I think weed is going to have a harder time being openly acceptable because people hate the way it smells and a lot of people openly smoke while walking around outside. With alcohol, you're not really bothering anyone unless you're hammered.

I mean, I smoke weed and that's just my take. Like, time and a place ya know? I'm definitely not a fan of every public space smelling like weed every nice day outside. I know many pot advocates do a lot of hand waving over this, but I can tell you, a lot of folks really dislike this aspect of legalization, both smokers and non smokers.

I mean, they could. They probably won't though. They can barely do it when it's handed to them through a multi billion dollar company, the odds of them tracking a direct booking through a private site is slim to none.

The person doesn't even have to be a US citizen to pull this off. Create a US LLC, rent the apartment through a broker, hire a shady property manager under the table and run the whole thing remotely. The only reason people use Airbnb is because it's easy. If they made it harder, people would just go around.

Airbnb is becoming a catchall term for STR's these days - truth is, you really don't need Airbnb to stay booked anymore. All you need is a direct booking website and a small budget for Instagram ads. That's how I get about half of my bookings. My rental is legitimately registered with the town it's in, so I'm fine either way, but there is literally no enforcement of anything on the direct side. It would be damn near impossible for a city to catch it if that's the only place you listed.

You're thinking of at-will employment specifically, which this most likely is not. These employees probably have an employment contract which isn't necessarily uncommon at higher levels.

I think the comments are just pointing out the fact that she doesn't look to be in good health for 37. It's totally possible that she has underlying medical conditions, but this is also the look that an incredibly unhealthy lifestyle causes. It's not even the aging, look how swollen and red her hand is. That's a medical problem, regardless of age.

Medical plastics expire - two year shelf life on most things. It's not that the item isn't good anymore, it's that the packaging degrades and so it can't be certified sterile. It could theoretically be repackaged and sterilized again (they use gamma irradiation for this stuff), but that's probably more expensive than it's worth.

I personally know a 26 year old lab consumable sales rep that made $700k in commission on one sale in 2020. Didn't do anything wrong, just woke up one day with a $35 million dollar order from NYC and a straightforward, uncapped comp plan.

I sold COVID testing supplies during the pandemic, it was ridiculous the amount of money that the city was literally throwing at companies.

Before the pandemic, my average sale for a particular item was $5-$10k with a 20-30% institutional discount for hospitals and med schools. Ubiquitous, commodity type of lab product. One morning in August 2020, I get a call from a company I never heard of looking for a ridiculous amount of these things. Initially, I thought it might be a reseller or just someone throwing huge numbers up to fish for bulk discounting (this was early days, before I realized the flood gates were open). I quoted list price and they asked if I could guarantee supply. I told them if they sent me a PO, I'd personally call the factory to secure delivery. Four hours later, I had a $600k full list price PO - over $300k in margin dollars. I hadn't even had time to research the company before I got paid - turned out they won a city testing contract for something like $20 million a month and they didn't even really have a functioning lab built.

The company I worked for at the time did about $50m a year in sales in the US - over the next three months myself and the rep from Chicago sold our entire manufacturing capacity for a year. I got my last comp check on it January 2022 and then I quit lol.

I order from them all the time, prices are pretty normal for sushi. It's one of the only sushi places I've found that is really consistent - not the best sushi you've ever had, but solid.

I mean, you'd take your ball and go home too if the other kids refused to let you have any say in what game you were going to play.

Seems like the result is simply that it will stay an empty lot for the next ten years. Awesome.

Working in Madison, you should absolutely live in Morristown. It was where my first apartment after college was and it's a good mix of college town/young professionals/young families. It has a great food scene, tons of bars and nightlife and is close to parks and hiking. I honestly liked it better then both JC and Hoboken, but it's about an hour train ride from the city. Its only about 10-15 minutes from Madison though (Hoboken/JC are going to be about 45 from Madison with traffic).

Nah, not spicy, just hypocritical. I'd rather be a goose on one of those farms then just about any other mass produced animal product.

True. So damn delicious. Add a little cheese and jam...excellent.

Only if you are more interested in speculation and drama then actually solving a problem.

If you're staying in an Airbnb for one night, you're doing it wrong. They're short term rentals. Historically, you'd rent them a week at a time minimum.

I think this is a common thing in small groceries that simply don't have their shit together. I know a few small or independent grocers in NYC with the same exact issue. I complained a million times, it never got better.

I don't think it's super intentional, I think it's more that the register updates the prices all at once and they don't have their shit together enough to change all the prices in a single night.

Doesn't make it right or anything, just my thoughts. I try not to assign malice in instances where incompetence could be the cause.

I feel like I blow people's minds when I tell them...it's okay to invest a little money to make the place you plan on living in just a little nicer. Even if you're renting. When I moved into my place I spent about $500 and a weekend to fix the place up. I painted the whole apartment a nicer shade of white so it wasn't just landlord primer, redid all the caulking in the bathroom and fixed/touched up a bunch of trim and doors, repainted the radiators, sanded and painted the window sills, replaced a couple light fixtures and all the old switch and outlet covers. Even put in a new kitchen sink faucet and shower head cause having nice faucets is like, one of the best $50 you'll ever spend.

I don't know, the apartment was in fine shape when I got it, definitely wouldn't have expected the landlord to make the fixes and upgrades I did. But $500, a case of beer and a long weekend and my apartment looks way nicer then it did when I moved in.

They found a bunch of really odd carved figurines on site in the clay pits that were there just prior to the malls construction. People still aren't really sure where they came from - Woodbridge Clay Pit Figurines.

At one point, it has not one, but two KB Toys. The upstairs one was definitely the crummier one.

It's a little weird not knowing exactly, I get that. But over the past 5-6 years yellow cabs have been cheaper every single time I've compared them to Uber. Like, no exaggeration. Every single time, sometimes literally half the price.

The idea of being priced out in this scenario is a weird notion to me since it implies that other people will be priced in. High earners aren't going to come and pay Manhattan rents in JC because of taxes and people aren't as likely to buy a place with such high taxes. I'm thinking about buying a place next year and was considering JC till I started learning more about the tax situation. Now, it's far removed from the list. If prices were going up because of improvements and market shifts, thats one thing, but this is just poor city management.

It's more likely imo that prices stay about the same while values rapidly decrease. Rents may go up in the short term, but I'd imagine landlords will end eating a lot of the increases for at least a few years.

Food and essentials are one thing, and it's true, in some cases, people asking may be needing money for items other than substances. But for me, it's a numbers game. Homelessness and home insecurity are enormous problems that are much broader than the population you see living on the streets. Those completely unsheltered folks tend to have deeper issues going on. A lot of it is mental illness, a lot of it is substance abuse. Money is very unlikely to help them. Again, not in every case. But certainly, in an uncomfortable majority.

>What if no one gave money and the person became desperate and tried to steal it from the store and got shot by a store owner or police instead? These scenarios are just as likely and also result in death.

I'm sorry, I just don't think this is true at all and greatly diminishes the number of people who OD on the street. There are a lot of resources available in the way of basic needs and homeless people know this. An addict will not spend money on food they know they can get from a public kitchen or food pantry. 100% of it goes to substances.

I understand that the donation is meant to be unconditional and non judgemental, but there is so much more benefit and reach in giving this money to good programs, for resources and even in support of the initiatives you mentioned. It goes so much farther and reduces the chance of harm. If you really want to give to an individual, consider care packages or some other gift as opposed to straight cash.

You should never give money to homeless people.

This touches close to home for me. My cousin whom I was close with was a homeless alcoholic (I was young 10-12, he was late 20's). He had a ton of issues and had gotten kicked out of my aunt's house for using and stealing and shit like that. He got clean and moved back in for a year or two, but she kicked him out after he started drinking heavily again. A month or two later, he was found frozen to death behind an Acme with a bottle. Drank himself unconscious and froze to death.

Obviously no way to know this for sure, but we know he begged for booze money and I can't help but think of the person who gave him the dollar he needed to buy the bottle that killed him. They probably thought they were helping. If you want to make a difference, keep track of whenever someone asks you for a buck or two and donate that money at the end of the year to a food pantry.

Citibike is your friend. Jersey City is really big and while Journal Square can feel very dissimilar to NYC, downtown JC and Hoboken are pretty cool and only take 10-15 minutes to bike to.

Also, splurge and get a monthly parking spot if you can. You may be able to find one for $150-$200 a month and let me tell you, you will appreciate it in the winter. You'll get hours of your life back every month.