Envy Apartment

CLOSE Kristine De Jesus , a staff psychologist and coordinator of the Alcohol and Other Drug Program at MSU, speaks about the services the school offers to students dealing with alcohol and drug abuse. Mollie Shauger/NorthJersey.com Montclair State University " /> The Montclair State University Red Hawk statue on the school's campus. (Photo: Chris Pedota/NorthJersey.com file) For students recovering from drug and alcohol addiction, the typical college campus can seem like a minefield of temptation, with frat parties, tailgating and late night rounds of beer pong. To help recovering students cope , Montclair State University has set aside a floor in one of its dormitories for those committed to sobriety. Officials hope it will give recovering students a refuge on campus, as well as a way for them to develop a small community of classmates who can provide each other support. The initiative at Montclair State  is part of a growing trend nationally , with about 50   coll...

Property owners are costing the city of Madison millions of dollars by taking advantage of a loophole in a state law created in 2001. By registering the property as a limited-liability corporation, such as Steve Brown Apartments , LLC, rather than as a parcel of land, owners are allowed to sell property without filing the selling price with the city of Madison. The owner is then automatically exempt from real estate transfer fees and can easily avoid high property taxes because no sale price is recorded and the city does not know the property’s actual value. Shielding the actual value often results in an underestimation by the city of the property assessments and a lowering of the amount owners must pay in property tax. “It reduces taxes paid to Madison Area Technical College , the Madison School District and various entities on the property tax bill . Theoretically they’re getting away with not paying their fair share,” said City Council President Mike Verveer . Verveer said th...

Balancing the needs of the residents who live here and the tourists who come to visit requires political will and leadership. After years of discussions and failed proposals, it’s time for clarity on an issue central to San Diego’s housing and tourism markets — short- term vacation rentals . Through a March 15, 2017 memo, City Attorney Mara Elliott opined that short-term rentals are illegal under the current City zoning laws . The City is now awaiting regulatory guidance from the City Council before taking any action to enforce the City Attorney ’s memo. My proposed regulatory framework respects the rights of property owners, upholds current zoning laws and creates a workable compromise. I will present a draft ordinance for community review at a public Town Hall meeting 6 -7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 30, at the La Jolla Community Center . My proposal protects the rights of homeowners who wish to participate in home sharing by renting out a room in their home to help make ends me...

by Jimmy Thomson With a Sydney University report this week claiming that holiday rentals are having a significant negative impact on the residential housing market , whether you're a resident owner of an apartment or an investor, you should be concerned about what is happening with holiday rental laws in Australia. NSW and Victorian state parliaments have already had one shot at devising legislation on holiday letting and fluffed it. Now they are having another go. For many MPs, it's irrelevant. But for a minority in popular holiday areas , it's the poisoned chalice of pulling in tourists while driving out locals. And in apartments, it's about some investor owners boosting rental income while residents wonder who will be living next door from one weekend to the next. The Sydney University Urban Housing Lab report claims that holiday letting, predominantly though Airbnb, has taken 6000 homes out of the Sydney residential market . Airbnb disputes the findings. Mea...

Travelers have clocked 369 million international trips so far this year, an incredible sum equal to nearly 1. 6 million trips per day. Year to date, it’s 21 million more passport stamps than were achieved in early 2016. And s ome of the most popular destinations simply can’t handle the volume. Look no further than Venice. As the floating city deals with the threat of rising tides, it’s also being flooded by cruise ships and mass tourism, turning a romantic paradise into a mashup between Disney World and Times Square. Amsterdam, Barcelona, and Dubrovnik are also feeling the crunch. This year they have all taken steps to curb tourism, seeing it as a burden on locals rather than a bastion of economic opportunity. “A large part of these overcrowding issues is directly correlated to cruising,” said Melissa Biggs Bradley , founder and chief executive of the travel membership club Indagare . “In Dubrovnik, when there are two cruise ships in port and you have 3,000 extra people in the old...