Stringer wrote:

In Jersey City, It’s Kushner vs. Kushner in a Race to Develop

By Charles V. Bagli - May 21, 2018

JERSEY CITY — The decade-long blood feud between the Kushner brothers, Charles and Murray, has already put one brother in jail.

Now, the men, who haven’t spoken in 15 years, are rivals in the development of Journal Square in Jersey City, the site of one failed project after another for the past three decades.

Their ability to get along — or not — could affect this important corner of a rapidly changing city of 264,000 people.

Journal Square is less a neighborhood than a maze of streets occupied by a bus depot and a PATH station, dowdy retail, a community college, low-income housing and a restored landmark theater converted into a Jehovah’s Witnesses Assembly Hall.

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/05/21/ ... l-square-development.html

CoolCats wrote:
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OneSkirt wrote:
Jersey Cats is another good organization you may also want to check with.If the cats are very tame, they may be able to take them into their program for fostering and adoption.

They are very tame! Do you have any contact names or numbers for Jersey Cats? Thanks for your help.

jklm wrote:
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OneSkirt wrote:
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bodhipooh wrote:


I think you are definitely onto something. It would seem like the diagonal parking (and the associated risk of someone pulling onto the path of a car traveling down the street) definitely kept traffic calmed. The situation across from The Oakman and ArtHouse has definitely gotten worse since they painted spots on the road, despite the overall narrowing of the road.

So Reverse Angle parking - which has cars backing into a space, rather than pulling in head first - solves this problem. It gives those cars great visibility of oncoming cars and bikes/peds. We need more of this on streets that can support it.

Traffic & Engineering's initial 2014 renderings had reverse angle parking for all diagonal parking on north side of First St. Shuster chose to ignore and striped how they wanted it. Traffic & Engineering caved and didn't pursue or demand that they re-stripe.

bodhipooh wrote:


I think you are definitely onto something. It would seem like the diagonal parking (and the associated risk of someone pulling onto the path of a car traveling down the street) definitely kept traffic calmed. The situation across from The Oakman and ArtHouse has definitely gotten worse since they painted spots on the road, despite the overall narrowing of the road.

brewster wrote:
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MDM wrote:
A factory conversion to lofts by me has many of the new tenants parking in the street. I talked to a few of the tenants was the parking fees are too high.

Used to have good street parking around here. Not anymore. JCPD has been upping the ticketing frequency due to neighbors complaining about illegal parking (too close to the intersections, etc.).

I also noticed it appears many of the residents of Cast Iron Lofts are using the road below Christ Hospital for parking as well. Cast Iron Lofts has an extensive parking deck. Parking fees too high as well?

Is this only an issue where there is no zoned parking? I thought residents of these new developments were ineligible to get parking stickers. The Cast Iron area is a clusterfuck, there is very little parking control at all, apparently they don't sweep the streets in that zone! The parking on 13th between Monmouth and Coles creates a hazard with the unnecessary 2 way traffic and the street dangerously narrowed.

More broadly, we should just let the market provide parking, and what it cost is what it costs. No one has a right to park their car in Manhattan and it seems to be doing alright. Hoboken is far harder to park than anywhere DT and it's doing alright too.

But if it's true those decks are underused, they should be forced to lower their prices till they're at 90% occupancy, and then let the occupancy rate dictate the price. Holding spots off the market is just stupid.

sullyx wrote:
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jerseymom wrote:
There is a very active JCPD campaign to ticket drivers who are hitting that corner of 9th and Manila - not stopping; on cell phones; illegal turns, etc.

Be aware - and get off your cell phones!

why on Earth would you want to warn people of this crackdown, I want people to feel it in their wallet when they get busted for driving like a Masshole

mfadam wrote:
Not sure if there are many preppers living in JC, but does anyone know where I can get a new handle installed on axe/sledgehammer?

I've called hardware stores and they all can sell the handles but no one can install. Guess it is kind of a dying art...

CandiceOsborne wrote:
Just to clarify a few things:

1. Always: My office has always asked and continues to ask for greater on-duty enforcement all over downtown, including specifically at this location. Last year with grant money we were able to give some dedicated coverage, but not always.

2. Last summer: We have been asked by police to put in a business curfew (I said no)

3. Last summer: We have been asked by neighborhood to revise the restaurant overlay to remove allowed density of licenses in in SID (I said no)

4. Last summer: The PM for the plaza suggested mandatory security guards on the plaza in each business (I said hold & let?s discuss first with businesses)

5. Last fall: We met with businesses last fall and highlighted the issues coming from multiple sources and asked for ideas to show a partnership given how bad the other options seemed. I threw out an idea ?maybe you could pool your money and share the cost of an off-duty officer - that would be cheaper than being compelled to hire a doorman?. Overall it seemed to be viewed relatively favorably as an alternative to #4 above. When the conversation moved to ?how? to break up costs (via SID vs. not via SID, all businesses vs. all businesses with liquor license vs. all business on plaza vs. all business with liquor license on plaza ? we adjourned the meeting and said this really was their job to figure out how they want to structure as it is voluntary, but that I would ask to continue to hold off on #4 if they could come up with a way to help resolve some of the issues caused by the benefits they have received over the years (ability to have high density of liquor licenses, ability to remain open later, ability to have a pedestrian plaza, and ability to serve on the pedestrian plaza).

6. This winter: No progress made

7. Last week: We met again, still no progress made. We re-hashed 1-5, again. I asked who supported a curfew, 0 people raised their hands. I asked who wanted to remove restaurant row, 0 people raised their hands. I asked who wanted to get rid of the plaza, 1 person raised her hand. I asked who wanted mandatory security guards on the plaza, about 1/3 raised their hands. I asked who wanted to do something with off-duty, about 1/2 raised their hands.)

In short:
- this is a voluntary action, can be taken or not. I merely suggested it as an idea that seemed a lot better than some of the others I had heard during a brainstorming conversation last fall.

- this can be paid for however they want as it is voluntary (among all 200 businesses, among 32 liquor license holders who've benefited from the restaurant overlay zone or only amongst those on the plaza itself)

- BIDs/SIDs/NIDs often fund supplemental safety services

- I continue to hope to find ways to get on duty officers assigned


IMO, it is in the business interest to show some concern and good faith action to solve issues their establishments are creating in the neighborhood they operate in, especially since the city has given them benefits in the form of the ability to have liquor license density, later night hours, the plaza itself and ability to extend the sidewalk cafe onto the plaza. If they don't that is their decision. They need to realize though I will not be inclined to run interference when people try to solve the issues via other means.

I am HAPPY to hear other ideas that are actionable and realistic.
So, if you have ideas feel free to email me (won't be getting into a back and forth with anonymous folks.)

elsquid wrote:
DWI is definitely still a problem everywhere, and you do see it with people leaving the Plaza late at night.

But one counterweight to that is, at least when you set up nightlife right next to the PATH, a big taxi stand, etc., you enable many more people to avoid driving to and from bars in the first place. Same with little bars and restos scattered through walkable neighborhoods, as I previously mentioned.

The suburban model of putting big bars on the outskirts of town, near the highway ramp, surrounded by parking lots, in the name of avoiding rowdiness and keeping neighborhoods quiet, has helped kill thousands of people via DWI.

JC_Man wrote:
Really? POTUS gives one speech for 350MM people - this self-promoting moron has to give five speeches for 250K people? Go King Steve, nice waste of taxpayer's money. We'll all subsidize your campaign.

Azul_the_Cat wrote:
It's probably going to be 90% the same message, and then a little bit tailored for the specific ward he is speaking to.

T-Bird wrote:
Nothing like getting the city to pay for your campaign events.

CatDog wrote:
Not sure about the 40 story building fitting there, but I'll be really glad to have 7th St opened up. Too many streets between Newport and the rest of Downtown are blocked off for no good reason.