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You raise some good points. Why did this reporter write two articles about this nobody? Slow news day?

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Saying she inspired someone is giving her unearned credit. My opinion is that the article inspired her to commit this small act of vandalism probably to get some notoriety or more press, in that case it did. Best thing to do is not to even bother commenting, I tried but failed. Is there nothing better to write but the thoughts of a 22 yr old girl that apparently hasn't even left home. There is so much more going on in this city that deserves the press. Haters gotta hate.

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I invite you to take all the offense you wish. Most people would like to live a life where they can take low-paying but creatively fulfilling work. Unfortunately, in order to be able to own a place downtown and enjoy the restaurants, bars, amenities etc, most have to work long hours, in stressful jobs that don't enrich us culturally.

This individual is laughably hypocritical. Self-described artists and writers are just the kind of bougie, hipster, gentrifying douches that she is railing against. Here's how you know you're a writer: if people will pay you to write. If you can't live on what they pay you, you're not a writer - your a bartender who does a bit of writing on the side.

Check out her linkedin page, where she boasts about how she is a "bicoastal full-time diva" who sees the world through a "postcolonial lens". Check out her Twitter feed where she moans about "white people" outside her window at night. Black or Asian people who are drunk making noise late at night are fine apparently - it's the skin color that offends rather than the noise. How very postcolonial of her.

This person is a spectacular moron. But again, please feel free to take umbrage at my position that this insipid individual should shut up and get a job, as some sort of attack on all folks who don't ride the PATH into the city every day.

jj comment:
Quote:

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Being young and stupid she didn't realized what she had inspired.

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Amazing resources. FYI, they seem right on the level of JCList statements. Basically "omg, people that have to move because they can't afford a place might not like having to move or where they will move to!" That isn't a compelling argument. Why does society owe it to people to live wherever they want? I want to have a $10 million row house on Central Park but my career doesn't afford me that luxury. But it does afford me a row house in Jersey City. Now, to avoid the potential problems of gentrification I did this thing called "purchasing property." That is what you do so you lock in the value of property so your rent doesn't increase to levels that become unaffordable as the community improves. I know, crazy talk. Need government regulation and funding. That makes sense.

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And that is fine as long as they don't develop a sense of entitlement with respect to where they live despite their "non-traditional careers." The fact is that few of the people working in these careers make good money. I don't see any reason why the community needs to prevent progress just so their rent doesn't increase beyond what they can afford.

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

And came the graffiti to The Charles.

Quote:

I started looking with a friend of mine to buy in 1994. We were really interested in a place downtown.. 4 family brownstone for $145k. One unit gutted and the others need work (not a total gut-rehab).

I remember another place on Grove near city hall.. $89k asking (it needed to be gutted).

We ended up in Bergen Lafayette and drove out as fast as we could... the place was Fort Apache in the Bronx scary. I drove through there last week and was amazed how much the area has improved.

We were both too young, not enough job history, and no bank was going to give us financing back then. I had to wait until 1997 before I was able to buy something on my own.

I keep thinking how much wealth I would have now if I was a little older and a bit more better financed how much friggin wealth I would have now. I could have sold both those downtown buildings in 2005 for $750k to a million bucks.

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I figured as much, I am from Brooklyn and that area was always considered a shit hole in my day. Only in the last 15-20 years out of townees have found it oh so desirable.

No, we both moved from other cities with even higher real estate prices today (Boston + London).

http://www.livablecities.org/blog/oth ... alth-effects-displacement

https://sites.google.com/site/gg2wpder ... ll/gentrification-impacts

It probably better to read some researched stuff on the topic then personal opinion from one-sided JClisters!

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Were the two of you born in raised in FT Green or did you transplant there?

My husband & I purchased here in 2013, after being priced out of Brooklyn. Of course we would have wanted to buy in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, where we had been happily renting for years. But because of life decisions we made (neither one of us works on Wall Street or in the NYC tech scene, for instance) we simply could not afford to purchase an apartment in our beloved Brooklyn. We were sad about this, but realized it was an inevitable development. We didn't resent the wealthy individuals who could afford to live in the most desirable neighborhoods. Envious? Sure. But the apartments they purchased were rightfully theirs, and we didn't feel like we had a "right" to live there in place of them.

Personally, I'm less concerned with displacement, having been displaced myself and found a reasonable alternative. I'm more interested in seeing that a city or neighborhood develops with intention and foresight. Cities can reach a saturation point, when too much wealth and commercialization, combined with unimaginative zoning (strip malls, casinos) will seriously diminish the vibrancy of a place. I don't think JC is anywhere near this point, but it is something to watch out for.

JJ comments.

Thirdway 1 hour ago
A lot of the old charm and old camaraderie of the old neighborhoods is not completely lost.

I was born in the Bronx and now live in a basic, working class neighborhood in New Jersey with a lot of the amentities of the old neighborhood. My old hood went down the drain and has since come back. Lots of middle class Hispanics and Blacks leaving the hopeless ghettoes.

Life is a process of continuous evolution.


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ASchiavo611Part2TheRevenge
ASchiavo611Part2TheRevenge 1 hour ago
There's a word I haven't been subjected to since 1988.

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motownhj
motownhj 1 hour ago
Yuppies rule!!!! Hipster, atheist, barista, Che wearin, leftist, communists out!!! Bring back families, churches and neighborhood bars. 'Murica baby!

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Jim Bergen
Jim Bergen 1 hour ago
@motownhj

Never happen. " Those were the Days"


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bospherus
bospherus 1 hour ago
The Yuppies, DINKS, and other high net worth individuals will drive the real estate market.....that is well known.

Look at Westfield, NJ as an example.

My good friend and I are blue collar working stiffs.

My friend bought a home with his family in Westfield just before the late 90's, early 2000 real estate boom.

The Yuppies w/ Kids population group suddenly zeroed in on this average blue collar town as a place to gentrify into their own with sick Prada-type clothiers and retailers following shorty after.

The kicker was that real estate agents were constantly asking him to sell his home. He answered that he just bought it, why would he sell?

Well, they kept on bothering him so he signed some ridiculous price contract or made some verbal agreement quoting a sky-high sales price just so they would go away.

I never asked him what that price was, but he moved out a few months later and went back to the Newark area with his family a rich, rich man.

That is the power of the Yuppie.

Money talks, the poor walk!


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Jim Bergen
Jim Bergen 1 hour ago
@bospherus

The power of " Timing " ( sold his house at the right time )


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Jim Bergen
Jim Bergen 1 hour ago
@bospherus
I do hope he invited you over for a good night with laughs and a fresh bottle of Hennessy

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Dooberstien
Dooberstien 2 hours ago
I get not being happy about getting priced out of the place you grew up in. My parents left JC with others during the white flight. They griped about what the neighborhood had become, too. But they left. Now you have college grads, with disposable income, from all over the country moving into JC, and locals recognize maybe they might have to clear out of there. Seems like a cycle to me.

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Jim Bergen
Jim Bergen 2 hours ago
@Dooberstien

Yes, a bad cycle. They must move ' elsewhere ' and sometimes that means Bergen Blvd. ( area ) , and that is not good. You have all of the streets where crime is prevalent.





I missed out ( buying in this area we are talking about ( downtown Jersey City - east Newark Ave and then south )) but, if I was young, I'd buy near Garfield Ave. As soon as that area get's a casino, the prices will skyrocket. ( just east of Garfield ave - where you can overlook the Statue of Liberty )


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Squashed
Squashed 2 hours ago
Clearly racist!

"Yuppie" is a code word for tax paying whites.. Much like "Thug" is a code word for criminal blacks...

Somebody call Eric Holder we need a DOJ investigation... We will not tolerate racial intimidation on any level


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Jim Bergen
Jim Bergen 2 hours ago
@Squashed

Eric is gone, not that it matters.

Also, I work there and some of the folks are bi-racial with no qualms presented. Nice community.

If you read down this tread you will see some people who, might have/ or still live there are upset it is not the " way it was " - why do they feel like that... well, I will let you decide.

** Now, yes ( as you said ) some " White "fright"" might be worrisome for them.



You don't see the Democrat Politicians complain, though. Taxes are rolling in and crime is down.


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Jim Bergen
Jim Bergen 2 hours ago
" Go Home Yuppie " makes me cringe.

Reminds me of the " Bennie go Home " mantra.


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Jim Bergen
Jim Bergen 2 hours ago
But, I sense it is a reversed sign that someone would see down south:

" This is a Sundown Town "

That makes me cringe also. One reason, I am not going to retire in any of those communities.


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Thirdway
Thirdway 3 hours ago
JC and NYC were old manufacturing cities where they needed hundreds of thousands of unskilled or semi skilled workers getting off the boat from Europe. That cycle is over and big cities are the last place to put manufacturing plants. They are too densely populated, expensive and a logistical nightmare.

JC will either become a haven for yuppies who work in NYC or JC, or it will fall down and collapse like Newark, Detroit and Baltimore.

Factories are automating to high tech facilities, or the work is being performed overseas. In either case, they won't be in JC. Yuppies are better than chronic welfares. I'm sure its sad for people remembering the old days but it is reality.




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zak477
zak477 3 hours ago
Not all but most of the apartment rentals in Downtown Jersey City, and on the waterfront are corporate rentals. My company rents 85 units and we are no way the largest. These units are furnished at our expense and there is a management office, in NYC, that manages these units. We have expats from Europe here training for 6 months to 1 yr. And some tech support that must help with upgrades and the contracts with their companies include housing. For short term housing one week to 10 days we lease rooms at one of the waterfront hotels for these techs. Rates in Jersey City are far better then NYC so all major corporations lease here. We have all been doing it for years now. As a life long resident of Jersey City in South Greenville, I find it amazing that City Hall panders to the revitalized Downtown when so many of the residents are just transient who live there on a temporary basic with no interest in the community other then food. The rest of Jersey City homeowners just pay the taxes for these temp workers.

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Bob Benchley
Bob Benchley 4 hours ago
Not to be a negative Nelly, but ... maybe the middle class we pine for was a transient event? We talk about it like it was always a part of America. But people were generally either poor or wealthy before 1929. And certainly right after '29.

FF to post WWII, where pent up domestic demand for goods created union bargaining power over the supply (and price) of labor. Remember, unions weren?t even legal until the Wagner Act in ?35. And there was NO global competition.

FF to the late 80?s/early 90's - trading blocs and globalization made locating production a global decision. Tariff barriers fell, e.g., NAFTA, EU, ASEAN, etc.

So with global competition for physical labor, the only way to make $ in the US is with education (and not Fine Arts, with apologies to Art History majors).

We're now kinda back to where we were in 1941...


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Jim Bergen
Jim Bergen 4 hours ago
@Bob Benchley

Well the " Talk " in the 90's ( * NAFTA ) we the USA would be a service country ( DOT COM crap ) well we all know what happened.

Now, with all of the EPA regulations and high Taxes, ( as I turn over the eight ball ) " the outlook is not so good."

Thus, the Global Warming crap - it is just about - that three letter word - JOBS.

Since the DOT COM is over and there is nothing to replace it.


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Vanua2
Vanua2 4 hours ago
@Jim Bergen @Bob Benchley Yeah, the internet is totally dead. It was just a fad, like television and dental care.

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Jim Bergen
Jim Bergen 3 hours ago
@Vanua2 @Jim Bergen @Bob Benchley

Not like it was ( DOT COM )

Television is dead, don't you watch it now on your I-pad.lol


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Vanua2
Vanua2 4 hours ago
@Bob Benchley Maybe you're full of it. We create the kind of society we want. If we let corporations rule we get slaves and the wealthy. Or we could be like civilized countries and somewhat support each other. I guess you're on the upper end or you might actually give a crap about what happens to this country rather than say. "Oh, well... I have mine".

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hello again
hello again 4 hours ago
What some people seem to miss is that the majority of people once living in these areas were working people. They were not section 8 but rather working class people who could no longer afford to live in the area.



You know, working people who hadn't seen raises in a long time while CEOs were building mansions. In NJ we have a record number of young working adults who cannot find affordable apartments. That is a disgrace.


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Jim Bergen
Jim Bergen 4 hours ago
@hello again

What is a disgrace is a good pres like Pres Clinton tried to get people off welfare and feel good about themselves, Pres Obama - not so much, heck he even overturned Pres Clintons Welfare programs.



You are falling for Pres Obama's mantra - blame big business for your ills.



But, yes this area was once a great PORT, now it is not.

Let's work on the politicians to offer like NY and up the road on Newark Ave, fill all of the empty spaces with new factories.


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hello again
hello again 4 hours ago
@Jim Bergen @hello again President Clinton pushed NAFTA and Hillary Clinton has made millions off outsourcing jobs to India.

This all started with Reagan and his union busting. Despite the fact Reagan was once a union president and was able to survive due to his union. He never made it big as an actor and relied heavily on union benefits.

Reagan was the start of the "I got mine with government/union help but screw the rest of you'".


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Jim Bergen
Jim Bergen 4 hours ago
@hello again @Jim Bergen

He did, but we are not talking about that, I was talking about his Welfare program.


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Jim Bergen
Jim Bergen 4 hours ago
@hello again @Jim Bergen

I also know a lot about NAFTA, and saddened it didn't work as planned, or we would not be seeing the infux of our southern people, leaving and coming here - displacing those of us in the inner city who really need any job.


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hello again
hello again 4 hours ago
@Jim Bergen @hello again The majority of Americans on welfare are working people whose salaries are so low they need welfare.



So President Obama is to blame for trying to help such people stay afloat?


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mrbru
mrbru 4 hours ago
@hello again @Jim Bergen That's not true.

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WellAdjustedAndroid
WellAdjustedAndroid 4 hours ago
Obama didn't change Clinton's welfare reforms at all.

Clinton changed AFDC (aka welfare) to be a block grant to the states. And federal dollars for state welfare programs are time limited and have a work requirement. Its now called TANF or Temporary Aid to Needy Families.

The work retraining and search programs may have seen some changes. But the reforms haven't been touched.

Not sure what you are talking about


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WolfeNotes
WolfeNotes 4 hours ago
Where are poor and working class people supposed to live when gentrification drives housing costs thru the roof?



Housing is a right.


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Jim Bergen
Jim Bergen 4 hours ago
@WolfeNotes

I am sure we have something called Sect 8. Just in this area one needs to work and pay a premium of the sort of a Sect 50.



Wolf, do you hear the good Democrat Politicians complain? Bet if that mayor of JC runs for Gov, you would vote for him. Is he complaining?


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jamesrsmithjr
jamesrsmithjr 4 hours ago
@WolfeNotes "Housing is a right."



Where is it written?


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Jim Bergen
Jim Bergen 4 hours ago
@jamesrsmithjr @WolfeNotes

In the mind of those that demand the poor to vote " D "


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WolfeNotes
WolfeNotes 4 hours ago
@jamesrsmithjr @WolfeNotes Google "Mt. Laurel"



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Laurel_doctrine



Towns have a constitutional obligation to provide opportunities under zoning



Government has an obligation to promote general welfare.



Housing is a human right


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jamesrsmithjr
jamesrsmithjr 4 hours ago
@WolfeNotes @jamesrsmithjr "The doctrine requires that municipalities use their zoning powers in an affirmative manner to provide a realistic opportunity for the production of housing affordable to low and moderate income households."



Realistic opportunity for the production of housing , does not a right make...



I still am waiting for the RIGHT to housing.....


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mrbru
mrbru 4 hours ago
@WolfeNotes @jamesrsmithjr Housing is not a "human right"

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fedupwithJCbull
fedupwithJCbull 4 hours ago
@WolfeNotes many working class have already left JC for the suburbs, even in the hood rents are 1800 for a 2 bedroom. Section 8 vouchers are no longer giving out, there is a two year waiting list.

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Jim Bergen
Jim Bergen 4 hours ago
@fedupwithJCbull @WolfeNotes

What is a " Hood Rent "?



Or are you allowed to say it, and I am not?


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WolfeNotes
WolfeNotes 4 hours ago
@fedupwithJCbull @WolfeNotes Government should go back to building public housing and charging affordable subsidized rents.



Section 8 is privatization


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Jim Bergen
Jim Bergen 4 hours ago
@WolfeNotes @fedupwithJCbull

Anyone with a snit of wit, knows public housing was a complete failure.


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jamesrsmithjr
jamesrsmithjr 4 hours ago
@WolfeNotes @fedupwithJCbull "Government should go back to building public housing and charging affordable subsidized rents."



Governments job is to create an environment where citizens can pay their own way, keep giving bread and circuses and, well, see what happened to Rome...


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hello again
hello again 4 hours ago
I love the comments about these being tax paying yuppies. That's a joke because these properties are being built with tax abatements. The burden of paying taxes is actually on home owners and old time residents.

Similar to when the millionaire golf course was being built near Port Liberty. They used an enormous amount of water and paid almost nothing. Their water usage was paid by an increase in the water bill of homeowners.



Just a bunch of rich non tax paying leeches.


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Thirdway
Thirdway 4 hours ago
@hello again Yuppies are the people doing all the shootings and mugging too.

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hello again
hello again 4 hours ago
@Thirdway @hello again Many are illegal drug users contributing to the problem. They buy and then go back to their condos or bars to talk about "those people".

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Jim Bergen
Jim Bergen 4 hours ago
@hello again @Thirdway

Careful, they are voting Democrat. Are you saying Democrats can be Hypocrites? Don't say it is so, just to prove your point.


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hello again
hello again 4 hours ago
@Jim Bergen @hello again @Thirdway There is corruption in both parties in NJ.

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Jim Bergen
Jim Bergen 4 hours ago
@hello again @Jim Bergen @Thirdway

When there is money, yes, both are corrupt. But we are talking about a historically Democratic area.


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jamesrsmithjr
jamesrsmithjr 4 hours ago
@hello again @Thirdway "Many are illegal drug users contributing to the problem. "



Citation please?


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Jim Bergen
Jim Bergen 4 hours ago
@hello again

But they are paying property taxes none the less. And businesses are opening up daily, so those businesses are hiring people and paying sales tax.



Do you ever wonder why the Democrat politicians in that area do not feel the way you do?


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hello again
hello again 4 hours ago
@Jim Bergen @hello again I don't have to wonder. Did you miss all the JC politicians arrested for taking bribes on an imaginary development on Garfield Avenue? Those were just the ones they busted.



They couldn't care less about JC and will all be gone when the whole thing crashes. You can't build a thriving city by focusing just on the rich and kickbacks you get from them.


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Jim Bergen
Jim Bergen 4 hours ago
@hello again @Jim Bergen



LOL @ Garfield Ave / Bergen Blvd area. ( * Politicians )

Quote:

This "girl" put out a public "call to cause a ruckus." A call that apparently some people are heeding.

I could do without the personal insults, but she is a very very unsympathetic character.

I'm not defending her/think it is ridiculous BUT take offense to 'Perhaps the fact that the "artist & writer" is free to meet a journalist for coffee in the middle of a workday might have something to do with the fact she can't afford to live here anymore. Get a job.'

Many, many people in Jersey City fully support themselves (some in creative fields!) without working within the typical 'workday'!

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Webmaster -- please clean this up. Hey -- enough people leave the girl alone.

Her vag must reek.

Lol this jerk lived 10 years of her life in the bubble of downtown and now wants to whine about gentrification? She IS gentrification! When dipshits can dress like clowns and wander around unmolested, that's a hint.

She moved in during the baaaaadddd oleeee days of.....2005. I tell you, back then you coulda bought a whole row house for only $1,000,000! God damn yuppies put it out of reach for the common folk.

Even if she was born in JC-1994. Sorry, things were already rolling then. Yeah, chicken wire and drug dealers in Van Vorst, but hardly wild and crazy.

She doesn't really have a cause, just a very, very public therapy session.

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LOL I did not get this one, I got the one that says "There is a special place in hell for Yuppies." (Hell being Jersey City) fits perfect.

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Can take it back if it doesn't fit.

and they were selling these T's at the market but I doubt it was because of this thread.

Homeless puke is quickly being replaced by frat-brah's puke. Boy, we've made progress.

Woke up this morning and saw that someone had spray painted "Go home yuppie scum" across the front of Silverman's new building. Interesting coincidence that this happened the morning after this thread pops up on JC list.

Perhaps the fact that the "artist & writer" is free to meet a journalist for coffee in the middle of a workday might have something to do with the fact she can't afford to live here anymore. Get a job.

On the plus side, we now know how all those pizza joints downtown are able to stay in business....

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To be fair to Devyn, I asked her to meet me there because I'm usually there in the morning filing stories. It was not her suggestion.

Yelling "stop!" at gentrification... no.. I want to yell "faster please!".

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Insufferable. Typical "Watch me take a selfie with my Apple iPhone at Occupy Wall Street while my dad that works there pays my cell phone bill" type of BS. Sitting at an expensive cafe that is the direct result of gentrification in the most expensive part of JC, she decries these gentrifiers. After all, she has lived here SINCE MIDDLE SCHOOL (which was all of 10 years ago for her - which is actually after gentrification started, so her family were likely gentrifiers themselves). That doesn't stop her from making statements like "I feel like the development could have stopped at a certain point." (likely the point at which the prices started to strain the generocity of her parents, who are almost certainly paying her bills as her professed "career" pays nothing). Ufb.

Also, something tells me Lena Dunham is her hero.

Interview link here:

Yuppie scum tastes best when served with Italian coffee