Issue 205: Neighborhood Characters
Plus, the Ward map lawsuit, a heat dome, and more!
Good morning! Well, in terms of local news, it was a slow week — but don’t worry, our national/international news certainly makes up for it (ugh). Good lord. Anyway, here’s your newsletter for this week! — Amy (and David and Katie)
Neighborhood Characters
By Katie Jennings
As Katie and David transition into Neighborhood Character, we thought we’d try a series on interesting people living and working in Jersey City’s West Side. The challenge here is that everyone on the West Side is pretty interesting. So if folks know of someone who’s got a cool story or is having a big impact in the community, please let us know by emailing neighborhoodcharacter@gmail.com.
For now we’re starting with local celeb Allie Appel, co-owner of Pompei Pizza (722 West Side Ave) and a talented baker. Katie has known her since she opened up shop and interviewed her this week:
Allie is no stranger to Jersey City’s West Side. Born and raised in neighboring Bayonne, she went to high school at Saint Dominic Academy on Kennedy Boulevard. After more than a decade working for wholesale bakeries (Cake Boss in Hoboken, Balthazar in Englewood, Ovenly in Brooklyn) and manager of a hotel restaurant, she decided to take the plunge and start her own business. It was late summer 2023 and Pompei Pizza on West Side Avenue was for sale, which, she says, is quite rare.
“It is really hard to find a pre-existing business and take over,” she said.
On Dealing with the City: The beauty of buying a pre-existing business is that she and her business partner didn’t have to wait around for Jersey City government bureaucracy.
“If we didn't find this business for sale, we would have run the risk of opening up a business, sitting on the business, paying rent, and waiting for a certificate of occupancy, which I've seen happen to a lot of people,” Allie said. “And that could be so devastating financially.” Since Pompei had been around since 1960 its existing certificate of occupancy was “grandfathered in.”
Average Work Week: When the restaurant first opened, Allie was easily working 70 to 80 hours a week. Almost two years in, she’s hitting her stride. “I'm on the luckier side, because I have great staff. So I work about 50 to 60 hours a week. I'm off two days, which, wow, with that alone, I feel like I've succeeded.”
West Side, Best Side: “It's a community. It's families, it's single people, it basically runs the gamut of all these different lifestyles. And then I just love that there's plenty of schools in the neighborhood. There's a huge park across the street from the pizzeria. I couldn't imagine a better location, honestly.”
The Truth About the Delivery Apps: DoorDash, Uber Eats and Seamless take a huge cut from the restaurants while charging all those fees to the customer. Allie said the apps “take anywhere from a 15 to 35% cut,” which is why you may see that many restaurants post higher prices in-app than in-store. The best thing to do? She recommends searching: “Pompei Pizza Toast.” Toast is the software that Pompei uses for its cash register, so it’s integrated into their system and has a smaller delivery fee.
Don’t Be That Customer: “I wish every single person works in the restaurant industry at least for six months of their life,” said Allie, when asked about the pressures of working in the hospitality industry. “You want people to feel welcome and happy and warm, but at times, it could feel a little degrading, like the way people speak to you, or you take hit after hit.” So yeah, don’t be an asshole. Just because people are serving you doesn’t make them your servants.
The Backyard Oasis: When she needs a break, she heads to Pompei’s backyard, where she spends some time hanging out with Steve, the all-black cat who has lived there for at least five years (since before she bought the business).
The Future: Allie loves experimenting and trying out new menu items. For a while she was serving “breakfast pizza,” which came with baked eggs and bacon on top. One of my personal favorites was the carmelized onion and fig jam pizza (don’t knock it til you try it!) But if she had “unlimited resources,” she says she would return to her baking roots. “Something that I would like to do is open up a kind of centralized baking location for dough production, bread production and baked goods production. Then a little branch of Pompei Pizza, like a Pompei pastries or even a slice shop that focuses more just on specialized slices instead of whole pies.”
Most popular item on the menu? Plain cheese pizza.
Allie’s favorite? The rice balls are underrated.
My favorite? The tiramisu (in the desert refrigerator).
Quick fix? Buy one of Allie’s chocolate chip cookies for yourself if you’re having a rough day.
Feral of the Week
This is Steve! He lives in his own cat house behind Pompei.
Ward map lawsuit
By Amy Wilson
This week, after several years of the lawsuit snaking its way through the legal system, the ward map lawsuit finally wound down. From Hudson County View:
The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled in the favor of the City of Jersey City in a longstanding case challenging the Board of Ward Commissioners approval of a new map in January 2022.
The 65-page decision, which comes over six months after the state’s highest court heard oral arguments in the case, disagrees with the appellate court’s March 2024 ruling that additional fact finding was needed to determine if compactness requirements were met.
Ultimately, the Supreme Court ruled 4-3, determining that Municipal Ward Law (MLW) was followed and the New Jersey Constitution was not violated in any way by the ward commissioners.
(Lol, I love you Jersey City, but I am not reading 63 pages of a court decision.)
If you missed it — it’s entirely possible you moved here well after this case was even filed — this has to do with Ward F, which had its boundaries dramatically redrawn after the last election (you can see an image of the before and after here). There were a lot of questions when that happened; it’s normal for wards to be redrawn every so often to adjust to changes in population and for the boundaries to be nudged a bit in various directions. But Ward F had just been won by Frank Gilmore, who ran against Fulop slate member Jermaine Robinson in a really vicious battle complete with some pretty crazy campaigning erm, “techniques.” And when it was redrawn, it no longer really resembled the “old” Ward F — many of the most contentious areas (like Liberty State Park’s nearest neighbors) had been taken out of the ward — meaning that many of the people who had rallied behind and specifically voted for Gilmore were now finding themselves represented by someone else entirely. It was a mess, and it seemed incredibly suspicious.
From an article on New Jersey Globe:
In a Wednesday release, attorneys for the neighborhood groups said the state Supreme Court diluted the strength of the Municipal Ward Law and “allowed a gerrymandered map to stand.”
“Our clients are over a dozen community-based organizations who challenged the new ward map because it designed bizarre-shaped ward districts, cracking communities of interest who have been advocating for affordable housing and investing in environmental remediation in their neighborhoods,” the coalition’s attorneys said in a release. “We agree with the three dissenting justices, who comprise the newer members of the Court, that the majority effectively ‘devalued’ the importance of compactness in the drawing of municipal wards, and that this statutory requirement is all the more critical on the local level where neighbors rely on their representatives to advocate for issues of concern in their section of a municipality.”
And:
“Plaintiffs correctly submit — and the relevant mathematical analysis supports — that the wards’ compactness substantially declined since the prior map,” Justice Rachel Wainer Apter wrote in the dissent. “And the Commission did not explain why that is so.”
[…]
[Justice Anne M.] Patterson [who authored the majority’s ruling] wrote that the state Supreme Court’s job was to determine whether or not the map was drawn illegally, not whether or not the map was drawn perfectly. Patterson wrote that the map did not feature wards resembling a “horseshoe” or “shoelace,” designs that a court would be more likely to consider illegally gerrymandered.
“It is, no doubt, possible to envision a ward map in which any of Jersey City’s wards would be more compact than they appear in the Commission’s redistricting plan,” Patterson wrote. “Our inquiry, however, is not whether a court could design a better map than the map that the Commission devised.”
Basically, the way that I interpret this is that the Commission has a lot of discretion in redrawing the maps, and the court is loathe to get involved unless it’s so obvious the area has been gerrymandered that it can’t be ignored.
I think the tight ruling of 4-3 reflects a lot of the confusion and concerns in this lawsuit. For me personally, this is something that will always still have a question mark next to it — I do feel as though it was politically motivated, and that the new boundaries are unfair. But also, and I mean this incredibly sincerely, I do think that the worst thing we can do as a city is continue on with this lawsuit or to hold on to the harsh feelings around it. It’s been three years — everyone got to shoot their shot, and while I’m not personally thrilled by the results, it’s time to move on. The court ruled as they did; let’s just get back to the business of organizing and fighting for the best Jersey City we can.
To be totally clear, I’ve seen the statements from the organizers behind the lawsuit and they have not indicated trying to take this suit any further. But I’m sure that somewhere, there’s someone on Facebook or Nextdoor or Twitter or whatever who is plotting to take this to the Supreme Court. And please, can we not do that? I disagree with the ruling too. It sucks. But, for the good of the city, let’s let it go. In the years since the lawsuit was filed, so many people have moved out and into our city, and it’s time to move on. And I’m sorry I’m asking folks to take the high road when I think something unfair happened, but I truly think it’s the best way to get us to move on to whatever new challenges await us in the future.
Pubic service announcement: heatwave incoming
This is also by Amy….. we’re still working out bylines here!
I have been looking at the weather for the next few days with pure dread. I don’t do well with heat and humidity, and next week… phew. It looks brutal. But don’t take it from me:
A dangerous heat wave is set to hit New Jersey behind a pleasant first day of summer, bringing a "heat dome" that will cause heat index values to soar past 100 degrees, according to the National Weather Service.
An extreme heat watch is in effect for multiple New Jersey counties, with several other northeast New Jersey counties under a hazardous weather outlook as a large "bubble of heat" slowly drifts across the U.S.
[…] Forecasters say this heat wave will feel significant due to several factors: Most of June has had below average temperatures, there will be a lack of relief at night and the heat wave's lengthy duration.
Heat index values — remember what it "feels like" — are expected to be at or exceed 105 degrees Monday, June 23, through Wednesday, June 25 in New Jersey, NOAA said in a briefing on Friday, June 20. It may feel closer to 110 degrees in many areas of the state, according to NOAA's Weather Prediction Center.
A bubble of heat!!! Ahhhh!!!
I’ve been poking around online to see what Jersey City’s official response to this is, since we had a few days notice that it was on its way. I see that NYC has several social media notifications out letting folks know about cooling options and other things to keep in mind during the heatwave, as does Hoboken, but writing this on Friday night, I still don’t see any response from Jersey City. I did, however, find this list from last year of local cooling centers — I’m not 100% sure if these places are still operational or will be later this week, but it’s a start. And remember, after much teeth gnashing and consternation, Jersey City pools are now back to being free, so that’s always an option for families looking for some relief.
As long as the power stays on (fingers crossed!) most of us are going to be just fine — miserable, maybe, but we will survive. We’ll go indoors, crank up the AC, and watch Netflix for a few days — not the end of the world. But for the unhoused, this can be an especially difficult time, and unfortunately it’s not the kind of thing that most people really think of. I think we tend to remember them when it’s freezing cold or snowing out, but when it’s super hot? It’s easy to forget.
Anyway, I just wanted to put it out there that should you feel like doing something nice for people who don’t have anywhere to go — or, for that matter, the crossing guards, mail carriers, construction workers, and others who have to be outside no matter what — a small thing you can do to show some kindness would be to put a few bottles of water (or Gatorade, etc) into the freezer and then keep them in your bag to give out. Honestly, if you do this even once or twice and see the look of relief on someone’s face as you do it, you’ll want to do it all the time. It’s a really small gesture, but it helps.
I am reminded all the time that as a kid, there seemed to be public water fountains (and also bathrooms!) all over the place. Those don’t exist anymore. Being handed a drink of water means a lot when you don’t have anything else. I genuinely wish the city was being more proactive with getting these folks some relief, but if they’re not, we can do it.
ICYMI
Dawn Giambalvo will be the Solomon slate pick for Ward C.
Stacey Lawrence will be the Ali slate pick for Ward E.
The Rite Aide on West Side and Sip Ave is going out of business. Honestly, this should be a top story as it represents a devastating blow to the Marion neighborhood, one of the most forgotten areas of Jersey City. Marion, which has no walkable supermarkets and only a smattering of bodegas and smaller shops, really depended upon that retailer to have just some very simple basics to keep the area going. The Rite Aid has been languishing for months now (corporate HQ hasn’t restocked most of the shelves, leaving a mostly empty store except for the pharmacy) so I guess the shock won’t be so great, but geez. When I saw the latest round of Rite Aid closures, I assumed it would be on it, but it’s still a blow. What a bummer.
The Filipino festival is today (Sunday) in Lincoln Park — even if you’re not especially into deep fried street food treats, the festival offers some of the best politician watching of the year, as it’s one of the only times most politicians remember that Ward B exists other than the Eid festivities in the park. Anyway, the festival is fantastic and last year there was an amazing drag performer I still think of often, so come on by — the parade runs from 10-2 and then the festival is until 5 or 6 (ok technically I think it’s until 6 but get there by 5 for maximum choices on food). [SUNDAY MORNING EDIT: I’m not seeing anything online about the parade/festival being cancelled due to rain/heat, but the JC Oddities Market has been postponed due to weather, which makes me think other events today may follow. If you’re traveling a distance to attend the Filipino festival, probably best to check the PAFCOM Instagram site — they’re the sponsors of the event — before leaving to make the trip.]
Popular restaurant Harry’s Daughter is temporarily closed due to a fire.
If you happen to be headed to the Museum of Jersey City History as an alternative to events getting rained out… you’re out of luck because they’re closed today. Please check their site for summer hours. Meanwhile, next Saturday at 11am the curator of the current exhibition about sports history will be giving a talk on “Legendary Arenas and the Legends Who Performed There.” For more information, go here.
Feral of the week part two
Steve, the black cat who lives in the yard behind Pompei Pizza, is the Feral of the Week. But here is a runner up:
I’m absolutely obsessed with this cat planter a West Side neighbor made — there’s another one as well, but my photo of it is somehow even worse than this one (my photo is terrible, but the planter is great!). I want more of these, everywhere!!