Quote:

Unless we actually GET 2 players, we'll never know. I think the AVALANCHE of people in Downtown JC signing up with Verizon when and if they ever get through will prompt some juicy deals from Comcast...and then vice-versa.

Remember, with TWO players, one can always take the 1 year promo and then DITCH them for the OTHER'S one-year promo, ad-infinitum.


To the person who quoted a difference of $4 between basic digital and boxless BASIC basic, for me the difference is more than $20/month! Pushing these boxes up our asses for digital, high def or even WATCHABLE analog is what I MOST hate about Comcast...top of the list of a couple dozen complaints.

Verizon would really be hard pressed to provide a WORSE package...in fact, I think even Exxon Mobil or Blackwater might provide better service.

(I cheered when I read that a woman had taken a hammer to a Comcast office but that's because I misread it in haste...I first though she had taken the hammer to a Comcast officeR.)

And it hasn't been subject to a volcanic eruption in a LONG time.

Gotta love NJ:

Union officials receiving bribes by developers being arrested by cops on the take and prosecuted by crooked DA's when presenting cases to "bought" judges.

Paging Tony Soprano...or more likely, Sam the Plumber.

I think a basic cheapy stove/oven combo will pay dividends for the <$500 it costs. What you have is too reminischent of a "hot plate joint" which seems to scream out CHEAP!

So how did it work out?
What was the attendance?
How was the wine?

Alas, everyone is losing sight of a very important fact: the corner of Bayview and Martin Luther King Drive is a no-man's land. The church abandoned it probably because parishoners were likely petrified of going there.

Remember: "Location, Location, Location"

Just WAIT until they see the lovely condo in East Orange.

I am not fond of keeping these horrific looking old monstrosities because I have never felt that ANY warehouse ever built was built to any standards except maximum storage volume at minimum space. These brick boxes all qualify eminently as filthy, useless monstrosities.
I look forward to a conversion of this delapidated area to one with actual SIDEWALKS where one can walk without danger of breaking an ankle or being sideswiped becasue you have to walk in the street.

But my history of Jersey City's relationships with developers goes back a fairly long time and I can state with assurance that the chances of getting a 500 seat theater out of Toll Brothers makes NIL look like a sure thing. The only thing amusing will be the machinations they use to get out of the theater deal. It will make for high comedy.

Jersey City is a crooked machine run town that rolls over and plays dead for any developer while the pols walk away with bags of money. It has been that way for 100 years, That's why you have Jersey City Heights looking like a ramshackle of rag tag tar paper shacks that were put up with each cycle of relative prosperity in New York.

When a developer wants something pulled down and replaced, something IS pulled down and replaced. Accordingly, the Downtown warehouses, cigarette factories and breweries are all being PULLED DOWN AND REPLACED, one by one...the last to go will be the Powerhouse, but pulled down it will most assuredly BE!

The Manichevitz-Toll House brouhaha should convince anyone wanting to "save" the next old wreck that the outcome will be inevitable and all the meetings, petitions, begging, etc. will be a waste of your time.
Perhaps what MIGHT work is playing the game the way it is properly played: slipping each City Council member $10 G's and the mayor DOUBLE that amount...that's the way the developers have always done it.

(Hey, anyone seen Janiszewski lately?)

I guess the only thing that a rogue cop can be convicted on in NYC is the machine-gunning of an infant in a baby carriage in front of 5 videocameras.

Wasn't it convenient that the prosecution waived a jury trial and let a single judge decide this. Can we all spell COLLUSION!

The judge should be pulled out of his regal robes and tarred and feathered.

Quote:

missa,

Tell me what you know about Co-op City pros and cons.

Quote:]

If what you say is true, then why haven't developers chosen the shortest possible abatement...NO ABATEMENT at all?

I'm sure it's still legal to legal a residential tower without an abatement.

The building is a WRECK!

Quote:

ianmac,

Try 21 years old...first move-ins in Newport's Presidential Plaza (first 4 towers) were 1987.

Quote:

It certainly can if you are talking about Hudson County.

My last lease renewal states clearly:
"You have a period of 30 days from receipt of this offer in which to accept. If this agreement is not returned within 30 days, we will asssume that you are vacating your apartment at the expiration of your Lease and your apartment will be up for rent."
I think this is common language.

This clearly states that my lease termination is AUTOMATIC at the end of the lease period if I take no action. Any assumption of continuation of the lease with no action by the tenant is preposterous...there is no such thing as a lease by default.
If indeed no action is required to re-let for another term then a lease would continue INDEFINITELY even though it is never signed again.

There was a huge damaging recession in 1973 and another in 1975. They kept exending unempployment benefits over and over.

The only neighborhoods in Jersey City that were booming were the Unemployment office on Summit Avenue and the Check Cashing shops near Journal Square and the heroin trade on Ocean Avenue (now Martin Luther King Blvd!)

It was a NIGHTMARE.


The only neighborhood that was slightly safe was the the HEIGHTS.

No, the 70's was plug ugly in Jersey City...Manhattan not so bad, FUN even!
How bad WAS it...Jersey City adopted RENT CONTROL.

I read the same article and it gave me a headache...filled with lies and half truth, my guess it is ALL made up.

Imaginge getting a "SLIGHTLY larger apartment in Connecticut" and enjoyiong the thrill of a donut while waiting for a BUS to the TRAIN in Stamford. What's that about an HOUR longer commute each way and $300 a month more...stuff the donut where the sun don't shine!

And that couple that "saves $1000 a month" to commute from NORWALK...HOW.
The co-op they left probably has a FAR smaller RE tax than the house in Norwalk.
How can they save $1,000 per month over the cost of a subway card.
What is the RE tax of a 3 bedroom ranch in Norwalk; what is the cost of taxes...shall we talk abouit the price of a car they must own now to get to buy groceries and get to the station?...and THEN pay to get from Stamford to Grand Central...and THEN buy the subway card when they lived on the Upper East Side!

How in blue blazes can they save $1000 a month

The article is pure bullshit..."realestate speak!"

Yes you can make a good trade now to move to the suburbs...but NO you cannot save money monthly if you must commute into Manhattan to a job. It works for retirees who never want theater or city life again...except as tourists ina $300 a night hotel room.

Barak Obama is black and as such he will LOSE to any Republican candidate because when the drapes are closed around the electorate, it will be revealed that the United States is STILL a very racist nation. That is just the way it IS and anyone who neglects the fact does so at his own peril.

Notice the Republicans aren't stupid enought to run Condoleeza, or Powell, but right wing pundits are VERY happy to promote Obama over all the other democrats. The GOP is PRAYING for an Obama nomination...and the resulting Guiliani presidency.
There is no other path to a Republican presidency after the disaster of the last 7 years.

Democrats should oppose an Obama candidacy with all their might.

Yep, thanks for the heads up.
For me it will be the Light Rail to Liberty Park at 7 PM.

I've re-read brian's posts 3 times and nowhere do I see mention of the building's having only 4 apartments. What have I missed?

With no rent control protection I doubt that even the 10% increase limit has any real meaning . After all, absent rent control, or condo conversion protection the landlord has no obligation even to OFFER another lease. He could just vacate the tenancy with a short notice before lease expiration.

Battling a landlord in court to preserve rent control protection makes sense. Batttling one over a free market increase seems far more costly than any possible future benefit. After all, even if the 10% held, he could 10% you to death year after year...PLUS LEGAL FEES and aggravation.

If you have rent control protection, fight...if not, find a better place and a more reasonable landlord.

brian,

The large exception to the rent control law is what is called a "hardship increase" or a "capital increase." These must be documented in a hearing and proven. That is the time for you tenants to gather together all the evidence you can.

From your first post it sounds like he may be trying to reclaim the cost of the new boiler via capital improvemnt charge...make sure his paperwork is in order and his costs not overblown as they most usually are.
I think he is able to bill the tenants for 1/20 of the pro rated cost of such an improvement. A good argument is that replacing a blown boiler is NOT a capital improvement but rather merely maintenance that has been delayed too long.

Anyway, a $40,000 boiler over 20 years and 10 tenants is $200 per tenant per year...or $16 per month.

If he goes for "hardship" he must show he isn;t making something like 7% (not sure of exact figure) on his equity...yeah right!

Everything hinges on whether your building is rent controlled.

My goodness, not unlike MAN BITES DOG a new kind of headline reads:
CAR HITS TRAIN.


What's next CITY DESTROYS HURRICANE or even INTELLIGENCE ELECTS PRESIDENT....

No, not likely.

I especially got a kick out of the rating for the Pocono are (that's Pennsylvania for newcomers)...an F-minus.
As if an F isn't bad enough.

I would think that something like Hiroshima 1946 would rate the minus sign.

Gonna look for some bargains on Lake Wallenpaupek.

Thanks for checking out the pec dec situation guys...seems no reason for me to go from Newport to Brick Haus then.

Prices seem about the same as well.

Quote:

I think at some time in his career, every politician on Earth has made this claim. Perhaps 2% of them might be believed?

Quote:
What do you consider a "proper pec deck"

I'm pretty sure they have the one where you keep your arms sraight out and grasp the handels, can be reversed to do read delt.
I'm lifitng chest tonight so I'll double check and report back.


A proper pec deck is one where the push is made with the insides of the elbows and forearms. This gives a very short lever arm that allows tremendous stress to be put on the pectorals without putting comparable stress on the wrists, elbows and shoulders. If the wrists elbows and shoulders are your weakest link, as they are for most people, there's no way to get your pecs worked with your arms held wide apart before you destroy your rotator cuffs. That silly wide armed nonsense is the only crappy piece they have at Newport also.

It's comparable to trying to do an overhead press by holding the weight with your fingertips..or doing curls by starting out with the weight held at arms length in front of you.

Do they have a proper pec deck? I have been trying to get Newport to buy one for 3 years (and 3 managers) now...all I get are excuses and it is becoming a deal breaker for me and I get re-pissed off with every monthly payment.
They've got a DOZEN ways to do bench presses but not one way to properly do pecs.

I know, I know...
But different things are important to different people.

Quote:

And one home on Palisades Avenue was in during the Revolution.

But one house, or one block "does not a Heights make."

I take issue only with the statement:
"MOST homes in the Heights were built between 1860 and 1920."

Asbestos in siding is a danger indeed. But the totally INappropriate way to deal with such a danger is to keep it standing in perpetuity until it has all turrned to dust and blown away...often into someone's lungs.

If a home that is made of dangerous materials that should be a reason to evacuate those living there and REMOVE the home, not PRESERVE it.

Yes, terrible, horrible, rotten developers do terrible horrible rotten things...that's life, but it's never been a valid reason to stop development of a shantytown.

Quote:
That is simply untrue...most were built MUCH later although many LOOK like they've been standing since the Revolution.

Quote:

That is ABSOLUTELY the best kind of eveidence you can present in battling an unfair tax. YEs, it is definitely worth doing.
Don't go in with generalities though; make sure you have as much data on the assessments and taxes of your neighbors that you can amass.

Jersey City needs a new REVAL since valuations have become quite skewed in the 2 decades since the last reval.

Taxes are hard enough to live with without their being unfairly distributed...and a corollary to fairness is the need to STOP ABATEMENTS for areas that are already the wealthiest. But as long as developers hand out bribes, abatements will continue and the single family homeowner will continue being screwed.