Boutique Opens on Jersey Avenue, Others Close Up

A new boutique opened last month on Jersey Avenue at Fourth Street. Meanwhile, the short lived Gas Men's Clothing seems to have closed for good. Rumor has too that Imagine Atrium, the little gift shop that sold books, has a "For Rent" sign in the window.

We're So Famous

The Jersey Journal's possible future closure has created quite a stir on the internet (not that the paper knows what the internet is). Apparently there is a whole Facebook Group dedicated to saving the beleaguered paper. The Jersey City Independent, an online paper posed to supplant the Journal after its imminent closure, writes up a bit about the group hoping to save the Journal; more importantly, we're quoted. The Independent also may have inadvertently stumbled onto the root of the Journal's problems: the Journal has cut its editorial staff from 36 to 13 over the last seven years, and their newest solution is cutting even more.

Port Authority Answers Time's Readers Questions

The first round of answers posed to the Port Authority Executive Director by readers of the Times have have been answered, sort of. One reader wanted to know why the PATH Terminal at the World Trade Center was so far behind schedule. Good question, bad answer. The response include a myriad of facts about the project, and this one liner:

"I realize that may be a lot more information than you wanted,"

Actually, we were thinking just the opposite. All the information provided has already been disseminated several times. Presumably, there will be a second set of "select" questions.

Port Authority Executive Director to Answer New York Time's Reader Questions

The executive director of the Port Authority will be answering "select" questions from readers of the the New York Times City Room. This might be the perfect time to badger the agency about proposed closings of the World Trade Center PATH station. The Port Authority has proposed closing the WTC PATH terminus on weekends for the next two years in order to build new high rise office towers at the World Trade Center site. Such a question might go like this: why is the bi-state agency investing in lower Manhattan at the expensive of New Jersey residents? Or, isn't it irresponsible to ask New Jersey residents to sacrifice a major gateway into New York to simply speed along an already delayed construction process? Answers will be selected from comments left on the New York Times site.

Weekend Blood Letting in Area Newspapers, Journal Could be Next

The parent company of the Trentonian filed for bankruptcy over the weekend, as well as the Philadelphia Inquirer, the third oldest daily paper in the country. Both papers serve south Jersey. Jersey City's Jersey Journal warned earlier this month that the paper would also be facing closure as early as April.

The Journal has been struggling in recent years. In 2005, in an effort to attract more readers, the paper went from a standard broadsheet format to a tabloid size. At the time, the move was seen as risky but necessary.

Print news has been hit from all angles in recent years. Classified ads, the one time bread and butter of the newspaper industry has largely been replaced by internet sites like Craigslist. Subscriber bases have declined too as readers began consuming news online free of charge. Meanwhile, the internet has also increased competition allowing citizen journalists access to the same readers as professional news organizations.

One such project is the Jersey City Independent, an online only news site focusing on Jersey City. The Independent provides the online news coverage the Journal should have been providing all along.

The Journal does not have its own website, instead publishing off of its parent company's brand NJ.com. One of the problems with NJ.com is that news articles on the site disappear from the internet after just two weeks, depriving the site of archival ad revenue. On the other hand, online publications remain available since their inception.

NJ.com has experimented with more modern formats, such as the blogs Hudson County Now and Hoboken Now. Largely though these efforts in the online realm have been, in internet parlance, a fail. For instance, Hoboken Now competes directly with independent news site Hoboken411. Hoboken411 produces vast quantities of content and maintains a loyal reader base on a minimal budget; NJ.com blogs on the other hand consist of multiple staff members and are not robust enough to conform to standards of internet publications. Standard internet practice includes linking to multiple sources, providing readers a richer experience; instead, NJ.com most often links to NJ.com, limiting the usefulness of the site.

Meanwhile, the Hudson County weekly paper, The Hudson Reporter has reinvigorated its web presence with a site redesign. The free paper best known for collecting unread on city stoops has refreshed its web portal to provide timely news and regular updates as well as accept reader content.

The Jersey Journal may not exist come April, but the Jersey City residents will not be wanting for news. The very reasons the Journal faces an uphill battle-- competition from the internet-- has made for better information available to readers. If the Journal cannot survive, its only because someone built a better mousetrap.

New PATH Cars Begin Circulation

The new PATH cars began carrying riders last Thursday morning for a limited mid-day run. Rumor has it the cars will be making appearances at various times over the next few weeks, testing the cars at rush hour and late nights as well.

Bakery Begins Construction, Joins Facebook

Cocoa Bakery has begun construction on the interior of their retail space at Liberty Harbor, and posted photos on their Facebook page.

77 Hudson & 70 Greene

The two towers looking south

77 Hudson Street





Looking west from Hudson Street. The sidewalk has been laid on the corner.




70 Greene Street

Liberty Harbor North

Hamilton Square

Retail spaces are taking shape along McWilliams Place.



Detailing around the base of the main tower.

Crystal Point

Monaco Towers

255 Grand Street

On the corner of Grand and Marin, the first level of a multistory tower is underway. The project consists of 347 units.


Grand Street was lined with trees last year, but they have all been cut down.