Published on
September 13, 2008 in
General.
Man, I can’t seem to find something nice t say about Hoboken lately. Today’s gripe is about the horrible state of the roads. Nearly EVERY section of town has roads that need complete repaving. And not just surface refinishing. I’m talking about the major dig up some earth, level everything, and start all over kind of repaving.
Obviously, the worst of it is were there is major construction going on – lots of development (sigh, another sore spot) in the north west section of town. I can understand and even forgive the bad conditions around there because there is much to be completed. Although, I wonder if they are ever going to finish given the sad real estate market right now. But still, I can accept the fact that construction equipment damages vehicular infrastructures and can wait for construction to finish before taking things too seriously.
But in other sections of town, there is no excuse – especially on Washington Street!. By Sky Club, if your car doesn’t have a lift suspension or can’t take a 45 degree incline like a Jeep or Hummer, you scrape the bottom of your car as you drive around it. There’s a guy/girl who owns a Ferrari in the Sky Club Garage… I don’t even know how he can get his car in the garage let alone drive around in Hoboken with it. Washington Street, while busy, is never flat. Sure, its hard to perform maintenance on it but, come on!!! It’s like driving off-road!!
I can’t wait until the city repaves everything. Until it does, I’m parking my car somewhere else. Maybe that’s the mayor’s answer to the parking problem – make the roads so piss poor that you wreck all the cars that park on the streets forcing owners to live park somewhere else.
Published on
February 11, 2008 in
General.
It’s been way too long since I’ve posted anything about Hoboken. Sorry I haven’t written much. I’ve been busy with things outside of Hoboken (gasp!).
Today’s rant is brought to you by the makers of Hoboken411. Hoboken411 is one of – if not THE premiere website for all things Hoboken. Although I haven’t met the person(s) who run the site, I get the sense that he really cares about the community – or at least enough to make a living off of it by promoting the things that go on in it or are important to it. I normally scan the articles for anything major and stay away from the comments. But that’s changed recently and I’m actually sad to report that not all Hobokenites are who I thought they were. Many (but not all) of the commenters I find on 411 are, in my opinion, not the nicest of people – some, I feel, are downright racist and bigoted.
In the article on the new NJ Transit Bridge, someone called the Newport Center Mall area Hinduport – an obvious and (I’d say) derogatory reference to the Americans of Indian decent that live there. Forgetting the fact that ethnicity had nothing to do with the conversation at all, I found this to be done in more than just bad taste. Other people made references to the people who shopped at the Mall believing they bred homelessness which would spill into our “gentrified” town. I distinctly remember seeing a comment on how this new bridge would let people from Jersey City come to Hoboken and “rob us” more easily. And while cooler heads called many of these classless people out for their appalling comments, very few did. Even more troubling is how rudely people are treated in other conversations.
In the Russo endorses Obama article, the conversation easily led to hate speak posted in the comments; it became a race to see who was the first to say something politically incorrect. And when Hoboken was in the middle of its own election fiasco, all the wild, wild, wests came out and said some heated words that were rude (at best) and derogatory, disparaging, and (perhaps) defamatory (at worst). It was clear that the commentors were engaged in an all out war.
Regardless of one political officiation, it doesn’t take much to be polite to someone who you disagree with; its called respect for one’s opinions. And for as “monied” as Hoboken can be – with its 500k to 3m condos and luxury cars everywhere – there isn’t a lot of class in this town. There is just no reason why someone has to belittle an ethnicity or bigoted in any way in a an urban environment such as this. If you don’t like your neighbors’ heritage, I’d say you’re better off moving the segregated south of 40 years ago.
That kind of hate speak is something I don’t want in Hoboken and I hope that the comments left by a few classless individuals is not indicative of the population. But there is a reason the saying “One bad apple spoils the bunch” exists…
It’s true.
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