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You are so cute , I could just eat you up.

"seriously trollgeneral! love it or leave it. you should move out to the country and get yourself some cows."

Yah dude I'll be movin to the country and eatin me some peaches as soon as the condo sells. Cept the Puerto Ricans are making my street look less desirable to potential buyers. So if my place don't sell, I'm gettin a pickup truck with a horn that plays Lynyrd Skynyrd and buyin a rifle. Goddamit - eff whole foods - we need us a wallmart!

Pigs enjoy living in mud.

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seriously trollgeneral! love it or leave it. you should move out to the country and get yourself some cows.

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It's called city living.

Just make sure you support gentrification otherwise you will be labeled a "bleeding heart liberal" that likes high crime and should move to Camden. At least thats what I'e picked up from this site.

I would really like to see some of the puerto rican social clubs close down. There are some decent people hanging out there for the most part, but they make the block look like shit. What's with all the crap sitting outside? Are they selling that stroller/grass mower/stuffed monkey or just displaying it for some retarded aesthetic value? What's with the flags all over the place? And is it really necessary to blow your "La Cucaracha-playing" horn at 7 am on a saturday?

Without a doubt JC is being gentrified and DT is a prime example.

In the building were I live, before they were 300k+ refurbished condos they were $300/month apartments. Mind you, they were pretty rough around the edges.... but the people living there didnt mind.

Cheap housing is quickly disappearing and what was once a low income community is quickly turning toward your young family, married couples, and single yuppies (myself included). The people who only afford three figure rents are being pushed out.

I dont see this as a problem - it is a natural progression for many communities - esp. one so close to NYC. What I do believe is important, is to provide affordable housing (as a social program) within these communities. I believe the Puerto Rican community on Manilla is a solid example.

The problem with gentrification in this area is how people get forced out of municipalities and then lose access to equitable schools and social programs. As I have said many times before, NJ would be better off as a commonwealth.

Gentrification? Yes, please!

i've seen a huge double stroller with 2 really fat kids in it.

does that count?

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I've seen a few in Hoboken.

You will only see them in JC once the shootouts drop to below 4 a month.

I've never seen a triple wide stroller.

One needs to weigh the comparative positives and negatives of gentrification.

Sidewalks full of self-important mommies pushing triple wide strollers is not good.

Sidewalks full of self-important mommies pushing triple wide strollers in lieu of a shootout every other day on the same sidewalk is good.

Stop for a minute to listen to yourselves. There is enough room in JC for everyone. We definitely need to change the harmful aspects of our current environment...but it is important to keep the diversity of our neighborhoods.

I have been here for 1 1/2 years. I am for it. I still frequent many "mom & pop " places as I can. I buy meat at the Polish place on Jersey. My bread at the Italian bakery on 2nd and on Newark. My corner stores knowing I could get a better deal somewhere else. It is bound to happen. The place I have now would be $3000 a month in Manhattan/Brooklyn from where I came came.

I buy my flowers from the Korean market on Bay between Erie and Newark. Great prices and great flowers. On a side note they get new flowers on Wednesdays and Sundays.

There are to many empty buildings on Newark so gentrification would be welcome. I am looking into buying now so a better neighborhood for the future would be most welcome. All neighborhoods change. My hood in Brooklyn got crazy and I left. I hope it stays somewhat the same here for a while but change is coming.

Oh god, here we go again...To the OP: your number of posts suggests you're not new to this site - you do realize what previous threads of this nature have disintegrated into, don't you?

Gentrification suggests that someone or something was displaced or forced out and replaced by something else. Like when a public housing project is razed and replaced by luxury condos. Or a long-standing coffee shop has its rent or property taxes raised and is forced to move and be replaced by a Starbucks. I don't think that is really happening in Jersey City. Much of the recent development has been downtown which was underdeveloped for years. I don't think many people or businesses were forced out so that the new condos could be built. In fact, The Flamingo Diner turned down big bucks and stayed put. Public housing still exists among the new condos. So development doesn't always mean gentrification. And gentrification isn't always a bad thing.

But if you are just referring to the appearance of new condos and shops in the downtown area where there was once nothing, I don't think it is happening fast enough. I think the development downtown has been half-assed and haphazard. I really think the master plan is to pile us up as high as possible and let us fend for ourselves. The visions of parks and open spaces and retail centers and aesthetic improvements will remain visions for a long time. I didn't always believe that and I do not think think that it can be blamed entirely on the economy, but the cynic in me has taken over.

One development I would like to see is for the Powerhouse become a premiere retail and entertainment and cultural destination. There is no reason that this place shouldn't be an art, theatre, dining, and retail showcase. Well, there are reasons, but none of them are good.

Maybe some stimulus money could be used to relocate the transformers from the Powerhouse? Yeah, I didn't think so.

I was wondering what many people on here think about gentrification? Are you for or against it? What do you feel are the positives and negatives of the gentrification of Downtown?