So sad...but oh so funny.

[jundp 191]

I would at least expect someone to know the difference between a country & a continent! But you're right, maybe that is asking too much.

You most definitely are. Africa is well known around here to be a country.

Well, South Africa....I've had students say "isn't that a continent?" At least they're trying

She's from the South, not the Midwest! And certainly stupidity is (rightly or wrongly) more a stereotype of the South than of the Midwest. Have you been to the Midwest?

I once almost moved to North Carolina

First of all, I'm such a 'city' person, and I am from NY, complete w accent.

We were being shown houses with a re agent, and I ask 'where's the nearest Catholic church?' and he's all 'end of town...but there are 5 Baptist ones on the next street if you're interested'

'Where's a good place to go out clubbing?' answer: "ATLANTA' <---#######? you have to leave the state????

and the clincher:

'Where's the nearest Jewish synagogue?' (Jews and Italians are practically the same, lol) Answer: hrmmm....like a place for that them there Jewish folk?'

what the fuque, I say! I promptly did a 'kthxbye' right then and there.

LMAO. What part of NC was this, Raleigh-Durham and Charlotte are quite metropolitan, I could totally see myself in either place.

Actually, now that I think of it, it was SOUTH Carolina. Greenville.

I had done a ton of research on the place, and on paper it didn't seem to me that it would be so backwards.

It's so sad because there are plenty of well-educated, creative, talented, thriving members of society in the south and from the south. Yet, a couple of crazy examples like these ruin it for the rest of us!

I had a professor in grad school train us to "lose the Southern" (and I went to grad school in the south) because she said that we had two strikes against us being female and Southern. No one would believe we were intelligent if we opened our mouths and out came that southern accent. Sad, but true. Mine comes back when I'm really pissed (and then I hear "uh-oh, Ms. P brought out the Southern...we're so screwed!).

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

ROFL. To be fair, though, Irvington is called the dirty irv for a reason. The entire city looks like a warzone.

You call it "the dirty irv"; I call it my future home.

This happened this afternoon. Welcome home

A 60-year-old woman on her way home from church was struck in the face by a stray bullet in Irvington yesterday, police said.

The victim was getting out of a car on Montrose Terrace when the bullet hit the left side of her face, injuring her eye, according to authorities.

"The bullet is lodged in her face," Irvington police Chief Michael Chase said. "It's not life-threatening, but the loss of the eye is serious."

...

Chase said at least two vehicles were involved in the gunplay, which occurred shortly after 2 p.m.

http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/jersey/index....xml&coll=1

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

"The loss of the eye is serious"

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

"The loss of the eye is serious"

lmao. exactly.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Number6, mawilson, Alex+R, all other tristate area residents - how is the newark light rail during business hours? I am thinking I will use that to get to USCIS ASC for FP appt, from Newark Penn to Military Park. I've never used it. Thoughts?

[Krikit 1,165]

"The loss of the eye is serious"

"...the gunplay"

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Number6, mawilson, Alex+R, all other tristate area residents - how is the newark light rail during business hours? I am thinking I will use that to get to USCIS ASC for FP appt, from Newark Penn to Military Park. I've never used it. Thoughts?

Sorry - I've never used it. I do the bus these days...

[Alex+R 0]

Sorry, no idea.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

My wifes FP appointment was yesterday (I thought it was today, good thing she reminded me day before that it's 12/18 and not 12/19) in Newark. Took the NEC to Newark Penn and then took the Newark Light Rail's Grove Street line to Military Park around 9-9:15am. It was surprisingly clean, felt very safe and was much more comfortable than walking on the icy sidewalks. The Military Park stop is a few minutes walk from the Newark ASC.

FWIW.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

This one is good.... mawilson, take a good look at this one. It's funny how they zoomed in on the stains

http://homes.realtor.com/realestate/coloni...067-1093422965/

[LaL 418]

This one is good.... mawilson, take a good look at this one. It's funny how they zoomed in on the stains

http://homes.realtor.com/realestate/coloni...067-1093422965/

lol full disclosure via piccys

I always when they put :

Year Built: 1900
Age: 107 year(s) old

I guess they *really* want a potential buyer to really know the age of the home. Thanks for the math!

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

lol full disclosure via piccys

No kidding. This will sell quickly and near asking, though. Some people love stains

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Have you seen the TV ads for the Elizabeth "Urban Regeneration program"? We cracked up at those - they carefully shoot a couple of store fronts (Gamestop, and a couple other B-list mainstream stores) and ignore the homeless guys, shambling drug addicts and the trash blowing around in the wind.

Elizabeth will be the next Hoboken. Trust me on that. A lot of very rich people want it that way and therefore it will happen.

What about Newark? Will it be the next Hoboken?

Right now I can buy a 3,000 sq ft 8 bdrm mansion in Newark for the price of a tiny studio in Manhattan.

bumping an old thread, to post this update: nj.com thinks it'll be Harrison.

The hulking factories and warehouses that once ringed Harrison's PATH station lie in ruins, a testament to a lost economy, but also an indication of the renewal to come.

Long ago nicknamed the "beehive of industry," the blue-collar Hudson County community is buzzing with talk of change.

Now instead of plant workers, Manhattan-bound commuters hustle along the sidewalks each morning. And with up to 7,000 new homes, a soccer stadium, a hotel, restaurants and stores coming in the next 15 years, many residents believe Harrison is the next boom town along the PATH line, like Hoboken and Jersey City.

"I'm hoping it will be something nice, nicer than when I grew up," 21-year-old teacher Mari Mendoza said, looking out from the train platform at the pyramids of rubble, with the Manhattan skyline at her back. "I'm picturing something like Pavonia-Newport, where they have nice buildings and park benches."

The new construction could double the densely packed, 1.3-square-mile town's population of 14,000.

"It would be good to bring some kind of renaissance to the town," said Jo-Ann Capella, who commutes by train to her job at a Manhattan bank. But she also said she was concerned it was going to "price people out."

The new homes, she added, will look "cookie-cutter."

Already, the mostly decaying industrial sector in the southwestern third of Harrison is on its way to becoming an upscale neighborhood clustered around the train station. Workers are knocking down buildings, cleaning up contaminated land and preparing to construct condominiums, rentals and storefronts.

"It's really taking a fallow site with serious environmental contamination and making it into a jewel," said Kevin Tartaglione of Advance Realty Development, which is building 1,200 residences, as well as stores and offices, just south of the PATH station, near the 25,000-seat Red Bulls stadium set to open in mid-2009.

The project, Harrison MetroCentre, is one of five redevelopments now under way. Most of the new buildings will be seven stories or less, although a few could rise 20 to 30 stories.

Developers also are building a walkway and park that stretch for two miles along the Passaic River.

Local families gather at the walkway near the 3-year-old Hampton Inn&Suites to watch fireworks at the Newark minor-league baseball stadium across the river, said Peter Higgins III, chair of the Harrison Redevelopment Agency.

The construction marks a turnaround from the economic slide that began in the 1970s after the factory whistles went silent. Back in the boom years following World War II, Harrison bustled with more than 100,000 residents and workers, Higgins said.

The town's redevelopment started to move forward in 2001, he said. But the 9/11 attacks destroyed lower Manhattan's PATH station, taking away Harrison's direct connection to the city. A temporary World Trade Center station opened in 2003.

The quick ride from Harrison to lower Manhattan will help bring in young professionals, said James Hughes, dean of the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers.

"Given the pattern of extreme housing costs in Manhattan, it puts the Harrison site in a pretty good location," he said. "Whatever they build is going to be far more affordable than New York City."

Roughly half the new residents are expected to commute by mass transit, said Richard Miller, chief executive of the Pegasus Group of Hoboken. Pegasus and Applied Development Co. are getting ready to build nearly 500 residences north of the station, with more to follow.

The train line is what makes Harrison so attractive, Miller said. The second of five stops from Newark to Manhattan, Harrison is 20 minutes from the World Trade Center and a half-hour from Herald Square.

"Tell me any other place you can do that, that's undeveloped, in the New York area," Miller said.

Harrison also is convenient to Newark's office jobs, as well as the New Jersey Performing Arts Center and the new Prudential Center, said Gregory Kowalski, executive director of the redevelopment agency.

Even the troubles in the housing and credit markets don't seem to be affecting Harrison -- at least not yet, Kowalski said.

"It may even help with rentals because people can't buy," he said.

The development plans have raised other concerns.

A husband and wife, Steve and Maria McCormick, won council seats by insisting developers who receive tax breaks should provide more parks, affordable housing and services for senior citizens.

The developers "are going to make money on this, so give us a little bit back," Steve McCormick said.

The development agreements were signed in 2000 and 2001, before the town was in a strong position to negotiate for more amenities, Kowalski said.

Maria McCormick said she worries that if Harrison doesn't spruce up the row houses and shops in the older sections of town, those sections risk becoming the "wrong side of the tracks" compared with the new construction.

That's unlikely, said Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy. Healy's city has undergone massive redevelopment since the 1980s. The new luxury high-rises on the water have helped all 240,000 city residents, including those in the older, inland homes, he said.

"Since property values have gone up all over the city, people realize their houses are worth something so they're investing in them, they're maintaining them," Healy said. "As they say, a rising tide lifts all boats."

Another flashpoint is the use of eminent domain to force out longtime property owners. Manny Amaral, the owner of a car dealership and parking lot near the PATH station, recently moved to Lyndhurst under threat of eviction.

Another landowner, Lester Entin, has challenged the Red Bulls in court, charging the new stadium will block access to his busy warehouse. The lawsuit also cites security experts who say the stadium will attract dangerously large crowds too close to a PSE&G facility. The Red Bulls declined to comment on the lawsuit.

The new homes also evoke fears about traffic tangles and parking woes. Even now, drivers fleeing gridlock on Route 280 cram the town's narrow streets.

The highway "kills the whole town," said Chris Barry, a 25-year-old recruiter who takes the train to work. If the town's population doubles, "it's going to have to become like a commuter town, where nobody has a car. It's ridiculous."

The state and Hudson County aim to add on- and off-ramps to Route 280 and improve local intersections, according to the state Department of Transportation. The proposal does not yet have all the federal funding it needs.

The aging PATH station is due for an upgrade, too. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey expects to open a new, wheelchair-accessible station with a longer platform in about four years, said Susan Bass Levin, the authority's deputy director. The work will cost about $150 million, she said.

The station also will get a 1,500-car garage, built by the Hudson County Improvement Authority.

Even before all those changes, the town is drawing in young professionals like Santosh Aithani, who takes the train to his job at a software firm in Manhattan.

"It's close to Manhattan, and it's comparatively cheaper than Wall Street or any other place," said Aithani, 28, who has lived in Harrison for a year. All the new construction, he added, "will be good. We can shop here rather than going to Manhattan."

http://www.nj.com/printer/printer.ssf?/bas....xml&coll=1