Comments on: Transforming the JC skyline http://njrereport.com/index.php/2007/02/27/transforming-the-jc-skyline/ Real Estate, Economics, and Politics Thu, 09 Feb 2012 05:47:16 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: Steve http://njrereport.com/index.php/2007/02/27/transforming-the-jc-skyline/#comment-82028 Steve Wed, 28 Feb 2007 03:05:47 +0000 http://njrereport.com/index.php/2007/02/27/transforming-the-jc-skyline/#comment-82028 Property owners are pretty much out-and-out criminals. The saga of 111 First St (where this will be built) included all the typical JC slumlord drama to try to condemn the building, including open gas pipes with flammable rags left nearby (while tenants occupied!), mysteriously broken windows to try to freeze pipes etc etc. They should be in jail, instead they're getting ready to reap 100s of millions. Over $70 million in fines for all this were magically removed after L. Goldman bullied the city into surrender, with the city backing off a previously designated historic Powerhouse Art District to help preserve the neighborhood warehouses. Now, as a result, a free-for-all, with Toll Bros leading the charge to throw up one tower after the next in the area. So much for urban planning. I read once that there was a class at some midwestern college on government corruption, and JC was the case study... No joke, I once fell through a manhole in that area (long story!) and after repeated pleas went ignored by City Hall, Fire Dept, Police, I went on Fox 5 to report it all.. suddenly they became much more responsive. Funny how that works. Property owners are pretty much out-and-out criminals. The saga of 111 First St (where this will be built) included all the typical JC slumlord drama to try to condemn the building, including open gas pipes with flammable rags left nearby (while tenants occupied!), mysteriously broken windows to try to freeze pipes etc etc. They should be in jail, instead they’re getting ready to reap 100s of millions.

Over $70 million in fines for all this were magically removed after L. Goldman bullied the city into surrender, with the city backing off a previously designated historic Powerhouse Art District to help preserve the neighborhood warehouses. Now, as a result, a free-for-all, with Toll Bros leading the charge to throw up one tower after the next in the area. So much for urban planning.

I read once that there was a class at some midwestern college on government corruption, and JC was the case study…

No joke, I once fell through a manhole in that area (long story!) and after repeated pleas went ignored by City Hall, Fire Dept, Police, I went on Fox 5 to report it all.. suddenly they became much more responsive. Funny how that works.

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