My cousin lived in a similar complex in Lyndhurst, right by the Medieval Times. The complexes were brand new and had a ton of amenities, including a really nice pool / courtyard area, lounge, gym, etc.

The view there was of the surrounding swampland - not exactly Manhattan Skyline - but as far as I know, the development wasn't a failure. I think the West Side development has at least as much potential, if not more, since it's actually closer to NYC than the Lyndhurst one

FEMA doesn't have any flood maps handy for that area. The ones that were floating around the web before Irene hit showed that area in purple (which means possible underwater).

Then again... the same map showed most of downtown J.C. and Hoboken underwater as well.

Does the hackensack waterfront have significant flooding issues? I thought storm surge was already tempered by the Narrows.

The one thing that concerns me about these projects in the fact that area is only 2 to 15 ft above sea level and positioned at an area that will "funnel" storm surge into what is basically a dead end.


I wouldn't be so concerned if the area was manufacturing / heavy commercial. However, high density residential when / if we get hit by a Cat 2 to 3 hurricane would be a mess.

Gosh. some people can't see the positive/potential in anything except lower taxes and owning a gun. Society Hill is already going strong. If the lightrail is extended to Bayside, then it will be a much easier commute for many.

Up to 8,100 residential units.
As much as 1 million square feet of office space.
Some 23 acres of open space.
Those are just some of the proposed features of Bayfront, a transit village set for 100 acres of chromium-tainted land along Route 440 in Jersey City. City officials hope their success in developing Jersey City?s eastern waterfront can be replicated on its West Side, The Jersey Journal reports.
http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/20 ... y_makes_plans_for_ne.html

Quote:

Battery Park is also a 5 minute walk from Wall Street and near subway stations that can take you anywhere. Is the Hackensack Riverfront a 5 minute walk from anything, nevermind anything that is desirable/useful/fun?

I'm not trying to be a negative nancy. I actually would love if the west side was developed.

Quote:

It certainly didn't deter Battery Park City in the '80s and '90s.

Jersey City has big plans for 100 acres on West Side along Hackensack River

February 29, 2012, 3:03 AM
By Terrence T. McDonald/The Jersey Journal

Up to 8,100 residential units.

As much as 1 million square feet of office space.

Some 23 acres of open space.

Those are just some of the proposed features of Bayfront, a transit village set for 100 acres of chromium-tainted land along Route 440 in Jersey City. City officials hope their success in developing Jersey City?s eastern waterfront can be replicated on its West Side.

Captain Bill Sheehan, of Hackensack Riverkeeper, an environmental organization, said Bayfront will give the city ?a real shot in the arm.?

Sheehan was on hand earlier this month for a City Council caucus at which city officials presented the governing body with their latest plans for the 100-acre Bayfront, a project first dreamed up during the Glenn D. Cunningham administration.

The development would sit on land formerly owned by Morristown-based Honeywell International Inc, north of Society Hill, along the Hackensack River. Last month marked the four-year anniversary since the city teamed up with Honeywell to create Bayfront.

?Bayfront represents an extraordinary effort among numerous city officials and our partners at Honeywell to transform the West Side by making it safer and more attractive, while also creating substantial economic development, jobs, and tax revenue for our city,? Mayor Jerramiah T. Healy said in a statement.

Chromium contamination at the site has its roots in the late 19th Century, when Mutual Chemical Co., a Honeywell predecessor, started piping chromium processing residue from its plant into the Hackensack River.

Construction isn?t expected to begin until 2016, with initial occupancy beginning the following year. Though work is not scheduled to end until 2043, the city is already at work preparing the area for the massive development.

City officials say much of the contamination has been remediated.

The on-site headquarters for the city Department of Public Works and the Jersey City Incinerator Authority, meanwhile, will be demolished, as will a handful of other buildings used by the city and the JCIA. The DPW and the JCIA will move to a new East Linden Avenue complex, with construction on that facility expected to begin this year.

Councilman Michael Sottolano, who represents Ward A, where most of the Bayfront property sits, has called the plans ?dynamic.?

?I don?t know if it?s all going to be done in my lifetime, but I sure hope so,? Sottolano said.

http://www.nj.com/jjournal-news/index ... ty_has_big_plans_for.html

I think they plan to bring thelightrail into Bayside. If people can live in the far reaches of Queens and Brooklyn or the Bronx or Staten Island and take multiple modes of transit to get to work, I don't see why Bayside is doomed to failure

Oh I'm all for development on the West Side, I just don't know how successful it'll be. The Hudson River might have been murkier in the 80s, but there was always a killer view of Manhattan from Newport. If the West Side does get developed, it is not the view of the Pulaski Skyway and refineries across the Hackensack River that will sell the condos.

Nor will it be public transportation, because there aren't many options there. If there is ever a PATH stop there, or any other transit station that provides 24-7 access to Manhattan - I think it could be a success. Without that, I'm not sure what types of people would find that area very appealing. It's also pretty isolated and separated by a multi-lane highway with strip malls.

I personally think the Heights has the best chance of absorbing the impact of Downtown growth/development/continued gentrification.

TommyC-37 I can recall when Newport mall and one residential highrise (I think Newport towers) was the only thing in dwntwn JC. In fact the hudson river then was a lot murkier. Hamilton park was not safe. Van worst park was considered the hood because of its close proximity to Booker T & Mintgomery projects, there are still low income housing units next to Van Worst park. Paulus Hook, was undeveloped and had its issues with contamination (as did Newport). The point being neighborhoods with access to water views seem to have a potential for development. Look at Bayonne, they seem to optimize the realestate around both rivers. I think we need to bribe the right government officials to focus more development on the Westside. That's where you'll find a lot of dedicated life long residents of JC that have paid there dyes in taxes. Taxes that help a lot of young professionals enjoy new parks, new developments and a bright housing market.

Tommy..to this day I don?t know why JC didn?t repair that beautiful stadium. What a waste to let it die...so much JC history gone with the swing of the wrecking ball.

It would have been a jewel in the ?new? JC?.you guys would have loved it!!!

It's pretty awesome that some huge bands played in JC back then. Aside from All Points West a few years ago, nobody big has performed in JC in the past couple of decades.

Yes it is cleaner. I go fishing off of Bayonne Park just for sport. I throw them back in when?err I mean if I catch anything. A lot of people there are fishing for their night?s dinner .

****

Another thing that popped into my foggy mind about the above mentioned concerts in RS. They were not without tragedy. (like today?s rap concerts) As I recall a stoned out guy at the YES or Pink Floyd (ironic) concert couldn?t get in. He and his buddies came up with the brilliant idea to stack those old cement ended park benches on top of each other. He climbed the ?bench ladder ? to get over the tall brick wall. Well his ?ladder? fell on him crushing him. Also I think a kid got stabbed in the neck with a broken bottle. A lot of nasty fights, riots. (dam suburb kids coming into JC) Another kid died falling off the edge of one of the aisle stair cases with a low railing. That was a scary (yet surprisingly fun) place to see concerts. I remember people peeing all over the place for lack of working bathrooms. (It was the first time I saw a chick pee in the men?s room long urinal troff, never did come across that lovely sight again)

I found this list of concerts on the net..I think some were left off?maybe The Band, ELO, Alice Cooper??? Also read that the RS Dead and YES concerts were the most popular bootleg tapes ever. Interesting.


Pink Floyd - Roosevelt Stadium (Jersey City, NJ) - June 16, 1973 (John Scher)
Pink Floyd - Roosevelt Stadium (Jersey City, NJ) - June 18, 1973 (John Scher)
The Allman Brothers Band - Roosevelt Stadium (Jersey City, NJ) - June 7, 1974
The Allman Brothers Band - Roosevelt Stadium (Jersey City, NJ) - June 8, 1974
Crosby, Stills, Nash And Young with Seals And Crofts & Jesse Colin Young - Roosevelt Stadium (Jersey City, NJ) - August 8, 1974 (John Scher)
The Beach Boys with The Eagles - Roosevelt Stadium (Jersey City, NJ) - August 23, 1974
Pink Floyd - Roosevelt Stadium (Jersey City, NJ) - June 14, 1975
Yes with Ace - Roosevelt Stadium (Jersey City, NJ) - July 13, 1975 (John Scher)
The Eagles with Seals And Crofts & Poco - Roosevelt Stadium (Jersey City, NJ) - July 19, 1975 (John Scher)
The Eagles with Seals And Crofts & Poco - Roosevelt Stadium (Jersey City, NJ) - July 19, 1975 (John Scher)
The Eagles with Seals And Crofts & Poco - Roosevelt Stadium (Jersey City, NJ) - July 19, 1975 (John Scher)
Yes with Pousette-Dart Band - Roosevelt Stadium (Jersey City, NJ) - June 17, 1976
Grateful Dead - Roosevelt Stadium (Jersey City, NJ) - July 2, 1976 (John Scher)
KISS - Roosevelt Stadium (Jersey City, NJ) - July 12, 1976
The Beach Boys with Richie Furay - Roosevelt Stadium (Jersey City, NJ) - August 28, 1976 (John Scher)
The Beach Boys with Richie Furay - Roosevelt Stadium (Jersey City, NJ) - August 28, 1976 (John Scher)

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Actually, the Hudson river is almost clean enough to swim now. A lot of pier damage is being done by wood boring worms that used to be killed off by the polluted water. The Hudson river cleaned up significantly when NYC and Hudson Country upgraded their sewerage treatment back in the early 90's.

One of the bigger remaining issue is sewer discharge from sewers that get overloaded during storms. This was discussed in one of the Irene threads back in August.

long post sorry....

Don?t know what you newer guys have against the other side of JC (maybe you are pissed that there isn?t a Kmart in DTJC?) but as you will read from the piece below thousands didn?t have a problem with it. I remember that night well. What a mad house!!

Funny some dopes (from the burbs) actually thought it was a lottery to win a FREE condo..still shake my head on that one. Also all of the sore losers started spreading rumors about how they would never buy down in Roosevelt Stadium because they didn?t want to glow. Thankfully it was a time (late 80?s) when NJ really looked at soil contamination and really cracked down on developers to clean it up. SHI (where stadium stood) didn?t have much, SHII had some and it was carted away. Soil contamination cleanup procedures became less rigid in the later years and that is why I think SHIII (Droyers Point) is just capped.

Like I tell people at least the people down in SH know what was in the soil and what was done to clean it up. The Chromium powder from the factories on 440 was used as land filler on construction sites ALL over JC back in the day. It was also given away free to be used as garden fertilizer and pesticide. Your house could be sitting on a heap of the yellow stuff and you wouldn?t even know it. (unless you started to be able to read a book at night without a night light on)

NJ is back to enforcing strict cleanup procedures hence all of the clean up going on at the old Roosevelt Drive In site the future home of Bay front.



Found this in a Midwest newspaper?welcome to Jersey City 1989??

*************************************
Live In Jersey City? Well, If You`re Lucky

November 05, 1989|By Wayne King, New York Times News Service.

JERSEY CITY ? The line of cars streaming into Liberty State Park had been crawling along for better than an hour, and the motorcycle officer helping to direct it was incredulous:

``It`s like the 4th of July,`` he said. ``No, it`s worse than the 4th of July.``

For the evening hours of an ordinary Thursday in New Jersey it was remarkable, particularly since the crowd was not coming for the ferry ride to the Statue of Liberty, which loomed brightly in the distance. The people were coming in hopes of winning a lottery that would allow them to pay $97,500 to $169,000 for a home on Newark Bay in Jersey City.

There were 8,000 entrants and 220 homes. Just how many of the 8,000 who mailed in entry cards showed up to take part in the drawing was hard to estimate since many brought their families, but the crowd spilled out of the huge old railway terminal building in the park into tents outside and may have totaled 10,000.

By the end of the evening, 220 entrants had won the right to buy a home, and 1,000 others were on a waiting list.

``I feel great; I`ll finally be able to afford a place, a brand-new place,`` said Ed Koscia, 31, of Elmwood Park, N.J., the first ticket holder selected. With a home in prospect, Koscia, an industrial supplies salesman, said he might accelerate his ``plan to get engaged.``

Although the crowd was diverse, a large number of the would-be home buyers, like Koscia, were young and in the home market for the first time. Many, too, said they had no desire to live in the suburbs.

``I`m young, and I wanted to be in a city,`` said Peter Edge, 25, an investigator with the Hudson County prosecutor`s office, whose number was drawn just as he and his girlfriend, Sharman Curry, 23, who works for an insurance company, were giving up and getting ready to leave the drawing.

But the Jersey City development, which ultimately will have 1,200 homes, will offer a definite nonurban character, a suburban community in New Jersey`s second-largest city, just across the Hudson from Manhattan.

That, along with comparative affordability, appeared to account for much of the appeal.

``This is new, it`s safe, it`s clean and it`s close to work,`` said Steve Friedrich, 23, who works for Bankers Trust in Jersey City and who had been looking for a home for more than a year. He was accompanied by Sue Clayton, 22, who said joint ownership was ``a possibility.``

The development, a project of the mass builder K. Hovnanian Enterprises, will be a mix of townhouses and garden condominiums with one to three bedrooms and such suburban appointments as two swimming pools, four tennis courts, two clubhouses and a restaurant on the grounds. There will be a centrally monitored electronic security system.

Kevore Hovnanian, 66, founder and chairman of K. Hovnanian, New Jersey`s biggest residential builder and one of the dozen or so largest in the country, has built some 25,000 to 30,000 homes-``I have lost count,`` he said-since coming to this country from Armenia in 1959.

Most have been in the suburbs, mostly in New Jersey and in Florida. But a few years ago he created an urban-oriented subsidiary, K. Hovnanian Inner City Developments Inc., and the Jersey City project is its second.

The first, which sold out in a single day in August, 1986, consists of 168 units, also suburban in style, in downtown Newark.

``I believe absolutely in cities,`` Hovnanian said. ``This turnout is proof that if you have affordable homes, people will stay in the cities or come back to the cities.``Lucrecia Atienza, a registered nurse, and her husband, Armando, an aircraft mechanic, in their 30s, immigrants from the Philippines who have three children, already own a home in Jersey City and want to stay but were looking for something in a better neighborhood and were happy to win.

Hovnanian and Conrad E. Gack, the president of the Inner City Developments subsidiary, believe that there are many other urban residents who will also stay.

One key, Gack said, is to build developments large enough that they take on a character of their own-in this case, a notably suburban character-in the midst of urban areas.

``It`s good business to be able to provide homes for masses of people,``

said Hovnanian, who conceded that he is ``not the greatest philanthropist in the world.

``There is great potential here.`` he said. ``If I can make people happy while making a great deal of money, what more can you do?``


*******
A little more history?JC let Roosevelt Stadium die. It was a shame to see it die. I played and attended many a high school football game there. Also attended some great concerts! (well at least my body attended them, can?t say my mind did) Even passed my road test there.(those DMV guys were mean) After the stadium started to die it was THE place to go to party (remember the drinking age back then was 18, I still can?t believe it) Friday and Saturday night on the sea WALL before going to the disco. (yes disco..a time in my life I would love to forget)

Some councilman got the bright idea to sell the land to a developer. The first developer was just going to build detached two family homes. I remember I sent in a request to be on the waiting list for them. Then plans changed. The city was seeing everyone exit JC big time. (not me I am STILL proudly holding the flag and I didn?t shut the lights off) So to try and keep them in JC the idea of a gated/ guarded community popped up. Seems it was a big success and still is.

Interesting link?.

www.jerseycityonline.com/roosevelt_stadium.htm

PS- water is water it?s the same freaking water in Newark Bay and Hudson Bay!!! I wouldn?t go swimming or fishing in either!! But it is nice to look at. Although there was the time when I had a little too much Blackberry Brandy and I fell off of the sea wall into Newark Bay. I still stink from the fall!!

People may have said the same thing about Battery park City when it was first developed - there was NADA but ugliness in Jersey City way back when and who knows perhaps the other side of the Hackensack river jumps on the development bandwagon. Why so much negativity here.

The concept of living near a body of water, in general, is VERY appealing to many if not most people. However, I think that the idea of living near a body of water that is brown and murky, with literally no pleasant scenery on the other side of the body of water, might have the OPPOSITE effect, and make that land undesirable to many people.

I just don't see that area really taking off. Maybe in 50 years when the population in the area is much larger, and all land in Jersey City is desirable. Not trying to be cynical, just realistic.

Ok here?s the website?

www.bayfrontjerseycity.com

..and Country Village and Society Hill are still going strong.

As a life long resident of JC I am happy to see downtown JC develop to what it is today. Nice bars/lounges and decent restaurants, and a lot more young professionals , a scene reminiscent of Hoboken. However the time has come for the 6 th boro (lol jersey city) to expand its development to the other coast of JC. You guessed it the Westside. Finally some recent news on the web, more specifically a statement from Mr Mayor himself. An exciting plan to stimulate JC's economy and hopefully it's neighborhood. The Bayside redevelopment plan is up and away. Now is the time to Invest In this side of towN that every JC politician seems to neglect. Maybe one day I can proud to say yeah I live on the Westside of JC.