!! Congrats!

BTW, @amywilson.bsky.social and the rest of the newsletter is great (please subscribe and support!), but the Newark Ave. misinformation that Boggiano and others put out there rankles me. 10/10

But...that will be offset directly by the assessment. It's not a 100% win for them, that is why they oppose it. IMO their behavior is self-serving and reprehensible given the minimal community investment here. 9/10

The new SID would have none of the easily identifiable value to PB. Instead it eats directly into their profitability. That is, they certainly will get an econonmic benefit in property value increases, even if tangential. 8/10

No wonder PB does not raise a stink about the 88/month sanitation service: their benefits outweight their costs significantly. I should pause here to note that PB is a MAJOR contributor of trash and clutter on the sidewalk as evidenced by SeeClickFix. 7/10

These are all BENEFITS that PB is getting a significant discount due to larger entities footing the bill via larger assessments. (For example, one tower of Journal Squared paid 36x PB in 2024, $38,351.43) 6/10

Are we to believe that assessment would break the bank of a 140 million dollar enteprise? Give me a break. So what's going on? IMO, PB's $1,061 assessment is not really a tax. It covers daily cleaning of their storefront, new plants, etc. 5/10

Well, we don't have the % that will be applied, but lets look at the existing JSQ SID asssement which should be close. In 2024, PB paid the JSQ SID $1061. That's right, $88/month. Even if you doubled the %, the new SID assesement would be 2k/year 4/10

So to be clear: "Patel Brothers" is not a savior, it is a multi-million dollar money-making machine. So what about the extra SID assessment? Surely, it must be significant if they are so vehemently opposed? Right? 3/10

It's not a franchise either,all revenue goes to the Patel family. There's nothing wrong with that, but it's important to call it like it is. They have no public revenue data, but in 2017 it was reported that they operate a "$140-million enterprise." 2/10

AND a 300 day duolingo streak…

* the ghost of Chevron deference enters the chat *

My thoughts go out to the person who had to type out these words and finalize this design. I'm searching for a hidden message calling for help.

Agreed. I think it's lockstep with JC political set working together to exert their influence as the largest municipality in HC and one of the biggest in NJ. Would love to see congestion pricing rolled out in the first 100 days.

All that being said, using SIDs like this is better than our current approach of doing nothing.