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The "good" news is that with the exception of about 6 rowhouses that were sold as large single-family units, the majority of those buildings on the interior streets were converted into 1-2 bedroom condos -- with the garden level units as commercial space. Not good for the businesses, but maybe not as bad as people's homes being ruined.

Anyway, for what it's worth pretty much all the residential units have been sold by now. But much of the commercial space was still vacant.

Really sucks for the businesses that were there and got flooded though. Especially Cocoa, which took so long in the financial crisis to get going and got hit just before opening (and with no flood insurance yet.)

We've posted on here before of our flooding issues in our finished basement. Brewster/MDM, I believe we all were tracking Irene last year :)

We've gotten 2-5 feet of water in our basement 3X in the 3 years we've been in the house. I do finally believe we've got a good solution now (sump pumps galore, trench system, a wall to prevent water from the street) and we've even tiled the walls. Though we got 2 feet from Sandy (and that only because we lost power), we were able to just mop up and put our stuff back that we had moved upstairs.

But to walk around JC and see whole rooms of furniture, appliances, clothing put to the street...it makes me sick. My husband lost his whole life's collection of CDs in our first flood, and that was awful. But both of us agree that we cannot imagine losing everything if you live in one of these garden apts.

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That's sobering. I wonder when someone will tally up the value of all the property & infrastructure in the NY estuary flood zone and compare it to the cost of building the damn surge gates.

Anyone know what the story is at the Liberty Harbor development? It looks like all the garden levels got totally flooded out on those nice single family rowhouses near Zeppelin beer hall. The taxes on those places are significant and I think the developer is still holding a good amount of inventory. Those garden levels are a permanent risk in my book. Not sure who would gamble with $1mm for them after Sandy.

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What's a riot is that while Kia markets it to the youths with those silly ads, way more have been bought by boomers who know a deal when they see it for a practical car, especially for those who have trouble getting in and out of lower cars. Lot of Soul buyers are replacing big SUV guzzlers.

As for the flooded cars, I'm sorry for your losses, but did people really not take this storm seriously? For God's sake, there was one just last year! We put our cars on high ground up the hill both times. It was worth the peace of mind taking a walk down Newark in the rain even though neither time did our street flood.

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(speaking of Hudson Mall ?..the link also has a DTJC auto picture.. ouch)

Hudson Mall in Jersey City to reopen Friday after damage from Hurricane Sandy forced closure

By Anthony J. Machcinski/The Jersey Journal
on November 12, 2012 at 5:44 PM, updated November 12, 2012 at 5:47 PM

After severe flood damage caused by Hurricane Sandy forced it's closure two weeks ago, Hudson Mall will reopen its doors on Friday, just in time for the holiday rush.

The mall has been closed since Oct. 29 when hurricane Sandy caused the Hackensack River to rise to historic heights, causing extensive flood damage to the mall and all of its stores.

Included in the damage was the newly-renovated Hudson Cinemas, which reopened after a large scale remodeling on Oct. 19, 10 days before Hurricane Sandy slammed the area. Information on the theater's condition was not immediately available.

Today, workers in the mall continued the restoration process. Large fans occupied the entranceway into the mall to dry out the large space.

While some businesses were heavily damaged by the storm, others were already open for business, including the Toys 'R' Us, where employees were already beginning the process of preparing for holiday shopping.

However, while the Toys 'R' Us, Popeye's, and Applebee's were already open, some businesses will remain closed, even after the mall opens its doors again Friday. Information on which stores would remain closed was not immediately available.

Monitor the Hudson Mall's website (http://shophudsonmall.com/ ) for updates on what businesses will be open.

JJ piece...

http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/20 ... ll_in_jersey_city_to.html

Very sad to see all the people here and in Hoboken who got the real surge! By the way -- not sure about the car but loved the ads

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Agreed, I bet all the auto dealers sustained losses since that area is close to river and only a few feet above sea level. I think I'm going to look outside Hudson county for a car.

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This may just be a rumor but I heard it from an auto body guy who does work for the dealers on Rt 440.He said the dealers around and including Hudson Toyota lost close to 10 million dollars worth of inventory. Hard to believe but if you do a Goggle map satellite view on Hudson Toyota you can see how vast their rear lots are that are level with the Hackie river. They must have a thousand cars back there. Can anyone confirm the rumor?

Buyer beware.

PS ? Hudson Mall has big trucks in the front with tubes going in the entrances. They must be pumping hot air inside to dry out.

If you're a Costco member, there's a program where you buy for $200 under invoice from participating dealers. We did this for our new Kia Soul, and got it at Maroon Kia in Wayne.

The Soul is a great city car, btw, and don't believe everything you read about the mileage scandal, we've gotten 35mpg on the hwy.

07310......
http://www.menneautosales.com

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I was wondering about this dealership, I was thinking about getting a Legacy having heard good things about this car.
I hate having to go though the process of car buying again, thanks for the review of this dealership.

My ins co is sending my car to this place, I think hundreds of water damaged cars are going to be "recycled" here.

http://www.copart.com/c2/copart_home_page.html

Buyer beware!

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07310......


Sorry to hear about your car.

Here is a link to an older JCList thread about Dealers on 440 maybe it will help.

JCList Dealers on 440

I would never buy a car in JC. When Difeo was a family owned business many years ago it was great. Yes treated you like family. But pretty sure they sold out to a NY firm now. Two bad news experiences with Difeo 1, had a car picked out salesman said we could have it for 15K no problem. Then the a-hole goes back to check with his ?manager?. The manager comes out and says he can?t let the car go for 15K. He would need an extra 600. We asked him why if the salesman said we could have it for 15K. This a-hole said (I swear to God) that he has a certain life style he has to keep up. That he has a few Harley?s and needs every dime of commission money he can get. We cursed the mother*cker out as to where I thought he was going to call the cops. Went somewhere else and got the same car for 14,500. And to top it off the Difeo a-hole called us for a week begging us to come back and buy the car for 15K. Yeah right!

Number two?I had no choice but to bring one of my cars to Difeo to replace a major steering part. It was closest. BIG mistake they told me they would have it ready in 2 days that they had the part. It turned out they held my car hostage for almost two weeks!!!!!


Had great luck with these dealers .. Fullerton, Route 23, and Crane over the years too name a few .

Good luck..I know you know this but buying a car is so easy today. I needed a new one last year , I did the research on the net to get the best deal. Walked in and purchased the car.

I bought a new car at Hudson Subaru on Communipaw back in January. I have had a really good experience there -they gave me the price I wanted, were totally transparent with options, loan, paperwork etc. Service department has been great also. If you're interested in a Subaru or a Hyundai (they own Hudson Hyundai too) I would highly recommend them.

Since I now have to replace my car anyone have any experiences with the local car dealers? The good, bad and the ugly?

Or should I farther out to get another car?

TIA

.......and for you new car lovers?in SH a brand new black 2012 Audi S5 bit the dust. Really sad seeing it there with condensation inside of it.

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Same story in Society Hill and Country Village. Water damaged cars all over the place. Some people actually got them started and are drying them out others are total losses.. plates off waiting to be towed.

I was driving through CV today and saw a guy trying to start his sweet vintage 70?s muscle car. He must have had it in this below street level garage/basement one of the many CV houses with the ramp down into the garage/basement. Sad all around..

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My car was caught in the flood my ins. co told me to remove everything from the vehicle including the plates. At this point the car belongs to the ins co and it is their responsibility to remove the car.
These cars are not abandoned they can't be started of moved under their own power and are waiting for the ins co tow truck.

What is the rule on abandoned cars? I see cars all over downtown that were destroyed in the surge - submerged in four to five feet of water at Sandy's peak. I see some have writing, insurance notations, on windows and license plates removed. But when will they be towed away? Is there a way to make this happen quicker?

Some vehicles haven't even been inspected but they sit, windows covered in condensation inside, most likely rotting; some are actually up on the sidewalk when they started to float and shifted up off the street during the height of the storm.

Political Insider: Healy singing holiday songs was last thing folks needed

By Agustin C. Torres/The Jersey Journal
November 10, 2012 at 6:17 PM

One cannot help but talk about what people have endured the past two weeks -- and how resilient they have been, charitable, and concerned about their neighbors. It amazes me that they are not angrier. Perhaps it's a delayed reaction or they shrug and come to accept it all as Mother Nature's wrath.

My biased view, as Freeholder Jeff Dublin calls it, is that the people's government failed them. Oh, I'm not saying they could have prevented Hurricane Sandy's storm surge but rather the responses by upper echelon officials were flagrantly Mickey Mouse -- or rather Donald Duck.

A not so prescient Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy decided on the day before Sandy struck New Jersey on Oct. 29 that it would be a good idea for folks living in basement and first-floor apartments near the bays on both sides of the city to leave. He gave these people a deadline of 7 on the morning of Sandy's rude visit. Tell me he wasn't reacting to New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg's Oct. 28 afternoon demand that residents living in the Big Apple's Zone A, sea level areas, had to evacuate before elevators shut down at 7 that evening.

Even worse was the sense people felt that they were abandoned by the city because of the lack of communication.

On the Wednesday after Sandy, several people I know walked to the city's Office of Emergency Management in a firehouse on Jefferson Street looking for any kind of information. Where's water, when are the lights coming back, ice, anything? There was a clueless response. Other than being told that they could charge cellphones at Pershing Field, officials said they had no information. There was no printed material to hand out.

Several residents said that Mayor Healy arrived at 1 p.m. in his sports jacket and did what he does best, sing Christmas songs.

In the future, whoever runs government in this city, and county, should dismantle the OEM offices. They should seriously think of hiring professionals to run these important agencies instead of a buddy who may happen to be an ex-cop. Despite what they say, these offices are mostly geared toward preventing terrorist attacks and are obviously not so skilled in dealing with an angry Mother Nature.

Residents are correct in asking what has happened with the annual FEMA monies these agencies have received.

After each disaster, people are tired of hearing how things will improve, next time. This was next time.

INSIDER NOTES

-- Hudson County employees at the Hudson County jail in Kearny were told they had to stay and work overtime when the hurricane bore down on Jersey. Unfortunately for them, all their personal vehicles were flooded. Do cars have flood insurance or does the county reimburse the owners? We'll probably find out more about this and many other storm-related issues at what promises to be a very heated county Board of Freeholders caucus on Tuesday.

-- The freeholders are preparing a resolution urging the state Legislature to approve a bill that would impose minimum triple damages on utility companies that fail to restore power to a given area within 24 hours of loss of power, according to sources.

The penalty would represent three times the estimated daily revenue for each day of disruption for the area of outage and would have to be paid out of profits -- not passed on in the form of any rate increase. These penalties would be passed directly to impacted rate payers. In addition, there could be damages of up to 15 times the amount of daily revenue, imposed by the Board of Public Utilities, if it determines the firm was negligent, failed to implement reasonable precautions, or make reasonable efforts to properly prepare for natural disasters.

What do you think are the chances of this ever happening in Trenton?

- Jersey City Councilwoman Michele Massey must have known she was doomed Tuesday when there were no hordes of campaign workers that she was promised by Dublin and others. There was no money to pay anyone. Dublin was forced to use a few thousand dollars out of the Jersey City Democratic Organization's meager coffers, a very bad investment.

Dublin and his pal DeJon Morris, and some other unidentified individual, were forced to ride around all Election Day in a vehicle with a dashboard placard that read, "Official Business City of Jersey City," according to my city sources.

Also backing Massey were Jersey City Incinerator Executive Oren Dabney and state Sen. Sandra Cunningham. Sources said they spent that day in a car with municipal government plates, probably on important city business.

Massey lost anyway. Check with me very early next week about the tectonic plate shifts after the special election that saw nonprofit social services agency head Diane Coleman (backed by Downtown Councilman and mayoral aspirant Steven Fulop) elected to the Ward F City Council seat. Let's just say right now that I will be very surprised if Mayor Healy does not end his run for re-election by January, or perhaps earlier. The rats are already jumping ship (a metaphor) and falling all over themselves to make nice with the councilman.

-- When is Jersey City ready to dispel or confirm reports of looting in the city during Hurricane Sandy and the aftermath? I'm not confirming anything here, but anecdotal reports about crime are disturbing, if true. If there is substance to any of it, city officials will look very foolish by not getting ahead of this

http://www.nj.com/hudson/voices/index ... _singin.html#incart_river

Jersey City parking regulations remaining suspended 'indefinitely'

By The Jersey Journal
on November 09, 2012 at 3:38 PM

Parking regulations in Jersey City, suspended after Hurricane Sandy hit the region last Monday, will remain that way indefinitely, the city says.

The Jersey City Incinerator Authority will resume street sweeping of major roads and highways, but residents who do not move their cars will not be ticketed, according to the city.

The city, which like Hoboken and Bayonne suspended the regulations to allow residents to recover from the massive Oct. 29 storm, will notify residents when it plans to resume normal parking rules.

Bayonne resumed its parking regulations on Thursday, and Hoboken plans to do the same on Tuesday.

http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/20 ... ulation.html#incart_river

Truckloads of donated items dropped off in Jersey City this morning

By Ana Ferrer/The Jersey Journal
November 09, 2012 at 11:55 AM

Seven truckloads of donated items from Evesham Township were dropped off in Jersey City this morning to help residents who are still in need after Hurricane Sandy.

The items were dropped off at the Office of Emergency Management Headquarters on Summit Avenue in Jersey City this morning by Randy Brown, mayor of Evesham, School Board President Sandy Student, and municipal workers from the town.

Brown, heard about the devastation in Jersey City and called Mayor Jerramiah Healy asking how he could help.

Student and Brown spearheaded an organization, "Evesham Cares" to assist in the collection of donated items.

Healy, who serves on the New Jersey State League of Municipalities with Brown, said the following items were needed: baby diapers, baby formula, non-perishable items and clothing.

The southern New Jersey town had lost power for four days after the storm but has been fully restored and safe since Friday, Brown said.

"We've been very fortunate to be able to do this," he said. "On behalf of the town's 50,000 residents, we're very proud to be able to help."

Brown added how "important it was for the community to come together and help those in need."

Healy thanked the mayor, volunteers and municipal workers who took the two-hour drive up the turnpike, to "help those who have been stricken" by the storm.

Brown and the workers that accompanied him are headed back down the parkway to Belmar, to drop off much needed cleaning supplies to the town.

http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/20 ... _of_donated_items_dr.html

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Jersey City library suffers $1.4 million in damages from Sandy; main branch closed 'indefinitely'

http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/20 ... y_library_suffers_14.html

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St. Peter's Prep in Jersey City has first classes since storm; much damage

By Anthony J. Machcinski/The Jersey Journal
on November 08, 2012 at 11:56 PM,
updated November 08, 2012 at 11:58 PM

Located on the corner of Grand and Warren streets in the heart of Downtown Jersey City, St. Peter's Prep was just as affected by Hurricane Sandy as much of the area surrounding it.

However, despite flood damage that has closed several buildings on Prep's campus, the school had classes yesterday.

Full JJ piece?

http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/20 ... _city_2.html#incart_river

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Troops at Jersey City Armory contracted stomach virus; city says Sandy evacuees not affected


By Terrence T. McDonald/The Jersey Journal
on November 08, 2012 at 4:46 PM,
updated November 08, 2012 at 4:58 PM

Nearly a dozen National Guard troops stationed at the Jersey City Armory contracted a stomach virus, but Jersey City officials say residents who were sheltered here during Hurricane Sandy should not fear they were infected.

The troops were kept in a separate population from the Sandy evacuees, and city health officials don?t believe there was ?any kind of exposure? to the evacuees, said city spokeswoman Jennifer Morrill.

?To err on the side of caution, they have cleaned everything,? Morrill said.

But Emory Edwards, chief of Union City homeless shelter Palisades Emergency Residence Corporation, writes in a letter today to state Sen. Brian Stack that the Hudson Regional Health Commission told him there was a possibility some homeless evacuees sent to his shelter could have contracted the virus.

?I am extremely concerned about a potential public health crisis that was created, in addition to putting our other shelter residents and volunteers at risk,? Edwards writes.

But Morrill insisted that ?nobody who stayed at the shelter was affected.?

JJ piece?.
http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/20 ... jersey_city_armory_c.html

Never mind...thought it was Thursday today!

Does anyone know if trash/recycling is being picked up tonight?

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I know this is a small inconvenience compared to what went down this past week but?..

Watch out where you park when Downtown. I parked along Grand Street and got a nice big metal IKEA thingamajig for a ..my guess.. IVAR ?assembly required? shelving system stuck right square in the middle of my tire. (couldn?t you have upgraded and gotten already put together furniture from maybe Raymour & Flanigan? Gee.) My low tire pressure alarm went a blaring in the middle of the hood. But not to worry being a JC old timer I have street ?cred? and was able to change it without getting killed. Or maybe it was because it was broad daylight. (no it was the street "cred" I am sure of it..word!) :)

My fault for parking along side someone?s basement (or apartment) clean out, sadly piled 5 feet high.

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Good luck to all who lost their stuff. Going down Grand Street is really heart breaking. :(

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Henderson Lumber on 1st Street has it.

My mail comes from the Bergan Ave -JSQ post office. Been getting mail since wed.

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