Great news! Who needs a bunch of entitled, not very good wanna be artists anyway?

There seems to be so much graffiti around town these days. THey are tagging brand new buildings, and beautiful old brick buildings. It's just awful. Who is doing this? Is it kids? When are they doing it?

lots of families are deciding not to "flee" to he suburbs. With that, they also want a decent education for their kids. We do need to attract the best and brightest to JC schools and we are not going to do that by bashing teachers and cutting their pay.

I live in the Village - love it. It's a great place to live with an active community. I am a young(ish) female and have never felt unsafe. I've lived in several different areas of downtown over the past 12 years, including Hamilton Park, but the Village is a my favorite section.

The owner of that dog needs to be prosecuted for murder and put in jail for a long time.

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Henkels & McCoy - do they operate in Jersey City?

I recently saw a well dressed, 30ish blonde woman in Hamilton Park with her dog (looked to be some sort of pit bull mix) off the leash. Unfortunately I didn't have my phone ready to take a picture. And with a baby in tow, there was no way I was going to be confronting her.

This is so scary...everyone involved in bringing a massive pipeline right next to elementary schools should be so ashamed of themselves...

Grovepath, what is going on at Brunswick? I have smelled the gas there on several occasions and reported it to the police and fire department.

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Its not just "affluent" parents in the downtown area. There are plenty of middle class families, just trying to keep things going, that are trying to find decent school options for their kids here. I would probably be one of those people that, on first sight, you would label as an "affluent parent". The reality is that I am a full time working mom that wants a safe and reasonable school option for her toddler. I don't like the idea of my 3 or 4 year old child being bused all over the City every day, particularly when we have schools within a couple of blocks but the City won't allocate resources to assure sufficient capacity. As a final note, many of us "affluent parents" prefer to walk to school, rather than having to take a car across the city (or utilize city buses) to access a school that is totally geographically inconvenient.

There are plenty of parents in JC that care deeply about the well-being and education of their children. But the public schools are still not very good (with the exception of a couple of charter schools and, of course McNair - which are very difficult to get a spot in). This City doesn't seem to prioritize making the schools better. We need better infrastructure to start. We have elementary schools that have absolutely zero outside green space. Until the City starts focusing on how they can improve the schools enough to keep families here, people will continue to leave. Jersey City property values will never reach its full potential until you get the schools improved. Lets start making it a priority and dedicating resources. Use the power of eminent domain to start buying up adjacent land to improve the infrastructure of the schools.

If they have never been to the statue of Liberty, it is definitely worth the effort. You really don't need to buy tickets in advance. Just look up the schedule and buy tix the day of. It's really an enjoyable experience and should be on everyone's bucket list, if they have the opportunity to go.

I hope not! This is a great little bookstore. The owners (mother and daughter) are so nice and welcoming. It is wonderful to have a place like this in the neighborhood. You can get lots of good used books for $3!

For my pregnancy, I went to the Rubino group in Bayonne, whom I loved. You can actually take the light rail there if you don't drive. I delivered at St. Barnabas in Livingston. I know some folks who delivered at Liberty medical center and had a good report. I am not particularly impressed with either Hoboken or Christ hospital generally, though I have little knowledge of their maternity departments.

Mao, thanks for putting this together. It really is a special treat. I am not Catholic, but this got me into Church and I really enjoyed it. My toddler especially loved the music.

went to the mass today at St. Anthony's to check out the choir. It was beautiful. I'll be coming back. :)

I have no singing skills, but I look forward to checking out the mass at St. Anthony's.

Mr. Rushman: For me, the problem with your project is that it is taking away property that is needed by the children of Jersey City for the school system that is already desperate for space - including green space. Have you thought about those implications, or is that not a concern for you because you don't have children that utilize the Jersey City school system? While certainly you can throw it back on the City for selling the land in the first place, the implications of your project on the school system are very real, permanent and damaging. This is a by-product of your project; your conscious may be fine with this because it doesn't have any consequences for your life and you profit from it, but it does matter for those residents that live here and want better for the children. Bottom line, your project harms the children of this community because that property should have been dedicated to the school. Shame on the City as well for not making this happen in the first instance.

As a final note, I don't think you will garner much support by threatening that the project may happen by "operation of law."

While there are certain parts of DTJC that may look like Brooklyn, DTJC has a totally different feel, which I feel is the distinguishing factor and certainly preferable to me. Whenever I am in Brooklyn, I feel so isolated and cut off from the rest of the world, because it is such a PIA to get out of Brooklyn and go anywhere (except Manhattan) with so much traffic. I like that in DTJC we can get out of town fairly quickly and without it being a huge hassle. I also feel like there is a different sense of community here. It also doesn't feel so crowded and claustrophobic. While I am well aware that there are many nice areas of Brooklyn, personally, I would never, ever live there.

I don't think DTJC is anything like any part of Brooklyn, and I am so thankful for that.

Thanks for this info. Good to know!

I heard this about McNair from a person in the medical profession who states that she has coworkers who moved to the burbs and somehow kept an old JC address so their kids could go to McNair.

I have no idea whether this can be substantiated or not, but this person had no reason to lie. She used to live in JC and moved out because of the school system after she had young children. It came up when we were discussing the school system in general. I didn't follow up with any questions because I don't know this person very well - only in the context of receiving treatment for my daughter. I found it incredibly disturbing.

I have also heard that this remains a problem at McNair high school - where non resident children are getting in the school there. Anybody know if this is happening?

Although I don't have children anywhere near the age of high school, this really bothers me. We have so few "good" school resources here in Jersey City, with McNair being a select few hundred available spots for kids to get an excellent public education. If this is happening, the City needs to do everything possible to ferret out the abusers and return those spots to residents.

Boris: While we can pick apart Obamacare, the fact remains that we have millions of individuals that have no insurance or are severely uninsured. And even for those of us that have insurance, the quality of healthcare is in a steady decline for all but those that are very wealthy and can afford the best of the best (including serious out of pocket expenses). This rings true for even many public service employees - while they may have insurance, it doesn't mean it is very good.

Something needs to be done. One life is simply not worth more than another because they happen to have been born into a family with higher net worth.

We currently have a system where you can get the best of the best in healthcare - if you are wealthy and can afford it. For the rest of us, we get mediocre at best to a complete lack of services, at worst. If this is the kind of system you think is fair and agreeable to you, then don't delude yourself and call this County a democracy and a beacon of fairness and freedom. Call it for what it is, and it's pretty ugly.

Vigilante, I agree with you. No matter how you slice it, this is tenement living. Our standard of living is certainly declining to a point where I feel very sorry for young people.

Leigh - so true. There are so many people with young kids around here. I'd love a local shop I could go to for kids toys and clothing.

I miss the really nice kids consignment shop that used to be in the spot where three little birds currently is located. Would love to see an upscale kids/baby consignment shop here in downtown. I don't have the energy or the will to go to Hoboken...

I'll definitely check this place out though and try to support it. It looks cute just from a walk by observation.

There plenty of highly qualified real residents of Jersey city who could fill this position.
send this guy packing back to the burbs in Sayerville!

Monroe - I thought this thread was originally for a recommendation for a happy hour in JC? I have nothing against Edgewater - it has some decent restaurants. But the last thing I want to do when I am thinking of happy hour is get in a car and drive.

Great article - thanks for sharing. I definitely share the sentiments in this article. I feel more engaged and connected to my City than pretty much most of my friends that live in the burbs. JC is an interesting place to live, and I am glad to live here.

Fairway is a good suggestion. I agree that Trader Joe's doesn't provide the full supermarket offerings that I would be looking for. I personally have very little disposable time that I want to be spending on shopping for food. I prefer getting the job done at 1 or 2 places rather than having to hit up several.

Whole foods is lovely and I would certainly go there, but the prices are consistently high. What we need is a good quality, higher end supermarket that still offers value. Yes, this can be done and Wegman's is the perfect example. But since there is no chance for a Wegman's, I second the call for a Fairway.

Welcome to JC! I moved here 12 years ago as a 20 something and am still here as a married 30 something mom. This town is strangely compelling, despite what the detractors say. We were briefly contemplating a move to the suburbs when our child was born, but the suburbs just weren't for us. My hubby said he "felt like his life was over" when we were looking at houses in the burbs. lol! JC is a great place to live.