Reply With QuoteI'm feeling too lazy right now to look up the post, but several months ago I found that Boraie's Rector Street development was listed on bidclerk with a construction start of August 2012...
It'd be one thing if they were all similar markets. But comparing NYC/JC to Newark you may as well be comparing NYC to Anchorage.Originally Posted by Newarkguy
I'm feeling too lazy right now to look up the post, but several months ago I found that Boraie's Rector Street development was listed on bidclerk with a construction start of August 2012...
Today i will do my Downtown Newark / University Heights or The Ironbound tour...I will document all the construction projects....and a few other things like the LRT.
I'm not opposed to increased rail thoughout New Jersey. That's probably a good idea as well but it's a false choice to assume NJ can't do both rail to and from NYC as well as increase capacity and service on the other lines.
Union and Essex counties will never consolidate. It took 50 years and several different referendums to get the Princetons to merge and people can barely tell when they're in one versus the other. Merging those counties would also have major political ramifications and I just don't see it happening. I'm generally in favor of more local government mergers in Jersey and would like to see us go down to half the number of municipalities we have today and most services either assumed by the county or municipality. Too often it seems there are duplication efforts. So, good idea but keep dreaming.
No city in NJ is going to be truly competitive with NYC. NYC is the largest city in the nation and nearly has as many people as our entire state. To our south is Philadelphia. This is the reality NJ must live in. Hudson County and Newark should orient as satellites to Manhattan the way the outer boroughs do. We can compete with Brooklyn for jobs and take residents away from Manhattan but only if we offer competitive amenities and housing. Manhattan is the economic core for the region comprised of New York City, Long Island, Southwest Connecticut, Rockland and Westchester counties, and North Jersey.
The "worst state for business" thing is absolute bullshit. You're pulling that from the Tax Foundation which only looks at the tax environment when determining whether a state is good for business or not. By their own measures, the best states for business in the US are Wyoming and South Dakota. Do you want New Jersey to be Wyoming or South Dakota? New York and New Jersey rank 49th and 50th by their measure. Neither Wyoming or South Dakota have any Fortune 500 companies. New York and New Jersey have 57 and 20 respectively. I suppose the 500 biggest companies in the country don't know which states are best for business.....
NJ Transit will have access to the new tunnel. It will allow for an increase of 13 trains per hour. I believe, though I would have to look it up to confirm, that ARC would have allowed for 28 additional trains per hour. Gateway is not a replacement for ARC as much as it is a speed up of a project that was always planned to occur in addition to ARC. Relieving congestion on the Northeast corridor will increase speeds and reduce travel time from Boston to DC. It's in the Northeast Region's best interest to do so.
I would argue that NYC to JC or Newark is the wrong comparison but not too far off. JC and Newark can compete with Brooklyn. There are parts of Brooklyn that are farther by rail from Manhattan than Newark via the PATH. The first wave of gentrifiers in Brooklyn were people that couldn't afford Manhattan and that's what happened in Hoboken and downtown Jersey City. It'll continue to spread if the Manhattan economy continues to attract people.
Except there's very limited room around Penn Station to be developed. It's not the case further out, but you would have to either walk for 10-minutes or take a bus/light rail to Penn than transfer. And while the PATH takes 22 minutes to get downtown it takes about 40 minutes to get to Herald Square.
Penn Station to Penn Station is 20 minutes though a little pricey considering you can do the PATH and pay $2 instead of $5. A 10 minute walk to a train station is fine. I believe the walking distance for good transit oriented development is a 15 minute walk or 1 mile. Anything beyond that and it's not really "transit oriented" anymore.
I don't think downtown Newark will look like downtown Jersey City in 5 years but probably 15.
I don't think downtown Newark will ever look like downtown JC, but not in the sense that downtown JC is 'better off'. More in the sense that Newark's downtown will be developed along its own lines.
If you think about it, JC downtown and Newark downtown are really nothing alike. JC downtown shifted to the water front over time, whereas Newark downtown only shifted to Penn Station so it's more cored.
As far as development, JC will usually get the commuter nod b/c of its much closer proximity to Manhattan. JC is more directly affected w/ NY real estate than is Newark. That's why the comparisons don't make much sense to me in the long run.
Newark should at least match Boston in size. I won't hold my breath as far as consolidation goes. NJ put the final nail iin its cities coffins ,as far as annexation goes, when it passed laws in 1912 giving all municipalities the same powers to collect taxes,police,fire, schools. Thus, eliminating the need to join other municipalities. Over time, the towns started calling this "home rule" because it sounds catchy to residents protective about their communities, plus is a good description for the status quo.
@66Nexus. If downtown Newark never looks like Jersey City's (I assume you mean we'll never have the skyscrapers) how in the world will it remain Nj's largest city?
Annexation is impossible/reunification of Essex is impossible.
No residential highrises in decades, while JC is manhattanizing. JC's Towering Residential buildings will help it overtake Newark,with its Bayonne boxes.
Newark has a serious problem developing.
Last edited by Newarkguy; April 11th, 2012 at 08:13 PM.
hopefully the two Princetons merging will allow us to see the benefits of municipal annexation, and there are many!
It'd be more difficult to do in Newark. But I feel that Newark, Irvington, East Orange, Orange, Belleville, Nutley and Bloomfield should definitley merge. I'd even go as far to say Glen Ridge, Montclair and West and South Orange too, but that'd be even harder. I understand people's fears of creating a "super ghetto" by merging East Orange/Irvington/Newark, but my feeling is that part of that areas problem is that there are three borders in close proximity and 3 police departments, creating buffer zones for crime and a lack of accountability among each police department.
Jersey City on the other hand, really ought to merge with its neighbors ASAP. Hoboken, Union City, Weehawken, Guttenberg, West New York, why are these even municipalities? They barely even seem like complete neighborhoods on their own. If all these micro cities merged with Jersey City, then perhaps even North Bergen could eventually become part of JC proper as well. I'd suggest leaving Bayonne and Secaucus to themselves however.
It boggles my mind how our cities lack geographic area. Hackensack has South Hackensack, and South Hackensack itself is one town with 3 unconntected sections??? How does that happen?
Why not combine Hackensack with the small towns to its West and South? Why is there an Englewood and then an Englewood Cliffs? Why is Passaic surrounded entirely by Clifton and not the same municipality? Why not merge Fort Lee/Cliffside Park/Palisades Park/Edgewater/Fairview? They're all tiny as can be and very densely populated/developed....
Last edited by brunfuss; April 11th, 2012 at 08:38 PM.
I certainly didn't mean the skyscrapers. But to touch base on your other question: Newark was already near half a million at one point w/o any skyscrapers, and yet still has the infrastructure to support that size.
JC does have some handsome towers on the water, but is still itself a ways off from full Manhattanization.
Or even Miami (~35.7 sq mi land). Newark's ~24 sq mi is 'workable' only b/c it's not at the burgeoning population levels seen in the 40s 50s.
Doesn't this have something to do with how NJ was originally set up with boroughs?
NJ began as 2 colonies,east and west Jersey. They were divided by a northeast to southeast line ,today's Burlington/Ocean county boundary runs.
Mercer county interrups the line, but somerset county continues it.
They had two governors(gov. Berkely and Gov. Carteret) they joined to form today's New Jersey to avoid being swallowed by The Pennsylvania and New York colonies.
Fast forward, the new state of New Jersey,inhabited by people who made their living in NYC and philly,passed unusual laws to avoid a major city springing up in their "bedroom garden state"
Unlike other states, where political power was appointed by population,NJ appointed representation to landowners! Since NJ at the time was mostly farmland and forests, the Townships by having more open land, had more power in Trenton than the cities. One farmer in mercer county with his huge ranch, counted as much as an entire Newark neighborhood,in political power!!
The most popular municipal corporation in NJ is the "Township" followed by "cities". Boroughs are rare outside of Bergen county, but Essex has the boros of Glenn Ridge,Caldwell,Essex Fells.Huson county has "East Newark.
Posting Permissions
Bookmarks