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Ann Marie Miller

Op Ed: Vote Yes! Arts are More Important Now than Ever!

October 22, 2020/in Opinion, Performing Arts, Visual Arts /by Ann Marie Miller

It’s not often that voters get a say in how they want public funding spent, and Jersey City is a leader in giving its residents a say in what is important in their lives. The arts make an enormous difference to Jersey City. You can see it downtown and in all of its neighborhoods—on walls, in public art, in galleries, and in virtual and real-life classrooms. Jersey City has a unique opportunity to help them survive and thrive.

I urge you to support Municipal Question #1 on this year’s ballot.  It will create an Arts and Culture Trust Fund to support a variety of arts programs in Jersey City equitably and sustainably. In the end, it always comes down to what we value—safe and healthy neighborhoods, quality education for our kids, a thriving commerce and opportunity, a distinctive identity. The arts foster them all.

They are basic and essential to a quality education.  They help children learn, improve graduation rates, and build a creative workforce.  We learn now that they also improve social and emotional learning, help students form empathy, and maintain positive social relationships.

Many nonprofit arts groups employ teaching artists who have been hit hard during COVID and need support. Their livelihoods depend on contracts with schools and PTO’s working hard to meet basic educational goals, that include the arts. Yet schools cannot afford the assemblies or residencies required and cannot even consider them at this time.

The arts make communities attractive, safer, and bring both pride and commerce to them. Jersey City is nationally known for its vibrant arts community as well as its mural program beautifying the bustling city center.  During these challenging times, arts activities complement outdoor dining and help keep restaurants and businesses safely open.

Hard data back all these claims. To learn more, visit keepjerseyartsalive.org for even deeper data on jobs, economic impact, and quality education (both statewide and in Hudson County) and how the arts create them.

So, it comes down to what we value, what makes us whole and healthy. That is what the arts do best.  Vote YES on Municipal Question #1. Future generations of Jersey City residents will thank you for your foresight and for action at this critical moment in the continued resurgence of Jersey City.

 

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News Briefs

Mayor Fulop and Via,  announced the expansion to weekend service of Via’s on-demand publicly subsidized transit system.

A GoFundMe page has been created here for Christian Parra, age 34, of Jersey City, who was shot on Sunday night in BJ’s parking lot on Marin Boulevard and Second Street. He left a wife and three children. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Office of the Hudson County Prosecutor at 201-915-1345 or to leave an anonymous tip here. 

Jesus Gonzalez, 30, died in a car crash on Saturday night when the car in which he was a passenger hit the attenuator-protected guard rail on Christopher Columbus Drive near Merseles Street. The driver, also 30, was listed in critical condition at Jersey City Medical Center.

The Jersey City Education Association has started a GoFundMe campaign to support the family of 11-year-old Desire Reid and eight-month old Kenyon Robinson who died in a house fire on Martin Luther King Drive on Wednesday night. Here is the link.

Vaccine-eligible individuals can make an appointment online by visiting hudsoncovidvax.org.

The 2021 tree planting applications are available. If you have an empty tree pit on your block or a street you can fill out the form and the city’s arborists will handle it.  bit.ly/adoptatreespri…

Keep abreast of Jersey City Covid-19 statistics here.

Governor Murphy has launched a “Covid Transparency Website” where New Jerseyans can track state expenditures related to Covid.  Go here.

For info on vaccinations, call Vaccination Call Center and our operators will assist you with scheduling one: 855-568-0545

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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