Little Ferry board approves CVS on Liberty Street

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LITTLE FERRY - The Little Ferry Planning/ Zoning Board approved an application for plans to build a CVS on Liberty Street at its reorganization meeting on Jan. 15.

MARK KRULISH/STAFF PHOTO

Architect Robert Gehr goes over the layout of the proposed CVS, which was approved by the Planning/Zoning Board at its Jan. 15 hearing.

The applicant, First Hartford Realty Corp/CVS, presented the testimony of its architect and traffic engineer to the board to explain how the building will look when it is situated adjacent to the residential area near Liberty Street and the amount of traffic that is expected to be generated by this development.

Robert Gehr, an architect that has been working on CVS projects for the past 16 years, explained that the two-story building will be made of brick and the windows will have shutters and stucco bands above the windows. The roof will have shingles all the way around similar to what is seen of a residential house to give the building a look designed to fit in with the residential feel of the area.

"This is not their prototype store," said Gehr. "The store that CVS promotes from a marketing standpoint is considerably different. This is more of a unique store in that it has features on it that are more appealing in residential areas. We try to play off of materials that are more commonly seen in the area. It follows more of a colonial style."

The second floor of the building would be used for storage only and would not contain any offices, meeting areas or be accessible to the general public, Gehr explained.

Gary Dean, the traffic engineer, explained that a traffic light would be placed at the intersection of Redneck Avenue and Liberty Street to better manage the traffic on both of those roads and facilitate movement in and out of the CVS.

Dean estimated that the store would generate about 60 vehicles per hour, one car per minute, during the evening peak hours.

The only point of contention with the application was the presence of a driveway at the southern end of the lot that was proposed to have full ingress and egress in all directions, allowing cars to make left turns onto Liberty Street from CVS as well as allowing cars traveling south on Liberty Street to turn left into the CVS at that southern entrance.

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Little Ferry board approves CVS on Liberty Street

Dionne: Chris Christie on two levels at inauguration

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Its rare that you can look at your television screen and see not only what is happening but also what might have been. Chris Christies inaugural address Tuesday was at once a masterful summary of the best thinking among Republicans about where their party needs to move and a compendium of proclamations that now carry unfortunate double meanings.

The New Jersey governor gave the speech he would have given had there been no George Washington Bridge scandal and no allegations about the use of Hurricane Sandy relief money to pressure a local official on a development project.

You cant blame him for sticking to the old script. He now has to live his public life on two levels. And Christies speech made an important contribution: The tough former prosecutor denounced our dysfunctional, counterproductive approach to the drug problem.

We will end the failed war on drugs that believes that incarceration is the cure of every ill caused by drug abuse, Christie declared. We will make drug treatment available to as many of our nonviolent offenders as we can, and we will partner with our citizens to create a society that understands this simple truth every life has value and no life is disposable.

Forget the scandals for a moment: Christie here is speaking for an expanding consensus that (forgive me) bridges left and right, liberals and libertarians, about the foolishness of filling our prisons with those who are the victims of their own crimes. Pushing this cause along could be Christies good deed.

But like everything else in the speech, this passage also had a political purpose. Offering a dash of libertarianism, which appeals to a key subset of the Republican primary electorate, with a soupcon of compassion is just what the consultant gods would order up. And thats the sort of balance Christie struck throughout.

For the tea party ideologues, Christie dutifully mocked the power of almighty government to fix any problem, real or imagined. He fired a shot across the Hudson River, aimed perhaps at Bill de Blasio, New York Citys populist mayor. Lets be different than our neighbors, he said. Lets put more money in the pockets of our middle class by not taking it out of their pockets in the first place.

And even Rand Paul couldnt do better than this: I do not believe that New Jerseyans want a bigger, more expensive government that penalizes success and then gives the pittance left to a few in the name of income equity. What New Jerseyans want is an unfettered opportunity to succeed in the way that they define success.

But the ideology came draped in the finery of anti-partisan, anti-gridlock fashion, finished off with a flourish to a resurgent, caring brand of conservatism.

We have to be willing to play outside the red and blue boxes that the media pundits put us in, said the man who also has other reasons for disliking the media. We have to be willing to reach out to others who look or speak differently than us; we have to be willing to personally reach out a helping hand to a neighbor or a friend suffering from drug addiction, depression or the dignity-stripping loss of a job.

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Dionne: Chris Christie on two levels at inauguration

A Libertarian Insurgency in the Press

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Even President Barack Obamas administration has acknowledged that private sector velocity is much closer to optimal swiftness of action than anything the public sector can achieve. If only the political class could match the private sectors ability to respond promptly to observable trends. Politicians and political organizations often exhibit the worst elements of both divisions of society, featuring the public sectors lethargy with the private sectors elitism and lack of inclusiveness.

As such, political organizations are slow to respond to developments and often find themselves flailing gracelessly in the effort to accommodate trends that actors in the more responsive private sector are quick to embrace. One recent and unavoidable trend is the speed with which libertarianism is catching on. Polling has indicated that voters, particularly the youngest American voters, are adopting a libertarian philosophy which rejects the paternalism displayed by members of both parties and instead places its faith in the ability of the individual to best manage their affairs.

Writing in The Federalist on Tuesday, David Harsanyi parses trends in recent polling data which suggest a libertarian shift in the electorate. This is a shift, he notes, which has been mistaken by both Democratic and Republican partisans as an indication that younger voters are embracing their respective philosophies in droves. In fact, as Harsanyi adds, it is more likely a broad rejection of both political parties as they are currently constituted.

RELATED: The Volokh Conspiracy Announces Move to the Washington Post, Will Be Paywalled

Politicians and political movements are, as ever, slow to adapt to this growingly apparent trend. Private sector media companies, however, are not so sluggish. Recent moves by powerful media companies like The Washington Post and Fox Business Network indicate that the private sector is moving with characteristic alacrity to embrace this trend and create a loyal base of libertarian-leaning media consumers.

The foremost libertarian opinion magazine, Reason, and has recently sent some of its prominent writers and personalities to FBN to host The Independents. That program bolsters Foxs effort to court liberty-loving media viewers, a campaign they began after hiring libertarian reporter John Stossel to host his own FBN program and promote his unique political point-of-view across Foxs platform. Even stauncher libertarian Judge Andrew Napolitano also had an FBN show (Freedom Watch) for two years and can now be seen daily giving a libertarian perspective on judicial matters across all Fox platforms.

The Washington Post, as POLITICO confirms, allowed their one-time rock star wonk, Ezra Klein, to outbid himself and leave the company in order to start his own blogging venture. Kleins vertical has been a boon to the Washington Posts business model. It surely is no coincidence that the Post announced this week that they were filling the void by creating a new legal vertical built around Eugene Volokhs prominent libertarian-leaning blog, The Volokh Conspiracy.

Volokh promised his loyal readers that the Post assured us they had no desire to change what we do, and they approached us because of who we are and what we write.

They know our ideologies, he continued. They know our blogging style. Of course, they do. The Post isnt purchasing an ideology, they are purchasing loyal readers who will regularly consume political analysis and opinion and pay for that service.

In a fractured media environment with an ever-shrinking universe of potential readers and viewers, media firms are seeking out dedicated audiences that they do not have to expend the energy and capital themselves to build. Among the more loyal audience of political news and opinion consumers are those with a libertarian bent particularly because they have been so underserved for years. That is changing.

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A Libertarian Insurgency in the Press

HOGWARTS CASTLE TOUR – Wizarding World Of Harry Potter – Universal Studios Islands Of Adventure – Video

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HOGWARTS CASTLE TOUR - Wizarding World Of Harry Potter - Universal Studios Islands Of Adventure
Come inside Hogwarts Castle for a glimpse of what goes on before boarding Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey!

By: BigFatPanda

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HOGWARTS CASTLE TOUR - Wizarding World Of Harry Potter - Universal Studios Islands Of Adventure - Video

Chinese ships leave Paracel Islands after landing drills

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By Matikas Santos INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines A fleet of three Chinese ships, one of which has an advanced weapons system, has completed patrols and landing exercises in the Paracel Islands in the South China Sea Wednesday, Chinese state media reported.

The three-ship flotilla, consisting of amphibious landing craft Changbaishan and destroyers Wuhan and Haikou, left from a military port in south Chinas Hainan Province on Monday, Xinhua news agency reported Wednesday.

The flotilla undertook a three-dimensional patrol of several islets, using surface vessels, hovercraft and shipboard helicopters. Marines with the flotilla conducted a 20-minute landing training on Wednesday, it said.

The ship Changbaishan was described as Chinas largest landing ship and has an advanced weapon system.

The fleet also has three helicopters and one company of Marines onboard, the report said.

Disputed islands

Paracel Islands is a group of island in the South China Sea that is the subject of a dispute between China and Vietnam. China calls it Xisha Islands while Vietnam calls it Hoang Sa Islands.

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Chinese ships leave Paracel Islands after landing drills