I've been using Delforno for the past ten years. If it's possible for a property management company to do a better job, I can't imagine it. They take care of everything the place needs, their fees and prices are very reasonable, and they're always available. They've also done a great job of finding excellent tenants. I recommend them without reservation.

Poem by Wallace Stevens, "perhaps the greatest American poet of the 20th century."


Loneliness in Jersey City

The deer and the dachsund are one.
Well, the gods grow out of the weather.
The people grow out of the weather;
The gods grow out of the people.
Encore, encore, encore les dieux. . .

The distance between the dark steeple
And cobble ten thousand and three
Is more than seven-foot inchworm
Could measure by moonlight in June.

Kiss, cats: for the deer and the dachsund
Are one. My window is twenty-nine three
And plenty of window for me.
The steeples are empty and so are the people,
There's nothing whatever to see
Except Polacks that pass in their motors
And play concertinas all night.
They think that things are all right,
Since the deer and the dachsund are one.

Hi Haj711.

I have a place that seems to fulfill your requirements. Send me an email, and I'll give you the details.

bt_paris@yahoo.com

Thanks.

Ben

I'm happy with Del Forno.

I had to get a new tenant recently, and their screening process was way more thorough than I'd expected.

They're organized, efficient, responsive. Couldn't ask for anything more from a management company.

Well, I hope you're wrong, Brewster. I've never actually had to look for a tenant for our place on Third Street. Always either rented it to a friend, or lived in it ourselves. Now that I have to look, it's kind of intimidating.

As long as they're "slow and lumbering," I might fit in. I'll check it out.

Thanks.

No replies? I was wondering too. There's probably a game over at NJCU. Not sure when or what time though. Also, maybe there's a game at Grace Church, where we vote. But again, I don't have any specific information. If you do find a game, please post it or send a message.

Thanks.

Downtown Eddie's

It's good to see you getting involved with this, Steve. After education and crime, there isn't a more important issue to downtown homeowners, as far as I'm concerned.

I won't be able to make the meeting because I'm in Brazil, where the rainy season is just beginning. We get torrential tropical rain here that makes the rain in Jersey City seem like a sun shower. Our house here in Bahia used to flood this time of year, but a whole new sewer system was installed a few years ago, giant cement tubes that run down the middle of the street, and there is no more flooding in the neighborhood.

The natural question is, if it can be done here in Brazil, where our property taxes are about 50 US dollars a year, why can?t it be done in Jersey City?

But it wouldn?t be entirely fair. Our neighborhood here in Brazil never had a sewer system, certainly not the hundred-year-old mess we have in Jersey City, and the streets weren?t paved, so it was a much less expensive job. Also, the federal, state, and local government all chipped in, with help from international agencies.

But the fact remains: Here in Bahia, where residents live on a fraction of what we make in Jersey City, where very few people have college educations, people petitioned their local and state government until something was done.

It doesn?t seem like it?s asking too much of the City to do a study and find out exactly what needs to be done, and how much it will cost.

In the meantime, I?ve had success at our house on Third Street with this particular valve that prevents backflow. In my experience, check-valves, while they?re better than nothing, are not 100 percent reliable. Something will always clog it, as 4bailey said

Brewster will point out, as he did last year, that sewer main backflow is only part of the problem. I?m not talking about other sources of flooding, only the sewer main. The valve I?m using, here's the link, (http://www.jrsmith.com/products/prodcat.htm) has worked 100 percent of the time since it was installed about two years ago. Knock on wood. That doesn?t mean it will always work, but it has worked until now.

To everyone who?s working on trying to resolve the issue, thanks; I'd like to be there to contribute. Again, after improving schools and reducing crime, it?s arguably the single most important issue downtown.

Good point, Brewster, cost of labor.

Eddie, they dug a whole new sewer through the street. The old sewer/creek meandered through the neighborhood.

It would be a huge job, but it's basic sanitation. Again, after schools and crime, what's a more important issue?

The first step, as we said last year, would be to come up with a plan for a new sewer system and find out how much it would cost. Everyone always says that it's too big a project, but we ought to find out exactly how big.

It might be an interesting political strategy to appeal to the Bank of International Development, or the International Monetary Fund for money. That might call attention to the contrast between the luxury buildings going up and a sewer system that is so antiquated we need to ask international agencies for help.

Maybe the problem is as soon as the rain stops, everyone forgets about it. Also, it's not "sexiest" issue. When it's done, no one will see it. Nobody will be able to point to it and say, look what I did.

The project here, by the way, served 2.5 million people. It cost US$600 million of which US$264 million came from the Bank of International Development (BID), US$73 million came from the World Bank (BIRD), US$ 78.2 million came from the Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund (OECF), and the rest, US$184.8 million came from various Brazilian state and federal agencies or banks.

The valve itself cost something like $1500-1800. I don't have the receipts with me. But that's what it cost, more or less. They'll give you an estimate for the work.

See pm.

I'll take this opportunity to get on the soapbox for a minute. I probably said the same thing last year, but after the school system and crime, I don't think there's a more important issue for Downtown.

I'm in Brazil now. You're saying this guy must be nuts if he's writing from Brazil. But we still have a house in Jersey City, and I check this board from time to time to see what's going on.

When I came here for the first time in 1991, there was no sewer system at all. That is, the sewer was an open fetid creek that ran through the neighborhood. During the rainy season here, it rains harder and longer than you can imagine; tropical downpours that last for hours. The creek/sewer flooded our street and house regularly. I'll spare you the details, but it wasn't pleasant.

A few years ago, after years of petitioning the city and state governments, our neighborhood here in Bahia in Northeast Brazil got a brand new sewer system, including separate networks for rain run-off and sewage. In Jersey City, the two are combined, which is the root of the problem.

The average salary here is between $150 and $500 a month. The tax base is almost non-existent. It's true, the city got help from the Bank of International Development, I think it was. But the contrast is amazing. Here we are in what people sometimes call a favela, in one of the poorer places in the world, and we have a better sewer system here than the one we have Downtown.

With all the development going on up there, it's incredible that we have a better sewer system here in the underdeveloped world than we do in Jersey City.

Sorry to hijack the thread. And I'll step down off the soapbox.

It's true, we go through the same thing every year.

Plumbers will tell you that check-valves work, but they don't because, as Alan said, debris gets stuck in the valve, which prevents it from closing. I had a check-valve, and a system for keeping it clean and free of debris, and it still didn't work all the time.

I had this Floodgate valve installed about a year-and-a-half ago, and it's been working so far. Guarini will put it in for you. Here's a link:

http://www.jrsmith.com/products/prodcat.htm

This is, of course, for sewer backup through your main. It's not the same thing as water seeping through your walls, which is another issue.

Every once in a while, Scott, the JCMUA comes by with those big orange trucks and cleans out the sewer main. Next time you see them, go out and take a look at the main. It's round; I'd say it's 12-24 inches in diameter, although I can't say for sure. The guys at JCMUA probably know.

One thing you might want to do is call them every once in a while and ask them to clean the sewer. There was a woman who lived on the corner who used to call all the time. But she moved.

Good luck with the check valve. You don't have to worry about what effect your check valve has on the neighbors. The amount of water that gets through your main is small in comparison to the amount that falls. Plus, you have to take of of your own house.

It was a good idea to call the State DEP office. It puts me in the curious position now of hoping the basement floods so I can document. Although this last solution, the floodgate valve, does seem to be working. So maybe I won't have the opportunity for a little while. I will write letters to the people on that list though. -- Thanks for your work on this Tom. It is a critical issue.

A master plan, or any plan for that matter, is the first step. In the letters that I write and the phone calls that I make, that's one of the points I'll be making. Here are some names and addresses of people to write to, in case you don't have them already.


Jersey City Municipal Utilities Authority
555 Routhe 440, Jersey City, NJ 07305
(201) 432-1150
Thoams P, Kane Executive Director
Joseph Beckmeyer, Chief Engineer
Teresa Harrington, Supervisor of Customer Service

The City of Jersey City
280 Grove Street
Jersey City, NJ 07302
Mayer Healy (201) 547-4900

The New Jersey DEP
Mr. James Hamilton, Administrator
Water Compliance and Enforcement
401 East State Street, 4th Floor, Box 422
Trenton NJ 08625-0422

The New Jersey DEP
Mr. Joe Mikulka, Manager
Northern Region, Compliance Enforcement
7 Ridgedale Avenue, Cedar Knolls, NJ 07927
(973) 656-4099

Good luck, Scott. Stop by the house if you ever want to talk about it. It shouldn't cost that much money, so don't let them charge you a fortune.

In my experience, regular check valves don't work. Or, more accurately, they do work for a while, but eventually they stop working; the valve gets clogged and won't close.

I had one for a few years. I installed a somewhat elaborate system to keep it from getting clogged, and it still was not one-hundred percent effective. It did work sometimes. But at least once or twice a summer we'd get a storm that would flood the place.

The valve we use now, this floodgate valve, (link on previous post) is not a standard check valve, and it has been working. I wouldn't use anything else.

It doesn't cost that much, super_furry. We replaced our ceramic main from the house to the street a few years ago; it was about 2k for the excavation. Probably a little more now, but certainly not close to 20k. You don't need to tear up the basement if you put the valve in the front of the house.

The valve itself costs $1800. I've posted it here before, but here it is again. Regular check valves, in my experience, don't work. This one does, or seems to be working anyway.

http://www.jrsmith.com/products/prodcat.htm

It's a serious issue. It was on the agenda at the meeting last night, although I couldn't go. That might be a good place for you to start.

I used this floodgate valve, installed by Guarini plumbing, which seems to be working.

But in the long run it'll become an issue at our house again. It's outrageous really (excuse the hyperbole) that we're at the mercy of the rain here the way we are.

I live in Brazil sometimes where the rains are torrential, like yesterday but for hours at a time. Even there, where people live on one-hundred dollars a month, they have a modern sewage system that works, and a government that responds.

We had an open sewer running through our neighborhood when I got there in the early nineties. Residents complained and complained, and the city finally installed giant sewer mains, almost big enough to stand in. Ours here in Jersey City, by contrast, are maybe a foot wide, and many are still made of the original ceramic.

*******

Jersey City MUA

Many residents in downtown Jersey City suffer from flooding with each rain. It?s time to challenge the MUA to address these issues. Tom Gibbons will spearhead a campaign to draw attention to this issue and will address the community on his thoughts.