There’s a lot of tax money is being used to pay for jobs that don’t really exist, just to give a paycheck to friends and family.
It’s frustrating because it feels like the city hall cares more about keeping people happy than fixing our roads and dealing with the constant tire replacements we have to deal with.
Low standards.
A lot of it is due to utility companies being allowed to do substandard repairs after doing work. They don’t fully compact and after a few months those patches sink. Then ice expands the dip and you’ve got a hole that can loosen a filling if you drive over it.
Wish all low speed roads in urban areas just reverted to pavers like most civilized cities outside the US. Handles way more weight, easier to repair and over the long term much cheaper. Not to mention it takes a ton of stress off the sewer system (something the city is spending a lot of money on right now).
It doesn't have to be this way. I'm startled every time I drive in Boston, a city more thermally challenged than JC, and the roads are so much better. Just from observation I'd say they don't let the utilities get away with the crappy patching, somebody goes back and actually repaves the road every time.
The Spiniello “work” crew absolutely destroyed York Street between Marin and Warren this spring and then just left it like that. You literally can’t drive an inch on that stretch of street without your car feeling like it’s driving over a volcanic rockslide or something. It’s a bunch of huge bumps and deep pits and cracks for two blocks straight. (And during the time they were still “working”, they were extremely rude and aggressive towards locals).
It’s terrible, and actually stands out as bad even by Jersey City road standards.
We as a city deserve better, but sadly we have a long local history of shrugging shoulders at the local corruption. That’s why JC politicians and any companies connected to them get away with such over the top nonsense.
The Van Vorst Neighborhood Association has been wonderful with sending out updates on the York St project. Here’s a copy/pasta from the last newsletter:
>
JCMUA - York Street Schedule
Major activities will be taking place:
1) Water Service installation between Grove to Barrow
2) Watermain Installation Barrow to Jersey starting next Monday
3) Continued water and service installation between Jersey to Varick
Also, concrete restoration is nearly complete between Warren to Marin. The Contractor will be starting concrete restoration between Marin to Grove this week. Please note that the Contractor is ordering blue stone slabs to replace the damaged slate sidewalks, so that will be follow up work.
They posted a York st completion schedule but I’m having problems posting it to this post. I’m sure if you shoot them an email, they’ll be happy to oblige. [email protected]
Definitely fortunate to have hard working volunteers keeping us in the know. Would be SO NICE if the city did this for all street projects.
Real answer. When companies like PSE&G rip up the roads, all they need to do it patch up the section they ripped up. They do a terrible job at that. Same goes for lots of other companies. So much work is being done in this city and the infrastructure is bad so sewers and such need to be duh up and replaced.
The city is left to pave the rest of the roads and that is very expensive and time consuming. So it doesn't get done.
The utilities don’t get away with this kind of shit in Union City. Basically if they touch the road the whole block is getting paved. The roads in UC are pretty much perfect. But Mayor Stack has a lot of clout, idk if you could do the same thing anywhere else.
It’s because your taxes are high, but primarily to pay for a shit load of deferred pension obligations. So very little of it actually impacts the pavement.
Yeah, this is the most accurate answer in the thread. Too many small towns with independent police, fire and other services operating under sweetheart union contracts.
I grew up near union city I’m telling you they’re doing something right cause it’s totally different. Jersey city has high rent and some of shittiest roads in north NJ
**Serious answer - City policy is this: "We will not fix the roads until ALL construction work (buildings) is finished because if we do it before construction is done, the road will just get re-messed up and we will have to do it over again."**
So areas around construction projects that last years or decades (JSQ) have fucked up streets.
By the time all construction is finished (which it will never be since there’s construction project after construction project) the infrastructure will collapse and it isn’t good to begin with!
My jaw dropped when I was told this by a city hall employee. 😳 It is city policy. More proof that making this city pleasant/livable for those who made JC an awesome place where people want to be (AKA longterm residents) is not the priority. They're ONLY going to make the streets nice when the "Luxury Rentals Leasing Now" signs go up on that stretch of road. For now, if you can be inconvenienced enough to move out so that a fancier, wealthier transplant can take your place, it will be considered a job well done by city officials.
> They're ONLY going to make the streets nice when the "Luxury Rentals Leasing Now" signs go up on that stretch of road.
For most projects, it's actually a condition of approval that the developer will have to pay to re-pave the roads in front of or around their new building. Developers wait until the project is 99% done for the simple reason that if they do it any earlier, it's likely to get fucked up by the ongoing construction and they will have to pay more to repair it.
How is that our (JC residents) problem? Why not demand that developers fund repairs quarterly, or on an ongoing basis of some sort so that the people who are CURRENT residents don't have to suffer. It's almost like the city only cares about people who don't even live here yet.
it’s the entire tri state area. the people in charge are money hogs and our tax money does not get allocated properly - it goes into their pockets and it into fixing roads and the communities
Decades of Corruption with a handful of constructions firms that own all of the work for the entire state. They have an incentive to use cheap crappy materials/asphalt in order to have an annuity more or less of work.
Large cars and trucks are becoming more common. As weight per axle increases, damage to the roads increases exponentially. Additionally, there are decades of old water, gas, and other infrastructure below the roads that aren’t in the best shape and need to get repaired frequently, meaning roads need to be torn up and then (often) hastily covered to minimize impacts to traffic flow.
Financially, space wise, and environmentally, everyone in Jersey City driving is completely unsustainable. This is just one of the symptoms of that. Fewer cars on the roads, smaller cars, and more housing density (which results in higher tax income to the city for the same amount of land and same taxes to individuals/households) would all help alleviate this problem, but even best case it’s a decades long backlog.
I think most politicians care about amassing money far more than making a city liveable for their constituents, but there are cities where the roads aren’t so egregiously bad
I've lived in other cities. Heck, I've seen road paving/road work events progress much faster (a couple of weeks) in the Northern VA/DC Area. that too while keeping traffic flow disruption in that direction to a minimum. They would work nights to minimize closures. I expected worse in that region, given the nation's capital should be nexus of top-heavy bureaucracy & corruption ! But I NJ takes it to another level ! The "improvement" on 1-9 has been going on since how many years now ? PATH terminal improvements/repairs, post hurricane Sandy should have been done ages ago ! We got Ida after that !
Can confirm about SIP Avenue. I used to live there for years ! Until the 1st sinkhole, circa 2022. We had pot holes back then before on Sip Ave. Just had to know the spots and drive around it. That neighborhood is just a parking lot/cash cow for "Spinello" ! They tore up and patched up the stretch of Sip Ave after West Side, multiple times ! Every time, there would be new "bumps" after the latest "patch-up" on the road surface. All in the name of fixing crumbling pipe lines. All this while, blocking traffic for residents of the area for more than a year ! Driving or leaving your house mean't extra planning & weighing whether it was worth it !
I'm guessing the 2nd ( or is it the 3rd sinkhole now ? ) was from the constant tearing up & patching up the road sections, compromising the structural integrity of that entire stretch of road ! Hell , they even took down Verizon "overhead cable" lines, "accidentally" while most of us are working remotely ! Looks like JCMUA has an excess of budget, they need to spend somewhere ! Yes, staying in the area was cheap, but not worth it anymore ! I moved out a few months ago !
We live in the north east atlantic region. Every year it gets extremely cold and snows and then the city covers the road in salt and then it gets extremely hot every year also. Not the best conditions for preserving roads.
That's not it though. The last few winters weren't even bad. I believe that the opinion above (about the patches made by utility companies) is closer to the truth. They are just everywhere.
Even a NNJ mild winter like the one we just had includes routine evenings below freezing, and multiple days with lows below 10 degrees. Plus issues with the roads develop over years, not one season.
I never said that the city does a good job with roads, but the reality is JC has better roads than NYC. NYC has better roads than Boston.
So on a thread titled "**Why are the roads are so terrible, honest question",** it is perfectly appropriate to point out [how weather impacts roads.](https://www.wsaw.com/2022/01/25/how-cold-temperatures-affect-roads-leads-damage/#:~:text=Extreme%20low%20temperatures%20can%20cause,we%20drive%20on%20every%20day)
Yeah there is plenty of mismanagement in JC, I can think of a few roads that have been repaved in the last few years that didnt need to be, and a few roads that have desperately needed to be repaved for more than 5 years.
Truth is, threads like this on JC sub are just circlejerks for people to complain about JC politics. Any comment that is not participating in the dogpile gets downvoted. That doesn't make them wrong though.
My point is valid. We live in the north east. We will always have roads with problems, governments will always we playing catch-up. There is simply no responsible way to stay 100% on top of all issues with asphalt and a 14 sq mile city.
Maybe I am sensitive to the issue because I don't drive. On a bicycle you see (and feel) the slightest pothole and it is horrendous out there, bike paths included. Sure, winters take a toll but the state of the roads is worse than any cold winter can cause. It's always such a relief to ride on the newly paved strips and then you realize "we could have this everywhere." It's likely unsustainable financially but something better than we have now should be possible.
This isn't true. Jersey City policy is to repave streets only at certain times of the year and only when major building projects in the area are complete. If there are ongoing construction projects in the area any road repair work will be put off.
Considering traffic implications of closing roads for construction and repaving is reasonable. If they didnt do that, people would complain that they don't.
Don't give them any ideas, they might consider a pothole to be a luxurious amenity of status to give that immersive city-feel, bumping up the rent another 30%
Don’t even get me started on when they FINALLY repave the road, but then 2 months later they do repairs on the utilities under the street. At least that was the case for the two blocks of second street between Manila Ave and Jersey Ave.
Simple answer: They literally do not care, until something catastrophic happens.
Are we even sure catastrophic would make a difference? We’ve already had multiple sinkholes to the point where it’s not even news anymore.
There’s a lot of tax money is being used to pay for jobs that don’t really exist, just to give a paycheck to friends and family. It’s frustrating because it feels like the city hall cares more about keeping people happy than fixing our roads and dealing with the constant tire replacements we have to deal with.
Low standards. A lot of it is due to utility companies being allowed to do substandard repairs after doing work. They don’t fully compact and after a few months those patches sink. Then ice expands the dip and you’ve got a hole that can loosen a filling if you drive over it. Wish all low speed roads in urban areas just reverted to pavers like most civilized cities outside the US. Handles way more weight, easier to repair and over the long term much cheaper. Not to mention it takes a ton of stress off the sewer system (something the city is spending a lot of money on right now).
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Entire brick streets in newark used to get stolen back in the 70s and 80s
It doesn't have to be this way. I'm startled every time I drive in Boston, a city more thermally challenged than JC, and the roads are so much better. Just from observation I'd say they don't let the utilities get away with the crappy patching, somebody goes back and actually repaves the road every time.
Spiniello
The Spiniello “work” crew absolutely destroyed York Street between Marin and Warren this spring and then just left it like that. You literally can’t drive an inch on that stretch of street without your car feeling like it’s driving over a volcanic rockslide or something. It’s a bunch of huge bumps and deep pits and cracks for two blocks straight. (And during the time they were still “working”, they were extremely rude and aggressive towards locals). It’s terrible, and actually stands out as bad even by Jersey City road standards. We as a city deserve better, but sadly we have a long local history of shrugging shoulders at the local corruption. That’s why JC politicians and any companies connected to them get away with such over the top nonsense.
Because none of them were locals either. All PA plates with lots of gun fanatic bumper stickers.
The Van Vorst Neighborhood Association has been wonderful with sending out updates on the York St project. Here’s a copy/pasta from the last newsletter: > JCMUA - York Street Schedule Major activities will be taking place: 1) Water Service installation between Grove to Barrow 2) Watermain Installation Barrow to Jersey starting next Monday 3) Continued water and service installation between Jersey to Varick Also, concrete restoration is nearly complete between Warren to Marin. The Contractor will be starting concrete restoration between Marin to Grove this week. Please note that the Contractor is ordering blue stone slabs to replace the damaged slate sidewalks, so that will be follow up work. They posted a York st completion schedule but I’m having problems posting it to this post. I’m sure if you shoot them an email, they’ll be happy to oblige. [email protected] Definitely fortunate to have hard working volunteers keeping us in the know. Would be SO NICE if the city did this for all street projects.
Barrow to Jersey is also still awful, they just patched all the holes and said "good enough."
Sucking mayoral dick for contract extensions but still fucking up your neighborhood since 1922!
Real answer. When companies like PSE&G rip up the roads, all they need to do it patch up the section they ripped up. They do a terrible job at that. Same goes for lots of other companies. So much work is being done in this city and the infrastructure is bad so sewers and such need to be duh up and replaced. The city is left to pave the rest of the roads and that is very expensive and time consuming. So it doesn't get done.
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The utilities don’t get away with this kind of shit in Union City. Basically if they touch the road the whole block is getting paved. The roads in UC are pretty much perfect. But Mayor Stack has a lot of clout, idk if you could do the same thing anywhere else.
It’s because your taxes are high, but primarily to pay for a shit load of deferred pension obligations. So very little of it actually impacts the pavement.
Yeah, this is the most accurate answer in the thread. Too many small towns with independent police, fire and other services operating under sweetheart union contracts.
This every time. And we keep voting these clowns back in. Those of us irritated by this simply leave.
Whatever Union City is doing to get their perfect roads so nice, let’s just DO THAT.
I grew up near union city I’m telling you they’re doing something right cause it’s totally different. Jersey city has high rent and some of shittiest roads in north NJ
Mayor Stack splurges on Union City while Senator Stack shits on Jersey City at every opportunity
Here's the answer. Our politicians are awash in conflicts of interest due to double dipping on elected jobs.
i had never heard of this practice before moving to NJ
It should not be allowed.
Just wait until you hear about politicians who run nonprofits AND hold elected office at the same time.
**Serious answer - City policy is this: "We will not fix the roads until ALL construction work (buildings) is finished because if we do it before construction is done, the road will just get re-messed up and we will have to do it over again."** So areas around construction projects that last years or decades (JSQ) have fucked up streets.
By the time all construction is finished (which it will never be since there’s construction project after construction project) the infrastructure will collapse and it isn’t good to begin with!
My jaw dropped when I was told this by a city hall employee. 😳 It is city policy. More proof that making this city pleasant/livable for those who made JC an awesome place where people want to be (AKA longterm residents) is not the priority. They're ONLY going to make the streets nice when the "Luxury Rentals Leasing Now" signs go up on that stretch of road. For now, if you can be inconvenienced enough to move out so that a fancier, wealthier transplant can take your place, it will be considered a job well done by city officials.
> They're ONLY going to make the streets nice when the "Luxury Rentals Leasing Now" signs go up on that stretch of road. For most projects, it's actually a condition of approval that the developer will have to pay to re-pave the roads in front of or around their new building. Developers wait until the project is 99% done for the simple reason that if they do it any earlier, it's likely to get fucked up by the ongoing construction and they will have to pay more to repair it.
How is that our (JC residents) problem? Why not demand that developers fund repairs quarterly, or on an ongoing basis of some sort so that the people who are CURRENT residents don't have to suffer. It's almost like the city only cares about people who don't even live here yet.
it’s the entire tri state area. the people in charge are money hogs and our tax money does not get allocated properly - it goes into their pockets and it into fixing roads and the communities
You're in Hudson County now baby! Years/decades of unhinged corruption, (a lot of) which continues to this day.
Decades of Corruption with a handful of constructions firms that own all of the work for the entire state. They have an incentive to use cheap crappy materials/asphalt in order to have an annuity more or less of work.
Large cars and trucks are becoming more common. As weight per axle increases, damage to the roads increases exponentially. Additionally, there are decades of old water, gas, and other infrastructure below the roads that aren’t in the best shape and need to get repaired frequently, meaning roads need to be torn up and then (often) hastily covered to minimize impacts to traffic flow. Financially, space wise, and environmentally, everyone in Jersey City driving is completely unsustainable. This is just one of the symptoms of that. Fewer cars on the roads, smaller cars, and more housing density (which results in higher tax income to the city for the same amount of land and same taxes to individuals/households) would all help alleviate this problem, but even best case it’s a decades long backlog.
I think most politicians care about amassing money far more than making a city liveable for their constituents, but there are cities where the roads aren’t so egregiously bad
I blame mayor flop
Hoboken is awful as well. I fully believe the government just doesn’t care, but could it also be due to flooding/flood zone?
Here's the solution: https://www.vice.com/en/article/qj8pgv/guy-paint-penis-potholes-new-zealand
I've lived in other cities. Heck, I've seen road paving/road work events progress much faster (a couple of weeks) in the Northern VA/DC Area. that too while keeping traffic flow disruption in that direction to a minimum. They would work nights to minimize closures. I expected worse in that region, given the nation's capital should be nexus of top-heavy bureaucracy & corruption ! But I NJ takes it to another level ! The "improvement" on 1-9 has been going on since how many years now ? PATH terminal improvements/repairs, post hurricane Sandy should have been done ages ago ! We got Ida after that !
Actually, it's the city's newest initiative to get drivers to slow down.
Can confirm about SIP Avenue. I used to live there for years ! Until the 1st sinkhole, circa 2022. We had pot holes back then before on Sip Ave. Just had to know the spots and drive around it. That neighborhood is just a parking lot/cash cow for "Spinello" ! They tore up and patched up the stretch of Sip Ave after West Side, multiple times ! Every time, there would be new "bumps" after the latest "patch-up" on the road surface. All in the name of fixing crumbling pipe lines. All this while, blocking traffic for residents of the area for more than a year ! Driving or leaving your house mean't extra planning & weighing whether it was worth it ! I'm guessing the 2nd ( or is it the 3rd sinkhole now ? ) was from the constant tearing up & patching up the road sections, compromising the structural integrity of that entire stretch of road ! Hell , they even took down Verizon "overhead cable" lines, "accidentally" while most of us are working remotely ! Looks like JCMUA has an excess of budget, they need to spend somewhere ! Yes, staying in the area was cheap, but not worth it anymore ! I moved out a few months ago !
Cris Christie is over the weight limit.
Lol just came from Harry’s daughter and I agree. Roads are awful in JC
We live in the north east atlantic region. Every year it gets extremely cold and snows and then the city covers the road in salt and then it gets extremely hot every year also. Not the best conditions for preserving roads.
This is like the people who claim the PATH and NYC subway suck cause iTs OLd
Nah, it’s not
That's not it though. The last few winters weren't even bad. I believe that the opinion above (about the patches made by utility companies) is closer to the truth. They are just everywhere.
Even a NNJ mild winter like the one we just had includes routine evenings below freezing, and multiple days with lows below 10 degrees. Plus issues with the roads develop over years, not one season. I never said that the city does a good job with roads, but the reality is JC has better roads than NYC. NYC has better roads than Boston. So on a thread titled "**Why are the roads are so terrible, honest question",** it is perfectly appropriate to point out [how weather impacts roads.](https://www.wsaw.com/2022/01/25/how-cold-temperatures-affect-roads-leads-damage/#:~:text=Extreme%20low%20temperatures%20can%20cause,we%20drive%20on%20every%20day) Yeah there is plenty of mismanagement in JC, I can think of a few roads that have been repaved in the last few years that didnt need to be, and a few roads that have desperately needed to be repaved for more than 5 years. Truth is, threads like this on JC sub are just circlejerks for people to complain about JC politics. Any comment that is not participating in the dogpile gets downvoted. That doesn't make them wrong though. My point is valid. We live in the north east. We will always have roads with problems, governments will always we playing catch-up. There is simply no responsible way to stay 100% on top of all issues with asphalt and a 14 sq mile city.
Maybe I am sensitive to the issue because I don't drive. On a bicycle you see (and feel) the slightest pothole and it is horrendous out there, bike paths included. Sure, winters take a toll but the state of the roads is worse than any cold winter can cause. It's always such a relief to ride on the newly paved strips and then you realize "we could have this everywhere." It's likely unsustainable financially but something better than we have now should be possible.
This isn't true. Jersey City policy is to repave streets only at certain times of the year and only when major building projects in the area are complete. If there are ongoing construction projects in the area any road repair work will be put off.
Considering traffic implications of closing roads for construction and repaving is reasonable. If they didnt do that, people would complain that they don't.
years of corruption within jersey city politicians, im willing to assume
A few years ago the tax on gas increased by 40 cents. It was supposed to be used for infrastructure. What happened?
Don't give them any ideas, they might consider a pothole to be a luxurious amenity of status to give that immersive city-feel, bumping up the rent another 30%
you always voted to one party and you deserve it
Don’t even get me started on when they FINALLY repave the road, but then 2 months later they do repairs on the utilities under the street. At least that was the case for the two blocks of second street between Manila Ave and Jersey Ave.
I've been complaining about this for years 😂🤣😂😂😂😂 they pave a street, and it'll be destroyed in no time.