Issue 182: And, we're back.
A very easy thing you can do to try to get JC schools some more state aid. Plus, new restaurants in McGinley Square, a mayor's race update, and more!
Happy new year! I hope you’re doing great and staying warm. I have a feeling this year is going to be a real rollercoaster, and I’ll do my best at keeping up with everything. As always, thank you for reading and for being there. — Amy
Help advocate for Jersey City public schools
Talk to any JC public school parent, student, or teacher and it’s immediately obvious that our schools need money. And this week, you have a chance to help advocate for that at the state level — and it’s incredibly easy to do so.
There’s going to be a couple of upcoming meetings this week hosted by the NJDOE and the New Jersey School Board Association to discuss the amount of money allocated by the state to local school districts, and public comment is invited. Now, this being NJ, all those meetings are going to be very far away and during the times most people are at work or caught up with home duties (if you’re interested, there’s one on Tuesday January 14th at 10am-noon at the NJ Department of Education in Trenton, and another on Thursday January 16th from 6pm-8pm at the Camden County Regional Emergency Training Center in Blackwood). Personally, if I were a current elected official or even a candidate for local office in Jersey City, I’d be making plans to go to these events and probably look to charter a bus if I could to bring down a bunch of parents and kids with me (what better way to get to know a candidate than to be stuck on a bus going to south Jersey to advocate for more funding for schools?). But meanwhile, there’s an online way of participating and making your voice heard and doesn’t require you to spend hours on a bus talking to someone who wants your vote.
New Jersey’s Department of Education has a form you can fill out here to give feedback. What I think would be most helpful — and this is just a guess, but based on what I understand — is specifics about our building conditions. Every public school in NJ needs and deserves funds; what makes JC especially in need of funds above the needs of other places is the awful condition many of our very old buildings are in, and I’d really encourage you to consider highlighting this in your comments if you can. I think it’s fine to just fill out the form and say you want more funding for our schools in general, but it’s probably the most effective if you can site specifics that you’re aware of that are especially glaring and need to be fixed as it relates to the physical condition of the buildings the schools are in. I’m referring to things like (for example): a leaky roof at a particular school, the time classes had to be canceled because there was insufficient heat, or a story you can convey about a picture your kid snapped of something specifically shocking concerning the condition of the building they’re in. Let them know what’s going on here. And if you want to include photos or other documentation, you can skip the form and just email them at SFRAoutreach@doe.nj.gov.
Our schools need major intervention as soon as possible. Begging the state for money isn’t going to get us there entirely, but it certainly won’t hurt. I’m sure other cities and towns will have their folks at these meetings and filling out these forms, and we need to represent Jersey City and Hudson County as well. In fact, as I typed those words, I decided to poke around and see if any other areas are organizing people to show up, and I quickly found that Hillsborough in Somerset County is. Hillsborough, with a population of ~45K and a median household income of over $153k — so not a large district nor a poor one — is pushing hard to get residents to attend these meetings (there’s calls all over Hillsborough social media) and send emails to demand more funding for their schools. They are not the only town to do so — lots of places are, including quite a few that we don’t think of as having desperate need anywhere near what JC has. And, arguably, they should — this is state money, and these meetings exist for the very specific purpose of allowing residents and representatives an opportunity to ask for more funds, so why not at least try? But it sure would be a shame if a small, wealthy district got a bump in the amount of that money they get because they were willing to show up and fight for it, and meanwhile, we totally missed our chance because we didn’t get the word out to folks. (If you want to see an overview of the funding for the whole state including Hudson County’s funding compared to others, this chart has you covered.)
You have until January 17th to fill out that form or send an email. If you actually make the trek to a meeting, you will forever be a hero in my mind so please let me know so I can shout you out in a future issue!
New restaurants in McGinley Square!
Hard for me to even articulate how much I miss Carvao, the Brazilian-influenced bar/restaurant right in the smack of McGinley Square that for years fed me greasy veggie burgers and very strong drinks, and served as a meeting place for so many people involved in politics and activism in Wards B and F. It closed a few months after things started reopening after COVID, and I really, really miss it — more often than not, I could swing by and find a familiar face to hang out with (or awkwardly bump into someone I was avoiding), but it was also big enough that you could make your own space if you felt like being alone with your guac-and-chips and martini. Luckily, most of the amazing bartenders and waitstaff have moved over to next door Wing Bar, but the space where Carvao was remained empty for years until right before the holidays.
It’s now Tros (686 Bergen Ave), a branch of a Hoboken-based “Greek street food” mini-chain. I regret to inform you that they no longer serve alcohol (sad!), and the interior has been transformed into a sort of generic fast-casual type place that’s super brightly lit. The design is nice, but it’s clearly set up to encourage you to eat and go, as opposed to hang out and linger and socialize. It’s probably best suited for lunch or a very quick dinner. It’s not Carvao, so best to just get over that already.
I finally had a chance to go last week and the food was quite good. I don’t know enough about Greek food to really know if it was authentic or not, but it was certainly very tasty, and there are some healthy items on the menu which the neighborhood definitely needs. I had their Arugula “Roka” Salad (arugula, grilled Halloumi cheese, roasted pepper, and balsamic vinaigrette) which was really good and absolutely packed with arugula, and got an order of their Trio of Dips (eggplant, tzatziki, spicy feta cheese) to share with a friend — the second dish was rich and decadent enough I had plenty to take home (I actually brought home some of the salad as well and the arugula held up well overnight). My friend was quite happy with her salad as well, and I definitely will be returning to try more off the menu soon.
I do wonder if their prices are a bit high for the neighborhood? Had I added a protein like salmon to my salad, it would have pushed the price to nearly $23, which seems high for a place where you’re eating out of cardboard bowls and expected to leave in 15 minutes. I wouldn’t think twice about paying that next door at Ita where there’s more ambiance and you can linger for a little while and order a drink for a nice date night out, but $23 feels more splurgy than I’d expected for a place so casual. The price also unfortunately takes it out of the running for me for a quick grab-and-go lunch (I’d go back for dinner but I definitely keep my everyday lunches way cheaper than that), which would seem to be a natural fit for the design of the place. The portions are large, so that almost makes it worth it, but personally I’d prefer slightly smaller portions and a few bucks off. Maybe a lunch-sized portion at a cheaper price point could work? (Also, I am very cheap, and I’m very used to thinking of McGinley Square as a place where you can get a cheap but good meal, and maybe those days are now gone. I know, everything is expensive right now, so maybe this is just what things cost. So take my opinion with a grain of salt for sure.)
Meanwhile, not far away is One World Pizza (49 Baldwin Ave). I haven’t been over there yet but it’s by the same folks who run Cafe Alyce, so that certainly bodes well. A shakshuka pizza sounds absolutely amazing, and there’s a bunch of inventive and different pizza-interpretations that look really good. I’m hoping you can take a pizza into Bar Alyce, a place I love that I’ve always felt needed more bar-appropriate food.
Lastly, good news for anyone who mourned the loss of the weird, creepy Burger King on the corner of Montgomery and Bergen. Signs in the window indicate it’s going to soon be a Middle Eastern place. Signs in windows have promised wonderful places that haven’t manifested in the past, so I’ll be keeping an eye out to see if this one actually comes to pass, and will keep you posted if so.
Mayoral race update
A few things that might have been missed because of the holidays:
Mussab Ali had an event with Kal Penn at Sip Studios. I don’t know — I’m sort of torn over this event. On one hand I think it’s interesting that Ali is trying new things in his campaign and running in such an unconventional way, but I have some real questions about whether or not this is going to actually accomplish anything. Penn’s speaker fee is likely super high (online sites had him listed as costing $38k-$75k for an event — I doubt Ali paid that much (I hope he didn’t!), but suffice to say, I’m sure Penn wasn’t cheap). Is bringing in a celebrity for a local race something that makes sense? Do young people today still like Kal Penn and find him relevant? If they do, does that actually translate into votes for Ali? Does having a high profile event in January result in people showing up to vote for you in November?
I don’t know — again, this is an unconventional strategy that hasn’t really been tried before, so I don’t think anyone really knows. I’ve mostly been staying out of commenting on Ali’s candidacy because I’ve been waiting for him to come up with more of the earmarks of a serious campaign — specifically, for him to announce some slate members. I think if he had a kick ass slate announced and then invited a celebrity out, I might be more enthusiastic. So for now I’m just waiting to see how and even if this campaign develops more.
Meanwhile, Joyce Watterman’s campaign for mayor continues to be completely baffling. After releasing almost no information from her campaign for months since last June — even when one of her slate members abruptly announced he was no longer running — she suddenly wrote two letters to the editor in the time during my break. Ok, you’re thinking, maybe she was just waiting til the presidential election was out of the way and now she’s making her move? And that’s a reasonable thought, except check out what the letters were about:
The first was coming out against congestion pricing which, I don’t know, is there any place in the state where congestion pricing more popular than Jersey City? I can’t imagine there’s more than a handful of people in JC who drive to work in Manhattan every day, while meanwhile there’s thousands of people who live near the Holland Tunnel and constantly (rightfully) complain how the traffic clogs their streets and pollutes their air. Surely there are people in JC who are against congestion pricing, but this seemed like a weird battle to pick for a candidate for mayor. I mean it’s not going away (if her letter was written well before it was enacted, I could see it being a call to arms to stop it from going through, but it wasn’t), and it has a lot of support locally — I don’t know, this was just odd to me for her to break her extended silence over this particular issue.
The second one was really weird. It was in response to letters from fellow candidates Bill O’Dea and Jim McGreevey where they proposed some ideas to an issue that has been plaguing the JCFD, namely station closures during times when they’re short-staffed during the holidays. O’Dea proposed something straightforward; McGreevey had something more nuanced, but both of them suggested ways to solve the issue. To these letters, Watterman basically responds no no no, it’s just not that easy, and is dismissive of what they propose. The closest she comes to a solution is to write:
However, effective governance requires a commitment to understanding complexities and engaging in meaningful dialogue.
Local leaders must prioritize collaboration with stakeholders, including firefighters, community members, and financial experts, to develop sustainable solutions that address staffing challenges without compromising service quality or taxpayer interests.
This collaborative approach can lead to innovative strategies that not only solve immediate problems but also enhance long-term community resilience.
All of which may be true — I don’t understand the inner workings of the JCFD nearly enough to really know if either plan suggested by O’Dea or McGreevey is any good — but without proposing some kind of solution, I’m not sure what her letter adds to the discussion. And I get that holding an office when other people are piping up and coming up with “easy solutions” to vexing problems is probably frustrating, but… ok, so what are we supposed to do with this problem then? If the only way to resolve it is to gather together all the stakeholders and discuss, then when exactly are we doing this and what is the timeline to resolve it? There was a great opportunity for her to note in her letter “…and I have called this meeting on X day…” to show that she is, indeed, actively moving the whole issue forward while the other two guys are just writing letters to the editor, but she didn’t do that. So if none of the proposed solutions are good, what then is the solution other than to endlessly talk about it? I have literally no idea, and it doesn’t seem like she really does either, so I don’t really get the point of this second letter or how it highlights that she would resolve this issue if she were mayor.
I continue to be completely perplexed as to what’s going on at Watterman HQ, and at least a little perplexed — but more curious, I guess — about Ali’s campaign. And with all of the campaigns, I’m starting to really want to see more tangible signs of life — finish announcing your slates, come out with a comprehensive platform, let’s start getting some debates going — come on, already. I don’t mind a drawn out race if it means there’s time to actually get more information and conversations going, but it doesn’t feel like we’re really getting there just yet. Somehow this campaign has already gone on for at least a year and yet it feels like we’re just barely getting started.
ICYMI
Emergency sewer lining repairs are starting Monday, Jan. 13th at 7am on West Side Ave between Bentley & Harrison. Sounds like West Side Ave will still be passable because work is being done in the middle of the street, but if you know WSA you know that’s a narrow but busy stretch, so delays aren’t out of the question. Parking restrictions apply — if you’re parked in that area, best to move your car.
Dejon Morris isn’t the president of the JCBOE anymore; Noemi Velazquez is. The new trustees also got sworn in.
No feral cat of the week this week. Sorry everyone. It’s cold out and all the cats are hiding.