Just let Atlantic City fall into the sea

From the Record:

Legislators advance competing measures to put approval of North Jersey casinos on ballot

State Senate and Assembly committees each passed resolutions on Thursday designed to have voters statewide determine next fall whether to amend the state constitution to allow two casinos to operate in North Jersey.

But the two measures differ on how much tax revenue from the North Jersey casinos should go to support Atlantic City — a discrepancy that could jeopardize efforts to pass the resolution before the end of the lame-duck session next month in Trenton.

The version that the Assembly Judiciary Committee approved Thursday would send 35 percent of tax revenues from the North Jersey casinos to a new state entity that would use those resources to bring more diverse entertainment and leisure options to the struggling, casino-dependent city. The revised measure that emerged from the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee would send 49 percent of the first $150 million in North Jersey casino tax revenues to Atlantic City, then 40 percent, 30 percent, and 20 percent of each subsequent $150 million that the casinos generate.

Additionally, the Assembly resolution would allow for one of the two winning casino bids to have no affiliation with a company that operates an Atlantic City casino. But Stephen Sweeney, the state Senate president who represents a South Jersey district, said it was critical that any North Jersey casino operator have an Atlantic City-based partner — a provision of the Senate measure.

“I want the industry in the north part of the state to be tied to Atlantic City,” Sweeney said Thursday, adding that a patron at a casino in the Meadowlands or in Jersey City should be able, for example, to earn a free room or meal at an Atlantic City counterpart.

Sweeney also said of the higher subsidy for Atlantic City in the Senate measure: “I’m not just going to let Atlantic City fall into the sea after it has provided billions and billions of dollars to the state. It would be easy for me to curry favor with my friends in other parts of the state and say, ‘The hell with them.’ But we are not going to let that happen.”

The referendum would ask voters whether to amend the state constitution, which currently restricts casino gambling to Atlantic City, allowing two casinos to be established in separate counties at least 75 miles from the struggling seaside resort city. Neither version of the resolution spells out where the casinos would be built, but all locations would have to be north of Monmouth and Mercer counties. The most likely locations appear to be the Meadowlands and Jersey City.

Assemblyman Ralph Caputo, D-Essex, who sponsored the Assembly resolution, has said that the Senate version, with its more generous Atlantic City subsidy, is more likely to be rejected by taxpayers who are aware of the city’s longstanding budget woes and recurring corruption scandals there over the years.

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78 Responses to Just let Atlantic City fall into the sea

  1. grim says:

    From CurbedNY:

    As Atlantic City Housing Stumbles With Major Casino Losses, Las Vegas Rebounds

    Take a drive through Atlantic City these days and your eyes tell you a lot about this struggling mecca to East Coast gambling. Whole streets of row homes are dark at night and clearly abandoned. The famed boardwalk is a depressing mix of homeless people, police in cruisers and on bikes, women soliciting massages, and agitated drug addicts.

    Foreclosures have ballooned and the numbers are getting worse as the city teeters on the brink of bankruptcy. The closure of four large casinos last year, putting some 8,000 people out of work, are only adding to the pain. Nationally, foreclosure auctions reached their lowest level in 10 years in November, but Atlantic City posted the country’s highest foreclosure rate for the fifth consecutive month. One in every 307 Atlantic City homes had a foreclosure filing, more than four times the national average, according to RealtyTrac. Today, you can buy a three-bedroom home there for $15,000.

    Across the country in Las Vegas, the world’s most famous gambling destination, the situation is different. Home prices are inching back up and the number of foreclosures, once stratospheric, has fallen precipitously from 2013 levels. Why have the two recoveries been so different?

  2. grim says:

    (cont)

    Compounding problems is the long foreclosure timeline in New Jersey—the longest in the country. It takes 1,177 days to complete a foreclosure in New Jersey, up 11 percent from a year ago, according to RealtyTrac. That’s nearly twice as long as the national average of 630 days, and well more than the 683 days it takes in Nevada, a state with one of the shortest foreclosure life-cycles.

    “That is one of the things that has really helped in Las Vegas,” said Ginny Walker, a spokeswoman for RealtyTrac. “There aren’t people that have been stuck in the foreclosure process for years on end like we are seeing in New Jersey.”

    The heavy foreclosure activity has kept real estate agent Edward Augsberger pretty busy. He lists foreclosure properties for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and he spends many of his days working with “preservation teams” to lock up and winterize homes around Atlantic City for banks to take over. Homes left idle for too long become eventual targets for criminals, some of whom try to break in looking for copper wire to trade for drugs, he said.

    Today, with banks skeptical about paying much of anything to renovate the foreclosed homes, you can buy a home for a song in Atlantic City. Augsberger said he recently valued a three-bedroom, one-bathroom home for $15,000; it sold for more than $200,000 less than a decade before, he said. In Las Vegas, $15,000 won’t get you a table to see a big-name DJ on most nights. And it certainly won’t buy you more than a little champagne at Hakkasan.

    “I don’t know what the answer is for Atlantic City anymore,” Augsberger said, “but they have to adapt.”

  3. Mike says:

    Legalized Prostitution is the answer

  4. grim says:

    From the Press of Atlantic City:

    Atlantic County leads U.S. in foreclosures 5th straight month

    Atlantic County led the United States in foreclosure activity in November for the fifth month in a row, but the county’s foreclosure rate dropped 16 percent from October and was also lower than last November’s, a new report shows.

    In Atlantic County, RealtyTrac reported that one in every 307 housing units had a foreclosure filing in November, more than four times the national average. That was down 6 percent from November 2014, but bank repossessions in the county increased for the ninth straight month.

    But Atlantic City itself, which has been hit hard by four casinos closing last year, actually had a lower percentage of houses in foreclosure than the county as a whole. Within the city limits, one of 369 houses was in foreclosure, according to RealtyTrac, which ranks the city at No. 118 in the state.

    Among Atlantic County towns higher in New Jersey’s rankings were were Absecon at No. 33, Buena at No. 22, Mays Landing at No. 16 and Pleasantville at No. 13.

  5. grim says:

    It’s Monday.. From the Press of Atlantic City:

    A.C. has until Monday to pay Borgata $62.5 million

    Atlantic City will have until Monday to pay its most successful casino $62.5 million.
    The city owes Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa a total of $148 million in tax refunds after successful tax appeals over the years. The $62.5 million originally due Saturday was for tax years 2009 and 2010.

    But Joe Lupo, Borgata’s senior vice president of operations, said Saturday that the true deadline for the payment is Monday, since the deadline fell on a weekend.
    “Nothing is expected whatsoever today, as it is not the deadline,” Lupo said.

    Atlantic City Mayor Don Guardian has said the city cannot afford to pay the tax refunds, and said earlier this month that negotiations with the Borgata over the refunds is the only issue keeping municipal bankruptcy on the table. Guardian said he wants to avoid that outcome.

  6. grim says:

    From the Star Ledger:

    Doubling down on casinos in North Jersey is a losing bet

    emocratic leaders in New Jersey’s legislature are eager to have voters decide next year if the state should expand casino gambling to North Jersey. Proponents of expansion make big promises of thousands of jobs, hundreds of millions in tax revenue, a booming tourism economy and – let’s not forget – the comeback of Atlantic City.

    But despite the promises, it’s clear this is a losing bet for the Garden State. Doubling down on casino gambling won’t save New Jersey’s economy or resurrect New Jersey as the East Coast’s premier gambling destination, it will merely pick clean the remains of an industry that – as we’ve seen in Atlantic City – is past its prime.

    First, the biggest elephant in the room: Casinos are no longer the draw they once were – particularly in a regional market that has already reached its saturation point. Even industry experts – not known to be anti-gambling crusaders – agree that building more casinos is not a sustainable answer to the state’s economic problems, let alone a salve for Atlantic City’s woes. “At the end of the day, this is all a race to the bottom,” says Brian Miller, a casino analyst with Bloomberg Intelligence.

    Like the promises made for Sunday horse racing, the state lottery and internet gambling, the economic and jobs promises of casino expansion proponents are overblown, given that the construction jobs would be temporary and most management jobs would likely be internally filled by non-local casino chains. The only permanent jobs likely to be offered would be in the low-wage service sector – jobs that don’t boost New Jersey’s economy. As for the local economies where casinos are built? Visitors generally don’t spend their money outside the casinos after a day at the slot machines, not if the casino operators can help it. Just ask Atlantic City’s Chamber of Commerce.

  7. Mike (3)-

    Don’t forget legalized drugs, too.

    “Legalized Prostitution is the answer”

  8. The city that comes up with a one-stop solution for gambling, h00kers and blow is going to be the big winner in the c@sino sweepstakes.

  9. And some sort of bullshit Bobby Flay ptomaine tavern has to be in the middle of it all.

  10. grim says:

    AC’s solution requires bankruptcy, mass firings, eminent domain, and bulldozers.

  11. grim says:

    Or maybe I’m wrong, from the Philly Inquirer:

    Atlantic City property kept off tax rolls

    Once upon a time, there was a peep-show business that paid taxes.

    But the United Adult Book Store at 1826 Atlantic Ave. was bought and torn down by the state’s Casino Reinvestment Development Authority last year, becoming part of a vast inventory of land tax-exempt under state law.

    Hundreds of parcels are land banked by the agency, which is charged with taking a tax from casinos to be an agent of economic redevelopment.

    But with the Atlantic City economy tanking, many current projects are stalled, leaving empty lots and millions of dollars off tax rolls.

    And, depending on your perspective, the loss of a viable business, albeit a 25-cent peep-show house, whose tax bill in 2014 was $23,894.68.

    This year’s tax bill: $0.

    “They don’t pay,” says the city’s finance director, Michael P. Stinson, of the agency known by its letters, CRDA, or sometimes as “Creeda.” “They paved Pacific Avenue. But they hold vast quantities of land and we don’t get any money.”

    As Atlantic City teeters on the edge of bankruptcy, scraping for every last dollar under its Monopoly board, the state’s tax-exempt inventory starts to grate on officials trying to plug holes in the budget.

    Also off the tax rolls this year: The former Showboat Casino, owned all year in an ill-fated deal by Stockton University, a state institution that also is tax-exempt. (Stockton has an agreement to sell to Bart Blatstein.)

    Assessed at more than $200 million, Showboat paid about $8.5 million last year. This year?

    “We don’t get a penny for it,” Stinson said.

    In all, the CRDA owns 450 parcels valued at $726.79 million. But even excluding its big, typically tax-exempt holdings like the Convention Center, Boardwalk Hall, the train station, and the Walk – whose operators, Tanger Outlets, pay an annual $948,000 in a court-ordered Payment in Lieu of Taxes – the CRDA owns land assessed at about $210 million – the equivalent of a small casino.

    That assessed value – which, like all land in Atlantic City, would be subject to a tax appeal and new evaluation – would have yielded about $7.2 million in taxes. According to this year’s tax rolls, CRDA now controls parcels that in 2014 were taxed for a total of about $670,000.

  12. grim says:

    Maybe AC needs to be marketed to those who miss late 1970s NYC?

    Looks pretty close, they wouldn’t need to do too much work.

    http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/gritty-new-york-city-1970s-gallery-1.1318521

    We need to convince the hipsters and millennials that AC is the cool place to be.

  13. grim says:

    Cue Shattered

  14. D-FENS says:

    You guys see this story yet?

    EXCLUSIVE: Jersey City cop, residents say some Muslims did celebrate 9/11

    http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2015/12/exclusive_jersey_city_cop_residents_say_some_musli.html#incart_2box_nj-homepage-featured

  15. grim says:

    There were a few folks that came forward saying the same about Paterson.

  16. anon (the good one) says:

    when nobody pays taxes everybody wins!

    grim says:
    December 21, 2015 at 7:15 am

    This year’s tax bill: $0.

  17. Libturd supporting the Canklephate says:

    I remember hearing about Paterson and Jersey City when it happened. At the time, it didn’t surprise me at all. Paris didn’t either. We are all pussies.

  18. 1987 Condo says:

    All is not lost…

    Cheer Up, Obama’s Legacy Can Be Erased

    I’ll just post this snippet:

    By relentlessly pursuing an agenda that was outside the political mainstream, Mr. Obama became the most polarizing president of the past century. Had he compromised with his own party and a handful of Republicans, much of his vision might have been firmly cemented into law on a bipartisan basis. But by doing it his way, Mr. Obama built an imposing sand castle that is now imperiled by the changing tides of voter sentiment. All the American electorate must do now is choose a president totally committed to overturning the Obama program—and Obama’s sand castle will be washed away.

    http://www.wsj.com/articles/cheer-up-obamas-legacy-can-be-erased-1450645609

  19. D-FENS says:

    Ummm the point is, nobody pays taxes on that lot thanks to government intervention into private business.

    It’s now owned by a government agency…

    anon (the good one) says:
    December 21, 2015 at 8:32 am
    when nobody pays taxes everybody wins!

    grim says:
    December 21, 2015 at 7:15 am

    This year’s tax bill: $0.

  20. Outofstater says:

    12. Some friends and I went to a show (Broadway, not peep) in the 70’s. We were showing a Midwestern college friend the delights of New York and we dressed up for the occasion – guys in coat and tie, girls in long dresses. I remember lifting up the hem of my dress so it wouldn’t touch the vomit of a drunk who was passed out on the sidewalk not far from the theater. New York was truly a hellhole back then.

  21. D-FENS says:

    Has politifact published an article calling Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop a liar yet?

    “Trump is plain wrong, and he is shamefully politicizing an emotionally charged issue,” Fulop said in a statement released yesterday morning. “No one in Jersey City cheered on September 11.”

    http://www.nj.com/jjournal-news/index.ssf/2015/11/dear_donald_trump_this_is_how.html

  22. 1987 Condo says:

    As I had 2 family members in FDNY on the day of the events of 9/11..I am crystal clear on my recollection of the events thereafter, and although I saw no celebrating myself, there were definite reports of sporadic “celebrations” in the media. Whether there were “thousands” that is another matter.

  23. nwnj3 says:

    Does something about this story not quite add up? The bear grabbed his ankle and dragged him into a cave? Is this guy vying for a late entry to the Darwin awards?

    http://www.nj.com/morris/index.ssf/2015/12/boonton_boy_scout_leader_fought_off_bear_attack_wi.html#incart_river_home

  24. Xolepa says:

    That article about tax exemption in A.C. strikes a chord. I had a professor at Rutgers Business School explain to us (in early 80s) why Newark was not recovering. Back then, more than 50% of the properties were tax exempt. A lot of the tax exempts were single family properties being treated as ‘Houses of Worship’.

    I wonder what the percentages are now. My bet is 70%. Anyone know?

    And don’t think this problem persists in just Black neighborhoods. Think of Lakewood and how the Hasidics do the same.

  25. Ragnar says:

    It’s because G W Bush claimed that Islam was a religion of peace, he wanted to make this about a small fringe group of terrorists rather than the religion that said they are doing God’s work.
    If the lefties were consistent they would say that G W B was bought out by the Saudis and Halliburton to cover up the sins of a billion+ strong death cult religion.

  26. Ragnar says:

    One thing I know for sure, some Chinese were celebrating in 2001. Their little wee-wees and historical backwardness gives them a big inferiority complex, so after every attack my wife tells me that a lot of her coevals in China go out for drinks to celebrate that someone “taught America a lesson” about “being a bully”. And now they post that crap on their version of Facebook.

  27. Libturd supporting the Canklephate says:

    Yup. Somethings not right with that bear story. 80 minutes in a cave with a wild black bear? Unless the bear was in hibernation, I don’t know how he wasn’t mauled to death. And fighting back with a hammer? Bit three times? It all sounds implausible.

  28. grim says:

    Earlier reports said he climbed into the cave, and the bear attacked after. Seems much more plausible to me.

  29. Libturd supporting the Canklephate says:

    That bear must have been pretty small.

  30. Libturd supporting the Canklephate says:

    In other news…the pancake blaster is doing alright.

  31. nwnj3 says:

    The guy probably doesn’t want to be a national punch line, but I’d say it’s too late for that. Kind of reminds you of the firemen who start the fire and then come back to put it out so they can save the day.

  32. Hughesrep says:

    25

    Christy won’t touch Lakewood. That town is a political machine for him, they make their own rules.

    Building out of control down there, and they are starting to expand to into Toms River, Jackson and Howell. Starting to get ugly, and it will get worse.

  33. The Great Pumpkin says:

    Someone has to do something about this. Another law taken advantage by human nature. Need to get rid of tax exemptions for religions. Too many taking advantage of it in this state. Who knows how much that contributes to everyone else paying much higher taxes. Not right to let it remain intact.

    Someone said on here that they were trying to move into Saddle River at the pearson location. Use the low income housing clause, combined with religious property tax exemptions, and you have the recipe for towns being sucked dry by a specific group of citizens. Wrong in every way. Don’t even get me started on how their inbreeding requires a lot of their children to receive “special education” further sucking that town dry.

    They can do whatever they want, just don’t expect the rest of the population to pay for it. That’s wrong.

    Hughesrep says:
    December 21, 2015 at 11:02 am
    25

    Christy won’t touch Lakewood. That town is a political machine for him, they make their own rules.

    Building out of control down there, and they are starting to expand to into Toms River, Jackson and Howell. Starting to get ugly, and it will get worse.

  34. The Great Pumpkin says:

    Hoping I’m right!

    Libturd supporting the Canklephate says:
    December 21, 2015 at 10:37 am
    In other news…the pancake blaster is doing alright.

  35. D-FENS says:

    Wow dude. At least try to hide the fact that you are a rac1st anti-$emite.

    The Great Pumpkin says:
    December 21, 2015 at 11:25 am

    Wrong in every way. Don’t even get me started on how their inbreeding requires a lot of their children to receive “special education” further sucking that town dry.

  36. NJT says:

    Re: Bear trouble.

    I used to live a couple miles from where the guy had the encounter. Fished a stream there on a regular basis, year ’round (wild brook trout – catch and release flyfishing only). Lots of caves down in that gorge and many are inhabited by hibernating bruins during the winter (NJF&W knows this and used one for a survey). I was never bothered by them but then I didn’t go poking around inside those crevices.

    *I worked with the guy’s wife! Didn’t know him well except that he couldn’t hold his liquor well at weddings.

    *Until recently the Wildcat Ridge WMA (Wildlife Management Area) was the release point for ‘trouble’ bears in NJ. At one point (right before we left – late 2011) it had the highest concentration of bears in the world! Some sows had six cubs! Heh, heh, easy access to dumpsters in town and the surrounding ones. Dunkin Donuts on RT. 23 was the worst ‘enabler’. They refused to ‘bear proof’ their dumpster until NJF&W…

  37. chicagofinance says:

    BERLIN – If you’ve been wondering this morning how many testicles Adolph Hitler had, researchers can now confirm the answer: One. A medical document confirms the popular British song that says the dictator had “only got one ball.” Reuters is all over this story, reporting about a 1923 medical record when Hitler was jailed after the failed Munich beer hall putsch. It showed this nutcase suffered from “right-side cryptorchidism” -a highly technical term that means one nut didn’t drop in the sack. If this record got out, expect furor from a furious Fuhrer.

  38. Xolepa says:

    Chicago, Soviet records exposed that minor detail back in the 80s. Not news.

    D-FENS. The remark is not Antisemitic, because it’s reality, unfortunately. Many NY state education systems have the same problem. A lot in Orange County. Pumpkin should have described it differently.

    That is not my annoyance, however. My annoyance is that governments are allowed to give tax-exemption to owner-occupied residences because they also serve as ‘houses of worship’. Keep the church buildings, the church halls, the religious schools and centers tax exempt. Tax the residences and the rectories. My church is too poor to pay for housing. The priests mostly work fulltime in their respective professions. They have families and must pay taxes on the homes they reside in.

  39. Raymond Reddington formerly Phoenix says: says:

    27. And now we gleefully sell our hard assets and land to them–adults and their legacy to their children.. The total opposite of what our forefathers would have done.
    Who is the real me me me generation? Old goats who just look at their stock returns and not the damage caused by the greed.

    Ragnar says:
    December 21, 2015 at 10:13 am

    One thing I know for sure, some Chinese were celebrating in 2001. Their little wee-wees and historical backwardness gives them a big inferiority complex, so after every attack my wife tells me that a lot of her coevals in China go out for drinks to celebrate that someone “taught America a lesson” about “being a bully”. And now they post that crap on their version of Facebook.

  40. Raymond Reddington formerly Phoenix says: says:

    34 Houses of worship and taxes.
    I remember this story about a single family home turned into a house of worship. Not sure exactly how they pulled this off. Must have had the same lawyer as the affluenza guy. That town is usually very strict on it’s rules-maybe someone here with law experience could give a hint……

    http://crownheights.info/general/715/randolph-nj-jewish-center-runs-into-zoning-troubles/

  41. D-FENS says:

    NJ town takes down menorah; resident replaces it

    http://www.fox5ny.com/news/56913119-story

  42. Raymond Reddington formerly Phoenix says: says:

    redux

    Municipal Planning Director Darren Carney said Chabad had obtained the necessary variances to build a single-family residence on the property, but never advised officials that the structure would also contain a place of assembly.

    According to Carney, the builder was questioned when the plans were modified to install the kitchen on the second floor, but the township was assured the structure was only going to be used as a single family residence.

    “There are all sorts of fire code requirements that apply to a place of assembly that do not apply to a single family residence,” said Carney. “You have to have the appropriate fire walls and emergency exits. It is a matter of safety.”

    Township Manager John Lovell said on Monday that if the township had known about the intended use of the building, a fire wall would have been required between the upper floor where the rabbi and his family live and the ground-level area that serves as the chapel area and where Chabad conducts its educational programs.

    Lovell said another problem is that the approvals granted in 2004 for a single family residence included a septic system designed to serve a four-bedroom home. The type of use as a place of assembly would require a larger septic system.

    “Triggering all of this is the zoning use,” said Lovell. “While a house of worship is permitted in that zone, a minimum of five acres is normally required. It is only a one-acre lot.

  43. The Great Pumpkin says:

    Wow, that’s a lot coming from someone like you. I am not against jews, but go ahead and say it. I’m just calling it like I see. Orthodox Jewish community has major issues with inbreeding. They try to hide it and sweep it under a rug, but their community has a high rate of mentally challenged individuals, I wonder why? Go do your research and then come back to me with your same position that I’m a racist anti-$emite.

    D-FENS says:
    December 21, 2015 at 11:44 am
    Wow dude. At least try to hide the fact that you are a rac1st anti-$emite.

    The Great Pumpkin says:
    December 21, 2015 at 11:25 am

    Wrong in every way. Don’t even get me started on how their inbreeding requires a lot of their children to receive “special education” further sucking that town dry.

  44. The Great Pumpkin says:

    44- I guess if I hate jews so much, I should be attacking Bernie Sanders.

  45. NJT says:

    The management of AC Casinos are to blame for their demise.

    Do away with the coins, comps., cheap buffets, shows and smoking. Yeah, that’ll bring more high rollers in (not).

    Wife and I used to go there about once a month (during winter) from 1993 to 2006. We’re not gamblers it was just entertainment (if we lost more than $200 the first night we went home the next morning as we’d have a room).

    Last time there it was like walking through a Walmart at 2 a.m.

    *Walmart has not changed.

    *When ‘bean counters’ run a business it goes one place…into the ground.

  46. The Great Pumpkin says:

    44- What type of Jewish population do you think they are talking about? They are talking about orthodox jews. If you know anything about them, you know what I’m stating is the truth, they have major issues with inbreeding.

  47. NJT says:

    Pumps – What do you have to say about the Amish?

  48. Raymond Reddington formerly Phoenix says: says:

    They make a great shed!!!!!!

  49. The Great Pumpkin says:

    i honestly don’t know enough about them. Based on what I’ve seen and read, they are battling to stay true to their way of life with the onslaught of technology trying to work its way into their society. I have no idea about inbreeding, or the levels of mentally challenged in their population. I’m sure you could enlighten me?

    NJT says:
    December 21, 2015 at 12:51 pm
    Pumps – What do you have to say about the Amish?

  50. Pete says:

    “Orthodox Jewish community has major issues with inbreeding”

    You care to cite any objective evidence that this is true that doesn’t originate from a neo-nazi website.

  51. Nomad says:

    No chatter today about Odell Beckham Jr?

  52. Juice Box says:

    Pumps – if you go back 3 or 4 generations there was plenty of inbreeding in your family too. It has only been a luxury for the last 120 years where you did not have to marry a cousin living within a five mile radius of your ancestral home.

  53. Essex says:

    Tay–Sachs disease (also known as GM2 gangliosidosis or hexosaminidase A deficiency) is a rare autosomal recessive genetic disorder. In its most common variant (known as infantile Tay–Sachs disease), it causes a progressive deterioration of nerve cells and of mental and physical abilities that begins around 7 months of age and usually results in death by the age of four. The disease occurs when harmful quantities of cell membrane components known as gangliosides accumulate in the brain’s nerve cells, eventually leading to the premature death of the cells. A ganglioside is a form of sphingolipid, which makes Tay–Sachs disease a member of the sphingolipidoses. There is no known cure or treatment.

    The disease is named after the British ophthalmologist Waren Tay, who in 1881 first described a symptomatic red spot on the retina of the eye; and after the American neurologist Bernard Sachs of Mount Sinai Hospital, New York, who described in 1887 the cellular changes of Tay–Sachs disease and noted an increased disease prevalence in Ashkenazi Jewish people.

    Research in the late 20th century demonstrated that Tay–Sachs disease is caused by a genetic mutation in the HEXA gene on (human) chromosome 15. A large number of HEXA mutations have been discovered, and new ones are still being reported. These mutations reach significant frequencies in specific populations. French Canadians of southeastern Quebec have a carrier frequency similar to that seen in Ashkenazi Jews, but carry a different mutation. Cajuns of southern Louisiana carry the same mutation that is seen most commonly in Ashkenazi Jews. HEXA mutations are rare and are most seen in genetically isolated populations. Tay–Sachs can occur from the inheritance of either two similar, or two unrelated, causative mutations in the HEXA gene.

    As an autosomal recessive disorder, two Tay–Sachs alleles are required for an individual to exhibit symptoms of the disease. Carriers of a single Tay–Sachs allele do not exhibit symptoms of the disease but appear to be protected to some extent against tuberculosis. This accounts for the persistence of the allele in certain populations in that it confers a selective advantage—in other words, being a heterozygote is advantageous.[1]

  54. The Great Pumpkin says:

    You are not going to find citations. They try to sweep it under the rug. Anyone that has worked in these communities knows first hand that it is true.

    “Yesterday, the lawyer for Levi Aron, the man who confessed to killing and dismembering 8-year-old Hasidic boy Leiby Kletzky this past fall, stirred up controversy when he unveiled his defense strategy, blaming Aron’s alleged insanity on a childhood head injury, schizophrenia, and most contentiously, inbreeding. While lawyer Howard Greenberg was chastised by Assemblyman Dov Hikind for “degrading to our entire community,” one rabbi told the Post that inbreeding wasn’t uncommon amongst Orthodox Jews…but that still doesn’t mean they grow up to be killers: “There are thousands of [married] people in the community who are related and there’s no problem. It’s preposterous to say that because there’s a possibility of his parents being related, [Aron] would be crazy,” said Rabbi Bernard Freilich.”

    http://gothamist.com/2011/12/22/rabbi_inbreeding_happens_but_that_d.php

    Pete says:
    December 21, 2015 at 12:56 pm
    “Orthodox Jewish community has major issues with inbreeding”

    You care to cite any objective evidence that this is true that doesn’t originate from a neo-nazi website.

  55. Libturd supporting the Canklephate says:

    I like the shed line!

    If I was the mayor of Lakewood, I would have erected a mosque next to the Christmas tree.

    The good thing about inbreeding is that it reduces the prevalence of incest.

  56. Raymond Reddington formerly Phoenix says: says:

    Lets face it,
    The USA is a melting pot, but all parts of the pot never seem to get to temperature. Those parts of the mixture will remain a solid—-
    People are drawn to what they have in common, be it religion, country of origin, affluence, etc.
    Square pegs don’t fit easily into round holes, but you can jam a square peg into a trapezoid easier…..
    Sing Kumbaya all you want, it may work for some centrists but will never work for those on the fringe…..

  57. Xolepa says:

    (55) Before the H1Bs became prevalent, the old joke at IBM was:

    If you want your consulting group to be void of Asian-Indians, hire a Pakistani to be their manager.

    Personal experience rings true on that one.

  58. Splat Mofo says:

    Xolepa (25)-

    Don’t forget that Hasidics are also the masters of welfare fraud.

  59. D-FENS says:

    Atlantic City needs a Mayor Koch.

  60. The Great Pumpkin says:

    “But it’s an article from New York magazine from April about a community north of New York in Rockland County that’s the best example of the tensions involved here. Once a diverse middle-class community, Ramapo, New York has been taken over – through representation on its school board, of all things – by the growing Hasidic community there. Faced with increasing special education needs for their children (limited gene pools, remember), Haredi school board members have funneled money away from the public schools and put it towards forming yeshivas and granting more special education placements for needy students. The tensions between the secular and non-secular families living in Ramapo and its surrounding towns might make the issues between Williamsburg hipsters and Hasidic Jews look quaint, but they end up being the same problem: a group slowly takes over a neighborhood and wants it to be dictated by their way of living. The preexisting community says, “Hey, no.” ”

    http://jezebel.com/israel-looks-for-solutions-to-its-ultra-orthodox-men-pr-511873367

  61. Splat Mofo says:

    Mennonites are really stupid. I wonder if they’re inbred.

  62. Splat Mofo says:

    Anyone who lives in Ramapo deserves whatever they get.

  63. 1987 Condo says:

    Plenty available about Kyrias Joel in Orange county as well…

  64. walking bye says:

    Every bergen housewife knows -Avoid upper saddle river parks on a friday, the rampoen’s leave the place a mess.

  65. walking bye says:

    At first I thought the bear story attack was a family member as her has told me stories of doing the same thing with his kids. He even does the safety “check the cave first” before sending in the kids.

  66. Lib [31];

    In other news…the pancake blaster is doing alright.

    I could have happily gotten through my day without hearing that. TMI.

  67. Make njrereport great again says:

    More New Jerseyans are going to work than any time in our state’s history.

  68. Comrade Nom Deplume, the anon-tidote says:

    [68] make

    Must be true. My wait times at Wawa and Starbucks are down considerably

  69. leftwing says:

    CBGB at EWR….

    So much wrong with this…..but so emblematic of the times.

  70. leftwing says:

    What’s next, Limelight at Disney?

    May be hard reproducing those biology samples in the nooks and crannies upstairs…..

  71. grim says:

    Private sector?

  72. The Great Pumpkin says:

    What will be the death of jersey? An invasive parasitic community of orthodox jews that slowly sucks the life out of the towns they move into.

  73. Libturd at home says:

    “What will be the death of jersey?”

    The never ending support of Camden and Paterson and Jersey City and Newark.

  74. jcer says:

    74, Jersey City will recover, the poor will be displaced and the place will be disney land, if they are building 80 story towers in JSQ, I can’t imagine complete and total gentrification is far away.

    Pumpkin there are many types of Orthodox Jews, not all are of the nutty Hasidic and Hasidic-like cult variety. Those areas of Rockland are pretty gross, which is unfortunate as 20-25 years ago they were decent middle class areas.

    As for religious tax exemptions, if an area is used for living purposes and is not a facility for community use property tax should be paid, perhaps there can be some type of allowance for religious orders where the clergy has no income. Unless the property in question has a public use that is not for profit the tax exemption is crazy.

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