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Topics - Edwin

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That big Parking lot right next to the bowling alley and the ice rink, in between Midtown Bridge St and Salem Street Extended, how does it work?
There are non-functioning meters, but there are also signs that say "Parking for reserved monthly leasing" or something like that. Can I just park there whenever for however long I want, or what? Is every space there rented/leased out, or just the rows with the signs, because not every row has that sign.
What's the deal?

While we're at it, there's a sign around the sections of one of the brooks near the retro fitness and other places that abut that brook that says "Historic fill, shallow soils contain organic contaminants". What the hell does that mean? I'm assuming that's a notice to people excavating (contractors doing work for the town or anyone) that the area is so old that while digging you may dig up bones, even human bones, but it's centuries old and they shouldn't worry if they run into that?

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This is really for Bergen county in general. I figured some local yokels could help me.
I want to do Summer grill-outs. Ideally on the solstice, and maybe we play sports to celebrate the long day (since you'll have so much daylight to play sports in).

The only problem is most public parks don't allow you to serve booze, or so I thought! It turns out you CAN serve booze if you have a permit at the Alpine boat Basin, right near my parents house. Anybody else know more about this stuff? Do the Bergen county parks have something similar? Anybody know anything, any details?

Or anybody know a field or something privately owned I can rent for one day/evening?

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Hackensack Discussion / West African population in Hackensack/area?
« on: June 15, 2012, 01:45:29 PM »
One of my hobbies/interests is ethnic food/food from around the world. Name a region and I'll tell you what they eat and I've probably tasted it.

So of course I noticed the African/carribean market on Anderson Street. Bought some "chin chin" (never heard of it) and some palm oil, gonna fry some plantains in it eventually. I was surprised, they had everything, kenkey, instant fufu mix. Everything except for african yams, but those you can get in the anderson street grocery, the red one right near the tracks.

But I'm surprised. Hackensack has a West-African population? Or the area in general? Since when? How lond has this been going on? Are they more nigerians or ghanaians, or both? Or something else entirely? How about religion? Maybe it's one of those things it's usually one religion coming over here because back in the home country they face strife.
Is there more in the area? I'd guess the dense areas around Hackensack, like as far as Clifton. But I honestly don't know.

It just seems weird/funny/interesting to me. Growing up I'd heard of Greeks, Armenians, Iranians, Koreans, Chinese, Japanese, Italians in the area, but not Africans.
Not that I'm complaining. As far as I'm concerned immigrants are our greatest natural resource in New Jersey, because they make such varieties of tasty food.

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Stuff I've tried in Hackensack and you should too:

Been doing boxing training with Don Somerville. He teaches mornings and evenings in the Bergen PAL on Hackensack Ave. Go to him and get a killer workout. Get into it and do it regular, get the glovers and wraps and weighted jump rope and an interval timer and keep it up regular. I can post Don's number if anyone wants

Ice house hackensack. There's adult hockey leagues there. The more amateur divisions play on Sundays

Battista dance studios (Now Rogers dance studio). Go learn dancing. It's awesome. Though I actually would NOT recommend them. They focused too much on perfect form way too early before I knew any moves. Also, they're kind of expensive. Now that I'm in South Jersey weekdays I found a good dance instructor. Up here where's a good one? I don't know. But they're a convenient place for social dances to practice. Though I might not recommend that either, it was all old people. Then again, I don't know how the other posters here are. Ideally myself I'd like to find social dances in Hudson County that focus on one kind of dance. So far only found a swing social dance in Jersey City.
Married? Try dancing. Private lessons are expensive, but they cover a couple. Learn to have fun together on date nights, keep that spark alive, and avoid divorce. If you're into it, few things will keep that spark alive as well as dancing. Christ, this young couple at that swing social dance looked like they wanted to eat each other as they were dancing.

Apparently Solari's has dancing Friday and Saturday evenings. Fridays is more just a live band plays, so it may be rock and not dancin, but Saturdays is more latin stuff, so you could dance merengue, salsa, etc.
So you could eat dinner there and dance.
This I haven't actually tried yet.

Ethnic foods/exotic foods. Bangkk Garden, awesome thai place. You got ecuadorian places. In the Anderson St market you can actually get breadfruit, and mamoncillos/guinepas, and actual African yams, and other crazy produce. The other day I tried canned ackee (a Jamaican things, as is breadfruit). There's also a Filipino place, and I think another one too. One at least near Fairmount park called Tropical Hut. If not their lunch food, you'll like their desserts. Filipinos are like the kings of pastries/deserts. They have so many varieties. You could also head over to Jollibee in Bergenfield, which is a Filipino market.
Go expand your food horizons

Go out and try something new. You're being adventurous enough and not havinng enough fun and you know it.

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Hackensack Discussion / A day in Hackensack
« on: June 02, 2012, 04:21:20 PM »
So, I went to this soccer game at Johnson Park, played. Before I went, I had to pee, so I walked around to this area behind a block wall, and peed in some bushes. I didn't know what the hell this area was. It looked like some kind of shooting range. Maybe from back in the day when schools had rifle clubs/classes? Also, a couple of groundhogs live in the corner of the fence and the wall, because when I went back to take these pictures, they ran back into their holes. Anyway, this area was very pretty and nice and quiet on this gorgeous day. In the back there was trees and stuff, and some kind of tall wall built of large timbers or something. There was a nice tall willow tree.






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Events & Calendar / Pick-up Soccer Saturday's
« on: June 01, 2012, 12:44:29 PM »
9:30 AM at Johnson Park. Pick-up Soccer game. Got this from meetup.com, but I doubt actually using it to join in is a necessity (I might not even RSVP), maybe just need to pay a dollar.
I believe this may be a regular thing every Saturday. Otherwise they'll be using another field somewhere else in Bergen County.

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Hackensack Discussion / Hi everybody, moved to Hackensack
« on: February 22, 2012, 05:43:51 PM »
Hi everyone, I guess I should have posted a while ago I moved to Hackensack recently. I was living with my parents (more out of choice than necessity, I mean, they live in Alpine, my brothers are still there, and we have the cutest dog in the world, a big fluff samoyed), and this is my first place. I picked Hackensack because it's closer to the city on the train line (I like to do stuff in the city, especially produce/fruit/food shopping in the city, esp Chinatown), and I could get a 1BR cheap here, and there's a lot of stuff here, and I'm close to everything/the highways, and I like living in an urban where I can walk to places, and where everything is close. Not the greatest building, a bit dilapidated, had to fix some things, but it's cheap. I'm in the New Bridge Landing area.

It's turned out nice, there really is everything here, Battista dance studio, Bergen PAL for boxing (going to try), and the ice house. I've been thinking of joining the adult hockey league for the Spring season, very amateur, Division 8, I don't want to take anything too seriously, I've got a 9-5, just want to enjoy myself, and I've always liked Hockey, my cousins and I used to play roller hockey all the time. Anybody know people on the league?
How about a field, and soccer? Only big open field I know is Johnson Park, or FDU's facilities if that's even an option. I feel like finding a soccer league for the summer would be harder. Anybody know anyone that just plays games regular? I just moved here so I don't know a lot of people.

Some questions about the coming redevelopment - the Main Street thing. Will White Manna be torn down for that? Am I going to have to rebuild that? :-P Seriously though, I'd hate to see one of our quaint pieces of NJ history go, and I work in land development. Where does the "rehabilitation" or whatever zone stretch? I remember reading here someone wrote from Passaic st down to "The mazda dealership", but there is no Mazda Dealership AFAIK. There's a Toyota dealership on river st. Anyone have any links for this forum? Can't seem to find your guys' relevant posts on the topic

And what's going on with The Record property? What's it going to be turned into?

And since we're on an NJ-town forum, let me share a little Bergen County dream/idea I've had, maybe it could be done in one of these towns with all the urban redevelopment going on, like Hackensack, or Edgewater or Weehawken. Growing up here, enjoying the wonderful small town/ small city vibe, trying all the restaurants, the only thing better than sit-outside restaurants, where I can bring my big white teddy bear of a dog, like Angelique's in Tenafly or the restaurants in Piermont, that I would so enjoy when I eventually get married and start a family (see? I am a Jersey Boy), would be some sort of roof-top restaurant, preferably with a water view. How great would that be? Quiet (since it's on a roof), and with a view. I'd build that at cost/non-profit if I knew it could be approved.

Other than that, I guess I could share some info with you guys. I know that somewhere near Kansas street, near the large office building with the dull yellow fiberglass curtain wall (you'll see dull yellow "siding" with the spaghetti-looking fibers in it), there's a house where some guy raises chickens. I always hear chickens just over the wall of the parking lot when I go to that building, which I need to do for work sometimes.
And something else to chew on, my apartment didn't have many lights when I moved in, just the plugs for lamps, and a switch in one room controlling an outlet, with the idea being, like I said, for you to put lamps. Well I don't like lamps. Crappy low light where shadow is always an issue because the point source is low on the side of the room (ever tried to read a book like that?), plus they take up floor space and get knocked over all the time. So what I did was buy ceiling fixtures, like for a house, and sautered plugs to the wiring (don't do this obviously if you don't know this stuff well), and installed them on the ceiling with screws in the drywall, and taped extension cords going up from the plugs to plug into them, and used those plug-in dimmer switches for lamps. So now I have house-quality lighting, with dimming capability, and switches convenient at my front door. Not so aesthetic, but the quality of light and convenince is great.

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Hackensack Discussion / good/bad areas of hackensack?
« on: August 11, 2011, 10:24:25 AM »
Hi,
might be renting in Hackensack soon. Want to be within walking distance of one of the train stations. What I was wondering is what areas are "bad" or higher-crime. I know that Hackensack, being in Bergen County, doesn't have much crime to worry about at all, but I may come back by myself or with a date from NYC some night later at night like 11:00 or later from the train station. How is the Anderson Street area? Do homeless people sleep in Anderson Park? The whole area has a bit of a seedy feel to it, and there were plenty of people just loitering, then again it was like 5:00 pm, so everbody would be back from work at that time. And I thought I saw some homeless guys in Anderson Park. Would the area on Main street around New Bridge Landing be better? I don't know why, but it "looks" better? Is that even meaningful?  I mean on the one hand it's a busier street, so in theory criminals wouldn't do as much stuff there because they don't want so many eyes on them. Then again why wouldn't a residential area like Anderson st be better in that regard? Makes me wonder about the whole issue of which areas of towns actually experience more crime and don't. I don't know if I can believe the whole "look" thing. I know Prospect ave. is the nice area of town, but is it really going to have less crime when it's only a block or two away from a seedy-looking area like Anderson Street?
How about the Essex street are, up on the hill. Again, somehow because it's a busy, open street it looks less "bad".

How about the downtown Main street? Would it be dangerous one night to just walk to a restaurant and eat there and walk back, let's say 9:00-10:00 with a date?

Or have I overall just gotten too used to Northern Bergen County?

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