A fine article on the development in Jersey City from the NYT

The New York Times is out with a full and complete look at the development and growth of Jersey City and what now makes it a very attractive place to be.

In the past these articles from the Times and elsewhere consisted of a formula, talk about JC's closeness to NYC, talk to mayor who glowingly praises all development and then the article goes on to discuss developers plans. This article is a full look at our fair city, from the issues to getting Bergen/Lafayette up and going to the new boom area of Journal Square. There is a quote from KRE saying downtown is done, nowhere else to build. Also in this article is surprise surprise, a counter argument to the development and the lies that were sold by both City Planning and others in the city government that chundered the look and feel of the Powerhouse Arts District. PADNA President (and friend of Johnny's mea culpa) Kathryn Moore basically gave a heads up to Journal Square to be on the lookout and get things in writing. And even then...

Anyhoo, a great full look at JC, well worth the read. It deals with talking with residents more than tiresome city officials.

A simply MAGNIFICENT take down of Governor Gone from the Gray Lady this morning

The New York Times has a fantastic look back though all of Chris Christie's failures, both inept and planned stupidity and exactly why his political career at this point is over. Even if you're a Christie supporter it's going to be pretty hard to argue with facts.

A couple pics from around our fair city after all that rain

Five and six inches of rain in some spots yesterday and overnight has left us and now we deal with the aftermath. Not quite as bad as the rainiest day ever in the NYC area, back in 1882, the NYT has the coverage from that day here.

One Super Bowl matchup has been set - New Jersey vs. New York

The New York Times took a somewhat condescending look at New Jersey in a piece that shows the competition for Super Bowl events and sponsors is already being played between New Jersey and the other state. Well, not so much state at all, just that big city. The Times points out almost looking down their noses at the Garden State events that yes of course all the celebrities and glamour will be in NYC because duh. They even sound a bit like Robert Duvall as Colonel William Kilgore in Apocalypse Now who says of the North Vietnamese when, during the famous helicopter attack scene, spits out incredulously "These people never give up." Sorry we're trying to have a good time with the Super Bowl New York Times, and god forbid we draw someone away from that Broadway football experience complete with Angry Drunken Don't Tickle Me Elmo and a super bowl of gumbo from Bubba Gump's ("Eat where the Saints players refuse to eat"®).

The article mentioned events in New Jersey having difficulty drawing sponsors. But not once did they mention Jersey City which makes Johnny ask our city administration, people are going to be aware that Jersey City has the best access to NYC, brilliant restaurants and a view to die for riiiiight? Riiiiiiight? Maybe a well placed viral ad campaign, maybe a couple well positioned billboards advertising such. So maybe you only grab a few thousand, it all helps. Governor Christie, well we need you to be Governor Christie and make SURE everyone knows where this game is being played. You gotta book a Saturday Night Live spot to get the message out? Do it!

So yes, NYC prepares to take the lion's share of the attention which should give Garden Staters all the more impetus to do what Johnny does and rightly call them the New Jersey Giants and New Jersey Jets.

We're stronger than the advertising storm!

How about you use up one of your free New York Times stories on a brilliant write-up on Jersey City

His excellency Steve Fulop was out with a link to this story on the Twitter this morning promoting a fantastic and forward looking article from The New York Times on Jersey City and where we are headed as a city. Much of the article talks about former NYC residents being quickly won over by the last gritty, art-friendly, and food fabulous enclave with any room to build, renovate, or reclaim.

The article points out that some who have moved from Brooklyn fled rents equal to or above those in Manhattan. When rents in Brooklyn outdo rents in Manhattan it's the surest sign Brooklyn and their MTV Awards aren't living any kind of Bohemian hardscrabble lifestyle anymore. The Sex Pistols and The Clash days are done and now it's Katarina and the Waves time for Brooklyn. Leave them alone with their thoughts for a spell friends, this may take a while to sink in.

Hell yes Jersey City. In the words of John Winger:

Grow? Who could grow more than me?

Talk about massive potential for growth.

I am the little acorn that becomes the oak.

Go faster Mr. Mayor. If Johnny can deal with hellishly loud gargantuan construction projects in his neighborhood the good people in Journal Square and The Heights and everywhere else deserve no less.

Oh and for those who might need a tipping point? Snooki and What'sHerName don't live here anymore. That was the last mayor.

A very nice piece on Jersey City and Mayor Fulop in the New York Times today

As you prepare your zodiac boat or maybe a canoe or a bass boat to take over to Mayor Fulop's inauguration, please take a few minutes of quality indoor time to enjoy a nice write up on our fair city by Kate Zernike at The Times. We think you'll like it.

Please sit down class, we have important lessons today

The first lesson is criticism. Suppose you made a critique, a very public critique decades ago. You were set in your opinion and made it. Questions, do you still stand by your criticism? How well does that criticism hold up?

An interesting look at architecture criticism this morning. Pulitzer Prize winning architecture critic Ada Louise Huxtable had some pretty strong opinions of certain NYC properties that underwent some big changes way back in 1979. Huxtable passed away last week at the age of 91 and the New York Times had a look back at some of her articles and proclamations of city facades. Just one delicious critique:

“The result is a pitiful compendium of watered-down mannerisms that are supposed to maintain the integrity of the avenue,” she wrote of a building on Fifth Avenue, “but speak more clearly of the inflation of costs and the impoverishment of crafts in our time.”

“It does not help,” she continued of a building nearby, “that the moldings look like sliced-off Tootsie Rolls.”

These two descriptions came from the same article, “The ‘Pathetic Fallacy,’ or Wishful Thinking at Work,” published in The Times in February 1979. In it, Ms. Huxtable appraised two buildings on Fifth Avenue that were new at the time, 800 Fifth Avenue and 1001 Fifth Avenue, and she found them both to be pretty dreadful.

An addendum to this lesson. Was it Huxtable's criticism or just the look over time that keeps the apartments at 1001 Fifth Ave. from appreciating in value as well as the neighboring properties?

“This sort of thing does not age well,” Peter Pennoyer, of Peter Pennoyer Architects, said.

Apparently, buyers agree. Compared with most of the universe, the prices found at 1001 Fifth Avenue are frighteningly expensive. But compared with its Fifth Avenue neighbors, mostly prewar co-ops on one of the most extravagant stretches of the city, 1001 Fifth has not appreciated especially well.

There is more, so much more on this topic and all you need to do to get your considered learn on is to click here.

Iffen you're a fan of winter weather advisories today is your day!

Winter weather advisory or if you believe the New York Times, it's a perfect storm today:

The temperature will hover in the mid-30s – just cold enough for the snow to safely stick, but no colder. The breeze will be sufficient to make cheeks rosy, but will not slash at the skin or penetrate down the necks of parkas.

For the better part of the day, the snow will continue – gently, never blinding. By the time it ceases for good shortly before midnight, two to four inches will have fallen – just enough, perhaps, to permit sledding.

So 2-4 inches of wet snow, perfect for making a snowman is on the way. Enjoy your beautiful Saturday.

Appealing to our better selves this morning

Johnny was about to write a piece admonishing the horrendous acts of Nouel Alba, who is accused of pretending to be the aunt of one of the children murdered in Connecticut last week and trying to raise money off of it. He was going to ask for your help in apprehending another subway "pusher" who shoved a man to his death on the 7 line yesterday.

Instead he read this article in the New York Times about people coming together to help each other on the subway.

Architectural quirks are all about. The Tower of Pisa leans. The flagpole in centerfield at the old Tiger Stadium was in play. Manhattan's grid gives New Yorkers Manhattanhenge a couple times a year. New York also plays host to the subway quirk at Delancey and Essex Streets where one line is up (F) one set of stairs and one downstairs (M). The NYT explains:

But at Delancey Street, the F is downstairs, a short walk from the M, but hopelessly out of view from the other train’s platform. The M shares a track with downtown J and Z trains.

So the straphangers have come together to relay info up and down the stairway if the train coming is the right train coming:

As with any worthy production, the participants have come to master their roles. On a recent weekday morning, an orderly line formed, stretching from the upstairs M platform, down a flight of stairs to the F, then back up a separate staircase. (Riders say this formation allows word to travel fastest when the proper train arrives.)

Some travelers heard a stirring overhead — an M train, they wondered? No, a young man instructed from the top of the staircase, peering at the platform. Hold your positions.

A breeze wafted up to the turnstiles. An F? Not yet, said a station sage, unmoving. The gust, he said, had not been stiff enough to have come from an F.

Coming together, helping out and making life easier for strangers. Saving people a few valuable minutes on a workday. Isn't that the kind of place we want to live in? Johnny thinks so. 

Come on F train, no whammies!

NJ halfway house escapees number in the thousands and have ties to Governor Christie

Boy it's still nice to see good journalists doing good work these days. The New York Times story, with excellent follow-up by North Jersey's crack team have got a scoop about thousands of walk-away or halfway house escapees, some who have murdered New Jersey citizens while out. The point being raised is this; these escapees are in a PRIVATE system being run by big donors to Chris Christie and touted by Christie himself. In fact the private system was have said to “mutated into a shadow corrections network” where drugs, gang activity and violence often go unchecked.

This has rather big implications for Governor Christie's furthering of his political career. One Michael Dukakis was undone by a similar story, Willie Horton in 1988. Dukakis as Massachusetts Governor released prisoners who robbed, raped and murdered citizens while out on furlough. These guys are not on furlough, no, they simply walk away from a program. One escapee, who murdered a woman once he was out, escaped from a halfway house being run by a top Christie adviser and former law partner William J. Palatucci.

It's mandatory reading kids, issues like these are important. It's how you know what your votes last time are up to.

You know how you'll sometime get that jokey idea about the Devils or Rangers actually FLYING to go play one another?

And how you'd smirk and laugh that "Hah, that's such a stupid idea nobody would ever do that. I mean how long would you even be in the air for?"

Answer: 10 minutes.

Yes, people did.

You can track the excitement here as some Rangers fans actually flew (and the Rangers sponsored this BTW, they are culpable in this idiocy, it was their CONTEST) from LaGuardia to Newark to see the game Saturday at the Prudential Center. An Airbus A319 flew people at 3000 feet those ten anguishing minutes. You can get the rest of this story here from the New York Times.

Game four tonight, pivotal as they saw the the broadcaster booth.

So you ask, what's the difference between New York City circa 1882 and today?

Ask will ya?

A wonderful exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York, The Greatest Grid, is showing how the grid known as New York City was built and the reasons behind it. Did you know why there are so few Avenues? Do you know how far the original map of the city went north? A really great read from the New York Times on this dovetails the Museum of the City of New York show incredibly well. It asks all the right questions to make you wanna go see the exhibit. We'll offer two pics, one from Park Avenue looking south at 94th Street in 1882 and one today.

Whew, Johnny is just now finishing the NYC Marathon

Johnny's using the mobile to send this post as he recovers here on the west side of Central Park for a few hours. Johnny just ran his best time, 22 hours and 11 minutes. Suck on that Kenya.

Here's another story about a slow-go on the race course you're sure to enjoy...

While you were safe and sound inside your home or shelter last weekend, here's what went on

While the rain from Hurricane Irene poured down and the winds blew and you stayed safely inside did you ever wonder what exactly might be going on outside? Did you wonder what might be going on elsewhere with your neighbors and around town? The New York Times has an excellent look at the nutty goings-on during Irene.

Interesting and thoughtful read on the new One World Trade and the Port Authority price increase

Joe Nocera with the New York Times writes a very intelligent and thoughtful piece on the cost overruns at the new One World Trade and just how the new Port Authority price increases, which Nocera points out will cost an average commuter using the George Washington Bridge by 2015 will be paying north of 62$ a week just to get to work.

Follow this link and take a read and let us know what you think.

So why does it smell different on the PATH as opposed to the NY Subway?

The New York Times (yes it's OK to burn one of your free stories per month on this one) takes a look at just what THAT smell on the PATH is that the MTA Subway doesn't seem to have. Maybe you have an idea about it even before you read the article. Maybe not but either way there is a distinct difference and it's both fun and maddening to try and figure it out:

There comes a moment for riders of the PATH train, a shared, unspoken experience when the air is pierced by a distinct odor.

Sometimes it hits while descending from the street to the station. Sometimes it strikes inside the train. Then just when the nose adjusts, another distinctive smell emerges as the train goes beneath the Hudson River.

Hat tip to Jersey City Desk reader 'Wicked Mouse' for pointing us to this story.

The Long Island serial killer case takes on a new twist

Police now believe that the killer of at least 4 of the victims found dead along Gilgo and Jones Beaches may have some kind of police training or has understanding of police investigative techniques. New York City police investigators say that when the victims' cell phones are turned on and calls made to taunt the victim's families, the calls are made in very crowded pedestrian areas. Times Square and Madison Square Garden were used to make calls so that police couldn't pick out one person using a cell phone from of a crowd when viewing surveillance cameras near when the time of the call was registered.

"“He is a guy who is aware of how we utilize technology,” one investigator said. “Frankly, people are thinking maybe he could be a cop” — either one still in law enforcement or one who has moved on.

“Without question, this guy is smart, this guy is not a dope,” the investigator continued. “It’s a guy who thinks about things.”

Also, the caller kept each of his vulgar, mocking and insulting calls to less than three minutes, according to the dead woman’s mother, Lynn Barthelemy. The caller made about a half-dozen calls over roughly five weeks to the victim’s sister."

Police also say there are some discrepancies from the 4 bodies found late last year vs the latest finds. They won't go into specifics about the differences but said it could either be another killer (very slim chance there) or the differences show a killer honing his craft. The four bodies found in December were wrapped in burlap sacks.

If you have any information on these cases please don't wait for another round of bodies to start turning up. #1 the guy knows police are wise to him so he could easily change his killing grounds to somewhere closer to YOU and #2 these killers who think they are smarter than the police tend to get tripped up by small details that come forth from the public. Even if you think you saw something or heard something you may well have. Do contact authorities.

Easy like Sunday morning...

The Lens Blog at the NYT from time to time has some don't miss stuff. To that end on Friday they ran a piece on window washing around town. Big buildings, little buildings, and some innovative and enterprising glass cleaners can be found by clicking on the link here.

It's poignant, it's quick and it'll get you outside into the spring weather we're enjoying today.

Camden adjusts to life with 163 less police officers

A while back we had written a tongue-in-cheek piece encouraging all the Jersey City criminals to consider Camden, who through budget cuts and no tax money coming in had to lay off almost half their police force. Well now that the new normal has set in down Camden way, one can start assessing the horror of living there via a great piece in the New York Times.

Apparently crooks love the sight of 40 something officer jumping out of police cruisers to give chase rather then their more nimble and much faster 20 something colleagues used to do.

Long ago the dreamers and schemers had plans for New York City

The New York Times has a short but darned interesting look at plans the movers and shakers of their day had for NYC. One idea? Drain and dam the East River replacing it with "a five-mile-long network of vehicular and train tunnels topped by boulevards and promenades." Another visionary saw 250 story skyscrapers.

It's worth a look on a sunny Sunday morning.