Late night open thread

Time for Jersey City, After Dark

No more soup for you (if by soup you mean stand around jobs for cops)

Mayor Steve Fulop has pulled back the ladle and put the lid on the "off-duty" (Johnny's always preferred the 'stand around' connotation because that's what they did, or in the JCPD's case didn't but got paid anyway) jobs that pay large sums of money to the JCPD officers who want them and embarrassment to the city when dozens of these same officers get caught up in a federal investigation for not paying taxes on money they took and didn't bother to show up for in some cases. Worse yet, some cops on active duty were pulled off patrol to go stand around construction sites. You can go back to the earliest days of the Jersey City Desk and see Johnny imploring first Healy then Fulop to end this nonsense. It's too bad it took Fulop this long but ding dong those jobs are dead:

"For too long the program has been abused with police officers more focused on off-duty work than on-duty work," Fulop said in an email to The Jersey Journal. "The widespread corruption was known by countless officers within the department and the degree of abuse is astonishing."

OK, so no more obscene amounts of money for very very very little work. Let's play "How do you think that went over with the JCPD" with your host, Kramer:

Did Carmine Disbrow, president of the Jersey City Police Officers Benevolent Association call the mayor's decision:

A) Wise considering all that's gone on recently
B) Hasty
C) Poopy
D) "Mayor Fulop has shared no plan with the union regarding the future off-duty jobs," Carmine Disbrow, president of the Jersey City Police Officers Benevolent Association, said in a statement. "We'd much prefer to have this conversation with him face-to-face than through social media or the press. While we understand the need for change in the way assignments are distributed, we hope that he understands how critically important these jobs are to keeping Jersey City safe."

If you chose "D" just understand that Fulop DID just share his plan with the union regarding these jobs Mr. Disbrow, he said they're over. A one-sentence plan really.

Usually this is where Johnny would end the story with something about a D+ force in a B+ city but the best city reporter anywhere, in fact an Ace Reporter, Terrence T. McDonald asked Ward C Councilman and former Jersey City detective Richard Boggiano his thoughts on the end of all things stand around and boy were they colorful. You simply have to see what Boggiano thinks of the towns and hamlets surrounding Jersey City. But you have to put munny in Mr. McDonald's pocket first since he asked the question, you follow this link but trust Johnny, it's worth the click.

Late night open thread

The surprise 1:30am dog potty walk in January isn't in the brochure.

Time for Jersey City, After Dark

If someone can say it better, Johnny's all for that

When it comes to the golf course wanting to expand further into Liberty State Park, some people know more, are more involved, and have some excellent opinions on the topic. Opinions no doubt that will make Chico Ramchal sad.

Late night open thread

Did you know then, the entire United States of America still exists today and slavery is not the law of the land and the south didn't win the Civil War because of two words, "if practicable." It's true. On night one at Gettysburg, a good day for the confederate army, Robert E. Lee ordered his General Ewell to take Culp's Hill. Now if Ewell takes his decided numbers advantage and takes Culp's Hill, the south wins Gettysburg and there's not much standing between Robert E. Lee and Washington D.C. England and France would now start to take the confederacy seriously with such a win and marching on the enemy capital. Trades routes would open. Banking and loans may be made available.

So why didn't Ewell just go take Culp's Hill and win the battle? Lee left the orders with the words, "If practicable" dangling at the end, ie take the hill, if practicable. Right or wrong if Ewell isn't left to interpret the order and NOT send his forces forward until morning when the Army of the Potomac had been reinforced and dug in, it's most likely game over.

Remember that one day if you have to give concise directions or instructions vital to your day, clarity is your friend.

Time for Jersey City, After Dark

It was a Zzzzz of a news day sooooo

Let's look outside of Jersey City to that NJ 11 congressional district and Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen's decision to get out or be thrown out. A very good red from Tom Moran on Frelinghuysen's NJ history and why all of a sudden he sees the writing on the wall even after a comfortable 16 point win in 2016.

Late night open thread

In 1963, major league baseball pitcher Gaylord Perry remarked, "They'll put a man on the moon before I hit a home run." On July 20, 1969, an hour after Neil Armstrong set foot on the surface of the moon, Perry hit is first, and only, home run while playing for the San Francisco Giants.

Time for Jersey City, After Dark

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.

Late night open thread

And after it rains there's a rainbow
And all of the colors are black
It's not that the colors aren't there
It's just imagination they lack
Everything's the same back in my little town
 -- Simon & Garfunkel

Time for Jersey City, After Dark

Late night open thread

Time for Jersey City, After Dark