mikevago

mikevago t1_jdd3rw0 wrote

It was a hugely influential show, but the quality from episode to episode could be uneven compared to the contemporary shows they influenced. (For starters, they had to come up with 26 episodes a year instead of 10-12). And it absolutely drops off after Duchovny leaves. There are a few good episodes here and there, but you're well within your rights to stop watching then.

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mikevago t1_jdcneoy wrote

First off, you can't move to Little India and complain about the Indian restaurants. Which are great, btw.

Second, crime's not terrible anywhere, but the rule of thumb is, the closer you are to either river, the safer it gets. Greenville, the southernmost neighborhood in JC, is the poorest and therefore the least safe, but like the rest of JC, it's getting gentrified pretty quickly.

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mikevago t1_jdcjy7y wrote

It's absolutely political. The billionaire behind this astroturf campaign is trying to change the law so that private entities can develop public land. And he's trying to destroy the Caven Point nature preserve, (which apart from being a crucial wildlife habitat, is a beautiful spot that belongs to everyone), so he can wall it off for his millionaires-only country club.

Every part of that is political. It's 100% political down to the bedrock. And when you support the deeply shitty politics of a billionaire who wants to destroy a nature preserve and take away public land to make a greasy buck off of it, you absolutely deserve a backlash. Because you took a political stance on behalf of a deeply dishonest cause, and now you're being dishonest on top of that by claiming it's not political.

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mikevago t1_jd01iij wrote

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mikevago t1_jcnk6rr wrote

Ironically, the state budget cuts helped TECCS financially, because it was the state that was short-changing them. (There were several funding loopholes they were on the wrong side of — schools founded after 2007 got less money, charters got less money, there was a third thing I can't remember.) When the city passed the commuter tax, the charters actually got their fair share.

But there's a minimum per-student funding in New Jersey that, by law, every school has to get, and for several years TECCS was operating at 2/3 of that minimum. It's a goddamn miracle that school is as good as it is.

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mikevago t1_jcnjvrk wrote

No, there is always a lottery, in every instance. We came to TECCS in the second year it was a school and they ended up going through the whole waiting list to fill their spots, but they still started with a lottery. There is never not a lottery. I beg you, do literally any research into how our charter schools work before you try writing about them.

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mikevago t1_jcmlx1u wrote

I'll just echo what everyone else is saying: charter schools in Jersey City are by lottery and therefore aren't more selective. So are you being disingenuous? Or do you just not know the basic facts of what you're reporting on?

I do have two kids who went to a K-8 charter (TECCS), and I can't imagine the tests were administered any differently, but the kids did get a lot of support, despite the school's criminal lack of funding in its early years. Smaller class sizes meant they got a bit more attention, and the faculty and staff really took the "community" in the name seriously. I always felt like the people there were invested in my kids and wanted them to do well.

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mikevago OP t1_jckwdxk wrote

The DEP has their own plan in place for more active recreation in the park, but it's not paid venues and doesn't involve filling up every bit of open space like the billionaire's plan.

Not that I expected that plan to ever be enacted — it's a trojan horse so Fireman can bulldoze the Caven Point nature preserve to expand his millionaires-only golf course. It's what he's been after for years, and he's run one astroturf campaign after another to try and open up the park to development.

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mikevago OP t1_jck5rnn wrote

Since the article is paywalled, I"ll also share this post from Friends of Liberty State Park:

Thanks DEP Commissioner Shawn LaTourette for powerfully rejecting billionaire Paul Fireman's LSP commercial venues plans! "Visions of a 5,000-seat sports arena, gone. Thoughts of a 7,000-seat concert venue, also gone. "The head of the DEP laid out general plans for the revitalization of LSP Thursday, but he was specific in saying there would be no major commercialization or privatization of the state park on the Hudson River waterfront".

“Privatization of a public asset that is owned by no one because it belongs to everyone is not a thing, period, full stop,” said DEP Commissioner Shawn LaTourette.

But we must stay involved as billionaire Paul Fireman's front groups are still pushing lies about the interior 165 acres of spectacular diverse habitats and paths, and pretending that the DEP isn't going to add 61 acres of active recreation to LSP

Please attend to support the Thursday March 23 DEP Open House from 6:30 to 8pm at the Terminal with poster exhibits of the amazing urban nature plans and improvement concepts for LSP and with DEP staff there to answer questions and receive any comments. It's an information session and not a public hearing.

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mikevago t1_jc25ick wrote

If anyone's talking about Social Security failing, it's because they want to shake confidence in the system so they can carve it up somehow. The Social Security trust fund is one of the biggest piles of money on Earth, so a lot of Republicans look at it the way Wile E. Coyote looks at the Road Runner.

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mikevago t1_jbp5grm wrote

I'm getting YouTube ads from Liberty State Park For Paul. He's really going all-in this time around. I wonder how much money this is all costing him. At a certain point, it's going to be cheaper to buy Port Liberté and tear that down instead of the nature preserve.

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mikevago t1_jbasgsb wrote

Going through college admissions with my older son now, and honestly it's so much easier than trying to get into a high school here. You have so many more options, the admissions departments are so much more organized, and if your kid isn't locked into one subject, colleges actually let you switch majors, unlike the county schools.

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mikevago t1_jb8frtw wrote

Cutting beef out of your diet is the single best thing you can do for the environment. Not only are cows a big direct contributor to climate change (largely through farting out methane at an alarming rate), the biggest driver of deforestation is grazing land (that's where most of the damage to the Amazon has come from), and cows use a disproporationate amount of fresh water, between the animals themselves, and all the grain they eat.

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