Jersey electeds come to the rescue against congestion pricing

 

 Queens Chronicle

New Jersey, as promised by Gov. Phil Murphy (D), has filed a federal lawsuit to block New York State’s plan to charge drivers to enter Manhattan at or south of 60th Street beginning in spring 2024.

Murphy, in a joint statement from his office with federal representatives from the Garden State, said the plan to raise $1 billion for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority was approved by the Federal Highway Administration without a full environmental review as required by the National Environmental Protection Act and the Clean Air Act.

The suit has been filed in U.S. District Court in New Jersey. The FHWA, which ruled further study unnecessary on June 26, and the U.S. Department of Transportation are named as defendants.

The New York Post reported on Friday that equipment to read license plates already is being installed in western Manhattan. State officials are weighing final regulations, including peak tolling fees of between $9 and $23 per trip.

Murphy says the tolls are discriminatory.

“After refusing to conduct a full environmental review of the MTA’s poorly designed tolling program, the FHWA has unlawfully fast-tracked the agency’s attempt to line its own coffers at the expense of New Jersey families,” Murphy said. “The costs of standing idly by while the MTA uses New Jersey residents to help balance its budget sheets are more than economic. At the MTA’s own admission, its tolling program would divert traffic and shift pollution to many vulnerable New Jersey communities, impacting air quality while offering nothing to mitigate such considerable harm.”

The Post report quoted MTA Chief of External Relations John McCarthy as dismissing Murphy’s claims.

“This lawsuit is baseless,” he said. “The 4,000-page Environmental Assessment performed by MTA, New York State DOT and New York City DOT was supervised at every stage and specifically approved by the Biden Administration … We’re confident the federal approval — and the entire process — will stand up to scrutiny.”

Murphy has the backing of his top federal elected officials.

“As the senior senator of New Jersey, I have made it abundantly clear that it’s unacceptable for New York to try balancing its budget on the backs of New Jersey commuters,’ U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) said in Murphy’s statement. “Their proposed congestion tax scheme is nothing more than a shakedown and must be defeated.”

 

New Jersey frees the weed

 

 

 PIX News

  In the face of a budget crisis, New Jersey residents voted to legalize marijuana, which could be a huge source of revenue for a state still reeling from the coronavirus pandemic.

Gov. Phil Murphy had pledged to legalize marijuana when he ran for election. He said the hundreds of millions in estimated tax revenue would go toward the state’s public pension payments and school aid.

New Jersey State Sen. Nick Scutari said he would introduce a bill to regulate the new industry as early as Thursday.

"Just because it passes today or tomorrow doesn’t mean it’s legal today or tomorrow," Scutari said.

Currently, New Jersey spends about $143 million per year on marijuana enforcement, according to a 2017 report by the American Civil Liberties Union.

There had been efforts to legalize recreational usage through the state legislature, but it was ultimately added to November’s ballot instead.

All sales of marijuana products would be subject to New Jersey’s 6.625% sales tax. Towns can pass ordinances to charge local taxes as well.

 

 

de Blasio sent homeless families to live in squalid homes in New Jersey that were run by slumlords

NY Post

Homeless New Yorkers moved to New Jersey under a controversial city program were left living in squalor at the mercy of exploitative landlords, a damning new report from the Department of Investigation says.

It’s the latest blow suffered by City Hall’s controversial Special One-Time Assistance program, which provides families in New York’s maligned shelter system a year’s worth of rent if they relocate outside of the five boroughs.
“The SOTA program was designed to help New York families break the cycle of homelessness and set them on the path to achieve stable, affordable housing,” said DOI Commissioner Margaret Garnett. 

“However, DOI’s investigation has found the promise of the program is not being fulfilled.
“Instead, because of a lack of proper oversight and poorly designed paperwork, our investigation showed some SOTA families placed in housing outside of New York City were living in squalor under the roofs of unscrupulous landlords.”
The laundry list of hardships SOTA participants found themselves facing suggests some went from the frying pan to the fire.
One apartment’s temperature was a chilly 42.6 degrees thanks to a defective boiler.
Another home was infested with insects and vermin — and also lacked heat.
A third property was deemed suitable despite having 52 open violations in 2018.
But the owners of those properties, the report found, “collected tens-of-thousands of dollars in rental payments upfront from the City to provide these sub-par conditions with little risk of accountability for their actions.”

The de Blasio administration has spent $89 million since the SOTA program’s inception to relocate roughly 5,000 families, according to an investigation published by the New York Post in October. Nearly 1,200 of the families landed in Newark, which is New Jersey’s largest city and among its poorest.
Officials in the city filed a lawsuit in federal court there Monday, accusing New York City Hall of dumping the Big Apple’s homeless on the other side of the Hudson River and asking a court to stop the practice.

Fight is on to stop "Bayonne Boxes"

From CBS 2:

A fight between New Jersey housing developers and supporters of historic preservation is heating up as Victorian homes from the 1800s are being replaced by the spread of so-called “Bayonne Box” homes.

Now, Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop has put a moratorium on demolitions until the city council can vote on a new ordinance governing tearing down old homes.

“The goal is really kind of recognizing the city’s history and some of the nicer buildings there. Not every building needs to be protected, but there are some that should,” he said.

“The new ordinance basically is designed so that each (developer) that applies for a demolition permit will go before the Historic Preservation office,” said Amatuzzo. “Then each house would get a fair assessment on its historic value, architectural style, it’s contributing aesthetics to the neighborhood, and if it ties to any historic event or family or person.”

A group of developers is fighting back with a lawsuit.

Battle of old vs new in @jerseycity preserve historic homes or build new “Bayonne Box” homes... more tonight @CBSNewYork pic.twitter.com/ATsn6aIapl

— Meg Baker (@megbakertv) April 13, 2018

Activity at Civic Virtue site

"Hello Crapman:

Drove by Borough Hall today and noted that the green plywood fencing surrounding the Civic Virtue site was down. The workers were hosing the site with water. I spoke to them and they said that blue boxood and white lilies - the colors of the Queens flag - will be planted in the fountain area. Flower planting to come from somewhere in New Jersey. Will Katz have a ribbon-cutting ceremony very soon?

Check out my post here with today's photos of the renovated site.

All the best,
GtheA"

Glad to hear we're even outsourcing flower planting.

NJ town doesn't want to be like Queens

Photo by R. Acosta, Saving Silverton Facebook Page

From BloombergBusiness:

Every home is big on glass in a Toms River, New Jersey, neighborhood called North Dover. Windows let in the sun, or show off chandeliers in multistory entrance halls.

These days, though, most homeowners draw the blinds, retreating from brushes with a fast-growing Orthodox Jewish community that’s trying to turn a swath of suburban luxury 10 miles (16 kilometers) from Atlantic beaches into an insular enclave. The rub, a township inquiry found, is “highly annoying, suspicious and creepy” tactics used by some real-estate agents.

They show up on doorsteps to tell owners that if they don’t sell, they’ll be the only non-Orthodox around. Strangers, sometimes several to a car, shoot photos and videos. When they started pulling over to ask children which house was theirs, parents put an end to street-hockey games.

Lakewood, once a rural destination for Rockefellers and other industry titans, is now a land of synagogues, religious schools, kosher groceries and residential neighborhoods in the grip of minivan gridlock. It’s also a place testing the limits of zoning enforcement for 95,000 people, at least half Orthodox, by Schnall’s estimate.

This month, after fire destroyed a single-family home, the Ocean County sheriff said that it was being used as an unauthorized dorm for as many as two dozen yeshiva students. Downtown, inspectors boarded up a commercial building four times, citing non-permitted use as a catering hall and Orthodox study center, only to see the plywood removed and the space reopened. The fifth board-up succeeded, backed by a planning-board ruling, said Steven Secare, the township attorney.

That’s unlikely, according to Michael Dedominicis, a 40-year-old construction company owner who leads a social-media group called Toms River Strong that urges the town’s 91,000 residents not to sell. His account of dropping by a neighbor’s open house and being denied entry by its Orthodox listing agent is included in a 16-page report on real-estate canvassing issued by township officials Feb. 5.

“Where is the law in this situation?” Dedominicis said in an interview. “I have homeowners calling me, saying, 'They’re converting a three-car garage into bedrooms!'”

The opposition, he said, has nothing to do with dislike of Jews, but with a fear that Toms River will become like Lakewood’s more tattered sections, with cars parked on lawns, overgrown landscaping, trash piled at curbs and residents crowding single-family homes.
_____________________________________

Oh, come on now. In Queens, our elected official claim that this type of living is vibrant and diverse. What's wrong with these New Jerseyans?

Guess who pays 1/3 of all U.S. tolls?

From the Daily News:

Drivers in New York and New Jersey pay the heftiest price for their commutes — accounting for almost one-third of all tolls collected across the U.S., a new report says.

The report, which was released by the International Bridges, Tunnels and Turnpike Association, indicated that drivers in the two states forked over an astounding $4 billion of the $13 billion in tolls accrued across the country.

“The primary reason (for New York and New Jersey drivers paying the highest tolls) would be the concentration in the region of bridges and tunnels connecting the greater New York metro area,” said Neil Gray, director of government affairs at IBTTA.

“The facilities have been in place for a long time, they were very expensive to build, they are expensive to maintain and they are tremendously expensive to replace.”

Gray added that the greater New York metro area has a very high concentration of commuters, which is likely to account for the costliness.

Why can't we do this here?

From NBC:

There's a new effort to clean the bushes and branches that have overgrown outside several abandoned homes in East Orange. The program not only makes the neighborhood look nicer, but also gives unemployment residents a chance to work. Brian Thompson reports.

Be careful who you hire to build a house

From NJ, but relevant:


From Eyewitness News:

A dream home became a nightmare in Florham Park, New Jersey.

When the homeowner was handed over the keys he suddenly learned his new home was sinking, cracking, and crumbling.

"I spent all the money I had and I was cleaned out. I have nothing now," said Humayun Akhtar. He thought he was building his wife the home of her dreams, a gleaming palace where they'd live together.

But nearly a decade later, they've never spent a night here.

"Look at this, won't even close," he said at the bathroom door.

Weeks after closing, the cracks started to form, and he soon found he'd sunk his life savings into a house that was sinking into the ground.

Maybe the code should be changed

From WPIX:

Crews were still on the scene Friday morning putting out hot spots. The biggest obstacle to controlling the blaze was the building itself, made of lightweight wood construction.

“You have a lot of open voids, open spaces, fire spreading quickly through the walls and floors, leading to collapses. In fact, a complex built here by the same company of the same materials burnt to the ground in 2000, while still under construction,” Fire Chief Thomas Jacobson said.

The chief added that the inexpensive material, which is now commonly used in new construction, is up to code in New Jersey.

How many of these firetraps are in Queens?

Lots of people kissing NY & NJ goodbye

From Forbes:

More people are moving out of New Jersey than are moving in. The same is true for New York and Illinois. Those three states top the “outbound” list compiled by United Van Lines, the big St. Louis-based moving company that has put together an annual survey of where Americans are moving for the last 38 years. The company analyzed a total of 128,000 moves across the 48 continental states and the District of Columbia in 2014 and came up with a picture of migration patterns across the US.

According to Michael Stoll, a professor of public policy at University of California, Los Angeles, and a consultant to United Van Lines who studies American migration, the moves reflect the increasing numbers of retiring baby boomers who are leaving colder, more expensive states in the Northeast and Midwest in favor of lower-cost locations with retirement infrastructures like Florida and Arizona. Long-term shifts in the US economy and the hit to employment in many states resulting from the slow recovery are also prompting many Americans to relocate.

New Jersey has been stuck at the top of the outbound list for four of the past five years. In 2014 nearly 65% more people moved out than moved in. According to Stoll, the Great Recession hit the state especially hard, accelerating a longtime shift in manufacturing to the southern states, away from the Northeast. Damage done by Hurricane Sandy in 2012 and the slow pace of rebuilding since has also driven people away. Plus New Jersey has a population that is older than other states’ and the cold climate is driving retirement-age people south. Further, housing costs tend to be high there, especially in northern New Jersey which is subject to demand from people who work in Manhattan.

New York comes in at second place for some of the same reasons. High housing prices, more retirees and a desire for a warmer climate are driving lots of people out of the state. Like New Jersey, Illinois, at No. 3 on the list, got hit disproportionately hard by the Great Recession, notes Stoll, especially in the manufacturing sector, and the state has had a slow recovery. Though job losses have slowed, the rate of job growth in Illinois is still below the national average and its older population has been relocating.

Flushing madame busted in NJ

From the Daily News:

A Queens woman was arrested for running a New Jersey brothel after police found her in a car filled with hundreds of new condoms, authorities said.

Jing Hong Xia, 51, of Flushing, has been charged with promoting prostitution and maintaining a brothel.

Police first discovered the Englewood bordello after someone reported women were held there against their will.

Investigators forcibly entered the rental house to find no one living there Dec. 23.

"The home was set up strictly for prostitution," Englewood Police Detective Capt. Timothy Torell said in a statement. "It was a self-contained operation, complete with washing machines and driers to clean bed sheets and towels."

Officers kept watch over the house as they waited for a search warrant.

Xia and three women drove up to the house in a 2013 Lexus the next day. Police took them in for questioning and later searched the house with a warrant.

Investigators found and seized financial records, computers, televisions and a closed-circuit television system that they said shows prostitution has taken place on the grounds.

Xia was taken to Bergen County jail on Christmas, where she was held on $11,500 bail.

There's a $185M tunnel to NJ should we ever need one

From Crains:

Taking shape on Manhattan's West Side is a $185 million, federally funded tunnel that leads to nowhere, for now.

The 800-foot-long, 35-foot-deep concrete trench could someday lead to two new commuter rail tunnels under the Hudson River to New Jersey, if the billions needed to build them ever materialize.

The access tunnel is being built now because the massive Hudson Yards development with six skyscrapers, the tallest being 80 stories, will soon be built on top of it. Trying to dig such a huge trench through the bedrock after those buildings are completed, officials say, would be an engineering and financial nightmare.

U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., was among the lawmakers who pushed Congress to approve Superstorm Sandy relief money for the planned flood-resistant access tunnel, calling it mitigation to protect infrastructure from future storms. But he argued it would have to be built now because the skyscraper developers could not be delayed indefinitely.

"We asked them to delay months, but if we asked them to delay years, they may have said no," said Mr. Schumer, referring to the Related Cos., the main Hudson Yards developers. "Sandy relief funding was there, available, the criteria fit, and the money was getting through quickly and fit the timetable."

The access tunnel is expected to be completed in fall 2015.

"Made in NY", but not always paid in NY

Next time a NY politician asserts that NYC residents who are relentlessly inconvenienced by the film industry should just suck it up because of all the local jobs and revenue it's generating for local businesses, their constituents should just whip out the below photo of a catering truck in Ridgewood with New Jersey plates and ask them to explain it.

With all the filming that's gone on in Queens alone, you'd think our roads and parks would be adequately maintained.

Disaster relief reality show proposed to help Sandy victims

The Real Volunteers 04-26-13

"The last thing the world needs is another reality TV show, but this one is actually different. Attached is a 12 page proposal for a new reality show or series of shows related to the inside life of volunteerism and disaster relief:

The Real Volunteers of the Jersey Shore
The Real Volunteers of NY
The Real Volunteers - International Edition
and Volunteer Wars

If this show gets picked up and becomes widely viewed, it will certainly help to generate tens of millions of dollars in additional donations to victims of hurricane Sandy. Therefore anything each of us does to help get this show get to air will be an act of compassion for the suffering that is an everyday reality. This is not just great entertainment!" - Steve Major (the Arverne sinkhole guy)

Not a bad idea, especially since most people have chosen to stay and rebuild. And isn't it nice to know that months after the rescuers left, they're still thinking about us?

Then there's the guy who won't leave for a few months that has already forgotten about. From The Forum:

Reeling in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, people throughout South Queens dug into their pockets – into retirement funds, into savings for children’s college tuition, into all sorts of accounts that were never meant to be used for what they were: to replace roofs and heating systems, to rebuild basements once submerged in water, to begin to piece together unrecognizable houses and make them places that could, once again, be called home.

Then, months later, there came word that, for those who dipped into accounts that now seemed dangerously close to empty, federal funding could be making its way, slowly, to them. That the tens of thousands of dollars – or more – many spent on work not covered by insurance or the Federal Emergency Management Agency may not be lost, that perhaps relief would finally be heading their way.

For many in New York state, as well as New Jersey, this seems to be coming true. But, in Queens, and the other four boroughs, Mayor Bloomberg said earlier this month that he does not plan to use any of the $1.77 billion in federal hurricane aid to reimburse homeowners who already spent money on rebuilding their homes, arguing that it would open too many possibilities for fraud and that the money should go to those who have not been able to afford repairs yet.

While the mayor is insistent that reimbursements not occur, a number of area legislators are pushing the federal government to squelch Bloomberg’s plan – which they are authorized to do – and ensure homeowners see at least some money come their way.

“The mayor should not punish responsible homeowners who utilized their savings to make repairs in an effort to get back into their storm-damaged homes,” Assemblyman Phil Goldfeder (D-Rockaway) said. “Nearly 85 percent of my district, including my own home, was destroyed during Sandy and if homeowners and small businesses had waited more than six months for the city program to kick in, we would not have made any progress in recovery and there would be massive devastation throughout southern Queens and Rockaway.”

Goldfeder joined Councilman Donovan Richards (D-Laurelton) for a press conference on Sunday in Far Rockaway to urge Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan to use some of the $1.77 billion for reimbursement – a decision Goldfeder said the federal government could ostensibly make before it starts issuing payments around the end of May. HUD is administering the funding, though it is being allocated through the mayor’s Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Relief program. Additionally, the two legislators have sent a letter to Donovan on the matter, and U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has also reached out to the HUD secretary in an effort to secure funding for reimbursements.

In other Sandy news...

From NY1:

New York state's plan clears the way for the allocation of federal housing funds for a total of $1.7 billion, which breaks down to about $838 million in housing money and $415 million in economic development funds.

That will include buyouts for some homeowners and reimbursements for repairs that have not already been paid for by FEMA.

"We're not just going to build back, we're going to build back better than before," Gov. Andrew Cuomo said. "With the funding we have in the supplemental, with the response that we've had from all levels of government, I think we're poised to do that."

The money is also expected to be used for small business grants to get stores and restaurants open in time for the upcoming summer tourism season.

This initial approval is only a small portion of the $60 billion in supplemental appropriation approved by the federal government earlier this year. New York state's share of that is $35 billion.

Much of that remaining money will go towards long term projects like hardening critical infrastructure and reimbursing local governments for overtime incurred during the storm.

7 train extension to NJ is DOA

From the Daily News:

The Bloomberg administration’s hope of extending the 7 train to New Jersey is dead on arrival.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority pulled the brakes on the proposal Wednesday hours after the city’s Economic Development Corporation released a report hyping the benefits of the cross-Hudson link.

“We don't see this as an economically viable idea,” said MTA spokesman Kevin Ortiz, whose agency had promised earlier in the day to study the “interesting” idea.

The city study showed it is feasible to push the 7 line — which is currently being extended to the far West Side of Manhattan — to Secaucus, where it would link with other transit lines.

The city, not the MTA, is paying more than $2 billion to extend the 7 line from Times Square to the Hudson Yards — but the extension will have only one new station because of a lack of funding when it opens next year.

NJ donut king chops down 200 trees

EDC outsources Willets Point sewer project

From the Daily News:

A New Jersey company has snared lucrative contracts to build a sewer system for Willets Point, angering critics who say the job near Citi Field should go to a city firm.

Cruz Contractors signed deals in May and July for $36 million of work for sewers at the mix of auto body shops and junkyards by the Mets’ stadium.

Cruz inked the two pacts with a construction firm hired by the city Economic Development Corp. to redevelop the gritty industrial zone.

News of the deals came out recently through a Freedom of Information request by Willets Point United, a group that opposes the redevelopment plans.

State Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside) called Cruz’s hiring a “disgrace.”

“City residents are out of work, especially construction workers,” Avella said. “Why can’t we give our people these jobs?”

Interesting thing is that announcements of contract awards are usually treated with great fanfare by EDC, with press releases containing quotes from electeds which are regurgitated by the local press. For this one, the information had to be FOILed by the group fighting the development. I guess this time EDC felt they wouldn't be able to piss on local people and convince them it was raining.

Why?

From the Daily News:

New York will spend up to $250,000 to jump-start the idea of extending the 7 train all the way to Secaucus, N.J. - but New Jersey hasn't pitched in a dime.

The city hired engineering firm Parsons Brinckerhoff this week to analyze how many riders the line could serve, how they would connect to the NJTransit train hub in Secaucus and - most importantly - how much it would cost.

Their study is due in three months, which Deputy Mayor Robert Steel said will help show government and transportation agencies in the region whether to go forward.

Other officials in New York and New Jersey are looking at the idea, but haven't put up any cash to make it happen.

It could give New Jersey residents their first direct train line to Grand Central Terminal, as well as to see the Mets or the U.S. Open in Queens.

The city is paying $2.1 billion to extend the 7 train to 34th St. and 11th Ave., where it will serve a massive office and housing development planned for the West Side rail yards.

New Jersey helps with City EMS calls

From CBS 2:

A winter storm that dumped nearly 2 feet of snow on New York City is also whipping up criticism about how the city handled the response.

The heavy snow sent city emergency services into a nose dive, with ambulances and fire trucks trapped in snow and facing long delays. There was also bickering between the city and some unions over whether a snow emergency should have been called, CBS 2’s Marcia Kramer reported.

Just how much did the city struggle in its response to medical and fire emergencies on Monday? So bad that CBS 2 has learned EMS crews from three counties in New Jersey had to rush to New York City’s aid Monday night.

Crews from Burlington, Somerset and Mercer counties in New Jersey arrived in New York City to help with the back load of calls – 20 crews were assigned to Queens and 20 ambulances went to Brooklyn.

Blocked Street Delays Firefighters: MyFoxNY.com