No

So yes, in that NJ Transit operates* trains and busses throughout the state.

The transit routes are more or less designed around commuting to metropolitan area centers. What that means in practice is that for most of NJ, transit is oriented towards commuting to NYC or Philadelphia, as opposed to being able to get around town with reliable frequencies. So if you work in NYC, Philly, or Newark, you might not need a car to get there. When you start talking about getting around your immediate area, you'll probably need a car unless you're in one of NJ's cities. Even then, mass transit coverage isn't that good or reliable when your destination remain within the state.

* NJ Transit is also kind of a franchise with various operations being run by private companies contracted with the state. This sometimes becomes a point of conflict with the buses, with the private operators want to reduce frequency.

Exactly why was he covering for those kids….??

I don't know exactly what went wrong here, but things I have noticed over the years:

• Parents can be completely blind about what little shits their children are. There is this endless association of children with innocence, and parents are sometimes incapable of believing their children could possibly be a bully. The more clueless parents are, the worse their kids can be. In particular, there seems to be a lackadaisical approach toward teaching children empathy. Whatever my parents failings, they would always ask me, "How do you think a person feels, when you say or do X." I am happy for this.

• Parents may secretly be happy their children are bullies, when they regard the world as some kind of jungle and the only way they can conceptualize it is their children are either predators or prey and they have chosen to be predators.

Some of the things I have heard parents say are wild, and not entirely sane.

• In my school in central New Jersey, bullying was viewed as "kids being kids" and treated with no seriousness at all. This was a few decades ago, but I remember really being confused as a kid, like, "Okay, well, is there something they want me to learn by being bullied? Is this a life lesson I need to reason my way out of?" Bullying is assault and cruelty, but the way administrators treated it, it was my problem, and my problem alone.

• Bullies congregate in certain cliques and groups and certain school personnel who are tasked with supervising these groups (like coaches) seem unconcerned about their character of the students, or may openly encourage their behavior. In my high school, the wrestling team were all bullies. In my yearbook, one of them chose as their yearbook quote, a rant about how he didn't want gay people to become wrestlers.

• Or, people make excuses for bullies. They themselves have a hard life, or something. Therefore you shouldn't be angry when they assault you. Or some shit.

• My own father just got mad I didn't fight off the 3 or 4 people who would gang up on me at once. I was not a small kid.

What made me angry, is you have no choice but to go to school. You are legally compelled to enter these environments and have these experiences. You can't simply say "fuck this," and opt out.

I have a very dark view of humankind, and it hasn't abated in the decades since. I don't trust people, and this position of immediate distrust is regularly justified. No one picks on me now, but when people turn out to be really horrible and shitty, it doesn't surprise me. I expect it. I am surprised when someone isn't shitty.

Those experiences dampened an entire life. And in hindsight I'm less mad at the bullies, and more angry at the adults who create these environments and seem uninterested in what happens in them. That includes parents, teachers, and administrators.

That said, when I read the story about this girl a few weeks ago, in an involuntary way, my mind made up what this girl's antagonizers looked like, and I imagined strangling them with my bare hands. I just imagined crushing the life out of them. What I was feeling was pure hate, an emotion I do not relish and is not something I feel with any regularity. But that is what I felt.

I am middle aged.

I don't want to think about this anymore.

One thing it certainly did is make me look at the generation of "adults" who were in charge of the schools I went to and lose all respect for them. In a way, this has a positive upside. I am not nostalgic about the past - any past - and as I age, there has been no compulsion to resist progress, or to want to take shit out on the young. All of my disgust is targeted toward older generations, their moral failings, and their generalized incompetence.

I have to expend effort not to make this categorical, and to give individuals a chance. I expend that effort, but it doesn't come natural.

A school is an institute of learning. Outside of suspending or expelling students, that's the extent of there reach. Anything else is left to the criminal justice system. You are more than welcome to provide what else can be done besides removing the student that the school can do legally.

How is he physically? If he’s not frail, maybe he could do volunteer work: holding preemies in the NICU is one thing older people do.

Maybe let him donate a certain amount to legit charities

Giving money to scammers is fulfilling his need to feel useful and do good. He needs a more productive way to do that.

Also get the phone under control. I know there are special phones for seniors that have ways of blocking scammers.

i disagree, kids have it much better than previous generations thanks to bullying awareness and legislation. when i was a kid, no one cared.

I just think landlords have a role in the overall market, as not everyone wants to rent a small apt or buy. It’s not really ‘advocating’ as much as it is just accepting the reality of the housing market and that people have preferences. Unethical landlords that try to screw people out of every dime possible are not what I’m talking about - fuck those people. But renting, in general, doesn’t need to be evil. Maybe limits on rent increases, like they do in some cities, would be in order throughout the country.

As far as airbnb and the like, I feel like short term rentals in residential areas are destroying neighborhoods by creating blocks of houses with transient occupants. I don’t have all the answers, in terms of what to do about it, but those types of arrangements should be addressed, IMO.

About as much snow as dandruff off some scalp.

How did the superintendent allow her to get beat up. Seemed like security was swift and the school has no control over the Internet.

My municipality has a hard limit of 3.7% or something for rent increases, it’s friggin great

Yeah, the policy was implemented, but it's not like people actually followed it.

Living the American dream. Totally incompetent and getting money for doing nothing

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I experienced some pretty severe bullying at school and even assault from a boy significantly larger than me in 5th grade. It really destroyed me, and I ended up dropping out in 9th grade between that and so many other shitty factors.

Now, as someone in my 30’s, I see why those kids were so fucked up. What I don’t understand is why time after time, the adults put in charge of us do nothing to help. Zero common sense. I was repeatedly punished at school because apparently zero tolerance means zero tolerance of being on the receiving end too. I can’t believe that nearly 20 years later, there’s still been no reform for this kind of shit.

Jersey isn't commuter friendly unless you're planning on working in the city (NYC or Philadelphia). Other than that you will be a car owner in under 6 months.

At this point it's obvious that whatever argument I make, you're going to advocate for landlords. We can just agree to disagree. I'm tired of seeing communities turned into all rental neighborhoods by individual landlords and investment groups. I hate that airbnb and other short term rental companies have prevented families from putting down roots in towns that are quickly being priced out of reach. I don't know how to solve the issue without massive government oversight or a guillotine, but I know which method is more satisfying.

I'm just lucky that I was able to buy last year before rates shot way up, in a town I've long loved. There are a lot of small time landlords in my town, renting homes to people for considerably more than what my mortgage costs. It's not great.

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Although I can't speak to the Lake Mohawk area personally, I've heard great things about Il Porto and Casa Mia.

Beyond Lake Mohawk, there are lots of new or thriving restaurants in the towns surrounding Sparta. A new Argentinian BBQ place opened on 206 toward Newton I've been dying to try - maybe 15min from Sparta. Stonewood Tavern and Halula Sushi in Byram are pretty good, and Black Forest Inn is great if you like German/Austrian food.

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You’re saying only places built specifically as apartments should be rented?

In a scenario where average people can’t buy houses and rent it out for passive income/ equity, who owns the homes that get rented out? Assuming not everyone who wants to rent wants to rent an apartment - some people (like me before I bought) want to rent a house.

more or less

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The superintendent should be charged for obstructing. Fuck that guy.

To some extent I agree that kids need more help than punishment. But I also think that these kids are old enough to known right from wrong and gang attacking 1 girl is absolutely wrong. If this has happened to my daughter I would be out for blood.