Issue 111: Everything falls apart
Save our bus lines, Pompidou madness, RIP Bruce the Swan, and more.
Good morning! I’m not gonna lie — most of this issue is a bummer. We have crucial bus infrastructure getting canceled, depressing updates about the Pompidou, a beloved swan mauled to death, and, well, more. But thank god we have the Peach Pie Contest to round things out and cheer us up. Anyway, prepare yourself for a bit of a rocky issue, but remember we have Best of JC next week, and I hope you have a fantastic Sunday afternoon. Go get some peach pie! — Amy
Save our bus lines
I mentioned this in passing in the last newsletter, but I really wanted to jump into it here: A&C Bus lines, which runs four of the most popular bus lines in the south/west part of Jersey City, is going to be closing up shop on those lines if something doesn’t happen soon.
I’m talking about the following buses, which are scheduled to cease operation on 10/31:
Bus 30 - Society Hill
Bus 31 - Montgomery & West Side
Bus 32 - 440 Shopper
Bus 33 - Bergen Avenue
This is absolutely devastating. Where I live is about one mile to Journal Square, which I have to get to every day in order to go to work; for many people in this part of JC, they have a much longer route to get to go into NYC. If I take the bus and it’s rush hour, many times I will have to stand and wait for multiple buses to pass me by, because they’re just that crowded that they’ll skip stops1. Thousands of people depend on these buses… and now they’re being canceled. Those people are going to now either turn to cars (which, we don’t have the parking or street capacity to handle that?) or just leave the area entirely. And don’t even get me started on how many students and seniors depend on the buses.
And while we’re at it, don’t forget about all the development planned for this area. As we’ve been slowly but surely knocking down one family homes and replacing them with houses that can have 4 or 5 families in them at once, having buses to connect our neighborhood to the PATH trains, light rail, grocery stores, schools, work, and other destinations have been the only thing really keeping this neighborhood functioning. You know how crowded West Side Ave (oh, which I’ve talked about in a Subscriber Exclusive seems to be crumbling anyway — I’ll return to that issue on another day) is during rush hour? Now imagine hundreds more cars on that street. I don’t know what happens when you get rid of the option to take the bus and turn all those folks into drivers.
Here’s some news stories about what is going on:
In response to all this, Fulop sent a sternly (I guess?) worded letter asking for NJ Transit to pick up the route. This isn’t without precedent — NJ Transit picked up the routes left behind by the DeCamp company when they left Essex County, so there’s a chance they might do the same for us. What local (city/county) officials can do about the canceled bus lines is very minimal — they can’t compel a tiny company to continue to provide service it doesn’t want to, and they don’t have the funds and resources on hand to just step in and replace the missing service2. Right now, the best thing they can do is pressure the state to step in — and if you wanted to reach out to them and let them know of the importance of them providing this pressure, I think that that’s fair and reasonable.
Meanwhile, I also put together my own campaign. Here is a form that will generate a letter to the Governor, State Senate President, and also the Speaker, as well as the CEO of NJ Transit. If you’d like to put up some flyers in your building or area to let folks know what’s going on, here is a downloadable version (I’m working on getting it translated), and if you want to post on social media, here’s an image you can use. Also, another resident put together this excellent petition, and you should sign both this and also my letter, if you’re impacted by all this.
Or, maybe you don’t like the petition or the letter campaign or anything else and would like to take matters into your own hands and to write to your reps yourself. That’s 100% great and I really encourage you to do that. You know the rules — be polite (or it only works against us), and be specific (be sure to mention these particular bus lines — it’s a big state after all).
But as an aside, here’s something kind of interesting to me about this issue. Ok, maybe you’re the most out-there, 100% libertarian-Republican type who doesn’t believe in tax-payer subsidies for anything, ever — ok, fine, you won’t care about the buses. But for anyone else — anyone who is YIMBY and “build more housing!” or NIMBY and “protect our neighborhoods!” or if you’re a Transit Guy or a Parking Guy (listen, if all these people are taking the bus, that means you’re not fighting against them for a parking spot!) or any of the other types of urban online people, you should sign at least one of these letters/petitions. It’s 100% clear by just a casual stroll up West Side at 9am on Monday that we don’t have the ability to have hundreds or thousands more cars on the road without pouring way more money and resources into accommodating them; we don’t have the parking and we don’t have streets wide enough to handle the added traffic. Getting rid of these buses would be chaos for the southwest part of the city, and no one wants that. Let’s work together to save these bus lines.
I am getting “a circus of excess and waste” tattooed across my chest to always remind me of my time in Jersey City
Oh man, I don’t even know where to start with all of this, other than imploring you to read the truly excellent story over at NJ Monitor, Jersey City art museum project is a ‘circus of excess and waste,’ GOP report says. There’s just so much, where do I begin? Ok, here’s a good start:
The museum will end up costing about $200 million, with a state subsidy of $5 million annually in its opening years, says the memo, which compares the Jersey City project unfavorably to the Trenton and Newark museums. Those museums, the memo says, “are both more modest in scope and focus on American works of art and New Jersey history.”
Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop, who is running for governor in 2025, has touted the Centre Pompidou x Jersey City as a project that will reinvigorate the city’s Journal Square neighborhood and help turn it into an entertainment and arts hub. In a statement, Fulop’s office said the museum will be a “tourist destination for the entire region, similar to Liberty Science Center.”
The actual memo (which you can find here — it’s saved as a scanned PDF and not text, so it’s hard to cut and paste) makes the point that the JC Pompidou will be focusing on “French Art” whereas the Newark and Trenton museums focus on local art. That’s probably not 100% accurate, but it at least feels right, for what that’s worth — the Pompidou will most likely (based on looking at what other branches of the museum offer) focus on contemporary Western and European art — not exclusively French — whereas the Newark Museum houses both “world art” (work from non-Western countries, as well as art going back to ancient eras all the way up to contemporary) as well as local work. (The Newark Museum has in its collection work from around the world, including things from ancient Egypt and the like, but they do certainly also have exhibits from local area artists.) Sorry — I’m being a bit of a stickler here. The overall point is well-taken: while the Pompidou will most likely focus on art from outside of the immediate area, the Newark Museum does dedicate some of its space to local artists and history (and the Trenton Museum even more so)— it’s just maybe not quite as drastic as the author wants it to seem.
All that said, can we slow down for a moment and consider the nearly non-existent “tourist destination” that is the Liberty Science Center? How many restaurants, shopping centers, etc in Ward A and F do you know have gotten a bump by being nearish to LSC? My guess would be, none? LSC is ensconced in the middle of Liberty State Park; families either go to it via public transportation (which leaves them right there) or car (which also leaves them right there). Few, if any, then leave the park and travel to the surrounding neighborhood to dine or shop; the “family friendly” cafeteria in LSC offers more than enough sustenance for most visitors. People show up, spend money at the museum and leave (probably exhausted!).
I’d imagine that the JC Pompidou would generate more somewhat more income than that, given its walkability to the PATH station and the fact that it’s pitching to adult viewers, not families with children. But how much more? Is it worth the now $200 million investment? I don’t know.
Among the issues with the Pompidou project, according to the memo Testa released:
More than $33 million will be paid to the Center Pompidou museum in Paris, about $11 million of which is just to use the museum’s name for five years.
More than 30 consultants have been hired by the Jersey City Redevelopment Agency, which is overseeing the project, including “consultants to find other consultants.”
The agency issued $10 million in debt in 2018 to buy the building where the museum will be housed, debt that comes with a “staggering” 6.5% interest rate.
Consultant contracts were awarded “with minimal competition and outside of public bidding.”
These findings should “alarm anyone concerned about excess and waste,” Testa said in a letter to Gov. Phil Murphy urging a performance audit and state oversight.
[…]
The memo criticizes the executive branch as “unaware or disinterested” in the project’s increased costs and “insisted on no cost constraints.” A spokesperson for Murphy did not respond to a request for comment.
I honestly don’t even know what to say anymore. Except maybe, why are we doing this?
Look, I’ve said from the start: you want a world-class museum? The Pompidou will give you that, no question. I have no doubt that the JC Pompidou will have some terrific exhibitions on par with what’s up at the Whitney or MOMA, albeit smaller and in New Jersey (which, if you know anything about the NYC art world, that is one hell of a qualification right there). But is it worth this pricetag? With sinkholes opening on West Side Avenue and my bus service getting eliminated and services being cut all over all while taxes are going up already? It’s my opinion that we don’t absolutely need this (while meanwhile there are tons of things we desperately need), and while I hate to let an opportunity like this go, I don’t see how we can afford to do it right now or any time in the reasonable future.
Bruce the Swan is dead
Well, this is a huge bummer.
Bruce the Swan, known to many in the Paulus Hook/Morris Canal area, was killed, most likely by a dog off the leash in the park. There were no witnesses, but according to some people I talked to who saw pictures of the mauled corpse, it’s very clearly a dog bite. If you have any information on who might be responsible, please call the number in the photo, and for god’s sake please stop letting your dogs off the leash in public areas.
This is incredibly sad — I absolutely love swans — but also there’s a lot of misinformation going around. According to one rumor, two swans were killed — that isn’t true (there is the matter that swans mate for life and Bruce had a mate, so his poor mate is now all alone???? But while that’s tragic, that’s not the same as two swans being dead). I’ve also seen idle speculation that the Lincoln Park hawks may have been involved, but several local bird experts I talked to say that is nearly impossible — the hawks only go over much smaller prey (think: mice, maybe an occasional small squirrel, but not ever a 30lb swan or we’d all be in very big trouble). I’ve even seen people musing that perhaps it was a homeless person and, just stop it. It seems pretty clear it was a dog off the leash.
Bruce’s death is horrible and the responsible party should be held to task. But also, let’s all take a breath and not lose our minds over this. Keep your dogs on their leashes — there’s plenty of dog runs in Jersey City your dog can get some off leash time. And know that we have plenty of wildlife throughout this city, and we need to respect that we share our home with them.
There’s a Nazi in the JCMUA?
The Jersey City Municipal Utilities Authority (JCMUA) is in charge of the sewerage and water in Jersey City. Whether it’s clean water coming out of your tap, or storm water that needs a place to go, they’re the ones we rely upon for all things water in the city.
Anyway, apparently there’s a Nazi supervisor in the office? Or so a recent lawsuit seems to claim, and it’s been settled and although part of the settlement means no one admits to anything, that’s not a great sign that perhaps this is all a misunderstanding or something. From Hudson County View:
“Mr. Schaadt was so brazen in the JCMUA workplace concerning his white supremacist ideology that he screwed a photo of a white supremacist with a Nazi War Eagle tattoo and a tattoo of the Schutzstaffel Armanen rune (commonly referred to as the ‘S.S. lightning bolt’) under plastic in the window of the door between the West Side Plant’s garage and its cafeteria,” the lawsuit alleged.
He also detailed alleged patterns of harassment, including Schaadt placing a dead possum on the driver’s side mirror of his MUA vehicle, to which his superiors are accused of never making any efforts to address.
What????
Also it winds up the guy in question donated to Fulop’s various campaigns.
Look, I’m just leaving all this info here. I don’t know what to do or say about any of it. Just, none of this is great. Ugh.
There is no way to seamlessly transition from all this bad news to this, but I’m gonna try
We need something fun and cheerful and light after all that bad news, so head on over to Riverview Park today between 10-2pm and check out their Peach Pie Contest & Festival! This sounds like such a wholesome event, I love it. Free samples, music, kid activities, and lots of fun stuff. Go get a bite of Jersey City’s best peach pie!
Reminder about best of JC!
Oh boy, after an issue like this, I’m not feeling the JC love right now (well, except for the peach pie contest which sounds completely awesome). But tomorrow is another day, and my Best of JC issue will be out next week! You can be part of it by nominating someone or something that makes life in Jersey City great. Go here, fill out the form, and I’ll see you next week!
The company states that ridership is low — and that is true during the day and on weekends. But at rush hour? It’s packed. It’s so packed there are times it borders on dangerous. I can’t imagine where all those people are going to go if these lines are eliminated.
Ok now, could they — in some far-off galaxy — come up with a city-run/sponsored/paid for bus service? Yes, this is absolutely possible, and arguably it’s something we should look into for the future. But can the city get this up and running and functional by 10/31/23? That’s not possible.
I used to see a pair of swans as I walked the Walkway, just south of Dudley St. So it must have been the same pair. A few years back I watched a dog on the dock barking its head off at a swan, which was serenely staring down the dog from the water a foot or two away.
As for transit, is Via a possible option, or will the capacity be inadequate by far?