I don't want to see NYC from Downtown Newark. I want to see Newark, period. LOL😂

At one time Fort Lee was the motion picture capital of the US

I’m going to assume that you mean that the Newark Liberty stop should be made accessible from its neighborhood, instead of being only accessible as a transfer point from trains on the NEC. I couldn’t agree more but also think this should’ve been built as a normal rail stop

It means it all gets moved to New Brunswick eventually. The design literally sucks. They should restore the original Street grid and do away with the super block north of the hospital.....where the 50 year old "temporary" buildings stand

Yes, Edgewater area I think

Wasn’t NJ the First “Hollywood” to begin with?

You know I think we actually see eye to eye on most things, I basically agree 100% with all your proposals here. Housing first is the only way we're going to solve the homelessness problem, and while it's the official stance of the administration, it feels like progress is painfully slow. And seriously, hmu if you ever start a petition or something for turning ferry into a pedestrian only, that'd be the dream.

Unfortunately though, most projects require significant amounts of money, money that Newark scarcely has. Looking at schools for example, something like 80-90% of the funding comes not from Newark's property taxes, but from state and federal funding. Beyond fighting for more support from the state and federal government (which we should continue to do), that leaves the other group who controls massive amounts of capital: big businesses, as well as the more affluent crowd that will live in many of the new apartments. Big transformations will require large amounts of money. The best way forward is harnessing the resources of those forces, and using it to improve the city as much as possible, while making sure current residents get to enjoy the benefits without getting displaced. Imo better to focus on further tenant protections and getting close to real affordable housing for all than cutting off the big spigot of private capital.

Beth looks very nice

Yep so our state government should encourage Amtrak or NJT to open Newark airport station to the public if this thing gets built, and we need more housing in the area too. I imagine a lot of people will be moving to Newark once this thing is built. Imagine famous actors owning an apartment in Newark

Love it!!!

I think the city has spent too much time trying to change the demographics within the city by building new housing and getting large companies to move 2 towns over for a huge tax break. None of this actually helps Newark residents since those tax breaks come at the expense of our ability to pay for public education and those companies are bringing their workforce with them.

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Investing in the people currently in the city is how I think that they should spend their energy. What doe this mean... Firstly, a housing first agenda. There is zero reason we should have homeless people when we have the ability to solve the problem morally. There are solutions to "solve" the homeless "problem" by just moving homeless people out of the city. This is morally wrong and doesn't solve the problem. Give them homes, no questions asked.

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Second is to increase social services for everyone in the city. This includes people in the housing first program as just getting housing isn't the end solution for the problems some people face. Drug addiction, PTSD and other mental health issues, lack of training, etc. These are all problems the city can solve while transforming the once homeless population into members of the workforce.

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Thirdly, reinvestment in education. A lot of buildings have tax abatements which eats directly into our education funds. I know teachers/principals from multiple places in the state and can confidently say the problems Newark teachers face in the classroom can be resolved with simple things like free school lunches, after school programs, and mental health services in school.

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I won't keep going but there is a lot more. Electrifying and sprucing up our public transportation, creating more green spaces like parks, adding tree cover to our city streets so they're more walkable, transforming driving streets into walking only sections (like Ferry St. or Halsey St.), or even opening up community gardens so we have fresh fruit and vegetables available in grocery stores all over the city and not just at Whole Foods... There is A LOT that can be done that doesn't involve building another residential tower to bring in more people from outside of Newark. That's just an attempt to "solve" the problem by displacing the current residents (pricing them out). It is the same effect as moving the homeless population out of your city to say you solved the problem.

I might! I'll reach out later if that's ok.

>Did you know that NYC also has more empty housing than homelessness? Most vacancies are not just empty, ready to move in apartments, that aren't on the market.

>none of the affordable units that will be going to are 2 bedrooms. Families don’t need affordable housing?

I agree, that's not ideal. But imo there's value in not letting perfect be the enemy of good.

>Almost like continuing to develop new rentals for the sole purpose of making more money for the developer

The result is not just the developer making money. It's also providing a place to live for over 500 people. Unfortunately, very little happens in the world without a company making money along the way.

>And as a city government, this isn’t where we need to focus our energy.

You seem really passionate about this subject, genuinely curious, in your opinikn where should the city government focus its energy?

Did you know that NYC also has more empty housing than homelessness? Did you know that the majority of high end housing in NYC at the top of skyscrapers are empty and still on the market?

Almost like continuing to develop new rentals for the sole purpose of making more money for the developer isn’t actually a solution to anything the city needs.

Also - none of the affordable units that will be going to are 2 bedrooms. Families don’t need affordable housing? The developer included the absolute minimum affordable housing because this project isn’t designed to help Newark - it’s designed to turn a profit as quickly as possible. I’m not mad at the developer for this - it isn’t their job to use their money to fix Newarks problems. But we’re talking about the city government approval boards here. And as a city government, this isn’t where we need to focus our energy.

ESPECIALLY if there is ANY kind of tax incentive. We need to stop leveraging our education fund in Newark for the sake of more developments. (Education being funded with property taxes).

Theyre trying to merge the medical schools now. Unclear what that would mean for us here.

Beth Israel’s hospital upgrade looks nice too. They do this then I might not trip bout dying at either location 😂

Those people still deserve homes.

Bare minimum is still nearly 70 new units of affordable housing. And while they could still be more affordable, it's still something.

The issue is that prices everywhere have skyrocketed over the past 15 years. But NYC has not kept up its housing supply, and so its unfilled demand is overflowing into JC and then into here. That doesn't have to be a bad thing either, walking through the city past by the empty lots and boarded-up buildings it's obvious it's still not nearly full. There's plenty of room for old and new Newarker's to live here.

Think you might also enjoy this video on vacancies in the U.S: https://youtu.be/3xZXdXxYBGU

I have footage on my IG and tiktok pages.

NJ only has kne public hospital, its in Newark. UMDNJ is literally used as practice for their med students.

I don't know man.

Some people go their whole lives while living off the system and don't aspire to be more than that.

They are just used to it.

Interesting about Hochul, I'll need to read up more. A similar law died in committee in NJ that would allow 50%+vacant office and commercial complexes to be converted to multifamily. Nevertheless, NY is decades late to the party.

I'm certainly a fan of Fulop and he's done great work over there. My understanding is that much of the development has been via redevelopment (i.e. through the Local Housing and Redevelopment Law), which is a distinct statute from the Municipal Land Use Law that typical zoning operates under. The redevelopment law gives the City much more power over what is developed in areas deemed "in need of redevelopment," and can include an affordable-housing set-aside.

That said, JC was late to the main component through which all NJ towns require affordable housing: adopting a city-wide set-aside ordinance where any new development with 5+ residential units must set aside a portion as deed-restricted affordable (often 15% or 20%). I was at an industry event 2 summers ago, and the hosts work closely with Elliot Spitzer (infamous former NYC mayor and real estate developer). He gave the key-note address and explicitly said he prefers working in JC over NYC because JC doesn't require him to allocate for affordable housing.

Regarding the pricing, it's an imperfect indicator that shows both good and bad outcomes. The blend of pandemic migrations, changing preferences, taxes and fees, construction costs, and the intended market for the housing stock all have an effect, among many other things.

The Planning Board really does not have a legal basis on which to deny the application, especially if the applicant can deal with the variances for street trees and sidewalk lighting. That said, I'm not as versed in historic preservation law, so I don't know if / how the HPC denial impacts the PB review. I assume Newark's HPC is a "regulatory" HPC, not just advisory, and therefore would likely have the power to block or delay the approval, depending on local ordinance.

Lol cause yeah they can't use the millions they have pouring in every year to upgrade and build on their campuses. Has to have a grant or state funds involved.

Yes! Thanks for doing this. I do not have a mind for these sorts of important details.