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brewster

Re: Have you evicted a non-paying tenant in Jersey City/Hudson County?

#181

Home away from home

Quote:

MDM wrote:
Quote:

brewster wrote:

Thanks, I''l check it out. Years ago a friend with a large management co gave me a lease but I thought it was over the top aggressive, like not guaranteeing appliances. Have you ever had anyone put off by your lease?

No. My lease isn't that aggressive. I have over time had to put in additional caveats:

No turkey fryers allowed.

Tenant will not demand that "humane" or "organic" pest control methods be used to treat the apartment and / or common areas.

LOL, it would be funny to see a long list of such specific clauses that landlords have had to come up with!

Posted on: 2019/2/12 21:10

Topic | Forum

brewster

Re: The SUV Phenomenon

#182

Home away from home

Quote:

RichMauro wrote:
Even so, Hoboken has a couple of municipal lots that allow people to get off the streets and curbs . Some of the large apartment buildings down by the water have great parking complexes attached to the living areas at very reasonable fees. These efforts help to make the "miracle mile" habitable. Jersey City needs to do the same before the situation becomes intolerable. Even North Bergen has some great arrangements which keep cars off the streets. Why is Jersey City dragging its feet on such a serious situation?

Because it's far less politically risky doing nothing than something you can be targeted for. Lets say the city makes a deal with a developer to build a parking structure on city land with the developer fronting the money and taking a large share of profits. I can see all sorts of "defenders of the people" making political hay with that. Why risk it?

Posted on: 2019/2/12 19:17

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brewster

Re: Have you evicted a non-paying tenant in Jersey City/Hudson County?

#183

Home away from home

Quote:

MDM wrote:
I took a generic one from a How to Landlord book I read back in the 1990s. My attorney then reviewed it and made some changes (adding in the "Additional Rent" clauses and revising my late payment penalty fees).

Https://www.amazon.com/Landlording-Han ... =1-2&keywords=landlording

Thanks, I''l check it out. Years ago a friend with a large management co gave me a lease but I thought it was over the top aggressive, like not guaranteeing appliances. Have you ever had anyone put off by your lease?

Posted on: 2019/2/12 19:12

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brewster

Re: 139 summit avenue bridge finally open..

#184

Home away from home

I'll be excited when you can get from St Pauls to 139 again instead of having to battle your way down Newark.

Posted on: 2019/2/12 18:10

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brewster

Re: Have you evicted a non-paying tenant in Jersey City/Hudson County?

#185

Home away from home

Quote:

MDM wrote:
I have it in my lease that I can collect these costs "As Additional Rent". If you don't have the quoted statement in your lease, you can't demand that these costs be reimbursed in landlord / tenant court.

I need a tighter lease. Where did you get what you use?

Posted on: 2019/2/12 18:06

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brewster

Re: Bayonne Costco opening March 7th...

#186

Home away from home

Quote:

LoKo498 wrote:
Geezzzz, that's not a deal at all! Why soo much to join? I got a BJs membership for 1 year for like 15.00.

Are you seriously arguing a low intro rate as comparison? Or are you complaining Costco doesn't have an similar intro rate?

Bohdipooh said it very well about the difference. I recall there's one more thing about Costco, they have a cashback Mastercard that adds 2 years to most warrantys of anything purchased with it anywhere.

Posted on: 2019/2/12 18:03

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brewster

Re: Question about bleeding radiators

#187

Home away from home

Quote:

tern wrote:
Are you on the top floor? If you don't get water to come out when you bleed the radiator, then the pressure is probably too low on your boiler.

Robin.

Exactly. There's a pressure regulator to drop the pressure since hydronic systems don't like to run at full city pressure. Perhaps its malfunctioning.

Dcourts, that only works for hydronic fin baseboard, not the less common cast iron radiators or cast iron baseboard. A lot of old houses were retrofitted from steam to hot water leaving the old radiators.

Posted on: 2019/2/12 1:50

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brewster

Re: Do you recommend particular Roofer?

#188

Home away from home

Quote:

tern wrote:
Calling Brewster, MDM, and any other Jclist home improvement experts! Any tips for locating leaks on an asphalt roof?

I have a small leak coming through the ceiling of the unit two floors below the roof, i.e. there is no visible leak or dampness in the ceiling or walls of the apartment directly under the roof, instead the leak is coming through the ceiling of the apartment second from the top floor.

It only leaks when it rains hard, and usually with a 12+ hour delay, so if it rains hard tonight, tomorrow evening it will leak for a while through the roof of the ground floor unit. The leak isn't a huge amount, just enough to make the ceiling damp in that area.

I have opened up the ceiling where the leak is visible, and can see it dripping between floorboards from above. I can only think it is coming down inside the wall from roof and then running along floorboards and dripping down.

Initially I suspected a leak in the siding or from around the windows in the floor above, but I have checked those thoroughly, and sealed any gaps where water could possibly get in around windows.

The roof looks ok overall, so I am at a loss to know what to do. There is a chimney on that side of the roof, so going to double check the roof tar around that.

Cheers,
Robin.

Tough one, odds are it's at the periphery of the roofing somewhere, like the flashing around chimneys, parapets, and vents. I had flashing cracking and leaking 3 years after a complete roof replacement. Well done boys!

Posted on: 2019/2/12 1:41

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brewster

Re: Have you evicted a non-paying tenant in Jersey City/Hudson County?

#189

Home away from home

I can't help you with your own appearance issues, but I can tell you this: if they show up without the back rent they're done, the court won't listen to any nonsense about pests and maintenance. Given that, I find it hard to believe they're lenient about no-shows.

Posted on: 2019/2/12 1:37

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brewster

Re: Bayonne Costco opening March 7th...

#190

Home away from home

Quote:

SRhia wrote:
Best way to get there via public transportation from downtown Jersey City?

also, what are the best things to get to costco? i have never been to a costco!

The HBLR will get you less than 7 minute walk away, I'm not sure where the entrance will be. As for what, just imagine if you got rid of everything stupid about how BJ's is run, and then have someone curate the product lines so the selections make sense and none of it is crap. Like, if they sell a vacuum or a set of pots, it's a good one. And presuming they do photos in this one, you can upload your files and pick prints up there, large Fuji prints are absurdly cheap, like a 16x20 for $7.

Posted on: 2019/2/12 1:31

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brewster

Re: The SUV Phenomenon

#191

Home away from home

The problem with significant parking permit fees is that it would look like a very regressive tax. From a public policy perspective, parking is a self solving problem. People don't have cars if they don't want to deal with the hassle or cost of parking them. People moving to an area with difficult parking at least know what they're getting into. It's only the incumbent residents that get hysterical as density increases.

I am all for density, it's what makes cities unique and wonderful places to live. but increases in density require commensurate increases in public transportation, which is what we are not seeing.

Posted on: 2019/2/11 18:41

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brewster

Re: The SUV Phenomenon

#192

Home away from home

Quote:

bodhipooh wrote:
Quote:

Sutherland wrote:
Owners of large SUV's should have to pay $1,500 a year for their residential parking stickers. Owners of commercial vehicles should have to pay $4,000.00 a year for a residential parking sticker

Thankfully, you are not in charge of public policy. Here is the problem with your stand: some SUVs are so compact as to be smaller than most mid-size sedans. Heck, of the top 10 SUVs sold in the US last year, almost all are about the same length as a Ford Fusion, with only two being about a foot longer.

So true, they're compact cars in SUV drag, a lot of them aren't even 4 or all wheel drive.

Posted on: 2019/2/8 22:01

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brewster

Re: The SUV Phenomenon

#193

Home away from home

Quote:

papadage wrote:
The parkign authority should also restrict the last few spots on the street by each corner from being allowed for SUVs. They cut off too much visibility at stop signs.

You mean the agency that winks at this kind of parking at Monmouth & 13th? Makes that turn very dangerous with 2 way traffic. That whole L shaped section between 10th and Coles should be one way anyway.

Resized Image

Posted on: 2019/2/7 17:38

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brewster

Re: For six years, Jersey City schools chief was at center of conflict

#194

Home away from home

Quote:

dtjcview wrote:
Quote:

brewster wrote:
Quote:

dtjcview wrote:
Can't help think if you took 20% or so of school funding, and gave that directly to the students or parents as conditional incentives - standards of attainment, behavior, and attendance and would skyrocket.

How about, for a fraction that price, attractive after school programs like music and sports that you must maintain a certain GPA for?

Those are perks not incentives for many - though may form part of a collection of incentives. What motivates you more - your free corporate gym membership or your year-end bonus?

Quote:

Involvement in sports is the most popular extracurricular activity for high school students. Sports require time and energy, but surprisingly that doesn?t come at the cost of academic performance. Sports participation is associated with higher GPAs, lower dropout rates and stronger commitments to school compared with the average, nonathlete high school student.

Widespread Participation
Across the United States, approximately 60 percent of all high students play on a school-sponsored sports team, according to a 2015 report by Child Trends. Boys were more likely to play sports than girls. Most school districts have eligibility requirements that require athletes to maintain a certain GPA and avoid absences if they want to play. The team may drop an athlete who performs poorly in the classroom.

Average GPAs
In 2009, the average GPA was 3.10 for a female high school graduate and 2.90 for male students. Researchers at Michigan State University determined that students who participated in vigorous sports did 10 percent better in science, English, math and social studies compared with other students. Different studies show various results regarding athlete versus nonathlete GPAs, with some showing athletes having a full point higher GPA than nonathletes.

Full article https://www.theclassroom.com/high-scho ... ol-students-gpa-3702.html

Posted on: 2019/2/5 20:38

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brewster

Re: For six years, Jersey City schools chief was at center of conflict

#195

Home away from home

Quote:

dtjcview wrote:
Can't help think if you took 20% or so of school funding, and gave that directly to the students or parents as conditional incentives - standards of attainment, behavior, and attendance and would skyrocket.

How about, for a fraction that price, attractive after school programs like music and sports that you must maintain a certain GPA for?

Posted on: 2019/2/5 2:26

Topic | Forum

brewster

Re: Sweeney proposes slapping payroll tax on Jersey City businesses to fund schools

#196

Home away from home

Quote:

hero69 wrote:
Quote:

brewster wrote:
Quote:

Sandra Cunningham wrote:
According to the new school funding formula, Jersey City is dramatically overfunded, but when you look around at our public schools that doesn?t seem to be the case. Our students are being provided with a high quality education

Untrue. Our unionized employees are being better paid than 98% of their NJ peers, but our students are being shortchanged. The district is now being run by and for it's employees. I dare anyone to try and read the "user friendly budget" and figure out where the money goes. I found terms used there that Google couldn't even define!

it is so easy/convenient to blame teachers for poor jc public school system, and i don't doubt that there are many lousy teachers out there, but i don't think people focus enough attention on lousy parents who raise lousy students/children.

I don't blame the teachers for the outcomes (in general) but they are part of the budget problem. JC makes huge amounts of money vanish without a trace. One way to get underprivileged and immigrant kids to engage in school is to provide them with a non-classroom reason, like sports, drama, music etc. We fund these in the 13th percentile of comparable NJ schools. We pay our janitors in the 97th percentile. Perhaps the students should unionize?

I pick on the Janitors not because of any special animus but because it's easy. If you try an look at the larger picture you can get bogged down in special ed, teacher seniority and qualifications, the claimed harm of charters, old crappy buildings, etc and all the reasons JC is "unique". But cleaning a damn school is pretty simple, no? In actual dollars we pay nearly twice the state average for maintenance staff and less than half on extracurricular. This is simply indefensible.

Quote:

Indicator 13: Extracurricular Costs (Definition)
Per Pupil Amount (2015-16 actual costs): $144
Per Pupil Ranking Within Group (2015-16 actual costs): 13|101
% of Budgetary Cost Per Pupil (2015-16): 0.8%
Per Pupil Amount (2016-17 actual costs): $152
Per Pupil Ranking Within Group (2016-17 actual costs): 14|98
% of Budgetary Cost Per Pupil (2016-17): 0.9%
Per Pupil Amount (2017-18 budget): $137
Per Pupil Ranking Within Group (2017-18 budget): 11|98
% of Budgetary Cost Per Pupil (2017-18): 0.7%

Quote:

Indicator 11: Salaries and Benefits for Operations and Maintenance of Plant (Definition)
Per Pupil Amount (2015-16 actual costs): $1,736
Per Pupil Ranking Within Group (2015-16 actual costs): 98|101
% of Budgetary Cost Per Pupil (2015-16): 10%
to % of Salaries and Benefits for Operations to Total Operations and Maintenance of Plant Costs (2015-16): 66.16%
Per Pupil Amount (2016-17 actual costs): $1,424
Per Pupil Ranking Within Group (2016-17 actual costs): 90|98
% of Budgetary Cost Per Pupil (2016-17): 8%
to % of Salaries and Benefits for Operations to Total Operations and Maintenance of Plant Costs (2016-17): 60.75%
Per Pupil Amount (2017-18 budget): 1856
Per Pupil Ranking Within Group (2017-18 budget): 97|98
% of Budgetary Cost Per Pupil (2017-18): 10%
to % of Salaries and Benefits for Operations to Total Operations and Maintenance of Plant Costs (2017-18): 65.38%

https://www.state.nj.us/cgi-bin/education/csg/18/csg.pl
https://www.state.nj.us/cgi-bin/educat ... ng=L.%20ALL&maxhits=10000

Posted on: 2019/2/4 22:58

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brewster

Re: Sweeney proposes slapping payroll tax on Jersey City businesses to fund schools

#197

Home away from home

Quote:

Sandra Cunningham wrote:
According to the new school funding formula, Jersey City is dramatically overfunded, but when you look around at our public schools that doesn?t seem to be the case. Our students are being provided with a high quality education

Untrue. Our unionized employees are being better paid than 98% of their NJ peers, but our students are being shortchanged. The district is now being run by and for it's employees. I dare anyone to try and read the "user friendly budget" and figure out where the money goes. I found terms used there that Google couldn't even define!

Posted on: 2019/2/3 23:26

Topic | Forum

brewster

Re: For six years, Jersey City schools chief was at center of conflict

#198

Home away from home

Quote:

tern wrote:
Terrible that the Teacher's Union gets to dictate how the school system is run, but me and most of the other parents in Jersey City weren't there tonight, and 150 teachers were, until enough of us make it a priority to oppose them, they get to run the show.

Robin.

Good point, but since she was a lame duck not much interest in this battle. But to your larger point, I find the entire schools issue to be impenetrable. As far as I can tell all the conflict is over who gets to pillage the system, the teachers or the admin, not over how can they do a better job.

I'd love to know more. If only there was some Journalists who would actually report in depth on the issues facing the $600m/year JC system and the implications of the factions fighting, rather than just the blow by blow. But this is what you get when Newsrooms are gutted. Big stories like the implications of the reval delay and the schools crisis simply can't be covered since most of it isn't a couple of paragraphs on "what happened today".

Posted on: 2019/2/1 4:19

Topic | Forum

brewster

Re: The SUV Phenomenon

#199

Home away from home

Quote:

MDM wrote:
I am looking at turning in my trusty, easy to park, wonderfully easy to drive hatchback if/when #2 kid comes along. If I put two car seats in my existing vehicle, the driver seat will be too forward for me to fit in the car (I am not a tall dude).

So it will be minivan, crossover, or SUV.

Test drive a Soul. Great car, dirt cheap, and the base model comes with tons of stuff like bluetooth that's higher trim on other cars. You'll swear there's a spacewarp that makes it bigger on the inside than it looks from the outside. It's wide, so you can probably get 2 kid seats in plus another passenger. I know we had 2 boosters and another kid. Plus you can get nice aftermarket roof rails and shlep sheets of plywood or drywall.

As far as the OP, a lot of what gets called an SUV or crossover is just a little hatchback on steroids, no bigger than an old Ford Escort on the inside, just jacked up. Strangely, the Soul is often put in that category, though it makes no claims to be a truck.

Posted on: 2019/2/1 2:31

Topic | Forum

brewster

Re: Mayor Fulop, United Hatzalah, JCMC Partner to Launch New Community Response System

#200

Home away from home

Wow, happy news for once! Congrats to anyone involved in executing this sensible idea.

Posted on: 2019/1/28 21:15

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brewster

Re: New Jersey-New York area lost 5,700 millionaires in 2018

#201

Home away from home

Quote:

Dolomiti wrote:
The same research entity ("Wealth-X" -- who?) also indicated that NYC alone had nearly 1 million millionaires.

Yes, being a millionaire is not nearly as impressive as it once was. All it takes is having bought a nice house or apartment 20 or 30 years ago. Remember laughing at Dr Evil demanding a million dollars ransom? And that was quite some time ago.

Posted on: 2019/1/24 3:11

Topic | Forum

brewster

Re: What are you paying your county freeholders?

#202

Home away from home

A better question is what does the county govt actually do besides the police, county high schools and maintaining their roads. I've heard tales of how patronage jobs are handed out like candy to reward the connected and faithful. It truly sounded a lot like the JCPD off duty schemes.

Posted on: 2019/1/23 23:30

Topic | Forum

brewster

Re: New Jersey-New York area lost 5,700 millionaires in 2018

#203

Home away from home

Quote:

Monroe wrote:
The top 1% of NJ taxpayers pay 43% of NJ income taxes.

A meaningless statistic without their percentage of NJ income earned.

Posted on: 2019/1/22 22:12

Topic | Forum

brewster

Re: Advertising a rental... Craigslist not working so well now

#204

Home away from home

Quote:

jc_dweller wrote:
I think facebook marketplace is largely replacing Craigslist. A major problem with Craigslist is that you are anonymous which is ripe for scammers. On facebook, yes you can set up a fake account but it's far more effort to not only do that but then populate your page with what appears to be legit activity.

Is there a way to have a business presence without a personal one? As for rental agents, consider they're the bottom of the realtor food chain, trying to work their way up to sales, most of whom are also don't listen or want to work hard for you.

Posted on: 2019/1/22 17:23

Topic | Forum

brewster

Re: Advertising a rental... Craigslist not working so well now

#205

Home away from home

Quote:

MDM wrote:
Quote:

JoeGee wrote:
Just wondering why you do not use a realtor? They perform background checks and charge the tenant the fee.

I have generally found realtors to be rather worthless.

Same. But not just that, the showing is when I get to size up a tenant. In NJ the last time you can make a choice about a tenant is offering them a lease, unlike most places where you can choose not to renew. You gotta trust your gut. I rented a place to a nice couple that I thought might be high maintenance, but it got the place filled quickly. Oh...regrets!

Posted on: 2019/1/22 1:45

Topic | Forum

brewster

Re: Advertising a rental... Craigslist not working so well now

#206

Home away from home

Quote:

MDM wrote:
Anyone here have an issue with Craigslist these days? I listed an apartment, but it seems to not come up in a search, even though the ad is confirmed to be active.

What are good alternatives to list a rental?

Yeah, CL is hitting hard times, the signal to noise has gotten so low with so many fakes, AB&B, miscategorized listings and multiple listings of the same place. I've seen my ads not show up too in the map,, but show if I keyword search them. I've also heard of listers being "secretly blacklisted" where it doesn't show but lets you see it. I've tried Zillow, Zumper, Hotpads and several others, supposedly there's someplace on Facebook but I'm a "never Facebook".

Posted on: 2019/1/21 18:37

Topic | Forum

brewster

Re: NJ TRANSIT does not own bus stops, nor does NJ TRANSIT shovel snow at bus stops.

#207

Home away from home

Quote:

JCGuys wrote:
They're right though. This is a city issue and they are skirting on their responsibility.

Are we talking about the sidewalk or the street of the bus stop? The sidewalk is the responsibility of the property owner. The street is not an issue, no buses in JC actually pull over anyway, they just stop in the middle and block traffic.

The sanitation dept will happily give me a ticket when some asshole dumps bags of their construction debris on my property, but God forbid they issue tickets to all the entities that own the sidewalks that never get shoveled even weeks after the snow has fallen.

Posted on: 2019/1/20 4:53

Topic | Forum

brewster

Re: 18th street Tiger Mart/Exxon Station

#208

Home away from home

I had a tradition for years of stopping there with the after school Hoboken bound carpool on particularly fine days in spring & fall and getting a coffee for me and donuts for the kids that we'd consume on the nice little patch of lawn they have next to them. No one ever got sick.

Posted on: 2019/1/19 23:19

Topic | Forum

brewster

Re: Do you recommend particular Roofer?

#209

Home away from home

Quote:

thor800 wrote:
Does anyone know whether covering the entire surface existing planking deck with plywood is standard practice before applying the base sheet ?

Mine, not that I know this is best at all, nailed down that "homasote" insulation board over the existing planks.

This is the year! I'm getting my Downtown roof done when it warms! Procrastination is OVER! (I think)

Posted on: 2019/1/19 23:09

Topic | Forum

brewster

Re: I-Team: FBI Investigates Alleged Corruption in Jersey City Police Department

#210

Home away from home

These cops make us safer? They're usually shooting the shit or on their phones, that is if they were actually there not scamming. I remember at an HPNA meeting someone saying that they went to one and told him there were 2 men breaking into a car just down the block, and he ignored her.

Posted on: 2019/1/18 15:18

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