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Re: Journal Square / New York Times: Ambitions Expand at Canco Lofts
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Home away from home
 
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a Russian oligarchy/conglomerate and JC municipal government
...not much chance for corruption there....
Posted on: 2008/6/29 17:42
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"Someday a book will be written on how this city can be broke in the midst of all this development." ---Brewster
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Re: Journal Square / New York Times: Ambitions Expand at Canco Lofts
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Home away from home
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yep, that's only $1800 year - but maybe more importantly than the dollar amount is the fact that it's locked in for 10 years, at which point it only rises 2% for the next 10, etc etc...
plus - if you're lucky enough to be able to finance less, your payment would be even less - in other words, the cost basis has nothing at all to do with the value of the property itself - it's insane - I mean, if you pre-pay down the principal and get a lower monthly mortgage payment, your abated tax payment will track that? ridiculous. What's in it for the city government is that with abatements they can get their grimy little fingers on the money directly, rather than have it flow through the state and fund the schools - they're addicted to years of the state funding the schools through JC being classified as a distressed city. Jersey City is like a relative who just won the lottery (all the development) but still expects to borrow money from you for groceries (the schools). In the future, a perfect storm: the very same development that's getting all these abatements is rightly expected by Trenton to be lifting the city up, so the state tries to pull distressed city school aid and to get JC to stand on its own two legs, but all these low-dollar abatements are locked into place, so there's no local funding available for the schools. End result? Jersey City one way or the other will have to remain a distressed joke of a city for another generation. the abatements are a perversion of the system, and (I think) nothing less than governmental malpractice
Posted on: 2008/6/29 13:55
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"Someday a book will be written on how this city can be broke in the midst of all this development." ---Brewster
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Re: 2008 Street paving - Councilman Steven Fulop
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Home away from home
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Quote:
If the city got a grant and the job was never completed, then they need to make sure that it gets done. "you may say-ay-ay-ay, I'm a dreamer...."
Posted on: 2008/6/27 14:48
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"Someday a book will be written on how this city can be broke in the midst of all this development." ---Brewster
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Re: 2008 Street paving - Councilman Steven Fulop
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Home away from home
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Fulop-hating aside (I'm not sure I even get ianmac47's point), I'm just glad Chris Columbus is getting paved - every time I come off rt. 78, it's such a telling contrast between the sudden baja 500 pavement and the gleaming waterfront towers in the distance (see brewster-supplied signature below)
Posted on: 2008/6/26 20:52
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"Someday a book will be written on how this city can be broke in the midst of all this development." ---Brewster
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Re: N.J Finds Gas Station Rip-Offs (List of stations too)
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Home away from home
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from our friends at Microsoft, here's a service listing gas prices, supposedly updated nightly.
In true MS fashion, the map is just about unusable, but there's a list of the stations below that (I haven't tried any of these yet - let us know how accurate it is...)
Posted on: 2008/6/26 16:22
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"Someday a book will be written on how this city can be broke in the midst of all this development." ---Brewster
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insane golf clubhouse
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Home away from home
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So I was riding my bike down at the far SW end of LSP the other day, and I came across this building under construction - I thought I was looking at a three quarter-size scale model of a terminal 3 at JFK or something: it's like 40-50 feet high, all glass, with an elevated ramp leading to it and a huge parking garage next door, right on the water...
Turns out it's the clubhouse for that new golf course. Even more ostentatious given the poverty a few blocks away, but hey that's what's great about America.
Posted on: 2008/6/26 14:51
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"Someday a book will be written on how this city can be broke in the midst of all this development." ---Brewster
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Re: With loft sales stalled, Journal Squares' Canco seeks sweeter tax abatement deal
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Home away from home
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Quote:
the council was going to vote in favor of the abatement one way or another why just accept that, though? ...we need a new council... Quote: getting something out of the deal... the 'something' we got out of the deal (the $100K 'job fund' or whatever they decided to call it this time) will just be used as a tool to perpetuate things
Posted on: 2008/6/25 13:44
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"Someday a book will be written on how this city can be broke in the midst of all this development." ---Brewster
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Re: With loft sales stalled, Journal Squares' Canco seeks sweeter tax abatement deal
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Home away from home
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Quote:
I don't get it. let me help you out. Quote: Fulop is mad that the city wanted the developer to give something up for the tax break? Does he propose simply throwing more free money at the developer so they can sell their units faster? Fulop voted against sweetening the agreed-upon abatement, as this sets the precedent of the city assuming risk for the developer. That's not how capitalism is supposed to work. Think that one over for a minute, regulator - and imagine what the developer 's reaction would be if, conversely, market conditions improved, and it was the city coming at the developer looking to shift the abatement deal in the other direction to participate in the unexpected profits. How do you think that conversation would go? Quote: I for one am glad that Gaughan was able to get that donation. It may not help me directly... That one you got right. In the JC council's hands, this job creation fund will be used as a get-the-votes-out slush fund for the Hudson County democratic machine this November. That's not hyperbole; that's how it works here. JCLaw explained it pretty well how this money will be used: Quote: If you are looking for the crooked use of payoffs, the place to find them is in the small to mid-sized government contract vendors. Most work performed by the municipality is performed by 3rd party contractors. Those contractors donate to campaigns and help out with manpower on election day. Politicians squabble over which of their supporters will get municipal and county work contracts - paid with your dollars, not necessarily to the real lowest bidder. They squabble just like they do over which of their relatives and ward heelers ('young people who worked so hard on their campaign') will get cushy no-show government jobs. But the bigger issue is, 'donations' to the city should not come into play when the council votes on any issue - or hey, maybe they could draw up a menu - $100K for a 5% abatement shift, $50K for a zoning variance, etc etc...
Posted on: 2008/6/25 12:28
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"Someday a book will be written on how this city can be broke in the midst of all this development." ---Brewster
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Re: Under-fire ASPCA shelter prez shoots big toe accidentally; said he was afraid of animal activist
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Home away from home
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man this is horrible, you can only imagine how slow and painful these deaths probably were, and how long it had been going on.
...and the guy shooting himself in the foot, and the cover-up "break-in" ...only in Jersey City
Posted on: 2008/6/24 15:41
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"Someday a book will be written on how this city can be broke in the midst of all this development." ---Brewster
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car service from JFK to downtown JC?
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Home away from home
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Hi
We're meeting some family from Europe at JFK and were how best to get from there back to JC - just curious if about a cab, or if we should reserve a car service (they're coming through customs so we're not sure of the timing) We usually fly Newark, so we're not so experienced - any thoughts on price/strategy? Thanks in advance
Posted on: 2008/6/15 22:16
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"Someday a book will be written on how this city can be broke in the midst of all this development." ---Brewster
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Re: Grand jury indicts Benny Love for fraud - $230,000 Bentley rolled down the LSP boat ramp
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Home away from home
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...with "Ben Love" emblazoned across the windshield.
i love jersey city
Posted on: 2008/6/14 16:53
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"Someday a book will be written on how this city can be broke in the midst of all this development." ---Brewster
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Re: Grand jury indicts Benny Love for fraud - $230,000 Bentley rolled down the LSP boat ramp
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Home away from home
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..."benny love"
 I've seen a brand new cream-colored Bentley around downtown, I wonder if that was it (I figured it must've been Charles Epps' sweet civil servant ride)
Posted on: 2008/6/14 13:40
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"Someday a book will be written on how this city can be broke in the midst of all this development." ---Brewster
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Re: With loft sales stalled, Journal Squares' Canco seeks sweeter tax abatement deal
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Home away from home
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hey maybe after the developers get their sweeter renegotiated abatement deal, the people who've already bought at canco at the higher original prices can renegotiate a new lower purchase price with the developer - yeah that's it...
maybe they can hold those negotiations at the same time, even!
Posted on: 2008/6/13 14:10
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"Someday a book will be written on how this city can be broke in the midst of all this development." ---Brewster
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Re: With loft sales stalled, Journal Squares' Canco seeks sweeter tax abatement deal
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Home away from home
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Quote:
The question is "Whether the city should essentially become a guarantor of any developer's profitability by renegotiating an already agreed upon abatement?" thank you.
Posted on: 2008/6/13 13:21
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"Someday a book will be written on how this city can be broke in the midst of all this development." ---Brewster
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Re: With loft sales stalled, Journal Squares' Canco seeks sweeter tax abatement deal
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Home away from home
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Quote:
The developer erred in the original negotiation... I'm reminded of my favorite line from a review of the last Star Wars movie: "A f%#@ing break give me."
Posted on: 2008/6/11 21:42
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"Someday a book will be written on how this city can be broke in the midst of all this development." ---Brewster
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Re: With loft sales stalled, Journal Squares' Canco seeks sweeter tax abatement deal
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Home away from home
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surprise, surprise...
everybody get used to this, this is the precedent our council has set - they've guaranteed that this will continue to happen with every developer now - the city absorbs any risk, the developer absorbs any profit. I'd do the same thing if I was the developer, since the city council has shown itself to be such a pushover (or a more likely scenario, there's some $ changing hands) Why even bother negotiating any abatement terms in the first place if they're so changeable? Let me go out on a limb here - they'll get whatever they want, the vote will be 8-1
Posted on: 2008/6/11 13:01
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"Someday a book will be written on how this city can be broke in the midst of all this development." ---Brewster
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PATH (pathetic attempt at transporting humans)
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Home away from home
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How will the PATH even come close to being able to handle all the new Grove St. commuters over the next few years?
Jrnl. Sq.-33rd is the loser line.... Leaving Manhattan on the 33rd St. line at night, each Jrnl. Sq. car is already at *least* twice as crowded as the Hoboken cars I see go by. And going the other direction there are often two near-empty World Trade Center trains for every one 33rd St. train. dependability? I was on two cars stuck in the tunnel and then put out of service at Pavonia the last 2 weeks, and it just gets worse and worse... from their website, a sampling from the last few hours: 6/10/2008 10:35:29 AM Due to a signal problem, train service on the Hoboken to World Trade Center line is suspended. 6/10/2008 10:06:36 AM Due to a smoke condition, train service on the Hoboken to 33 Street line is suspended. 6/10/2008 9:56:11 AM Due to a smoke conditions, train service on the Journal Square to 33rd Street line is suspended. 6/10/2008 1:42:41 AM Concerning the earlier car equipment problem, train service on the Journal Square to 33rd Street (via Hoboken) line is resuming normal schedule. 6/10/2008 12:47:18 AM Due to a car equipment problem, train service on the Journal Square to 33rd Street (via Hoboken) line is operating with a 30 minute delay.
Posted on: 2008/6/10 15:18
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"Someday a book will be written on how this city can be broke in the midst of all this development." ---Brewster
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Re: Folding bicycles
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Home away from home
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I have 2 friends in the city with these - they're cool because they roll when folded and have a belt drive (no grease on your pants leg!)
http://www.strida.com/ (in person the aluminum one is really cool-looking, but as with most cool-looking things, they're more expensive)
Posted on: 2008/6/4 14:53
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"Someday a book will be written on how this city can be broke in the midst of all this development." ---Brewster
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Re: ...parking spot... (I guess this goes in Real Estate...)
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Home away from home
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thanks, Bright Moment!
Posted on: 2008/5/31 22:36
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"Someday a book will be written on how this city can be broke in the midst of all this development." ---Brewster
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...parking spot... (I guess this goes in Real Estate...)
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Home away from home
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Hi
Does anyone know the phone number for that big parking lot on Mercer diagonally across from Barrow St. Bar and Walker Apothecary? I'm looking to rent a spot in the area. (so come to think of it, if anyone knows of anything *else* in the V.V.P. area that would be great!) You can PM me if you like.... thanks in advance!
Posted on: 2008/5/31 17:56
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"Someday a book will be written on how this city can be broke in the midst of all this development." ---Brewster
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Re: Healy to appeal conviction again
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|---|---|---|---|---|
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Home away from home
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Quote:
who is picking up the lawyers tab for all these appeals? come on NNJR, you have enough posts, you should know the answer to that one... But just in case that's not a rhetorical question, and you really don't know, well looky here: Tuesday, February 12, 2008 By KEN THORBOURNE JOURNAL STAFF WRITER The private attorney representing Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah T. Healy in his Bradley Beach appeal has blown two deadlines for filing court papers, a court official said yesterday. The attorney - brother of the city's top lawyer - is also a retired Jersey City cop who was put back on the city payroll last May as a part-time, $46,000-a-year "legislative research officer." in other words, we are.
Posted on: 2008/5/29 11:18
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"Someday a book will be written on how this city can be broke in the midst of all this development." ---Brewster
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Re: comcast last again.....
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Home away from home
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I liked this story, from earlier this year when they hired seat-warmers to keep the public out of a debate on traffic-managing....
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=4350807 ...they are the *worst*...
Posted on: 2008/5/28 20:47
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"Someday a book will be written on how this city can be broke in the midst of all this development." ---Brewster
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comcast last again.....
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Home away from home
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when oh when is fios coming to VVP.... (verizon's not exactly concierge-level service but comcast is a nightmare)
"Comcast, whose service so infuriated a Virginia grandmother she took a hammer to a local Comcast office, tied with struggling Charter Communications for last place among cable and satellite firms." http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5j8 ... DqOyR1QECL8ZnrugD90P50T80
Posted on: 2008/5/20 15:04
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"Someday a book will be written on how this city can be broke in the midst of all this development." ---Brewster
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Re: Taqueria
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Home away from home
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Quote:
Why no guacamole? They act like it's not Mexican. Well neither is your helvetica font! But I double dog dare you to find a place in LA that doesn't serve guacamole, and it's not like those places are catering to white hipsters. I think the no guacamole thing has more to do with the expense of avocados, and the problem of keeping it fresh - most of Taqueria's stuff is just a little on the tired side, and guacamole gets brown quickly. That being said, the best place on the *planet*, in my old neighborhood in LA (a tiny shack in the corner of a liquor store parking lot, but they won some James Beard award a few years ago) http://losangeles.citysearch.com/revi ... /page/2?providerSource=cs They don't do guacamole either, but then they're not a restaurant - anyway if you're ever near Hillhurst Ave. in Los Feliz, do yourself a favor - go to Yuca's and get the Cochinita Pibil (marinated pork from the Yucatan), either taco or burrito. The Asada is correct and perfect too. It's family owned, been there for at least 17 years. In the city, there's a small place on Hudson, Mexicana Mama - they get it mostly right. Hard to squeeze into though. For higher-end stuff there Mi Cocina up the street, very good. Skip either of the Rosa Mexicana's entirely though - it's Chili's with money.
Posted on: 2008/5/19 12:53
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"Someday a book will be written on how this city can be broke in the midst of all this development." ---Brewster
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Re: Taqueria
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Home away from home
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I still say, Bubbys Bubbys Bubbys - Taqueria maybe have a little more 'authentic' food (and name) - but Bubby's, even though it's kind of California-fied, is tastier to me, and (I think) way fresher.... fresher than Taqueria and fresher than places like Benny's in the city. One of the few instances (along with Savas and Shadman) where it's really better over here.
I find Taqueria's food strangely bland. And the folks at Bubby's are great.
Posted on: 2008/5/19 11:16
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"Someday a book will be written on how this city can be broke in the midst of all this development." ---Brewster
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Re: Takes $8M in state aid -- JC City Council agrees to impose a hiring, promotion and salary freeze
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Home away from home
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It's should be (if they had any shame, that is ) embarrassing to city hall to have to take this aid from the state in the middle of all this development.
My only theory is, Mayor McTipsy's proclamations about how it's a new Jersey City to the contrary, they want to keep JC in 'distressed city' status no matter what the tax windfall from the waterfront development could have been (if they were competent, that is), so the state continues to float the schools. They're a bunch of squealing piglets, feeding at the Trenton trough. Addicted to the dole. The biggest mystery to me is why the state plays along - we're like the relative who wins the lottery, blows the money, and needs a loan two months later. But at least the hiring freeze is a tacit admission from the state that this government can't be trusted to handle it's own money like a grownup. Shameful. Brewster's quote (see below) gets more true every week....
Posted on: 2008/5/16 12:16
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"Someday a book will be written on how this city can be broke in the midst of all this development." ---Brewster
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Re: Welcome to Jersey City Politics: It's Been Rough, Corrupt and Downright Weird For Over a Century
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Home away from home
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Quote:
"In 1997, when I was running for mayor, somebody actually cut the brake line and the fuel line on my car." Healy says a catastrophe was averted when the sabotage was brought to his attention by the guy who changed his oil. ok, so his brake lines are cut, but the brakes work fine and he's able to drive around with no effect until he happens to get around to getting his oil changed, at which point the mechanic can't help but notice it because either a) he saw the cut while dealing the brake lines, because that's such an integral part of the oil-changing process - or b) the fluid is visibly pouring out, even though his honor didn't notice anything wrong with the brakes driving around on the way there - anybody actually believe that? The article didn't even get around to lil' Floodster getting hired TWICE after being busted for selling pot from mom's Benz and defrauding the County on disability - or for that the car turns out to have been registered not to the Floods but to a corrupt convicted NYC real estate developer. Or that 60% of the city's Municipal judges had to resign earlier this year for ticket-fixing. And that's not even getting into the issues with developers, that's where the grown-up money is. I think this all would make a colorful '60 Minutes' segment...
Posted on: 2008/5/8 17:27
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"Someday a book will be written on how this city can be broke in the midst of all this development." ---Brewster
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Re: Trenton...the next Next Hoboken or Jersey City?
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Home away from home
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Maybe I remember it wrong, maybe it's that Lodi is the next Piscataway.
Posted on: 2008/4/25 16:51
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"Someday a book will be written on how this city can be broke in the midst of all this development." ---Brewster
|
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Re: Trenton...the next Next Hoboken or Jersey City?
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Home away from home
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I hear Paterson is the next Bayonne.
Posted on: 2008/4/25 14:52
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"Someday a book will be written on how this city can be broke in the midst of all this development." ---Brewster
|
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Re: Healy's son to be honored by state firefighter's union
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|---|---|---|---|---|
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Home away from home
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Quote:
+1! Go Healy family, yay! Rah-rah-sis-boom-bah! See, everything's great! ...sigh
Posted on: 2008/4/25 1:20
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"Someday a book will be written on how this city can be broke in the midst of all this development." ---Brewster
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