I couldn's agree with you more, Tern - the place looks +1000% better. Does anyone know what the plans are for it?

I'm always surprised that the church building across the street hasn't been purchased up - the little church looks abandoned - and turned into condos or a private home.

My heart skips a beat whenever I see this "Whole Foods in JC?" topic resurrected here on jclist. Same thing applies to all of the talk about Trader Joe's.

Interesting to me that it's warranted 64,000+ views - or more than double the viewing of "HUGE GAS PIPELINE - coming to Jersey City". LOL.

Sure wish that we knew the retail location scouts at either of these two food chains and could bring our interest to their attention.

Updating on my own post from several months ago - my tax case was heard and the result was a -15% reduction in my property tax bill.

Costs incurred to me were as follows: the tax overpayment check will be forwarded to our attorney in mid January and he'll take a 1/3 share, the appraiser will take a 1/3 share and I'll be left with the reamaining 1/3 share.

After that no further costs will be incurred and I'll enjoy the reduce tax bill.

Again, tried really hard to work with the city here before hiring an attorney and the folks in the tax office kept telling me "don't bother, you'll never win as your house is properly appraised". But Nick Corrado's office does these tax appeals all day long and wouldn't have even taken on the case had he agreed with the city.

Pretty painless all around and again, I've always enjoyed my interaction with Nick and his professional office support team.

Good luck to others.

Moved to JC from Hoboken several years ago - where the Parking Authority would ticket, boot and/or tow your car if it were even *thinking* about commiting a parking violation.

It was such a lucratrive business for the city to be in that the mayor's wife was jailed for taking $10/car kickback's from the Hoboken lot awarded the parking authority's contract.

I, too, have tip-toed the nose of my car onto Jersey Avenue - hoping & praying that some clown wouldn't crash into me as I tried to negotiate safe passage across the busy street - cars blocking my view on all sides.

Ticketing illegally parked cars seems like such an easy way to raise badly needly revenue for our city. I can't imagine that a few newly hired ticketing agents wouldn't quickly generate a hefty sum of tickets and provide for safer streets.

Re: Christopher Columbus Drive - when is it slated to be paved?

I was fortunate enough to attend the red carpet debut for this film on Monday night as my brother in law is an undercover reporter for the Bergen Record who's interviewed throughout.

Jersey City is prominently featured in this 90 minute film ? as are a number of our Hudson county towns. With the plethora of corruption material available to him, I?m certain that bro-in-law will never be out of a job reporting on all of it.

While a sad commentary on our state with particular focus on our local government, it had some laugh-out-loud moments and I?d recommend travelling to Hoboken to see it.

My sister, who lives in Trenton, just had her local PSEG office come out for a home inspection and received lots of free and/or subsidized benefits and upgrades. I was wondering whether anyone here in JC had gone through Step 3 - and if so, what was the outcome? Thank you!

Copying/pasting from PSEG's website:
----------------------

PSE&G will provide eligible homeowners or tenants with energy saving services in three simple steps:

Step One of the program includes a FREE in-home energy audit and the installation of 10 energy efficient light bulbs.

Step Two of the program includes free home health and safety testing and up to eight hours of free weatherization services including air-sealing, caulking, weather-stripping, and a programmable thermostat.

In Step Three, PSE&G will provide customers with a detailed audit report explaining the results of their energy audit and provide energy savings upgrades that PSE&G can help customers install in their home.

If a customer chooses to pursue Step Three, PSE&G will provide cost estimates for the work. PSE&G will pay 100% of the cost of the upgrades upfront. The customer (or landlord) repays either 20% or 50% of the total cost, depending on household income.

I don't expect anyone to open a full-on vegetarian restaurant (like Candle 79 in Manhattan) but if you had 3-4 vegetarian selections on the menu, I'd frequent it.

Downtown would be preferred.

FYI: Pasta Primavera, Veggie Burgers and Ravioli don't count - use tofu, seitan and tempeh in an imaginative way and we'll all be beating a path to your door with our dollars.

We were at the hearings last night - can't beat them for real life drama. Hyman's lawyer repeatedly stated that the city had never put forth an offer to purchase the Embankment.

I'm confused, then, regarding the $7million bond that was presented by the JC Council back in June. Can anyone clarify?

Releived that the commercial hardship angle was voted down - though the voting procedure couldn't have been more confusing to the the council or audience. They repeatedly had to clarify what a "yes" and "no" vote meant.

Our neighbor, an attorney, said that this was the highest hurdle to jump so having cleared it - we're feeling a sense of relief this morning. Thanking the Embankment organization for their tireless work on behalf of all.

This thread curently has 7800+ views. I wish that local restaurants would wake up to the fact that veg heads re out there and interested/eager to spend.

Sadly, we don't eat out much in this town - a veggie burger isn't my idea of a fun dining experience as I eat at least one/week in my own kitchen.

Restaurant Week? Tried to support our local restaurants and really couldn't - seemed as though there were 3 prix fixe dinners to choose from: meat, chicken or fish.

C'mon restaurant owners - you can do better than that!

I'm really glad that you chose this forum to post a blood drive message. I hate needles (who doesn't?), am fairly squeamish and borderline underweight but have donated more than a gallon of red blood in the past several years. It's easy, pain-free, surrounded by a fun and supportive group of people and you receive free cookies and juice afterwards - if I can do this anyone can!

I'm pregnant at the moment and cannot donate for awhile but would urge any of you reading this to give it a try. There's a desperate shortage of blood products in the NY Metro area so your donation will be much appreciated. Drink an extra glass or two of water the day after and you're right back to feeling 100% normal.

Did I mention all the good karma points that you'll rack up in the process?

I live *right* there, am a slight-ish built woman and the area's fine - even late at night - but use your judgement. Not sure that you know what we mean about the mall - but it's open for you to walk through at all hours of the day/night.

When coming off the Newport PATH at 2am after a weekend concert in the city - they're always been folks walking through both the mall, parking garage and neighborhood. Best part is that they all look just like you too - meaning working professionals. Not sure if the cabs stay in front of the mall all night - but you could easily walk over to the hotel and grab one. Grove Street always has cabs available and as per previous post, the cost is approx. $4.00.

Regarding the bar on the corner of 6th / Coles - I have to say that it's been quieter than usual on weekends - certainly quieter than when I moved in 3 years ago. We neighbors of the bar have the JC non emergency number on speed dial and call them at the first sign of a fight breaking out. For the most part, dealing and gang related nonsense outside of the bar has also seemed to move on.

Welcome to the 'hood.

Ray and Tom from NPR's Cartalk have a great website - you can read new care reviews, repair records, on and on. The site also has a MECHANIC area where you can search for a local mechanic and read reviews.

I've used Baja Vega in Hoboken and was very impressed with their honesty, service level, price, etc. You could do us all a favor and rate your mechanic after service.

A quick search of JC, 2 mile radius, no particular car make specified - listed the following results, good luck!

http://www.cartalk.com/ct/mechx/find.jsp

Sorry that I am working and cannot attend.

Quick, somewhat related question: the foot paths adjacent to the Embankment along 6th Street are an overgrown mess.

Anyone know whom to call to request that the grass be cut?

PATH folks were at the 33rd Street station yesterday so I asked them - they walked me over to the Rule board which basically states that bikes aren't allowed between 6:30-9:30am and 3:30-6:30pm.

They explained that folding bikes were allowed anytime

How about a mini statuette or fridge magnet of the Statue of Liberty?

I'm not sure how I came to believe that folded bikes were allowed on PATH trains, while standard bikes were not. Either way, I have commuted at peak rush hour where I found the folks in the last train car to be okay with it - even when we were totally squished in together. I have a bike bag but have never felt the need to use it. Love the previous poster's idea of using an IKEA bag. Cops have never uttered a peep to me regarding the bike, so wishing you the same luck.

Hi - just dialed Croft's number and it's out of service. I need a cat sitter for this weekend in the downtown area. Any other suggestions - thinking of asking at the vet's office. Thanks.

Thanks Steve, well stated - you've got my vote should you toss your hat into the mayoral race.

Most local governments are probably corrupt but clandestine about it. Hudson County (and particularly JC) is corrupt and right in your face. Gotta love it.

Walked by our newly renovated park last night at midnight - lights were on, sprinkler system was watering, people were strolling with dogs, babies, girl/boyfriends, etc. It was *great*.

Stopped in today to check it out in daylight and am amazed at the transformation. Hadn't even realized just how much I missed it. The best part of all is that the wait for reopening is now long forgotten.

My hope is that we all take care of this special place. We live in a beautiful neighborhood.

I hired Nicolas Corrado to represent the property tax appeal on my narrow brownstone in the Hamilton Park area. We did a gut/rehab renovation and the city came in with an appraisal that equated to $800,000. A woman working in the Tax Collector's Dept commented that my taxes seemed "unusually high for the area and that I might want to appeal them." I could have kissed her (!).

We had recently applied to our mortgage lender to refinance and the bank appraisal, based on 6 comparable property transactions in the past 6 months (they are not interested in the past year) came in at $600,000.

We rejected the mortgage lender's assessment and requested another. Second assessor was sent out and arrived at the exact same figure.

I approached city's Tax Assessment dept. with the paperwork from the bank and asked that my assessment be reviewed - they flatly refused to consider it. I cited my neighbor's home, which had been rehabbed in tandem with mine - and was valued at $575,000 - despite being the same dimmensions and materials as mine - again they flatly refused to consider or discuss how they arrived at his assessment. In further discussions with the city Assessor I mentioned the abatement that I had received - which they could find no record of. Shuffled back to the Tax Collection Dept. and produced the paperwork - the Assessor told me that she'd file the necessary paperwork on our bahalf.

In clarifying which paperwork she'd be filing, turns out that she was attending to the abatement, which would be not be back dated, and the assessment would remain as it. Why it couldn't be back-dated, when the city had misplaced the info, was not open for discussion. I was informed that if I tried to challenge the assessment, then the abatement would be removed.

We're reasonable people and believe in paying our fair share of property taxes but these discussion with the city were simply aging me. I couldn't make sense of any of the above and finally caved in with a call to our attorney. His terms seem quite fair in that the attorney and his property assessor will take 2/3 of the first year's property tax deduction if we win and -0- if we lose. Our hearing date has yet to be assigned but I'll update this post and advice the outcome.

Our row of houses was commenting on this last night too, so thanks for posting. I'll call the numbers posted above also.

I live near across from the embankment on a corner brownstone - our trash cans are located at the fence line. They are *loaded* with dog poop each weekend.

I'm happy that so many owners are dilligently cleaning up after their pets and bothered because the trash cans smell like toilets - from half a block away. Yikes! I end up scrubbing them with bleach every other weekend.

So sorry that public cans were removed from Jersey Avenue. Dog owners have no choice, I guess, than to look for the closest can.

I've had prints framed at both Galerie Hudson and Big Drum and have been really pleased with the quality and service of both. Big Drum runs coupons for -20% and while I didn't show up with one, the owner graciously volunteered that they had a special offer and she'd be happy to apply the discount.

Apologies for my feeble and misguided attempt at gallow\'s humor to relieve what was an extremely stressful situation 2+ years ago. Again, I have nothing personal against the historian and wish him no harm. My remarks were misinterpreted as a fantasy and for that I am truly sorry. My point was how personal, confusing and contradictory all interaction with him seemed to be.

I was initially looking forward to restoring our home with Dan\'s guidance - but was dumbfounded by how a simple exercise of updating the most undesirable house in the neighborhood became so unnecessarily complicated. As I work in the fashion business, I thought that this would feel similar - a very creative process, filled with larger-than-life personalities, that\'s also highly subjective. I thought that we\'d be partnering with the city but in the end it seemed that we were at the mercy of Dan\'s mercurial moods and that no helpful guidelines were available for reference.

We have a back \"yard\" that\'s blocked in by other brownstones and cannot be seen from the street. A brick structure had been carelessly erected, maybe in the 1970\'s and took up approx half of the 15ft x 15ft space. The roof and one side were partially caving in. Neighbors had suggested that it was used to raise fighting dogs, cocks, etc. and we wanted it removed. When applying for the initial permits Dan said that he\'d have to conduct an on-site inspection to ensure that the structure \"was not of significant, historical importance as in a safe-house for the underground railroad transport of slaves.\" Huh, I thought? The contractor and I would ask when we might expect his visit and were told that he was really, really, really busy, couldn\'t commit to any specific time, etc., etc. Weeks later, when the site visit had still not been made and with our timetable sliding out, we\'d schedule a second appt. with Dan. During the meeting he was flustered, took personal phone calls, etc and in the end told us that he\'d wave his right to inspect and sign off on the permit that day. Huh, again?

Later in the project windows would be installed and flashed with low profile metal trim, painted to match the woodwork. This became a huge issue as he insisted that the windows be flashed with wood (sorry if terms are not construction-accurate here) and we had to attend a historic preservation meeting to discuss.

While at that meeting, we sat behind the owner of All Iron Works on Coles Street and had the opportunity to listen as he proposed several new iron fence motifs for a residence facing Hamilton Park. Peter was representing home owners who had been trying without success for 5 years to replace a non-historic fence rail that had probably been erected in the 1970\'s. Dan was an outspoken committee critic and found none of the proposed fence suggestions to be quite the right fit. My contractor works with many historical boards throughout NJ and was struck by how unique this situation was. Seems that most local boards will work with a homeowner to quickly make recommendations, offering them several options for replacement.

When applying for the permanent Certificate of Occupancy, I met with Dan again. This time I was told that he\'d need to schedule a site inspection to ensure that our home had been painted with historically correct color. Working in a color-centric business I knew that neighbor-guy (who had received his perm C/O a few months earlier) had gone way off the palette chart into a bright color from the sale aisle. Again, he was too busy to confirm when this site visit might even occur. After much back and forth, with me challenging the fact that he could not have visited my neighbor\'s and signed off in good faith on the work, I secured Dan\'s signature for the perm C/O.

I too, put a lot of blood, sweat, tears and cash into this home updating project and don\'t regret having spent extra for windows, despite the fact that neighbor-guy replaced his on the cheap. If anything, the restoration of my home increased his property values and when reassessed for property tax purposes, I was presented with a bill much higher than his, probably for having stated so much of the work. The karma boomerang will perhaps find him someday for doing so much of the work under the radar and if not, that\'s okay too.

If I had to do it all over again - sadly, I\'d hesitate: a sentiment shared by several of the folks I came across while trying to fix up my house. I found the historian to be more of an adversary rather than an adviser to our community.

Now that we\'ve received our permanent Certificate of Occupancy, it\'s time to bring this thread back to life....

I work in the apparel industry where most of my guy-friends are gay and everyone in the business is hopelessly neurotic. I\'ve gotten a lot of mileage out of a well developed sense of humor and am able to play nicely with all of the other *crazies* in the sandbox. Having said that, I thought that Dan Wriedan would be easy enough to deal with: my husband and I bought a brownstone in the downtown section because we admired the area\'s historic look and we were more than willing to simply do the right thing with regard to restoring the former crack house that would someday be our home.

We closed on the house, removed boards and bars from the windows and applied for our permits. Neighbors came forth to shake our hands, thank us for the buying the dump and warn us about Dan Wriedan, aka Crazy Pants.

No, make that CRAZY PANTS.

I was woefully unprepared for this guy and found myself thinking that something went terribly wrong in his early childhood development. Terribly wrong.

What should have been a straightforward enough process, partnering with the city on preserving our home and buttressing property values for the neighborhood, took twists and turns through the hallways of this man\'s mental illness over the course of a solid year.

Upon our first meeting he said to me \"were you and your husband thinking of staying on in the house or were you planning to quickly fix and flip this property?\" I recall thinking that if this were a job interview, rather than a property discussion, the question would be illegal.

I should mention that a brownstone in our row, just 3 doors from my own, was purchased at the same time and we were gut/rehabbing in tandem. Neighbor guy and I became fast friends. However, I am the *sucker* who spent top $ on the Marvin windows, while neighbor-rehabber quietly replaced every single window with off-the-shelf aluminum cheapos. I also fell for the *historic color palette* choices, while neighbor-rehabber chose whateverwasonsalethatday at Lowe\'s.

During the project, I\'d often find myself joking with the neighbors that if Dan were to be found dead on the ground from a bullet wound and the police were to ask the next of kin, \"Do you know of any enemies that he might have had?\"....they\'d be left with NO idea of where to start the homicide investigation.

I wish him no harm but do hope that he gets the help he so desperately needs.

Ah but if only these meetings were televised...we could watch recaps on youtube in the am.

I've used All Iron Works also because I live in the 'hood and try to support local businesses. As others have commented, I felt that I could have made out better had I shopped their quote around.

They're reliable and the work was professional.

A related, though slightly different problem: I live near the embankment where there don't seem to be any public trash cans. Seems that all of the dog walkers toss their bagged poop in mine (!). By Sunday evening it's filled to the brim and smells pretty ripe during the summer months.

Anyone know whom to connect with regarding new public trash can requests?

Full confession: I'm a pizzatarian and could eat the stuff 3x/day.

I live right by La Rustique and was ordering from them every Saturday night, without fail. Charlie, the owner, made a great pie and life was good. A few months ago he hired someone to make the pies and another to take phone orders. As other readers have already stated: things went downhill - the sauce was straight from a can, orders were mixed up. I had to break up with La Rustique.

Went back to Carmines - for awhile. I'd order, hang up the phone and "ding-dong", the doorbell would sound with delivery of those pies. Not really sure how they managed it though I suspect that they've outfitted the glove compartments of the delivery fleet with pizza ovens and simply troll around the neighborhood, awaiting an order. They are THAT fast.

At the urging of many here I caved and gave Larry & Joe's a jingle. Grabbed my friend and dove into a large, extra, cheese pie. Monsterously good - the sauce was flavorful, the crust medium thick and the toppings fresh. I'm embarrased for Charlie of La Rustique to see the Larry & Joe's delivery car pulling up but a girl's gotta do what she's gotta do.