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Re: Jersey City: Newark Avenue - Pedestrian Plaza
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Home away from home
 
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I agree that it could be better than what it is now.. pretty lame.. When this was first introduced as an idea, I pictured something more like this... ..
 Beyoglu, Turkey, where the photo above is However, the first time I went it was just unruly children and monster strollers and basic $hit stores I can find on Ocean ave with a few pizzerias that I wont eat at...
Posted on: 2014/9/3 17:30
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Re: Jersey City: Newark Avenue - Pedestrian Plaza
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Home away from home
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I noticed that CH Martin has concessions for rent - look at the sign as you pass by the entrance. Maybe there is nothing stopping people right now from selling handicrafts, small antiques, etc except taking the initiative.
Posted on: 2014/9/3 17:29
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Re: Jersey City: Newark Avenue - Pedestrian Plaza
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Home away from home
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You mean it's cheaper by 2 dollars? What's your address - let me mail you 2 dollars. I didn't know JC's image was worth 2 dollars
Posted on: 2014/9/3 17:22
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Re: Jersey City: Newark Avenue - Pedestrian Plaza
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Home away from home
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Feel like I need to stand up for CH Martin here. They sell cheap stuff cheap. Maybe more foot traffic will mean more people checking out the places like that and realizing they don't need to go all the way to Bed Bath & Beyond to spend 5x as much for only slightly better quality.
Posted on: 2014/9/3 17:19
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Re: Jersey City: Newark Avenue - Pedestrian Plaza
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Home away from home
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To get pedestrian friendly amenities, the city needs to commit to it being a pedestrian plaza. CH Martin could be gutted to be an indoor food and craft fair, if there was a lot of foot traffic that could just leisurely stroll and not avoid cars and trucks.
Posted on: 2014/9/3 16:44
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Re: Jersey City: Newark Avenue - Pedestrian Plaza
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Home away from home
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This plaza might be a good idea 5 years from now. It's just a joke now with empty/half filled benches. You have maybe 3-5 decent restaurants on newark ave (all within the grid that is closed off) and nothing more than that.
You want people to hang around in that area? What are the shopping options? CH Martin, Dollar store, value plus? Morlees? lol Please bring in some decent stores on newark ave - maybe start with low end clothing like gap or something.
Posted on: 2014/9/3 16:22
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Re: Jersey City: Newark Avenue - Pedestrian Plaza
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Just can't stay away
 
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Finally someone with some actual perspective. There are always at least 4 cars double parked in front of the doctors, pharmacy and eyeglass store every day. Then people double parked all up the right side to pick up their kids from karate. Then when people have to make a right onto grove from newark and it gets backed up I've literally seen people pass on the left into the oncoming lane to get around.
Posted on: 2014/9/3 16:16
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Re: Jersey City: Newark Avenue - Pedestrian Plaza
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Home away from home
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As some of the more recent comments point out, while the plaza will cause some inconvenience to people of limited mobility, pedestrian-friendly projects like this also tend to bring many benefits to the very same people: the most vulnerable residents, including seniors, people with disability, and children.
Some of those people do drive or get driven more often than able-bodied young adults. But some drive LESS because they physically can't, or because they can't afford a car on a small fixed income, or in the case of children, because parents can't constantly drop everything and drive them everywhere. For these residents, pedestrian- and bike-friendly improvements are demonstrably beneficial. If you've ever watched an elderly person, a person with a walker, or an uncertain child stand fearfully on the curb of a big, busy street, pressing the "beg button" to pretty-please ask the cars to let them cross, and then watched them limp or scurry across while the light blinked "DON'T WALK," you should realize that taming the motor monoculture that we've allowed to dominate our urban spaces will benefit them PLENTY.
Posted on: 2014/9/2 18:31
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Re: Jersey City: Newark Avenue - Pedestrian Plaza
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Home away from home
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I am a lifetime resident of JC, and often disagree with many posters on this boad, but on this issue, I strongly agree with mist here.
Newark Avenue along that stretch was shit for traffic anyway. Between the assholes pulled up on the sidewalk, or parked on the eastbound side, and the double parking on the right, it was a nightmare to navigate safely. Then that right turn at Grove was very dangerous with shits making unsafe maneuvers around pedestrians and other cars to get one car length ahead. As a guy who rides a motorcycle, I cringed when I would go down that stretch of road, and would purposefully avoid it. The safety factor alone makes it a good idea. Those people being supposedly inconvenienced now were very often being very unsafe anyway.
Posted on: 2014/9/2 18:23
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Re: Jersey City: Newark Avenue - Pedestrian Plaza
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Home away from home
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If you live dtjc then you really do not need a car if your life is going to NYC to work and NYC to play, but if you are one of the other 205k residents of the city you really don't want a car but you need it.
Posted on: 2014/9/2 18:04
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Re: Jersey City: Newark Avenue - Pedestrian Plaza
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Just can't stay away
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My parents are senior citizens and they just move to downtown Jersey City from the suburbs where they were car dependent. Here they can get everything they need without getting in their car. They can interact with people in the community and are not stuck in their house. They love walking around getting coffee and ice cream, it's one of the few activities they can still enjoy!
Posted on: 2014/9/2 18:00
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Re: Jersey City: Newark Avenue - Pedestrian Plaza
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Home away from home
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The pilot is extended through the fall because the Council did not act in enough time to get this rolling for the entire summer. The Council needs a minimum number of months to study
Posted on: 2014/9/2 17:49
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Re: Jersey City: Newark Avenue - Pedestrian Plaza
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Home away from home
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Quote:
I hate to see you being ganged-up on, Yvonne, and I'm sorry that such an important discussion is devolving into name calling. But I just can't support an urban planning policy that accepts JC continue to be so car dependent. The world is changing, and many of the most desirable urban areas around the world (and even in the US) are moving away from being so car-centric: http://www.carfree.com/carfree_places_old.html Now, I don't own a car and am proud to live 99% car free (rental cars for camping trips notwithsanding) but I'm 53 and lugging the groceries home, hitting the 100 steps after I've missed the last 87 bus, biking back up Newark Avenue after stuffing myself with b-b-q at Legal Beans, etc. are not getting any easier! But to insist on having a car in a densely populated urban area when there are other options is really selfish.
Posted on: 2014/9/2 17:45
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Re: Jersey City: Newark Avenue - Pedestrian Plaza
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Home away from home
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So yeah, some people are being inconvenienced, and that sucks. But that doesn't mean the changes shouldn't have occurred. Cities change all the time and that's one thing urban residents have always dealt with. You don't get to keep a city exactly how you want it just because it's most convenient for you.
Newark Ave is public property, and as such, no private citizen has a rightful claim to it. If you want to be able to drive up to your residence, you might need to move farther from downtown. This is just one con among many pros.
Posted on: 2014/9/2 17:12
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Re: Jersey City: Newark Avenue - Pedestrian Plaza
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Bravo. I'm a few years behind you, but this is exactly the attitude I want to have for the next 30 years or so.
Posted on: 2014/9/2 14:51
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Re: Jersey City: Newark Avenue - Pedestrian Plaza
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As a long time resident, senior citizen and someone covered by ADA, the changes are making it better for people like myself to age in place. In my case I haven't driven in a long time - all my doctors (happily only 3) have offices near the PATH. Need new clothes or shoes - LLB, BB and J Crew are alternatives that deliver to my door. I know that Allen Edmonds 9.5 C fit perfectly. Food options within walking distance keep increasing, and WF Tribeca is 10 minutes and $1.00 away (yeah senior citizen fares). Between GVan Vorst, Amazon and the library I'm never short of reading material. And now I have this nice wide pedestrian street where I can walk off my dinner or eat my dinner outside. I would complain about the 2 or 3 cars that go down my street blasting radios (but never too late at night) but than I'd be exhibiting a symptom of OFS - old fart syndrome - the illness I am most frightened of.
Posted on: 2014/9/2 14:06
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Quite a regular
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I live on Washington across from the Post Office and given the location I can never find a spot near my building, I'm usually around the corner at best. So I can certainly understand the inconvenience of having to walk a few hundred feet with lots of bags from the grocery store, but I do what adults do, deal with it. I bring a rolling cart with me and load it up on big trips.
While I certainly sympathize with a convenience taken away, things change, stuff happens, you adjust and move on. Quote:
Posted on: 2014/9/2 13:53
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Re: Jersey City: Newark Avenue - Pedestrian Plaza
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I was in JC before it was discovered by people on this blog, why should I move? Perhaps you should follow your own advice. JC is for many people including the handicapped, elderly, and families with children, people with cars. I am amaze by the lack of tolerance from so-called progressive people.
Posted on: 2014/9/1 22:45
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Re: Jersey City: Newark Avenue - Pedestrian Plaza
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Home away from home
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Echoing Times Square, Downtown Jersey City Gets a No-Car Zone
The New York Times By MATT A. V CHABANAUG. 29, 2014 JERSEY CITY ? Class had just let out on a recent Monday evening at JC Taekwondo and Kickboxing Academy on Newark Avenue. Children wearing bright white keikogi practiced their moves on the sidewalk and chased each other through the street. They darted around families pushing strollers, diners sitting at painted picnic tables and weary commuters trudging home from the Grove Street PATH station a block away. The would-be ninjas? training helped them weave and bob through the crowd, but there was one danger they did not have to dodge: traffic. Flying in the face of a century of development ? to say nothing of New Jersey?s identity ? the city closed Newark Avenue between Grove and Erie Streets to cars and trucks as of Aug. 19. The closing, which is in effect from 3 p.m. until midnight on weekdays and throughout the weekend, is a trial effort set to run through the end of October. The move to shut down a blocklong stretch of downtown Jersey City?s main thoroughfare is just one of many steps that Mayor Steven Fulop?s administration has taken in an attempt to help tame the streets of the state?s second-largest city. ?No matter where you live, people seem to really value public space,? Mr. Fulop said. ?We thought this was a great opportunity to create something special in the heart of downtown.? Jersey City?s initiatives along those lines ? the creation of pedestrian plazas, bicycle lanes, slow zones and even a tentative bike-sharing network ? would be familiar to many New Yorkers. But can pedestrians and cyclists really get a foothold in a city that often feels to some like little more than an on-ramp to the Holland Tunnel, especially in a state where toll increases and road closings can create political potholes for elected officials? The Newark Avenue experiment is akin to the creation of a pedestrian plaza in Times Square. Both not only create more space for people on foot, but also improve the flow of traffic by reducing the number of lanes from which vehicles may turn. Newark Avenue is hardly the crossroads of the world, though, and the closed-off stretch more closely resembles a restaurant row than the cacophonous circus in the heart of Manhattan. The affected block is already home to some of the area?s most popular restaurants: the gastro pub LITM, Skinner?s Loft, Sawadee Thai Cuisine and a Two Boots pizzeria. Five more are on the way. ?Our hope was to draw more of the 18,000-plus people a day who use the Grove Street PATH station,? said John Reichart, a former president of the Historic Downtown Special Improvement District. He noted that over the past six years, PATH ridership had risen 38 percent, meaning more potential customers for local businesses as well as more crowded streets. ?This reminds me of home, where all the high streets are closed and people know just to drive on the side streets,? said John Scanlon, a native of Ireland who was out strolling with his wife, Karen, who grew up in Jersey City. Continue reading the main story Block closed to traffic CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS DR. Grove St. PATH station Jersey City NEW JERSEY Hudson River ?It?s amazing how fast things have changed down here,? Ms. Scanlon said. ?This used to be the bad part of town.? Continue reading the main story Continue reading the main story Continue reading the main story People are so eager to be there now that bar owners and restaurateurs in the area quickly colonized the sidewalk with tables and chairs. ?Maybe it?s just the novelty factor, but it?s definitely been great for business,? said Emily Palmer, the assistant manager at LITM. The novelty has already faded for the owners of the more service-oriented businesses on the block. Some who have been there for decades said they felt hampered by the plaza, and particularly by the loss of about 15 parking spaces. ?Back to school is our busiest time of year, and Saturday, we were lucky if it was half what it should have been,? Martin Siegel, an optometrist, said. Next door, doctors at Grove Street Medical Associates expressed concern about emergencies requiring ambulances, and the Fenny Pharmacy said it had had a hard time receiving deliveries from drug suppliers and making deliveries to patients. There are some longtime Jersey City residents who oppose the plaza. ?It?s bad enough they closed it to traffic, but the space is only going to attract a bad element,? said Frank Mezilli, who has lived in the city since 1961. A friend of Mr. Mezilli?s, Christina DeFelice, agreed. ?They?re trying to turn it into New York City or Hoboken, and it?s not,? she said. And yet this city of 255,000 may not be the car-crazed metropolis it seems. About 38 percent of households do not own an automobile, and 45 percent of 124,000 workers take mass transit to work, according to the 2012 census. Ms. DeFelice may be on to something, given that the mayor has been aggressively courting both New York businesses and residents. ?Now we don?t have to go out into the city to have a night out ? we can stay in our own city,? said Mike Gonzalez, who had come to the plaza with his wife, Rossana, and their infant daughter. Mr. Gonzalez added that they had just bumped into a friend he had not seen since he was growing up in the neighborhood in the 1980s. The improvements have not come without hiccups. New bike lanes were recently painted on the wrong side of the multiple streets and had to be redrawn; signs on the Newark Avenue plaza have confused many visitors; and city sanitation workers almost carted off a piano the mayor had donated as a way of enlivening the block. ?We?re still working out the kinks, but overall, I think people are really taking to the idea,? Mayor Fulop said. Sukun Maran is among them, even if it means a minor inconvenience or two. A resident of Jersey City for the past 10 years, Mr. Maran has had to park around the corner from the taekwondo studio to pick up his daughter after class. ?We used to just double park out front,? he said. ?But if it makes for a more family-friendly atmosphere, it?s probably a good idea.? http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/30/nyr ... s-a-no-car-zone.html?_r=0 
Posted on: 2014/9/1 22:39
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Re: Jersey City: Newark Avenue - Pedestrian Plaza
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Home away from home
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i can understand only having the pedestrian walkway in the warmer months. i don't think many poeple want to be outside in the colder months, even with global warming..but who knows?
Posted on: 2014/9/1 22:29
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Re: Jersey City: Newark Avenue - Pedestrian Plaza
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Home away from home
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That's why god made Mapleclair, BaskingHills and Summburn, for people who want kids, cars and driveways.
Posted on: 2014/9/1 22:25
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Re: Jersey City: Newark Avenue - Pedestrian Plaza
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Home away from home
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Here goes Yvonne, again, running around screaming "The sky is falling! The sky is falling"! Good Lord forbid and strike dead anyone trying out something new. I was down on the plaza on Saturday, missed the piano but there were a few more people testing the walking in the street waters. I really liked whoever painted the picnic tables, they were very festive and colorful. Maybe if they held a little street fair to draw more people or start it earlier maybe around the time school lets out.
Posted on: 2014/9/1 22:07
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Re: Jersey City: Newark Avenue - Pedestrian Plaza
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Home away from home
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Walk in their shoes? Most of the time I'm the patient guy, waiting behind some double-parked idiot that's blocking traffic because they couldn't be bothered to pull into a space a car length or 2 ahead. There are better solutions - like allowing people with disabled stickers drive carefully up that stretch for loading/unloading. Kids? Groceries? Come on Yvonne! The human race has survived for millennia lugging food and papooses more than a block. It's a MINOR inconvenience for the few, for the benefit of the many.
Posted on: 2014/9/1 21:56
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Re: Jersey City: Newark Avenue - Pedestrian Plaza
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I guess some people here do not understand how difficult it is to have children, groceries, and other items you must carry. Unless you walk in someone's shoes, don't criticize.
Posted on: 2014/9/1 21:12
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Re: Jersey City: Newark Avenue - Pedestrian Plaza
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Home away from home
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Regarding the observed Inconvenienced Couple: Did they have a reserved parking space right in front of their apartment? Me neither. When I last owned a car (and this was 15 years ago, when traffic was a little lighter), I often had to settle for a parking spot half a block away and walk to my stoop. Such is lo-rise urban life.
Posted on: 2014/9/1 20:04
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Re: Jersey City: Newark Avenue - Pedestrian Plaza
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Home away from home
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I didn't realize this was only till October. I think the pedestrian plaza is a good idea in spring and summer.. Not so much in fall/winter. They need to coordinate more events if they reopen in the spring.
Btw i have a car and ride a bike. This midly inconviences me but overall it's a nice addition.
Posted on: 2014/9/1 16:12
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Re: Jersey City: Newark Avenue - Pedestrian Plaza
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Home away from home
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I can empathize with the feeling of having a convenience and then suddenly not having it, but this is a scenario that will be more and more common as Jersey City continues to get denser, and owning a vehicle becomes a true luxury. As that happens, amenities will continue to increase.
Posted on: 2014/9/1 4:57
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Re: Jersey City: Newark Avenue - Pedestrian Plaza
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I actually think I'd be a bit annoyed at the sudden inconvenience if I lived on that block. But that said, how many people are in that situation? Dozens, maybe a hundred? Compared to the 8,000 people a day they estimate take the path alone, plus other foot traffic? I think the net benefit to the city still works out. Not exactly the same but when they put down the special green bike lanes on my street the entire side they were doing had no parking all week. It was a PITA to have all that parking gone (at least 30 spots) but in the long run I support the bike lanes and was able to deal.
Posted on: 2014/8/31 15:20
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Re: Jersey City: Newark Avenue - Pedestrian Plaza
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Home away from home
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Posted on: 2014/8/30 12:08
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Re: Jersey City: Newark Avenue - Pedestrian Plaza
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Home away from home
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I really, really hope you are just trolling. It is ONE city block. From the corner of Newark and Manila/Grove to the corner of Newark and Erie is 500 ft. At most, you shouldn't have to schlepp more than 250 feet (assuming you live right in the middle of the block). Are you telling us that a young couple found 250 feet a terrible burden? This is the issue now? Wow.
Posted on: 2014/8/25 23:58
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