Finally, we get some damn snow! Let's go out and explore.
Where should we go, Lady Liberty? Journal Square, you say? Sounds good.
Newark native Larry Young (featuring fellow Newarker Woody Shaw on trumpet) will be our guide.
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Located up the hill from "Downtown" Jersey City, Journal Square is JC's older, "original" downtown, and a major shopping and transportation hub. The surrounding residential are comprised of gritty, point-of-entry immigrant communities. As the home of Ellis Island, Jersey City has fittingly been an affordable home for generations of immigrants looking to make it in the vast New Jersey/New York market.
Journal Square is a glorious urban mess. Gritty, busy, at times ghastly and at times gorgeous. It has been a poor area for a long time, but it's phenomenally diverse, and urban as hell.
Like Times Square, Journal Square takes it's name from the headquarters of the local paper. The Jersey Journal was first published in 1867.
Looking down the curiously named Sip Avenue towards the mighty Pulaski Skyway, a many-miles-long land bridge connecting Jersey City with neighboring Newark.
Homes on Tonnele Ave
Pavonia Ave
A dense block of Van Wagenen Ave in the Marion neighborhood.
This stretch of Newark Ave is known as India Square. Jersey City is over 11% Indian-American. They are a large presence in more working class districts such as this, and also the expensive, white collar waterfront areas such as Newport.
St. Paul's Ave
Jersey City's generating plant
The skylines of Downtown Jersey City and Lower Manhattan blending together.
The Five Points, where Newark, Summit, and Hoboken Aves come together. This is near a heavily Filipino area.
A little touch of South London in New Jersey
The Labor Bank Building was Jersey City's first skyscraper, built in 1928. Today it is the city's 23rd tallest building.
Journal Square was home to the
legendary Tube Bar. Owner Louis "Red" Deutch gained fame due to his furious, profane reactions to frequent prank calls. The recordings of these calls were an inspiration for Bart Simpson's similar tormenting of Moe Szyslak (who is based on Deutch).
I'm looking for a Mr. Jass, first name Hugh.
A quiet residential block of Van Reipen Ave.
Mistakes were made.
The downtown Jersey City skyline, with bits of Manhattan here and there
PATH trains
Sip Ave
Summit Ave
Academy St.
A quaint relic of decades past. If you want to walk around with a ghetto blaster on your shoulder, look elsewhere.
Bergen Square
Bergen Ave at the awesomely named Vroom Street
Gettin' out of church
McGinley Square, which is south of Journal Square.
South of McGinley Square, things start getting rougher.
Behold: The monstrous Jersey City Medical Center. Built with WPA funds in 1936, is was a huge extravagance: marble floors, terrazzo walls, and grand chandeliers. Way too big, even at it's peak. The hospital suffered as the surrounding neighborhood deteriorated. It was closed in 1988 and fell into severe disrepair.
Montgomery Ave
Orchard/Monticello
For years, the JCMC was New Jersey's version of Detroit's Michigan Central Station (except much larger and virtually unknown and uncelebrated).
When I first visited in 2000, all of the windows were smashed out, and a deeply creepy vibe emanated from the bombed-out towers.
Two of the towers facing Montgomery were renovated and turned into luxury housing in 2008.
I am thrilled that the buildings are being saved, but remain skeptical as to the current viability of the project. The surroundings remains an awfully dicey area to command luxury prices. The PATH station is a good walk from here. The development, now known as the Beacon, has shuttle vans to the downtown PATH stations that I see every day.
Clifton Pl.
Immediately to the south of the old JCMC begins the Bergen-Lafayette neighborhood, a very rough place. We're turning around here.
Storms Ave.
Howard Pl. I love how the JCMC looms over the surrounding low-rise neighborhoods.
Britton St.
J. F. Kennedy Blvd.
A tremendous old apartment building at Kennedy and Sip
Sip Ave, back in the center of Journal Square
The Loew's Jersey Theatre, opened in 1929 (I managed not to get a good picture of the whole thing.)
After attending a Bing Crosby performance here, a young Frank Sinatra decided which profession he wanted to pursue.
Saint George, keeping Journal Square dragon-free since 1929.
Time to head home.
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