frankly, i find the orig post sort of weird.

if the roof sitter OWNED the house, built railings and made the roof into a deck, would this even be an issue? Bloodtv would clearly be out of line to even suggest that a homeowner had no right to sit on their deck and stare out at the scenery right in front of him.

in that light, Bloodtv's insistence that he has any legal right to dictate where a neighbor can stare, while sitting on his own porch would be downright bizarre.

is it really that different if the roof sitter happens to be a tenant? He hasn't trespassed on bloodtv's property. He's merely sitting in the sunshine, in a building he lives in, and staring into yard/airspace before him? Last time i checked, this is America, hopefully not some police state that regulates where you can stare, while on your own porch.

As for Heights, who wrote, "Hey they're people too (no matter what the nationality or heritage) and also have temptations so yes I would be concerned about this weirdo's antics. Make a police report so if something happens in the near future you have it documented. And by the way he's lucky it's you and not someone else who would take matters in their own hands."....

Half the time, Heights, i don't know if you're for real, or some caricature.
'

seems like the "petty energy" is coming from taqueria, no?

paying customers, i think, have a right, maybe even an obligation, to proffer their experiences with a business, so that others can be informed, and then make their buying decisions.

what's the big deal with customers being honest on a community board with their opinions? Why is taqueria so thin-skinned? if they're confident with their product and service, why so much energy on their part in trying to squelch naysayers?

i personally think the food there is "okay" -- the tortillas are far too greasy for my taste, tho the spicing is nice. can't say i've been subject to terribly rude (or warm) service, but the owners responses on this board can be rude n immature.

but, hey, what r u gonna do? taqueria, like their customers, have a right to make spectacles of themselves on an internet board. sort of goes with the territory, i guess.

i'd rather have stray cats around than rats or mice any day. look at it this way - at least they keep our rodent population down.

teroli-
while i too wish anyone well in her journey to "find themself"...where u and i fundamentally disagree is that this is not a situation wholly outside her control:

1. she has control whether or not to educate herself about the family's finances --even years into the crisis, Creery refuses to look at an electric bill...then has the the chuzpah to moan about her husband not having paid it, and further implies to her jci readers that they don't have the money to pay it.

How genuine is this if in another blog, she says they have been storing away the money they would have had to pay on their mortage, into their savings account?
How genuine is this if she and her husband are now both working, he at a pretty decent job -- 2 income family, with, i'm assuming, more savings than the typical middle class family?

as Josiered pointed out, unlike other families in foreclosure, they are still able to afford ipods, ballet, fencing, etc. lessons for their kids.

as Sutherland pointed out, they are not in that "dire" a situation-- their 3 story downtown brownstone in todays market could fetch nearly enough to cover their debt -- that 300,000 market value is way low, but needed to be for the purposes of the news story, or for purposes of using the creeries to be"representative" of most families in foreclosure.

so, why don't they take their savings and pay off part of their debts, work with the bank....or why don't they put their house on the market right now, and settle with the bank?

It may be, to quote Gabby, in her virtually-realblog, because she "wants it all." She doen't want to have to make the hard choices. She wants to stay in the home as long as possible, so that they have a roof over their heads, without having to pay rent or a mortage, and save up the money for themselves, after they walk away from the financial mess they made. She herself admits they are "abusing the system."

Don't tell us that and then expect the public to awholeheartedly embrace your journey "toward self-discovery" and "relevancy."
[there's something classist here too- we criticize lowerincome welfare cheats for abusing the system, yet somehow r giving the better off a pass for doing the same thing?]

2. She also has control over what she puts out there for public consumption.
It is one thing to be candid and honest with family, friends, and business associates, but this is far different. If u want to embark on a journey of self-discovery, you can write in a diary or goto therapy, if you don't want public scrutiny and critism. However, she is the one inviting the public be voyuers of this "trainwreck.
That also brings up the aspect of an authenticity -- it seems there are many discrepencies, inconsistencies (are they truly broke or not? does she really want to move out, or is she trying to stay in the home as long as possible? etc) -- one cant help ask is this more an exercise in honesty and true self discovery, or more an excercise to be publically "relevant" at the expense of dignity?

sorry -- misspelled the blog's site; it's

Virtually-realblog.com

GFD- really?
am i the one aggressively seeking publicity, airing out their family laundry, using the platform of foreclosure to further a career? they, not you nor i, made themselves into semi-public figures.
Your indignation that i was somehow out of place to call the husband by name makes me think u either know them well, or perhaps r them? (how would anyone else, including me, know then, whether or not creery was making an effort to somehow "hide" her husband?!) certainly, her blogs couldn't be more t.m.i.

I actually don't know these people, but have many friends who do and the consensus is that even the malmad's close friends are getting impatient -- and want them to get their head out of the sand and face reality.
one pointed out that gabby posts the following on her blog, virtually-real.com(excerpted):
----------------------------------
"When we had money I had a housekeeper who worked for us three days a week. She was a saint! She did all of our laundry, cleaned our house from top to bottom, put every last thing in place and kept our home in tip top order. We held on to her as long as we possibly could after my husband lost his job. First cutting back to two days, then one and then every other week but finally we had to let the dear woman go, leaving me the ?housekeeper? of the family. Only at this time I was also going back to work and I was trying desperately to ?create? still more work for myself and I was still taking care of four kids who hadn?t a clue of how to take care of themselves.
In my ignorance I had ?spoiled? my kids. My kids hadn?t the foggiest notion as to how to pick up after themselves, do the dishes, sweep, mop, or do any form of housekeeping at all. Everything fell on me and I?m guessing you can see how that turned out. I got crankier and crankier. Overnight I turned from the mom everyone adored to the mom everyone loathed. I became prone to yelling, nagging, and general impatience.
Like it or not I now have my own set of CONSEQUENCES to deal with. And like my youngest daughter I am none too pleased with having to deal.
Life really was easier with money. This is the cold hard fact that every now and again rears its ugly head and sticks its tongue out at me.
True, my kids will be ?better off? having finally (I hope) learned to take care of themselves. True I will be ?better off? having gained some independence through working. But, I don?t think my family on the whole will be ?better off? until we find a way to kick all of this underlying stress and anxiety out of our lives. And that won?t happen until we are indeed ?better off?[i.e. financially rich -- she then goes on to excroriate the really rich for not "facing the consequences of their addiction to spending, while]
"I wish I could have it all. I wish I could have all the wonderful things that my family and I have learned through all of this with the comfort and security that I felt when we had money. . .My daughter and I have had to face our individual consequences for our misdeeds and now I think it?s high time for the wealthy to face theirs. But there doesn?t seem to be any consequences for the rich. How can there be if they can buy their way out of them?. . .
This leads me right back right back to that cold, hard ugly fact. Things really are easier when you have money. This is what I think of when I face the foreclosure of my house. I want to draw the process out as long as humanly possible. We live each day as if we are still making a house payment. We take that money and we religiously put it all in the bank, thus creating a cushion for our family for the day when this is finally over. Tell me this is not out of whack? It is. We are abusing the system. I know there will be consequences. I pray that they won?t be more severe than that which we?ve already gone through."
----------------------------
I'm not saying these aren't nice people, that they don't want the best for their kids. I'm sure they are, and do. and let me make clear, on some level of course i feel sympathy, as i would for anyone going through a reduction in life circumtances.
But if these people are telling us that each month, they are putting away the money they owe to the bank into their own savings for the future, and now want to simply "walk away" from their obligations....or lamenting the fact that their electricity was turned off, not apparently because they don't have the money to pay it, but the wife couldn't be bothered to look at the bills...and then moaning about how the "rich" suffer no consequences, but they do (assuming they mean one consequence as being they no longer have the housekeeper every other day?)....well, that's where i want to say to them, welcome to normal life, with working moms who go to work, but don't have housekeepers, where we do have to make sure our bills get paid, where we don't have the luxury of squirrelling away the mortage money each month "for a rainy day."

Beach guy ? I?m assuming u r not a new immigrant or victim to unscrupulous broker, and u r obviously educated.
however, despite all this, you represent another category of citizens who do not necessarily deserve to be unduly criticized for their financial problems. You represent the citizen Brewster mentioned, the one who we could look at and say, ?there but for the grace of god??

The distinction is that in the wake of a financial meltdown, you didn?t hide your head in the sand, you actively tried to pull yourself out of a bad situation (without simply walking away or shirking financial obligations.) You were an adult, and made the hard choices. You immediately prioritized and made all necessary modifications to your lifestyle. You did not act entitled, seek to blame, or ceaselessly attempt to justify how u landed in the predicament. Nor did u publicize your predicament in a melodramatic fashion for self-promotion.

Contrast this to Creery and Spencer Malmud, the husband. (Tho come to think of it, we have never heard from Malmud directly?what we know of him is really thru the filter of his wife?s portrayal.)

the thing is, josiered, all the subject matter you listed(the marriage, the kids, her needs, etc) in the hands of a skilled writer, could be compelling and credible.

but that's exactly the problem with the blog for me; in my opinion, creery simply does not have a "credible" writers voice -- her postings sound like that of a 13 year old teen girl.

even if she were to address what u want -- the nitty gritty of what it is like to go through the process, the practical insights and advice that people could use, etc. ...as a writer, she simply does not have the voice of credibility for me to take seriously when delivering such information.

actually, i disagree. her writing is as undisciplined as her spending habits.

simply "vomiting" up emotions on the page does not good writing make.
illiciting nausea in readers (see josiered's comments) seems to be a common occurance.
were a writer actually aiming to illicit such response, that's one thing, but don't think creery's intention was to get readers to roll their eyes and gag at her lack of self awareness.
sometimes, her posts seem almost a parody of a made-up character.

sutherland -
you do have valid points- some banks do have predatory lending practices nor am i condoning or wholeheartedly supporting the government's response to the housing crisis.
my point is that i don't see the couple in the article as victims of anything but their own greed and poor choices, nor are they "representative" of the many people now in foreclosure that were victims of predatory lending practices.
you stated that snowflake and fraulien were inappropriate in being critical of the jc couple. i simply happen to disagree

t bird- yes, it's one thing to feel sorry for the uneducated or immigrant who was prey for an unscrupulous broker, but the creerys are neither.
I think what leaves a bad taste for me and many of my contemporaries is that they seem to want it both ways: holding themselves out as hip, aware, communally minded individuals, while at the same time being so willfully irresponsible in their choices. Holding themselves out as responsible parents who want the best for their kids, yet making choices that put them in jeopardy. And these were choices made systematically and repeatedly, not something that was foisted on them, and in one fell swoop.
It bespeaks of a certain hubris that now in the midst of this, they consistently, aggressively seek publicity for their foibles, and expect others to uniformly accept, actively sympathize, and on some level, validate, their choices.
They are not the uneducated or immigrant or even struggling middle america, yet presume to speak for and represent those who are?

adonis-- you're right, they're certainly not living on the streets. to the contrary.

responding to one of her blog comments, creery acknowledged that the typical foreclosure process in nj lasts typically at least 908 days, and that they are trying to hold onto their home "as long as possible."

by this couple's calculations, they can expect nearly 3 years with a roof over their heads -- we're not talking hovel, but a downtown brownstone--- during which they are freed of having to pay their mortage,or a rent.

can you imagine the money that you or I could save in 3 years if we did not have mortage payments on our homes each month?

so, whether there is an "official" government bailout or not, those of us paying our debts responsibly will end up getting shafted in the long run with trickle-down costs. after all, you don't think the banks wont subsidize their losses by raising fees and rates for the rest of us?

in sum, the beds they made end up affecting not just themselves

sutherland-
it's one thing to have as Brewster implies, an addiction, compulsion, what have you, toward spending. yes, just like with an alcoholic or drug addict, you can have some level of compassion.

but have u read the jc independent blogs? I think readers are negatively responding to a tone that borders on maudlin, whining helplessness coupled with barely-concealed entitlement. one gets the sense the blogger is "using" foreclosure as a platform to further her public image and career, because the posts couldn't be more self-absorbed. by being given a consistent forum in the press, the paper seems to somehow be glorifying her unwise decisions.

And one can be a "nice" person, Brewster, and still lack a high degree of self-awareness and maturity. we are not talking kids, teens, or even young couples in their twenties, thirties. This is a couple nearing, or having reached middle aged, with 4 kids, and still refusing to take the bull by the horns and prioritize! And Gabby's "excuse" that poor helpless her, she never looks at the bills (even now, years into their financial crisis) is lame and pathetic. And then to blame her husband for the electricity being turned off, as she did in her blog, takes the cake.

ultimately, we, the taxpayers, the people paying off their mortages, who decide to forego the iphones, the big screen tvs, the trips to europe, we end up taking up the slack for people like the creerys.

as some of the posters stated on nj.com, the creerys are not the face of a typical middle class family struggling in foreclosure. fencing lessons? iphones? trips to the south of france? and all this in the middle of foreclosure, living rent free in a brownstone in downtown jc? heck, my family could afford all that too if we we'ren't working hard to cover our mortage payments each month.

is having a negative reaction to this, as sutherland insists, "misguided" or "inappropriate" on the part of readers? don't think so.

commenters on nj.com seem unanimously appalled at their foolhardiness:


http://www.nj.com/jjournal-news/index ... y_family_feels_the_p.html

it does. however, i gather that what made the officers seem so
comically "clumsy" attests to how difficult it was to subdue the dogs, who were probably violently thrashing.

as for pitbull owners vs. the breed -- given the inherent nature of the breed (as a whole -- i'm not saying there aren't exceptions) -- even if the case is that there are more idiotic owners now than in the past, more of an argument that there needs to be more stringent laws and consequences for breaking them.

yeah, i know that it's not only pit bulls who fight and attack -- however, given their dna as dogs bred to fight, given their inherent territorialism (even beyond the typical dog), i think it should be unlawful for pit bulls to be out in urban areas without a muzzle. Once they start fighting or attacking, its almost impossible to subdue them without injury/death to the dogs or to others.

echoing another poster on nj.com: heaven forbid a child was in the vicinity when the dogs began to fight.
Moreover, what idiot of an owner takes 3 pitbulls out for a "walk" in a densely populated area with no muzzles?
-----------------------------------------------------


article from jj today:

Five people including two cops injured while trying to stop Bayonne woman?s pit bulls from fighting
Published: Thursday, July 28, 2011, 3:00 AM
Kate Kowsh/The Jersey Journal By Kate Kowsh/The Jersey Journal
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Five persons, including two Bayonne police officers, suffered injuries last night while attempting to break up a dog fight at 28th Street and Avenue E in Bayonne, police said.

A female resident was walking her three pit bulls on leashes when two of the dogs began to fight, police said.

When the woman attempted to break up the fight, one of the dogs turned on her and bit her leg, police said.

When a friend came to her aid, the dog bit her on the chest and arm, said Deputy Chief Ralph Scianni.

A male neighbor then rushed over to help them and restrain the aggressive dog and it bit him on the left calf, his left tricep, and his forearm, Scianni said.

Officers arrived at 6:19 p.m. and tranquilized the aggressive dog, but two officers were injured in the process when a tranquilizer dart exploded, Scianni said.

?One officer got hit with the tranquilizer (chemicals) in his eyes and the second officer got hit with the spray . . . in his mouth,? Scianni said.

The three bite victims were taken by ambulance to Bayonne Medical Center for stitches while the officers were taken to the hospital by police car, he said.

Bayonne Animal Control has taken custody of the agressive dog and will conduct an investigation that will include quarantining it for 10 days, Scianni said.

The dog owner was not charged with any violations.

correct me it i'm wrong, but a lot of tax money, abatements, subsidies going into this project....is this where the money which used to be going to schools, elderly, public safety n infrastructure, etc now going to? How much money is state pumping into this? we don't know, since terms of the deal have not been made transparent. (sorry about the length of this post)
--------------------------------------------------------
Stucknation: Christie's Xanadu Nightmare Becomes Someone's 'American Dream'
Friday, May 06, 2011
By Bob Hennelly

A rendering of American Dream, the replacement for New Jersey's Xanadu Enlarge

You're an ambitious, high-profile Republican governor of a state in chronic budget crisis and in a nation with a sputtering recovery. The state's corrupt "pay to play" politics, left you a two-million-square-foot mall monstrosity named Xanadu that's yet to open. Its exterior is violently ugly and it is built on state land so close to the Big Apple that its value is through the roof. Worse yet, in just three years, the eyes of the world will be on the monstrosity because your brand new NFL stadium next door is hosting the Superbowl in 2014.

Who are you going to call? Who can fix this? The Air National Guard?

New Jersey Governor Chris Chrsitie dialed Triple Five, the Canadian developer of the Mall of America. The firm is a privately held, multi-faceted conglomerate owned by the the Ghermezian family, a can-do-clan of Persian Jews who left their native Iran in the 1960s for Montreal.

By 1981, they placed themselves on the mall map with the opening of their five million square foot West Edmonton Mall in Alberta, BC. They make mega malls into stand alone international tourist destinations that they say end up boosting the broader region where they are located. But invariably they also solicited some form of public subsidy and special consideration to pull it all off.

On Tuesday Gov. Christie told a crowd of reporters in the cavernous Xanadu shell that Triple Five's re-branding of the ill-fated mall as the "American Dream Meadowlands" was about more than just shopping.

?You have to give people a sense of optimism and hope that things are changing here. When we took over here in 2009 there was a real sense both in this region and across the state that this type of large-scale, private development couldn't happen again.?

Of course Christie attributes Triple 5's interest in the Meadowlands to his commitment to lower taxes and less regulation. He did sweeten the invitation with $200 million dollars in economic development aid funded by sales tax revenue from the complex once it opens. And he hopes he can get them to takeover the Sport's Authority's aging 20,000 seat Izod arena that's right next door to Xanadu.

Last summer Governor Christie told reporters that if the state extended any public subsidy to a developer to finish Xanadu he would see to it that taxpayers benefited from the deal in a tangible way. When pressed on that question at last week's Triple Five presser he said details and terms where still being worked out.

State Senator Loretta Weinberg, a Democrat from Bergen County, wants Governor Christie to release the terms of the deal and more specifics on the development itself.

?I remain concerned that this megamall development could become a nightmare for Bergen County residents and State taxpayers who will be footing the bill for needed public infrastructure improvements and development incentives for years," said Weinberg. "We ought to engage State taxpayers and local residents in a discussion of the merits and pitfalls of expanding Xanadu?s footprint, and investing more funds into an already costly development."

Christie's remarks at the "American Dream" event harkened back to a Reaganesque kind of optimism in the face of some long odds. The former Mills Corporation and than Colony Capital spent more than $2 billion dollars on Xanadu and neither could get it done.

Throughout New Jersey and the entire country, malls of every description are vacant and falling into disrepair. It's a kind of a Great Recession blight woven throughout our landscape. Bloomberg and Reuters reported that in the first quarter of this year vacancy rates at American malls were at their highest rate in a decade.

And than there's global warming and the role mallification might play in it.

To make the redo of Xanadu fly, you have to suspend the gravity of conventional wisdom with the razzle dazzle of show business At Christie's press conference there was just such a showman - Nader Ghermezian, the avuncular chairman of Triple Five now in his 70s. What he lacks in physical stature he makes up with in world-class salesmanship.

In halting dramatic voice he drew the reporters in. "Today we are proud to announce that we will be developing the world's largest and most comprehensive, retail, entertainment, amusement, recreation and tourism project ever built," said Ghermezian. "This project, by measurement, bar none does not exist anywhere."

Even though the concept of the 'shopping mall' is historically linked to the American experience these days the list if the world's ten largest malls are dominated by Asian projects.

The largest is New South China Mall in Donneguan, China at 6.46 million square feet. By comparison Triple Five's West Edmonton Mall in Alberta is 5.3 million and the company's Mall of America in Minnesota is 4.2 million square feet.

Triple Five says its ultimate build out of the complex, including the adjacent state-owned 20,000-seat Izod Center, and a possible hotel complex, will bring the total size of the project in at 7.5 million square feet, which Triple 5 says would make it the largest in the world.

In the first phase, Triple 5 is going to add another million square feet to Xanadu's existing 2 million square foot footprint. There will be a one-of-a-kind indoor amusement park under a glass dome with a view of the New York City skyline. There will be Hawaii themed water park with six foot waves, a 16-story indoor ski slope, and 26 screen movieplex.

?Half of the people that they are going to come to this projects are going to be from out of town, tourists, nationally and internationally,? said Ghermezian. He predicts the complex will draw 55 million people a year, and said his company's Mall of America in Minnesota is a well-established international destination. They offer 70 travel packages originating from 34 countries on 5 continents. Triple Five also says the project would employ almost 9,000 construction workers and create 35,000 permanent jobs.

And Ghermezian's says the prospects are even brighter with Newark Liberty Airport so close. He said Triple Five would work behind the scenes to encourage airlines to expand their Newark layover time for international flights and offer passing through tourists a way to check their bags at the Mall and have an easy link back to the airport.

Of course there were no critics at the presser. Observing it all was Captain Bill Sheehan, the Hackensack River Keeper who was glad to see some kind of progress on the moribund site. But he looked incredulous. In the age of global warming how could reporters not have asked about the impact of this mega-mall - purportedly visible from space - on the environment?

?I have some concerns about the extraordinary amount of energy this is going to use. We can?t move something like this forward thinking that it?s the 1900s,? said Sheehan.

NJ Sierra Club Chapter Director Jeff Tittel, a longtime Xanadu critic, was not invited to the rollout. By Tittel's calculation, between a $200 million dollar rail-spur and the infrastructure rebuild, the public already has $900 million invested in the mall project. He says Chrsitie's decision to sign off on something on the scale of the American Dream/Meadowlands had to be considered in the context of Christie's controversial decision to kill the rail tunnel under the Hudson between New Jersey and New York.

"The American Nightmare Mall will be the biggest source of greenhouse gasses in NJ after the Governor," said Tittel. "The Governor can give $200 -$350 Million to subsidize a mall, but will kill a mass-transit project. The irony is the tunnel could have been used to get people to the mall - now they will have to drive gridlocked Northern New Jersey. The developer should change the name to Xantac because of all the ulcers it will give to taxpayers stuck in traffic."

Triple Five spokesperson Maureen Bausch says Mall of America has a solid environmental record going back twenty years. "Our building in Minnesota was green even before it was cool to be green," she said. "We recycle over 70 percent of everything we use in that building, from the food in the food court that goes to the pig farmers, to all of our garbage."

But the environmental debate aside, what does a governor do with two million square foot white elephant? Evidently he has to find a three ring circus.

Economist James W. Hughes, Dean of the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers, was a critic of the initial public-private partnership that spawned Xanadu.

He says New Jersey is malled out. "In 1990 we had 20 square feet of retail space per capita. By 2010 it had doubled to 40 square feet. We are just an 'over stored' state and nation," said Hughes.

Dean Hughes said for the American Dream to fly with international customers boosters would have to count on a weak dollar. He concedes that if you are going to build any mall with the odds of making it it has to be the world's largest. "You would at least have a unique asset and by being unique like that it could grease the financial skids."

But Wharton Marketing Professor Steven Hock thinks Chrsitie's making a supersize mistake. Hoch says he understands Christie's political reasons to 'go bigger or go home' but says there is no business justification.

"I don't see 7.5 million square feet mall as an international draw in New Jersey. I just don't see it. There are so many other things going on," Hock says referring to the metro region's existing dynamism.

Hock predicts that if American Dream is built it will further undermine the rest of the region's retail space market. "It is just going to transfer the problem on to a whole bunch of other people," says Hock.

Well isn't that what politics is all about? What's Governor Christie supposed to do? Leave it vacant until the Superbowl as a shrine to the bankruptcy of American and global consumerism?

just checked - yes Christie's Ed Secr not only worked for Edison, he was its head:

[From NJ.com article:

"Christie?s acting education commissioner, Christopher Cerf, has experience in public-private school partnerships. He previously led Edison Schools, a for-profit company that became the largest private-sector manager of public schools. Cerf left the company, now called EdisonLearning, in 2005.

Christie is also connected to for-profit education companies, including Cerf?s.

From 1999 to 2001, Christie was a registered lobbyist at a law firm that lobbied New Jersey government on behalf of Edison Schools, according to filings with the state Election Law Enforcement Commission. While the firm was representing the multinational education company, Chris Cerf was its general counsel.

The firm, Dughi, Hewit and Palatucci, also represented Mosaica Education, a for-profit charter school operator, and the University of Phoenix, a for-profit online university. At the time, the firm listed two lobbyists, Christie and William Palatucci, a longtime political ally of the governor who is a named partner in the firm."

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

So don't tell me that Christie and the interests of his band of merry "reformers" aren't profit motivated. Dan Levin, I echo your sentiments --"Wolf-in sheeps clothing" indeed.

i am highly skeptical when you have for-profit corporations throwing around catch phrases designed to mask the fact that education and its reform are for some all about big business.
Look at Edison schools, where,I believe Ed. Com. Chris Cerf worked years ago -- it was an failure -- Edison is no longer in the business of setting up schools, but produces textbooks and school materials. And in fact, one of Edison's original schools here in JC, Schomburg Charter, flailed on so many levels, including test scores, not to mention a ridiculous rate of teacher and principal turnover -- what does that say about the work atmosphere? And how is continued turnover good for students?

Despite influx of contributions from wealthy benefactors, and several charter schools promised in Newark, now disbanded according to last weeks news articles. . .

When you have schools where parents are highly motivated and have the time and arguably,luxury, of getting regularly involved (eg Learning Community, Elysian) the test scores reflect that. All the suggested changes (merit pay, no tenure, etc) by groups like B4K fail to address the underlying issues present in an urban area.

Moreover,wasn't Skinner was alligned with Christie, served on his education transition team. Don't tell me that Christie is a proponent of public education -- if he had his way, vouchers would in, religious schools funded by public monies, state-funded pre-school and afterschool programs by the wayside, etc.
The affiliation with Christie by itself makes me wary of the group.

Sorry, that's how I see it.

dtjcview--

are the square footage u listed for the building or includes the lot?


is it simply better not to let inspector in?

what will the upcoming reval mean for downtown homeowners -- will our taxes quadruple or more, given that market value has increased at least that much since 1988 (the last jc reval)??

or would the increased taxes collected from commercial buildings help offset what homeowners would have to pay?

someone please explain?

wow.

snowflake. yes, your tone does border on belligerence. I don't know you, and you're probably a perfectly nice person in real life, but from this and some past posts, if you were a cartoon character, Lucy in Schulz's Peanuts would spring to mind.

jcboe has never, as far as I know, had a delayed opening in the past decade my kids have been in school, even on days where there are more 3-4 inches or as, in last fridays case, the roads were extremely slick.

moreover, while the board did call the night before the last snow day, it has been in the last several years, the exceptions, rather than the norm, for JC to inform the night before even though other districts seemed to.

have the predictions for 12 inch accumulations this coming week been downgraded? reports now seem to say it'll likely be rain and snow, rather than just snow.

a mix can be worse for driving, seems schools are only closed for snow accumulations. wish powers that be in jc would let parents know about school closing,when possible, the night before.

we parents need to get sitters lined up, and finding out morning of, it isn't always doable.
understand that weather predictions change, but seems jersey city officials are last to let families know, compared to other districts, or compared to the parochial schools.

what's up with that?

correction--i need to proofread before posting -- meant johnr, not john reilly -- had a friend by that name on my mind as i was typing

john reilly's statement:

"dtjcview, and anyone like you, looking for an excuse to rationalize away your guilt for not going to Mass"

a bit sanctimonious? a tad presumptuous?

(imo)

their chicken and their dumplings are amazingly crisp, yet light, unlike some other places out there with fried dishes that come out a soggy greasy mess. owners seem like nice people, too!

this is case where I think spending is worth it, if it would really help deter the pipeline.

april thru july H20 was nearly DOUBLE what my my bill was jan thru april.

beyond some family members each taking 2 or even 3 (short) showers per day during the unbearably humid weeks, didn't use that much more...

compared to last year these months, my bill at least one- third more.

has United Water increased the water and sewer charges per CCF(unit of measure?) in the last year? anyone know?

Mr. Waterman,
Whether one agrees with you or not regarding Epps, superindendent salaries, the national search, I have to say that I admire your willingness to stick your neck our for what you believe is right.
When I first posted during the school board elections, you were an unknown entity,so to speak, and so I did wonder what your motives for running might have been. However, actions speak louder than words, and I think it is evident that your intentions are in the right place.
Just wanted to let you know.

i'm liking, alot, the idea of making the extension on Jersey Ave a paved road for BIKES and pedestrians only!

Really do think that if the extension were widened, paved or cobblestoned, better lit, security cameras, cleaned up, weeded and cleanly landscaped...then instead of DRIVING to LSP, far more people would walk or bike to the park! I know my neighbors, friends and family would.

This alone would help with the traffic congestion overall -- both downtown AND in Lafayette.

The idea of opening the extension to vehicular traffic : terrible!

Witness the gridlock, bumper to bumper traffic for hours in the morning and afternoons when school 4 and 3 get out. an expressway extension could exacerbate the problem to an unbearable level.