Finding Treasure In...Baristaville

Downsizing (or upsizing, for that matter) will be easy this weekend. Check out the diverse selection of new properties on the market this week, including Montclair's Sienna, on real estate.

Changes to Montclair's restaurant scene: One restaurant closes, another gets a new chef. Find out on Food.

Cory Booker reached out to Ed Koch last night, after the former NY Mayor called for Booker's involvement in the DeFarra Gaymon shooting. After their chat, Mayor Koch came away with a better understanding of the Newark Police Department vs. the Essex County Sheriff's Department and modified his statement (after the jump).

Koch will be discussing the Gaymon incident and taking calls on his weekly Bloomberg radio show -- Ed Koch, The Voice of Reason -- tonight, between 7-8pm.

We know Koch wants to hear from Baristaville on this, and we know you all have lots to say. Click here to listen between 7-8pm or call 1-800-971-1130 to join the discussion. You can also find the show at 1130 on the AM dial, XM, 129 and Sirius, 130.

Continue reading "Talk to Ed Koch about Gaymon Tonight on Bloomberg Radio" »

This Sunday from 2 - 5 pm, like every Sunday at that time, Irish musicians will gather at St. James' Gate in Maplewood for a seisún (session) -- an Irish music jam. Called the Cat and Fiddle Session, the weekly event is run by musicians Tom Dunne and Tony Horswill.

Continue reading "Sunday Irish Music at St. James' Gate, Maplewood" »

Free dance classes, old-fashioned movie-making, gospel brunch and more. It's a rocking transition from July to August this weekend in Baristaville. Here are some ideas to start. For more, check out our calendar and Barista Kids.

Friday

A funeral for Jennifer English will be held Monday, August 2nd, at O'Boyle Funeral Home, 309 Broad Street in Bloomfield; relatives and friends are invited to attend. English (pictured center, with two friends on a hiking trip at Harriman State Park last October) was fatally struck by an NJ Transit locomotive on July 26. Baristanet sends condolences to English's family and friends.

Photo provided by Wendell Alann

A reader from Upper Montclair is missing a cat named Ernie.
She writes:

A black-and-gray striped male tiger cat, adult male, with no collar was lost in the vicinity of Godfrey Road in Upper Montclair. He has been missing since July 27.

If you've seen Ernie, please contact pets@baristanet.com.

UPDATE: Fran Pelzman Liscio provided me with this photo. I also heard from another neighbor who sighted Ernie in his yard and I forwarded his information to the cat's people.

On Tuesday, August 3, people all over the country will participate in National Night Out. See if your town is one of them on Barista Kids.

Organizers of Montclair's Last Friday bicycle rides are admirers of the Critical Mass rides that take place in New York, San Francisco and other cities -- up to a point.

They like the idea of getting cyclists together one evening a month to show that "the streets are for everyone," in the words of Laura Torchio of Bike & Walk Montclair. They like the leaderless aspect of the rides. Just try getting someone involved in the enterprise to admit that they're actually in charge.

Continue reading "Montclair Bicyclists Do a Nice Version of Critical Mass" »

Last Thursday Montclair State University approved a four percent increase in tuition for the 2010-2010 academic year.

The four percent increase is the maximum Gov. Christie will allow any college or university to raise tuition.

MSU President Susan A. Cole said in a press release that the increase was modest and "does not begin to make up for the recent 15 percent budget cut in State funding assistance to the University."

Continue reading "MSU Increases Tuition Four Percent" »

Take a gander on Barista Kids.

All the world's a stage - including that home you are trying to sell. Realtor Adriana O'Toole talks about what buyers don't want to see on Real Estate.

Baristanet contributor Brian Glaser follows up on the commuting beat.

If there was a meeting of New Jersey Transit executives to discuss their recently crunched numbers measuring on-time performance, clearly nobody spoke up with a playground-simple truth: "If we say this out loud, we're jinxing ourselves."

Since the report came out, it has earned its share disbelief from both The New York Times and regular NJ Transit riders. And, as someone should have seen coming, it was the opening salvo in a pretty bad week of rush hour on-time performance: on Tuesday, a fatality on the tracks near Trenton effectively halted peak-time trains along the Northeast Corridor and sent rippling delays through the rest of the system. When I arrived in Maplewood after having re-routed myself through Hoboken, I was one of only three people on the 6:55pm jitney, since the Midtown Direct from Penn Station hadn't arrived--though no delay alerts were posted for our part of the system.

Continue reading "Jinxed Commute" »

Where can you get jerk chicken salad -- and free wifi? Read about this new South Orange entrant into the Jamaican food scene on Food.

UPDATE: The Essex County Prosecutor's Office has officially released the names of those charged in what is now being called Operation Jail Breach. The list of accused includes 5 Bloomfield residents: Essex County corrections officer William Rupp, 30, Chang Park, 25, Anthony Rotonda, 39, Joseph Lehman, 25, and Robert Koval Jr., 31, all whom were charged with conspiracy to violate the narcotics laws.

Thirteen people are accused of running a jailhouse "concierge service," smuggling in drugs, cell phones and other contraband to prisoners. The first arrest was Essex County corrections officer Joseph Mastriani, 30, of Nutley, who was arrested when he arrived to the jail to work this morning and is considered to be the ringleader of the service. Full story from the Star Ledger.

UPDATE: Booker tweets back, pointing out (as some commenters have) that Branch Brook Park is not his domain.

Kotch going 2 clarify on radio. Police involved NOT Nwk police, it was a county park, I have NO authority there. They're Sheriffs officers

SECOND UPDATE: After talking with Mayor Booker on the phone last night, Mayor Koch came away with a better understanding of the Newark Police Department vs. the Essex County Sheriff's Department. Here's what Mayor Koch says today:

I mistakenly concluded that the undercover police officer who fired the weapon that killed Mr. Gaymon in the Branch Brook Park was a member of Newark's Police Department and, therefore, under the control of Mayor Cory Booker. In fact, the police officer was a member of the Essex County Sheriff's Department.

I spoke with Mayor Booker yesterday, he having called me to correct the misinformation, and apologized for my error. He is very concerned with the killing incident and seeking ways to prevent a reoccurrence.

Former New York City Mayor Ed Koch has weighed in on the shooting of Dean Gaymon in Branch Brook Park, saying that Newark Mayor Cory Booker must get involved in the case. Koch, who has a listserv of about 5,000, called for Booker's involvement in an email yesterday.

"Mayor Booker's leadership is essential in this case and in changing the policy of how Newark's police force deals with public homosexual activity," Koch said in a telephone interview with Baristanet this morning. Koch dealt with his share of police shooting incidents during his 3 terms as mayor of New York City from 1978 to 1989.

In his email yesterday, Koch likened the situation to the 1969 Stonewall incident in New York City during Mayor John Lindsay's administration that has become the defining event that marked the start of the gay rights movement. As a result of the violent demonstrations by the gay community in reaction to a brutal police raid, Mayor Lindsay changed police policy regarding the treatment of homosexual activity.

"Mayor Booker is a very fine person, and much in the mold of Mayor Lindsay," Mayor Koch wrote. "Ultimately, Mayor Booker is in charge of the cops, and it's up to him to step in."

Continue reading "Mayor Ed Koch: Booker Must Act in Gaymon Case" »

The first Bloomfield Town Council meeting since residents received their 2010 tax bills was on Monday, and the atmosphere was rife with vociferous citizen demands for budget cuts and lower taxes -- particularly amongst residents from Haines Rd. and State Street. The final speaker in the public comment session dramatically explained that he delivers his tax bill in person so he can observe the work ethic of employees around Town Hall, noting that "most would be fired if they worked in the private sector."

Continue reading "Bloomfield Council Meeting: Accusatory Residents and Old Referendums" »

The Star Ledger is reporting that state attorney general Paula Dow -- formerly the Essex County prosecutor -- will not conduct a separate investigation into the Dean Gaymon's shooting death in Branch Brook Park by an undercover detective on July 16. The American Civil Liberties Union-NJ
"The public's confidence in this investigation depends on whether the professionals undertaking it operate independently, outside of the county structure," ACLU-NJ executive director Deborah Jacobs said at the time.

Before Gov. Christie appointed her attorney general, Dow was the boss of acting prosecutor Robert Laurino, who is now in charge of the case.

The objectivity of the county may be further compromised by the fact that the man unofficially identified as the shooter is Edward Esposito, former driver to county executive Joe DiVincenzo.