Jersey City: Finally, in the Spotlight

I’ve been living in Manhattan across the Hudson River from it for 19 years, but like most New Yorkers, I never visited Jersey City, not even once. And then I finally did. Boy, was I missing out.

Jersey Gloire

Poor JC. It has the history, food, architecture, culture, art and commerce of a first-class destination…except it’s sitting in the shadow of another first-class destination right across the river. Instead, Jersey City gets lumped with other dubious Jersey connections, like The Jersey Shore for example, a show starring no one from New Jersey, and where the politics are a connect-the-dots of indictments. The message is clear there though. In JC you’re guaranteed one hell of a time no matter where you go!

In case there are some dyed-in-the-wool New Yorkers who have not been paying attention, Jersey City is almost beginning to mimic parts of Manhattan. Shimmering towers dominate the waterfront, so much so that the Paulus Hook section is nicknamed “Wall Street West.” Old brownstones and mansions are getting grand refurbs, and industrial warehouses are being converted to overly priced condos (see … like in Manhattan). Jersey City is a town on the rise, but it’s not trying to be a second Big Apple.

World City

There is a certain idiosyncrasy to Jersey City’s identity which seems to work – the architectural poeticism of Paulus Hook paired with the “benign neglect” of the disused platforms at the

Central Railroad of New Jersey Terminal. And the immigrants living here have woven a crazy quilt of cuisines: chic French cafes like Cafe Esme and L’atelier du Chocolat jostle next to Turkish fare at Rumi. Buried deep in the Irish Greenville neighborhood, Italian eatery Laico’s serves top notch calamari.

The nexus of town, where everybody goes, is Hamilton Park. While Liberty State Park, with its superlative views of the Manhattan skyline, is more famous, centrally located Hamilton acts as the focal point for the city. Bordered by grand brownstones, this gracious green space accommodates summertime Shakespeare festivals and farmer’s markets with equal aplomb. But for year-round rollicking, Newark Avenue is the heart of the city, and is kind on the wallet to boot.

Splashed with murals that are a JC hallmark, city officials wisely turned this stretch of asphalt into a pedestrian walkway, thereby opening up a thriving pub scene, from dives to high brows, that Newark Avenue showcases with unmitigated glee. You’d think that the swarm of hipsters and Millennials are the ones making the neighborhood very “in,” but savvy consumers of all sorts know that here, and the rest of Jersey City, is flat-out cheaper than anything in New York. Economy goes a long way in explaining why this town is exploding, and not just in its bars. Compared to the $10 cocktails in New York, what’s a $2 fare on the PATH train under the Hudson?

Look Beyond the Obvious

Jersey City is a case in point of peering beyond the obvious. When you look away from the great attractors — like, say, London, Tokyo, and Rome — a whole new landscape may appear at your doorstep, smaller perhaps and more modest, but seemingly infinite. Blot out the lights of New York City and it’s revealed that Jersey City doesn’t bask in reflected glory but shines all on its own. And it only took me two decades to notice.