Mao wrote:
" Of course, it is true that an automobile has to yield to a pedestrian in a cross walk. However, this does not mean that the pedestrian has the right of way. The car has the right of way and a pedestrian is supposed to stop and wait until there are no cars unless there is a stop sign. The stanchions make it seem as if it is a race so that if a pedestrian jumps into the cross walk, the car has to hit its brakes. Whose idea were these stanchions anyway?

Wishful_Thinking wrote:
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Yvonne wrote:
I spoke to certain people who work in government, naturally I will not give names, they are still employed. However, the Friendly Budget is available which shows $2.8 billion exempt from the tax rate. That is a public document. It also shows the value of taxes not collected. The city's ratable base is available from the Hudson County Board of Taxation. This is the reason why I stated in my letter what is not being paid to the board of ed and county should be in all tax abatement agreements. This information should not be secret. I also compared the fees from Healy's budget to Fulop's budget.

What I am still interested in knowing is where the PILOT money goes. As you noted, Jersey City doesn't have the local sales or income tax like NYC does, so in a way Jersey City has dug some of this hole for itself, i.e., the over-reliance on property taxes. Having said that, this is a real city with the inevitable needs that cities have, and suburbs don't.

If Jersey City is truly getting something from the PILOT money - more parks, programs for kids, funding SID projects, than IMO it's a reasonable trade-off. Is there a source to where the PILOT funds go?

stateaidguy wrote:
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tommyc_37 wrote:
Agreeing with bodhipooh. My question though is why is JC's tax rate similar to that of the suburbs? That seems off. NYC's is much less than 1%, while the suburbs are around 2%.

Should taxes in a dense urban city with shitty schools be the same rate as a suburb with great schools, etc?

This generalization is unfounded because suburban tax rates vary tremendously.

Taxes depend on what percent of the tax base is residential, how many students are in the public schools, how much aid the municipality and school district get from the state, how rich the place is generally, and what kind of tax toleration the town has.

Millburn's Equalized Tax Rate is 1.8 because the town is rich, has a big mall, and actually only spends $15,600 per pupil. (Millburn gets virtually no state aid. Its spending is roughly at Adequacy)

West Orange's ETR is 3.8 because the town gets virtually no state aid despite having high need ($700 per student), isn't that rich (in fact its real estate market is in clear decline) wants to spend $17,700 per student on its schools anyway, doesn't have that much non-residential property.

West Orange's taxes would be even worse if it didn't have a large private school population.

Glen Ridge's taxes are 3.1 because it has virtually no non-residential property, a quarter of its population is in the public schools, and it gets virtually no state aid. Even though GR is affluent, its taxpayers can't keep up and school spending is only $14,600 per student. (this is below Adequacy)

Bloomfield's taxes are 3.6 because doesn't have a lot of non-residential property, and is ripped off on state aid ($3100 a student for a relatively poor population). Bloomfield isn't high spending though; its schools spend only $13,100 per student.

Bloomfield's spending is way below Adequacy.

I could go on and on....

JCMan8 wrote:

Does anyone know if Fulop's brother really works there?

DanL wrote:

He also endorsed Healy for Mayor and Epps for Assembly.

bodhipooh wrote:
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I_heart_JC wrote:
there really should be a limit on how long lots can stay vacant.

that hole that DelForno dug on Newark Ave....the location of the Grove Street fire....Monty's.....

can't they be charged an "eyesore tax" or something?

especially in the summertime, when the DelForno Ditch fills with stagnant pools of mosquito-nursery water.

100% THIS. While I am always against any form of governmental power to punish or take away personal property, I think this is very much justified. That hole next to "future home of Hard Grove Cafe", the unfinished Hard Grove construction, and the Monty boarded up place, are eyesores and it really is unfair for Restaurant Row, and the community at large, to allow those conditions to continue as such. There should be some sort of penalty for unfinished construction that would spur the owners to complete their projects, or to sell to someone else.

brewster wrote:
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The lesser of two evils election seems to be the rule.

Such are the times we live in. I do wonder however if the "pure candidate" of another age was simply an artifact of a less sophisticated press structure. JFK was covered in "warts" but the "gentlemen of the press" were complicit in his myth, even before his death. My biggest complaint of the modern state of things is it rewards blank slates and punishes track records.

JCorNYC wrote:
Well, if the French intelligence and the US intelligence was doing what they supposed to be doing flagging and taking these terrorists, 9/11, Boston Bombing and Paris Attack etc. would have never happen.

Rather be cautious than negligence.

As the saying goes "When you see something, say something"

Better safe than sorry. How many victims of the Boston Marathan are now walking around with missing limbs? You're lucky it wasn't you.

MDM wrote:
Now reports that nothing was found! No bomb.. No arrests..

JCorNYC wrote:
Americans thought we will never be touched then 9/11 happened.

Other States poke fun at NYers that we jump with every High Alerts after 9/11. Then the Boston Bombing happened and the rest of the States shuts their mouth.

Europe thought it is only USA that will get targeted by terrorists

dtjcview wrote:
Getting elected as East Newark mayor with 121 votes?

bodhipooh wrote:

This is quickly turning into the turkey version of the pimp sighting thread.

JCMan8 wrote:


What I said has nothing to do with where I work or live, and I don't know where you got that from anyway. What I said is the truth, and it won't change no matter what you think of me.

Yeah, some other posters are right that "school is sometimes the only constant in a child's life." That's because when you are born to a single mother, as 80% of black children born out of wedlock, it is too difficult for one person to properly provide for and be there for her child. Everything stems from the home life. And a black baby born to a mother AND father that is there for him or her, has a much better chance of succeeding than one born to a single parent. The obvious conclusion is children born to two parents that stay together = better for all involved.

Too bad people still refuse to recognize the problem, and a ridiculous comment like yours is one response.

stateaidguy wrote:

Jersey City, objectively and relatively speaking, does not have excessive taxes in terms of taxes per equalized valuation or taxes per dollar of income. Jersey City's all-in, effective tax rate (county, schools, municipality, other entities) is 2.291, is just average for New Jersey. Jersey City's all-in taxes are low compared to most of the other Abbotts though.

dtjcview wrote:
The JCIA's existence is the real story.

JCRider wrote:
On that note, may I suggest that the time and energy being spent venting outrage and trying to put one another "in their place" on this message board would be more productively spent addressing Citibike directly about the issue?

jcwalkingman wrote:
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T-Bird wrote:
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jcwalkingman wrote:
It sounds like Gulls Cove II will be complete by Spring 2017.

YOU are TOO funny!

Pre-construction sales not going well?