There is a hill in Lincoln Park close to Duncan Avenue near the picnic area. It looks like it would be good for young kids but not very challenging for older children. Leonard Gordon Park has some sloped areas (on JFK Blvd and Manhattan Avenue - with the buffalo and bear statues) but not sure if they are good for sledding.

If there is any neighborhood that should get an abatement, it is this one. This is great news for Monticello Avenue and McGinley Square.

Next Thursday folks. Come celebrate what is good about Jersey City. It's a great night.

I'm not a resident of the area, but I love the Embankment. Thank you for doing this.

+1 for Honshu for both delivery and eat-in. In my opinion, the best sushi in JC.

I just saw the January issue of Architectural Digest at my dentist's office. There is an article and photo spread on the Mercury. Looks amazing.

This documentary reinforces every negative stereotype about Newark. As someone who has worked in Newark for over 20 years, I found this film to be depressing and very narrow minded. There are a lot of positive things happening in Newark none of which are shown here.

Try Candlewood Suites downtown. They are very reasonable and extremely clean.

What a beautiful program and what a line-up of awardees. It really makes me feel proud to be a resident of Jersey City and to see all the wonderful work that is being done by my fellow citizens. Everybody loves to gripe on this list, but this is one event where we can come together, celebrate and feel good about the place we call home.

Does anyone know if they have grills in Lincoln Park or if you can bring your own?

Please do this everyone. It only takes a couple of minutes and your comment could help save the Embankment.

"Between Erie and Manila... you still have cha cha land... despite the low income being turned into "Luxury" condos."

Cha-cha land? Wow, that is really offensive.

Sorry, gymnasium.

The building with the Polish crest is White Eagle Hall. It is an old gymnaisum, social hall, community gathering place that was once affiliated with St. Anthony of Padua Church. For many years it was the practice gym for St. Anthony's Friars basketball team. It has been abandoned for a number of years and seems to be in a bit of a sorry state. The Archdiocese of Newark is selling it for 1.55 million.

Sugar House / American Sugar Refining Company
Sugar House Lofts at Liberty Cove
174 Washington Street
Paulus Hook Historic District, North of Liberty State Park



Sugar House Condominiums
Photo: A. Selvaggio, 2002

The Sugar House, a Jersey City waterfront warehouse, was designed by architect Detlef Leinau in 1863. It eventually became part of the American Sugar Refining Company and stood on the corner of Essex and Washington Streets on the south side of the Morris Canal.

The local architect Detlef Lienau (1818-1887), born in Denmark, was a founder of the American Institute of Architects and had an office at 111 Broadway in New York City. He was known for the building of homes on Fifth Avenue and for his wealthy clients like August Belmont and the Astors. Lienau built his first house in Jersey City for his brother Michael in 1849. He also built the Grace Church Van Vorst in 1850-53, the Mechanics and Traders Bank building in 1859, and the original First National Bank building at One Exchange Place in 1864.

F.O. Matthiessen & Wiechers, a stock investment company began the sugar refining business in Jersey. Another refinery plant on the north side of the Morris Canal was built in 1868 to refine Cuban molasses. That operation was discontinued with the introduction of centrifugal machines for the efficient refining of sugar. By 1890 the American Sugar Refining Company took over the refinery plants and was producing a variety of over 5,000 barrels of 360 pounds each of refined sugar a day from raw sugar imported worldwide.

By 1907, the Refining Company employed over fifteen hundred workers and occupied four city blocks with an expanse of over nine hundred feet of waterfront to receive transport ships. During this time of industrial expansion, the company was noted both for the quality of its product and for its progressive views on the redesign of production equipment in its own machine shops to remain a leader in its industry.

On November 14, 1924, a four-alarm fire originating at the Battielle and Renwick Saltpeter Co. on Morris and Warren streets spread across the street to the Sugar House. Saltpeter or sodium nitrate is used in the making of explosives and is highly inflammable. The fire caused the evacuation of nine hundred residents in nearby wooden tenements in the immigrant neighborhood known as "Gammontown." No one was killed during the fire. News reports claim that the daytime conflagration, starting at nine a.m., enabled firefighters to bring the injured to safety. The fire gutted the Sugar House and consumed the Heppe Paper Box Co., next to the saltpeter facility. Part of the Sugar House complex and the Colgate Company storage plant, on the east side of Essex Street, were saved by the dynamiting of "an overhead passageway connecting the soap plant and the sugar house to halt the flames" (Jersey Journal, 18 December 1964).

The rapid spreading of the fire, explosive noises and shattering of windowpanes reminded some Jersey City residents of the Black Tom explosion, only eight years earlier. Thickening smoke and sparks carried by heavy winds affected homes surrounding Morris, Essex, Washington, and Warren streets. Firemen, incapable of reaching the fire, could only water adjacent properties as a preventative measure. Fireboats used the access of the Morris Canal Basin at the foot of Washington Street to protect the piers and properties south of the fire.

Fire officials claim the overheating of the machinery in the manufacture of the saltpeter to be the cause of the fire; however, company officials held that a bonfire set next to the building caused the sparks to ignite a fire in the basement. The fire that raged for four hours destroyed thirty-seven tenement houses and several large factories with total property damage amounting to approximately one million dollars. The only building on the block of the fire to remain in tact was the Onyx Chemical Co., next to the saltpeter plant. This "fireproof" building was constructed in 1923.

The Sugar House survived another fire in 1955. It was renovated by Diversified Management Systems and today is a sixty-four unit condominium and opened for occupancy in June 2001.

References:
Golodik, Thomas. "50 Years Ago: Jersey City's Worst Fire." Jersey Journal 14 November 1974.
"The Jersey City Sugar House Fire: A Tremendous Spectacle." Jersey Journal 18 December 1964.

Just drove past City Hall and there are lots of news trucks parked around it, I guess for tonight's caucus meeting. Also heard the news on WBGO. What an embarrassment!

Ward C (Journal Square) Councilman
Steven Lipski
City Hall, 280 Grove Street
Room 202
Jersey City, NJ 07302
Tel: (201) 547-5159
Fax: (201) 547-4678
email: LipskiS@jcnj.org

Irina Zaki, Council Aide
Tel: (201) 547-5172
email:


Term of office
First elected to council: June 12, 2001
Current term expires: June 30, 2009

Biography
On June 12, 2001, Steve Lipski realized the first of two dreams. He was elected Councilman of Ward C the Journal Square area in Jersey City. On September 4, 2001, the new Councilman realized his second dream. He and his lovely wife, Yraida, officially opened the doors of Create Charter High School in the Greenville Section of Jersey City, welcoming 100 young girls and boys as ninth graders, and just four years later graduated the first ever charter high school class in Jersey City. Both as a Councilman and a School Administrator, Steve Lipski has had successes. For Steve, dreams do come true!

Born and raised in Jersey City, Councilman Lipski was a believer in patriotism from an early age. A Cub Scout and a Boy Scout, Steve served in the U.S. Army Reserves as a Drill Sergeant. Steve played in the Little League, and ran track and played football at Dickinson High School.

He studied at Seton Hall University, where he received two undergraduate degrees and two Master's Degrees, and recently completed his work for a Master's Degree in Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. He was an educator in the New York City School System for ten years until he received approval to open his Charter High School.

Councilman Lipski is presently serving his second consecutive term as councilman, the first to do so in Ward C since the 60's. During his tenure as councilman he served on the Redevelopment Agency as Commissioner, Vice Chairman, and Chairman. In addition, he has his own civic association that serves meals on Thanksgiving., sponsors three teams in Pershing Field Babe Ruth/Cal Ripken, and in cooperation with Pershing Field Babe Ruth/Cal Ripken gives out more than 4000 toys to children during winter holidays.

A community adviser for many years, especially in helping the less fortunate, Steve is a member of many civic and government groups and organizations, lie is a Fourth Degree Knight of Columbus and a member of the Elks and Moose Clubs. Steve has always been a big supporter of the Philippine American Friendship Committee, Inc's (PAFCOM) community development projects. Steve has an open arm to accommodate and help the Filipino American seniors and the youth in their needs. This year, Steve joined some Filipino American community leaders in CADCA's midyear training, held in Phoenix, Arizona, to develop and expand a citywide coalition under the Jersey City Community that Cares Program, to fight substance abuse in Jersey City, Today, he is working with PAFCON's executive Director, Rolando Lavarro, to Collaborate efforts to understand and improve the quality of life in Jersey City.


Special Projects
Education
Community development

(Taken from the City of Jersey City website. Note the last sentence of the last paragraph.)

Hysterical! I wonder what Dancing Tony thinks of the rest of JC.

I agree with skywarp. JC is very much like Brooklyn: a little Park Slope, a lot Bed-Stuy, some Downtown, a little Greenpoint...

If you don't have a car and happen to live in the Beacon, McGinley or Journal Square area, it is challenging to get to Pathmark or ShopRite and even more challenging to bring your groceries home, especially since the way back is all uphill. This is a large, densely populated area of JC that has no access to a supermarket. Part of the Beacon plan was always to have a grocery store. Perhaps with the redevelopment of the Montgomery Gardens site, a larger supermarket with parking could better serve the area.

Old buildings are not ours. They belong partly to those who built them, and partly to the generations of mankind who are to follow us. The dead still have their rights to them?that which they labored for we have no right to obliterate. What we ourselves have built, we are at liberty to throw down. But what other men gave their strength and wealth and life to accomplish, their right over it does not pass away with their death. -John Ruskin.

Please consider sending an email or calling Councilwoman Viola Richardson. If you live outside of Councilwoman Richardson's area, call your own council representative or Mariano Vega, the council president. This is such an important building for all of Jersey City, not just Bergen Hill. It is one of the most magnificent churches in Jersey City and it is mind-boggling to think that the Episcopal Diocese is doing its best to demolish the building as quickly as possible and to also stop the landmarking tomorrow. This is our heritage and our patrimony. We cannot allow the City Council to deny the landmarking tomorrow! Please do whatever you can to help save this stunning piece of our history!

I joined too and I don't have any pets. Keep up the good work.

For the ultimate Peruvian epicurean experience go to Oh Calamares! on Kearny Avenue in Kearny. They have the best ceviche this side of Lima. The also have a variety of Peruvian beers, wines and piscos and the staff is exceptionally friendly.

Try Mi Bandera in Union City on 32nd Street. The liquor store is on one side of the street and the grocery is on the opposite side. The grocery store has a whole aisle dedicated to Peruvian food so I would think that the liquor store would carry Cusquena beer.

For years, my mother-in-law has been knitting caps for premature babies. She says it helps her maintain her sanity. In some Maplewood schools, all of the kids knit, boys and girls. It has become extremely popular. Although I don't knit, I will pass on the info to my neighbors. Good luck to Stockinette. I hope it thrives for a long, long time.

The most important thing is that enrollment slots are being given away to out-of-district students for the cost of annual school supplies. Most public high school districts that allow out-of-district students do so at full tuition and only if spots are available. Unless they are seniors and have been at McNair since the beginning, and their parents are charged full tuition and fees, the students should be removed immediately. It is only a week into the new school year and they should adjust well in their home districts. Their slots should be given to JC kids.

Just saw one on York Street behind the Old Colony Shopping center about one block east of Siperstein's.

In case anyone is interested, there is an entrepreneurial vendor who sets up a table outside of Montgomery Gardens, on Montgomery Street, every weekend, and sometimes during the week, with extra large white T-shirts, do-rags, solid color bandannas, sunglasses and belts. I'm not sure about the other public housing projects, but you can certainly get your gangsta-wear on Montgomery.

PS The white T-shirts come is multiple-X sizes such as XXL and XXXL and come several to a package.

Many of the residents of 1180 Raymond Boulevard are city employees who joined the Booker administration. Because there is a residency requirement for working in Newark, this building has become the de facto "Newark address." The Ironbound is a completely different animal than living on Raymond Boulevard west of Penn Station. The Ironbound, or "Down Neck" as it was always called, is a real neighborhood, a community with a diverse population, lots of stores and restaurants and most importantly, lots of street life. I would live in the Ironbound in a heartbeat but would have to think very hard about living in 1180. It is pretty isolated even though it is downtown. At night there is nothing going on and I wouldn't want to walk to the Ironbound. I would definitely feel safer taking a cab.