it is unfortunate, but this sort of thing, atleast in my experience as a renter, routinely happens. I have yet to have an apt. where the landlord did not break this rule. sure, my landlords would tell me most of the time that they needed to get in for some reason or another, but each of my landlords has always on atleast a few occasions neglected to let me know.

When I was living on Bright, my landlord routinely broke this rule. I came home one day from work, parked my car across the street from my front door, and as I turned and started walking towards my apt., I see two Mexicans standing in my doorway, just kinda hanging out, front door wide open, and my roommate wasn't home. Of course I immediately thought "wtf", I approached the two guys asking what their business was being in my apt., they couldn't speak ANY English, and eventually after bringing me upstairs to the second floor, showed me they were doing work on a window in my hallway. This sort of thing just shouldn't be, ya know?

i hope all the kids responsible die.

this is a shame, but it's the same crap everywhere.

my old town in the 'burbs was the same way. most cops are misfits or ex-misfits, that's all there is to it.

when i think about the people, for example, I went to high school with that I know became cops later in life, they were all in that misfit category. in other words, there were no kids who got really good grades, were well mannered, and kept their noses clean that went on to patrol the streets, so to speak.

in most towns, if you can pass the physical, you're in, and the physical is a joke at that. a family member of mine worked as a cop for 2 years before he even went to the academy.

stories like these are unfortunate, but completely expected.

haha, right on fat ass.

just watched the Fox 5 Video. i feel sick to my stomach. what a bunch of pussies those kids must be, running around beating up harmless kids.

i hope they are walking in a "pack" this weekend, and a bus conveniently doesn't see them crossing the street.

OMG rabbit, I feel like a dog in heat.

ok rabbit, you did one of two things:

1) you moved to Jersey City, and bought a dog.

or

2) you owned a dog(s) and moved to Jersey City.

either way, you knew what they city had to offer regarding dog friendly environments/recreation, so why complain about anything at all? the VVP dog run is more than what the city had before. give parkman a break, and be happy you have atleast somewhere to bring your dog to now.

if you don't like the VVP run, than just deal with what you had before. exactly what you had when you moved here, which was, and still is, very little.

you can't squeeze blood from a stone, bro.

you love your dogs so much, such a priority for them to run and play.....move out to the suburbs.

these dog discussions make me crazy.

right on, fatass.


I HATE THIS IDEA.

man, i would think dumping ANYWHERE in public in JC would be illegal.

i mean, that's disgusting.

Jersey City:

The Goldman-Sachs building is really just a huge middle finger.

(The illustration on the shirt is self-explanatory)

the list seems pretty legit. a few more things to say:

i like the pear trees. ok, so they smell. Jersey City smells.

london plains are tough as nails, but they grow too big. the city will never come up with a good planting scheme for them.

Pin Oak, when pruned properly, and constantly, are real beauties. Trouble is, they won't be pruned consistently, and they will overgrow into a sh!t storm of a tree. They have very low branches, unique to the oak species, and they also grow extremely thick dense branches, so after a while, they just look like crap. If taken care of though, they're probably my favorite oak tree, a close second to the swamp white oak.

locust always seems to be the remedy, and they can work, but they also can get pretty big, and tall. plant them in the right spot, and you're ok.

the red maples are great. they don't grow too tall, grow somewhat wide, but are manageable, and beautiful.

just please, no white pine. jersey's remedy for cheap, strong growing trees, that quite honestly, are total crap and should become extinct, atleast to rural/suburban landscapes. you know what they are.....those butt ugly pines that grow so awkward and silly, you can't tell if the tree is standing upright or upside down, based on the arrangement and length of each subsequent branch.

downtown JC would look so awesome with a good, well thought out tree scheme. it really would. i would love to see it.

as an ex biology nerd, as well as working full time for a tree service pruning and removing trees in NJ for over a year, I have a few things to add...

I worked for a wonderful group of guys, a small company out of Warren, NJ, and they taught me quite a bit about the science of cutting/pruning trees. they also spent much of their time talking about how stupid and silly half the jobs were that we did on a daily basis, because so often the jobs we were hired to do were a result of bad planning on the city, or a home owner who didn't know what he was doing.

For one, there are many great points raised so far on this thread.

Tree diversity is definitely key, especially in a city, because city trees just have it tougher. They are also in a less than desireable, less natural environment so to speak, meaning they obviously would do better in an open field, forest, near a lake, etc.

With that said, there are certain trees that just fare better in cities. Unfortunately, many cities just start on this crazy planting spree, planting whatever looks good or what they like, they don't know how to plant them or how much space to leave between each one, how high the tree will grow, sunlight exposure, the width of it's canopy, and the result......people that live in the area, or like you already said, PSE&G, comes around and mutilates the tree because it is becoming a nuisance.

If the trees were planned better before planting, that being, the species of tree, location of its planting with keen consideration of adjacent structures, etc., you wouldn't have such a high occurence of tree hacking in JC, or the rest of NJ, for that matter. Not to mention, all it takes is one bad prune, one bad cut into a trees' main secondary branches, and you just smoked the tree.

Unfortunately, most "city-friendly" trees are not the most desireable to look at. Sure, a nice, big White Oak is a magnificent sight, but the only place it makes sense to put one of those babies is smack in the middle of the park where it will have adequate room, not to mention, you better keep it away from any concrete structures like adjacent sidewalks, basketball courts, or even playgrounds, because with big beautiful trees comes big beautiful roots that act like Tremors underground (without the people eating part).

Bottom line, cities are crowded, and not the ideal place for a tree, so if you want to have nice trees, they take ALOT of work and routine prunings to maintain and keep them strong, and with the constant developments going up all over JC, it is impossible to plan out where to plant a tree if when it finally starts to mature and become a real nice tree 15-20 years later, there's a condominium complex going up right next to it, resulting in either a crappy prune job or a complete removal.

Of that list earlier, if I may:

Black Locust: They are "ok" looking, but make an absolute mess when the seeds come out...you ever seen those huge, ugly seed pods they leave all over the ground, like 16" string beans? Good thing they started making city friendly, hybrid black locusts, the natural species of them has 3" spikes growing all over it, enough to take an eye out. I think I left atleast 3 pints of blood in Somerset County pruning those suckers. They are strong though, and is why you see so many of them in cities, but they can get big, usually bigger than anticipated.

Zelkova and Gingko: an upright, ugly tree.

Plum: very sensitive trees, usually crap out after a bad rain season.

Red Bud: impractical. beautiful, but impractical.

White Birch: they're ugly. and tacky.

London Plain: I personally like the London Plain's, but they're definitely becoming a me-too tree, just like the locust species. Also, they are strong, fast growers, and usually get too big and eventually hacked up by the power company. Flowering pears are one of my favorites, but again, a me-too tree these days.

My suggestion, if you have some property, research some trees, find something you know will fit there when it is fully matured, and learn how to prune it. Oh, and hope an apt. building won't be built there, too...haha.

i've had enough of this.

anyone ever seen the first Jackass movie? remember when Johnny Knocksville has that police officer shoot him in the stomach with that bean bag "bullet" from the shotgun, and immediately after he gets hit, he doubled over in pain and collapsed to the ground?

Well, I call a motion. I motion that we ask cops to patrol the streets with those bean bag guns, fully automatic, and the minute somebody so much as steals a F@#$ing pack of gum, you light 'em up like a candle with 50 rounds, no questions asked. Maybe have gunners on roof tops of every street corner. Go ahead, mug somebody, and get enough welts on your body that you won't even be able to lay down to sleep at night. Also, as they're lying on the ground, wimpering in pain, spray them with skunk extract. This way they will have to deal with the embarrassment when they walk into school the next day, covered in huge welts, stinkin' like skunk funk.

Save the drama for your momma, kid.

God damn it, I'm bitter.

wow, those guys carry alot of money in their wallets.

I don't know what kind of runner Fulop is, but regarding Lance, I wouldn't doubt if he finishes near his time.

I was reading some articles last night about Lance and his training for this race, and it said that he took 2 weeks off in October to do a bike tour, and that his running training has resulted in some injuries. also, not only has Lance never run a marathon, his longest run throughout training has only been 16 miles. Lance also said he wants to break 3 hours, but again, judging by his training, it sounds like a long shot.

By the looks of it, Lance is going to have to depend on his competitive drive to push him the whole way, because his training is not.

that is funny. i almost stepped in some giant turds about a month ago but was totally surprised because it looked like a horse's turd. wow, horses in JC.

i can't take it anymore. i just moved into JC in february, and every single day, someone is getting arrested, someone is robbing something....what is going on in JC?!!! Honestly, this city needs to double the amount of patrol cars and start kicking some ass. I had two people get mugged on my street this weekend, one of which was right outside my front door, not to mention my roommate's car getting stolen and another friend of mine who lives a block away get her window smashed and radio ripped out of her car.

If you want to live near NYC and have the conveniences of a city, where else is there to live in Jersey these days? I certainly don't want to move to the Disneyland yuppy centered, over priced HoePokin' any time soon, but I'm starting to get uncomfortable in JC because of the crime. Maybe it's time for the west coast.