Out here in Hamilton Park.

...Nothing? C'mon guys, where is the cavalcade of callous commenters??

I guess I'll start:

Ummm.. something something, electric cars are terrible, something something, climate change is a hoax, something something parking!1!!!, something, Fulop and his developer buddies are to blame, something something, property taxes.

Today's package thief is the daily double!

Two vagrant looking, spanish speaking folks spotted on a stoop next to Albert's bodega on Coles St. today near 7th.

Man and woman. Both sitting, casually chatting while fondling delivered boxes from the doorstep behind them. When they saw me, the tossed the boxes and disappeared toward Hamilton Park (not guilty looking at all).

Both looked semi-homeless: Grocery pull-carts, untidy clothes, drunk mannerisms.

Reviving this old chestnut to post an APB on a punk ass dog owner:

ATTENTION FELLOW ORNERY JC LISTERS! Be on the look out for a shitty dog owner last seen downtown near Guillos Bar.

WHEN/WHERE: Tonight around 10:45pm Tuesday. Walking near the Embankment on Coles north of 6th.

OWNER: Skinny young guy (20s), brown hair, white, looking guilty...

DOG: Large breed (large poop) of bulldog mix, copper brown, apr. 70+ lbs., Dog pulls on leash, young, behaves like an ill trained puppy.

CRIME: This lazy dog owner regularly lets his dog poop in tree wells. Tries to flee before anyone can call him out on it.

We must ready the guilt rays! If you see him, don't let the bastard walk away from his shit.

It's still painfully low. Took me way too long to make my nightly metamucil fix.

Call out for regularity. Fiber keep'in it fleek.

I also wrote them, just recieved a reply. Looks like they will be arriving for sure.

They don't yet know when they will open; follow their social media:


" Thank you for contacting 99 Ranch Market. Unfortunately, we haven't got any further information regarding to our store in Jersey City. Please stay close to our social media platforms or official website. As soon as we have a fix opening date or location of our new branch, we will update the information. "



A little giddy here for some not-gross produce nearby... Can a California grocery chain raise the bar?

Happening irregularly before 6:am near Coles and 6th. Someone hits the "panic" button on their remote control to find their car.

Any legal suggestions for next time this jerk wakes up everyone feet away from his/her car? Doubt the cops care.



If this is you: Just wow. Please stop. Maybe write down where you park next time or use one of the many parking apps available on your phone.

Photos are watermarked Dixon Leasing.

Singed up last month. Can't wait.

Helmet Coupon: Good news! When you sign up for a year, you receive $10 off a new helmet coupon.

Note about that: Call ahead to see if the bike shop will honor it. Grove Street Bicycles looked at me like I grew eight foot devil horns when I walked in and asked about it. Butthurt faces at the mere mentioning of CitiBike (even though it was CitiBike who sent me in there to spend 'muh money). I'll be using mine in the city.


Discount Referral Code: If anyone wants a free month when ordering a year's subscription, PM me.

I know there is a story here..

Can someone tell me in broad strokes and big picture, what is playing out here?

How it should be:

BIKE DOCK NEAR YOUR FRONT DOOR --->JC PATH Station (or Light Rail stop) _________Manhattan Bike Dock--->JOB

How it sounds now:

Downtown PATH--->Uphill Somewhere




Who doesn't love our fellow city wards, you guys all rock.. but we live in a commuter town, and it's not worth $150/year just to visit the other parts of it?well, maybe Little India.

Anyone suggesting JC'ites crave inter-ward bike travel is seeking your vote next election.

Kombucha quest. Anyone keeping a mother alive?


Bartering generously packed bag of kale and/or mustard greens from my garden for a scoby.

Thanks JCListers for the suggestions and empathy. I don't want to "burn" my friendly neighbors by reporting an unknown location issue to the JC fire department in$pector$. All of us would somehow pay a fine, I'm sure.

As for real estate signs to identify empty apts..none.

Lately it's been getting worse..now I hear it when I shouldn't....the constant low-battery chirping has entered my dreams...CHIRP!... As soon as we pull the curtains closed to sleep, the CHIRP becomes amplified in the quiet nighttime air.

And this: If the detector is electrified (likely), the dreaded realization that this CHIRP will become a permanent noise has occurred to me....CHIRP!....part of my Jersey City existence until I move...perhaps deep into Amish country.


Google the issue, and you'll read some sad stories of placid denizens who have learned to live with the sound of out-of-reach smoke detectors chirping away in their day-to-day lives---for years. The permanent bird call forever crying out for a battery twice a minute of every hour of every day forever nested in the eaves their unconscious.

So shall it be?

Perhaps not. I've got an air conditioner I could install to drown out the beeps (so-long perfectly cool fresh air). I've already met with a couple neighbors and left a couple notes on doors. Next: A full on neighborhood awareness campaign? Billboards? Marching bands?

Please. ......CHIRP!.......For your neighbor's sanity and your own safety ......CHIRP!...... check your detector's battery. The battery is low. ......CHIRP!...... It has been chirping every 30 seconds for a WEEK ......CHIRP!......Loud enough to annoy, yet indistinct enough that we can't locate it and knock on your door......CHIRP!......

It must be in your basement ......CHIRP!...... or empty apartment, because ......CHIRP!......c'mon, who can ignore that CHIRP for a week? We've been trying ......CHIRP!......

May I recommend ......CHIRP!......the amazing CO + Smoke combo units that have a 10 YEAR self-contained battery? ......CHIRP!...... A safety plus environmental PLUS ......CHIRP!......a sanity WIN! The Home Depot ......CHIRP!......man.


Side note: Anyone want to join me in a petition to make Jersey City's Official City Bird ......CHIRP!...... the dying Smoke detector?

Goodbye metal shop at Coles Street near 6th Street. The squat green building was demolished today. I was a little shocked to see it come crashing down.

The metal sculptures and murals gave character to this otherwise ugly skinny industrial garage..an industrial vestige on an otherwise normal residential street.

When the new, presumably folk-art-free condominium building goes up, will we remember that men actually worked with welding torches and built things here? Remember the everyday sight of delivery trucks unloading tanks of acetylene gas and rebar? The sight of tiki lamps, a 9 foot tin man and huge metal angel wings on the sidewalk?

Damn I will miss you, ugly green building. In your absence, Coles St. will tingle with the phantom memory of a more lively industrial past.

In the arsenal of architectural exclusion, Newport's parking garage was a weapon.

It whispered to people (and still does) to back-off. Call it Newport's cement and iron curtain, protecting '80s high-rise investors from the transitional neighborhoods to the west.

It is vulgar to all senses. Especially sight and smell.

How long will we live with this '80s vestige of fear and exclusion?

I walk through this turd nearly every day, you can guess how I feel about it.

Noticed this on my way home:

Looks like about 20 boxes of abandoned books in ok condition on the sidewalk outside of St. Anthony's High School. Some old bound literature, some old paperbacks, history books, etc.

They are piled among the school's paper recycling, so the clock is ticking for rescue tonight before the recycling truck takes 'em.

8th St. off of Marin (north side of fire station).

I grabbed a box worth. Hope others can too. Hate to see 'em go to waste.

Hudson County in the Casino biz? YAY! Which JC neighborhood can we plant this sparkly beacon of corruption?!

This agency was created by Congress? So it would take an act of congress to undo it. Fulop for Senate anyone?

Ahhhh! We are not alone. Perhaps we should follow the suggestions listed in this letter to our "twin" city, Oakland, CA.

Read the whole post here. The comments at the bottom are fun to read, they sound so comfortably familiar.

Oaklandlocal.com snip:
...So I?ve put together a few how-to?s for avoiding the gentrifier label in Oakland:

1. Smile and say hi to your neighbors every time you see them, even if they seem scary or don?t say hi back. Sometimes it takes time to build a rapport and gain the trust of the community.

2. Recognize all the people outside of your door as your neighbors, even if they look different from you and live under different circumstances. This includes the homeless who sleep on the street, the drug dealers who sell outside the liquor store, and the prostitutes walking your streets. Replace the words homeless, drug dealer, and prostitute with the word neighbor. Treating these folks with respect and dignity from the beginning will give you later leverage to talk to them about changing their behavior and getting out of the life.

4. Pay your taxes, parking tickets and fines with the pleasure of knowing you are financially helping a beautiful, but struggling city. Be grateful if you are able pay them without too much difficulty.

13. Recognize Oakland has a very unique and vibrant history and culture, and you were attracted to this city because of the energy that is already here. You should be here to add to that history and culture, not to erase it. We are not San Francisco. We don?t want to be San Francisco. So please don?t try to remake our city in San Francisco?s image. And remember, you don?t gain culture by eating a burrito. You gain culture by engaging in a real and meaningful manner with the person who makes the burrito.

I agree JCMan8. We are doomed any way we look at it, all three agencies look to be terrible and unresponsive.


How did NY'ers improve the MTA? Is it because MTA's leadership actually ride the subway?

Does anyone at the Port Authority actually take the PATH on a daily basis (let alone pay tunnel tolls)?


Maybe it's the many voices of the passengers.. Perhaps we need a straphanger's campaign. A place "where complaints get results."

I agree Brewster!

Here's a snip about the rising price from 2nd Ave Sagas:


...Every time someone ? the Port Authority, a media leak, anyone ? discusses plans to extend the PATH train from Newark Penn Station to the airport a few miles away, the price goes up. When the plan first surfaced in September of 2012, the agency anticipated spending $600 million on design and construction. This past fall, Crain?s pegged the cost of the extension at $1 billion, and despite a report a few weeks ago that pegged the final price at $2-$4 billion, officially, the Port Authority predicts the PATH airport extension will cost $1.5 billion. It was officially unveiled today in a presentation to the Port Authority board, and if all goes according to plan, it will be open by 2024.

I read this editorial blog post recently, it sort of lit a fire under my ass.

Maybe in our lifetimes JC'ers will see the demise of our lazy transit captors.

FROM NEXTCITY.ORG :

...The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has clearly ceased to be an effective agency, and it?s time to consider alternative arrangements. Crain?s suggests splitting it in two. ?Why can?t there be a Port Authority of New York and a Port Authority of New Jersey?? it posits. ?Turning one overly politicized bureaucracy into two smaller bureaucracies would mean a single line of command from governor to grunt. No more multiple masters. A healthier change for all.?

...To return accountability to the critical transportation assets managed by the Port Authority, it?s time to cut off the flow of money. The agency?s lifeblood, its toll revenues, should be returned to a combination of the New Jersey, New York state and New York City general treasuries, to be doled out by their respective legislatures (minus the cost of maintaining the crossings)."

About the MTA and Port Authority,

...The New York region has, in its past, had two wildly successful independent transportation authorities. Over time, they?ve acquired a reputation for poor performance and a grievous lack of political accountability. At their best, they efficiently reflected the policy goals of the personalities who drove them. At their worst ? and the Port Authority, at least, is clearly there ? they have devolved into off-budget slush funds, wasteful and easily politicized. The Port Authority has been corrupted by its riches, and it?s time to give the people of New Jersey and New York their infrastructure back."

Please read the whole thing.

So I've been using UBER car service on my phone to 'git to and from places in JC, mostly to our lovely EWR.

It's ok. It's smart-phone only (or text). Kinda annoying if you have low battery after a flight, also no way to call and schedule a cab for the next day. You just have to hope the wait time is low (which you can see on the phone).

That said, this phone app might serve as a solid alternative to our cab situation.

Meter is always running (no surprises). You can see your car arrive on a map (many cabs congregate close-by along gasoline alley). Rate your driver at the end (driver rates you too).

I select the UBERx option (cheaper) and my rides are about the same or less than a usual JC cab, plus no fuss over the tip?you pre-select it on your phone, and everything is billed to your credit card on file.



I just read this email: This weekend, take two FREE uberX rides to, from, or within New Jersey. Here's the link. Take up to two rides between noon on Friday (2/7) through 11:59PM on Sunday (2/9).

They are cross-promoting deals with Kraverie, Roman Nose, Union Republic and other places.

Also I play the promo codes lottery, get free ride by googling 'em:

??This weekend, the free ride code is NJLOVESuberX.

Why, busy helicopter, do you hover above my open windows this cool summer morn?

I can't help but think of this similar scene in the similar town of River City, Iowa: Trouble! In River City!!

Might I suggest our benevolent webmaster kill this topic. Prudish groupthink is embarrassing to read but also could really harm a small local business.

That's right, WhoElse. Market forces are in play.

Landlords are not blind to the new neighbors moving in--Let the old timers enjoy whatever business they can get before their rents shoot sky high.

I like the mix of grit and yup. It's sort of a trademark of Jersey City.

Maybe click on the link and give the Observer some traffic.

http://observer.com/2013/07/down-to-t ... or-steve-fulop-plans-big/

Hey JCListers,

Any new recommendations on where to find a good dentist in Manhattan (or in downtown JC)?



This old thread is a little dusty... Thanks.

This description sounds like the fellow who haunts Coles street.

He is shabby-cleanly dressed (not smelly or gross), very quiet and even friendly 90% of the time--though he can get grouchy when down.


He's a fixture, been here for a couple years at least.


He occasionally sits on our stoop and regularly leaves small glass vodka bottles in our tree well.


I wish we could help him out. I feel bad when he tries to sleep on our walk and we have to tell him to move on.

What can we do? I've seen the city cops/ambulance take him away when he is fall down drunk---I know the cops probably are not the long term answer. What is?