Oh, I thought that was a private area, like all the other fenced off green spaces in Paulus Hook (how antisocial). Thanks, will check it out.

Re: Colgate park, I too would like to know when that will be fixed up. And I, for one, do not care for the Colgate clock itself--free advertisement for a company that abandoned the area. What a shame to hold up the park for the sake of this old relic.

Btw, yesterday, I discovered all along the edge of that area, abutting GS driveway, sharp metal spikes about 4 inches high, sticking out of the ground, parts of an old fence, I guess. If anyone were to fall on any of these camouflaged knifes sticking out of the ground--YIKES! Whoever owns the property should really look into it before someone gets hurt.


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That's great news. Now can someone tell me exactly where this hidden playground is? I do a lot of walking and I've examined Google Maps but cannot find it.

RE: Liberty Harbor, if they plan to sell to families they'd be fools not to build a playground. I now value real estate on its proximity to parks and playgrounds (and good schools, of course).

How do we get a new one? The little one in Van Vorst Park is PACKED in the mornings. There is clearly a baby boom in the area. Hamilton Park and Liberty State Park is too far away by foot. Paulus Hook has zero public playgrounds, seems like an obvious choice.

Anyone know how one goes about getting the ball rolling on this?

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That's infuriating! For the $17 mil difference, we can install heavy-duty sump-pumps all over the downtown area. So, the truth comes out, the SOB raised our taxes for cronyism, not to pay firefighter and police salaries as he claimed.

Could this have something to do with our sewers backing up? (I was pretty pissed when I heard Healy sold us out for a quick-fix to the budget.)


(Reposted)

Jersey City getting an infusion of cash - and North Bergen sewage
Wednesday, March 08, 2006
By EARL MORGAN
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

NORTH BERGEN - In a multimillion-dollar deal announced yesterday, North Bergen will tie into Jersey City's sewage system, eliminating the need for North Bergen to build a $40 million sewerage treatment plant.

Jersey City will receive an initial $8 million as part of the deal, as well as additional fees for allowing the sewage to flow through its system, North Bergen Mayor Nicholas Sacco said at a news conference yesterday at Township Hall.

North Bergen's effluent will ultimately be piped to the Passaic Valley Sewerage Authority facility in Newark.

North Bergen was under a mandate from the state Department of Environmental Protection to substantially upgrade its sewage treatment operation. The DEP must approve the agreement before it goes into effect on June 30.

Sacco, who is also a state senator, said the township will need to borrow $20 million from the DEP infrastructure fund to finance the project. North Bergen will also get a $3 million grant from the DEP.

"Since we're getting the funds through the infrastructure fund we will only have to pay interest on half of the money," Sacco said.

The project will include converting the North Bergen sewerage treatment plant on West Side Avenue to a facility for pumping sewage into the Jersey City connection. North Bergen will also pay for repairs and upgrades on the Jersey City sewage connection the township will use.

The conversion of the treatment plant will save North Bergen about $1 million a year, township officials said. Further savings will be realized from a reduction in the staff operating the plant.

Sacco said the administration is hoping to phase out some of the staff through attrition and to find positions for others in other agencies.

Jersey City Municipal Utilities Authority Executive Director Dan Becht and board president Eileen Gaughan, who attended yesterday's news conference, lauded the agreement.

Becht said the JCMUA will use some of the money to pay an unexpected $2.5 million hike in fees from the Passaic Valley Sewerage Authority.

Alternate JCMUA Commissioner Janet Gaita, however, voiced her opposition to the agreement.

"I don't think this is a good deal for the JCMUA and the taxpayers of Jersey City," Gaita said. "I believe we could have, and should have, gotten more lucrative terms than $8 million since North Bergen was faced with the choice of connecting to Bergen County's sewage system for a lot more money or building a plant that would cost $40 million."

Why don't you run, Althea? You have certainly shown more commitment and initiative than any of the candidates currently running.

If I know my vote wouldn't be wasted, I would put you in the "personal choice" vote.

For those of you who think widening lanes or building new roads is the answer to congestion, think again.


"I-287: Extend It and They Will Drive on It;A New 20-Mile Stretch Has Changed Traffic Patterns in Unintended Ways"

Excerpt: "It's as if we hadn't learned anything in the last 50 years," said David Bernstein, a professor of civil engineering at Princeton University who has studied the phenomenon. "The rule is this: If you build it, they will come. It's called induced demand. Every mile of road you build induces people to drive."

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage ... sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all


And:

"Why building new roads doesn't ease congestion"

Excerpt: "Trying to cure traffic congestion by adding more capacity is like trying to cure obesity by loosening your belt." Increased traffic capacity makes longer commutes less burdensome, and as a result, people are willing to live farther and farther from their workplace. As increasing numbers of people make similar decisions, the long-distance commute grows as crowded as the inner city, commuters clamor for additional lanes, and the cycle repeats itself.

http://bicycleuniverse.info/transpo/roadbuilding-futility.html

How about:

"Jersey City Rising"
with a picture of the skyline in the back, cranes and all.

I read an article in the NY times about how it's not always a good idea to take a home office deduction. If your house has gone up alot in value and you sell it, you have to pay business taxes on a portion of the profit, because as you've previously declared, a portion of your house is a business.

If this scenario applies, you may want to investigate.

One of the things that make Central Park and Prospect Park nice, which LSP lacks, is variations in topography--i.e. hilliness. Without hills you have a vast emptiness, or soullessness as described by another poster once.

It is nice to walk up a hill and then be rewarded by a view. Which is why I rather like the landscaping of the new memorial. I only wish they would add more hills, ponds and landscaping to the rest of the park. Because right now, a large part of LSP has the feel of a large parking lot with great views of Manhattan--which gives me the feeling of being in a transient place, longing to be in Manhattan.


I am grateful to Friends of LSP for stopping some unpark-friendly development, like the water park, but (here's the part that will probably get me in trouble with them) I wonder if they are also holding the park back from reaching its full potential. Yes, I know every year they do some tree plantings and fundraising, etc. But a GREAT park needs more than just trees--it needs a master plan designed by a landscaping architect and big bucks. What other park in the NYC area is on the waterfront with such great views? This park has the potential to be world class, to be a tourist attraction as great as any in NYC and yet ...

A grassroot organization just doesn't have the power or money to bring this to fruition--this is a 1000 plus acre park not a community garden. We need new ideas to raise money, we need more publicity for this park, how many people in NYC even knows about it? and certainly we need to get rid of this fear of losing our view from every corner of the park--because it is standing in the way of making LSP something for Manhattan to look at.