Steve Fulop has decided now is the time to take some digs at NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio

In quite a shocker, the mayor of our fair city opened up a small can of economic whup-ass on the mayor across the river. Steve Fulop told the Wall St. Journal that in his opinion de Blasio's comments about asking the rich to pay more. Fulop said de Blasio's "polarizing" comments have somehow "terrified" NYC business interests.

Where to begin. Is this some kind of coded message to wealthy individuals and businesses to look at Jersey City? Was Fulop having a Goldman Sachs flashback to his days there where criticizing anything populist or that didn't make the rich richer was reflex? Was he merely trying to raise his own reputation? Johnny has a pretty good idea why Fulop said what he said, but it's far more interesting to speculate on the big picture.

What say you Jersey City?

Once again, Johnny's got vision and the rest of the world wears bifocals

How long ago did Johnny start calling Jersey City "Cool City?" Almost from the start. The place needed a litle jazzing up when he got here and hence Cool City was born in Jersey City. Well NOW others are piling onto the meme, like today for instance. None other than the Wall Street Journal is following Johnny on this and they have written a very nice article on how Jersey City is now living up to its monicker of "The Sixth Borough" (At some point we're going to need to have a city-wide talk on this -- whether we want to be known as 'Wall Street West' or 'The Sixth').

So take some time and see what New York is discovering about Jersey City (well Grove Street area mostly) and then come back here with your opinions.

Jersey City got quite the write up in the Wall Street Journal

According to the WSJ we're reinventing ourselves in a big way. It's got some nice restaurant mentions along with other places to go, see and do. A snippet:

"Just across the Hudson River from Manhattan and easily accessible by the PATH train, Jersey City is increasingly a popular destination for those who want to be close to New York City without being immersed in its bustle. Once a heavily industrial area, the area has in the past several years seen a surge in new development and in conversions of former industrial buildings into housing, office, retail and entertainment space.

The short commute, the views and the relatively low prices draw some Manhattan workers. Others both live and work in the area, creating a community dedicated to seeing the city thrive."

You can read the rest of Sushil Cheema's fine article on Wall Street West here.