Brewster, seems this apartment unit is not worth becoming a thorn in the ass of the town, as they will make his life more difficult on the various other things he is trying to accomplish. Its easier to burn tenents ever few months.
Any change is gonna have to be class action, from owners that have no other business dealing with these corrupt civil servants. I'd contribute to the cause...win then move to 77Hudson!

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Teacher, I'm no marxist, I've made clear here many times I'm a landlord myself. But I'm small fry unlike the landlord in question here. It takes the big dogs getting singed to get anything done in this town (or this country for that matter)

this is marshland.. it floods shut up. i grew up on marsh land it floods we dealt. get flood insurance they can't deny you.. my town on LI sued so I know they can't. If my dad can get flood insurance so can you. I am from one of those towns where I can tell you exactly where the news people will stand when there is a chance of flooding.

the city doesn't fix the sewer because it is really effing expensive and everyone would bitch about the roads being tore up.

shut up and move.. well you can also raise your house(that is really expensive and a huge pain in the ass tho). those are your choices.

We live in a slimy little mobbed-up town. THe same could have been written 75 years ago...and it's still as true.

So expecting anything approaching rational government is foolish.

The smart people in this town have taken the money and run.

I agree. It is a completely unfair situation, and I feel for the owners. However, in this particular case, the property at question is owned by Jeffrey Zak, a wealthy developer in
Jersey City (ie, Liberty Harbor on Grand St).

Surely, with the kind of City clout evidenced in the stories of that project development, you would think he would throw some influence behind JC infrastructure reforms. For example, the
sewer basins in this often flooded area are very shallow, and
totally inadequate!

Contamination and corruption in the City, County and State
are and have been the norm here. I could smell it in the
flood water, with its potent component of human waste.

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Gosh, me too!

Brewster, because one owns a brownstone, does not make one wealthy and connected, some maybe going bankrupt, and stuck with the expensive albatrose. FEMA refuses to pay, the town refuses to fix/pay, so why should the owner be held to a higher standard?! Sue..well maybe with a class action..where's Erin Brock? It sucks for all involved, it costs too much to try and fix these things, and there are no guarantees... then the shit can come in from the sides..ie the neighbor...how can one stop that? The owner has no choice but to try and recoup a tad each month..,

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The real scandal isn't that the landlord rented out a unit that was legal to rent, but that the city keeps issuing Certificates of Occupancy for residences that regularly flood. Were they to do their jobs, and revoke them as unfit for habitation, then wealthy and connected people would start to feel the sting of how bad the sewers are and demand action.

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Well that's the clinker for me.... she should be allowed to walk away before her lease is up.

Xerxes-
Glad you got a laugh from "Don't understand why landlord
rents out the apartment". Rhetorical question from me,
the renter quoted. For money, duh. What does the landlord care?
I took the apt. because it was the only one that, in the limited time I had to move, would take a tenant with 2 dogs.

I do feel for owners in these flooded areas, but not this one,
a wealthy developer for whom this is mere pocket change!
I miss Manhattan, where majority of people rent and there are rules and recourse. Oh, yes, and an effective government.

"The city noted that Jersey City has a ?combined sewer system? that is over 100 years old, meaning that both wastewater and storm water flow through the same pipes."

"In wet weather, the excess water drains out to the Hudson River, with screens filtering the waste."

Lets call a spade a spade. Like NYC, JC dumps raw sewage into the Hudson River. I assume the "screens" only stop the large garbage caught in the flow. If you look at low tide at the large effluent pipe in newport near Mark Anthony's you can usually see all kinds of JC sewage jetsam flowing away (e.g. condoms, tampons, etc).

Roads, Sewers and Apartments flooded

This has been an issue since the dawn of time and made worse with new construction without dealing with the infrustructure.

Hopefully cityhall can put a bag over their heads and it will all go away for some other adminstration to deal with........and the cycle repeats year after year !

As much as her situation sucks, she should thank her lucky stars that she's just a renter and not the owner of a flood-prone apartment. When her lease is up, she can just walk away. The financial hit from some ruined furniture is much less than what she would face as an owner - especially an owner who wants out in this market. Also brace yourselves, we're in for another bad storm - starting tonight and lasting through Tuesday - that could dump another 3-5 inches.

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That question will keep me laughing all day.

Living in a flood zone
Downtown residents voice frustration, shock at rain ruining homes

Posted March 28, 2010
by Ricardo Kaulessar
Reporter Staff

THE RAINS FELL ? The brutal storm that came through the weekend of March 12-14 (inset photo) that led to flooding problems in downtown Jersey City. Inset photo by Mindy King.

Downtown Jersey City residents hope that any future storm will not resemble what took place during the rainy weekend of March 12-14.

The rainfall, according to the National Weather Service, measured a total of more than five inches and came with wind gusts upwards of 50 mph. It also flooded basements and ?garden apartments? in different parts of the city, backing up sewage in some cases.

The storms also closed off some streets that got flooded.

The complaints weren?t new. Back in 2007, several Downtown residents demanded answers from city officials about flooding. The city noted that Jersey City has a ?combined sewer system? that is over 100 years old, meaning that both wastewater and storm water flow through the same pipes.
_____________

?I haven?t really processed what happened.? ? Lynn Franks
________

In dry weather, the combined water goes to sewerage treatment facilities across the city called pumping stations. Bottles and grit are taken out, and the remaining sewerage is sent to a treatment station in Newark. In wet weather, the excess water drains out to the Hudson River, with screens filtering the waste. Yet factors such as excess rain, strong winds, and high tides prevent water from flowing out quickly enough.

Three years after the 2007 complaints, residents like Lynn Franks, who saw the majority of her belongings in her ground-level Bright Street apartment ruined from flooding, are furious again.

?The area where I live in is always flooding, which I found out after the fact,? said a frustrated Franks, who moved into her apartment over a year ago. ?The city must know this is a low-level geographically, but it seems like nothing has been done to deal with this problem.?

Her ground-floor apartment had a foot of water in some areas, she said.

The havoc the rain wrought

The management company that maintains the apartment building she lives in has already replaced the drywall damaged from the rains. She praised their effort as ?above and beyond.?

Yet she wonders why her landlord would rent out her apartment, as Franks began to find out from other residents about the flooding problems that plague her area.

?The people who live above my apartment came around and said [they] knew,? Franks said. ?It?s a bad situation and it shows me that some landlords, at least this one, are in it for the money.?

Her landlord is Jeffrey Zak, who along with Peter Mocco not only owns the apartment building, but the two are also the developers of the Liberty Harbor development community in downtown Jersey City. Both Zak and Mocco did not return calls to their offices about problems with flooding at their Downtown properties.

Franks said she would like to move, but has found it difficult to find an affordable apartment in Jersey City that allows her to live with her dog and cat.

She said she does not have any family living in close proximity, and was fortunate that her brother, who lives in upstate New York, was in the NY/NJ Metropolitan area to check on a commercial building he owns, and was able to help her evacuate from the apartment.

Franks said she found a motel outside the city that allowed her and her pets to stay for a night.

Looking back, Franks still hasn?t quite come to grips with what she went through.

?I haven?t really processed what happened,? Franks said. ?I am totally exhausted.?

Two to five feet above sea level

The area where Franks resides is one of several areas in downtown Jersey City most susceptible to flooding due to two things: they lie about two to five feet above sea level, and are served by combined sewers.

Other flooding downtown areas include the intersection of Wayne and Merseles Streets, Third and Colgate Streets, and York Street, particularly during that last major rainstorm.

According to city spokesperson Jennifer Morrill, the majority of the 174 calls for service received by the Police and Fire departments during that storm were actually in the Country Village area, in the city?s Greenville section.

The Municipal Utilities Authority, through city spokesperson Morrill, said they will embark in 2011 on the design and construction of improvements to sewers on Sixth Street and 10th Street. Also, the MUA has retained the services of a company to clean the sewer system interceptor (a large sewer line that controls the flow of sewage in a combined sewer system) from 18th street to the East Side Pump Station located by Liberty Science Center.

Since 2007, the MUA has had in place the Capacity and Condition Assessment program to inspect and identify areas for cleaning catch basins, spot repairs, sewer relining and replacement to keep the sewer system in working condition. But for some, the new improvements won?t come quickly enough.

Ricardo Kaulessar can be reached at rkaulessar@hudsonreporter.com.