Terrence T. McDonald hosts How well do you REALLY know Mayor Fulop...

Our favorite reporter comes out with a Top Ten Things We've Learned About Steve Fulop (Who the Jersey City Desk is grading a "B" for his first year in office) this AM in the Jersey Journal and while some results might be obvious others won't be. A fun read on a soul crushing Monday morning, last week before the 4th weekend.

Good on us: Jersey City ranked #8 in the nation as a LGBT-friendly city

Jersey City has been named the #8 LGBT-friendly city in America by Nerdwallet. New York City nor Philadelphia made the list.

Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop was quick to praise the poll:

“We are excited to have such a diverse community in Jersey City that is recognized nationally. As we prepare to celebrate LGBT Pride Month, it is a great honor to see Jersey City ranked alongside such large cities as San Francisco, Seattle and Chicago.”

So just what is it that helped Cool City rank so highly? A very low percentage of hate crimes against the LGBT community and a perfect equality score. So good on us Jersey City. A #8 ranking is a good place to start, it might even get us into a LGBT bowl game but we can always do better. Let's see that we do. Hopefully NYC and Philly can learn from Jersey City's example.

Outside...NOW!

You only get like four of these pitch perfect days a year. Not too hot, not too cool, a nice warmth with a soft breeze. It's gonna be a very sunny 70º in Cool City today.  Johnny's already been out and about scouting this beautiful morning and he can tell you you'll be wishing for this day in July.

More images from this morning's Newport 10K

Everybody keeping those knees up, good form good form!

Got $375 burning a hole in your pocket? Great you can afford the worst New Year's Eve ever!

Sorry for the late start today kids, try and take one Gmail account off the list of accounts that can post something here and you almost lose your entire site. Thanks Google.

OK, back to New Year's Eve. If you are lucky enough to have $375 in your pocket and still haven't made plans for New Year's Eve, how about taking all that hard earned do-re-mi to Applebee's in Times Square?

Yes, Applebee's.

What's that? $375 for Applebee's seem like a bit steep? Well friends Johnny has some sage advice; T.G.I Friday’s has a NYE package for $225. Ruby Tuesday's is throwing a party for $275 so there are options. Albeit bad ones.

OK, Johnny's being a snob (but if you're a regular you know the good food side of him comes to the fore sometimes). Here's Zane Tankel, owner of all 38 Applebee's in the New York City area:

“You wouldn’t know you were at an Applebee’s for that one night.”

Except for the decor and the giant Applebee's sign out front. 

Now the T.G.I. Friday's deal includes a ticket to an afterparty at the BB King Blues Club so they're at least trying harder. However at Ruby Tuesday's you don't even get a dinner. Just stacks of snacks. Look we're sure the people who work at these restaurants are going to work really hard at making it not look like where you're at. They'll try extra hard to help you have a good time. But you and a date dropping at least $500 on tickets to a chain restaurant with all the charms of Times Square without a view of the ball dropping and in one place no dinner well, um, really? 

Psssst. You want to spend that money in Jersey City. Yes you do. If you have that same $500 you can eat like a Joffrey and drink like Dean Martin. There are some great places after a great meal to sing and dance and make Merry (if your gal's name is Merry) right here in Cool City. Don't make a tradition out of partying in Jersey City because Johnny says so. Do it because goodness gracious there's a lot of great fun to be had in JC. Explore your city on New Year's Eve. Walk around downtown. You can even kiss your sweetie looking at the light glare from Times Square down on the riverfront. 

Let's make this New Year's Eve a celebration of Jersey City, kind of a big "shop local" but for a New Year's Eve to remember. And then let's do it next year and the year after. Unless of course you really like Cowboy Burgers.

Like one Jersey Journal commenter at the link above said about this idea: "I'd rather spend $375 at White Castle than Applebee's." Jersey City has one friend, 2995 John F Kennedy Blvd. at the corner of Newark Ave. Mmmmm onion chips.

You want to be part of the new hot foodie scene? Brothers and sisters you're standing in it

Mayor Fulop tweeted out this story from the New York Daily News this morning where they say about Cool City and we quote:

'Jersey City is emerging as the hot new foodie destination in the NYC area'

Damn straight. We don't have much use for the Daily News but they are spot on (if not a few months late) with this story. They concentrate on a new restaurant in a very familiar place. The restaurant will be called Talde, the vision of Dale Talde, best known from Bravo’s “Top Chef” and his well-reviewed eponymous Park Slope eatery, with Anthony Carrino and John Colaneri, the stars of HGTV’s “Kitchen Cousins. The site? It's the old JCPD headquarters at 8 Erie (and a sidenote, 8 Erie is being transformed by Jersey City construction magicians Brunelleschi). Gina Pace's fine article also talks up Satis, Marco and Pepe, Barcade, Razza, Taqueria, and Thirty Acres. One thing Gina, you said "Apparently all those years of “sixth borough” jokes have finally rubbed off on Jersey City," in the story. See, we never took/take that Sixth Borough thing as a joke, so the joke's on you. Jersey City, let's also not forget the gems not spoken of in the article, especially India Square where quite a few New Yorkers go to eat on a Saturday night.

So Johnny gets here and almost immediately this city sets about creating the gilded age in Jersey City food. You can't beat that with a stick. So Johnny's culinarilly (it is now) inclined readers, what say you? Have you been to any of the aforementioned restaurants? Care to share a review or two in comments? We'd love to hear your thoughts.

Welcome to Jersey City Fashion Week!

Today, through Saturday Cool City is hosting Fashion Week. While so many think of Johnny as the Tim Gunn type who is all about the fashion and has so many fashionable ideas the gives them away (Remember moon boots? Yeah Johnny was like ten, he had no hand in that), there is bigger style at play this week in our fair city.

Here's the website with all the happenings. Of course you'll want to check out the whole site but here is the list of events to get you started.

We also wanna give a shout out to the good people at the Jersey City Independent who are helping present all this fashionable fun.