Christie’s Bridge: There’s More Going on Down Below Until very recently, I knew only a few things about Fort Lee, New Jersey:
1. One of my sisters lived there briefly. Somebody down the block broke into the house and stole stuff for drug money. They caught the thief. 2. I once blew a tire in a Christie-size pothole, coming back from the Meadowlands. The Port Authority truck guys changed my tire, free of charge. Months later, the PA’s insurance paid for a new tire. 3. I associate the George Washington Bridge with some of the most unpleasant hours in my working career – hours stuck in traffic coming back from mind-numbing Sunday football games, fans drunk and aggressive. 4. How frustrated I felt, going nowhere, watching the last exit ramp, tantalizingly empty, headed toward the mysterious bottomlands of Fort Lee. What was down there? Now we know so much more about the GWB – beyond the big man making jokes about manning the cones himself. Now we know that political types were playing with the lives of thousands of people for some vicious purpose. But what was it? The other day, the journalist Laura Vecsey – who once nicknamed Alex Rodriguez Pay-Rod when he was fleeing Seattle and she was a sports columnist there – delved into the real-estate angle to the lane closings. In a piece for Zillow.com, Vecsey wrote about the development down below by another Sokolich. http://www.zillow.com/blog/2014-01-10/fort-lee-nj/ On Sunday, Steve Kornacki, who knows where all the bodies are buried in New Jersey (that’s a figure of speech, a joke), delved into the real-estate angle on MSNBC: http://www.msnbc.com/up/watch/what-comes-next-in-bridgegate-investigation-114675779908 Later, Laura Vecsey got back to the subject: http://www.lauravecsey.com/2/post/2014/01/fort-lee-hudson-lights-development-key-to-bridge-gate.html Who knew? That dark space in the New Jersey night is the center of the universe. It’s time to descend into the lower depths of Fort Lee to explore the sulfurous source of Bridgegate. 1/13/2014 10:42:30 am
In today’s world of super high speed communication, truth eventually arrives, even at a snail’s pace. It is often assisted by political enemies and the arrogance of an ill-conceived cover-up.
Thor A. Larsen
1/13/2014 12:23:35 pm
Alan,
Brian Savin
1/13/2014 12:20:46 pm
OK, Christie is not a saint. In fact, he's gross. But what on earth makes him unique in today's cesspool of politics? Why should he be a unique distraction when her majesty, H. Clinton, plays politics with soldiers' lives on the campaign trail, as documented by Sec. Gates? Why not criticize our President given the pretty damn clear Academy award winning documentary, Inside Job, and the Pulitzer Prize winning author's wonderful book, Confidence Men, that details far more important stuff than fatso's playing NJ boss? I believe in perspective, and I believe we are misleading ourselves to even consider that this is a problem of one political party. I'll give this group four words to consider: Rahm Emanuel, Larry Summers. Our economy is likely to go to hell in a hand basket this year, and those four words are in my opinion key as to why. 1/13/2014 03:01:54 pm
It seems that more dots are falling into place!!
George Vecsey
1/13/2014 03:26:13 pm
guys, check out the links from L. Vecsey and Steve Kornacki.
Thor A. Larsen
1/14/2014 12:17:22 am
George,
George Vecsey
1/14/2014 12:52:48 am
Thor, better see if this governor, or whoever replaces him, will permit people from Fort Lee to have access to the bridge. 1/14/2014 08:29:14 am
Steve Kornachi was the reporter I had referred to. He and Laura are on target in that there are many layers to this. 1/14/2014 09:28:02 am
Thor
Thor A. Larsen
1/15/2014 01:28:10 am
Thank you Alan for your input on my comments in regards to Fort Lee. I was initially attracted to Fort Lee based on the article provided by Laura Vecsey. The closeness to downtown Manhattan, good schools and house prices that seemed lower (and lower taxes) versus Westchester were some of the attractions. In addition, Fort Lee being close to many parks and easy access to Upstate New York via the Thruway were other attributes.
George Vecsey
1/15/2014 02:54:09 am
I suspect it has a great view -- when you're there.
Gene Palumbo
1/15/2014 03:57:41 am
Just saw this link in a comment on Commonweal’s blog. As the comment’s author put it, “Another NJ voice heard from: Bruce Springsteen serenades his governor.”
George Vecsey
1/15/2014 05:44:16 am
well, the big man wanted to be noticed by The Boss.
thor a. larsen
1/15/2014 04:09:39 am
George,
Ed Martin
1/15/2014 07:42:50 am
My Brooklyn-based son and my Colorado-based number two son, had a commute to enjoy Bahn Mi, Pho, grilled pork chop with Opa egg, homemade Spring and egg rolls for lunch. We had to cross the E. Venice Ave bridge across the Intracoastal Waterway (about 100 yards), ending a tiring five minute trip. Tell Tom Freidman that the world economy has reached small city Venice, FL. PS.-- the bridge is toll-free.
George Vecsey
1/15/2014 08:03:18 am
Ed, stop it.
Gene Palumbo
1/15/2014 05:33:02 pm
From "Christie and Springsteen: A Tale of Devotion, and a Very Public Snub:" Comments are closed.
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Measuring Covid Deaths, by David Leonhardt. July 17, 2023. NYT online. The United States has reached a milestone in the long struggle against Covid: The total number of Americans dying each day — from any cause — is no longer historically abnormal…. After three horrific years, in which Covid has killed more than one million Americans and transformed parts of daily life, the virus has turned into an ordinary illness. The progress stems mostly from three factors: First, about three-quarters of U.S. adults have received at least one vaccine shot. Second, more than three-quarters of Americans have been infected with Covid, providing natural immunity from future symptoms. (About 97 percent of adults fall into at least one of those first two categories.) Third, post-infection treatments like Paxlovid, which can reduce the severity of symptoms, became widely available last year. “Nearly every death is preventable,” Dr. Ashish Jha, who was until recently President Biden’s top Covid adviser, told me. “We are at a point where almost everybody who’s up to date on their vaccines and gets treated if they have Covid, they rarely end up in the hospital, they almost never die.” That is also true for most high-risk people, Jha pointed out, including older adults — like his parents, who are in their 80s — and people whose immune systems are compromised. “Even for most — not all but most —immuno-compromised people, vaccines are actually still quite effective at preventing against serious illness,” he said. “There has been a lot of bad information out there that somehow if you’re immuno-compromised that vaccines don’t work.” That excess deaths have fallen close to zero helps make this point: If Covid were still a dire threat to large numbers of people, that would show up in the data. One point of confusion, I think, has been the way that many Americans — including we in the media — have talked about the immuno-compromised. They are a more diverse group than casual discussion often imagines. Most immuno-compromised people are at little additional risk from Covid — even people with serious conditions, such as multiple sclerosis or a history of many cancers. A much smaller group, such as people who have received kidney transplants or are undergoing active chemotherapy, face higher risks. Covid’s toll, to be clear, has not fallen to zero. The C.D.C.’s main Covid webpage estimates that about 80 people per day have been dying from the virus in recent weeks, which is equal to about 1 percent of overall daily deaths. The official number is probably an exaggeration because it includes some people who had virus when they died even though it was not the underlying cause of death. Other C.D.C. data suggests that almost one-third of official recent Covid deaths have fallen into this category. A study published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases came to similar conclusions. Dr. Shira Doron, the chief infection control officer at Tufts Medicine in Massachusetts, told me that “age is clearly the most substantial risk factor.” Covid’s victims are both older and disproportionately unvaccinated. Given the politics of vaccination, the recent victims are also disproportionately Republican and white. Each of these deaths is a tragedy. The deaths that were preventable — because somebody had not received available vaccines and treatments — seem particularly tragic. (Here’s a Times guide to help you think about when to get your next booster shot.) *** From the great Maureen Dowd: As I write this, I’m in a deserted newsroom in The Times’s D.C. office. After working at home for two years during Covid, I was elated to get back, so I could wander around and pick up the latest scoop. But in the last year, there has been only a smattering of people whenever I’m here, with row upon row of empty desks. Sometimes a larger group gets lured in for a meeting with a platter of bagels." --- Dowd writes about the lost world of journalists clustered in newsrooms at all hours, smoking, drinking, gossipping, making phone calls, typing, editing. *** "Putting out the paper," we called it. Much more than nostalgia. ---https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/29/opinion/journalism-newsroom.html Categories
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