Bow to your municipal overlords

From the Star Ledger:

Bamboozled: What’s wrong with some local N.J. governments? This.

New Jersey is bloated with hundreds of little fiefdoms.

Local governments allow red tape to rule the day, and they forget they’re supposed to serve their constituents.

They display no common sense.

Nancy Wells, 57, of Hasbrouck Heights has been drowning in deep bureaucracy for nearly two years.

Her story is simple. She’s been the owner of a two-family home in the 1.5-square-mile, 12,000 resident borough since 1996, when she bought the property with her then-husband. All she wants to do is sell her two-family home as the two-family home it’s been since it was built in 1949.

But the borough won’t let her, saying she lacks the necessary documents to prove her home is a two-family residence.

Why? There was a fire at the municipal building in 1999, and town officials told Wells decades of building permits were destroyed, she said. Among them, she noted, were documents that would prove the home was a two-family and grandfathered in when the area was rezoned for one-families.

And even though the home has always had two entrances, two kitchens, two electric meters, two gas meters and that according to county tax rolls, the home has always been a two-family home and has always been taxed as a two-family home, the zoning board won’t listen to reason.

Or common sense.

Or the 13 long-time local residents who always knew the home as a two-family and put in writing that they’re just fine if it remains a two-family.

“I made an investment in a two-family so I’d like to get my two-family investment back,” Wells said. “Selling as a one-family downgrades the value of the house.”

It all started when Wells put her home on the market in April 2015.

Wells’ real estate agent went to borough hall and spoke to Dorothy Bernice of the borough’s planning board to confirm the property was a two-family.

Bernice looked in a book and confirmed to the real estate agent it was a non-conforming two-family, according to an affidavit later filed with the Superior Court in Bergen County as part of Wells’ lawsuit against the borough. Even though the street later became a single family zone, older two-families were grandfathered in, the real estate agent said she was told.

So the house went on the market, and it sold for the full price that same day.

But while the sale was in attorney review, according to the affidavit, the real estate agent got a call from Bernice’s boss, Nicholas Melfi, who serves as the borough’s construction code and zoning enforcement officer.

He said Wells’ home was not a two-family and that Bernice made a mistake.

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68 Responses to Bow to your municipal overlords

  1. Mike says:

    Good Morning New Jersey

  2. Juice Box says:

    Seems like somebody was looking for an envelope.

  3. Juicier Boxer says:

    Very much looking for an envelope.

    A lot of old political connected Hudson Countinites moved there in the 80’s.

  4. grim says:

    As my contractor uncle always says…

    Building department is staffed buy a bunch of guys who failed at being contractors, and hate everyone else for being successful at it.

    When you put it in that perspective, a lot of the spite, the know-it-all/holier-than-thou behavior, failed inspections for irrelevant issues, etc etc starts making much more sense, especially with how widespread it is.

  5. Ottoman says:

    And what exactly does the size of a municipality have to do with this situation? As if it’s easier to navigate and/or persuade New York City zoning laws and officers.

    Of course municipal consolidation is no longer a new or “foreign” concept as a way to turn the tide of 100+ years of segregating neighborhoods and school districts into said fiefdoms, but the people of New Jersey are too racist, classist, selfish, ignorant, etc to pursue it in meaningful ways.

    Bergen County alone has like 2000 towns and most of them exist because of dumb things like one side of town didn’t want to pay for an improvement that affected the other side of town. And now thanks in large part to the ensuing lack of coordination and planning from this shortsightedness and the extra government required to administer all these towns, taxes are sky high.

    But blaming the government for this situation is ignorant. It was the people who voted for all these secessions. And no one is stopping them from voting to consolidate. And bonus, that means more people would be keeping these local government officials accountable. Except, who gets stuck with Bergenfield? (Disclaimer, i don’t ever go to Bergen County if I can help it and have little idea which towns are actually “undesirable”.)

    Only rich Princeton liberals dabble in such dangerous experiments because of course, neither town has any significant number of poor people.

  6. Ottoman says:

    Because, of course, “successful” people are not similarly petty and vindictive. Who’s Trump sh!ttweeting today?

    As my contractor uncle always says…

    Building department is staffed buy a bunch of guys who failed at being contractors, and hate everyone else for being successful at it.

    When you put it in that perspective, a lot of the spite, the know-it-all/holier-than-thou behavior, failed inspections for irrelevant issues, etc etc starts making much more sense, especially with how widespread it is.

  7. STEAMturd says:

    Another example of NJ over regulation. NJ is the only state in the country that forces an investment club established as a General Partnership to pay $150 per year per partner if any partner has over $35,000 in the club or if the entire partnership is valued over 250K. We currently pay $150 annual fee. Why does it multiply by 10X as we get larger? The amount of work the state has to perform is exactly the same regardless of the size of the club holdings. No other state in the nation does this. Most states don’t even require members to file within their state each year. It’s not a big deal. We have a member in New York and will probably just transfer our partnership over to New York State and NJ will lose their $150 annual payment. I hate this state with a passion.

  8. Fast Eddie says:

    Disclaimer, i don’t ever go to Bergen County if I can help it and have little idea which towns are actually “undesirable”

    What is your reason for avoiding Bergen County?

  9. D-FENS says:

    There is no short answer to that question.

  10. STEAMturd says:

    Last night, I took an Amtrak Regional train from Philadelphia to Newark Penn. The train had 3 stops between terminus’. It took from 66 minutes to go the 85 miles. In my morning commute to NYC from Bloomfield it takes 45 minutes (on a normal day) to go 15 miles. The truth is, I could get a job in Center City, Philadelphia and have a shorter commute than I do to 55th and 6th New York City. Of course the price would be the barrier. Thank the lord, rail travel is not priced by the minute rather than by the mile.

  11. Against The Grain says:

    Franklin Boro in Sussex County pulled a similar stunt several years ago. It lost the records of all of the CO’s it issued for the resale of single family homes, probably when it merged some of its services with Hardyston Township. When a homeowner came in for a permit or something and the file was pulled, the owner was told that they would need a CO because the attorney who represented them on their purchase didn’t make sure that the seller got one when the deal closed. No one mentioned that the town lost the records, just lie and blame it on someone else.

  12. Anon E. Moose, proud owner of Silk City Bourbon ver 2.36/114 says:

    Know this might ruffle a feather or three, but I can’t help myself.

    http://bit.ly/2k0VvrC

  13. STEAMturd says:

    I avoid Bergen accept on Sunday when you can travel freely.

  14. Grim says:

    I thought it was faster to take Acela from Philly than to fly back to Newark.

  15. Grim says:

    I’ve abandoned the last leg of my connecting flight through Philly twice now.

    If weather is shitty, I’m making a beeline for the train station as soon as I land.

  16. STEAMturd says:

    I ubered home from Penn for free (except for $5 tip) on a chase promotion.

  17. Anon E. Moose, proud owner of Silk City Bourbon ver 2.36/114 says:

    I’ve been on a southbound Acela that got waylaid in Philly; I got off, went upstairs, rented a car, and got to DC before the train did.

  18. STEAMturd says:

    It once took my bags two hours to get from my American Eagle (8 seater) to the terminal after a flight from San Diego to Los Angeles. I was livid. Your bags should never take longer than the flight, let alone how long it would have taken to drive from the origination locale.

  19. STEAMturd says:

    Lesson learned, always flew into Burbank afterwards.

  20. Fast Eddie says:

    I notice that the Oblammy family is moving into an eight-bedroom, 8,200 Sq.Ft., 9 1/2 bath home in D.C. area. I suppose the elite say one thing and do another. Am I right? Or is he going to adopt a few inner-city kids and give them a taste of his elite life?

  21. jcer says:

    eddie obummer also allegedly purchased the magnum pi house in hawaii.

  22. jcer says:

    To each according to their need….. unless you are a party boss…then you live like a king…it is part of the liberal manifesto

  23. Fast Eddie says:

    jcer,

    It’s all so he can do his work of elevating the lesser masses. He needs these places to recharge and continue his magnificent work!

  24. Essex says:

    I’m fascinated by the level of rancor Obimini brings out….

  25. Anon E. Moose, proud owner of Silk City Bourbon ver 2.36/114 says:

    Eddie [10:51];

    Have no fear. The O’s will rent half of those rooms to the USSS at a tidy profit to pay for it all.

  26. Ben says:

    I avoid Bergen accept on Sunday when you can travel freely.

    I like being able to drive freely on Rt. 4. Unfortunately, every place I would like to stop at is closed.

  27. Clotpoll says:

    all politicians are sociopaths, mass bombers and general scum of the earth liars. bomma, drumpf…all of them. the only differences among them are party affiliation and favorite modes of using channeled rage to control those around them.

  28. Clotpoll says:

    bush: dry drunk. bomma: daddy/authority issues. drumpf: abuser.

    these guys are all one trick ponies.

  29. Fast Eddie says:

    That’s not Clot.

  30. grim says:

    I don’t get the Drumpf thing – why is this an insult?

    Lots of people changed the spelling of their names to “Americanize” them – you know, as a way to better assimilate (when this used to be a desirable thing to immigrants coming here).

    So is this some kind of way to associate him to Hitler, because he has a German name, and really, because all Germans are Nazis, he’s a Nazi?

  31. Anon E. Moose, proud owner of Silk City Bourbon ver 2.36/114 says:

    Grim [13:02];

    It comes from an attempted joke by one of the left’s leading news sources: HBO’s John Oliver (Last Week Tonight).

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Trump_(Last_Week_Tonight)

    And you’re right, assimilation by immigrants was SOOOOO 19th century. These days if immigrants assimilate, how is the left supposed to enslave them as clients of the identity politics grievance culture?

    No matter how eager Hillary surrogates were to connect Donald to Hitler before the election, I highly doubt the average leftist is bright enough to make the Drumpf->German->N@zi connection you mention without someone explicitly connecting the dots for them.

    Its not an insult per se, its just cheap virtue signaling among leftists — as in “Psst… I watch John Oliver and think he’s funny… smirk or chuckle mildly if you do too.”

  32. Fast Eddie says:

    A fascinating history of the beginning of the Trump fortune. They hustled and worked for it. This is the American dream. Why would anyone be offended by this? My father told me stories of being so poor that the electric was sometimes shut off. He worked to give his family a better advantage. Wouldn’t anyone?

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Trump

  33. D-FENS says:

    http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21642222-americas-largest-ethnic-group-has-assimilated-so-well-people-barely-notice-it

    German-Americans are America’s largest single ethnic group (if you divide Hispanics into Mexican-Americans, Cuban-Americans, etc). In 2013, according to the Census bureau, 46m Americans claimed German ancestry: more than the number who traced their roots to Ireland (33m) or England (25m). In whole swathes of the northern United States, German-Americans outnumber any other group (see map). Some 41% of the people in Wisconsin are of Teutonic stock.

  34. STEAMturd says:

    I never got the Drumpf thing either. Matters little though. I’m firmly convinced that the shallower the attacks are from the left, the more empowered Trump and his supporters become. They simply don’t get it. Just wait until those buses of women show up on the 20th and Trump tweets out how he has that affect on women.

  35. Fast Eddie says:

    Moose,

    Good stuff.

  36. STEAMturd says:

    I’m half German, by the way.

    I always thought Bush was Hitler. Was surprised to here Trump was Hitler too.

  37. Comrade Nom Deplorable, Zombie Hunter says:

    turd,

    “Just wait until those buses of women show up on the 20th and Trump tweets out how he has that affect on women.”

    I think I just got coffee on my tie. LMAO

    BTW, senior partner in my office just said of Trump, “he doesn’t tweet, he tw@ts”

  38. grim says:

    “Just wait until those buses of women show up on the 20th and Trump tweets out how he has that affect on women.”

    Quote of the day

  39. Essex says:

    We know the issues, thr GOP has the reigns.

    giddyup.

  40. Anon E. Moose, proud owner of Silk City Bourbon ver 2.36/114 says:

    Eddie [13:32];

    Why would anyone be offended by this?

    Insufficient opportunities for graft.

  41. Anon E. Moose, proud owner of Silk City Bourbon ver 2.36/114 says:

    Turd [13:36];

    I always thought Bush was Hitler. Was surprised to here Trump was Hitler too.

    Its the Democrat hymnal, to be sung every election season. You know the tune, sing along:

    I’m a Hitler, you’re a Hitler,
    He’s a Hitler, she’s a Hitler,
    anyone can be a Hitler too…

  42. Essex says:

    U two are supremely stoopid and yeah Eddie that is Clot ya buffoooonz

  43. No One says:

    John Oliver is such a puke. And Trevor Noah is a knob.
    The Daily Show really killed modern comedy, turning it into a leftist political correctness hunt.

  44. chicagofinance says:

    Just to point out that the Hawaiian-in-chief loves to keep the ambient indoor temperature at 78 degrees…….so that is quite a lot of real estate for the minions on the Climate-Change-Denier-Accuser circuit…….what a fcuking hypocrite!

    Fast Eddie says:
    January 17, 2017 at 10:51 am
    I notice that the Oblammy family is moving into an eight-bedroom, 8,200 Sq.Ft., 9 1/2 bath home in D.C. area. I suppose the elite say one thing and do another. Am I right? Or is he going to adopt a few inner-city kids and give them a taste of his elite life?

  45. chicagofinance says:

    The Climate Intelligence Agency Democratic CO2 obsessions reach new comic heights.

    Democrats must have concluded that climate change will defeat Donald Trump’s nominees, or perhaps the subject’s omnipresence at the confirmation hearings merely reflects their own political preoccupations, or their rich donors’. Whatever the reason, no job is too irrelevant for global warming to intrude.

    Perhaps you think Mr. Trump named Mike Pompeo to the Central Intelligence Agency because of his spycraft expertise, or to defeat terror groups. Kamala Harris has other ideas. The new California Senator burned her question time on Thursday cross-examining Mr. Pompeo about “the scientific consensus” on global warming.

    Citing NASA and “most of the leading scientific organizations world-wide,” Ms. Harris repeatedly asked about the human contribution to climate trends. “Do you have any reason to doubt NASA’s findings?” Mr. Pompeo replied that “I, frankly, as the director of CIA would prefer today not to get into the details of climate debate and science. It just seems—my role is going to be so different.”

    When Ms. Harris kept pressing, Mr. Pompeo dryly replied, “I do know the agency’s role. Its role is to collect foreign intelligence.”

    Meanwhile, in a nine-page questionnaire to Ben Carson, who is being sent to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Elizabeth Warren wanted to learn what the doctor thought about “C0 2 and other greenhouse gas emissions,” because extreme weather like flooding poses “a significant risk to public housing.”

    “What other actions will you take to adapt to or prevent climate change while you are HUD Secretary?” Ms. Warren wondered. Maybe Dr. Carson’s tenure will be the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and the planet began to heal.

    At least Rex Tillerson would have some relation to climate policy at the State Department, such as the Paris carbon deal. But Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley wanted to know about the mountain pine beetle, an invasive forest species he claimed was expanding as a result of warming.

    Mr. Tillerson called warming a “serious risk” and added that “the facts on the ground are indisputable in terms of what’s happening with drought, disease, uh, insects, all the things you cite,” though he also mentioned “uncertainty” about the scientific models and the economic cost of a response. That was too much for Mr. Merkley, who said he’d oppose the nomination.

    The real meltdown is scheduled for next week, when Scott Pruitt will be grilled about leading the Environmental Protection Agency. Washington’s Patty Murray has called the Oklahoma Attorney General “a climate change denier,” New Hampshire’s Jeanne Shaheen claimed the nomination was “a capitulation to polluters,” and Bernie Sanders said on CNN that “it is rather ironic that Mr. Trump has nominated somebody to head the EPA who doesn’t much believe in environmental protection.”

    Mr. Pruitt has a scrappy legal background, including a constitutional challenge to the EPA’s abusive Clean Power Plan, but the real irony is that his environmental record, as traditionally understood, is strong. As AG, he negotiated a state compact with Arkansas to clean up phosphorous pollution in the Illinois River, lobbied for the federal 2016 Frank Lautenberg Chemical Safety Act, and sued poultry farms that didn’t control waste runoff as well as oil companies with leaking underground storage tanks.

    That these achievements no longer count as environmental protection shows how far the progressive carbon panic has gone.

  46. Clotpoll says:

    we all laugh now, but nixon won by landslides twice. and nixon was ten times the person drumpf is. this whole thing is headed toward a bridge abutment at 110 mph and will end in tears for all.

    shiny & hi-ho already starting to retrace recent downs. not exactly world optimism there.

  47. Fast Eddie says:

    It’s not Clot.

  48. STEAMturd says:

    Not even close.

  49. jcer says:

    are fake clot and pumpkin the same person?

  50. Tywin says:

    Guess the days of Jon Leibowitz and his adoring “Daily Show” fans are over.

    Its not an insult per se, its just cheap virtue signaling among leftists — as in “Psst… I watch John Oliver and think he’s funny… smirk or chuckle mildly if you do too.”

  51. Fast Eddie says:

    Pumpkin is not real as well but you guys keep responding as if she is real.

  52. chicagofinance says:

    The End Is Nigh (Shooting Blanks Edition):

    A Spanish murderer dubbed the “ice cream killer” is so dangerous, she’s being moved to an all-male prison to serve out her life sentence, according to a new report.

    Estibaliz Carranza, 38, earned the chilling nickname after she shot her boyfriend and ex-husband to death in 2008, cut up their bodies with a chainsaw and hid them in the freezers of her ice cream store in Vienna, Austria.

    She carried out the crimes because the men failed to get her pregnant.

    The Mexican-born Spanish national stored the body parts in ice cream tubs filled with concrete and disguised the smell with air fresheners.

    Now, she’ll spend the rest of her life in an all-male prison in Asten, Austria, because she shows an “advanced reduction of the relevant dangerousness,” according to the Mirror.

    The prison, which houses 91 men, allows inmates to freely move around and cook their own meals together. Prisoners can also use a lounge area with a TV.

    Carranza is one of 13 women to be transferred to the prison.

    She carried out the crimes because the men failed to get her pregnant.

    She lied to neighbors who heard the sound of the chainsaw from her shop, claiming that the noise was actually a new type of ice cream machine.

  53. Ben says:

    As far as John Stewart and Colbert go, I think they were both comedic geniuses with leftists opinions. They are genuinely funny guys that can do any type of comedy. Noah and Oliver are hacks that just resort to bashing the right. I used to actually watch the Daily show just for the Stewart monologue in the beginning and I would laugh very much so at it. I would have to turn it off after that. No one else on the show was remotely funny.

  54. Anon E. Moose, proud owner of Silk City Bourbon ver 2.36/114 says:

    The thing about these leftist comedians is that they can’t see anything funny with their own side (aka, No Enemies to the Left, a time-worn communist tradition) — which turns them into hacks. Some of them quite talented hacks, alas hacks nonetheless. In all those years doing political humor at the Daily Show, how rarely did Stewart find something to make fun of Democrats over, unless its that they were insufficiently leftist?

    It was interesting watching Leno in 2009 after he got axed by NBC — with the chains off suddenly he could make jokes about Obama that were previously quashed from on high by NBC’s parent corp, GE, whose CEO happened to be Obama’s favoritest crony capitalist, Jeff Immelt.

  55. No One says:

    Ben,
    I liked the very early days of the Daily show and did think that Stewart and Colbert were funny the first couple years I saw them. But eventually they got lazy and at some point the punchline for virtually all jokes required agreement with liberal doctrine. So I stopped laughing. It turned into nightly preaching to the converted, news sourced from the Daily Kos, where the joke was pretty much – “look at this stupid person who doesn’t agree with us, now let’s laugh at them”.

  56. Ben says:

    I thought Colbert never lost it. He always made me laugh. John Stewart, those last two years, were where I stopped watching. To be fair to him, apparently he was sick of it as well which was one of the reasons he quit. I think the comedy writers got really lazy or Comedy Central just tried to push the show further in that direction.

    Comedy Central has a knack for alienating their most popular talent. Still remember how they destroyed the Chapelle show.

  57. Clotpoll says:

    it’s me (check my g0ddam email address). i have no party affiliation, will prolly never vote again. but jesus fcuk, drumpf’s insane. full on baths!t.

  58. Clotpoll says:

    anyone who seeks elective office is bonkers. voters gotta decide who’s both bonkers and dangerous.

  59. Ben says:

    I’m sympathetic with playing to your audience. But at the same time, Stewart did go after Anthony Weiner, his old roommate. I guess this may be a bad example because Weiner was too much comedy gold to pass up.

    I would definitely cringe when they invite a hack like Pelosi on and kiss her butt. There’s no doubt the show was very tilted and outright fanatical towards the end. But I still think Stewart was a unique talent that made me laugh quite often. That Donald Trump pizza bit 4 or 5 years ago was one of the best things I ever watched.

    Trevor Noah…the guy is absolutely incapable of making me laugh. Half of the time, he doesn’t even tell a joke. He just resorts to a cheap attack and the audience which is full of drones just laughs because they’ve been trained to. Bill Maher was never funny. Oliver is trying too hard to reincarnate Stewart but he never had the talent do so.

  60. 3b says:

    Fast fake pumps is a guy not girl.

  61. Essex says:

    Bill Maher is a freakin’ genius. Love that guy. Ben you need to remove that huuuuuge phallus lodged in your …..

  62. The Original NJ ExPat says:

    Maybe they weren’t doing it right. Does anyone remember the beginning of Apocalypto?

    She carried out the crimes because the men failed to get her pregnant.

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