Robocub, you are correct the garage was built as a barricade against the neighborhood. I had heard it was a fight just to get the doors in on Marin!

But Newport was designed in the 80's, when Le Corbusiers urban ideas to destroy the traditional street still held some sway. What I find inexcusable is they're still making superblocks to break up the grid, like the new school laid across Varick.

When the LeFrak organization first built and developed the mall and it's surrounding apartment buildings their original intent was to totally block residents of Hamilton Park from having any direct access to the Pavonia PATH stop. Executive representatives from the LeFrak organization at the time articulated in no uncertain terms they did not want people from this area accessing their domain. The Hamilton Park Neighborhood Association railed against the LeFrak organization and ultimately was able to force them to keep the garage and mall open so people could access the PATH train. Otherwise residents would have been forced to walk around to 6th Street.

Newport's entire goal has always been to segregate itself from the rest of Jersey City and strip the area of any historical ties.

-- Renaming Pavonia Avenue to Town Square Place

-- Bribing convincing the Port Authority to officially rename the PATH station from Pavonia-Newport to simply Newport

-- Laying the foundation for Office Center I in the months prior to passage of the Waterfront Walkway legislation, thus avoiding a link between Newport's waterfront and the waterfront to the south.

The Newport mall is no exception. It obviously added an additional buffer between the Lefrak's city and the rest of Jersey City.

The mall is a low density use of increasingly valuable land. But for now the Lefraks still have plenty of vacant land in the northeast quadrant to build on. When that land is used up, they will probably begin to look towards low density properties like the big box stores on 18th Street and the Models / Staples, and eventually the mall. But that day is likely two or three or more decades down the road. Also, the mall isn't the Coliseum or the Parthenon; it is a disposable structure that will likely be cheaper to replace than repair in a few decades.

I heard if you send an email to NJ Transit they will put a stop right in front of your house. Whats the big deal if you have to walk through a garage? If things are that much of an inconvenience, than buy a car.....then you can complain about parking.

Yeah I am complaining about it. But if you read my post, I was looking for insight if anyone knew of any plans to enhance or change the fact that the Mall does isolate neighborhoods. I'm not expecting anything to change but sometimes these things do happen and that the info I was looking for.

I have mixed feelings on the mall. I love the convenience of it, on the rare occasion that I do have "mall needs". But it does isolate neighborhoods, and kind of uglifies/suburbanizes that entire area...lots of parking lots, etc.

A good idea (will never happen) would be to transform it into a very nice, outdoor mall, with nice brick walkways and such. It wouldn't happen because A) money and B) an outdoor mall in the Northeast wouldn't be too popular from November - March. But maybe they could put in those really powerful heat lamps.

You're complaining that a mall built in the 80s is hindering your journey between a recently gentrified neighborhood and a light rail system that opened in 2000.
Unbelievable.

The mall is ugly, but weren't you aware of it when you moved there in the first place? I can't imagine that they can do much about the walkway. You might try getting a group together to advocate a nicer and more well lit walkway in the garage, but I really can't see what they can do without spending a ton of money to renovate it.

I would guess that the mall has brought in a lot of revenue to JC, especially when JC was not a place where yuppies and young families wanted to move to. It was one of the factors that helped build up the Newport area to where it is now. Without Newport Mall, why would anyone have wanted to visit JC in the first place? And when all the buildings in Newport were built, that helped to improve the rest of Jersey City, including your neighborhood.

I actually like the mall. I know it gets a lot of slack here, but it's convenient for me. I like that the Light Rail stops right there and I can get in and out and back home in an hour. I just wish that there was an Old Navy there, instead of that yucky Pay Half. I would think if that Pay Half closed down, the clientele would improve.

I agree, but I don't see how they do much about it at this point. Perhaps 6th St should be targeted to become more pedestrian friendly and to limit traffic. It's so busy though that I can't see that happening either but it might be pushed along with plans for the Embankment Park.

And it might seem counterintuitive but the walk to the Grove St station is usually faster than going to Pavonia. I'll often just talke the mall route because it's climate controlled on the really hot or cold days.

Why do you think prices are cheaper there? If you look at google maps you can see its on the other side of a mall. I'd be happy not having to walk around it.

I'm relatively new to downtown JC within the past 5 years. I live in the Hamilton Park neighborhood. Since moving here I've become sickeningly aware at how the entire Newport Mall has systematically isolated Hamilton Park from the waterfront and all things in that area specifically including services and transportation like the Path and Light Rail. If you look on a map, you can clearly see how the Mall runs the length from 6th to 11th Streets. Everything west of Marin Blvd is effectively "cut-off". Residents of Hamilton Park who live west of Marin between 6th & 11th Streets are FORCED to walk through a goddam parking lot and then through the Mall just to get to the trains. Or walk completely out of your way to walk around the Mall which is a very unpleasant walk. This just smacks of stupidity. And obviously greed on the part of the Mall. MAKE them walk through it and they will shop. This is bad enough, but walking through a parking lot is just gross and ugly and unsafe at night. Then add insult to injury that the Mall locks their northern exits later at night, forcing anyone who has to walk through the Mall to use the southern exits, effectively taking you out of your way and adding several minutes to a commute.

Its my understanding that years ago Hamilton Park was a very run down neighborhood and contained an "undesirable" element. Even if true, it's really f**ked for the city to allow the Mall to have cut off an entire neighborhood from access to services. But then again this is Jersey City so I can certainly see how this could happen.

Recently a friend of mine told me all this is going to change. I hope so. But in what way? Obviously Hamilton Park has changed a lot. The Park has been renovated and the neighborhood is beautiful. So what can be done to make getting to the Path past the Mall a more pleasant experience? Unless an asteroid comes out of the sky and destroys the Mall, I don't see any reconstruction happening anytime soon. An outdoor walking mall with trees and plants cutting through say 8th Street from Marin to Washington would be a beautiful thing, but I won't hold my breath.

So I'm curious, does anyone have any news or insight into this situation or have you heard of any plans that there will be changes to bring Hamilton Park closer (so to speak) and more convenient to the waterfront and Path services?