In the spring of 2019, while visiting family in Arizona, Hunter Reinholt died from an overdose of painkillers prescribed for his grandfather. Hunter’s mother, Tracy, experienced every parent’s nightmare when she found her son sitting “lifeless in a chair, the victim of a drug overdose.”
Out of this tragedy #HuntersWorld was born. #Hunter’s world is a teen mentoring program in Jersey City that gives teenagers a safe place to discuss personal challenges and struggles with the support of their peers.
Reinholt came up with the concept for #HuntersWorld during a heartfelt conversation between her and some of Hunter’s closest friends.
“I truly believe that if he had found the space, the words, the vulnerability to discuss his challenges with his peers – he would have made a different choice that night, and he would still be here. That’s why I founded #HuntersWorld – to keep other teens and their parents from suffering a similar fate.” Indeed, in the year leading up to his death, Hunter had been struggling with problems at home.
#HuntersWorld aims to fight the crisis of depression and anxiety among teens by destigmatizing these mental health issues and teaching them to talk about their challenges. Recent studies show peer mentoring has a measurable positive impact on self-esteem, building relationships with adults, and teen’s attitudes towards school.
The teen mentors of #HuntersWorld will be holding a virtual Halloween Gala, with the help of Broadway and West End performer Tom Sellwood.
This event will take place on Thursday, Oct. 29, via a private Zoom link from 7 PM to 8:30 PM. The event includes a costume contest and entertainment. There will be a silent auction with an opportunity to win a private Zoom call with CBS Sunday Morning journalists Mo Rocca and Faith Salie.
Tickets to the #HuntersWorld Halloween Gala cost $20.
For more information, click to learn about the virtual gala and here to learn about the silent auction.
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A proposed inclusionary zoning ordinance before the City Council tonight is coming under fire from the statewide housing rights organization Fair Share Housing Center. Ordinance No. 20-089 was put before the council two weeks ago by Mayor Steven Fulop and Council-President Joyce Watterman. Councilman-at-Large Rolando Lavarro has since waged a one man battle — with the support of Ward E Councilman James Solomon – to amend it. Local activists have come out in force in support of Lavarro’s amendments.
Today, Fair Share Housing Center Executive Director Adam Gordon released a statement calling for changes. Citing “serious flaws in the ordinance,” Gordon said “Although we welcome the stated desire of Jersey City’s elected officials to tackle the growing crisis of displacement and rapid gentrification in New Jersey’s second-largest city, the proposed ordinance set to be considered by the City Council this evening is riddled with developer-friendly loopholes. If adopted without significant amendments, it will produce few, if any, new affordable homes.”
His statement goes on to say that “The ordinance, as currently drafted, would allow wealthy and politically connected developers to build large numbers of luxury homes while negotiating their way out of affordable housing requirements. By allowing City Council members the ability to waive its requirements entirely whenever it wishes and allowing other buyouts at its discretion, the ordinance will create a political game by which developers lobby Council members to get special treatment for massive developments [instead] of creating one set of rules everyone must follow. Not only is such legislation inadequate to address the deep need for affordable housing in Jersey City, but it also violates state law in a number of ways. We call on Jersey City’s elected officials to close the gaping loopholes in this ordinance and act swiftly to pass an ordinance that actuallyaddresses the affordable housing needs of Jersey City’s working families.”
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This Wednesday, the City Council in Jersey City will consider for a second reading (and likely a vote) an inclusionary zoning ordinance recently put forth by the Fulop administration. Unfortunately for the people of Jersey City, this ordinance is inclusionary in name only, with abundant carveouts and loopholes for real estate developers to skimp on building affordable housing units.
In early 2019, City Council members Joyce Watterman and Rolando Lavarro introduced an inclusionary zoning ordinance, and the Fulop administration introduced a competing one, which was widely considered to be more developer-friendly. To reconcile the two ordinances, an Inclusionary Zoning Committee was formed, composed of the majority of council members. This committee, led by Councilperson Lavarro, held a series of meetings over the course of the past year, which were open for public viewing. However, after the committee reached a compromise through this transparent process, Mayor Fulop and his team put forth a new ordinance, developed entirely behind the scenes and ignoring many key provisions reached by consensus in committee. This is the ordinance now being considered by the City Council.
Not only was the process questionable, but the substance of this new ordinance is lacking in several key areas. In particular, we want to call attention to both the buyout provisions and the unrestricted ability of the council to waive the ordinance.
Although the City Council’s 2019 ordinance did not, the consensus that the Inclusionary Zoning Committee reached included limited buyout provisions. In the committee’s compromise, developers could bypass building affordable units in a new development in certain specific ways, e.g. by building in-lieu affordable units in the same ward. In contrast, the administration’s 2020 ordinance has myriad buyout provisions, allowing developers to forego affordable units if they pay or build other community benefits (loosely defined, including things like parking garages); they can also substitute in-lieu affordable units in completely different parts of the city. It’s hard to see how the administration’s 2020 ordinance won’t perpetuate the economic segregation already plaguing our city.
Most concerning, though, is the waiver provision in the administration’s 2020 ordinance, which allows the City Council to waive the inclusionary zoning requirements for any given development. In a city, county, and state with a robust history of corruption, where politicians regularly take large contributions from real estate developers and affiliates, this waiver provision is a gaping loophole and a pay-to-play disaster waiting to happen. There was discussion during this ordinance’s first reading about retaining the waiver provision for specific scenarios like land-use legal settlements. However, as it is written, there are no restrictions on the use of this waiver provision. If it’s only intended for use in a limited set of circumstances, why not delineate those? As of now, the ordinance can be waived for any development by a simple majority of the City Council.
One doesn’t have to imagine a scenario where a slate of candidates in a municipal election is bankrolled by one or more major developers. This is already the reality in Jersey City. Meanwhile, residents are stretched thin as rents rise higher and higher, and are tired of empty promises. How are we supposed to trust that our politicians will even bother to hold their developer benefactors to the terms of this ordinance, instead of waiving it altogether?
With this waiver provision, the administration’s inclusionary zoning ordinance is so full of loopholes it might fall apart. Its passage would allow Mayor Fulop to claim a faux-progressive feather in his cap as he makes moves on the political ladder, while still allowing business as usual for the class of developers that double as his political donors.
The City Council should revisit the findings of the Inclusionary Zoning Committee and craft an ordinance that will meaningfully increase affordable housing and economic diversity. The people of Jersey City deserve a strong inclusionary zoning ordinance—not this one.
Eleana Little NJ-08 for Progress
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With daily diagnoses at levels not seen since early summer, administration says it has to count on honor system to ensure compliance in small groups
This story was written and produced by NJ Spotlight. It is being republished under a special NJ News Commons content-sharing agreement related to COVID-19 coverage. To read more, visit njspotlight.com.
Gov. Phil Murphy and state public health officials are concerned about a rapid rise in new COVID-19 cases in New Jersey — where daily diagnoses are now at levels not seen since late May — but said the problem is to some degree beyond their control.
Despite the reopening of schools, restaurants and other businesses in recent months, and an outbreak linked to the Orthodox Jewish community in Lakewood, state officials said Monday that much of the coronavirus spread they now see is fueled by small, private house parties and family gatherings.
“While these numbers are a far cry from where we were at our spring peaks, they are also significantly higher than where we were for much of the summer and until just a few weeks ago,” Murphy said at his regular media briefing Monday. “The capacities that we believe are contributing to the bulk of the (new) cases are those gatherings that are beyond our ability to regulate and properly enforce,” he said.
Little things still count big with COVID-19
Murphy and state Department of Health Commissioner Judy Persichilli reiterated the critical importance of basic infection control — washing hands, keeping distance, wearing masks — and urged the public to continue to be vigilant about protecting themselves against the virus, especially as cold weather forces people to spend more time inside, where it can spread more easily.
“It is understandable that residents want life to go back to normal,” Persichilli said, urging the public instead to “double down” on these protections. “The trajectory of the next few months will be determined by all of us now and in the coming weeks (and) our behavior will be critical in shaping how our holidays will be celebrated. Now is not the time to let your guard down. The virus has not stopped circulating,” she said.
New Jersey officials announced another nearly 1,200 COVID-19 diagnoses on Monday, following the addition of almost 1,300 cases on Sunday — the first time since late May that the state has recorded two days in a row with more than 1,000 new cases. Persichilli said daily new cases had remained below 300 or so all summer, but began to tick up rapidly in mid-September — similar to trends nationwide. In all, more than 221,200 state residents have been infected with the virus since March, including at least 14,425 who have died.
What is driving the new cases?
The state has invested heavily in expanding its contact-tracing corps and now has some 1,900 public health officials — nearly double the initial workforce — deployed around the state to track down individuals who test positive for COVID-19, identify who else they may have infected and reach out to those people, warning them to take precautions. New Jersey reports more data from the contact tracers’ work than many other states but has in the past declined to make public information on the places or locations associated with an outbreak.
However on Monday Persichilli shared some of these details, announcing that an analysis of 118 outbreaks tracked between March and October linked 16% of the identified cases to private gatherings — the largest percentage of location-associated cases, other than diagnoses connected to health care facilities, group living settings like nursing homes, and schools. She said 13% of cases were tied to daycare facilities and another 13% occurred among farmworkers.
“While we have seen hotspots in Ocean County (which includes Lakewood) and at our universities, overall we are seeing more widespread cases throughout the state due to community spread and not any single event or reopening step,” Persichilli said. DOH officials declined to say where they obtained the location-related case data.
What’s the state’s response?
Murphy suggested that there was little more the state could do to regulate the private gatherings that appear to be the source of the recent spread. The lockdown New Jersey put in place in March has been gradually eased, starting in late May, and most businesses can now operate at some limited capacity.
The state has also put basic restrictions on private homes, while encouraging residents to opt for outdoor events and wear masks when within 6 feet of one another other. Indoor gatherings, including those at private residences, are now limited to 25 people; funerals, weddings and memorials can include up to 150 people, or 25% of the building’s capacity, whichever is less. But enforcement options are limited, so compliance depends largely on the honor system, officials concede.
Persichilli said her team is closely watching the data reports, including the weekly COVID-19 activity reports that help indicate how rapidly the virus is spreading in six separate regions. Last week the entire map was tinted bright yellow, indicating moderate spread statewide for the first time. “We look at that every week and will continue to look at it,” she said Monday. “If it moves into the red (indicating high spread), what I think we will do is increase testing, contact tracing, isolation and quarantine.”
The DOH dispatched at least 20 additional contact tracers to help officials in Ocean County track and contain the spread in Lakewood and other communities and sent thousands of additional COVID-19 test kits to the area. On Monday, Persichilli said 212 more contact tracers would be dispatched to hard-hit regions in the next two weeks, although additional details were not immediately available.
What about rolling back the reopening?
Murphy faced multiple questions Monday from reporters wondering if he intended to shut down schools, indoor dining or other activities, in response to the rising COVID-19 diagnoses. He called the new case numbers “sobering” with “hot spots … all up and down the state” and said he regularly speaks with industry groups about how to limit exposure but insisted rolling back the economic restart was not necessary.
“We don’t have any evidence per se that indoor dining is contributing to this,” Murphy said, instead urging people to “stay strong” in their ongoing efforts to control the spread of infection. “This is in our midst. And it certainly errs on the side of indoor, private activity,” he said.
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Councilman-at-Large Rolando Lavarro will offer amendments to the administration’s inclusionary zoning ordinance (IZO) on for a second reading at Wednesday’s City Council meeting. In a press release today, Lavarro excoriated the mayor’s proposed ordinance as “comically weak.” He asserted that it “would accelerate gentrification rather than seriously address Jersey City’s affordable housing crisis.”
The proposed amendments are:
Triple the required affordable housing to be built in downtown Jersey City to a mandatory onsite 15%. At least double the amount required in other “hot” real estate markets across the City to 10% mandatory onsite.
Close the “waiver” loophole, requiring Jersey City to follow the ordinance for all future developments. No more waivers.
Close the “parking deck” loophole, preventing developers from getting out of their affordable housing requirement by building a parking garage and other so-called “community benefits.”
Extend to 45 years the required length of affordability for an affordable unit up from 30 years.
Require developers to pay down to the last cent, by requiring a payment in lieu for “rounding” calculations. For example, when the inclusionary zoning formula requires a developer to build 25.4 affordable homes, the developer must pay for the “.4” in addition to building the 25 homes.
Lavarro found himself stymied at the last council meeting when Council-President Joyce Watterman forced members to vote on the amendments as a group rather than individually. The amendments went down to defeat. However, several members abstained and seemed to leave the door open to supporting at least some of Lavarro’s ideas.
Local social justice advocates have come out in force to support Lavarro. Watterman and others have argued that the ordinance will be a work in progress, amenable to change in the future.
The next meeting of the Municipal Council will take place on October 21 at 6 p.m.
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A London-syle curry house is coming to Downtown Newark Avenue. Brick Lane, which has locations on East 6th Street in Manhattan and in Montclair, is now building out the 136 Newark Avenue space formerly occupied by Pasta e Vino and before that Raval.
According to Wikipedia, Brick Lane is an East London street famous for contributing to the “second wave of Anglo-Indian cuisine as families from countries such as Bangladesh (mainly the Greater Sylhet region) migrated to London to look for work.”
Brick Lane’s future home on Newark Avenue
What makes Brick Lane different, I asked chef and co-owner Sati Sharma. “We’re a curry house like you’d find in London. The Brits have a different palate than Americans. They prefer spicier curries.” And, indeed, Brick Lane’s New York location offers a curry called Phal that it describes as “an excruciatingly hot curry, more pain and sweat than flavor. For our customers who do this on a dare, we require you to state a verbal disclaimer not holding us liable for any physical or emotional damage after eating the curry. If you do finish your serving, a bottle of beer is on us, as is a certificate of completion and your picture in the (P)hall of fame.” Sharma hopes to get a liquor license for Jersey City, so it should be possible for them to hold up their end of the bargain here as well.
Not to worry however. Sharma will offer a curry for every set of tastebuds. “We offer 10 to 15 different sauces, ranging in spiciness. But we don’t just take the same sauce and increase the heat. Each sauce has its own distinct color, flavor, and texture.” With such a range of sauces, Sharma is careful to point out that people with dietary restrictions like vegans and those who are lactose intolerant will find a sauce that works for them.
Sharma wants his customers to experience the Indian equivalent of a Proustian moment. “If you bite into one of our meatballs, I want you to be transported back to Lucknow [India].” “And at a much lower price,” I offer.
Sharma who also owns Paratha Junction up the road in Jersey City’s Little India, compares Downtown Jersey City’s energy to that of Barcelona or Madrid. “People stay up late and then get up late.” Brick Lane will thus open and close accordingly. “We’ll stay open until 1 a.m.,” Sharma predicts.
Both Sharma, who is from India, and his partner, Ajit Bains, who hails from London, know Jersey City well. They both have lived here.
Speaking of prices, curries at Brick Lane will range from $17 to $23.
If all goes according to plan, Brick Lane will open in November.
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This morning, Councilman James Solomon announced that new parking rules are coming to the Downtown, most likely in early January.
Downtown residents will see new residential parking signs going up to extend the hours for resident-only parking. According to Solomon, these changes should make it easier for residents to find street parking each evening.
The changes were passed in the summer of 2019 but the installation of the new signs was delayed due to COVID. The signs will go up this October and November, with enforcement to begin shortly thereafter.
A brief summary of the rules changes are:
Evening Enforcement
The hours of residential parking enforcement have changed from 8AM – 5PM until 7 AM-9 PM with a 2 hour window for visitors, M-F.
To apply for or renew a residential permit, click here. If you already have a permit, you simply have to renew your current permit when it expires.
To apply for a visitor’s pass, click here. In the near future, you will be able to use the Park Mobile app to purchase a visitor’s pass online.
Residential Zone Boundary Changes
Slight changes were made to the parking zones downtown. You can view the map here.
Limit to residential permits
Those who live in buildings with parking are generally not allowed to get a residential parking permit, unless they qualify for an exemption
A limit of 1 permit may be issued per unit for those who have parking available on site if they receive an exemption
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If you’re old enough and you’ve been in Hudson County long enough, you’ll remember a store on Washington Street in Hoboken called Hand-Mād. It was a gallery and curiosity shop with a particular character: Most everything on sale was colorful and playful, indebted in equal measure to Native American art and mid-20thcentury underground comic books. Pieces looked like they could have been plucked off of a totem pole designed by R. Crumb. Most of this art was figurative even if the figures themselves were surreal. Every abstract, cartoonish face in the store looked as though it was eager to have a relationship with you. Hand-Mād was an extension of ‘80s Hoboken’s oddball personality, and like many shops in town then it spoke in an unequivocal voice. It said: If you are a freak, a strange native, something of a cartoon character yourself, you’re welcome here.
Downtown Jersey City rarely sends visitors a message like that. But the show currently on view at the Novado Gallery (110 Morgan Street) sure does. The work on display in “Dan Fenelon: Primordial Pop,” which runs through Nov. 8, is an accidental but unmistakable callback to the Hand-Mād aesthetic. This show is unusually cheerful and personable. Instead of the weathered industrial greys and corrugated textures common to Hudson County visual art, Fenelon’s canvases and sculptures are full of PlayDoh-bright colors. A typical Fenelon work is busy with thick lines that separate distinct chromatic regions; like Keith Haring, he pushes his shapes, images, and designs to the edges of the canvas and implies that there’s a life for them far beyond the frame. Nothing here feels retrieved from the trash or even recontextualized. It’s just the vibrant contents of Fenelon’s brain.
That brain is populated with fever-dream characters — part mythological, part Muppet. Some resemble Southwestern animal spirits or Mesoamerican gods, others seem borrowed from the back pages of the weirdest Caldecott Award-winning children’s books. The eyes of these beasties sometimes gaze upward. Sometimes, they’re blank, like those of a hungry animal caught mid meal. Sometimes, they’re looking straight at you. Inherent in their gaze is a challenge: Make sense of us if you can. There are feline heads, there are skulls on springs, there are lizards and leering imps, and there’s an eight-foot-tall statue of a multi-colored cat, hands on hips and looking rather self-satisfied. Fenelon’s kingdom is not an entirely peaceable one, but there isn’t much menace in this work — in fact, this is the rare Hudson County gallery show that it’s easy to see a child enjoying.
In part, that’s because the best pieces in “Primordial Pop” are essentially toys. They’re little dolls, impertinent and bossy, and loaded with personality. Three of them stand on a shelf together in the back of the gallery, surveying the room with looks that hover between curiosity and dismay; my favorite is an orange- and green-faced dog, but I also love the serrated-beaked duck (or is it a dinosaur?). Fenelon places a family of these characters on painted platforms protruding from a trio of skateboards. It’s like an iconostasis designed by FAO Schwarz. For the show’s single most impressive piece, he hangs the dolls between the swinging planks of a gigantic mobile. There they’re sheltered but also vulnerable, subject to the vagaries of air currents and the grabbing hands of the mischievous.
All of these objects have been generated by 3D printers, which suggests that Fenelon, like any other manufacturer of kids’ curiosities, could produce many copies of them. You might be a little skeptical about the aesthetic possibilities of printers; “Primordial Pop” makes a solid case that, in the right hands, 3D imaging is as good as any other method of creating sculptures. And if you believe that there’s real artistic significance to action figures and Looney Tunes — and of course you do — you might even call it appropriate, maybe even optimal.
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“We’re not selling out…there are people who call my office every day to tell me that they need affordable housing…we have to put something on the table to give it a try.” With those words, Municipal Council President Joyce Watterman put the kibosh on amendments to an inclusionary zoning ordinance (IZO) offered by Councilman-at-Large Rolando Lavarro at last Wednesday’s council meeting.
But despite Watterman’s display of control, the meeting was dominated by Lavarro, who used up the lion’s share of the evening attempting to amend the IZO and questioning the city’s use of proceeds from the issuance of bonds.
The IZO, announced last week jointly by Watterman and Mayor Steven Fulop, would require residential developers with projects over a certain size to make 20% of the units affordable. Before Watterman’s “no” vote, Lavarro painstakingly laid out his proposed changes to it.
The ordinance “has too much flexibility and too many avenues out,” said Lavarro.
Lavarro pointed out that the ordinance would allow a developer to avoid building affordable housing as part of its project if it built affordable units off site, contributed to an affordable housing fund or built public parking garages or government offices. Lavarro argued that these “community benefits” should be limited to public schools, public recreational facilities and public transportation.
He objected to a provision that would let the City Council waive enforcement of the affordable housing requirement. “The purpose [of eliminating the waiver] is to tie our hands and future councils’ hands…[the provision] entirely defeats the purpose of having an ordinance in the first place.”
From the beginning though, Watterman stymied Lavarro’s efforts, ruling that his amendments needed to be voted on as a group rather than one by one as Lavarro had proposed. Deprived of the ability to vote on individual amendments, three councilmembers, Denise Ridley, Mira Prinz-Arey and Richard Boggiano, abstained. Jermaine Robinson, Yousef Saleh and Daniel Rivera joined Watterman as “no” votes. Councilman Solomon joined Lavarro by voting in favor of the amendments. Lavarro promised to offer his amendments again at the council’s next meeting. Thus, Lavarro’s amendments went down to defeat.
Lavarro wasn’t finished playing interlocutor. On a vote to issue $31 million in bonds to fund capital improvements, he asked for explanations. Lavarro said that he was opposed to any expenditure on a museum slated for the city-owned “Pathside” building at Journal Square if the project lacked a business plan. “We should have an idea whether this is going to be a self-sustaining program,” he said. Similarly, Lavarro objected to spending money on new city vehicles without having a vehicle inventory system. “We are winging it,” said Lavarro. Notwithstanding Lavarro’s objections, the council authorized the bond issuance 8–1.
If Lavarro was in the minority on the council, he had the overwhelming support of the public speakers. Ward F resident Dana Patton expressed the views of many. “There’s too much wiggle room here for developers and the council to give up on the affordable requirement. There’s not enough to protect the most vulnerable in our community.”
The next meeting of the Municipal Council will take place on October 21 at 6 p.m.
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While the pandemic steam rolled many businesses out of existence, one bar sprung up in a wasteland. Homegrown opened on July 18 in the Power House Arts District, a neighborhood now known more for its luxury loft condos than for art.
Kennedy Grey, founder/general manager/bartender, gestured at the landscape of warehouses. “Where is there anything interesting? Where is depth and life in this?” We sat on top of the elevated walkway that used to be a loading dock for packing materials on and off trains from 150 Bay, the historic A&P warehouse. The old train tracks and cobble stone are still visible. When we spoke, it was the end of summer, the one-year-anniversary of her partner’s passing, and two months since the opening of Homegrown.
A singer/songwriter, Grey, nee Shayna Francois, seeks to inspire and create community and make craft alcoholic beverages accessible. Homegrown’s concept is simple: all the good booze produced in New Jersey you can drink. If you’ve ever wanted to get drunk on New Jersey, Homegrown is the place to be. The motto is “Drink. Jersey. Fresh,” and it exists to showcase the best booze Jersey has to offer. All beer, cider, spirits, hard seltzer, and even wine are from New Jersey. There are seven rotating draft lines, lots of cans, and 32-ounce bombers of their signature cocktails like The Iron Bound. Homegrown is a gateway to the intoxicating flavors of New Jersey, and Kennedy Grey is the ambassador. Homegrown opened at a time when everyone was staying home and everything they serve is from New Jersey, thus “keeping it home.”
No one seriously discusses the terroir of New Jersey. Historically, New Jersey is known more for its toxic waste than its wine. However, there are over 50 wineries here, and at Homegrown, local wine producers like Unionville or Alba are featured monthly showing that our verdant farms can produce a quality chardonnay as well as the sweet fruit wine historically associated with New Jersey.
There is a beer “tap takeover” at least once a month featuring breweries not often found in Jersey City like Four Cities Brewing Company from South Orange. Frequently, Ghost Hawk of Clifton is on draft. Tom Rachelski, founder of Ghost Hawk Brewing, was a friend who became involved in nurturing Homegrown when Grey first featured his beer. Ready with friendship and advice, he helped Grey curate the beer menu and navigate uncharted waters as a founder of a new business. She calls him their “unofficial beer guide.”
“Craft beer has a level of pretension. We can have things without it being pretentious. Get together with your friends and have a beer. Like wine, you recognize different flavors,” said Grey. Grey, who grew up in Montclair, says one of her best sellers is Montclair Brewery’s raspberry lambic, a fan favorite.
She says that for people who usually drink Bud or Corona, Homegrown is an “introduction to craft without scaring them.”
The same goes for the cocktail menu: Keep the profile simple, showcase the spirits. She enjoys visiting distilleries to get a better appreciation of the product and tries to bring that enthusiasm into the bar with monthly spirits tastings and cocktail-making classes. People can learn to make Homegrown’s signature cocktails by pros from distilleries such as All Points West and Sourland. These classes usually run $20–$40. After the class, there is an all-night happy hour for students, a great date night.
Grey’s first job in Jersey City was at the now-closed Talde. She has hosted and booked at the now-closed Citizen, “where I got my sea legs,” she said. As a former bartender/host/dog walker/pet sitter, Grey now finds her role an entrepreneur in the bar industry humbling, “I learn something about the industry and myself every day.”
She wonders, “Maybe I’m not aggressive enough for this industry. When I look at my neighbor, I don’t look at, what do they have that I don’t. I look at—do they have enough?”
Her goal is to add to the life of the Powerhouse Arts District and keep 150 Bay Street a destination. Homegrown is an experience just like every spot on the strip. Noticeably, Departed Soles, the brewery next door, isn’t currently on the menu. She said “They’re right there. They might want to sell their own beer, have people experience their brewery.” Departed Soles, along with Bucket and Bay, helped transform the strip into a destination (though unfortunately Bucket and Bay recently closed).
No one was as surprised by Homegrown’s opening as Grey herself. “If someone would’ve told me that within a year, we’re full circle—went from being jobless, displaced and grieving, to open up a place during a pandemic. There’s no certainty.”
She was devastated by the loss of her partner in September, and afraid of what comes next. In March the shut down happened, and it gave her a lot of time to put things in perspective. Grey said, “Life was giving me lemons. And I said, ‘Fuck you. I’ll open a bar.”
In Marcch, she began discussing the rebranding of Headroom Bar & Social at the same location, with the owner of the space, Howard Brunner. The space itself is cavernous. It’s capacity pre-Covid was 575; now it’s 142, split between Shell N’ Tail, a seafood restaurant, and Homegrown. (A lot of the space was lost due to indoor dining regulations.) They have regular DJ’s almost every weekend and Grey is planning on having more live music. She even hosted Jersey City Pride in August. Grey plans on hosting monthly art shows and mixers with local business owners to connect the community, possibly even animal adoption events with animal rescue groups.
“I want it to be a good bar for artists. I want it to be a good bar for musicians. I want it to be a good bar for animals. I want it to be a good bar!” She laughed. “Don’t tell anyone I’m a sap! It’ll ruin my street cred. I’m a tough girl.”
Homegrown, 150 Bay Street (Downtown), open 4–9 most days, Instagram menus@homegrown_jc.
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