Basically the cronies are getting a 60% marks; sounds like par for the course 🤣.

On a more serious note; curious to know what types/ species of tree is best suited for sidewalks in out climate.?

I have said this before on this sub. Every historical building worth preserving is already well preserved. Historical preservation commissions serve only 2 purposes:

1. It give extraordinary power to unelected elites to determine whist constitutes the “public good”

2 it’s a giant money laundering/ wealth transfer scheme that washes public funds into the pockets of the elites through tax credits, grants and other giveaways

The saddest part is that there are so many uninformed sheeple who so easily fall prey to this whole scale scam.

It’s disgusting to see these elites that live in the so called historic district gloat over their abuse of the historic preservation commission to effectively torpedo developments they find counter to their interest. Notice how the “approved” projects are all low density and as a result will be able to avoid the affordable housing mandate.

Wonder where all the social justice/ anti gentrification peeps on this sub went to?

The arc was supposed to have ~350 units of apartments; 20% would be 70 units of net new adds to the affordable housing stock in the city.

No prizes for guessing how many affordable units this 8th wonder of the world will have.

With friends like this who need enemies 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Weehawchic and Clinton hill will be last . Lower Broadway and Roseville will be first. Eventually it will all gentrify just like JC.

330 trees for 1.2 mil. That’s works out to be ~ 3500/ tree. No prizes for guessing who’s “cousin” will get these contracts 😂

Instead of defunding the police; we should just shut down the cesspool of corruption , vice and sheer incompetence that is the NPS. Give each child the 25k/ year the schools are purportedly squandering on them.

Let them choose a school where they will actually learn something.

Worst case scenario; Since the establishment has done away with test score based admissions in higher education for being “inequitable”, the kids can bank the money and pay for one of the dozens of worthless “….. studies” liberal arts degrees. Degree in hand; a fulfilling career in “activism” is not far behind.

Win win win everyone concerned. 🤣🤣🤣🤣

Edit: not so much for Roger Leon but no one gives a shit

You give the entire system more credit than it is due. Activists; at least the ones that get the most air time are an arm of the establishment. Their purpose in not to create real change but to sell you what the establishment wants you to settle for. Creating mental health resources, affordable housing etc. cost money and acts to move resources from the rich to the poor. The establishment of both parties don’t want that so they contract “activist” to sell you a knock off version of progress. Let the homeless sleep rough and take a shit on every street corner, let drug use and petty crime go unchecked, focus education on identity instead of academics. The cost of these stupid and counter productive ideas are shouldered entirely by the poor but the activist don’t give a fuck coz they get paid upfront; funding , grants, speaking fees etc. there is a whole industry of clowns selling stupid ideas and suckers born everyday who buy into them🤷🏾‍♂️

The same people who are opposed to development on the off chance that the residents who move in might not be "their people" are advocating for every empty lot, park and open space (both public and private) be turned over to the homeless to become open air drug markets and make shift accommodation. Does in not occur to these clowns that these parks they want filled with drug addicts, mentally ill and homeless are some of the few open spaces that are available to the residents of Newark! The article says as much! Before Prudential fenced up that space, it was open to the public! The proliferation of homeless at the site meant that they had to fence the place in due to liability issues. Now that space is lost to the public; the author nevertheless cannot make the causal connection; instead blaming the (big bad) business! That is what passes for progressivism today . A handful of clowns who live in places where they will never have to see a homeless person much less deal with one have duped a generation of mindless rubes into believing that allowing the unhoused rights that supersede that of ordinary people is somehow altruism!

The contradiction in terms cannot be more stark; yet the ideological zombies just cant see it! They oppose housing on the one hand; then pat themselves on the back with the other for "fighting" for the "rights" of the homeless to shoot up, shit and sleep where ever they take fancy. What grand altruism!! If this policy were anything bordering effective or even humane, one might be forgiven for supporting it, but the evidence is clear; city after city on the West coast that has adopted these policies are dealing with the dire consequences. Some of the best parts of downtown San Francisco now look like a permanent war zone.

Let's face it, the neo liberal ruling class have no interest in solving the problems of the masses; instead they traffic in platitudes and empty gestures; and no gesture is emptier then advocating for the downtrodden to rough it out in our parks and open spaces.

Lets get real; either we give a fuck about the homeless or we don't! If we do; then we must commit to building the mental health infrastructure, public housing and support services needed to ensure everyone is adequately house. If not then STFU and let the rest of us enjoy the few open spaces we have in peace!

For what it’s worth; I would take a look at houses in the lower Broadway section of the north side. From 4th to 7th Ave between Clifton and Broad. Close to broad st station, the light rail and downtown. Plenty of buses on Bloomfield and broad. Also the new vermella project on broad is going to tie the station into the Bloomfield Ave commercial corridor which will IMHO turn that area into a very nice medium density walkable neighborhood. Lots of multi families where you can have a tenant offset part of your mortgage if that is something you are open to. Found this for under 300k

Either Verizon or optimum those are the 2 choices you have

Newark per say does not have a large Indian population. I assume you are either attending Rutgers or NJIT; if you are and you are staying in the dorms, the neighborhood where you will be living is primary occupied by students. As a whole that area is safe.

You will see some comments on here about Newark being “unsafe”. Relatively speaking, that is true. Statistically, the crime rate in Newark is higher vs surrounding suburbs. However, Newark is a large city and most of the crime is concentrated is a handful of neighborhoods. The campus and dorm areas don’t fall into that category neither are the areas surrounding the campus. Not sure which part of south India you are from; if you have experience living in large Indian cities ( Chennai, Bangalore etc.) same rules apply, be self aware and keep your wits about you. Don’t go looking for trouble / drugs and you will be perfectly fine.

As for Indian communities. Harrison has a good number of younger Indian immigrants. Mostly IT and other tech related professionals. Proximity to the path station is a big attraction.

Journal square ( 2 path stations away) has a designated little India. You can get pretty much any ethnic item you want there. Also a huge Indian immigrant population.

More established south Asian immigrants and those with families typically move out to Edison and the townships surrounding that city but you should be able to find everything you need in Journal Square.

If you are an observant Hindu, there is a temple in Kearny, close to Harrison. Few more temples in journal square as well.

Welcome to Newark!!

Hahaha… another cheap shot . Come up with a cogent argument next time

It boils down to incentives. Either social or regulatory. It’s that simple. I lived a few years in Singapore where littering carried heavy fines as well as serious social sanction. Littering was non existent even in the low end public housing complex I lived in. I don’t buy the excuse the the urban poor are to busy surviving to care about cleanliness. They clearly know the value of cleanliness but just don’t care enough. Cost nothing to pick up after yourself. It’s just another excuse to transfer personal responsibility to others.

I also lived for awhile in a medium sized city in the South. Lots of poor black folks where I lived and without exception they kept their yards spotless. Grass cut, fences mended, the whole 9 yards. No one wanted their neighbor to “talk” about them.

High density city living results in loose social structures so people are not policing each others behavior as much You would expect the city to step in and play that role by way of tighter enforcement of regulations. Alas, what can you expect from an administration that can’t pick up the garbage on time consistently. Hence you have the situation we have today.

Historical preservation is a scam. A way to make well to do liberal feel good about themselves. The rejection of the Arc tower on the grounds that a run of the bank building that happened to be built in the 1920’s should be preserved at the expense of 1000units of desperately needed new housing exposes the “historical preservation” racket for what it is.

Any building worth preserving has already been preserved! Will preserving a school on the basis of it having been build 100 years ago change the fact that 1 out of 3 kid in NPS can’t read at grade level?

Perhaps it’s time to stop solving imaginary problems and start paying attention to real one .

Exact same situation in the ironbound!! People have absolutely no sense of common decency. I blame the city. Tight enforcement and heavy fines for trash being left out without bins or in anything other than trash bags would set people straight pronto. People respond to incentives; make it expensive to litter and they won’t.

PS> the cost of trash bags is no excuse for not bagging and binning your trash. If you are a tenant, landlords should be providing sufficient bins.

You oppose the building of housing based on a desire to exclude those who would potentially live there. That is the text book definition of bigotry ; no redefinition required 🤣. Look it up

Not surprised; bigots tend to deflect when in a tight spot 😂🤣

You evade the core question ; why is 100% “luxury” housing “bad” for the neighborhood? If you concede that the problem is fundamentally one of supply; then any net new units should be welcomed.

I know some of the new transplants who live in the “luxury” units personally; contrary to the prevailing wisdom on this sub; they are ordinarily Americans who took out student loans to go to collage and got a degree that enabled them to get good paying jobs. They want to be financially responsible and choose to live in Newark vs. other higher cost of living cities in the area. According to you, these people are not welcome in Newark! They should seek housing elsewhere! How is this not bigotry? wanting them to be excluded not because of anything they have done as individuals, but based on their membership of a group ( those who can afford more in rent) ; that is the textbook definition of bigotry!

Housing built to cater to this group is somehow reducing affordability; how? Either affordability is a function of supply or it is not, if it is, then any addition to the supply will help ease costs over time. If it is not, then is bigotry really the answer? I contend that it is not! My answer is to build more housing at every price point including subsidized housing for those who can’t afford current prices. Private developers say they can’t build affordable units because the economics don’t work. The state has to either call their bluff and build the units themselves or put up and subsidize the builds. It’s as simple as that! Instead, an entire industry has been build around encouraging people to hate and blame their neighbors.

Instead of holding elected officials accountable for the decades of corruption and policy failures that got us here, you want the Amazon truck driver who makes 45k a year to hate the Amazon programmer who makes 100k a year. Has it never occurred to you that both are workers, subject to the same insecurities and market forces? That both of them have more in common with each other than Jeff Bezos or his C-suite?

The mayor called me on auto dial asking that I turn down the heat on the coldest day in a century coz the utility company does not have enough power go around but this guy are getting 100 mil in subsidies for a project that cost 194 mil?🤷🏾‍♂️ I guess we have our priorities just right🤦🏾

The level of cognitive dissonance required to make sense of the prevailing wisdom surrounding housing is staggering.

How will we give the homeless something that does not exist? Perhaps you are not aware that there is an acute housing shortage in the urban centers of America.

50 % of the members on this board oppose private development based on bigotry against the people who will live in these new developments. The city does not want to build public housing and is actively trying to put what little public housing there is in the hands of developers.

If there are no net units added; where are the magical housing units to give to homeless people going to come from?

If we can get ferry and Lafayette to become way in either direction with a dedicated / protected bike and bus lane..that would be a good start. City could incentivize one of the owners of the empty lots facing Raymond blvd to build multi level parking with mixed use sqft above that to make up for the lost spaces. Some neighborhood in Toronto have similar arrangements and they work well .

Classic clown show, heavy on ideology; light on substantive arguments 🤣🤣.

As entertaining as these empty retorts are; they do get old after a while.

Here is a riddle for you ;

Soda is demonstrably bad for one’s health if consumed consistently, yet it is neither taxed nor regulated. It can be freely advertised and sold to children of any age. In fact it is subsidized through food stamps . The soda companies admit as much ( they lobby congress to not exclude soda from the list of items eligible to be purchased using SNAP). Not to mention the subsidies given out to farmers to produce corn yawns to make syrup.

There is an epidemic of obesity and diabetes in this country. Both are co-morbidities that increase the chances of bad outcomes from other conditions like Covid. These are known and undisputed facts.

Weed does not pose nearly as dire a public health threat.

Why aren’t liberals “protecting” their core voting base and children from the ravages of diabetes by taxing and regulating soda?

The idea that weed has to be taxed in order for society to thrive is in my opinion one of the biggest grifts perpetrated on the people of this country. Why tax and "regulate" a substance that is proven to be largely non-habit forming and has orders of magnitude lower negative health effects vs. tobacco or alcohol use?

If we really cared about the well being of our people, we should be giving weed away as a substitute to tobacco and or alcohol use. The only regulation we need is to prohibit minors from consumption.

The sole purpose of regulation and taxation is to enable the state to replace the drug cartels in the supply chain. Only problem is, the state is far more corrupt and incompetent than the worst of the cartels.

The law is not socially progressive at all. It does not permit home grow.

As for the permitting process, this is a classic example of how excessive regulation creates a web of corruption. Layers upon layers of approvals, require “consultants” , lawyers and all manner of other hangers on to essentially get you a permit to sell in a store what a corner boy with practically no overhead can sell with very little risk of being arrested under the current law.

When you vote based on ideology, You get the government you deserve.

Does not seem like a bad deal considering the amount of under utilizes real estate it would open up for higher /better use. At the rate we are printing money; this is a drop in the ocean 😋