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Posts Tagged ‘Long Branch’
Monday, July 6th, 2009
For those of you who read this morning’s Asbury Park Press, I’m sure you noticed the story about Our Lady Star of the Sea Roman Catholic Church in Long Branch, Monmouth County, New Jersey. Apparently, yesterday was the first time that the Church ceased to be known as Our Lady Star of the Sea and began a new life as Christ the King Church. Actually, I’m not entirely sure about whether or not this is the first time that the Church has been called Christ the King since this story sort of fell off of my radar, but here is some more information from the Asbury Park Press:
Dozens of parishioners walked out of a Mass at the former Our Lady, Star of the Sea Roman Catholic Church on Sunday at the moment their former priest was introduced as pastor of the newly formed Christ the King church.
The parishioners, who attended St. John the Baptist church until they were locked out of the building in May because of a consolidation plan, then marched back to their former place of worship and organized a service on the sidewalk.
“They have ignored us for far too long,” said Victoria Collett, alluding to the Diocese of Trenton. She was among dozens of people who wore white T-shirts that read, “Save Our Church.”
The Diocese merged St. John the Baptist, Holy Trinity and Our Lady, Star of the Sea into Christ the King in part because of a scarcity of priests, lack of financial resources and dwindling attendance, said the Rev. Sam Sirianni, who headed a committee that studied the consolidation.
Many of the hundreds of people who attended St. John the Baptist were of Latino and Brazilian descent, Sirianni said. Many of those among the dwindling population at Our Lady, Star of the Sea were descendants of Irish immigrants from decades ago, he said.
The major gripe talked about in the story is that the parishioners of St. John the Baptist Church do not want to be a part of the newly formed Christ the King Church. As it suggests in the story, some parishioners feel as though they were not told the entire truth in terms of how the diocesan consolidation would affect their Church.
Personally, I’m sad for another reason – I’m sad to see the Our Lady Star of the Sea parish consolidated with the others. No, not for reasons of mixing cultures (which I’m in favor of here), but because my family has history at Our Lady Star of the Sea Church. My Grandmother used to go to Church there and my Great Grandfather had his funeral at that Church. Plus, I think it was a fitting name for a seaside parish – Our Lady Star of the Sea.
I’m unsure of how this particular situation will work itself out, but I do hope that – in the end – everyone remembers that they should be attending Church (whichever Church that winds up being) for the right reasons.
Posted in Local People & Politics | No Comments »
Friday, February 27th, 2009
Long Branch has a few weekly newspapers, one of which is the Atlanticville. Generally, the Atlanticville doesn’t have many interesting guest opinion editorials (unless, of course, I’m writing one). This week, though, they printed one written by James Abruzzo of DHR International’s Newark office. Some snooping over at DHR International’s website shows that Mr. Abruzzo heads up the firm’s nonprofit searches. Sounds like an interesting job.
Anyway, in his op-ed, Mr. Abruzzo makes a statement that I think bears repeating on this blog:
Contrary to its name and to what many believe, the nonprofit sector is not non businesslike; in fact, compared to government and the commercial sector, nonprofits are better managed and more efficient. Yet, by providing services that would otherwise be unaffordable in the marketplace, the sector relies on contributions and grants and it is this that makes the sector vulnerable during the financial crisis.
Bravo, Mr. Abruzzo! This is the truth, people. Nonprofts are created to fill a gap. That gap can range from a social services gap to a gap in opportunity to access certain resources or even a personal gap left in one’s family after a person passes away from a specific cause. The point is that nonprofits fill a gap that otherwise would not be filled by the government or private sector. As Mr. Abruzzo suggests, many of the services provided by nonprofits are unaffordable in the marketplace and thus the sector must rely on generosity to succeed.
Which brings me to my first point of this entry – please try to continue to send your weekly, monthly, or annual donations to your favorite charities! I’m not asking you to go out and find a new charity and start making donations to it (though if you’re in the business of donating money to new charities, let me know and I can hook you up with some good ones in Morris, Monmouth, and Mercer Counties). What I am saying, though, is that if you can afford to continue your existing donations to your favorite nonprofit organizations, please do so.
My second point in writing this entry is to reiterate a point that Mr. Abruzzo makes in his op-ed, namely that the nonprofit sector is not non businesslike. In other words, nonprofit does not mean “no profit!” In fact, nonprofit organizations have begun using the term not-for-profit instead of nonprofit to describe their business activities. The basic difference between a for-profit organization and a not-for-profit organization is that for-profit generate profits which can be distributed back to its shareholders, not-for-profits are not allowed to do this as per IRS regulations. That’s the difference in a nutshell.
Do not expect a not-for-profit company to expect not to make money on its activities. In fact, you should expect the opposite. The best not-for-profit organizations are financially healthy despite the current economy since they are built on a fiscally responsible framework made for success. I’m glad that Mr. Abruzzo kept that point in his op-ed. The world needs to know that a good not-for-profit organization should generate profits and even bank some of those profits. A good not-for-profit organization will not, however, break the law and redistribute those profits to their shareholders.
Remember this if you ever deal with a not-for-profit company!
Posted in Money, Jobs, & Finances | No Comments »
Wednesday, August 6th, 2008
Just a few minutes ago I posted a brief review of my trip to Long Beach, California. In that post you’ll see that I had a crazy time with our landing in Long Beach because an earthquake hit. Well, that doesn’t compare to the craziness I had to deal with when we landed back in Newark at the Continental terminal. Yes folks, Continental was worse to deal with than an earthquake…
The plane landed at Newark right on time at 12 midnight. From that point, I had to catch a train at 1:00am back to the Long Branch area where I live. My buddy and I grab out baggage from the carousel at about 12:30am I notice that the entire left wheel of my bag is missing PLUS the casing for the wheel is cracked and missing, too. Welcome back to New Jersey!
I dragged my bag over to the Continental Baggage Assistance area and told the woman behind the counter that my wheel was broken and it needed to be replaced or repaired. She said, “I don’t think we cover wheels.” To which I responded, “You’re covering something because I’m exhausted, tired, and I don’t want to get loud because you guys broke my bag.” The woman then waited for the manager to come out and after the manager affirmed that I was correct and Continental would repair the wheel, the woman began filling out my voucher.
Seeing that she was taking her time, I told the woman that we had a plane to catch in 15 minutes and she suggested that this process was going to take more than 15 minutes. Not too big of a problem – another train was supposedly coming at 2am. Of course this woman didn’t realize the complexity (or lack thereof) involved in her job because she was finished in 10 minutes. So my buddy and I go through the airport (me dragging my 50 pound bag) and we get to the place where you have to buy tickets for the train. After dropping $14.25 each for train tickets, we had to wait an unGodly amount of time for the AirTran system to take us from the airport to the RailLink where we could catch the 2:00am train.
At around 1:30am we finally make it to the RailLink station and before we can use our tickets to go through the little turnstyles, the woman asked us which train we were going on. I responded that we were headed for Long Branch to which she said the train already left. I told her that I knew, but we were hoping to catch the 2:00am train. At this point, the woman showed us on the train schedule that the 2:00am train only runs on Fridays and that the next train was coming at 4:45am.
For those of you that know me, you know that something clicked in my head after the woman told me this…
My buddy and I went back to the Continental counter (near 2:00am at this point) and a different woman behind the counter was complaining to no one about how tired she was. Really? She was tired? REALLY? Because I just got off a fucking plane from California where I was wedged in a seat next to some pompous prick who decided that about 15% of my seat belonged to him, found out that my bag was broken (and now it falls on ME to get it fixed), and that I missed my fucking train home because Continental broke my bag. YOU’RE FUCKING TIRED? You know what? Blow me, asshole. I’m fucking tired, not you.
The woman then says to me, “You’re still here complaining?” Being exhausted, I said to her that I now missed my train and Continental needs to find a way to get me home. She said that she didn’t have the authority to do anything about that so she told me to wait for the Manager to get back. Which I did… When the Manager came back I tried to wave him down and he walked by me. He came back a few minutes later and I tried to suggest to him that we need to talk and he didn’t even regard my presence. After about 10 minutes of him being the back room, he came out a third time at which point I said, “Hey! I was told to talk with you!” His response was nonexistent as he walked right by me without even flinching an eye.
Not wanting to act like a lunatic in the airport (those fuckers are lucky that there are extra security regulations now or I would have tackled that son of a bitch and screamed in his fucking face), my buddy and I went outside and caught a cab. After a $120 trip, we arrived at our cars at 3:00am. Fucking fantabulous.
I am in the midst of drafting a really biting e-mail to Continental asking why I should ever fly their airline again. They didn’t do a fucking thing for me and they even cost us an extra $120 to get home. How dare they!? Folks, for what it’s worth I advise you to stay away from Continental. Rude service, poor customer support representatives, and Manager who don’t give a crap about their clients.
Posted in Idiots, Morons, & Fools | 5 Comments »
Monday, July 7th, 2008
About a month and a half ago the Atlanticville (a local Long Branch-area paper) ran an article about Eatontown’s decision to file a complaint against the state regarding the latest round of COAH regulations that were issued. This type of stuff makes me bang my head against the wall and wonder why any of us pay taxes to such a ridiculous system. What’s the problem here? Well, even though it is a bit long, I’ll let the article explain:
According to a series of proposed amendments to COAH’s current round-three regulations, Eatontown’s affordable housing obligation jumped from 92 units to 447 units, Tarantolo said.
“Where are we going to build [the 447 units]?” Tarantolo asked, adding, “I have no idea.”
According to Tarantolo, COAH officials used a geographic information system (GIS) to map out the available land in the borough where affordable units can be constructed.
A GIS is a system that collects various forms of statistical data and maps it according to its geographic location.
“When they worked out the new numbers, they did it using the GIS to determine the number of acres that were still green in particular municipalities,” Tarantolo said.
“As it turns out, COAH just arbitrarily took green space and said this should be developed and some of it should be for affordable housing.
“The GIS labeled some of our parks and open space as buildable land. We suspect they made a mistake.
“The parks and open space are already registered with the state as not being able to be built,” Tarantolo said.
If COAH removes the acreage from the borough’s parks and open space from the vacant-land calculations, Eatontown will see a significant reduction in its affordable housing obligation, Tarantolo said.
Let me put that in layman’s terms for everyone out there. The state used a system that said designated “green spaces” (i.e. parks and protected wildlife area) are okay to build affordable housing units on. Are you f’ing kidding me? Someone at the state was paid to sit down and figure out a new formula for affordable housing and they produced Round Three of COAH by saying that green spaces are legit for building on? What?!
This is the kind of stuff where in ancient Rome you’d find yourself in the Colosseum with some pretty big cats. In New Jersey, though, we reward our morons by giving them taxpayer-funded raises and one of the most ridiculous publicly-financed benefits packages in the nation. Way to go, New Jersey!
Why is this so hard for people to understand? If you want to provide increased housing options for our existing residents, then you need to start redeveloping brownfields across the state. For those of you that don’t know, brownfields are former industrial lots that need serious environmental attention before they can be rebuilt. Many community based groups are doing a magnificent job of making former warehouses into usable community facilities or housing units. Just look up in Paterson where there are a growing number of housing options (yet still not enough).
As for COAH – it might be time to throw it out the window. The system is obviously broken when we are counting our preciously scarce open space in as “buildable lots.” Frankly, it’s that type of idiocy that gives this state a bad name. Fire the person that dreamed up this farce and start again. Now!
Posted in Idiots, Morons, & Fools, Local People & Politics, Sustainable Living, The State of New Jersey | 2 Comments »
Saturday, June 21st, 2008
This week’s Atlanticville ran a story talking about one of the remaining holdouts in the Long Branch Broadway Arts redevelopment project. What I found upsetting about the article (and thus my impetus to write this post) is what the Atlanticville either forgot or chose not to add in this article. From the article:
A city minister will have until July to find a new place to call home and a new building where he can practice his ministry.
State Superior Court Judge Lawrence M. Lawson denied Broadway resident Kevin Brown a stay of the city’s use of eminent domain to take the building where he lives to make way for the Broadway redevelopment project.
Brown has also been trying to establish a place of worship in the building at 162 Broadway for more than a decade. The building is owned by The Lighthouse Mission and is located in the Broadway Corridor redevelopment zone.
This little blurb provides a decent background on the situation in Long Branch. And what an outrage it seems, right? Here is a Pastor who is trying to establish a place of worship for his congregation and attem — wait. There IS a congregation that is being displaced, right? Back to the article…
Brown has been battling the city for more than 10 years to open the Lighthouse Mission Church at the Broadway location.
So there isn’t an actual mission located at this location? There isn’t an actual place of worship that is waiting to open its doors? Hmmm… When I mix that up with other information that the Asbury Park Press has run on this story and you’re talking about a different story entirely.
Instead of a Pastor, his congregation, and his mission being ousted from their only home we have a Pastor with no congregation and no mission being removed from this building. And what of this building? A recent Asbury Park Press article talked about how this building was vacant on the first floor (the proposed location of the mission) and how the Pastor lived upstairs.
Folks, there are a conglomeration of financial institutions who WANT to infuse this area of Long Branch with money, economic advancement opportunities for residents (i.e. jobs), affordable housing options, and artistic/entertainment space. And this plan has not been able to go through because of a non-existent mission and a liquor store?! This is why it takes decades for any real change to happen in our communities.
I’m as much against eminent domain as the next guy. I think it’s vulgar that in the great American political experiment we’ve allowed a pro forma increase in tax revenues to replace existing taxpayers and homeowners. We’re not supposed to operate that way in this country. Yet, this is also a country where we try to work in the best interests of each other. When an entire area is asking for redevelopment, asking for an infusion of private, non-taxpayer money, and asking for their community to get a face-lift, then we should be for that change. In other words, just as strongly as we defend our rights to own our property without eminent domain, we should be fighting just as strongly against lone holdouts in these projects who have questionable ideas on the possibility for their future development.
The Broadway Arts Center project needs to get moving and it needs to get moving immediately. I wish Godspeed to Pastor Brown in finding a place to live in this crazy market (though $450,000 will find you a great place in a nice area of Long Branch) and I admire Pastor Brown’s use of the legal system to plead his case at any and all levels of the judiciary, but now is the time to move forward.
Posted in Local People & Politics, The State of New Jersey | 13 Comments »
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