Another hit by 'salt-and-pepper'

Wednesday, May 24, 2006
By KEN THORBOURNE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

The "salt-and-pepper" bank robber has struck again.

The Bank of America branch at 186 Newark Ave. in Downtown Jersey City was robbed yesterday, two days after a man with the same description robbed the North Fork Bank across the street.

Investigators believe it was the same man because of the similar appearance - a middle-aged white man with a mustache, salt-and-pepper hair and eyeglasses - as well as the use of a similarly worded note: "This is a robbery. Please put $10,000 in a bag." In both robberies, the robber passed the teller the note along with the bag.

He pulled yesterday's robbery about 11 a.m., Police Sgt. Edgar Martinez said. The nervous teller filled the bag with cash but used small bills, so the total amount was less than $2,000, Martinez said.

In Saturday's robbery, the thief escaped a pursuing bank guard by throwing bills over his shoulder as he ran. The guard stopped to pick up the money, about $1,425, but the robber got away with $4,217.

The man didn't use a weapon or claim to have one in either robbery, police said.

A man fitting a similar description robbed a Weehawken bank on May 12, also without showing a weapon, but investigators have not made any connection between the two crimes.

Because of a rash of bank heists over the past few months, the Jersey City Police Department and the FBI are planning a workshop for June 15 at St. Peter's College in Jersey City to teach bank employees how to react during a robbery and in the critical minutes after one, Martinez said.

The bank robber is believed to have been caught on tape, but investigators were still reviewing the security camera video, Martinez said. He said the FBI would take the lead on the investigation.

Six customers and seven employees - but no guards - were in the bank during yesterday's robbery, Martinez added.

One of those customers was Carlos Nolasco, who said he watched it unfold in front of him - because Nolasco wanted to wait for a bilingual teller, he allowed the robber to go ahead of him in line.



"I see this man had a paper, but I didn't think about it because a lot of people bring documents to a bank," Nolasco said. "Now I'm a little nervous."



A senior citizen who was doing her banking yesterday at the time of the robbery complimented the thief on his technique.



"I was in there and didn't see anything," said the senior citizen, who didn't want to be identified. "If he was a robber he was well trained."

Jersey City 'mobster' convicted

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

By JOHN P. MARTIN

NEWHOUSE NEWS SERVICE

A former Jersey City deli owner whom prosecutors described as a made member or powerful associate of the Genovese crime family was convicted yesterday of racketeering and loansharking.

A federal jury in Newark deliberated for more than two days before finding Michael Crincoli guilty of racketeering and multiple counts of extortion. He was acquitted on a single extortion count and also of transporting in aid of extortion.

"It shows a thorough analysis of the evidence and is another blow by the government against organized crime," Assistant U.S. Attorney Leslie Faye Schwartz said of the verdict.

Crincoli, 46, was among 16 suspected mobsters charged after a roundup last summer, but the only one to decline a plea bargain.

Prosecutors said he handled at least tens of thousands of dollars in loans for the mob, charging weekly interest rates of 2 percent or 3 percent. Four borrowers, including three diner owners who had amassed gambling debts, testified for the government.

The indictments and subsequent trial also forced the courtroom debut of a longtime FBI informant, Peter "Petey Cap" Caporino.

Caporino, 69, who owned a social club in Hoboken, said he spent more than 40 years in the mob and more than 15 feeding information to the FBI.

His attorney, Michael Ferrante, was disappointed but not surprised.

"There was a mountain of evidence here," Ferrante said, pointing to Caporino's recordings of Crincoli. "Jurors have a tendency to make people responsible for their own words."

U.S. District Judge William Martini scheduled sentencing for Aug. 24 and ordered the defendant to remain under house arrest. Crincoli faces between six and seven years in prison, Schwartz said.

Healy: 3 ordinances would help the city curb gun violence

Wednesday, May 24, 2006
By EARL MORGAN
JERSEY JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Jersey City is taking aim at guns with a range of proposed ordinances announced Monday night by Mayor Jerramiah Healy.

The three ordinances would: restrict the sale or purchase or more than one handgun within a 180-day period; prohibit the sale of inexpensive short-barreled pistols known as "Saturday night specials" or "junk guns"; and require the owner of a gun that's stolen to report the theft within 48 hours.

Violations of the ordinances could result in fines of up to $500 or face a 90-day jail sentence, the maximum punishment the city can mete out under state law.

Healy unveiled his gun initiative during a press conference Monday night at City Hall attended by Bill Ryan, executive director of Ceasefire NJ, and Police Chief Robert Troy, Police Director Sam Jefferson, Hudson County Prosecutor Ed DeFazio and several City Council members.

The proposed ordinances are on the agenda for discussion at tonight's City Council meeting.

The mayor said the proposed anti-gun legislation is a component of his overall strategy of fighting crime in the city.

"We have added almost 200 cops to the Police Department, and we now have a business curfew. Our Police Department also has a gang task force to address the growing problem of street gangs," Healy said.

Healy cited a statistic that illegal handguns were involved in 987 crimes in Jersey City last year, and noted that many of the weapons were either stolen or purchased in other states.

"While we have strict gun laws in New Jersey, a person can go to Virginia or Georgia or Pennsylvania, buy enough handguns to load up the trunk of his car, then come back here and sell the guns on the streets of Paterson, Newark, Jersey City or New York," he said.

The mayor said he realizes that the measures he's proposing would have a limited effect on the city's gun problem.

"We know what is needed here is a federal solution," the mayor said, "but we know we have to do our part."

I don't know the outcome of the school budget but this article speaks to the idea of being a State Assemblyman while also being the Superintendent of Schools.

I know you get to make more money by moonlighting but this is clearly a conflict of interest -- even if he works 20 hours a day.

---------------

Parents blast Epps for not joining suit

Wednesday, May 03, 2006

By KEN THORBOURNE

JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

A group of Jersey City parents are accusing freshman state Assemblyman and Superintendent of Schools Charles T. Epps Jr. of playing politics with next year's school budget.

he parents - allied with the nonprofit Statewide Education Organizing Committee - believe Epps isn't doing his job as superintendent by not joining in a lawsuit to challenge Gov. Jon Corzine's proposal not to increase state aid to its poorest districts. The parents claim he's trying to score political points with the governor.

"I think it should be more about the children than about politics," said Annie Hicklen, grandmother of two Snyder High School students. "We feel he should be able to fight for the schools."

To Keisha Harris, a School 17 parent, Epps is failing both as an assemblyman and a superintendent.

"He (Epps) said he wanted to go to be in Trenton and Jersey City to help us," Harris said. "Now is the time to use what you got."

The parents made their comments at an event in Newark, where they were supporting parents there fighting for a new school. Twenty-two of the state's 31 so-called Abbott school districts have joined with the Newark-based Education Law Center to sue the state over the lack of an aid increase.

Epps rejected the argument that not joining in the suit amounted to an abdication of his responsibilities as superintendent.

The state has called for a $7.5 million cut in aid to Jersey City, but Epps has submitted a budget calling for roughly $25 million more than the $430.4 million in state aid the district received last year.

"And I think it will be approved," Epps said. "I'm waiting for a response. I don't know why everyone has jumped so fast."

Assemblyman Craig Stanley, D-Irvington, chairman of the Assembly's education committee, was also on hand for the Newark event and called Epps's actions "curious."

"It's something I just don't understand," Stanley said, adding: "I think it's very important to keep one's elected position separate from the position to which you're entrusted."

Epps said he had no idea what Stanley meant and declined to respond to his comments.

I think it is great if you can get this done for free or on the cheap -- great stuff!

Epps should give at least some money back: Manzo
Monday, May 22, 2006

Charles T. Epps Jr. should return some or all of the money he received as reimbursement for his expenses during his 2004 trip to England, said fellow 31st District Assemblyman Louis Manzo of Jersey City.

Epps, an Assemblyman as well as the state-appointed superintendent for Jersey City Public Schools, violated the district's policies regarding travel expenses and overnight stays that were in effect when he went to London and Oxford, and therefore should return the money, Manzo said.

"In light of the fact that he broke his own policy, he should do the right thing and give the money back," Manzo said.

Travel expenses were capped at $1,200 and staff members were limited to two overnight stays per school year for events outside the New Jersey/New York region. Epps was in England from July 15-24 on a trip that cost $8,195 for the "all inclusive" tuition to the conference at Oxford University, plus he was reimbursed $5,179.47 for expenses.

Manzo was one of the few Hudson County politicians willing to discuss Epps' trip.

Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy, Union City Mayor and Assemblyman Brian Stack, West New York Mayor and Assemblyman Albio Sires, state Sen. and North Bergen Mayor Nick Sacco and state Sen. Bernard Kenny of Hoboken all did not return phone calls for comment.

However, state Republicans have been quick to pounce on the details of Epps' trip.

"I challenge Assemblyman-slash-school superintendent Charles Epps to find one student in Jersey City that his lavish trip to London benefited," New Jersey Republican Chairman Tom Wilson said.

"This is precisely the type of thing that undoes the credibility of the Abbott Districts and makes it hard for them to come to the state when they need money, because we can't trust that it's going into the classroom where it belongs," he said.

I thought it would only be a $10 reward!

Quote:

FLYING MONEY
Monday, May 22, 2006
By STEVEN LEMONGELLO
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Bank robber tosses $20's to escape

It was addition by subtraction for a man who robbed a Jersey City bank on Saturday and evaded capture by throwing some of the stolen cash over his shoulder as he fled from a security guard.

Faced with the prospect of watching his employers' $20 bills blow away in the wind, the guard stopped up to pick up the loot while the robber got away with the rest, reports said.

The robber walked into the North Fork Bank, 201 Newark Ave., shortly after 2:30 p.m., reports said. He handed a teller a note demanding $10,000 and a bag to put it in. He never showed a weapon nor claimed to have one, police said.

The teller filled the bag with $5,642, mostly in $20 bills. As he walked away, the teller pushed the hold-up alarm and shouted "We've been robbed!"

The security guard managed to grab the thief by the arm, but the robber wriggled free and then threw the cash behind him as he fled north on Coles Street.

The robber got away with $4,217 - not including the $1,425 he dropped to slow down the guard's pursuit, reports said.

The thief was described by witnesses as in his late 40s, about 5 feet 9 inches tall and weighing about 180 pounds. He was wearing a beige hat, a white hooded sweatshirt and silver eyeglasses, police said.

A man fitting a similar description robbed a Weehawken bank on May 12, also without showing a weapon, but investigators have not made any connection between the two crimes.

Anyone with information is asked to call the FBI at (973) 792-3000.

Muffintops

I'm not sure once you get out of the tourist area that Hong Kong is much cleaner than any other big city.

http://flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=5 ... ext=set-72057594048108990

http://flickr.com/photos/eddielaw/set ... 4048108990/with/43765904/

Quote:

And Brewster,
I almost bought a place on Morningside Park & 120th Street -- I am glad I bought here instead.

I think there are lots of parks here - Liberty State - Hamilton - Van V and the other parks that I don't know the names of on Brunswick near 10th street and the other one with Ball fields under the turnpike -- also if the embankment happens that will add even more (I would be happy if it does become a light rail & bike walkway It would be ashame if it is just a light rail track.) Anyway I think once the waterfront walkway-park is completed and we can walk and bike all up and down the Hudson River we will really have something.

I think Downtown is pretty lucky as far as parks go. I do like that people like yourself keep after the city and the developers, but I do think Healy is trying to get as much development in the tube for downtown (before the real estate market tanks) and I think this is good for Downtown's future -- it might be ten years or more till we see a boom like this -- if ever.

There won't be a sea of new kids from these luxury condos using JC's public schools and the city will be getting a lot more money from these new people than if it did nothing to bring them here. We are talking about 30,000 or more well off people coming to downtown.

I like the new faces and I feel safer already - this is great for downtown - we all need to lose our cars! We also should pick up trash ourselves and stop the whining. It's our town!

I like that Healy said "Residents are going to have to start living like they do in Manhattan. You have several PATH stops and light rail, so you don't need a car."

I think he is telling it as it is! Too many people downtown are only worried that they will have trouble parking in the future.

I also liked that when asked whether he believed the rush of new development was going too far, Healy said: "I'm not going to say there is too much success, too much prosperity. This city was hurting for a long time. I'm happy for whatever interest, investment and development done in Jersey City."

We are lucky that this is happening for Downtown Jersey City -- if you don't want to live in a much safer place, a place more like manhattan then move up to the heights, or out to the burbs -- I hope downtown ends up very much like Manhattan and Brooklyn. Give me the crowds -- you can always put up another baby swing"

Great four page article -- It was picked up in countless papers all over the country -- it's even in Newsday -- I am reprinting it here because sometimes old computers crash when going to news sites. Great time to be in Jersey City -- Lots of new faces of people from Manhattan and Brooklyn moving in!
______________________________
BUILDING BOOM

The wholesale revitalization of Jersey City is exciting, but not without growing pains

Sunday, May 21, 2006
BY STEVE CHAMBERS
Star-Ledger Staff

There's a gold rush happening on New Jersey's Gold Coast.

Within an eight-block radius of City Hall in Jersey City, a half- dozen heavy duty cranes stand like giraffes looking over an unprecedented wave of residential development.

Consider that 4,600 housing units are under construction in the city and another 4,400 are approved. Ten thousand more -- vir tually all in luxury skyscrapers -- are planned during the next decade, an infusion of wealth and highly educated professionals into a city many had given up for dead a generation ago.

And these are no fly-by-night developers. Donald Trump is building two towers, one 50 stories and the other 55. Big suburban players like Toll Bros. and K. Hovnanian Homes are building their own large-scale residential buildings.

"It's like Hong Kong," Mayor Jerramiah Healy said.

With growth like this, no other city in New Jersey is likely to change its character as much as Jersey City over the next 10 years. City fathers say it will become a sixth borough of New York, with all its fabulous wealth and exciting night life.

But it will come at a cost.

The city already has huge demographic divides. The downtown below the Palisades and along the Hudson River has been transformed from a Latino barrio to an increasingly wealthy, white and Asian enclave over the past two decades.

The money is creeping up the hill, but the downtown still has the feel of a separate city. Brownstones the city all but gave away during the early 1980s sell for nearly $1 million. Parks like Hamilton and Van Vorst are filled with young children, and residents are no longer moving away to the suburbs after their children reach school age.

These downtown newcomers have, in recent years, begun to mo bilize more against the rapid growth, packing Planning Board meetings to force concessions from developers and grumbling about the coming traffic and the shortage of open space.

"Honestly, it is exciting, but it's also a little frightening," said Vale rio Luccio, who chairs the Downtown Coalition of Neighborhood Associations. "It's also tiring. I feel like I am going from meeting to meeting to hold down the fort. I feel like the little boy with his finger in the dike."

REVERSING THE LONG DECLINE

Developers insist they are only scratching the surface of incredible demand. They point to Manhattan's high prices and commuter weariness in the suburbs.

"Jersey City is the best-kept se cret," said Peter Mocco, who plans 7,000 residential units at Liberty Harbor North. "The more people who find out about it, the better it is for everyone. It's so exciting. I don't believe with all the development under construction or planned that we will meet the need."

Carl Goldberg, whose Roseland Property three years ago finished a 40-story residential building close to the waterfront called Marbella, said it has one vacant apartment. This despite rental prices that start at $1,750 for studios and rise to $3,815 for three bedrooms.

"The urban lifestyle once predicted for the Gold Coast is finally coming into its own," he said. "It's a maturation of the lifestyle. All the quality-of-life elements are there: mass transportation, retail opportunities, a restaurant scene."

Like most cities in New Jersey, Jersey City had been on a long slow slide in population since the early 1900s, when Irish and Polish immi grants packed its crowded tenements.

With the rise of the suburbs after World War II, it accelerated, bleeding 80,000 residents until it reached a low of 220,000 in 1980. In 2000, it reached 240,000, nearly passing Newark to become the state's largest city.

ADDING A CITY

Given the flood of new construction -- it will add as many housing units as entire cities like Montclair by the next census -- the race for bragging rights may well be over.

Beginning in the 1980s, desperate city officials got things going by creating several downtown historic districts, selling units the city had seized for nonpayment of taxes for $8,000 and offering tax breaks that made them free. Then, a few deep- pocketed investors gambled on the waterfront, starting the Newport complex in 1986.

The key to the resurrection of the downtown was the PATH system -- with its direct rail links to Midtown Manhattan and Wall Street -- and some of the best views of the New York skyline anywhere. As New York City began its own climb, it dragged Jersey City with it.

PATH makes three stops downtown, which already boasts more office space than Denver or Cleveland, and has five historic districts filled with century-old brownstones and a growing number of luxury residential skyscrapers.

Daily ridership from those stops has steadily risen in recent years to surpass the previous highs realized before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11.

Development got another boost beginning in 2000 with the coming of the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail, which acts like a modern-day trolley and has virtually blanketed the downtown with rail lines.

Some of the most explosive growth in recent years has followed that rail line west. Paulus Hook, a historic district on the southeast side of the downtown is now virtu ally built out, and growth is pressing west to Mocco's site, where the first of 26 new city blocks are going up on what had been a vacant dumping ground for construction debris.

The project is beginning with 667 townhouses and apartments built in lower-rise brick structures meant to mimic the adjacent Van Vorst historic district. But as the development continues south, plans call for 30-story buildings along the Morris Canal facing Liberty State Park.

WHAT THE RESIDENTS SAY

Friday morning, a steady stream of commuters and residents pushing strollers or walking dogs passed through Van Vorst Park, an oasis of green and quiet near the construction sites.

Margaret Whalley, 43, a mas sage therapist, and her husband moved to the city three years ago from Manhattan, partly because they thought it was a great place to raise two children. They had lived in the same neighborhood eight years ago and noticed big changes in their absence.

"The new restaurants are nice, but I hope it doesn't lose its edge with all the growth," Whalley said. "The diversity is great, and it's not as crowded as Manhattan. But I guess change is coming. It's inevitable."

Leila Haddad, 39, agreed. The owner of a caf? called Sweet Pris cilla, Haddad said she wonders if the 100-year-old sewer system, narrow road grid and sparse park space can handle the flood of new development. Like many others, she is worried recent tax hikes might drive out old timers -- even herself.

Still, she marvels at the changes. Her brownstone has tripled in value since she bought it eight years ago for $325,000.

"Traffic is already becoming a nightmare," she said. "But mostly I see positive changes. There is broad revitalization. People are raising children here, and they seem to be hanging in there after they're old enough to go to school."

There has been a bit more squawking in nearby sections like Hamilton Park, where residents are lobbying City Hall to create a park on a former railroad embankment that runs down Sixth Street.

URBAN FEVER

Mayor Healy said he would prefer to see a new light-rail line linking the waterfront through an existing tunnel called the Bergen Arches to the underutilized New Jersey Turnpike Exit 15X in the Meadowlands. Commuter lots or garages there could ferry thou sands of people downtown without clogging roads, he said.

"Residents are going to have to start living like they do in Manhattan," he said. "You have several PATH stops and light rail, so you don't need a car."

Asked whether he believed the rush of new development was going too far, Healy said: "I'm not going to say there is too much suc cess, too much prosperity. This city was hurting for a long time. I'm happy for whatever interest, investment and development done in Jersey City."

Stephen Marks, director of planning for Hudson County, said intense development is beginning to tax roads, parks and schools. There is room to grow, he added, but only if proper investments are made by developers and the state.

"It's an exciting time, and we are looking to double the amount of park space," he said. "But we can't do it alone."

The urban development fever has infected some of the state's most entrenched suburban builders -- ones who helped make sprawl a dirty word by putting up countless subdivisions on farm fields.

Toll Bros. is building a 230-unit high-rise on the northern end of the downtown, and K. Hovnanian Homes has already built one project in Paulus Hook. Hovnanian, the state's largest developer, also is negotiating to purchase a downtown lot and convert two approved office towers into a residential project.

"It's a reflection of how effective the state's land-use policies have been," said Doug Fenichel, a Hovnanian spokesman. "We've become an urban builder."

Steve Chambers covers land-use issues. He may be reached at scham bers@starledger.com or (973) 392-1674.

Broadway comes to Jersey City
Jersey City can boast about being home to at least two of this year's nominees for the Tony Awards, which honors Broadway's best performances.

John Lloyd Young, who portrays singer Frankie Valli in "Jersey Boys" and Elisabeth Withers-Mendes, who belts out showstoppers as Shug Avery in "The Color Purple," were nominated today for the coveted prizes.

When reached at home, both performers were thrilled.

"When I learned about it, I just wanted to scream," said Withers-Mendes, who lives in the Journal Square area. "Then, I wanted a huge breakfast."

Young learned the news this morning, at the same moment millions of other people did -- watching TV this morning. He said he watched the announcement on CBS's "The Early Show" with his girlfriend at their Newport-area residence.

"We were very excited as we watched it together," Young said. "Now, she has to think about a Tony dress. And I?ll buy it for her."

Young, an odds-on Tony favorite since reviewers showered glowing reviews on his "Jersey Boys" performance, said he became surprisingly apprehensive about his chances as the big announcement came in.

"I've watched the Tony Awards nominations show for years and there were always four names in a category," Young said. "So, when they got to the fourth name in my category I was thinking 'that was it.' I forgot that they've changed it to five names per category. That's when they announced my name last."

The awards show will air June 11 on CBS.

Read all about Hudson's Tony nominees in tomorrow's Jersey Journal.

Dil lo,

Porn? Is there porn on the internet???

Fast_E

Great stuff -- here is something from today's JJ.
-------
Digging in Mich. for Hoffa

Friday, May 19, 2006

MILFORD TOWNSHIP, Mich. - In one of the most intensive searches for Jimmy Hoffa in decades, the FBI summoned archaeologists and anthropologists and brought in heavy equipment to scour a horse farm yesterday for the body of the former Teamsters boss who vanished in 1975.

They are apparently not looking in Kearny, where the notorious mob hitman known as the "Ice Man" claimed he disposed of him.

Daniel Roberts, agent in charge of the Detroit FBI field office, would not disclose what led agents to the farm, but said: "This is probably a fairly credible lead. You can gather that from the number of people out here."

No trace of Hoffa has ever been found, and no one has ever been charged in the case. But investigators have long suspected that he was killed by the mob to keep him from reclaiming the Teamsters presidency after he got out of prison for corruption.

The farm, just outside Detroit, used to be owned by a Teamsters official. And mob figures used to meet at a barn there before Hoffa's disappearance, authorities said.

Investigators began scouring the area Wednesday, and the search continued yesterday and included the use of heavy construction equipment. Roberts said it would probably involve the removal of a barn.

Hoffa was last seen on a night he was scheduled to have dinner at a restaurant about 20 miles from the farm. He was supposed to meet with a New Jersey Teamsters boss and a Detroit Mafia captain.

A law enforcement official in Washington said the latest search was based on information developed several years ago and verified more recently.

Richard "The Iceman" Kuklinski, a Hudson County native, provided details of that and other grisly murders for a book, "The Ice Man: Confessions of a Mafia Contract Killer," written by Philip Carlo and scheduled for release in July.

Kuklinski also recounted his early years in Jersey City, where he claims he killed stray dogs and cats and watched his father kill his younger brother.

Then again I guess there are even cheaper deals on laptops -- just saw this in the news...
-----------

Locks intact, but Newport tenant's computer is gone


Friday, May 19, 2006

A woman's computer was stolen from inside her Newport apartment Tuesday, said Jersey City Police Sgt. Edgar Martinez.

The 31-year-old victim told police she left her apartment on River Drive South at 7:30 a.m. and her laptop and other computer equipment were missing when she returned at 8:30 p.m., police said.

There was no sign of forced entry into the apartment and both double locks were still on her apartment door, said Martinez.

The laptop was valued at $1,500 and police are now working with building security, said Martinez.

This sounds very smart -- It is great for everyone -- but with computers so cheap and the $100 or $200 laptop right around the corner this will be a great thing for kids growing up here!

Hey I found this on the web -- what ever happened to the owner named Ducky?

Sounds like a mystery....

----
"Take the section called Downtown, once Italian- and Polish-American, now largely Hispanic and Asian. Like many longtime residents, Irene Stapinski, who grew up in Jersey City in the 1930's and 40's and still lives near Journal Square, remembers eating at Ducky's, an Italian restaurant whose most compelling feature was not the food but the mystery surrounding the proprietor. ''Ducky disappeared,'' she said. ''They never found him. It was all anyone talked about.''

His restaurant didn't disappear, though. It simply changed with the neighborhood. Its three cavernous rooms are now Nha Trang Place, a big, noisy, vibrant restaurant that seems to serve every one of the city's 1,600 Vietnamese residents. Nha Trang has had three different names in its five years of existence, and both the older ones can still be seen, confusingly, on the exterior: Pho Thanh Hoai and Miss Saigon. (Nha Trang is a seaside resort city northeast of Saigon; pho is the great Vietnamese beef soup, Thanh Hoai appears to be somebody's name; and Miss Saigon is -- well, the place sometimes doubles as a karaoke bar.) "

The news of digging in MI for Hoffa got me reading, it seems there is a Jersey City connection. I wonder if the new information is related to the high profile Jersey Mob trial.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Kuklinski

Mob witness describes triple life
Caporino was businessman, numbers runner and FBI informant
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
BY JOHN P. MARTIN
Star-Ledger Staff

Peter "Petey Cap" Caporino spent about 40 years in the mob and nearly half that time as an FBI informant, but looks neither part, which might explain why he was successful at both.

Now 69, Caporino has a slight frame, thick white hair and wire-rimmed glasses. At his courtroom debut yesterday as a mob turncoat, he could have passed for a school administrator or maybe even a museum curator, wearing a light gray double-breasted suit and delivering clipped phrases in a slightly nasal North Jersey accent.

What poured forth, however, was Caporino's criminal autobiography, one that began with him running numbers as a young man at a freight company and ended with him running a hidden recorder during hundreds of conversations with Genovese crime family associates.

Caporino's library of tapes led to charges last summer against 16 defendants, prompting prosecutors to proclaim they had delivered "a body blow" to the state's dominant crime family. Fifteen of them, including high-ranking captain Lawrence "Little Larry" Dentico, have pleaded guilty.

Michael Crincoli, accused of running loansharking operations from a Jersey City deli, was the lone holdout, the one who forced Caporino, the well-known and liked Hasbrouck Heights resident, from the shadows to the witness stand.

Crincoli's trial, now in its third week before U.S. District Judge William Martini in Newark, had so far been a parade of diner owners who testified they had borrowed tens of thousands of dollars from Crincoli at extortionate rates.

As the government's crowning witness, Caporino is expected to spend the next two days explaining to the jury his role as a prolific mob informant. Prosecutors hope he can persuade them Crincoli was not, as his attorney contends, a businessman lending friends money, but part of the organized crime family with Caporino.

"When you say 'our family,' what family were you with?" Assistant U.S. Attorney Leslie Schwartz asked.

"The Genovese," Caporino replied, matter of factly.

Caporino said he grew up in Hoboken, served three years in the Army and returned to work at a freight company in Fairfield. A co-worker asked if he wanted to help collect bets from workers.

"He said, 'I'll work the platform, you work the drivers,'" Caporino recalled. "I was a numbers runner."

Bettors won when their numbers matched the winning horses that day at Aqueduct or other racetracks. Caporino said he kept 25 percent of his gross collections, and passed the rest up the ladder.

After his father died, Caporino left the warehouse to take over the family business -- an amusement company that placed pinball machines and pool tables in taverns, he said.

But his numbers ring continued, growing got so big that he soon was introduced to James "Jimmy Nap" Napoli, a powerful Genovese captain. Caporino agreed to pay Napoli 25 percent of his proceeds. In return, he got protection; he was under the mob's wing.

"He said, 'If anyone ever approaches you, you just tell them you're with me, mention my name,'" Caporino recalled.

In 1969, the year of storybook seasons for the Jets and Mets, Caporino expanded into sports bookmaking. From then on, the names of his bosses changed but the operations remained largely the same.

After Napoli went to prison, Caporino said, he began paying $2,500 weekly tribute to Louis Anthony "Bobby" Manna, the New Jersey-based Genovese consigliere. He made his payments through intermediaries at reputed mob hangouts, like Casella's restaurant in Hoboken, and succeeded in getting Manna to ultimately lower his payoffs to $850 a week.

When Manna went to jail in 1988, Caporino said, he paid tributes to his wife, Ida Manna. And in 1998, he shifted his tribute to Joseph "Big Joe" Scarbrough, an associate in West Orange, who pleaded guilty in the case earlier this year.

Caporino had a club, the Character Club, along Monroe Street in Hoboken, where friends came to toss back drinks and "have a good time," he said. All the while Caporino had secretly been helping the FBI.

"I was an informant," he testified, his voice dropping a notch.

For how long? Schwartz, the prosecutor, asked.

"More than 15 years," Caporino replied.

Crincoli watched the witness intently at times, sometimes cracking a half-smile. Other times, he kicked his head back as if he was bored. Caporino rarely returned glances toward the defense table, instead focusing on the prosecutor.

In 2002, Caporino, his wife and about 30 others were arrested on state gambling charges. He decided to become a cooperating FBI witness.

"My wife had been to prison before, and I knew she couldn't do it again," Caporino testified. "I knew she wouldn't be able to do the time."

The couple also has a disabled adult daughter.

Caporino wore a pager for his numbers ring, so agents gave him one with a hidden recorder that they could activate remotely. Toward the end of the three-year probe, he said, they let him turn it on and off by himself.

He taped hundreds of conversations, although prosecutors are expected to play only about 30.

Caporino said he had been considering giving up the business, or relocating his operations. At one point, he said, he went to Philadelphia to meet with an associate who had relocated his betting rooms there.

"He told me how great it was down there, how you could operate much freer than you could up here," Caporino said. "So I went down for a look-see."

But he never made the move.

John P. Martin covers federal courts and law enforcement. He may be reached at (973) 622-3405

--------------------------------------------
Mob rat on stand at trial of Jersey City 'soldier'
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
By MICHAELANGELO CONTE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

NEWARK - Eighteen years as a Mafia turncoat came to a climax yesterday when Peter Caporino took the witness stand in U.S. District Court.

Jurors also heard the first of 300 conversations between reputed mobsters recorded over three years by Caporino, who wore a wire for the feds.

Caporino testified for the prosecution against reputed Genovese crime family soldier Michael Crincoli, 46, of Jersey City, who allegedly ran a loansharking and extortion business out of his deli at 944 West Side Ave. Caporino ran a bookmaking operation, also protected by the Genovese family, out of the Character Club in Hoboken.

Caporino said he'd already been working as an informant for the FBI for 15 years when he was busted by the Hudson County Prosecutor's Office on gambling charges in February 2003. At that point, he said, he decided he would go from confidential informant to cooperating witness.

"Cooperating witness meant I would wear a wire and testify," he said.

He said his FBI handlers gave him a recording device, disguised as a pager, that could tape up to 10 hours of conversations.

Caporino's recordings resulted in 16 arrests in 2005. All save one - Crincoli - has since taken a plea deal.

Among those arrested was Lawrence Dentico, 81, of Seaside Park, one of a handful of men thought to run the Genovese crime family since Vincent "the Chin" Gigante was convicted of extortion in 1997. Dentico has pleaded guilty.

Also snared was Joseph "Big Joe" Scarbrough, 66, of West Orange, an alleged Genovese family associate accused of loansharking, illegal gambling and extortion. Scarbrough has pleaded guilty.

Jersey City Incinerator Authority Inspector Russell Fallacara, 38, of Keansburg, was picked up in the sweep and he later admitted he demanded a $100,000 payment from Nacirema Carting and Demolition of Bayonne, which had a contract with Jersey City.

Caporino said he grew up in Hoboken and graduated from Demarest High School, now Hoboken High. He worked for a trucking company before joining the Army; after his discharge, he returned to the trucking company and discovered the man who'd run the local numbers game had died. He and another worker then took it over, he said.

He eventually expanded the business to the point where he had to make a weekly tribute payment to the mob in order to continue operating.

Caporino will likely be on the stand until tomorrow, when Crincoli's attorney will have a chance to cross examine him.

Superintendents take heat on 'obscene' compensation
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
BY DUNSTAN McNICHOL
Star-Ledger Staff

Lawmakers and the acting state education commissioner yesterday sharply criticized the perks and salaries given to superintendents in New Jersey's poorest school districts, saying they were sparking outrage among residents who help foot the $4.2 billion tab for aid to 31 needy districts.

"It's an obscene amount of money. No wonder people are in re volt," Assemblyman Gary Schaer (D-Passaic) said during a conten tious four-hour budget hearing yesterday. "Frankly, I don't understand why they haven't already burned down the Bastille."

"We're honestly reaching a breaking point," added Assemblyman John Burzichelli (D-Gloucester).

Assemblyman Lou Greenwald (D-Camden), the committee chairman, opened yesterday's hearing on the Department of Education's budget by reading through the provisions of contracts that state officials have negotiated with superintendents in three school districts operated by the state -- Newark, Paterson and Jersey City.

He cited a $10,000 deposit into one superintendent's post-retirement annuity account; pledges to pay up to $175 per day for 493.5 ac crued sick days; and a $1,000-per-month housing allowance on top of a salary scheduled to rise from $212,000 to $222,000 over two years.

Later, Republicans took aim at a trip to London taken in 2004 by Jersey City Superintendent Charles Epps, who last year was elected to the Assembly.

According to receipts from that trip, Epps stayed in a five-star hotel, rode a limousine from the airport and had an $80 steak at a restaurant called Rules that has its own estate, where it raises the game hens it serves.

"Our frustration level is at an all-time high," Greenwald told act ing state Education Commissioner Lucille Davy as the hearing wrapped up. "We need answers. We're seeking them. We're demanding them."

Epps, reached at his Jersey City office yesterday evening, said his pay and benefits are in line with what other superintendents make. He earns $225,038.

"In fact, it's probably less than superintendents make across the country," he said. "There are districts that are a lot smaller than mine that make a lot more than me."

Davy, however, told lawmakers she shared their concerns about the level of some school officials' compensation.

"I think some of these clauses go well beyond what is reasonable, particularly in light of our fiscal problems," she said.

Dunstan McNichol covers state government issues. He may be reached at (609) 989-0341 or dmcnichol@starledger.com.

2 calling for freeze on hiring by the city
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
By EARL MORGAN
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Jersey City Councilman Steve Fulop and Councilwoman Viola Richardson are proposing a freeze in hiring by the city, citing a recent increase in property taxes and the specter of higher county and school taxes.

"When you can't pay the mortgage, don't go out and hire a gardener," Fulop said at Monday night's council caucus.

Fulop and Richardson say they would exempt anyone on the state Civil Service list for Police and Fire department appointments and promotions, although Fulop said he would prohibit creating new police detectives since that is not an actual rank.

"Making guys detectives is more about patronage," Fulop said.

Fulop said he wants a resolution on tonight's council meeting agenda. But that idea immediately ran into opposition from his colleagues Monday night; there was no clear decision on whether the resolution will be included.

Corporation Counsel Bill Matsikoudis said a hiring freeze already is in effect.

"Show me the memo on that," Fulop retorted. Several council members, including Bill Gaughan and Michael Sottolano, voiced opposition to the idea.

"You have to remember there are departments that need to hire inspectors or other personnel," Gaughan said.

Fulop held up a list of names he said represents recent new hires on the city payroll.

I hope they don't cut the abbott programs, but it would be good if the state made sure people aren't getting rich off of stealiing funds. I wonder what they will find in auditing Jersey City's schools.


From the article:

The justices also ordered the Department of Education to go ahead with planned audits of four special needs districts -- Newark, Jersey City, Paterson and Camden -- and set a November deadline for their completion. Farber had argued the audits are needed to ensure the poor districts are properly spending billions of dollars in state aid while candidly conceding the state has "neglected its responsibility to provide sufficient fiscal oversight."

Mommy-to-be is drug-busted
Man, 23, held too
Tuesday, May 09, 2006
By CARLY BALDWIN
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Cops busted an expectant mom and her boyfriend on drug charges after finding thousands of bags of heroin in the refrigerator of their Pacific Avenue apartment, reports said.

Naomi Lecher, 21, who is six months pregnant, and Ruben S. Castro, 23, were charged with selling drugs after cops raided their two-story home at about 7 p.m. Saturday, said Sgt. Edgar Martinez of the Jersey City police.

Cops began monitoring the home about five hours earlier, after receiving anonymous tips that Castro was planning to make a drug delivery that day.

Shortly after 3 p.m., police saw him leave the house and walk south on Pacific, carrying under his arm a square white object wrapped in a Spanish-language newspaper.

Thinking Castro was holding drugs, police stopped him on the corner of Johnston Avenue and Halliday Street. He dropped the paper and ran into a corner deli, Martinez said. Inside the white packaging, police found 500 plastic bags stamped "LRG" in green letters, which they suspected to contain heroin, Martinez said.

Moments later, as Castro was being arrested inside the deli, Lecher left the home and walked toward the store, Martinez said. As soon as she noticed the police, she ran back toward the house, Martinez said.

After securing a search warrant, cops and agents from the federal Drug Enforcement Agency searched the home about 7 p.m., where they found five large bags holding 15,820 smaller plastic bags of heroin stored in the refrigerator, said Martinez. The larger bags were marked "Rolex," "LRG," "Happy People" and "No Way Out."

Police also found Castro's suspected drug sale money, $2,123, in a dresser in the front bedroom, said Martinez.

While police were searching the home, Lecher complained of stomach pains; she was taken by ambulance to the Jersey City Medical Center.

Upon her release later Saturday night, she joined Castro in the Hudson County jail. Both are being held on various drug charges, Martinez said.

Bail was set at $300,000 in cash for each yesterday afternoon, said John Rosello, an official at Central Judicial Processing Court in Jersey City.

Prison door to slam again on dealer, 22
Tuesday, May 09, 2006
By MICHAELANGELO CONTE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

A jury took less than 20 minutes Friday to convict a 22-year-old Jersey City man on a dozen drug charges, officials said yesterday.

Donald Mincey, who at age 22 has already spent more than a year of his young life in prison, could be sentenced to up to 10 years when he's sentenced June 30 for dealing heroin and cocaine within 1,000 feet of a school and 500 feet of public property, Silverstein said.

"Based on his history, Jersey City is definitely a much better place without having him around," Hudson County Assistant Prosecutor Aaron Silverstein said yesterday. "I will argue for the maximum sentence."

Mincey, a resident of Van Wagenen Avenue, was caught selling drugs on a street corner near the A. Harry Moore Public Housing Complex on Duncan Avenue near Lincoln Park, Silverstein said.

He was only 19 years old when previously busted for dealing drugs near a school and he spent from Jan. 10, 2003, to April 5, 2004, in prison on that conviction, state corrections officials said.
-----------------

Tenants in Jersey City housing complex unify, risk their own safety to halt drug trade
Monday, May 08, 2006
By ROSE DUGER
JOURNAL CORRESPONDENT

W hen Mahotia Grant comes downstairs at Jersey City's A. Harry Moore housing complex, the drug dealers know they'd better move on. If not, they'll risk a stern lecture from a member of the A. Harry Moore Tenant Task Force, an organized and committed group of tenants who are determined to chase drug dealers from their neighborhood.

"You can't even come out the door without seeing them," said Grant of the brazen pushers and their customers, almost none of whom live in the complex. "I tell them, 'You can't sell your stuff here. You have to move.' Now if they see me coming, they start to move right away."

Long dismayed by the prevalence of drugs in their neighborhood, tenants of the public housing complex last year banded together to stage an aggressive face-off that prevented the felons from doing business for a full day.

Bearing signs that read "Keep Drug Dealers Out," the tenants picketed and denied dealers access to the property. They also armed some residents, including children and seniors, with brooms and garbage bags to do a symbolic clean sweep that signaled a new day dawning for the neighborhood that had long been beleaguered by crime.

The task force has no set schedule but has continued to mobilize.

"When they're out there en masse, the drug dealers are not going to come into the complex," said Capt. William Costigan of the West District - estimating that drug traffic is reduced by 70 or 80 percent on days when the task force assembles volunteers to patrol the complex.

"The women let (drug buyers) know that they're not welcome there," he said.

For their efforts to stop drug dealers in their tracks, the members of the A. Harry Moore Tenant Task Force has been selected as 2006 Jersey Journal Everyday Heroes in the Working for a Safer Neighborhood category.

The idea for the task force was born in the summer, when tenant Joanie Halley became dismayed as she gazed around the complex that so many good people call home. In addition to the drug dealers, homeless people slept in front of doors, steps from where the neighborhood's children were playing.

While Jersey City police regularly patrol the area, the drug trade is so brisk that officers stationed there couldn't keep up. Tenants recall one officer rounding up and handcuffing nine druggies in a single arrest. But as fast as police round them up, more come to take their place, said the frustrated tenants.

Halley had enough and ignited the spark in her fellow tenants to form the task force.

"They had no respect for our children," Halley said of the pushers and users. "A lot of the tenants said, 'That's it' We paid the rent and we lived there, but we had no say-so. We went door to door to get people involved in Operation Clean Sweep."

The effort came to life Aug. 30, when more than 100 tenants confronted strangers who came to the complex to sell or buy drugs. The Jersey City Housing Authority provided T-shirts to participants, games for the children and refreshments for all of the volunteers, while the Jersey City Incinerator Authority donated brooms and garbage bags.

Halley's heart swelled when the more than 100 volunteers started pouring out of the complex at 6:30 a.m., the time designated by organizers for the kickoff. After enjoying a quick breakfast together, they set to work picketing up and down Duncan Avenue and preventing cars and strangers from entering until 3 p.m.

"Five-year-olds were asking for brooms," she said. "This let everyone know what neighborhood means."

Patricia Jackson, the Housing Authority's director of resident support services, called it "a stupendous effort."

"Residents in public housing don't co-sign for this type of living," said Jackson of the drug-infested hallways and courtyards. "Drug violence was trying to take over and these tenants weren't having it."

Strength may come in numbers, but that didn't stop the druggies from trying to intimidate the tenants. Some even threatened the mostly female group and their families.

"It was scary, but we didn't back down," Grant recalled. "We wouldn't let them stop us."

"We were very scared," Halley agreed. "They were threatening our families."

Fearing for the safety of the tenants, the Housing Authority has since requested that the residents not take on the dealers and users alone," said Maria Maio, executive director of the Housing Authority.

"I think they did put themselves at risk, and that's always an issue when dealing with bad people," Maio said. "It's even more commendable that they were willing to take that risk."

A. Harry Moore is undergoing major change, as the fourth of its seven high-rises is shortly due to be demolished, and construction of mixed-income townhouses will begin later this spring, Maio said.

Halley said the group plans to hold activities for the complex's children this summer to build pride in the neighborhood.

"We're going to try to keep this going," she said. "Once they start rebuilding here, we don't want this stuff going on. We're trying to change our community."

Alleged mobster's rackets trial told of loans to ex-restaurateur
Saturday, May 06, 2006
BY GUY STERLING
Star-Ledger Staff

The federal racketeering trial of reputed Genovese crime family associate Michael Crincoli began in Newark yesterday with the former owner of a Greek restaurant claiming Crincoli arranged for him to get thousands of dollars in loans from the mob over the years.

George Vlahos maintained he even got new loans through Crincoli while still paying off old ones. The interest rate on the loans ranged from 1 to 3 percent a week, he testified before U.S. District Judge William Martini, in a trial that is expected to last two to three weeks.

Asked by a prosecutor what could befall him if he failed to make his payments, Vlahos replied: "Anything could happen to me from all the stories I heard. ... I believe I would have to pay by force, or someone would go to my family."

Vlahos, 53, was the first witness to take the stand and the first of three Greek men slated to testify they allegedly got usurious loans from the Mafia through Crincoli, 47, a Jersey City resident who later moved to Las Vegas and is charged in an 11-count indictment.

As part of the case, mob turncoat Peter "Petey Cap" Caporino is scheduled to testify about the loansharking operation of the Genovese family. Thirty of the hundreds of tapes he secretly recorded for the government also will be played, Assistant U.S. Attorney Leslie Faye Schwartz told the jury.

Schwartz and defense lawyer Joseph Ferrante sparred in their opening statements over what Crincoli's relationship to organized crime was and if, in fact, there was anything sinister in the loans he arranged.

The first thing Schwartz said was that Crincoli was Italian-American and an associate of the Mafia, one who ingratiated himself with the Greek community in Jersey City and relied on fear and intimidation to get his loans repaid in a timely manner. But the weekly payments meant little since the only way a loan could be paid back was in a lump sum, she added.

When payments were late, Crincoli resorted to the "Mafia card" by saying the matter was out of his hands and that he'd been ordered to collect the money by higher-ups, often employing mob muscle in the process, Schwartz said.

In addition to presenting the loan victims, the government will prove its case with tapes, surveillance photos, the testimony of Caporino and an FBI expert on the Genovese crime family, the prosecutor added.

Ferrante countered by saying there was no proof he was aware of that Crincoli was a Genovese associate. He did not deny his client arranged the loans for Vlahos, Tommy Triantafillikis and Tommy Diakos but claimed he did so for no other reason than to help out boyhood friends of his.

Those who looked to Crincoli for the loans were mostly degenerate gamblers in search of quick money off the books, the defense attorney added. When loan payments were not made, Crincoli was made responsible for the debts by those supplying the funds because he'd been the one to vouch for those in need, he said.

"You can be involved in illegal loans unwittingly just by making an introduction," Ferrante said, referring to his client's actions. "But if he doesn't pay, you've got to pay. That's the way it was in the realm these men lived in."

Crincoli was one of more than a dozen defendants rounded up in a sweep last year after a three-year investigation of Genovese family activities in North Jersey. He was the only one not to accept a plea deal.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/03/business/03jersey.html

Signs of an Upturn in New Jersey
New York Times
By ANTOINETTE MARTIN
Published: May 3, 2006

It has been a long, hard climb back to reasonable health for the New Jersey commercial office market since the Sept. 11 attack in New York.

K. Hovnanian is planning this project with 1,300 residential units in Jersey City.

In the weeks after the attack, there was a belief that businesses in Lower Manhattan and elsewhere in New York City might consider moving to New Jersey, and a number of companies offered a flood of space for sublease.

But New Jersey landlords apparently anticipated a much greater need for temporary space than materialized, mistakenly thinking that mass relocation might occur. Then, consolidation and cutbacks by telecommunications and technology companies in 2002 and 2003 emptied out more offices, and a two-year economic slowdown amplified the effect.

It wasn't until the second half of 2005 that the situation began to move in the right direction. The average vacancy rate for office space, which soared to nearly 20 percent from about 14 percent in the six-month period after Sept. 11, stayed at 19 percent or above through last year. For the first quarter of 2006, the rate was 18.4 percent, according to Cushman & Wakefield, a commercial real estate company.

In addition, average annual asking rents for office space rose to $25.18 a square foot in the first quarter of this year, up 55 cents from the preceding quarter, and up $1.04 a square foot from a year earlier, according to CB Richard Ellis, another major company in commercial property. Analysts there termed the higher rents "a sure sign the market is gaining momentum."

Still, Andrew Merin, who is vice chairman of the metropolitan area capital markets group of Cushman & Wakefield, which brokers sales of commercial real estate to investors, summed it up: "It has not been a pretty picture for office space over the last four years, any way you look at it. Things will take a while longer to straighten out."

Mr. Merin said that while his group continued to execute numerous significant deals each year on office properties, it was currently most bullish on multifamily rental properties.

"The amount of capital chasing multifamily assets has reached record levels," he said. "During 2006, we expect to see a renewed focus on urban redevelopment projects as families look to move to more urban areas."

New Jersey commercial office developers uniformly insist that they are bullish on the office market, given the signs of improvement. Speculative office space construction has started up again, with one million square feet under construction around New Jersey, as GVA Williams pointed out in its first-quarter market analysis, and another half-million square feet is planned.

Nevertheless, Hartz Mountain Industries, which helped to build up the state's largest concentration of office space, in Jersey City, decided sometime last year that that riverfront city could not absorb the additional office space it had planned to build and began trying to sell sites to residential developers.

In 2000 to 2005, about seven million square feet of new office space was created in Jersey City, but currently there is not a single project on the drawing board, according to city officials. On the other hand, about 15,000 new apartments are in the construction pipeline.

Without commenting publicly, Hartz sold one of two major downtown sites that it owned to the home-building giant K. Hovnanian just last month. Hovnanian announced it had purchased the site near the Hudson riverfront at 77 Hudson Street for $65 million and would act as a co-developer of the property to create a condominium tower and a rental tower, with a combined 1,300 units.

Hartz has been reported to be near a deal to sell a second Jersey City site to Roseland Properties for a residential project in Jersey City, and it is also known to be trying to sell a site near the Lincoln Tunnel in Weehawken.

A number of big developers of office space have, meanwhile, hedged their bets by opening new divisions that build apartments, or by starting redevelopment projects that include housing and stores along with office space.

SJP Properties of Parsippany, which is known for building high-end office developments around New Jersey, including the two-building Waterfront Corporate Center in Hoboken, seems to be waiting for the right moment to break ground for a third building.

At the same time, SJP's residential division, established in 2004, has moved forward with construction of two condominium towers in Manhattan: one with 250 units at Eighth Avenue and 46th Street, and another at 45 Park Avenue on the site of the former Sheraton Russell. SJP also has a plan to build 68 very-high-end town house condominiums, each with 4,000 square feet of living space, in Peapack, N.J.

Two other office developers have big mixed-use projects in the works. The Matrix Development Group is at work on a $400 million waterfront development in Newark that will create 500 residential units in four towers in addition to a hotel, retail space and a 14-story office building.

The Advance Realty Group is developing a center in adjacent Harrison, planned to include more than 700 residential units next to a new professional soccer stadium, 140,000 square feet of stores and 190,000 square feet of office space.

Mr. Merin predicts a major surge in rental apartment sales in New Jersey, especially along the Hudson. After several slower years, the rental market has been increasing, he said: "Occupancy rates have increased to the low- to-mid 90 percent range in the region."

He also said that "concessions" ? like several months of free rent, or free amenities and upgrades that were being offered at many higher-end buildings while interest rates stayed at record lows and home-buying fever was at high pitch ? are becoming less common.

"As condominium developers become slightly less aggressive with pricing, and interest rates begin to rise," Mr. Merin said, "more people will opt to move into rental apartments, and they will become a better and better investment."

http://villagevoice.com/nyclife/

Trunk Show
It's all in the micro-organisms at vegetarian South Indian
by Robert Sietsema
May 1st, 2006 1:20 PM

If you haven't been to Jersey City's Newark Avenue lately, get on over. This strip of Indian businesses four blocks north of Journal Square has long been a source of bulk spices, cheap nuts, and surreal vegetables, but competition among restaurants has recently heated up, doubling the number in the last year to well over a dozen. Many specialize in the strictly meatless, dosa-driven cuisine of southern India, encompassing iddlies, vadas, and utthappams in addition to dosas, all concocted of ground and fermented batters of rice and lentils utilizing adventitious micro-organisms, making the recipes difficult to duplicate at home.

A little over a year ago I touted Dosa Hut, with a menu featuring multiple variations on the dosa, some involving (gasp!) Velveeta. The caf? was often thronged during peak weekend shopping times, but when Sri Ganesh's Dosa House opened recently just down the block, the old place emptied out and the new one instantly became mobbed. Just inside the front door presides a brass Ganesh wrapped in a white shawl; on our second visit an offering of bananas was cradled in one of his many forearms. Neophytes might want to stick with a serving of the plainish white dumplings called steam iddly ($3), then proceed to a butter masala dosa ($4), a thin crepe two feet in diameter wrapped around a potato-and-onion filling flavored with black mustard seed and curry leaf. Accompanying are homemade coconut and peanut chutneys, and all the free lentil soup ("sambhar") you can ladle from the steaming tureen at the end of the room. A sign cautions you not to waste any.

"Masala" refers to the scarlet spice combination with which dosas are commonly flavored, but more sophisticated Indian aficionados have a choice of other powders. Thus the "Bangalore ghee masala dosa" ($5.50) deploys a yellowish and somewhat acrid spice combo that crusts the inside of the crepe. Spring dosa ($4.50) enfolds saut?ed onions and bell peppers, but lacks potatoes, which comes as a relief after downing so many spuds. Hailing from the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, pesarattu (it sounds like a French surgical appliance) utilizes a batter made from mung beans instead of the usual urad dal, and an herbal mixture that leaves the pancake a delicate shade of green. It's best eaten in the traditional style with a side or filling of upma: cream of wheat customized with toasted cashews and fenugreek, the crunchy rhomboid seeds whose Latin name means "Greek hay," known in Hindi as methi.
[Village Voice Online Store]

A close cousin of upma, porridge-wise, is pongal, named after a mid-winter farmer's holiday that occurs on January 14 every year (most Indian holidays are lunar, and hence float). Pongal ($5) is a boil-up of toasted rice and mung beans, with lots of spices and fresh chiles mixed in at the last moment. Alongside are served cups of yellow split-pea stew and homemade yogurt, making pongal a particularly satisfying meal. Five of us incorporated it into a giant feast one Sunday evening, which also included spice-heaped masala iddly, four kinds of dosas, two utthapams (thicker pancakes with diced veggies in the batter), and the fiery green chile fritters called katt mirchi.?causing my librarian friend to look up and exclaim: "Man, this starchy dinner is as far from Atkins and South Beach as you can get these days. And it's making me incredibly happy."

Home Depot was approved -- I think it was already zoned for a box store -- so no one really had any say about it. It sailed through. I hate the idea of big Box stores in JC, luckily it'll be between the in and out lanes for the Holland tunnel and at least it is something I'll use -- Thank god it isn't another big Bed, Bath and Beyond -- or a Linens-n-Things.

Enough of the plastic closet organizers already!

I might be wrong but I think there is a few other smaller merchants also going in next to Home Depot - maybe a drug store of some sort -- anyone see the plans?

Just watch your purse!

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/shandi1.html

Quote:

Hey papermagazine.com said she was a DJ now in NYC maybe she could spin somewhere here.

http://www.papermag.com/?section=article&parid=1003&page=2

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shandi_Sullivan

In my issue of Timeout Magazine this week (which happens to be on renting the cheapest apartments deals near Manhattan, and no we weren't even mentioned -- Inwood, Harlem and Bushwick were)

Anyway, on the reverse side of the cover of TONY is a full page ad for "The Beacon" yes the Jersey City Medical Center -- there is a girl meditating with her eyes closed, sitting in a cross legged yoga position in front of a Bambo curtain and in big text it across it, it reads

"ASK ABOUT OUR 30 YEAR TAX ABATEMENT!"

haha

But I'm all for the abatement -- I would not want to live there right now!