Heads Up! They are *not* from FERC or the city's lobbying firm. I answered the questions in the poll tonight as well after finally giving up and picking up the phone to find out what unlisted # was bothering me all day. The woman I spoke with kept repeating that she was only working for National Research and that they just conduct polls and don't share or know who their clients are. I kept saying "this is helping Spectra figure out how they can better sell this, right?" which she denying, repeating her "we are objective" mantra. The last 10 or so questions, if you can stand to get that far, are definitely weighted toward making the respondent feel more favorable about Spectra: things like "What should Jersey City spend all the money they'd be getting from Spectra on, education, parks, infrastructure, or lower taxes?" A quick search shows this: http://www.nationalresearchinc.com/ is the company. Quote: We'll conduct the right research, among the right audience and we'll ask the right questions. We'll give you an in-depth analysis, and then we'll work with your communications and marketing team to translate our insights into good, sound messaging. Think of our product as a "road map" that helps you get from Point A to Point B. We'll show you the path. Strategic insights yield successful outcomes. It all starts with good opinion management.

New Heights,
I don't frequent huffpo or dailykos, so sorry to disappoint you. When I want to discuss political and/or sociological articles I do so at metafilter, where members tend to discuss topics from every political and social angle rather than simply ape whatever the talking point du jour is. I learned early on at jclist to stay far away from the political postings here, so I avoid them. It's infuriating that racist axe grindings show up constantly in what look like otherwise informative (and innocuous) post topics.

Grove Path, I am well aware of that article from the NYT and discussed it at length with many knowledgeable people who study social phenomena and statistics for a living. If you'd like to view an examination and discussion of that article with cites from related research (and some personal experiences thrown in for good measure) you can find a good one at metafilter here:
http://www.metafilter.com/63665/Why-a ... -many-Americans-in-prison

I don't see any reason to revisit the question of why the statistics are as they are in a thread about a break-in in my neighborhood. I mean, JC on a pogostick!

Half the time this board is a source of useful information, half the time it makes me want to puke. This would be one of those latter times.

I wonder how many people in JC give up on contributing to these threads or don't contribute to the extent they could (thereby improving the jclist community and in turn the non-virtual JC community) because at least half of the postings here are stormfront racist garbage.

It's odd, how come I never meet the fat-ass-bikes, heights, new heights DBs in the real Jersey City? (And by odd, I mean great!)

Are they too busy holed up in their dark smelly rooms cruising jclist and Stormfront, leaving their chairs only to go to the fridge or visit the loo (probably well-stocked with Soldier of Fortune mags)?

I wonder if these robberies were the work of a group of idiots from outside the Heights? A field trip, maybe? It's weird that these incidents all occurred on the same day.

I also had a bad experience on Wednesday while running down the sidewalk on Webster avenue at about 9:35 pm. Someone (I think he may have splintered off from a small group but I'm not sure) ran up behind me in a way that was unusually threatening. I'm used to neighborhood teens goofing around and daring each other to to join me for a few yards of my run every now and again, and I never feel afraid when it happens. We banter back and forth and everyone laughs.

This time something was very "off", the guy who ran up to me began to veer into me and invade my personal space rather than just fall into stride beside me. I had the sense he was going to push me or strike out. I yelled "Hey!!" and stepped off the curb at the last minute and ran into the street to get away from him. He said something I didn't catch and stop pursuing me. I didn't get a look at him at all, it happened so suddenly. I'm used to feeling pretty comfortable at all hours of the night here, and it's a shame for that to change.

Quote:
Excellent post. These three steps alone would lead to a vast quality of life improvement in Jersey City, not to mention creating a more aesthetically pleasing environment.

somuchspam, solittletime9.

I also vividly remember what this end of Jersey Avenue looked like in 2002, it was unbelievably run down and sketchy. The Liberty Harbor North development is a welcome improvement, and I'm glad the construction took into consideration new urban development practices and is striving to create an integrated mini community, even if it's prefab.

It's a shame the shills are quickly chipping away at all of my original positive feelings. I'm now much less inclined to talk positively about this project to people who are interested in moving to JC, because this kind of underhanded spam leaves an extremely foul taste in my mouth.

I live a couple of blocks from this lot, and I'm extremely happy to see schools going up instead of a second Stop and Shop. If the mega Stop and Shop had gone in, there would be no incentive to improve the one that already exists less than half a mile away, and I'm assuming the parent company would have shut down the original store on Central Avenue, leaving us with another hideous abandoned building.

What the heights really needs is for Stop and Shop to improve the quality of the store they already have. There's no excuse for filling that store with second rate goods, and it takes some gall for the company to push so hard for a mega store with promises to the neighborhood residents that the new store would offer them what they've long been missing (a quality supermarket) when the limitations have been created by the low quality of Stop and Shop's original store in the first place.

!???!

Thanks, DanL! That link is very helpful.

Mathias,
it's insane that JC and Newark are inaccessible to each other by foot or bike. I'd be happy to petition for the walkways to be cleared and show up at the appropriate meetings, is there an organization that is working toward this? If not, there should be one.

sure, New Heights,

I just might agree with you if:
1. Someone could live on minimum wage in the NYC metro area rather than resort to welfare, especially if they were able to afford part-time child care so that they were able to go to work.
2. There were actually enough jobs in the U.S. that paid a livable wage available for those people without that "overrated" college degree .

Btw, I know a professional dog walker, and he's been to law school. His contacts were partially what allowed him to build a network of dog owning clients. The world would be a much better place if "laziness" was all that kept anyone who wanted to from making a decent living. How are those black and white glasses working out for you? Or are you just trolling this thread?

Oh gawd. Whatever!
(I lurv the madlibs thing. It's perfect).
I like the heights, I've been here a few years and stayed weekends here often even before that. My husband has lived here since 1992 or so. We're located right near Christ Hospital and I walk home from the Journal Square path station at all hours of the night and I've never had a problem. I run 8-10 miles almost every day, often as late as 11:00 pm either down Webster and into Union City/ Weehawken, down Baldwin and into Lincoln park via Vroom/JFK or down Newark and into Liberty State via Jersey Ave.

I've never felt unsafe here. We've never been broken into (knock on wood) and I've never been hassled. Occasionally teenagers will run up alongside me if they are egged on by their friends, but it's always done in jest and I end up trading jokes and barbs with them as they kick my old slow ass for a few blocks.

I do see some shady behavior here sometimes, possibly gang related, but it's contained and has never caused me to curtail my outside activities. Any bad apples are far outnumbered by the amount families I see walking around day and night. The heights has very much of a neighborhood feel. I don't see many yuppies, and even fewer hipsters (like, none) but I like that it's not "cool" or "hip" to live here. It's very real, working class, and as far as the rents staying low, well, good. It means the wonderful diversity (ethnic but also economic) and definite funk factor won't be leaving the heights any time soon.

I've spent more than half my life living in places where I wouldn't venture out the door past midnight by myself without extreme caution and some amount of foreboding. JC Heights has *not* been one of those places.

sk6media, I recently (within the past 5 years) moved to Jersey City from Brooklyn. Before that, I lived for 15 years in Providence, RI, another place that struggled for years with the displacement of artists from historical live/work spaces, the demolition of artist communities, and the destruction of the industrial raw spaces required for fabricating artworks. I've witnessed the epic battles before -some won, many more lost, although a recent nyt article in the business section gives me hope about the affordable live/work condos one angel developer, Buff Chase, has created. I worked as an artists' assistant at the Foundry building during the late 80s and early 90s when the artists tried (and almost managed to) buy the building that they were being evicted from. I lived in a loft in 2000/2002 directly behind Fort Thunder while they were fighting in vain to save the building, and lived among the rubble as each incredible industrial space was dismantled day by day to make room for a strip mall (which is now pretty much vacant, as predicted by those fighting the developers at the time). For an overview of the demolished buildings, see this site: art in ruins Providence has managed to save and foster parts of its art community despite the odds however. These stories that are being told regarding the 111 fiasco are important, and although I am a practicing artist I am only beginning to try to find a way to become involved with the art community (if there is anything left of it now). This has been quite an education for me so far. My husband and I looked into purchasing a large shell of an historic building on Grand street, planning on creating a satellite artists community with a coffee shop/ quiet performance space/gallery downstairs with artists studios above. The owners backed out and now we are afraid it will be razed like everything else around here. Does Jersey City have an active historical commission, etc. to address saving these kinds of buildings the way Providence did (even though they were often bulldozed over anyway)? Anyway, sorry for rambling and perhaps taking this thread a bit off-topic. I'm trying to get a handle on the arts community here and would like to become more involved in it eventually. This sort of news, even if "Old News" is of utmost relevance still, since these are issues that the JC arts community will have to deal with in order to not only thrive, but to exist at all.