Jersey City is now a top 5 in the nation rental city

Realtor.com had an article on cities that have the most renters per capita and and Jersey City (and Newark) were on that list, in fact very high on the list. Both top five cities. While it's great people want to live in these cities (and let's not kid ourselves here bout why JC and Newark have so many people willing to rent, proximity to NYC) there are drawbacks when that high of a percentage of a city is rental units. First off renters don't pay property tax and nor in any big way help schools and infrastructure they are often using. Voting becomes yet another issue. Renters vote, you bet they do as well anyone should but perhaps their votes aren't the vote of someone looking to invest or look at a city's long-term financial health. The incentive to look at the long game just isn't there for a myriad of reasons. The fact remains the infrastructure use is really only being paid for by homeowners.

Johnny has a pretty good idea why Jersey City will continue to stay on this list if not own it one day -- The Healy and on steroids abatements of the Fulop administrations have invested very little in the way of abatements for buildings one can buy into and left hundreds of millions of dollars off the tax rolls for buildings made exclusively for renters. In just the past five years the Columbus towers, The One, The Toll Brothers The Morgan, the new Jared Tower on Bay St., M2, the Urby and now old Pep Boys parking lot Vyv (Just an awful name for such an ass looking building), JSQ1, et all have gotten huge abatements, more are on the way for....you guessed it, rental units.

It really is a self-fulfilling prophecy of fail when you do look long-term. The first abatements given to downtown are about to run out. There was a huge reval that hit downtown like a bomb (as Fulop knew it would which is why he spent so much time and effort to protect his base) and there will be questions if ownership buildings will be able to withstand the impact. Will people move out because of higher taxes? Hey, there's a pattern of that. Once they do that's less money for road fixes, storm cleanup, getting electricity back online, cops, DPW, Parking, who all lose when there is less ownership.

Ask yourself this about Fulop (and Healy) bending over for every developer they could, when the money starts to get tight downtown do The Heights or Greenville or India Square think anything is going to get built or fixed in their neighborhoods? They have to pull teeth now to get development and city help and supposedly this is the Jersey City gilded age. Once the tax base shrinks (and there's nothing really being done to actively grow it) they can kiss the big promises goodbye...again.

While it's great people want to live in Jersey City this is where "city planning" under Bob Cotter should have been far more engaged than, "Hey, there's a good spot on the waterfront for a developer" during his reign of awfulness. Cotter, "city planning" and the city councils should have insisted on far more ownership buildings in the downtown land rush.

Like Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren was waving her arms and telling everyone in no uncertain terms the 2008 crash was coming, Johnny is telling you now, get in but also know when to get out of the Jersey City real estate game, the timer on the bomb has been set and is ticking.

JCPD close 'Mosquito Park' after reports of a shootout

Dateline: The Heights. Police have closed Leonard Gordon Park, better know as Mosquito park at the corner of Kennedy and Manhattan. Police say they have recovered multiple shell casings. According to Matthew Speiser with the Jersey Journal:

A resident who lives across the street from the park told The Jersey Journal that he heard "pop pop pop" several times while he was eating lunch in his house around 1 p.m. Police have told him that he cannot enter the park because it is a crime scene.

Shine said that at about 2:30 p.m. a State Park ranger arrived with a police dog to search for more evidence.

The Jersey City Desk will keep you updated should any more stupidity happen in or around our fair city.

We're gonna put some numbers down for snow totals

The National Weather Service forecast map, broken down by neighborhood, paints a pretty snowy picture for Jersey City. Downtown by the Colgate Clock it's calling for 29.3 inches. The Heights 28.5. St. Peter's gets 28.7. PATH says they are running trains on a normal schedule and will go as long as their technology allows but at some point that's a service that's going to stop. Same for busses, Uber, cabs and anything but snowmobiles and sled dogs. After 1pm tomorrow your options begin to close. Plan on power going out in some places. This is a serious storm that can kill.

To drive home just how serious it is we're giving #WinterStormNamath FIVE Dr. Smiths on the Jersey City Desk Storm Scale.


It can't get any worse for a winter storm. Johnny is going to make his final storm prep tomorrow morning taking the PATH to Journal Square to grab a case of frozen White Castles if society breaks down for a day or so. Stay tuned to this internet outpost for all the storm news from the Jersey City Desk Action Weather Team.

Next time someone says we need more cops, tell them no we don't

We need to make better use of the ones we have.

When Mayor Fulop was elected he said he'd help make better use of Jersey City Police resources, specifically he'd use civilian "monitors" instead of police officers to stand around construction sites and get in and out of their cars, play with their iPhones and talk with workers. Fulop said at the time, and we completely agreed, that Jersey City cops could do a better job fighting crime if they were actually on patrol or in an official police capacity.

So Mayor, what happened? Was it because first you had a Chief of Police then you didn't then you did for a short while and now you have another? Is your message not getting through? Did you simply not follow up on this? Which is it? Did the police tell you in no uncertain terms those were their gravy assignments? Tell us Mr. Fulop. Right now in the Powerhouse Arts District there are no less than five Jersey City police officers standing around a five block area.

This happens all too often.

Jersey City Desk file photo

So, five police officers who could be out working followup on cases, doing paperwork or helping fight crime standing around, sometimes sleeping in their cars, and not one of them has saved any local citizen from any construction related malady. Mayor, is it too much for you to make this a priority? Stop puffing your chest about hiring unneeded cops if you're not going to effectively use the ones we have on staff now. Where's this effective streamlined government you spoke so enthusiastically about just a year ago? People in Greenville and the Heights sure would be willing to put a citizen monitor outside a construction site if they could get even one more cop on patrol we're certain.

Or do you simply not care now that you're on to the whole gubernatorial thing?

We've got a Jersey City APB on Mickey, a missing dog

Help if you can. If you're out walking around and you see Mickey come back to this website on your mobile device and get Craig's phone number. Let's help our neighbors when we can!

Ward D citizens, how about a debate over coffee this morning?

Big choice coming up. Incumbent Bill Gaughan who has been on the council since, well, a long time, is retiring and Assemblyman Sean Connors (Team Fulop) and Grace Giron (Team Healy) are your Ward D candidates. This will mean big changes in The Heights. Luckily to help you decide the Jersey Journal has posted a recent debate between the two online and just a click away.

Informed voters are the best voters.

The first Jersey City mayoral debate will be March 21

Well the powers that be are calling it a "forum" but trust us, it'll be a debate.

March 21 will find all four mayoral candidates, Mayor Jerramiah Healy, City Councilman Steve Fulop, doctor Abdul Malik and former local basketball star Jerry Walker, on hand to share their ideas on issues facing The Heights and to help familiarize residents there with the mayoral candidates' platforms. Terrence T at the Jersey Journal fills in badly needed details:

The forum is scheduled for Thursday, March 21 from 7 to 9 p.m. at School 28, 167 Hancock Ave. It is being hosted by the Riverview Neighborhood Association, Washington Park Association of Hudson County, Pershing Field Garden Friends and others.

“The goal of this forum is two-fold—for candidates to gain a better understanding of Heights residents’ concerns and for Heights residents to better familiarize themselves with each candidate and his or her platform,” said Becky Hoffman, president of the Riverview Neighborhood Association.

Be there or be square Heights residents. Make 'em sweat. Don't just accept their first answer as gospel and if they try to get off your topic into talking points make sure you jump in and say "Excuse me, but now would you like to answer the question I actually asked?"

An interesting commentary about the Mayor's State of the City speech last night

Political insider at the Jersey Journal, Agustin C. Torres, made a whale of a point about Mayor Healy's state of the city address last night. He felt with all of Healy's talk about the great new business and restaurant expansion, new construction, and the Sixth Street Embankment as High Line that the true heart of the city, Journal Square was being ignored.

Torres noted Healy was asked about this and didn't seem any too happy to respond.

Healy has done a lot of things for the city........from Grove St. to the river, but what of Greenville, The Heights, Journal Square, India Square et al. Has Jersey City under Healy, like Torres suggests, become 1789 Paris in A Tale of Two Cities? Have most of Healy's building and business initiatives favored downtown?

How much is being spent where mayor? Where are the police assets being spent? Downtown? The problematic Greenville area? Journal Square? What about the tax breaks? What part of town is getting them and are they equitable?

Last year at this time we were all hearing about the grand new development plan for Journal Square. Huge condo towers with businesses on the ground floor surrounded all throughout the neighborhood by newly opened supporting businesses and a grand new upgrade of the Journal Square PATH station. If you bring up this issue today you get the sound of crickets on a warm summer night.

A fair point by Mr. Torres should lead to a fair and lively discussion we think. Tell us your opinion in comments.

Water main break in Charlotte Circle leaves much of Jersey City with low water pressure

Not just Charlotte Circle is being affected, reading comments from residents in the Jersey Journal story much of Jersey City is suffering from low water pressure while some have no water at all. Johnny was getting his coffee ready last night and noticed the water pressure was very low and this would have been at 11 pm. Flooding is also a problem according to the story which would have explained the news helicopters hovering around the city this morning.

Feel free to share your water pressure story and location with us...