Jersey City is a city in Hudson County, New Jersey
, United
States
. As of the United States 2000 Census, the
population of Jersey City was 240,055, making it New Jersey's
second-largest
city, behind Newark
. As of the Census Bureau's 2007 estimate,
the population had grown to 242,389. It is the
seat of
Hudson
County.
Jersey
City lies on the west bank of the Hudson
River and Upper New
York Bay
across from Lower Manhattan in New York City
(where about 26% of its employed residents work),
and is part of the New York metropolitan area
. A commercial and industrial center, it is a
port of entry and a manufacturing center. With 11 miles
(17.7 km) of waterfront and significant rail connections,
Jersey City is an important transportation terminus and
distribution center. It has railroad shops, oil refineries,
warehouses, and plants that manufacture a diverse assortment of
products, including
chemicals,
petroleum,
electronics,
textiles,
and
cosmetics.
Jersey City has
benefited from its proximity to Manhattan
, as companies in Manhattan moved some of their
operations to Jersey City. Recent developments have included
increased housing and shopping areas; some parts of the city,
however, remain run-down after years of commercial
inactivity.
Geography

Image of Jersey City taken by
NASA.
(The red line demarcates the municipal boundaries of Jersey
City.)
According to the
United
States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of
54.7 km
2 (21.1 mi
2).
38.6 km
2 (14.9 mi
2) of it is land
and 16.1 km
2 (6.2 mi
2) of it is
water. It has the smallest land area of the 100 largest cities in
America. The total area is 29.37% water.
Jersey City is
bordered to the east by the Hudson
River, to the north by Secaucus
, North Bergen
, Union City
and Hoboken
, to the west by Kearny
and Newark
, and to the south by Bayonne
.
Given its
proximity to Manhattan, Jersey City and Hudson County are sometimes
referred to as New York
City
's sixth borough.
History
Lenape and New Netherland
The land comprising what is now Jersey City was wilderness
inhabited by the
Lenape, a collection of
tribes (later called
Delaware
Indian).
In 1609, Henry
Hudson, seeking an alternate route to East
Asia, anchored his small vessel Halve
Maen (English: Half Moon) at Sandy
Hook
, Harsimus Cove and
Weehawken
Cove
, and elsewhere along what was later named the
North River. After spending nine
days surveying the area and meeting its inhabitants, he sailed as
far north as Albany.
After he returned to The
Netherlands
, the Dutch
organized the United New
Netherlands Company. The Company was to manage this new
territory and in June 1623, The
New
Netherlands became a Dutch province, with headquarters in
New Amsterdam.
Michael Reyniersz Pauw, Lord of
Achttienhoven, a burgermeester of
Amsterdam
and a director of the West India Company, received
a land grant as patroon on the condition
that he would establish a settlement of not fewer than fifty
persons within four years. He chose the west bank of the
Hudson River and purchased the land
from the Lenape.
This grant is dated November 22, 1630 and is
the earliest known conveyance for what are now Hoboken
and Jersey City. Pauw, however was an
absentee landlord who neglected to populate the area and was
obliged to sell his holdings back to the Company in 1633. That
year, a house was built at
Communipaw for
Jan Evertsen Bout, superintendent
of the colony, which had been named
Pavonia (the
Latinized form of Pauw's name, which means peacock).
Shortly after, another house was built at Harsimus Cove (near the
present-day corner of Fourth Street and Marín Boulevard) and became
the home of
Cornelius Van Vorst,
who had succeeded Bout as superintendent, and whose family would
become influential in the development of the city. Relations with
the Lenape deteriorated, in part because of the colonialist's
mismanagement and misunderstanding of the indigenous people, and
led to series of raids and reprisals and the virtual destruction of
the settlement on the west bank. During
Kieft's War, approximately eighty Lenapes were
killed by the Dutch in a massacre at
Pavonia
on the night of February 25, 1643.
Scattered communities of farmsteads characterized the Dutch
settlements at Pavonia: Communipaw, Harsimus,
Paulus Hook, Hoebuck, Awiehaken, and other lands
"behind Kil van Kull".
The first village (located inside a
palisaded garrison) established on what is now Bergen Square
in 1660, and is considered to be the oldest town in
what would become the state of New Jersey.
Early America
Among the
oldest surviving houses in Jersey City is the stone Van Wagenen
House
of 1742.During the
American Revolutionary War the
area was in the hands of the British who controlled New York.
Paulus Hook was attacked by Major
Light
Horse Harry Lee on August 19, 1779. After the war
Alexander Hamilton and other prominent
New Yorkers and New Jerseyeans attempted to develop the area that
would become historic downtown Jersey City and laid out the city
squares and streets that still characterize the neighborhood,
giving them names also seen in Lower Manhattan or after war heroes
(Grove, Varick, Mercer, Wayne, Monmouth, and Montgomery among
them). During the 19th century, Jersey City played an integral role
in the
Underground Railroad.
Four routes through New Jersey converged in the city.
Incorporation and merger
The
City of Jersey was incorporated by an Act of the
New Jersey Legislature on
January 28, 1820, from portions of North Bergen
Township
, while the area was still a part of Bergen
County
. The city was reincorporated on January 23,
1829, and again on February 22, 1838, at which time it became
completely independent of North Bergen and was given its present
name. On February 22, 1840, it became part of the newly-created
Hudson County.
Soon after the Civil War, the idea of uniting all of the towns of
Hudson County east of the Hackensack River into one municipality. A
bill was approved by the State legislature on April 2, 1869, a
special held October 5, 1869. An element of the bill provide that
only contiguous towns could be consolidated. While a majority of
the voters approved the merger, only Jersey City,
Hudson City and
Bergen City could be consolidated,
which they did on March 17, 1870. Three years later the present
outline of Jersey City was completed when
Greenville agreed to merge into the
Greater Jersey City.
Turn of the century

Jersey City at the end of the 19th
century.
Jersey City was a dock and manufacturing town for much of the 19th
and 20th centuries.
Much like New York City
, Jersey City has always been a landing pad for new
immigrants to the United States. In its heyday before
World War II, German
, Irish, and Italian
immigrants found work at Colgate, Chloro, or Dixon
Ticonderoga. However, the largest employers at the time
were the railroads, whose national networks dead-ended on the
Hudson River.
The most significant
railroad for Jersey City was the Pennsylvania Railroad Company
whose eastern terminus was in the Downtown area until 1911, when
the company built the first tunnel under the river to Penn
Station, New York
. Before that time, Pennsylvania rail
passengers transferred in Jersey City to
ferries headed to Manhattan or to trolleys that fanned
out through Hudson County and beyond.
The Black Tom
explosion occurred on July 30, 1916 as an act of
sabotage on American ammunition supplies by German agents to
prevent the materials from being used by the Allies in World War I.
Frank Hague
From 1917 to 1947, Jersey City was governed by Mayor
Frank Hague. Originally elected as a reform
candidate, the
Jersey City History Web Site says his name is
"synonymous with the early twentieth century urban American blend
of political favoritism and social welfare known as
bossism." Hague ran the city with an iron fist
while, at the same time, molding governors, United States senators,
and judges to his whims. Boss Hague was known to be loud and
vulgar, but dressed in a stylish manner earning him the nickname
"King Hanky-Panky". In his later years in office, Hague would often
dismiss his enemies as "
reds" or "
commies". Hague lived like a millionaire, despite
having an annual salary that never exceeded $8,500.
He was able to
maintain a fourteen-room duplex apartment in Jersey City, a suite
at the Plaza
Hotel
in Manhattan
, and a palatial summer home in Deal, New
Jersey
, and he traveled to Europe
yearly in the royal suites of the best liners.
After Hague's retirement from politics, a series of mayors
including
John V. Kenny,
Thomas
J. Whelan, and
Thomas F.X. Smith attempted to take control of Hague's
organization, usually under the mantle of political reform. None
was able to duplicate the level of power held by Hague.
Professional sports
The
Jersey City Giants of the
International League played in
Roosevelt
Stadium
from 1937 to 1950. On April 18, 1946
Jackie Robinson broke the
baseball color line when he became the
first African-American to play organized baseball outside of the
Negro Leagues since
1916. Robinson appeared for the visiting
Montreal Royals, going 4-for-5 with a home
run.
Roosevelt Stadium was briefly home to the
Brooklyn Dodgers of the National League for
seven home games in both 1956 and 1957.
In 2009,
Jersey City hosted The Barclays at Liberty
National Golf Club
. It is part of the PGA Tours' Fed Ex Cup
Playoff Tournament.
Decline and renaissance

Many areas of Jersey City are under
redevelopment.

Jersey City as seen from Liberty State
Park.
The city developed a reputation for corruption, even after Hague
left office. By the 1970s, it was caught up in a wave of urban
decline that saw many of its wealthy residents
fleeing to the suburbs, and led to an influx of
working class scarred by rising crime, civil unrest, political
corruption, and economic hardship. From 1950 to 1980, Jersey City
lost 75,000 residents, and from 1975 to 1982, it lost 5,000 jobs,
or 9% of its workforce. The city experienced a surge of violent
crime during this period. New immigrants sought refuge in Jersey
City because of low housing costs, despite decay, abandonment, or
neglect in its neighborhoods.
Beginning in the 1980s, development of the waterfront in an area
previously occupied by rail yards and factories helped to stir the
beginnings of a renaissance for Jersey City. The rapid construction
of numerous high-rise buildings increased the population and led to
the development of the Exchange Place financial district, also
known as 'Wall Street West', one of the largest banking centers in
the United States. Large financial institutions such as
UBS,
Goldman Sachs,
Chase Bank,
Citibank and
Merrill
Lynch occupy prominent buildings on the Jersey City waterfront,
some of which are among the
tallest buildings New
Jersey. Amid this building boom, a
light-rail network brought
articulated streetcars to downtown Jersey City.
Wide-scale gentrification of the downtown neighborhood coincided
with the growth of Jersey City as an arts center, particularly the
visual arts. Beginning in the late 1970s, many artists moved the
short distance across the river from Manhattan in search of
affordable studio space. One structure of note, the massive Civil
War-era building located at 111 First Street, became a haven for
hundreds of artists in the area and was considered by many as the
heart of the Jersey City arts community. Nonetheless, the building
was demolished in 2005 to make way for future development,
including a high-rise building designed by world-famous architect
Rem Koolhaas. The art scene has continued to grow with a
proliferation of galleries and other organizations such as Rock
Soup Studios, 58 Gallery, Arthouse Productions, Lex Leonard
Gallery, and LITM, among others. The recent addition to the Jersey
City Museum, a venue for contemporary art, has also raised the
profiles of local artists.
Demographics
As of the
census of 2000, there were 240,055
people, 88,632 households, and 55,660 families residing in the
city. The
United States
Census Bureau has estimated the 2004 population at 239,079. The
population density was
6195.2/km
2 (16,045.6/mi
2). There were 93,648
housing units at an average density of 2,423.4/km
2
(6,278.3/mi
2). The racial makeup of the city was 34.01%
White, 28.32%
African American, 0.45%
Native American,
16.20%
Asian, 0.08%
Pacific Islander, 15.11% from
other races, and 5.84%
from two or more races.
Hispanic or
Latino of any race were 28.31% of the
population. Largest ancestries include:
Italian (6.6%),
Irish (5.6%),
Polish (3.0%),
Arab (2.8%), and
German (2.7%).
The city is genuinely diverse, with relatively large
representations from many ethnicities. However, relations between
ethnic groups have not always amicable, as evidenced by incidents
such as the infamous
Dotbusters gang
attacks of 1987 against residents of South Asian descent, and, more
recently, the March 2007 defacing of a local sports field with
Nazi slogans and racial slurs.
Of all households, 31.1% have children under the age of 18 living
there, 36.4% were
married couples living
together, 20.2% had a female householder with no husband present,
and 37.2% were non-families. 29.2% of all households were made up
of individuals and 8.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years
of age or older. The average household size was 2.67 and the
average family size was 3.37.
The age distribution is spread out with 24.7% under the age of 18,
10.7% from 18 to 24, 35.1% from 25 to 44, 19.7% from 45 to 64, and
9.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 32
years. For every 100 females there were 95.3 males. For every 100
females age 18 and over, there were 92.6 males.
The median income of its households is $37,862, and the median
income of its families is $41,639. Males had a median income of
$35,119 versus $30,494 for females. The
per capita income for the city was
$19,410. About 16.4% of families and 18.6% of the population were
below the
poverty line, including 27.0%
of those under age 18 and 17.5% of those age 65 or over.
Government
Local government
Jersey City is currently governed under the
Faulkner Act form of municipal
government by a mayor and a nine-member city council. The city
council consists of six members elected from wards and three
elected at large, all elected to four-year terms on a concurrent
basis in non-partisan elections.
The current Mayor of Jersey City is
Jerramiah Healy, who won the
Jersey City mayoral
special election, 2004. The current Business Administrator of
Jersey City is Brian O'Reilly.
Members of the City Council are:
- Peter Brennan, Council President pro tempore
- Willie Flood, Councilwoman-at-Large
- Mariano Vega, Jr., Councilman-at-Large
- Michael Sottolano, Ward A - Greenville, Councilman
- Philip Kenny, Ward B - Westside, Councilman
- Nidia Lopez, Ward C - Journal Square, Councilman
- William Gaughan, Ward D - Heights, Councilman
- Steven Fulop, Ward E - Downtown,
Councilman
- Viola Richardson, Ward F - Bergen, Councilwoman
Peter Brennan is the temporary council president following Mariano
Vega's resignation from that post on October 6, 2009. (Vega is
under indictment for federal corruption charges.) The council may
reorganize and elect a new president.
Jersey City Municipal Court gets a fairly heavy load of criminal
cases along with some traffic violations. Mayor Healy is a member
of the
Mayors
Against Illegal Guns Coalition, a
bi-partisan group with a stated goal of "making
the public safer by getting illegal guns off the streets."
The
Coalition is co-chaired by Boston
Mayor
Thomas Menino and New York City
Mayor Michael
Bloomberg.
Federal, state and county representation
Jersey City is in the
Ninth,
Tenth and
Thirteenth
Congressional Districts, and is part of New Jersey's 31st, 32nd and
33rd Legislative Districts.
Emergency services
Neighborhoods

Newport.

Exchange Place.

Paulus Hook.

Journal Square.
Jersey City consists of ten Districts; Greenville, West Side,
Journal Square, The Heights, Historic Downtown, The Waterfront, the
Hackensack Riverfront, McGinley Square, Liberty State Park and
Bergen/Lafayette. Each of these Districts consists of smaller
neighborhoods, for example the Paulus Hook neighborhood of The
Waterfront District and the Western Slope neighborhood of The
Heights District. Jersey City is a city of neighborhoods, each with
a different aesthetic and architectural style, to some
degree.
Downtown
Jersey City includes the Waterfront District (including Newport, Paulus Hook, and Exchange
Place
), and Historic Downtown (including Hamilton Park,
Grove Street, Harsimus Cove and Van
Vorst Park).Jersey
City Heights (or, simply, "The Heights") includes the
Western Slope and the Central
Avenue Shopping area.
Journal Square,
site of the Jersey Journal and PATH Transportation Center,
West Side features
West Bergen/Lincoln Park and Hudson
Mall, Bergen/Lafayette where Communipaw Avenue connects the West
Side with Liberty State Park,
Greenville featuring Port Liberte
and residential neighborhoods.
Downtown Jersey City
Downtown Jersey City is the
area from the Hudson River westward to the Newark Bay Extension of
the New Jersey Turnpike
(Interstate 78) and the
New Jersey
Palisades
; it is also bounded by Hoboken to the north and
Liberty State Park to the south.
Newport and Exchange
Place
are redeveloped waterfront areas consisting mostly
of residential towers, hotels and office buildings.
Newport
is a planned mixed-use community, built on the old Erie Lackawanna Railway yards, made
up of residential rental towers, condominiums, office buildings, a
marina, schools, restaurants, hotels, Newport
Centre Mall
, a waterfront walkway, transportation facilities,
and on-site parking for more than 15,000 vehicles. Newport
had a hand in the renaissance of Jersey City although, before
ground was broken, much of the downtown area had already begun a
steady climb (much like Hoboken). Some critics have derided the
Newport development for its isolation because it is cut off from
the rest of the city by the Newport Centre Mall and other big box
retail.
Exchange Place, the first part of Jersey City to redevelop, was
built on the grounds of the old Jersey City Penn Station, ferry and
shipping terminals. It is now a bustling business and financial
district.
To the west lie three
brownstone
neighborhoods with protected historic districts — Hamilton Park,
Van Vorst Park, and Harsimus Cove — separated from the waterfront
by a legacy of older infrastructure, big-box development, and old
warehouses still awaiting re-use.
Paulus Hook is another
neighborhood with a historic designated zone.
It borders Exchange
Place and Liberty
State Park
on the waterfront, and blends older
brownstone-lined streets with newer luxury developments.
The
Essex
Street
stop on the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail cuts
through the southern portion of the neighborhood. The area
has become increasingly active with development to the east and the
construction of the light rail; many of its streets are lined with
shops, and restaurants with outdoor seating.

St Aedan's Church
Hackensack River in winter, as seen from the Society Hill
neighborhood
Journal Square
Once the commercial heart of Jersey City,
Journal Square is in the process of
rehabilitation, in part because of the efforts of the Journal
Square Restoration Corporation (JSRC) and the Jersey City Economic
Development Corporation (JCEDC). Here, Kennedy Boulevard and Bergen
Avenue, main thoroughfares in the city, are at their widest, lined
on both sides by brick houses and medium-density apartment
complexes.
The Stanley Theater
, currently a Jehovah's Witness meeting hall, and
Loew's
Jersey Theater
on Kennedy Boulevard are among the city's most
noted landmarks, and are two of the best preserved movie palaces in the Tri-State
area
. Directly across Kennedy Boulevard from the
Loews is the Journal Square Transportation
Center
(JSTC), which houses the Journal
Square
PATH
station and the city's largest bus terminal.
Saint
Peter's College
is located about 10 blocks south of Journal Square
in the McGinley Square section of
Jersey City. To the north of the square on Newark Avenue
lies
India Square, home to over 100
Indian businesses, and one of the largest Indian neighborhoods in
New Jersey.
To the south of the square near Five Corners lies the Hudson
County Courthouse
, St Joseph's Church, Dickinson
High School
, and the island area.
West Side
Jersey
City's West Side is very
diverse and includes the neighborhoods of the Marion Section, Lincoln Park/West Bergen, the
Hackensack Waterfront,
Society Hill, and New Jersey
City University
. Many ethnic grocery shops (Filipino, Indian, West Indian) line West
Side Avenue, which runs from Broadway to Danforth
Avenue
. U.S. Route 1/9
Truck bisects Lincoln Park.
West of New
Jersey Route 440 is the Hackensack Riverfront including Hudson
Mall, Jersey City Incinerator Authority, and Droyer's Point, former site of the old
Roosevelt
Stadium
where Jackie
Robinson broke the Baseball
color line before his Major
League Baseball debut.
Greenville
Greenville lies between the
Bayonne city line to the south and the Hudson Bergen Light Rail
lines to the north.
It is primarily residential with a principal
commercial corridor at Danforth Avenue
. The Greenville Yards (a former Conrail rail
yard now being used as a distribution center), Port Jersey
, Port Liberté
(high-end gated residential community) and Caven Point on the
Upper New York
Bay
are separated from the older neighborhoods by the
New Jersey Turnpike Newark Bay Extension.
Greenville has some of the most depressed areas in the city, but is
slowly being revitalized, particularly along the light rail line.
The crime rate is higher here than in any other part of Jersey City
and many streets are lined with abandoned homes, but municipal aid
over the past few years has helped in rebuilding many of them and
in bringing life back to many of Greenville's neglected streets.
With the
gentrification of the
downtown area, many of the city's working-class tenants have moved
into this area.
The Heights
Jersey City Heights (aka "The
Heights") is a neighborhood atop the New Jersey
Palisades
overlooking Hoboken
and the Hudson River to its east and the New Jersey Meadowlands to the
west. It consists mostly of two- and three-family houses,
and remains traditionally middle-class. The primary commercial
strip is
Central Avenue.
Six blocks to the east, and parallel to it,
are Palisade and Ogden Avenues, both of which offer views of the
Manhattan
skyline from Riverside Park. The trolley station
at Congress and Ninth Streets
connects this area of the Heights to the Hoboken
PATH train and New Jersey Transit
trains. Many stately
Victorian and
Edwardian homes contribute to the
attractiveness of the Heights, particularly along Summit Avenue and
Sherman Place as well as areas to the east of Central Avenue.
Pershing Field is a park near the center of this district, offering
green space, a running track, several trap houses, basketball and
tennis courts, a semi-Olympic size swimming pool and an ice skating
rink. Adjacent to Pershing Field Park is an abandoned reservoir
which constitutes one of the largest patches of green space in the
city. The future of the reservoir has been hotly contested as
business interests, city government, and environmentalist groups
have each proposed a different use for the land though it has
announced that the city has decided to move forward with plans to
develop the reservoir into a nature preserve open to the
public.
Bergen-Lafayette
Bergen-Lafayette,
formerly
Bergen City, New
Jersey, lies between Greenville to the south and
McGinley Square to the north.
It also borders
Liberty
State Park
and Downtown to
the east and the West
Side. Communipaw Avenue and
Bergen Avenue are main thoroughfares.
The former Jersey City
Medical Center
complex, a cluster of Art
Deco buildings on a rise in the center of the city, will be
converted into residential complexes called The Beacon.
Transportation
Hudson-Bergen Light Rail.
Of all Jersey City commuters, 8.17% walk to work, and 40.26% take
public transit.
This is the second
highest percentage of public transit
riders of any city with a population of 100,000+ in the United
States, behind only New York
City
and ahead of Washington, D.C.
A significant portion of Jersey City
households
do not
own an automobile.
Rail
- Hudson-Bergen Light
Rail: Twenty three stations in Bayonne, Hoboken, Jersey City,
North Bergen, Union City, and Weehawken. Three branches:
Hoboken-22nd Street, Hoboken-Tonnelle Avenue, and West Side
Avenue-Tonnelle Avenue.
Water
- The
BillyBey Ferry Company operates ferries
between Newport, Paulus Hook, Liberty Harbor, Port Liberté and the
World
Financial Center
and Pier 11 lower Manhattan and 39th Street in
midtown Manhattan, where free transfer is available to a variety of
"loop" buses.
- Hornblower Cruises provides service between Liberty State Park
and Ellis and Liberty Island
- Liberty Water
Taxi operates ferries between Dock M. of Liberty State Park and
the World
Financial Center
during the summer months.
Surface
The
Journal Square Transportation
Center
, Exchange Place, and
Hoboken
Terminal
(just over the city line's northeast corner) are
major origination/destination points for buses. Service is
available to numerous points within Jersey City, Hudson County, and
some suburban areas as well as to Newark on the
1, 2, 6, 22, 43,
64, 67, 68, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88,
123, 125,
305,
319 and
981 lines.
Also serving Jersey City are various private lines operated by the
Bergen Avenue and
Montgomery
& Westside IBOA, and by
Red &
Tan in Hudson County.
Air
Road
Education
Colleges and universities
Jersey
City is home to the New Jersey City University
(NJCU) and Saint
Peter's College
, both of which are located in the city's West Side
district. It is also home to
Hudson County Community
College, which is located in Journal Square.
The University of Phoenix has a small
location at Newport, and Rutgers University
offers MBA classes at Harborside
Center.
Public schools
The
Jersey City Public
Schools serve students 3 years and older from Pre-K 3 through
twelfth grade. The district is one of 31
Abbott Districts statewide.
Dr.
Ronald E.
McNair
Academic High School
was the top-ranked public high school in New Jersey
out of 316 schools statewide, in New Jersey Monthly magazine's
September 2006 cover story on the state's Top Public High
Schools and was selected as 15th best high school in the
United States in Newsweek
magazine's national 2005 survey. In contrast, William
L.
Dickinson High School
, located near Jersey City's downtown area, is the
oldest high school in the city. It is also one of the
largest schools in Hudson County, in terms of student population.
Opened in 1906 as the Jersey City High School, it is one of the
oldest sites in Jersey City. It is a four-story
Beaux-Arts structure located on a
hilltop facing the Hudson River.
Other public high schools in Jersey City
are James
J.
Ferris High School
, Lincoln High School
, and Henry Snyder High School
. The Hudson County Schools of
Technology (which also has campuses in North
Bergen
and Secaucus
) has a campus in Jersey City.
Among
Jersey City's elementary and middle schools is Academy I
Middle School
, which is part of the Academic Enrichment Program
for Gifted Students. Another school is Alexander D. Sullivan
P.S. #30, an ESL magnet school in the Greenville district, which
services nearly 800 Pre-k through 5th grade students.
Jersey City also has a number of
charter
schools which are run under a special charter granted by the
Commissioner of the
New Jersey Department of
Education. There are six charter schools that serve elementary
and middle school students. Jersey City Community Charter School,
Jersey City Golden Door Charter School, Learning Community Charter
School, Liberty Academy Charter School and Soaring Heights Charter
School all accept students in grades K-8 while Schomburg Charter
School accepts grades K-5.
The two charter schools for high school
students are CREATE Charter High School
and University Academy Charter High
School.
Private schools
Private high schools in Jersey City include:
Catholic grade schools include the Resurrection School a Peaceable
School, St. Aloysius School and Sacred Heart School.
Catholic schools serve every area of the
city and a number of other charter and private schools are also
available. Genesis Educational Center is a private Christian school
located in downtown Jersey City for ages newborn through 8th
grade.
Museums and libraries
see also: Exhibitions in Hudson
County
Liberty
State Park is home to Central
Railroad of New Jersey Terminal
, the Interpretive Center, and Liberty
Science Center
, an interactive science and learning
center.The center, which first opened in 1993 as New
Jersey's first major state science museum, has science exhibits,
the world's largest IMAX Dome theater, numerous educational
resources, and the original
Hoberman
sphere.
From the park ferries travel to both
Ellis
Island
and the Immigration Museum and The Statue of
Liberty
.
The Jersey City Free Public Library has five branches, some of
which have permanent colllections and host exhibitions. At the Main
Branch, the New Jersey Room contains historical archives and
photos. The Miller Branch is home to the
Afro-American
Historical and Cultural Society Museum. The Five Corners Branch
specializes in works related to music and the fine arts, and is a
gallery space.
The
Jersey City
Museum
shows contemporary work and sponsors
community-oriented projects.
Some
stations of the Hudson Bergen
Light Rail, notably the Martin
Luther King Drive station
, have educational public art
exhibitions.
Commerce
Jersey
City has several shopping districts, some of which are traditional
main streets for their respective neighborhoods, such as
Central, Danforth
, and West
Side avenues. Journal
Square is a major commercial district.
Newport Mall
is a regional shopping area.Portions of the
city are part of an
Urban
Enterprise Zone. In addition to other benefits to encourage
employment within the Zone, shoppers can take advantage of a
reduced 3½%
sales tax rate (versus the 7%
rate charged statewide).
Media
WFMU
91.1FM
(WXHD 90.1FM in the Hudson Valley), the longest running freeform
radio station in the US, moved to Jersey City in 1998.
Z-100 WHTZ
100.3 The
top rated New York City radio station broadcasts from the 101 Hudson Street
.
The daily newspaper The
Jersey
Journal, located at its namesake Journal Square, covers
Hudson County, its morning daily,
Hudson Dispatch now defunct. The
Jersey City Reporter is part of
the
Hudson Reporter group of local
weeklies. The
River View
Observer is another weekly published in the city and
distributed thoroughout the county. Another county wide weekly, El
Especialito, also serves the city.The
New York Daily News maintains extensive
publishing and distribution facilities at Liberty Industrial
Park.
Sister cities
Landmarks
The Flamingo Diner, downtown.
- Ellis Island
is inside Jersey City's borders, and is managed
jointly by the states of New Jersey
and New
York
, though it is owned by the federal
government. In 1983, the State of New York went to the
Supreme Court to sue the State of New Jersey over the ownership of
the island, but in 1998, New York lost; New York retains title only
to the original portion of the Island, while New Jersey owns the
that were added as landfill.
- The
Statue of
Liberty
is from Jersey City. In 1987 Representative
Frank J. Guarini, a Democrat from New Jersey, and
Gerald McCann, who was Mayor of Jersey City, sued New York City
, contending that New Jersey had ownership over the
Liberty
Island
because they are in the New Jersey portion of the
Hudson River. The federally owned
islands are over two miles (3 km) from New York City
.
- The
Katyń Memorial by well-known
Polish American artist Andrzej Pityński on Exchange
Place
is the first memorial of its kind to be raised on
American
soil to honor the dead of the Katyń
Forest Massacre
Cityscape

Panorama of Jersey City and Lower
Manhattan from a Liberty State Park park&ride.
See also
References
- Holusha, John. "Commercial Property / The Jersey Riverfront; On
the Hudson's West Bank, Optimistic Developers",
The New York Times, October 11,
1998. Accessed May 25, 2007. 'That simply is out of the question in
midtown, he said, adding that some formerly fringe areas in
Midtown South that had previously been available were filled up as
well. Given that the buildings on the New Jersey waterfront are new
and equipped with the latest technology and just a few stops on the
PATH trains from Manhattan, they become an attractive
alternative. It's the sixth borough, he said.
- Jersey City Past and Present: Pavonia,
New Jersey City University.
Accessed May 10, 2006.
- A Virtual Tour of New Netherland, New Netherland
Institute. Accessed May 10, 2006.
- Jersey City's Oldest House, Jersey City History.
Accessed September 11, 2007.
- "Jersey City's Underground Railroad history,"
Jersey City Magazine, Spring &
Summer 2005.
- "The Story of New Jersey's Civil Boundaries: 1606-1968", John
P. Snyder, Bureau of Geology and Topography; Trenton, New Jersey;
1969. p. 146-147.
- A City Whose Time Has Come Again, The New York
Times, April 30, 2000.
- Jersey City, New Jersey, city-data.com. Accessed
January 24, 2008.
- Marriott, Michel. "In Jersey City, Indians Protest Violence",
The New York Times, October 12,
1987. Accessed October 6, 2008. "But in recent weeks, Indians here
say, the violence has taken on a new and uglier cast. One Jersey
City Indian was beaten to death in Hoboken. Another remains in a
coma after being discovered beaten unconscious on a busy street
corner here earlier this month. And in a crudely handwritten
letter, partially printed in The Jersey Journal, someone
wrote, We will go to any extreme to get Indians to move out of
Jersey City. The note was signed The
Dotbusters."
- 2005 New Jersey Legislative District Data Book,
Rutgers University Edward
J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, April 2005,
p. 139.
- Municipal Council Information, City of Jersey
City. Accessed August 3, 2006.
- 2008 New Jersey Citizen's Guide to Government, New
Jersey League of Women Voters, p. 59.
Accessed September 30, 2009.
- Model of urban future: Jersey City?,
USA Today, April
15, 2007.
- Jersey City Public Transportation Information
- Hudson County Bus/rail Connections,
New
Jersey Transit. Accessed July 3, 2007.
- Abbott Districts, New Jersey Department of
Education. Accessed March 31, 2008.
- Top Public High Schools in New Jersey,
New Jersey Monthly, September
2006
- Top 1000 High Schools in The United States,
Newsweek
August 5, 2005.
- Alexander D. Sullivan School at Jersey City Board of
Education
- Super 25: Lincoln (N.Y.) climbs three spots with
state title - USATODAY.com
- Resurrection School a Peaceable School
- St. Aloysius
School
- Sacred
Heart School
- Genesis
Educational Center
- LSP
- LSP Ferry Service
- JC Free
Public Library
- MLK Station
- JC Shopping Districts
- Geographic & Urban Redevelopment Tax Credit
Programs: Urban Enterprise Zone Employee Tax Credit, State of
New Jersey.
Accessed July 28, 2008.
- WFMU
website
- NY Times
- El
Especial
- City/data JC Ecomony
- States fight over New York landmark,
BBC News, January 12,
1998.
- Greenhouse, Linda. "THE ELLIS ISLAND VERDICT: THE RULING; High Court
Gives New Jersey Most of Ellis Island", The New York
Times, May 27, 1998. Accessed July 28, 2008.
External links