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Words to live by.

Dr. King, Jr. Drive has no assets or good things - not even the section between Forrest Street and Communipaw Avenue?

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Ah, but Newport always had assets, mainly the fact that it's on the waterfront, and it had excellent transportion options. It's on the criss-cross so one can take the WTC line, or 33rd Street Line, access to ferries, etc. You're in the West Village in 9 minutes.

What are the assets around MLK Drive? I can think of none.

It's like all of Downtown JC. The reason it gentrified is beyond the fact that it has the most beautiful housing options. It has real ASSETS - waterfront, transportation options (PATH), etc. This, folks, is why we may never see other parts of JC truly gentrify ... whether that's a good thing or a bad thing.

Seems like the Virginia/Ege/Kearney Avenue section between Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive and Bergen Avenue is not too good these days. Maybe a revival was the hope for the section when HBLR opened and a station was placed at Dr. King, Jr. Drive.

The STILL call it Newport! Your point IS?

What happened when they called it "Newport" in the 80's? Rewind just about 20 years and your comment is applicable for your neighborhood also.

The area was a disaster before it became "The Hub" and its a disaster today. All it was was a money pit with a lot of OFFS: rake-offs, rip-offs, and skim-offs for pols.

You cannnot DECLARE an area to go from urban nightmare to urban dream...as the owner of Burger King found out after probably being robbed at gunpoint once too often.

Calling Palisades Avenue "the ARTS DISTRICT" or Summit Avenue, "VICTORIAN HILL" didn't make them so...likewise with THE HUB (presumably the hub between Hell and High Water?)

Man, you know its bad when fast food chains are closing.

Hub Burger King closes, but McDonald's coming

Monday, August 24, 2009
AGUSTIN C. TORRES
JOURNAL POLITICAL EDITOR

The Burger King at the mall on Martin Luther King Drive has closed, adding to the list of businesses that have failed in the Jersey City redevelopment area known as the Hub.

But the news is not all bad because the city Redevelopment Agency reports that a McDonald's will replace the fast food eatery.

"The McDonald's that is coming is a corporate store," said Roberto Antonicello, director of the Redevelopment Agency. Antonicello did not give a timetable.

He said the Burger King that closed more than a week ago is one of three Jersey City franchise stores owned by a Bergen County man, Peter Saree, whose small chain declared bankruptcy. The other two Burger Kings are at McGinley Square and Central Avenue. The owner could not be reached.

"We advised him that the stores may be undercapitalized and that he may be in over his head," Antonicello said. "You can't always be running out of french fries."

Over the years, the Hub, a six-square-block redevelopment area hugging Martin Luther King Drive, centered at Ege Avenue, has had several failed enterprises, including the SirVern auto parts store, the Ponderosa restaurant, and Blockbuster Video.

The anchor supermarket CitiMarkets closed and has been replaced by an Xtra market.