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Re: News: Hudson-Bergen Light Rail Loses Millions ($) Each Year
#1
Home away from home
Home away from home


Once I see a case of this outside Switzerland, I will do so. The chance of it happening in Jersey is somewhere between 0.0000 and 0.00001.

Quote:

JPhurst wrote:
[snip]

Let's not give short shrift to well trained, motivated and supervised civil service work forces.

Posted on: 2010/12/23 2:58
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Re: This old house may be the greener one - renovating almost always better for the environment
#2
Home away from home
Home away from home


A lot of "greenism" is motivated not by a rational understanding of environmental impacts but by a desire to publicly proclaim one's self-righteousness. A new house with solar panels, etc. or a new Prius does this but insulating an old house or continuing to drive an older but efficient car (or not owning a car) does not. That Al Gore lives in multiple giant houses and flies around everywhere, thereby having an immense carbon footprint while making the money to support his wasteful lifestyle from preaching environmentalism, is a good example of this.

It was nice to hear some sanity on this subject from NPR this morning. Hopefully someone will compare the environmental impact of buying a new hybrid vs. keeping a car that gets a few less mpg in the city and/or the impact of destroying existing vehicles (and occasioning all the impact of building a new car) via "cash for clunkers".

Quote:

GrovePath wrote:
[snip]

WADHAMS: The greenest building is the one that's already built.

Listen here

Posted on: 2010/11/18 1:51
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Re: 235 earn over $175,000 -- Christie pushes cuts & pay caps for school superintendents
#3
Home away from home
Home away from home


What you should earn is what other people are willing to voluntarily pay you for what you produce (obviously how long you spent in school has nothing to do with this). In the case of public school superintendents the customers don't have voluntary choice as one would have in, for example, choosing a doctor or financial adviser. I completely agree that much of financial services is based on skimming and fleecing the clients but there's nobody forcing you to put your money with them, unlike public education.

Also, a good metric would be what leaders of private/parochial K-12 schools make, with adjustments for performance (so to the limited extent that there are free market alternatives, the value is quantifiable). I can't imagine any organization but the government making a product so bad that even when people are forced to pay for it they willingly pay again to get something else to do the same thing.

Quote:

brewster wrote:
[snip]
The "value they generate" of these "educators" is by it's nature unquantifiable, and can't be compared to a bankers. Unfortunately I don't think most of those financial professionals deserve what they get either since the "value THEY generate" is often more ephemeral than the history crammed into a 8th graders head for an exam. Most of them stand in a shower of money, and inevitably get wet even as the rest flows down the drain. But that's a different thread I suppose.

Posted on: 2010/11/5 3:28
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Re: Reasons why I"m starting to lose confidance in JC.
#4
Home away from home
Home away from home


Wow, they actually hound people to that extent?

A KGB-like dog license enforcement staff seems like a good place to start cutting costs.

Quote:

chiefdahill wrote:
Quote:

radryan03 wrote:
Is there any reason to register your dog.... other than to pay another tax?


To prove that your dog has had it's rabies vaccination. You can not register your dog unless you produce proof of the rabies vaccination.

They walk through my building knocking on doors to hear if dogs bark and then come back in the evening to try and catch you home to see if the dog is registered.

I personally had fun telling the guy to stuff it when I produced my valid dog license.

My issue is that JC has the resources for checking dog licences but can't stop people from running red lights and blowing stops signs.

Posted on: 2010/11/3 23:15
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Re: Wolves in Liberty State Park
#5
Home away from home
Home away from home


The wolf idea is not as crazy as it seems because the northeastern "coyote" has wolf genes. Dogs can also breed with coyotes and wolves.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/28/science/28coyotes.html

Being concerned when canines circle rather than flee is also wise: http://www.canada.com/travel/Toronto+ ... attack/2154121/story.html

Posted on: 2010/10/19 3:02
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Re: Time to buy?
#6
Home away from home
Home away from home


I have never considered buying in JC for two reasons. In the early 2000s I didn't want to commit so much of my money to a place that I will eventually move away from and in the later 2000s the prices were insane compared to renting. Furthermore, I never trusted the JC government having essentially unlimited access to my checkbook (abated taxes delays this but a wise buyer would know that it ends at some point).

Even though prices have come down a bit, when I walk around downtown and look at the recently finished and ongoing construction I wonder where the buyers for so many $500K+ condos are going to come from.

The rent/buy decision is very personal and if "owning" via a mortgage means a lot to someone who never wants to move then it may make sense because it makes them happy. Conversely, for someone who sees "owning" as a long term commitment to pay rent (via property taxes) to the JC/NJ politicians, it's a deal breaker.

Quote:

Xerxes wrote:
I think housing prices in downtown Jersey City will continue downwards perhaps even accelerate because they have held up longer than other locales.

I would wait if I were interested in that particular market but I am not.

Unabated taxes in Jersey City are particularly unappealing.

But rent/buy decisions are personal and variable.My rent/buy decision is particularly easy and has been for some time..

Posted on: 2010/9/28 2:46
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Re: $100 million from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to Newark public schools
#7
Home away from home
Home away from home


As someone who gives the equivalent of a tithe to charity each year, I'm hesitant to criticize charitable donations. Still, the timing (as an unfavorable portrayal of Zuckerberg in a major movie comes out) and lack of detail about how this money is to be spent and what the expected results are provokes skepticism. I hope that it isn't just an amateurish attempt at PR/damage control but that's what it looks like.

A great trend in charity is people like the Gates foundation who apply the same kind of return on investment thinking to where the money goes that built their businesses rather than just toss it out in the interest of looking good. I'm not seeing that here and that's not my being jaded.

Quote:

itsaurora wrote:
Very sad to see such jaded comments.

Posted on: 2010/9/28 1:45
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Re: Gross Behavior by JC Police Officer Menendez
#8
Home away from home
Home away from home


As the son of a police officer and relative of others, I can assure jerseymom that not too many criminals stick a gun to one's head when a cop is anywhere nearby or likely to be (and conversely, you are on your own if it happens). Regardless, there is no reason that their public behavior shouldn't be recorded.

With respect to brewster's points, I think that you underestimate both the likelihood of crimes like muggings and their psychological impact. While many crimes are one criminal on another, that does not negate the impact of the many crimes on people like the woman that you mentioned. Also, do you really think that the risk of crime for the law abiding is "minute" around here?

There is also the outrage that many feel due to living in a state that denies people their right to effective self-defense via legally carrying firearms. To put this down to the "gun lobby" is ignorant. Rather, most people know that their risk of violent crime at any given time is low but some would like to have insurance that they can deal with it if it happens. It's much like having homeowner's insurance even though you know your house is unlikely to burn down.

Quote:

brewster wrote:
Quote:

robotjustin wrote:
Quote:

jerseymom wrote:
Quote:
Cops are no longer the civil servants of the 1950s. They are a state-sanctioned gang of mostly low-intelligence thugs.


...until someone is sticking a gun to your head and a cop risks his/her life to save you, that is.


What a crock. The odds of being HARASSED by a cop are 1000 -1 against being helped by one.


Probably not quite 1000-1, but there's truth there. The whole police thing (and the gun lobby's) of trading on civilian fear of violent crime is a sham. The odds of someone not involved in crime themselves being involved in criminal violence by a stranger is minute, and most minute in the suburbs and red states where the fear is greatest.

It happens, witness the poor woman slugged by some scumbag on 7th this week, but inside the small odds of a noncriminal experiencing violence, it's overwhelmingly likely to come from someone you know. So in that remote possibility of "someone is sticking a gun to your head", it's likely to be your relative. But "protecting you from your family" doesn't make a very good police slogan, nor do the cops have a very good track record at it, in fact they're notorious for their own domestic violence.

We read occasionally about timely police action, but for the most part they show up well after the robbery or mugging, take a report, and that's the last you hear about it. I'd love to know the JCPD clearance rates on those kinds of common crimes. Not that I think they could be solved by any city's PD, but it would give a more realistic metric of what most of us experience in dealing with the PD, and not the hyperbolic "someone is sticking a gun to your head" scenario. When was the last time JC had a real hostage taking anyway? A search of NJ.com shows only 3 news articles for JC+hostage in the last 4 years, and in one of those the perp with a gun was a JC cop. You just can't make this stuff up!

Posted on: 2010/9/22 2:27
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Re: Gross Behavior by JC Police Officer Menendez
#9
Home away from home
Home away from home


Yes they do but they will lose in court (albeit perhaps after much personal cost to the photographer). It is well established law that what people (and people includes police) do in public can be photographed/videotaped. The police were fine with this when it was mostly them monitoring/videotaping people in public but now that everyone has a cell phone camera and many cases of police misconduct that would have been swept under the rug (e.g. the BART shooting) are now out there for the world to see; the worst of them aren't so happy about it.Quote:


robotjustin wrote:
In some (police) states the cops are invoking wiretapping laws to arrest citizen photographers.

Watch your ass!

Posted on: 2010/9/20 4:15
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Re: CBS's Guide to loving Jersey City
#10
Home away from home
Home away from home


Not mentioning the Loews is a big miss. That's where I bring friends from NYC because they have nothing like it. What they do mention is great for folks who live in or are considering moving to JC but it already exists, often in a better form, in NYC. That's just the reality of getting NYC residents to cross the river for a night out rather than pointing out how there are fun things to do in JC.

Quote:

Amy wrote:
I can't see why they'd include a place like White Star in an article aimed at getting New Yorkers to see what's special about JC. Who would make the trek to get bar food? I would have replaced it with Made With Love's communal dinners, the Loews Theater, or something else that's a little more distinctive.

Posted on: 2010/9/17 0:01
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Re: Donald Trump sued for fraud over Trump SoHo condo
#11
Home away from home
Home away from home


It was a way of taking advantage of how hotels were allowed to be much larger than residential buildings. Also, probably a lot of wealthy people don't want to be in NYC for too many days, lest they have to pay the city income tax. The whole bedbug thing must have really put a crimp in their devious scheme...

Quote:

Bogart wrote:
Quote:

Trump SoHo is unusual in that owners are limited to staying in their units no more than 120 days a year and no more than 29 consecutive days in any 36-day period. Units are rented to hotel guests when owners are away.



Ew.

Posted on: 2010/9/15 0:49
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Re: Downtown: Woman robbed outside her (second street) home
#12
Home away from home
Home away from home


I wouldn't be so sure about that. Due to the academic research showing that enacting concealed carry laws is followed by a drop in violent crime, a lot of people have changed their minds on this issue (I'm one of them). Even if the more anti-freedom states' politicians won't go for it, it may happen via a national concealed carry reciprocity law (much as states honor other states' drivers' licenses).

Of course if the JC mayor was judged based on how well the government has kept people safe he would be looking for other work.

Quote:

gibbons70 wrote:
Quote:

MDM wrote:
It would be nice for NJ to join 40 other states in becoming a "shall issue" (or no permit required) for concealed carry. The perps would be a little more hesitant if their intended targets could fight back.


Never. Ever. Gonna. Happen.

Besides, according to Duh Maher, it's the Governments responsibility to keep the populace safe.

Posted on: 2010/9/9 23:35
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Re: the jersey journal is too PC
#13
Home away from home
Home away from home


Yes eyewitness testimony is often wrong but that also applies to everything about the perp, not just race. Yet it is only race that is being suppressed. Also, I don't think that the issue is a victim not knowing the difference between various Asians vs. a black guy or a white guy. Get real - if someone said it was a white guy terrorizing your 'hood would you not want to know this info, even if he was a Hispanic from Spain?

Quote:

kitten wrote:
It has been explained on this site before that the JJ does not mention race because often people are wrong when determining race. It makes sense to me. You may think someone is Latino who is in fact African American. I've totally been dead wrong when determining ethnicity (i.e. just met someone whom I referred to as Indian and found out later she is Egyptian). And forget about Korean, Chinese, and Japanese. Simply saying Asian is very broad. And then what about mixed people? I know someone who's mom is black and dad is white but people think he is either Jewish, Italian, or Puerto Rican.

So, at the end of the day, hairstyle, height, weight, eye color and clothes have to do. (and, I bet more often than not, those descriptions are wrong. human perception is a strange thing)

Posted on: 2010/8/11 4:08
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Re: Vilification of public safety
#14
Home away from home
Home away from home


As I pointed out earlier in this thread, cops did the same job and until recently didn't get anywhere near the lavish pay and benefits that they now receive. If you want to make an argument that cops today are so much better than the cops of a few decades ago due to their higher comp, I would like to hear it. Your proposed experiment of paying them (even) more has already been done.

In terms of what star athletes make; I also find it ridiculous that they can make 7 or 8 figures for playing a child's game. What you need to realize is that nobody is forcing anyone to pay $100+ for sports tickets or buy the stuff that these guys endorse. Those of us who find it silly can easily ignore it and it's no skin off our nose (or cost to us). To think otherwise is to believe that one's own values should determine others' economic choices in a dictatorial fashion.

By contrast, public service employees live off of taxes, which are involuntarily taken from us. It's the combination of unsustainable comp & benefits and the coercive nature of this relationship that is causing so much anger.

Quote:

brewster wrote:
Quote:

Leighlee wrote:
Yes there are cop that have crappy attitudes, yes there are cop that are just plain tools. There are also cops that do ti because they actually care, there are cops who are just really great people. They deal with crackheads, filthy losers, complete jerks, abused children, crazed animals, dangerous situations.... and on and on! These men and women risk their lives everyday doing things that none else would or could do. If i could be killed on the job at any time i don't think its unreasonable to get great benefits.

Seriously... how is it possible as Americans we are totally enthralled with idiots that drink and screw all day long and they get paid well for doing it on tv. A guy can bounce a ball and throw it into a basket and he get 20+ million a season. A woman can force herself to cry on cue and does it in a movie studio she get 8+ million for a few months of playing dress up. Yet when it comes to our police, fire, medics and teachers we get all uppity if they make enough to pay most of their bills. The people that keep us safe and healthy and educate our future leaders make little more than i did managing a Starbucks. I poured coffee and i made more that some if my teacher friends... they are educating your out of control brats and i make more pouring freaking coffee!!!!!

Maybe if police departments could afford to pay enough to make quality people take the job, and if we compensate them enough to risk their lives, then there would probably be way less posts on here about crime in this city. Possibly if the police felt like they had something to work for you guys would have less to bitch about. I know i wouldn't want to help the people that bad mouth me all he time. I wouldn't be inspired to put my life on the line for the douchebags that say i should get paid less and cut my benefits while your at it. So... I'll die protecting you so my kids can grow up broke and one less parent... sounds fair. I just don't get it.


More misleading nonsense. I doubt you made $90k+ overtime + huge bennies and early retirement working at Starbuck. And those teachers, (if they work public schools) they get the summer off, they only work 180 days a year, and they still make as much as cops, they just can't retire as early.

Oh, and those Ballplayers and actors, I agree they're ridiculously overpaid, but they're in a free market.

Posted on: 2010/8/9 3:27
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Re: Vilification of public safety
#15
Home away from home
Home away from home


I hope that you will re-read my post as it was hardly an unqualified endorsement of cops. Rather, my point was that to do the job well one has to have those characteristics in the face of potentially violent individuals (this seemed obvious to me). Try having someone take a swing at you, pull a weapon, or spit in your face and think again about how you would respond; but I'm sure that happens to you (and other people in "most other careers") all the time.

Quote:

Bill463 wrote:
" Also, being a good cop is indeed a tough job at times and being good at it requires a level of diplomacy, restraint, and quick thinking most people don't have" - Jeebus. Really? Only good police officers have these job skills? Most other careers do not require these traits?? Really? Other than shooting a gun at people I do all of this each and every day at my job!

Posted on: 2010/8/3 3:16
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Re: Vilification of public safety
#16
Home away from home
Home away from home


I'm of two minds on this. My father was a police officer and back then (40-20 years ago) the pay was meager, the hours were long (when he started he worked five 12 hour shifts a week), and the work environment was abusive (from the brass; never mind the public). Probably this is why he never encouraged me to follow in his footsteps. Also, being a cop is indeed a tough job at times and being good at it requires a level of diplomacy, restraint, and quick thinking that most people don't have.

On the other hand public service pay has exploded in recent years and even more so benefits have become so lavish that they are unsustainable. For people who have to fund their own retirement a good financial planner will tell them to count on an income that is 4% of what they have saved. So to expect a $50,000 a year income one would have to have saved $1.25 million dollars and many public servants are retiring around 50 with higher pensions (plus free health care). If the government(s) had to pre-fund this they would have to acknowledge that they are insolvent and even though they don't they are struggling to pay their current pension and health care obligations (never mind what is to come). As people in the private sector lose jobs and struggle, the capture of many state governments by public sector unions is a huge source of resentment and will ultimately not be sustainable.

Also, what the OP fails to acknowledge is that a lot of the "vilification" of cops is due to the cops who fail to perform their job and in most cases get away with it. For example, I was pulled over for no reason and verbally abused by a local cop when I was a kid until he read my driver's license and realized who my father was. This guy was a known problem and yet he kept his job until they got him to retire early (with his pension). My father is the most moral, generous and kind person that I know but if my only knowledge of cops came from this stop then I would hate them too.

Posted on: 2010/7/30 1:39
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Re: Flamingo Diner
#17
Home away from home
Home away from home


One used to be able to buy beer to go after hours there - no more. That's a big loss, as is the cigarette machine.

Quote:

Boiled_Mussels wrote:
Quote:

tommyc_37 wrote:
Quote:

bozzovyou wrote:
Cigarette machine=gone...as is the greenish hue TV...now a flat screen


UGH, that greenish hue TV was so classic. Late at night/early morning, they would play classic old movies.

I hate when classic things change



The problem is that classic things are only "classic" to the outsiders. From an owner/employee standpoint, I'm sure they love the flatscreen over a green hued tube tv. Their "improvements" are generally our "sellouts."

Posted on: 2010/7/28 1:00
 Top 


Re: Christy Swiftly Vetoes Millionaires Tax Today -what happened to sermon about "everyone sacrificing?"
#18
Home away from home
Home away from home


Are you kidding? Don't you know how many able hard working private employees have lost their jobs or taken big pay cuts or much more work to keep them? The productive sector has been taking a hit for a couple years while many useless government employees dig their heels in and insist on getting raises in this economy.

Furthermore, very high income taxes on high earners have not produced the hoped for results. The truly rich simply move away to a low tax state.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124329282377252471.html

One year later, nobody's grinning. One-third of the millionaires have disappeared from Maryland tax rolls. In 2008 roughly 3,000 million-dollar income tax returns were filed by the end of April. This year there were 2,000, which the state comptroller's office concedes is a "substantial decline." On those missing returns, the government collects 6.25% of nothing. Instead of the state coffers gaining the extra $106 million the politicians predicted, millionaires paid $100 million less in taxes than they did last year -- even at higher rates.

http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/miarticle.htm?id=5424

"New Jersey enacted its half millionaire millionaires? tax in 2004. Pitched by the state?s unions as the cure for Jersey?s budget woes, the state collected $9.5 billion in personal income taxes in fiscal 2005. Last year, four budget cycles later, the state collected only $10.3 billion and this year it?s estimating just $9.4 billion from the same tax. Revenues have fallen so far below projections that Jersey has actually had to cut its spending (not just its rate of spending, like most states) by more than $3 billion this year despite $2 billion in federal stimulus aid for the state budget. And even so, Jersey had to skip payments to its pension system. If it were a business Jersey would be insolvent, a remarkable achievement in a place whose residents boast the highest personal income in the nation."

Quote:

ianmac47 wrote:
Quote:

njlist wrote:
@ teacher-

if teachers and other public employees should, as you insist, take a 10 percent paycut, then so should gov. christie, all his commissioners and staff, and certainly, millionaires can afford to shoulder part of the burden as well. . .don't see that being done.



That would make sense if non-public employees took a 10% pay cut-- by paying 10% to the state in income tax. Its easy to point to public employees as targets for cost cutting, but if you aren't willing to do the current job you have for less money, why should they? Because they are educating your kids? Because they extinguish your house when its on fire? Or scrape you off the pavement after a traffic accident?

Posted on: 2010/6/29 3:56
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Re: Epps' pay would climb to $275G in 3 years
#19
Home away from home
Home away from home


I can't see why someone making close to $300K shouldn't have to compete for his job every 10 years or so; much less how anyone would be "appalled" by JC getting the best possible person. The fact that this guy had the cheek to have a school named after him while being employed by the government schools should, alone, lead to skepticism. Also, that after a supposedly nationwide search 10 years ago they hired a lifelong JC guy strains credulity. Suuure the best possible person in a nation of 300 million just happened to live in JC.

I encourage everyone to watch the movie "The Cartel", which describes (among other things) how the non-teacher positions in the NJ schools have grown by about 40% while the student enrollment has been flat. The huge bloat of administrators hasn't produced any improvement in results.

Quote:

GrovePath wrote:
Community members turn out to support Jersey City superintendent
Published: Thursday, June 17, 2010, 10:30 PM Updated: Thursday, June 17, 2010, 10:38 PM
Melissa Hayes/The Jersey Journal

The Jersey City Board of Education may not have discussed the future of Superintendent Charles Epps' contract, but community members spoke on behalf of the district's long-time leader.

Resident Virginia Miller, who described herself as a community activist, told board member Angel Valentin she was appalled by his request for a nationwide search for a superintendent.

While a nationwide search would allow Epps to reapply for his job with the possibility of getting his contract extended, community members argued that Epps should be renewed without a search.

Epps was hired 10 years ago as the result of a nationwide search.

Miller described Epps as a lifelong Jersey City resident who is involved in the community and cares about the district.

Miller, a black woman, said she thought the effort to replace Epps was racially motivated.

She threatened to hold a march and circulate petitions if the board moves to not renew Epps.

The Rev. Rudolph Daniels also spoke of Epps' commitment to the community.

"Our superintendent is a life long resident of Jersey City. He came from a long line of educators, not only that, he lives in Jersey City," Daniels said. "Why do we have to search. The search should be over. Let's look at what we have."

Valentin released a statement last month calling for a nationwide search for superintendent. Epps contract expires next year, but the board must give him advance notice as to whether it plans to renew his contract.

Valentin started to respond to Miller during board member comment at the end of tonight's meeting and cited the district's high drop-out rate before Board President Bill DeRosa told Valentin the board's attorney warned they cannot discuss a personnel matter in public.

Posted on: 2010/6/19 2:18
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Re: Maternity - NJ Paid Leave Policies
#20
Home away from home
Home away from home


The costs ($6-7 on top of everything else) seem very high - can you provide a link that confirms this? I'm not at all defending this program since it is yet another business unfriendly law that noses the government into what should be personal decisions. Then there's the much larger extent to which people who don't have kids subsidize the government schools...

Quote:

PaulusHook8464 wrote:
NJ workers are taxed something like $6 or $7 each month out of their paycheck to help fund it. It allows 6 weeks of paid family leave insurance to care for a family member or newborn. There is a cap of $600 per week, so a maximum benefit of $3600. You have up to one year after the birth of a child to use this benefit. NJ employers cannot deny you the time off according to the law.

Posted on: 2010/6/4 1:23
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Re: How did you come to live in Jersey City?
#21
Home away from home
Home away from home


This is an interesting thread.

When I decided to move here for a job in downtown NYC I essentially took a protractor and drew a circle around where I would be working. I hate commuting but at the time could not afford Manhattan. Once I realized that living in the other boroughs would subject me to both NYC's firearms laws and an additional 4% income tax I know it was JC or Hoboken. I moved to a crappy studio in Paulus Hook but after a couple years found a nice apartment in an owner resident brownstone. The funny thing is that the 'hood has improved so much that my girlfriend doesn't feel entirely comfortable walking around in her normal attire. We could have worse problems....

Posted on: 2010/5/26 3:27
 Top 


Re: Okay, so who here thinks the Katyn monument needs to go?
#22
Home away from home
Home away from home


My girlfriend and I were fortunate enough to accidentally come across all of the Polish war veterans and their families at the mass/ceremony that resulted in all those candles.

The most disturbing thing about government mass murder, is that when almost none of the victims survive there isn't even anyone to bear witness. That was the case in Katyn but more generally has been the fate of the victims of Communism. At least a few old vets have knowledge of what happened.

"The Black Book of Communism" by former French Communists is a great read and partial penance. If anyone reads this and still doesn't see why there should be monuments everywhere about what Communism resulted in; please post.

Posted on: 2010/5/24 4:29
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Re: All Points West Festival in JC This Summer Is in Doubt
#23
Home away from home
Home away from home


Much to my dismay (we bought tickets mostly to see the Beasties) but we still had a great time. Then again, we walked there and had an easy trip home once we got tired of the mud. I could see how someone making a trek to APW would have had a bad experience that they wouldn't want to redo, regardless of it being due to the weather or lack of Beastie Boys.

Quote:

mvm wrote:
They got Jay-Z 2 weeks before the last show when Beastie Boys cancelled...

Posted on: 2010/5/7 23:50
 Top 


Re: Okay, so who here thinks the Katyn monument needs to go?
#24
Home away from home
Home away from home


Judging from your avatar you appear to be Russian. Whether or not, I have no sympathy for your effort to erase history.

As someone who is neither Polish nor Russian, I see the Katyn monument in a very different way. I see it as a depiction of the danger of Totalitarianism, which we barely escaped becoming a world-wide ideology; whether in the form of Nazism or Communism. Furthermore, Communism is much more tolerated, despite having resulted in many more deaths at the hands of Communist regimes. For example, ignorant college kids walk around with Che t-shirts while only the dregs of society display Nazi images. When 5:1 social science college professors self-describe as Marxist than conservative (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601039&sid=amjn_0feDpcM) there is something wrong. Similarly, nobody is critiquing the many Holocaust Memorials in the U.S., such as the one in Battery Park, on the basis of them being foreign or ugly.

In short, I love the Katyn memorial and miss no opportunity to explain it to visitors to our city.

Quote:

johnr wrote:
The idea that an objection to the graphic, negative, dominating presence of this monument equates to a lack of sympathy for the tragedy of the event is absurd.

Depending on who you ask, between 15 and 25 MILLION Russians were killed during WWII. Should they have a statue there, too? Or should their's be a little smaller because there are more Polish people that live in the neighborhood? Let's add a third for the victims of the atomic bombs on Japan. Maybe it could be of two figurines, Uncle Sam with a gas can and lighter, and a screaming Japanese woman carrying her baby with giant flames coming out of both of them; that is what happened after all - would that be tasteful and appropriate as well? Of course if you think it wouldn't, you're a heartless holocaust denier.

The Polish have a chip on their shoulder against Russia because Russia historically invades their country and tries to take them off the map. It's a long-running feud. The event was tragic, but the statue isn't just about how sad the Polish in the neighborhood are about Katyn. It's a political statement against Russia, at least in part, and it's na?ve to believe otherwise.

If it's the negative imagery you love, instead of enshrining statements about Eastern European political conflicts, why don't we pick a more relevant tragedy; like the events surrounding the Native Americans we massacred, defrauded, and robbed to build that NYC skyline in the first place?

Posted on: 2010/4/30 3:24
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Re: "TP" spray painted in Paulus Hook this weekend
#25
Home away from home
Home away from home


I saw a white car with black spray paint on it and assumed that it was a stolen car that had been tagged. Sorry if it was yours and we need to be more vigilant.

Quote:

groveck wrote:
It was definitely TB, not TP. I know because I spent 2 hours of my Sunday cleaning spray paint off my car.

Posted on: 2010/4/23 2:43
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Re: Maybe there should be sales or renter's tax in JC
#26
Home away from home
Home away from home


Any renter with a brain realizes that the property that they live in pays property tax and that this will be passed on to them. Do you realize this?

Furthermore, renters (at least downtown) are much less likely to have kids and therefore are subsidizing schools that matter more to homeowners (even if they don't have kids; they impact property values). Given this, why would a renter without kids be more likely to vote for the bloated JC school budget of $600M?

Perhaps "bitter owner" is a newly appropriate meme.

Quote:

FGJCNJ1970 wrote:
What sort of bothers me is that while Renters who live in Jersey City can vote in Jersey City, they can also directly vote for all sorts of spending measures like the 100+million tax levy for schools this past Tuesday. Yet, renters don't have to pay for that tax levy and that bothers me as a homeowner.

So renter's will just vote YES all the time screwing over property owners.

One idea I have is that if you aren't a tax-paying property owner, but are sending kids to a JC public school, there should be some sort of additional fee/tax imposed in order to lessen the tax burden on property owners.

I would be interested to see of all of those who voted YES in Tuesdays School tax levy, how many are renters versus property owners. I have a hunch based on all the property tax increases lately, property owners probably said NO.

FG

Posted on: 2010/4/23 2:23
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Re: Woman slams another woman's head into bar at Downtown J.C. restaurant
#27
Home away from home
Home away from home


That's a big woman, not that there's anything wrong with that.

Quote:

GrovePath wrote:

Foster, who is described in the police report at 6 feet tall and 170 pounds, was charged with one count of aggravated assault, police said.

Posted on: 2010/4/6 2:24
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Re: Yea, so there is a Buck loose Downtown
#28
Home away from home
Home away from home


As much as I welcome our new wildlife overlords, folks need the think again about their cuteness/harmlessness.

http://outside.away.com/outside/cultu ... 003/coyote-attacks-1.html

Quote:

March 26, 2010
By Mariel S. Clark and Jason Tucker
DNAinfo Staff

MANHATTAN
[snip]
"It doesn't scare me because coyotes aren't predatory toward humans," said one man about the coyote captured in TriBeCa Thursday.

"I don't have any sheep to protect."

Posted on: 2010/3/29 0:10
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Re: CAMPING and using public transportation to get there
#29
Home away from home
Home away from home


Others have mentioned canoeing and camping on the Delaware in the Pocanos. Here's a link to Martz's package tours that would let you do it via bus: http://www.destinationpocono.com/specificTrip.asp?TripID=26. We did a similar trip by driving there, camping, and arranging a canoe trip via the campground. It was fun and close enough for a long weekend trip.

If you want to get further away from it all and have more time, Amtrak runs a train up to northern Vermont once a day. I've done the trip to Waterbury Station for skiing a couple times and you would spend most of a day on the train there and back so it partly depends on how you feel about that (I loved watching the snow come down and not having to drive). The train is surprisingly cheap and there are plenty of places to camp along the stops (I would choose Stowe). Northern VT is much more "away from it all" than the Poconos.

Quote:

thomasjcarlson wrote:
My girlfriend and I are dying to get out of the city a little while.. and just take our tent and go camping. Does anyone know if there are close sites near Jersey City/NYC area to take a train or a bus to?

thank you

Thomas
tjcarlson.com

Posted on: 2010/3/23 0:05
 Top 


Re: Downtown: Attacked, robbed after using Jersey City ATM
#30
Home away from home
Home away from home


They should when they get home but here in NJ people can't carry firearms unless they are cops so there's nothing to worry about. Oh, wait, what happened?

Quote:

susiederkins wrote:
That's it. I'm applying for a concealed carry permit.

Posted on: 2010/2/10 4:09
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