On the Waterfront

With the fog being amazing tonight as far as photography went Johnny meandered down to the waterfront at J. Owen Grundy Park. There he took this shot he's pretty proud of with the Katyn Memorial in the foreground and some city you've probably never heard of behind it.

Feel free to use this image, redistribute it when talking about Jersey City or heck, put it in your Jersey City screensaver images. Johnny just wants to share. Click the image for the big version.

Jersey City is a lousy place to spend Valentine's Day...

...or so says something calling itself WalletHub.com. The site ranked Jersey City #89 of the top 100 most populous cities (Newark was even worse at #92) or worst places to spend Valentine's Day.

So, why does Jersey CIty rank so poorly? According to the website "such metrics as restaurant meal costs and the number of attractions and florists per capita." Um, Jersey City food is hotter than a firecracker right now so strike one WalletHub. Florists? Really? Who goes into a neighborhood florist in most places? You get online or pick up a phone and order flowers. Johnny had two dozen long stem red roses delivered for Michigan State's triumphant Rose Bowl win over Stanford a little over a year ago. Hudson Florists. Just call. Strike two WalletHub. Which brings us to number of attractions. You're telling us WalletHub that out of 100 populated cities Jersey City is only ahead of EIGHT on attractions? Here's a great Jersey City attraction and it's FREE:

There you go, J. Owen Grundy Park. It's free for your Valentine's stroll and Johnny defies you to seek a better backdrop.

Strike three WalletHub, bite us.

So, the question has been asked who has the better downtown; Jersey City or Hoboken

Pull up a chair and pour some Bailey's or Kahlua into that coffee boys and girls and listen to Jersey City's favorite Nere-Do-Well do what he does best, promote Jersey City and have some fun with our friends up north in FuHo.

Has Hoboken got the last of the water from Sandy out of downtown yet? They have? OK, then let's commence to the rules before this verbal knife fight begins.

 Somebody say 1-2-3 Go!

Hoboken has a delightful waterfront (and for the sake of talking about "downtowns" waterfronts count) and a great pier you can watch movies on and grass filled parks. They have events to fill the parks well too. It's a very nice, calm and family friendly waterfront when water isn't pouring over its banks into the main downtown. Jersey City too has a lovely park, J. Owen Grundy Park which, while less grassy than Hoboken parks also offers up the premiere view of New York City. Grab that camera and in Jersey City you get uptown, the WTC, the Statue of Liberty and the Verazano-Narrows bridge. Jersey City does have two things that Hoboken can't match. The Colgate Clock so New York can tell what time it is and The Katyn Monument, yes the one with the Polish soldier getting stabbed right through the back. Seriously, a giant clock and a grand violent statue? Advantage Jersey City. We will take away ONE point from Jersey City because the Great Vampire Squid of Goldman Sachs is located on the JC waterfront.

Downtowns have to be ruled over by someone or other or nothing gets built, cleaned up, or done. Hoboken recently had a mayor go to jail. Jersey City's last guy most likely at some point thought he was going to jail. We love Dawn Zimmer here. She stood up when nobody else would and called Chris Christie a big fat liarhead. The guy here now in Jersey City despite promises of grand design for the middle class and low-income residents has returned to his roots of the Great Vampire Squid to peddle giant casinos and race tracks. We'd almost give this advantage to Hoboken right now but for one thing; Beth Mason. You can't have someone like that in your city governance and not get points taken away. Right now we're going to call this a tie though Hoboken does seem to want to get to the bottom of their real problems faster than JC does who like to gloss things over far too often.

Architecture is a tricky call isn't it? You have so many classic Americana buildings in downtown Hoboken, the Castle Gatehouse brings European flair whereas Jersey City's downtown is quickly being remade and the old warehouses are either being torn town or updated into unrecognizable mush. In fact the only castle in Jersey City is the White Castle on Kennedy Blvd. in India Square. Jersey City does have some new exciting buildings going up like the three offset book looking buildings at Greene and Bay St., and the new buildings going up at the Grove St. PATH station. JC must lose points for the horrid looking "POS" building at 111 First St., the Lloyd Goldman wonderment to below-average and the new Toll Brothers "thing" going up along Marin Blvd. Skyline? Please. Jersey City has one. We also know both cities have some gorgeous churches and great looking buildings here and there but Hoboken wants to hold onto their history far more than Jersey City and when it comes to architecture that counts. Advantage: Hoboken

Food and Drink means different things to different towns. Hoboken is filled with bars and small restaurants that with the exception of a couple have all the ambience of an Applebees or TGI Friday's. That's because Hoboken skews younger. Show Johnny a 20-something "foodie"and he will show you the horrors of Brooklyn. There are good restaurants in Hoboken but when compared to the new food destinations of Jersey City, this is a clear cut victory to JC for the food part of this debate. Thirty Acres, Left Bank Burger, Razza, Taqueria, Satis, Orale, and Talde is on the way. Now comes the drink part of the discussion. Hoboken loves to drink and serve drinks and make money on drinks and loves making money on tickets for open-carry and public drunkenness. They have a very well known Day of Drinking which became so famous they had to change it because it became too dangerous. Jersey City takes a decidedly lower profile when it comes to imbibing. Maybe again because Jersey City takes on the role of adult when it comes to Hoboken's tween persona because again, Jersey City skews older. No puke in our shrubs. You can get the same beer and liquor in Hoboken you can get here with one new coming exception, Departed Soles gluten free craft brewpub coming to 150 Bay St. this fall. Advantage: Jersey City.

As this debate slips away from our bathtub shaped friends, Johnny can hear the cries of CRIME IN JERSEY CITY coming from the Mile Square City. Truth be told in the proper part of downtown there isn't much crime. Go ahead and complain Johnny is somehow skewing the maps or stats or however you want to cut it. Sure, Jersey City in places has a big problem with crime. Nobody will deny that but in a comparison of "downtown areas" JC doesn't knuckle under here. If we're choosing city vs. city yes, Hoboken wins this test, but it's not. Johnny could easily pivot here and talk about downtown artists and art spaces and the murals going up all over in Jersey City but that may seem like piling on.

So what have we learned? Jersey City is a true up and coming small city powerhouse with a great waterfront, a clean downtown with new construction, the best food outside of Manhattan with an ok in a "we're trying" kind of way city government. What have we learned about Hoboken? While it has some beautiful buildings and a pleasant downtown, it's flood prone and Buddy Valastro and Beth Mason both work there. Residents and visitors drink like vikings and then the town floods some more. They keep moving their big parade earlier and earlier every year so that this year's St. Patrick's Day parade in January 16th at 7:30am. If we have to hear that Eli Manning lives in the Hudson Tea Building one more time we're gonna yack. Yes, even more than the bushes and shrubberies in Hoboken are used to come springtime.

Advantage downtown Jersey City it is!

Get your moon boots on and head down to the river later today for some quailty moonwatchin'

Don't forget the camera. Why you ask? It's a SUPERMOON tonight and as you can see there are very few clouds in the sky. The moon rose a while ago at 1:15pm but the great shots will come later this afternoon. The moon is at perigee (closest to us) and will appear 12% bigger and will be 30% brighter tonight into Monday's wee hours of the AM than a normal full moon. So get those cameras and head down to J. Owen Grundy Park and get your urban Ansel Adams on.

Down to the river at once!

Johnny just saw that Jersey City Jazz series has Carolyn Light gracing J. Owen Grundy Pier this afternoon starting at 12 bells and running until 2pm. It's a gorgeous day, there's a delightful breeze and it just feels like jazz by the river today.

Did you know then (most likely you did if Johnny is just seeing this on the Twitter) this jazz series goes on all the way through August. There's a poster and everything, right there.

A couple events around town this weekend you won't want to miss

First off, starting tonight Lowe's Theater has a magnificent weekend of entertainment planned. Beginning tonight STAGEFest will bring over forty acts and performances:

Among tonight’s performances are “Sleep at Your Own Risk” by Ticket 2 Eternity Productions. The 45-minute one-man show, written by Matthew Ethan Davis, kicks off at 7 p.m. and 9:15 p.m. It tells the story of a man’s struggle with sleepwalking while trying to hold onto the love of his life ­-- and not walk out of his apartment naked.

Want more? Good, they have much more entertainment for you:

Tomorrow is a bigger day, with 19 performances lined up. The acts include “Three Bites” by 68 Productions, showing at 3:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. The 40-minute show follows the rise and fall of a relationship over the course of three meals: the first coffee date, a pivotal breakfast and a fateful dinner. The couple will be played by Rafael Cruz and Summer Dawn Hortillosa, who also wrote the play. Liliane Wolf plays the waitress.

There will be food, a chance to learn about costuming with some right fine historic costumes and much much more.

Advance tickets can be purchased at loewsstagefest.brownpapertickets.com. For more information, visit loewsjersey.org/stagefest, email stage.fest.loews@gmail.com or call 201-668-0546. Discount parking will be available behind the theater in Square Ramp Garage.

Now, if you're in a more colorful mood tomorrow morning make SURE to head to Owen Grundy Pier down on the waterfront for the Indian celebration of Holi Hai (yes, the colored powder thrown around all so cooly) will take place from 11am to 6pm with a rain date for Sunday. 

We've all seen the cool images of people covered in the colored powder but what is Holi Hai itself? Glad you asked:

Holi Hai– also referred to as the festival of love –is an annual ritualistic celebration, emerging from the Hindu culture in India, which celebrates life, rebirth and love.

For a whole day – generally on the last day of winter -- revelers enjoy delicacies, dance and play as they smear one another with plates of colored powder.

Be there or be square!

Goldman Sachs commuter boat slams into J. Owen Grundy Park

Yes this is yesterday's news but one question keeps popping up in Johnny's head; Unless the boat had electrical or steering malfunctions how in the hell do you miss your dock, one you've used many times before, by some 300 yards? Goldman Sachs, would you like to tell us what hapened to your ship piloted by a New York Waterway captain? New York Waterway would you like to tell us what happened to the captain that he missed a dock by 300 yards? Hopefully it wasn't a heart attack or other awful medical condition that caused this. We, like everyone else are here waiting for answers.

We're just glad Goldman Sachs, along with New York Waterway will be rebuilding Jersey City's park and the damage done to it. They'd better.

Turn off the computer, go outside

Lawdy lawdy Miss Clawdy have we got a day out there that feels more like late September than late July. Revel in this 73º day, you won't feel it again for a while. Go for a long walk in our fair city. Do that gardening project you had. Make sure to hit the Grove St. Farmer's Market today after 4pm. Go sit in J. Owen Grundy Park and read a book or eat lunch (but bring a sweater, Johnny was just down to the river with his dire wolf and it's a bit cool down there). And like Johnny, do have dinner sitting outside tonight.

Thank you weather gods...

The World Trade Center gets its hat, er spire!

Amazing scene down by the river this morning as WTC workers raised the final 408 foot section and permanently anchored the spire atop the WTC, making it a cool 1,776 feet in height. That last section really does make it look incredible. It antenna leading to the spire looks almost a third taller though Johnny will write that off to an optical illusion. Too bad the stupid humidity ruined any great clear shots from the west siiiiide of the Hudson. Stupid humidity.

WHEN DOES IT LIGHT UP?!?! Johnny saw in an article elsewhere the LED lighting is such it will be visible for 50 miles lit up on clear DAYS. Like a day beacon. Imagine it at night. There will be fistfights and elbowing in J. Owen Grundy park between photographers is our guess.

Johnny wasn't here in 2001. He understand as an American the impact of that day but too knows it is a much deeper kind of hurt to his new NJ and NY friends who were here. But he is every bit as proud as someone who looks at it every day out his window and while walking around town as anyone who was here before. It is a triumphant moment of pride and achievement the regulars, the interlopers and the interlopers becoming regulars all share with this grand wonder.

WHEN DOES IT LIGHT UP?!?!

Jersey City announces curfew

Mayor Healy has announced a curfew for most of Jersey City but especially aimed at those who might want to "enjoy" the storm from the riverwalk and or J. Owen Grundy Park beginning at 6pm.

From Huffington Post:
Healy said the city's waterfront district along the Hudson River and the southern portion of the city between the Hudson River and the Hackensack River will be subject to a curfew from 6 p.m. Monday evening to 1 p.m. Tuesday afternoon.

Healy said at a Monday afternoon press briefing that a storm surge is expected to flood those areas, including the riverwalk along the Hudson, and a curfew is needed to discourage people who may want to watch the storm from the riverwalk.

He said that while he is confident that buildings will "not crumble, "what’s going to happen to us will be treacherous."

That is all.

Bad news out of Hoboken, Frank Sinatra Park is in really rough shape -- UPDATED

You'll recall last year we ran a couple of stories on Hoboken's desire to rebuild Frank Sinatra Park along the waterfront. There was quite a setback when engineers looked at parts of the park that had actually collapsed at the waterside:

"...engineers discovered support pilings holding up the park had dramatically deteriorated, city officials announced yesterday during a site tour."

The new cost for the rehab is not known though the park was undergoing $7.7 million dollar refurbish by Springfield-based EIC Associates. The new plan will involve:

"...installation of a temporary dam around the site, removing all the water so the new pier can be constructed. After work is complete, the dam will be removed and the natural habitat under the pier will be restored.

A definite drag for FuHo residents who are now lacking extra space on the river for over a year now. We'd like to invite them to walk or bike or simply take the PATH to the Exchange Place stop and get off and enjoy Jersey City's J. Owen Grundy Park right on the river in the heart of it all.

UPDATE: Late yesterday the City of Hoboken cancelled the contract with EIC Associates. EIC Associates will be able to bid on the new repairs necessary but the old contract was cancelled as the collapse of Frank Sinatra Park made the old plan worthless.

Is there a better lunch spot in all of Jersey City than J. Owen Grundy Park?

Just a wonderful place to sit down and enjoy lunch when it's 70º on November 8th...