshole saying how dare I disrespect him by laughing at him in front of the group and he gave us a break by not throwing us out of the park. I said I'm really sorry officer I wasn't laughing at you my friend made a joke about something else. He didn't believe me and continued to berate me saying stuff like you are very arrogant miss and if I see you drinking in this park again I will have you arrested. After he left I was sitting there thinking what did I say to make him so mad? I was sorry, didn't argue about fines or anything. We weren't out of control and everyone cooperated.

I also agree that the open container laws are arcane and pointless. We do live in a police state and it has been for a long time. I feel theose laws should only be used in extreme cases where people are getting rowdy. And for those of you that believe that "brown bagging" it gives you a pass on the law, that is not true. You can get a ticket for brown bagging alcohol, but the cop has to prove that it is alcohol for them to issue a ticket.

Quote: Me too. I laughed at one of the Delfornios many years ago when he said it was going to get like Brooklyn around here. I thought he was insane. I was too chicken to take on a lot of debt back then thinking if the RE market tanks I'm up sh**s creek. But no one has a crystal ball.

Maybe you should move to Newark. I hear there's a lot of positive things going on there.

Oh and I've been here since 96 so

Since the weather is getting colder and I predict it will be a very snowy winter, I've been checking out different options for skiing this winter. I know there is a ski club in Hoboken, but I was wondering if anyone knew of any ski clubs in Jersey City?