I have linked what I believe to be the law.

Do the machines now have voter counters? If not, my understanding is that we add up the at large votes which I believe is 83395. We divide by twice the number of elected people (6) and get 13899. We add one to get to 13,900. Therefore, I would think that anyone with more than 13,900 votes would get elected. Perhaps the machines now have voter counts which changes the analysis? Or am I reading this incorrectly? Or did the law change?

http://www.mediafire.com/view/?si1897hg28n8nm9

I think this is a great thing for Jersey City. But for Steven Fulop - wow. Think about all the battles he has fought in Jersey City and all the time he has put in. I moved to Jersey City in 2006 and one of the first things I read about was Fulop taking on the police chief.


Fulop and Jersey City Police Chief in 2006

Then in 2007 I believe we had some bad flooding and there was a meeting with the JCMUA. Fulop was there as the Ward representative and balanced advocacy of the citizens with mediation with the JCMUA. I was impressed.

But for Fulop to sit there all the time and deal with the Healy cronies - wow. How do you sit there and argue straight faced with Willie Flood who supposedly would fall asleep at meetings? He continued to battle. He was on the losing end for numerous battles. But he kept pushing and I believe was the force behind the revamping of the school board.

The point is that Fulop has stuck with Jersey City and deserves this. Congratulations to Steve, his team and Jersey City. Even his long term planning is another example of how he earned it...

This is a Fulop email from October, 2010:

"The Next Mayor/Council Election

Fall is here and it has brought, unfortunately, another tax increase to Jersey City. That has a special sting when so many of our neighborhoods are becoming less clean and less safe. It is against this backdrop that I write to update you briefly on some happenings on the personal front.

After four years as the outsider on the City Council, I am exploring a run for mayor and building a team for the 2013 election. It is important that we start the process now, because the political organization in Jersey City has a tremendous advantage in infrastructure and fundraising. There's a reason people refer to it as a machine. However, with time and community involvement, I know that we can replicate the results we have had recently and minimize their advantage. We need your help not only with financial support, but with volunteering (www.stevenfulop.com).

As part of this exploratory process, we are launching a new website www.stevenfulop.com. I encourage you to visit the site - once there, you'll recognize that we need your help! Progress in Jersey City will require more than an independent mayor. The city needs a new generation of leaders to serve on the City Council as well and identifying them starts with you. We are taking a different approach and asking you to direct us to the people in your neighborhood who you think we should encourage to step forward as candidates. I am hoping to find?and to support?Council candidates who are leaders in their communities and want to serve because they care about the city.

We are having our first fundraising event at The Grand Banks Cafe (corner of Montgomery and Washington) on November 4th. It is a $20 event to encourage community involvement and further details are on the site. I hope you can attend. This is a first and important step in a long process.

As always, I am thankful for the opportunity that you have already given me.

Sincerely
Steve"

Buffalo Chicken pizza at Carmine's is the best. I moved out of Jersey City and still come back to Carmine's for this pizza.

I am not sure if this is on point, but this is from the Jersey City Code:

Chapter 131 (2)(b)


Plumbing subcode schedule of fees. Plumbing fees for replacement permits, extension permits, new building permits, heating apparatus, cooling apparatus, ventilating and specialty apparatus shall be as follows:
(a)
Plumbing fixtures: $10.00. Included but not limited to: water closet, urinal, bidet, bathtub, lavatory, shower, floor drain, sink, dishwasher, drinking fountain, washing machine hose bib, closet bend, coffee maker, gas appliance, gas service connection, ice maker, rain leader, roof drain, sprinkler head, sump pump, trap prime, washing machine tray, yard drain.
(b)
 
Water Heater $30.00
Fuel Oil Piping $10.00
Gas Piping $10.00
Steam boiler $30.00
Hot Water Boiler $30.00
Sewer Pump $40.00
Interceptor $40.00
Separator $40.00
Back flow Preventer $10.00 (domestic)
Back flow Preventer $75.00 (fire service)
Grease trap $40.00
Sewer connection $40.00
Water Service $30.00 (up to 2″)
Water Service $60.00 (above 2″)
Stacks $40.00

Some of Mocco's companies filed for bankruptcy yesterday. The article is subscription only so I cannot post it.

The Village

http://www.jcvillage.org/

Well, the point of the PATH's signal project is to increase capacity. Once finished, they are supposed to be able to run trains closer to each other. Just a few more years...

Most of the sweepers I have seen in JC do seemingly leave a trail of garbage behind them. It is frustrating to watch. If it truly was only about ticketing, couldn't the city save money by eliminating the street cleaners altogether?

Quote:

Do you send your kids to the local public schools?

I thought the abatements were helpful to the city because Jersey City keeps all the money and does not have to share with the state?

What gimmicks did they use this year?

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


Jersey City City Council adopts budget
Published: Wednesday, September 28, 2011, 3:00 AM
By Terrence T. McDonald/The Jersey Journal


With fewer than 100 days left in the year, Jersey City last night adopted a $490 million city budget, one that officials say comes with no tax increase.
The City Council unanimously adopted the spending plan last night, more than six months after it was introduced. The city administration delayed the process as it waited to close a $15 million land deal, and then delayed it again when the land deal fell through two weeks ago.
Until last year, the city worked under a fiscal year budget that ended in June. This year is the city?s first with a calendar-year plan.
Though city officials have been criticized by residents for taking so long to adopt the spending plan, Council President Peter Brennan said last night the delay did no harm.
The budget was mostly set in stone in March, when the council first approved it, Brennan said.
Brennan praised Business Administrator Jack Kelly for delivering the budget, and he lauded the city?s labor unions for accepting flat increases, work furloughs and other ?givebacks.?
?We made up $80 million,? he said, referring to the budget gap the city had been facing. ?There was a lot of work by a lot of people to close it.?
Councilman Steve Fulop, while voting to approve the spending plan, nonetheless expressed ?serious concerns? about it. One-time budget gimmicks, Fulop said, will only delay the pain.
?We?re set up for massive tax increases next year,? he said.
According to the budget adopted last night, the city will need to raise $215 million through taxes. City spokeswoman Jennifer Morrill said about $6.4 million of that is for the local school district, leaving about $208 million for city purposes.

Perhaps someone can figure out how many relatives of city leaders live in such apartments.

Plan B is calling Spectra and offering to stop fighting the pipeline if Spectra gives the city $15M.

I don't mean to be defeatist, but FERC is clearly going to grant this. FERC seems unconcerned with any of the potential problems.

In 2006 and 2007 there was sex in cars on 1st and Merseles under the Turnpike. I cannot say for sure if it was prostitution. Crescent Court changed that situation. Getting rid of Indios would be another positive step.

From an outsider's perspective, it looks scary.

There was progress on most of the items. Thank you Steve. I get the sense that the booting issue reached an impasse and now has been pushed aside for more important issues. There is also the matter of refunding money to people for improper booting. Money which the city does not have.

I was on the PATH advisory council last year. PATH was very straightforward in stating that they have complied with the applicable federal laws and an elevator would be nice but is not going to happen anytime soon.

Ringside, Latin Lounge, and Indio's.

New York City caters to tourists with the pedestrian friendly streets. Has anyone identified the people downtown JC wants to bring in with the increased parking?

And if I live in Canco, the argument is that I should take the PATH to Grove and then walk? What if I live in Bayonne?

Has Fulop said where he wants to draw people from? Are these Newport people (they could walk too?)? Or people from out of town?

If I live in Liberty Harbor and want a quick lunch at It's Greek To Me on a Saturday afternoon, what are my parking options? Is it just driving around the block hoping that a spot opens up? Is it parking at Grove Point and then walking to Jersey Ave? Am I supposed to walk 15 minutes each way and not drive (I probably would not go in that case).

Perhaps not so "clean"...



Chronicle Online

April 11, 2011
Natural gas from fracking could be 'dirtier' than coal, Cornell professors find

Howarth

By Stacey Shackford
Extracting natural gas from the Marcellus Shale could do more to aggravate global warming than mining coal, according to a Cornell study published in the May issue of Climatic Change Letters (105:5).

While natural gas has been touted as a clean-burning fuel that produces less carbon dioxide than coal, ecologist Robert Howarth warns that we should be more concerned about methane leaking into the atmosphere during hydraulic fracturing.

Natural gas is mostly methane, which is a much more potent greenhouse gas, especially in the short term, with 105 times more warming impact, pound for pound, than carbon dioxide (CO2), Howarth said, adding that even small leaks make a big difference. He estimated that as much as 8 percent of the methane in shale gas leaks into the air during the lifetime of a hydraulic shale gas well -- up to twice what escapes from conventional gas production.

"The take-home message of our study is that if you do an integration of 20 years following the development of the gas, shale gas is worse than conventional gas and is, in fact, worse than coal and worse than oil," Howarth said. "We are not advocating for more coal or oil, but rather to move to a truly green, renewable future as quickly as possible. We need to look at the true environmental consequences of shale gas."

Howarth, the David R. Atkinson Professor of Ecology and Environmental Biology, Tony Ingraffea, the Dwight C. Baum Professor of Engineering, and Renee Santoro, a research technician in ecology and evolutionary biology, analyzed data from published sources, industry reports and even Powerpoint presentations from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

They compared estimated emissions for shale gas, conventional gas, coal (surface-mined and deep-mined) and diesel oil, taking into account direct emissions of CO2 during combustion, indirect emissions of CO2 necessary to develop and use the energy source and methane emissions, which were converted to equivalent value of CO2 for global warming potential.

The study is the first peer-reviewed paper on methane emissions from shale gas, and one of the few exploring the greenhouse gas footprints of conventional gas drilling. Most studies have used EPA emission estimates from 1996, which were updated in November 2010 when it was determined that greenhouse gas emissions of various fuels are higher than previously believed.

"We are highlighting unconventional gas because it is a contemporary problem for us in upstate New York, and because there is a big difference between developing gas from an unconventional well and a conventional well, for the mere reason that unconventional wells are bigger," Ingraffea said.

He noted that the hydraulic fracturing process lends itself to more leakage because it takes more time to drill the well, requires more venting and produces more flowback waste, he said.

"A lot of the data we used are really low quality, but I'm confident they are the best available," Howarth said. "We want to go out into the Marcellus Shale and do micrometeorological fluxes of methane at the time of venting and get a real number on this, which has never been done. We're optimistic we can get funding and do that over the next year."

"We've tried to be conservative all along; we're not trying to be hyperbolic in our statements," Ingraffea said.

"We do not intend for you to accept what we've reported on today as the definitive scientific study in regards to this question. It's clearly not," he added. "What we're hoping to do with this study is to stimulate the science that should have been done before. In my opinion, corporate business plans superseded national energy strategy."

Stacey Shackford is a staff writer in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

I assume the police will be paid to stand around and guard this construction like any other construction project. Of course they want a company with deep pockets to do construction in the city.

I think you are actually dividing the assessed value by the tax ratio. But, yes, you should end up with the supposed market value around $300,000.

We used a $3 laundry basket from Target as our reclycling bin.

Isn't the real question whether a parking space should be part of the benefits package given to these city employees and the spots taken away from residents and other businesses? instead of the city paying for the spots, if the city thinks residents and local businesses do not need the spots, shouldn't they be rented out to raise funds for the JCPA?

Here are some crazy photos of the gas explosion in Minnesota this past weekend.

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/disp ... 17/photos-explosion-fire/

Healy's long term strategy is to close all the libraries and ask for pay lags from everyone. Just keep kicking the can down the road.

My experience is that we received 25% off the tax assessment. Very simple. It is regular taxes. The assessment is based on the sale price and the tax ratio for the particular year but essentially it should be proportional to the market value (sale price).

Separate projects with separate contracts. I believe there were more issues with the Columbus Ave. project.