City Belt

INSIDE GOV. CORZINE'S BUDGET PROPOSAL

Guest Viewpoint
By Jon Shure

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Imagine your doctor saying you’re very sick. You need big changes in the way you live and serious medical procedures or you might not make it.

After hearing some potential courses of treatment outlined, you absorb the news and say, “OK doc, what’s next?”

And your physician replies, “I’ll get back to you.”

Governor Corzine’s budget address was a little like that.

RIDING WHILE IRANIAN

My profiling experience on the PATH
By Roozbeh Shirazi

As always, City Belt welcomes commentaries from our readers. Got a story to tell? E-mail info@citybelt.org

I went out with my girlfriend a few nights ago to have a long a leisurely dinner with two of our friends in the Village. We met up with them a little late, but there were no hard feelings; despite the delay, we were in high sprits and happy to see each other. We asked each other how we had been, got caught up on the details of mutual friends' lives, and told a few satisfying stories over some good Japanese food and beer.

After dinner, we walked with them to the West 4th Street stop hugged and kissed our goodbyes, and walked up two blocks to the PATH station at 9th St. and 6th Ave. As we had inadvertently learned on our inbound journey, the PATH train was running on a holiday schedule because of President's Day, so we got settled in for a longer than normal wait.

We did not have to wait long; a few minutes later, the train arrived, sporting the two-tone blue and orange headlights signifying that it would stop in Hoboken that night as well, before continuing on to Journal Square to start its return to New York. We would be home in 20 minutes, not too bad as far as our trip was concerned -- but still too late to catch the beginning of a show we wanted to see that started at 9 pm.

BUT I DIGEST ... SO YOU THINK YOU KNOW FOOD?

Here’s a chance to prove it (and win a prize too!)
By Kimberly Kaye

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Though I’m sure all of you are waiting with bated breath for another installment of the North Jersey Vietnamese Showdown, even I can only read about summer rolls and beef soup so many times in a row before I completely shut down and nuke a package of Easy-Mac’n’Cheez in retaliation. So I’d like to offer a bit of an intermission this week - call this the sorbet palate cleanser in between courses – before we proceed on to crown our champion.

I recently came across a phenomenally amusing (and yes, even educational) article in the January 1935 issue of Vanity Fair.  Penned by Elizabeth D. Hart, it is a simple quiz for housewives and distinguished gentlemen alike entitled "How much do you know about food?" A combination of (now) outdated food statistics, tasting trivia and culinary history, the lengthy quiz demands something of its readers that the restaurant industry rarely requires of many “foodies” now – know your addiction, and know it well.

PHOTO OF THE WEEK: SNOW

This photo was taken at Van Vorst Park in Jersey City by Flickr's Lugo Lounge.

To be featured as Photo of the Week, tag your Flickr photos with CityBelt -- or you can just e-mail them to us.

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MEDIA MASSAGE: THE WEEK IN MORONIC PRESS ABOUT NJ

Special Jersey City Edition
By Jon Whiten

Last week, I was in Washington, D.C., out to dinner with a friend and his co-worker. We were chit-chatting, talking weather, etc. You may recall there was a snowstorm. Indeed. Well, as they are wont to do, the DC-ites were complaining about not-all-that-Arctic temps and just generally being mezmerized by winter weather. At some point, I said something to the effect of: "You guys don't have it that bad. It's much worse in Jersey." To which the co-worker of said friend replied: "I think everything's much worse in Jersey, isn't it?"

POEM: LITTLE-SKY COUNTRY

I live in the little-sky country,
where buildings shadow the setting moon,
and Orion spends his nightly frolics
skipping behind trees, bushes,
and the house next door.

We see him only dimly
through second-hand mall-lights
reflecting off organic clouds
excreted by the makers of wonder drugs
to cure the cancers
that fill this land.

Yet on a winter morn,
fetching the daily news
from snow drifts,
a glimpse of Vega or Mercury
brings scintillating tears
of nostalgic love
above my desiccated nostrils
and pluming breath.

-- Sam Friedman

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THE AGENDA: EXECUTIVE ORDER

For full calendar listings, check The Agenda. To have your event listed, please e-mail the editors.

FRIDAY | 2.23.07

Concert. New Brunswick: Sometimes it seems like the Screaming Females play every other week, but they're always worth checking out. Tonight they play an all-ages basement show at the Parlor in New Brunswick, with We Are The Seahorses, Real Life Time Machines, and Zebu. All starts at 6 pm.

Film. New Brunswick: Sure, there have been a rash of Iraq films in the past year or two, and they're all worth checking out -- but When I Came Home takes a really interesting and original angle on the Iraq Vet experience -- director Dan Lohaus examines the phenomenon of the homeless veteran, an oft-overlooked aspect of these "disposable heroes." Lohaus will be on-hand tonight at the New Jersey Film Festival to discuss the film at the 7 pm screening. 

CIVIL UNIONS: ANOTHER STEP TOWARDS MARRIAGE EQUALITY

Jersey City’s civil unions rally is a tempered celebration, but a celebration nonetheless.
By Lani Buess

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A little before 7 pm on Feb. 19, the sign at Jersey City’s City Hall reads: “Civil Union Rally, Second Floor.”

“I’m so nervous,” one woman says to her female partner, as they join the droves of coupled women and men hurrying up the stairs.

“Excuse me,” I ask, “are you here to file for your civil union license?”

“No,” she quips, pointing to her girlfriend. “She won’t let me.”

Even those couples not taking advantage of their newfound right knew the significance of the evening. When Gov. Jon Corzine signed the civil union bill into law 60 days ago, he made New Jersey the third state in the nation, after Vermont and Connecticut, to allow civil unions. The license offers a couple the legal benefits of marriage in the state, but not the title or federal benefits. Massachusetts is the only state to permit same-sex marriage. Many other countries, particularly in Europe, allow same-sex marriage as well.

REFORMING SCHOOL AID FORMULA WILL WAIT YET ANOTHER YEAR

ShapTalk: Guest Commentary
By Michael M. Shapiro

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More than half of New Jersey’s property taxes are used to finance public schools. For the past seven months, Governor Corzine and the State Legislature have attempted to reform the school aid formula that determines the amount of state funding each school district receives. For many years, the aid has disproportionately gone to underperforming urban school districts while suburban and rural districts receive little in the way of funding.

Unfortunately, because of political wrangling, plans to implement a new school aid formula for the upcoming fiscal year have been scrapped. Instead, hundreds of millions of dollars in Governor Corzine’s upcoming budget proposal will be pledged to boost state aid to our school districts. While increased funding is a welcome change, meaningful property tax reform will never occur unless our legislators are willing to tackle the unfair school assistance program.

DAY JOB: ERMIS ATZEMOGLOU

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Jersey City's Ermis Atzemoglou is a jack-of-all-trades when it comes to visual arts -- the School of Visual Arts grad and native of Greece creates everything from surreal paintings to gritty comics. His work has been displayed around Jersey City at LITM and White Star Bar.