Residents near the waterfront must be loving this house music festival expected to go on for 10 hrs. Don’t the thousands of people who live here just love 150 db house music blaring into their bedrooms for the benefit of those 20 or so flunkies dancing in the street? Jersey City is just the best place to live these days. /s

Anyone experience this nightmare? So many potential solutions:

1. better barriers to prevent cars from blocking the entrances
2. traffic control ppl
3. another opening onto the road

My spouse had an emergency a few weeks ago and I had to call an Ambulance. Recently I received a bill for ambulance services which had itemized charges as below:

I have never used ambulance service in Jersey City before and wanted to understand if the charges for Ground mileage are actually $50 per mile and in ambulance assessments are really this costly. Any inputs around this will be appreciated.

We live in a townhouse near downtown. We’ve had a lot of instances of random people sitting, drinking, blasting music, and smoking on our stoop steps. Usually they move when we come out with the stroller but we’ve had too many occasions where people refuse to move and get out of the way. I’d like to install a simple gate across the bottom of the stoop steps, which I hope will prevent people from opening it up and sitting on the steps more than the current layout. Anyone do something similar and have a recommended product to buy? Thanks!

Hi, I recently moved to JC. I was trying to get the WTC path at exchange place just now but it was literally too full and I couldn’t get on. Is this common on weekends? I don’t quite know how to get to the city now lol.

The little hot dog stand that could: Boulevard Drinks stands tall amid Journal Square’s high-rise transformation

Journal Square’s iconic yellow Boulevard Drinks hot dog stand has just opened its doors for business for the day, and it’s already loud. It’s the type of loud you’d expect when two 64-story towers are under construction directly across the street, which is exactly what’s happening.

But owner Victor Victoratos doesn’t complain about it until nearly an hour later when he’s asked him whether the noise bothers him.

“Always,” he says.

Victoratos is a warm, gregarious host to each of his customers, the earliest of whom arrives for a hot dog at 9:08 a.m., and complaining doesn’t seem to be in his nature. The noise might bother him, but he isn’t opposed to the sweeping changes to Journal Square that are quickly turning its core into a skyscraper haven.

In fact, his perspective from Boulevard Drinks’ front row seat at the center of the action leans toward optimism.

“You can’t stop progress,” is the mantra he repeats about the new version of Journal Square emerging.

He sees a near future in which the neighborhood is a regional destination and in which Boulevard Drinks, a part of it for 87 years, remains.

He would welcome more business competition (“I’m sick and tired of these 99 cent stores. I want to see a couple decent boutiques”), and he has a good relationship with his landlord, which paved the way for a new 10-year lease, albeit with a provision that it could be cut short halfway through for a demolition if the property owner takes that route.

But Victoratos said that if that happens, the landlord has indicated they would likely welcome Boulevard Drinks into the building that replaces it, should the business be interested.

So he keeps serving hot dogs to students and construction workers and neighbors and Jersey City natives who have long moved away but make Boulevard Drinks the first stop when they come back.

“My grandmother used to bring me here since I was a little girl,” says Niecy Taylor, gesturing her hand at a height just a couple feet off the ground.

She’s enjoying hot dogs at the end of the counter before an eye doctor appointment, which she traveled in for from her now home of Union. Whenever she’s in Jersey City, she grabs a hot dog, Taylor explains.

“It’s like home this place,” she says.

Visually, Boulevard Drinks has long been a classic hole-in-the-wall eatery occupying just enough space on a busy street for a counter with stools and a window for orders on the go.

But now it’s hard to look at it without also thinking about the home in Pixar’s “Up”; Boulevard Drinks is absolutely dwarfed by the skyscrapers that have risen around it.

It’s a business that is used to change. The hot dog stand’s first iteration was within the Square itself before the existing PATH building was constructed. The Gorman family, of Jewish Puerto Rican heritage, opened it there in 1937 and then transitioned the hot dogs into an Orange Julius franchise when a new PATH terminal building opened, Victoratos said.

When that building closed, they crossed Kennedy Boulevard to a Nedick’s on the corner where Cohen’s Optical is now, and then moved down the block into the current location, renaming the business Boulevard Drinks.

In 1979, the Gorman family sold the restaurant to two brothers, one of whom was Victoratos’ brother-in-law Spiro Bardis. Now Victoratos and his sister Effie run the business, with Victor there on site grilling and serving since retiring from banking five years ago. The family also owns 3 Guys From Italy, the pizzeria around the corner that it has temporarily closed.

When Victoratos speaks about Boulevard Drinks’ future, as confident as he is that all will be well, he grows vague. He says he knows he has a good five years more to give to it, which will take him into his late 60s. He references his grandchildren as the next in line to manage the restaurant, though the eldest is just 12.

But no matter what happens with the neighborhood, or how glitzy it becomes, he thinks a little hot dog stand will always belong.

“This is something I think will never die,” Victoratos said. “It goes through phases.”

These days he is like a human news bulletin for customers curious about the neighboring work, easily rattling off key stats about the towers as well as the city’s plan to demolish the building that had housed JSQ Lounge to create public space.

“They’re working on the interior,” he reassures one customer who asks when One Journal Square will be finished. “I actually saw four P.C. Richards big box trucks dropping off appliances.”

The Loew’s Jersey theater next door, which the city and Devils Arena Entertainment will reopen as a concert venue after an ongoing renovation, can’t hurt hot dog sales, Victoratos says.

In the meantime, however, the closure of the alley that was a shortcut for pedestrians coming from Magnolia Avenue has cost him $150 to $200 a day in sales, he estimates.

Another inconvenience? Dust blown straight at Boulevard Drinks from the One Journal Square construction site. Victoratos has a new awning outside and it is already speckled with debris.

Before signing the new lease, Victoratos said he shopped around the neighborhood a bit to see what alternative options were out there. He discovered, he said, that the new buildings seemed to be far more interested in corporate tenants than local businesses.

“That turned me off,” he said. “I said, ‘That’s the end of the mom and pop.’”

His rent will be going up under the new lease, but at a rate that Victoratos said can be factored into the hot dog prices.

He is also sensitive to his customer’s wallets, attempting to keep his hot dogs amongst the cheapest in the region. A single hot dog with one topping is currently $3.75.

Some baseball fans traveling to the Bronx or Queens on opening day stop at Boulevard Drinks first, a season Victoratos looks forward to every year.

“The big joke is I’m not paying $14 for a hot dog,” Victoratos said, “when I could have the best one for one third the price.”

Photographers, nature lovers, and just generally observant people, where in downtown Jersey City can you get the iconic brownstone, beautiful sidewalk, and beautiful trees with foliage, or better yet, maybe even some additional plants and flowers? This month I'm walking around downtown south of Columbus, a few blocks west of the water. Some of the streets look okay, although the sidewalks are so broken up it's quite hard to push a stroller over. What I have in mind is a portrait for my wife and five-month-old baby. I'd appreciate specific cross streets as opposed to general areas. I have scouted out the general area but I have not settled on specific streets. Thank you in advance. I'm a semi-professional photographer (hobbyist for 15+ years who has been paid for my work) and I would also consider doing photo shoots for some of you, especially if you help with recommending a great location. Enjoy fall!

Need some recommendations to take the kiddo.

Hey yall, I might have the opportunity to move into a 3b/2br apartment at Parkside East for a little under $3k with the Moderate Income Program. I have looked up the complex online and I see a bunch of mixed reviews with people complaining about maintenance, roaches and other things but a lot of those posts were a bit old from what I could tell. I haven't toured the apartment yet, but it was said to be newly renovated. Just wondering if anyone who has lived there previously or currently can give their thoughts on the place. Thank you!

(i have used this HCIA program a lot.... a good time to get rid of your crap)

Sunday, October 6th, HHW/E-Waste Recycling/Tire Amnesty  

Gregg Park (Lot #1), Bayonne,

Municipal Complex (13-15 Linden Ave), Jersey City

https://www.hcia.org/index.php/about-us/13-hazardous-waste

 E-Waste Recycling accepted items

https://www.hcia.org/index.php/hazardous-waste/e-waste-recycling

Household Hazardous Waste accepted items

https://www.hcia.org/index.php/hazardous-waste/what-is-hhw

https://www.njtransit.com/newbushudsonsurvey

One of the biggest issues I put was the lack of service from Hudson County to Newark Airport, as well as from Union City to/from points west (for example, after 3pm, there's no #163 service from Union City to points west, and in the morning, the #85 doesn't start running from American Dream despite the #703 to the #85 being the only reasonable way to get into Hudson County while the interstate routes are bypassing Union City to get into the NJ-495 bus lane).

Yo what happened on the corner of York and grove street. Heard a guy shouting and then honking and looked like someone chasing someone down. Didn't understand what was going on, and then a bunch of cops showed up. I think it happened around 9-9:30ish

I live in JC downtown and I found a white(transparent looking) small roach looking bug today in my bathroom - my mind was not straight I killed it and flushed it down. Do I need evidence for landlord to take actions?

[ Removed by Reddit on account of violating the content policy. ]

McGreevy would like to talk to the special needs community on Tuesday October 8th at 694 summit avenue from 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm he would like to discuss what special needs parents feel they need for their child in this community if you're a parent or a caretaker for a special needs child please attend thank you see you there

Ongoing water fountain by Berry lane park it’s been like that for an hour and even after fully pressing the button it won’t stop

Hey everyone👋

I am currently trying to find someone to take over my lease with Laguna in Newport, Jersey City from 11/2/2024 - 11/17/2025.

It’s a main room in 1b1b apartment, you will share kitchen and bathroom with another girl.

It’s 1800/month (already 300 dollars below the market). However, it’s negotiable for the price.

Please DM if you want more details or would like to have a schedule a room tour next few weeks.

I live on a block where there is a charter school at the end of it, and school kids (and parents) throw trash all along my block while walking to and from the school. Also random people just pile on.

How do I request my city to put a public trashcan on my block, given the foot traffic?