heights wrote:
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creativeconquests wrote:
I don't rent. I wish I did. I've also experienced corruption with the city first hand. It has cost me thousands. My taxes exceed $9K and counting this year. I apparently have an abatement, so over $11K when that expires, maybe even closer to 12-13K/year. My neighbors own an entire brownstone, taxes haven't been assessed in years (although property worth over a million) and they pay just over $3K/year. I own a condo.

I love it ! Years ago the city reaped one tax check per building, now with all of these condos it is one tax check...per window well at least per apartment. $9 grand are you nuts ?? Some homes in J.C. are assesed at under a hundred grand. You must be living in the Taj Mahal and even there the taxes are lower than J.C. or at least what you are paying.

snowflake20 wrote:
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Crazy_Chester wrote:
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snowflake20 wrote:
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ThirdGrove wrote:
Well two points:


The Abbott funding is a mandate by the Supreme Court that will not change. The only aspect that may change is the formula. They might allocate funds based on the number of disadvantaged pupils. At the end of the day, we have enough disadvantaged you that the funding will never change significantly.

The Supreme Court found the Abbott funding to be unconstitutional. Maybe you are right about the formula, but it certainly needs to be looked at, and yanked in some towns. I still do this day do not understand why Hoboken is an Abbott district. Nice that some of those yuppies get free daycare.

Most of the Hoboken yuppies do not have school age children. When they do, they move to the suburbs. The ones that stay usually send their kids to private school.

Have you been to Hoboken lately? It is all families with toddlers. Free pre-K starts at 3. There are plenty of people with school aged and preschool aged children in Hoboken and many do put their children in the Abbott preschool.

Crazy_Chester wrote:
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snowflake20 wrote:
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ThirdGrove wrote:
Well two points:


The Abbott funding is a mandate by the Supreme Court that will not change. The only aspect that may change is the formula. They might allocate funds based on the number of disadvantaged pupils. At the end of the day, we have enough disadvantaged you that the funding will never change significantly.

The Supreme Court found the Abbott funding to be unconstitutional. Maybe you are right about the formula, but it certainly needs to be looked at, and yanked in some towns. I still do this day do not understand why Hoboken is an Abbott district. Nice that some of those yuppies get free daycare.

Most of the Hoboken yuppies do not have school age children. When they do, they move to the suburbs. The ones that stay usually send their kids to private school.

snowflake20 wrote:
Quote:

ThirdGrove wrote:
Well two points:


The Abbott funding is a mandate by the Supreme Court that will not change. The only aspect that may change is the formula. They might allocate funds based on the number of disadvantaged pupils. At the end of the day, we have enough disadvantaged you that the funding will never change significantly.

The Supreme Court found the Abbott funding to be unconstitutional. Maybe you are right about the formula, but it certainly needs to be looked at, and yanked in some towns. I still do this day do not understand why Hoboken is an Abbott district. Nice that some of those yuppies get free daycare.

ThirdGrove wrote:
OK, this is a bit off topic. ...

My beloved idea of municipal consolidation is a lot more likely to pass that any school changes due to unions and support among politicians for the status quo. So we will see schools change when pigs fly.

ThirdGrove wrote:

On the other hand, could the Abbott funding partially explain the under-performance of the JC school system: if they were more successful, they might lose some of their funding? As T-Bird pointed out, $123 million is a lot of money.

creativeconquests wrote:
I don't rent. I wish I did. I've also experienced corruption with the city first hand. It has cost me thousands. My taxes exceed $9K and counting this year. I apparently have an abatement, so over $11K when that expires, maybe even closer to 12-13K/year. My neighbors own an entire brownstone, taxes haven't been assessed in years (although property worth over a million) and they pay just over $3K/year. I own a condo.

ThirdGrove wrote:

stani: The property taxes in the suburbs are high because the suburbs depend on residential property taxes for almost all of their governmental expenses.
The Abbott funding is a mandate by the Supreme Court that will not change. The only aspect that may change is the formula. They might allocate funds based on the number of disadvantaged pupils. At the end of the day, we have enough disadvantaged you that the funding will never change significantly.

ThirdGrove wrote:
Well two points:


The Abbott funding is a mandate by the Supreme Court that will not change. The only aspect that may change is the formula. They might allocate funds based on the number of disadvantaged pupils. At the end of the day, we have enough disadvantaged you that the funding will never change significantly.

stani wrote:
And the amount of the subsidy is huge (I don't have the exact figure right now). That would get ugly. So if you think there's any likelihood of that happening, you'd be selling JC and buying the burbs.

ThirdGrove wrote:
I am sort of confused whether you rent or not?

That said, Jersey City is not expensive relative to our region for the amenities we receive. We are close to the largest, best paying job markets in the country. Meanwhile, we don't have to pay the taxes one charged in New York. In Jersey City, you pay state income tax, a discounted sales tax, and property taxes. In New York, you pay state income tax, city income tax, property tax, and sales tax. Not to mention, Jersey City is much cheaper for the access. 400,000 dollars will get you an apartment in Manhattan (below 110th Street), or a nice apartment in Brooklyn and Queens. Meanwhile, 400,000 will afford you a house in Jersey City or a FANTASTIC apartment.

I am not making excuses for political corruption. I think our politicians are awful and our tax abatement structure is horrendous which leads to these higher taxes. However, the bulk of our taxes are linked to healthcare and pension costs. Virtually every city and state in the country negotiates union contracts that include these high cost benefits. Not matter where you move, you will always end up paying hire taxes every year. It's how the system is set up. That doesn't make it right, but there's little you can do to avoid it.

If you live in the New York area, and you want to live in an urban area; I haven't found a better place that Jersey City. If you find something better, share it with all of us so that we can all seek a better life.

teacher wrote:
thank you T-Bird. I just cannot understand why he/she was so pissed at me for railing against people that want to destroy the country. He/She wants to call my superintendent and get me fired.

The enemies of this country have more free speech rights/outlets, than people like me.

I am on the lookout for anti-American behaviour in JC and have the FBI number in my phone to call.

neverleft wrote:
[quote]
07310 wrote:
I thought the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor

creativeconquests wrote:
I would stay if I was a renter. But as of now I will be paying huge property taxes and dealing with the city as an owner in JC is by far the most frustrating experience I\'ve ever had in my lifetime. If I had the time and energy to share the stories, I\'m sure other homeowners could tell me the same. The city does not work for the taxpayer. It\'s beyond shocking. I have experienced with the city (particularly the permit and codes department) crooked behavior, illegal situations, contradictions of huge proportions, negligence at the risk of myself and my family.

If only I was renting I\'d love this city and let go of the feeling I need to depend on the city in some manner. I\'d use the area for it\'s nice parks, location to Manhattan, play with the people I\'ve met, I\'d invest in it without putting my blood, sweat and money of huge proportions. You caught me on a bad day, sigh. I\'ve never run from anything but this is a fight that gives me so much fatigue and angst, I\'d rather sell and live somewhere else. I\'m looking.

teacher wrote:
?Blind Sheikh? Omar Abdul-Rahman and at least one of his associates. The mailboxes are located in Jersey City, New Jersey, four doors down from the mosque where Abdul-Rahman was imam in the early 1990s.
Radical Muslims in JC make me want to move, People that want to destroy freedom. Webmaster? Does this include you?

07310 wrote:

I thought the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor

CapnJon wrote:
don't give up! "Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no!" we too are frustrated and scared about the coming tax issues. we too don't like the corruption issues. we too don't like kids killing kids. but, we love jersey city.

CapnJon wrote:
don't give up! "Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no!" we too are frustrated and scared about the coming tax issues. we too don't like the corruption issues. we too don't like kids killing kids. but, we love jersey city.

the people who try to paint the rosy picture of what JC used to be are a tad delusional. it's always been gritty, rough, working-class, and full of corruption in government. as much as some people around here would like to try and portray it as a new phenomenon, it is NOT a new thing. does that make it right? of course not, and i'm not saying it should be ignored.

as a few people have mentioned, downtown does have tons more short-term types who may not care about the process. jersey city is such a huge city, and the concerns of all the other wards are so different than downtown's concerns, that it should be easy to see why some old-timers get cranky at the demands of the downtowners. and even though lots of people on this list hate the current administration, the bottom line is, they were voted into office. period. if you want to vote them out, go for it, but it takes people getting involved, and not just yelling at each other on a message board.

having said all that, we love it here. we looked in the suburbs years ago when we were stopping renting and looking to buy... sure, we would've loved to move to Montclair, but we couldnt afford those taxes (which are still worse than ours), and the commute would've been twice as long. our neighborhood was pretty sketchy when we moved in, but the police were great (and other departments in the city), and through active people on our block, we got rid of the scumbags, drug dealers and gangsters. easy? no. scary? at times. worth it for everyone to try and stick through it? not necessarily. my wife and i are both pretty stubborn, and we weren't going to let scumbags ruin our life. our neighbors who moved in shortly after us, couldn't take it and left.

would we like things to be better here? of course, which is why we participate in the voting process, and community activities. and i would love if someone like mike bloomberg came to run the place...

your jersey city can be great if you make it that way!

moxiebaby wrote:
We will not buy a place with taxes over $3600/yr.

JCSHEP wrote:
If you are unhappy, believe it stems from living in this municipality, and you would be happy somewhere else?you should move to another city as soon as you can. Life is too short, you owe nothing to JC. If it is financial with the taxes, unfortunately finances are usually non-negotiable. It doesn?t matter what other people think, your perspective/happiness is all that matters. If the majority of your negative experience stems from a bad experience with a developer/condo purchase and there are other redeeming qualities that you like here, you should try to parse that out. Not all developers in JC are bad, I have had a good experience. I do feel some of the negatives you mentioned with JC, for me the positives outweigh the negatives at this point in my life. When I come back from out of town it hits me every time when I come through the 14C tolls and round the bend on the elevated turnpike extension?I love living here.