There still is (was) street sweeping on the Jewish Holidays. At least at Temple Beth-El you can get a flyer to place in your car saying that you are observing at the Temple and they are not supposed to ticket you. It only applies to the blocks right around Beth-El. I do not know if the other synagogues have that but I would assume they would.

It's a numbers racket. Low level crime and corruption but shouldn't be going on in schools, and shouldn't be run by county government employees or Dem party workers. It's certainly worth investigating and stopping.

BOE is not selling their building for $6 million. The $6 million figure is an amount in the budget but represents a portion of what the building would be sold for amortized over several years. It is also possible that the BOE instead enters into a lease or net lease of the property.

Seriously though, I think the easiest way to deal with this is for the city to go to each illegal curb cut and paint "PUBLIC PARKING ALLOWED" in the spot.

The city should make this the next stop in their pilot "Parklet" program.

I am not saying that the district was run efficiently before Lyles. But she did not improve it and appears to have compounded it. The district had a $71 million shortfall before the budget cuts, when just a few years before it had almost that amount in reserves.

And when the district does take an action that will help eliminate some of the redundancies, such as removing the super's redundant or unqualified appointments, it's criticized because THOSE hires were supported by the downtown parents.

This board certainly does not have the hostility to the teachers' union as do some predecessors, but even board members endorsed by the union regularly have to clash with them. The recently negotiated union contract balances out even and included concessions on work rules that cost the district.


Remember the fit the union threw when the district moved out of the State School Employees Health Fund? The district saved approximately $11 million from that. The most outspoken board member against that move was the one NOT endorsed by the union.

This district has a lot of work to do, for sure, but it has made more improvements in the past 2 years than it had in the 20 before it.

The McNair kids previously were educated quite well and will continue to be so.

There is a serious funding issue due to the Sweeney Screwjob. Credit is due to the district for covering this year's gap, particularly because they had to cover the $71 million Lyles gap that occurred a year before the funding cuts even took place.

And Lyles's personnel policies were indeed part of the financial problem. Insisting on going outside to add superfluous hires and creating a praetorian guard of loyalists bloated the budget.

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Not a good idea. The decision is, as Parents 4 Progress so sanctimoniously reminded us when Lyles was in charge, that of "Administration." The super makes it and it's not subject to approval/disapproval by the board (as opposed to the unqualified and patronage hires in central office that the board disapproved last year).

The principal, if she wishes, will have a right to a Donaldson hearing where she can get the reasons for termination and make an appeal to the board.

So if the board "explains its actions" it's probably setting itself up for a legal challenge, since it can't prejudge the matter via statements responding to critics. Then again, a lot of the leaks to the press and on social media are precisely designed for that, to bait board members into doing something that can then be challenged. Fortunately the ship runs tighter than that these days (Lyles supporters on the board and in staff sometimes leaked confidential documents such as privileged legal advice to the Jersey Journal in the hopes of getting a story to lean their way).

The above three posts all share a theme that in order to be truly effective, one has to harbor a sneering contempt of people with experience and community ties.

I am not personally familiar with the McNair principal. I have heard opinions from both sides. Critics of her go beyond the union and include parents and students, including some who I was rather surprised to see because it went against the expected political "form." On the other hand her supporters have uniformly been the ones who have contempt for unions and people who have worked there way up through the district as opposed to being plucked from somewhere else with a shiny pedigree. I am sure there are others out there but I haven't seen them.

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What basis have you determined that she was either good or smart?

And how does "Cost saving measure" equate to "JCEA Assassination"?

I'm glad the councilman brought this up. Hardly anyone knows that we even have a rent control ordinance. By all means we can discuss whether we should have one or whether it would accomplish its goals IF it was enforced. But compared to NYC, where rent control is a widely discussed issue and both the public and real estate professionals are aware of it, Jersey City has not done a good job making people aware of their rights and obligations.

The "labor" i.e. the teachers are the main benefit the students get from schools.

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The board is not "controlled" by the teachers. Although the union endorsed candidates have won in recent elections after years of "Parents for Progress" candidates, they exercise their independent judgment. Significantly more so than the board members who repeatedly failed to address issues and instead muttered "I support Dr. Lyles" as a mantra.

Last year the board closed a $71 million shortfall. This year the board has negotiated a contract which has no raises in the first year and contains significant concessions on matters such as extra work. It is a more responsible agreement than those that were negotiated under Dr. Lyles.

The board is ahead of the Star-Ledger editors on health care costs. The Star-Ledger suggests merging the state school employees health care fund with the state employees health care fund. Jersey City, however, is not in the state school employees health care fund. They exited last year, to the great consternation of the union, and have saved millions of dollars.

The district squandered its reserve fund with Lyles at the helm, without oversight. It was not "union controlled" board members that allowed this to happen.

It seems that you're quibble is that you never liked the Abbott decision and the obligations that the State had under it.

In terms of the lifting of the cap, that is all well and good now but it doesn't change the fact that the district's contribution was hamstrung until now. So to blame the city for the district's inability to raise the cap in the past makes no sense.

Based on prior constitutional mandates and court decisions, the BOE is correct.

And it was state law that a) imposed a property tax cap and b) required all PILOT payments to be made to municipalities. So don't blame the district for underfunding.

"My anonymous sources are more reliable than your anonymous sources."

I suspect Menendez is not going to spend his time trying to make Fulop miserable, but wouldn't mind giving him a push over the edge if he can help a challenger in a race.

I'd want to know what the effect of the 2016 ordinance was before saying this is or is not beneficial. How many listings are by people who live in the apartment and just rent out a room, and how many are units used as hotels? And of the listings, how many exceed the 28 day limit in the ordinance and by how much?

When I walked by the Cherry Pick signage was still there. They just had another sign in the window advertising the brand (Jane's) that they sell.

Jane's Ice Cream is based up in Kingston, NY, and they were the supplier for Cherry Picked all along, so I suspect there is little or no change.

I think the suggestion was a bit tongue in cheek but it's still not well thought out. We want reverse commuters. If they take the PATH they help fund the operation while filling capacity on the reverse commute. The car traffic is not as desirable but on balance we gain by having more people working and shopping in Jersey than we lose with automobile traffic (again on reverse peak).

NYC can implement congestion pricing because of the....congestion. Jersey City has a bottleneck at the tunnels during rush hour, and that affects downtown traffic, but we are not so packed and do not have so much demand to use our roads that we can implement congestion pricing.

Improved public transportation in NYC benefits us here. I know that for my purposes, off peak travel and weekend travel is often a real pain due to the deferred maintenance of the NYC transit system.

Uncle Floyd headlined a Loews fundraiser several years ago. He still was sharp back then!

Parent: "You're grounded"

Child: "What does that mean? That makes no sense!"

Parent: "No going out with your friends."

Child: "Oh, so does that mean I can't like, go to school?"

Parent: "No, you go to school, but you can't go out socially with friends."

Child: "What?! This is the THIRD time you've tried to punish me. You're just HARASSING ME! This is DYSFUNCTIONAL!"

I only wish the Jersey Journal could have reported he depletion of a $70 million reserve fund under Lyles over the past 5 or so years with the vigor they are covering the vote to remove Lyles from her duties.

States have been able to balance their budgets and fund necessary programs by raising taxes on the highest bracks. California and Minnesota are examples. Meanwhile, Kansas's experiment with uber-supply side economics fared poorly.

But it is equally true that.

a) Relying too much on high bracket income taxes makes a state more vulnerable to economic swings.

b) The money has to be spent wisely.

After 9/11 New Jersey Association of Railroad Passengers was advocating connecting the PATH to the Lexington Avenue line. Apparently the tracks are the right width, and with all the construction that had to have been done, it would have been feasible. It never got off the ground and never got to the point where one would have to figure out which agency would run it.

Yes Yvonne does not even live in the Van Vorst neighborhood. She had nothing to do with that project, except that she questioned it at a council meeting. And if I recall correctly the official who answered her gave her a wrong answer.

They don't. But those stories make good copy and are ripe for playacting during public comment.

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Rampant misfeasance and malfeasance in central office is not "inside baseball."

If you don't want to be informed about the issues, that's fine. But then don't pontificate about what the "real problem" is and think that by pulling a few random stats out of your butt that you understand what's going on in the district.

There have been plenty of issues of policy and accountability. There was Lyles's funnelling of resources to outside vendors for "professional development", the creation of a "leadership academy" with vague accountability, the loss of the entire reserve fund, toxic labor relations and poor morale, flaunting of civil service requirements that meant the board was painted as being "dysfunctional" when they finally said "enough" and refused to renew the appointments, chicanery on the health insurance switch.

Frankly, the timing of this was probably the polite way to do it. I would have noticed it and held the vote in the spring but for goodness sake, look at the vote. Even with a 3-0 sweep next November of a P4P redux, Lyles still has 5 votes against her. The dissatisfaction of the board was there for a long time, and I didn't see any attempts by Lyles to remedy it. If she didn't notice it before, then the election of the slate in November should have served as a wake up call.

I did not have as many problems as others with the project, though the way it was pushed through was deceptive.

But how is the VVPA illegitimate?

And Yvonne has not had anything to do with it for a long time.

Incorrect on so many levels.

1) The employees in question all received Rice notices. The problem is that Dr. Lyles ignored the fact that central office was rife with violations of the civil service law and other improper appointments. She assumed she could just place these on the agenda and get a pro forma approval. The board finally said enough is enough.

2) The "financial problems" were disagreements with his matrimonial attorneys over a few thousand dollars in what was billed. The matter has been resolved and everything has been paid.

3) Mediation would not have averted a teacher's strike. Mediation was a way that the district could have delayed further bargaining. It was what the district did in the prior dispute, which angered the teachers because it was a way for Lyles and the P4P controlled board to avoid resolution.

The teachers were without a contract for a significantly longer period last time than this time. There was a 1 day strike because there was a much different labor environment where teachers were striking across the country.

And over the weekend, the parties bargained round the clock, and with help of the mayor, resolved the contract. Had the district sought to go to mediation, then the contract would not have been resolved and the union could have continued the strike. The district was lined to go up to court and stop the strike (public sector unions are not permitted to call a strike) but the contract was resolved. A lot quicker, a lot less legal expense, a lot less acrimony.

The current board was able to settle the contract in a much less acrimonious, more efficient, less expensive matter than the prior board.

The bottom line is that this board has accomplished more in 10 months than prior boards accomplished over the past 10 years. It has done so just as the state has begun to drastically cut aid (with the encouragement of those who back the JC United slate). And it has done so as we have learned that over the past several years central office under Dr. Lyles has been at best unable to confront the serious problems of mismanagement and non-compliance, and at worst actively aided and abetted them.