Tuesday, January 15, 2008

register to vote, yo


If you are planning on voting in the upcoming primary elections on Feb 5th - you must be a registered voter! The deadline to register is tomorrow. It's easy, just click here and scroll down to download the form - then mail it in! Simple as pie.

Monday, January 14, 2008

coming soon: the strip mall of our dreams?


No, the above pic is not the result of deforestation in the Amazon. Nor is it a used Christmas tree farm. All good guesses, but no.

This is the lot across the street (directly west) from our new Clearview Cinemas, currently slated to be built on 14th Street between Adams and Grand Streets. A year ago there had been a sign up on the chain link fence that said "Coming Soon: Retail and Parking". The land sat dorment forever, and now all of a sudden it's half covered in wood pilings! I wonder what's really going up here? Anyone have any further info? Time will tell!

Some worker bees are on site:


One seems a little deflated from the tepid real estate market as of late:


Here's the current state of our glorious Clearview Cinemas, below. This past summer it was announced that Tarragon/URSA, the Upper Grand developer who owns most of the land in the northwest redevelopment zone, was leasing this land to Clearview, which would in turn build their own 5 screen movie theater. It was slated to open Summer 2008. Something tells me this project is not on schedule. Just a hunch...

Sunday, January 13, 2008

monroe center for the arts: open studio day today!


The Monroe center is flinging open it's doors today for a free day of snooping. Want to check out some Sunday creativity? Walk on over and do a little exploring. Plus, it's free. Plus - The Cheese Store is now open on Sundays - (rejoice!) so you MUST stop in and hang out with Chung for a while - he sells the finest cheeses known to humankind, and also sandwiches and other yummy things.

Click here for more info.

P.S. The rendering above is what the owners of Monroe Center plan on turning Monroe Center into - a giant mixed use property with 30 retail shops, luxury condos, parking, studio space, etc...

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

ch-ch-ch-ch-changes


Interested in ditching work early this afternoon to enjoy happy hour with Barack Obama in Jersey City? Click here to learn more!

Monday, January 7, 2008

you live next to whaaaaa??!

HH hears a lot of talk around Hoboken about the far west side of town about how people can live so close to public housing, or on top of trains, etc. and be ok with it. On many web-sites including my own, reader comments have been quite negative about this aspect of city living (check out some comments from my Velocity Hoboken posts). I myself don't agree with such close-minded people. As I said from the beginning of our move, it's common place in Manhattan to have multi-million dollar condos right next to things like public housing, and most New Yorker's don't think twice about it. Because in reality it is no big deal. I think there's more of a stigma to this in Hoboken because many new residents of our square mile aren't coming from across the river. They're coming from suburbs farther away and are not used to this aspect of city life.

To further enhance my little Monday evening topic, please click below to read a New York Post article about recent new buildings going up smack dab next to what many people would think of as horrifying neighbors, such as prisons, garbage dumps, and porno shops. Yet there they are, selling at $2000 a square foot to live on top of the BQE, and it's no big deal:

The New York Post - Views You Could Lose