According to a new study, employment in Jersey City has made a strong comeback following a big uptick in joblessness during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The financial website WalletHub compared 180 of the country’s largest cities and looked at how each city’s unemployment rate had changed between August, 2022 and August of the last three years. Each city was then scored by blending the August 2022 unemployment rate with the city’s performance reducing unemployment.
Of the 180 cities in the study, Jersey City placed 55th with a 3.9 percent unemployment rate that came down 46.1 percent from the previous August. Jersey City easily bested Newark and New York City which placed 147 and 179 respectively.
While higher than the national unemployment rate of 3.7 percent, Jersey City’s August unemployment rate of 3.9 percent was substantially better than Newark (6.1 percent) and New York City (6.8 percent).
Jersey City also edged out the state of New Jersey, which has an unemployment rate of 4 percent.
If all goes according to schedule, a high-end cannabis dispensary will open next spring on a rowdy section of Christopher Columbus Drive downtown.
The brainchild of Jersey City native Julissa Bonilla, Cannaboutique will occupy a 2,500-square-foot space directly across from the LGBTQ bar Six26 and two doors away from a down-market liquor store.
According to Bonilla, Cannaboutique will be anything but rowdy. With a design that wouldn’t look out of place in Chelsea or Soho, Bonilla it appears, is looking to provide a decidedly up-scale experience.
The daughter of a Dominican mother and Puerto Rican father, Bonilla has the cred that comes with having grown up in Jersey City and then worked for corporate behemoths like New York Life and Morgan Stanley.
As a child growing up in Lafayette, Bonilla recalls a rougher time in Jersey City. “My mom locked us up as soon as we came home from school.” She went on to graduate from James Ferris High School, the same school her father attended.
With several other dispensaries opening in Jersey City in the next year, including a high-profile operation co-owned by the actor and rapper Ice T, Bonilla understands the challenges. “It’s going to be a competitive market,” she said. However, she plans to draw on her background across the river, explaining, “I can use my experience as a marketer to use technology to my advantage.”
I ask Bonilla what drove her to retail cannabis. Is she a smoker or an entrepreneur? “I would say both … I’ve always been entrepreneurial. I’ve always been a fan of cannabis.”
But cannabis is more than a business for Bonilla, who said she appreciates marijuana’s medicinal properties and believes her store can help people find relief from a society that is “so full of stress and anxiety.”
What, I ask, will distinguish her products from those of other dispensaries? “Ideally we’ll be able to strike some exclusive deals with different vendors,” she told me. She’d also like to host events and parties.
As to the possibility of secondhand smoke wafting into adjoining properties, Bonilla isn’t worried. “We’ll be using top-of-the-line filtration systems. … Even while you’re smoking, ideally you won’t smell the smoke” she says. In addition, she plans to install UV lighting to kill any bacteria in the air.
In allowing for legal cannabis sales, the state has put a premium on affording opportunities to minorities, women, those who have lived in poor neighborhoods, and those affected adversely by previous marijuana laws. Bonilla says that she “pretty much hit all the boxes.” She is quick to point out, however, that she was never convicted of a marijuana-related offense.
Cannaboutique has committed to supporting three local nonprofits with in-store and online promotions, event hosting, and donated employee labor.
Now, having received approval on September 15 from the Jersey City Cannabis Control Board, Bonilla is off to the Planning Board for building permits and presentations to nearby neighborhood groups. “I live in the area. I will make sure to keep the area nice and friendly to everyone. I’m looking to do this the right way.”
With restaurants and hotels throughout New Jersey and Pennsylvania, Frank Cretella already had reason to celebrate. But reaching Landmark Hospitality’s 20th year in Jersey City seemed like a special milestone worthy of a party. And party he did.
Frank Cretella with New Hope Pennsylvania Mayor Larry Keller
On August 24, friends, family, staff and local dignitaries, including Senator Sandra Cunningham, Former New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey, Jersey City Council President Joyce Watterman and Assemblyman Raj Mukherji, gathered at Liberty House for a lavish meal, music by Grandmaster Flash and fireworks.
Cretella and Landmark have built a portfolio of restaurants, venues and boutique hotels specializing in fine dining, weddings, corporate events, on-site catering and destination events.
They don’t mind adding that they’ve hosted Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Oprah, Jennifer Lopez, Mariah Carey, Cher, Selena Gomez, the cast of the Sopranos and Ryan Seacrest, among others.
Liberty House was the first property Landmark opened in 2001, and has since become a destination for the Jersey City and New York City communities.
Early last year, Cretella, announced plans for a boutique hotel called Albion Jersey City to be located Capital One Bank building at the corner of Jersey and Newark Avenues. We thought it would be good to time to get an update on our interview then and find out how business was overall.
JCT: What’s the current timeframe for Albion? FC: Albion Jersey City will be an 18-month-long project once we start construction. I’m currently having obstacles with the housing development behind the property [The Saffron] in terms of height, but I am still very committed to this project and am pushing it forward. We’re planning to work quickly once the arrangement with the Saffron is completed. We’re trying to create a property that doesn’t only get approved, but that the community embraces.
Rendering of Albion Jersey City
JCT: Are there any changes to the plan since I interviewed you last year? FC: There are two versions of the project, and we’re working on a third. But the project still comes down to a balance between the number of guest rooms and the common and fun space you have available to create the vibe and excitement.
JCT: Any other projects? FC: In the Jersey City area, we opened the Terra e Mare restaurant at the Hudson House earlier this year and we’re finishing up The View at Lincoln Park by the end of the year. We’re also in contract with the Grand Summit Hotel in Summit, NJ, and are planning a complete transformation of this well-known property.
JCT: How has business been? FC: Business has been good. The volume is there, but operationally it can be a challenge. We are forced to do more with a smaller team. At the same time, we are expanding and using Homebase to perform more of the necessary but mundane tasks that use to fall on venue management.
JCT: Are there any new challenges? FC: The restaurant business feels a little different. It’s becoming more challenging because staff and customer preferences are changing. For example, restaurant staff may prefer to work one shift over another [lunch vs. dinner], which can cause us to be short in staffing certain shifts. On the other hand, the customers have expressed wanting full-size menus and normal pre-Covid business hours, which requires more staffing.
New Jersey raked in $4.6 million in tax revenue in the first 10 weeks since recreational cannabis sales launched.
The tax revenue came from nearly $80 million customers spent on legal recreational marijuana between April 21 and June 30, the state Cannabis Regulatory Commission announced in a statement Friday. It includes more than $219,000 in social equity excise fees.
“The market is improving. It is performing as we expect with the current number of dispensaries, the spread of locations, and the high prices,” said Jeff Brown, executive director of the CRC. “As more cannabis businesses come online, consumers won’t have to travel as far to make purchases, and prices will fall with increased competition. The market will do even better.”
Recreational marijuana sales totaled nearly $1.9 million on April 21, the day the industry launched with 12 dispensaries. In the first month, the state brought in $24 million in weed sales, much lower compared to other states with nascent adult-use marijuana industries.
Adult users now can buy from 18 dispensaries scattered around the state that also serve medical patients. The CRC has issued 140 conditional legal weed dispensary licenses, but none have opened.
The social equity fees, which are due on each sale of an ounce of recreational cannabis, is at the rate of $1.10 per ounce, according to the CRC and state Treasury Department.
By state law, at least 70% of all tax revenue, including funds from the social equity excise fee, is earmarked for investing into “impact zones,” which are towns with higher than average unemployment rates, crime indexes, and marijuana arrests. Nearly 90 municipalities qualify under the guidelines, which also take population into account.
The CRC is able, but not mandated, to amend the fees anywhere between $10 and $60 an ounce after nine months after the first social equity fee was imposed. That way, as retail marijuana prices fall when more dispensaries open up, impact zones will continue to be funded by the same tax.
An eighth of an ounce of weed at a dispensary can cost as much as $70, while the same amount costs between $40 and $50 on the black market.
Medical cannabis sales are up as well, after a small dip in sales in the first three months of the year. The agency reported $59,262,014 in medical cannabis sales from April to June.
Brown said the CRC’s focus remains on medical patients, and the “demand for medicinal cannabis continues to be strong.”
New Jersey Monitor is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. New Jersey Monitor maintains editorial independence. Follow New Jersey Monitor on Facebook and Twitter.
A troubled “CBD Outlet” on the Newark Avenue Pedestrian Mall that has highlighted the difficulty of balancing marijuana legalization and quality of life, has been shuttered by authorities over building code violations.
According to a notice posted in the window of Smokers Paradise at 131 Newark Avenue, the owners of the shop have been ordered to vacate the premises “forthwith.”
“You completed the alteration without obtaining permit and inspection, installation of sign, electric work, and convert salon to smoke shop; you also failed to obtain a CO [certificate of occupancy]. Shop must be closed forthwith,” reads the notice dated August 3.
A certificate of occupancy, issued by the city, confirms that the building or unit is safe, complies with building codes, and is being used in accordance with zoning laws.
Smokers Paradise has attracted more than its fair share of controversy since opening earlier this year in a space formerly occupied by a nail salon.
Last month, mayoral spokeswoman Kimberly Wallace-Scalcione told the Jersey Journal that the city’s Quality of Life Task Force had found what was believed to be raw marijuana, marijuana-infused food products, and illegal flavored tobacco vape products in the store. Evidence was being cataloged, and charges were pending, Wallace-Scalcione said.
According to Scalcione, the task force had been alerted to the illegal sales after officials from the Office of Code Compliance uncovered what they believed to be illegal waste dumped by the shop. Scalcione did not respond to an email requesting an update on the case.
Notice of Unsafe Structure at Smokers Paradise
The shop has also elicited grumbling from some local merchants for what is seen as its down-market brightly lit Times Square aesthetic.
One nearby business owner who asked to remain anonymous is concerned that Smokers Paradise and shops like it will be off-putting to families. “It’s very worrisome. I’m worried about families coming in. All you smell is weed in the air … which is fine … whoever wants to smoke it can smoke it … it’s a free country, but it needs to be monitored. It’s going to be like little Amsterdam. We can’t build or create a family environment having all this stuff around us. The plaza looks great, but there’s an enormous decline in the amount of families that come around this area.”
Municipal Prosecutor Jake Hudnut told the Journal “Lawful dispensaries have a number of regulations imposed on them by the state that they have to be compliant with to ensure quality of life in the surrounding communities.”
Disclosure: The writer owns a business next to Smokers Paradise
Jersey City’s two craft beermakers — like their brethren from around New Jersey — are in a big brouhaha with state regulators over a “special ruling” they say threatens their livelihoods and that the state says was crafted to balance the interests of New Jersey’s restaurants.
Members of the City Council and state Assemblyman Raj Mukherji came to their defense at a Friday press conference co-hosted by 902 Brewing Company and Departed Soles Brewing Company, the two local breweries.
“Just as they’re on the verge of recovery, to create artificial barriers to the success and the economic recovery of these small businesses doesn’t make a lot of sense,” said Mukherji. “Craft breweries are just asking for fairness, for equity, for reasonable legislation.”
The special ruling by the state Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control requires breweries to conduct in-person or virtual tours of their premises before they can serve patrons, and it prohibits the establishments from selling coffee or food on premise (though it does allow patrons to consume food and drink delivered from elsewhere).
The regulation also stipulates that beermakers can hold no more than 25 on-site special events (such as gatherings to watch TV championship sports, live amplified music, or DJ concerts), 52 private parties, and 12 off-site events per year.
The ruling was to have gone into effect in 2018 but was revised and deferred to July 1, 2022 after brewery owners statewide protested.
One such opponent is Brian Kulbacki, Departed Soles’ owner. Kulbacki said the restrictions on “limited brewery” licensees “will harm us, our staff, and many people in the community like musicians and others who participate in the events we sponsor.”
Brian Kulbacki of Departed Soles Brewery
He also noted the ruling requires breweries to advise the ABC when holding special events and to create guest lists of the events for the agency.
“It hinders our ability to book food trucks to park outside the premises,” Kulbacki added. Essentially, “the ruling restricts free trade.”
A press release issued by the state attorney general’s office said the special conditions spelled out in the ABC ruling “are the result of an extensive outreach effort by the (ABC) Division to meet with industry leaders, individual craft brewery owners, members of the Legislature, and others whose objections led the Division to suspend a prior special ruling issued in October 2018.” Mukherji, however, pushed back, saying ABC hadn’t given legislators notice of the changes.
The newest version of the special ruling, the release said, is “intended to provide a simplified ‘blueprint’ to help ensure full knowledge of what is legally required on the part of licensees and a fair marketplace.”
According to the attorney general, the state did make some concessions to the breweries in the revised ruling. “First, an ‘off-premises event’ now includes a maximum of three consecutive days under a single ‘off-premises event’ permit. Second, the cost of this permit has been reduced to $100 per day,” the press release advises.
Moreover, the release says, “The Division believes the activities permitted under the (revised) special ruling strike a fair and appropriate balance between the interests of … restaurants and bars and the craft brewing industry. The Division will continue to work with all licensees to promote a fair and robust alcoholic beverage industry in New Jersey.”
In response, Kulbacki said, “There are only two entities that can stop (the special ruling): the legislature and the governor.”
The issue has sometimes pitted restaurants, which must often pay many hundreds of thousands for a liquor license, against breweries for whom the license is a relatively small yearly fee.
“Yes, liquor licenses do cost an absurd amount of money,” conceded Kulbacki, “but breweries should not be punished for that.” He noted that when all of a brewery’s fees were combined, they amounted to hundreds of thousands of dollars. “People like to say that we don’t pay a lot for our license, but that’s just not true.”
For his part, Mukherji said he was committed to protecting restaurants’ investments.
Mukherji said he would be sponsoring legislation to fix the problem. “We need to consider whether reforming all of our liquor license laws are in order.”
The word is getting out. Jersey City’s Modcup Coffee is garnering raves among java cognoscenti by sourcing, roasting, and brewing beans from the world’s great coffee regions — Ethiopia, Columbia, Yemen, Bali, Costa Rica and beyond.
Its main home on Senate Place in the industrial shadow of the hulking Pulaski Skyway is both a café and roastery. The aroma of freshly roasted coffee dances into the street as a persistent hum of crackling beans rattles in the background.
It is here that Travas Clifton, co-founder and owner of Modcup, and roaster Malcolm Marcial were able to craft two coffees that attracted worldwide attention landing in the “World’s Top 30 Coffees” of the year according to Coffee Review.
Modcup’s Panama coffee scored a 96/100 and a perfect 10 for flavor, making it the 19th best coffee in the world in 2021. In 2019, their Colombia roast also scored 96/100 but with a perfect 10 for both flavor and aroma, making it the 12th best coffee in the world that year in the website’s opinion.
These coffees put Modcup and Jersey City on the specialty coffee world map, something no one else in the New York metropolitan area has been able to do since Maxwell House dominated the Hoboken waterfront for half the twentieth century.
According to Kenneth Davids, the editor-in-chief of Coffee Review, there isn’t a lot to write about the NYC-area coffee scene, but Modcup is an exception. “Modcup sources and submits to us for review small lots of superb, exceptional coffees very skillfully roasted,” he said. The Berkeley, California based publication has been reviewing specialty coffees since 1997.
Clifton, a tall, dashing Englishman who would have fit on Sir Francis Drake’s globetrotting ship, inspires both the coffee connoisseurs and the newly curious. “I absolutely love watching people’s faces when they first sip one of our coffees,” he says in his enthusiastic English accent. “Puzzlement turns into wonder and then understanding that something amazing is going on here.”
Clifton has a missionary’s zeal , and why not when a seemingly ordinary cup of joe becomes a celebration of strawberries, mangos, or chocolate? “That is what we are searching for when we roast beans from around the world,” he said. “What can we do to bring out the best flavors? We are obsessed with making this happen.”
That daily charge belongs to Marcial, whose wild hair screams mad scientist. He mentions “attention to detail” in almost every breath about Modcup ‘s roasting process. At 24, Marcial is young for an elite coffee roaster. He is happy to help put Jersey City on the specialty coffee map.
The louder the slurp…
ModCup prides itself on its light and medium roasts, results they obtain by meticulously controlling how hot and how long to roast the beans before they “hit the second crack.” Were that to happen, the beans would wind up dark roasted like most of those sold by Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts, which Marcial eschews. “We don’t want to do that,” he smiles.
Finding that optimum sweet spot starts with “cupping.” Beans, which arrive at the Port of Newark in burlap bags straight off cargo ships from Africa, Central, and South America, are roasted at varying temperatures for various times to identify the optimal protocol for each variety. Clifton, Marcial, and Modcup barista Christopher Ortiz then proceed like jedi masters using “the force.” They blind-taste-test and identify flavors by slurping spoonfuls of freshly brewed coffee to the backs of their throats aiming to slurp as loudly as possible for maximum sensory impact.
“It hits your palate like electricity,” says Clifton, explaining how a coffee’s flavor profile can be determined. “Your imagination is awakened to all kinds of exotic flavor notes: jasmine, mango, papay, chocolate, raspberry, vanilla.”
Ortiz is also 24. He became friends with Marcial while attending County Prep High School in Jersey City before they both started working for Modcup after graduation. “Learning from Travas, we’ve been on this amazing coffee journey together,” he said. Ortiz has a professor vibe despite his youth (and probably because of his spectacles).
From Great Britain to Jersey City
The journey for Clifton began in his hometown of Birmingham in the industrial heartland of England where like most people he viewed coffee as a “caffeine-delivery device.”
“I had never had a proper cup of coffee in my life,” he said, until he stumbled upon a black coffee from Bali while living in Toronto. “It tasted like fresh strawberries,” he said in amazement. “I couldn’t believe it: Coffee could be sweet.”
Clifton had spent years traveling the world working on cruise ships, but from that moment in Canada he started dreaming of the coffee business. Marriage and a baby girl led him to settle in Jersey City.
His first idea was to roast the beans off a truck and serve it fresh right there to the customer. But at temperatures that can hit over 400 degrees Fahrenheit, that proved impractical if not a bit dangerous. Instead, together with ModCup co-founder Justin Hicks, in 2013 Clifton started roasting different coffees from faraway places in a garage on Jefferson Street in the Heights and serving it the next day from a coffee cart on the Hoboken waterfront. The punk rock energy and rave reviews convinced them to push the dream.
Less than a year later, they opened Modcup on Palisade Avenue across from Riverview Park with views toward both the Empire State Building and One World Trade, quickly becoming the focus of a budding Jersey City neighborhood.
Business boomed, and Modcup opened additional locations near Exchange Place and Journal Square. Hicks left Modcup before the pandemic to move his nascent family back to his native Ohio leaving Clifton to navigate the new normal. In the meantime, Modcup developed a strong online business selling beans all over the country thanks to the attention their award-winning coffee garnered from Coffee Review. “We even send our coffee to cafes in Korea and Japan,” he said.
There, alongside coffees from famous roasters like Norwegian Tim Wendelboe, Modcup represents Jersey City in the coffee universe.
Many of Wendelboe’s beans are served in New York’s three-star Michelin restaurants. “Why not Modcup in these New York City restaurants, mate?” wonders Clifton.
Oishii agricultural technology company announced today the opening of a 74,000-square-foot indoor vertical farm in Jersey City to grow its “Omakase” variety of strawberry, which will be available on the company’s website and in a limited basis at Whole Foods in Manhattan. Previously based in Kearny, the firm is relocating its headquarters to Jersey City as well.
The company first introduced the Omakase Berry in 2018 after which it quickly caught the attention of Michelin-starred chefs and of consumers for its sweetness, aroma, and creamy texture, according to the firm’s press release. The berry has two to three times the level of brix (a measure of sweetness) of conventional strawberries, Oishii said in response to an email.
“At Oishii, we are committed to revolutionize the future of food by offering the best-tasting produce, grown in a way we believe is better for people and better for the planet. Today marks an important step in making good on that promise,” said Hiroki Koga, CEO and Co-Founder of Oishii.
The facility will be located in the former Anheuser-Busch factory at 101 Linden Ave E. and will be the company’s largest and most technologically advanced farm, according to its publicity. Each harvest will be produced using advanced robotics and automation that will require 60 percent less energy and 40 percent less water than first generation technology.
“We’ve worked hard to pioneer advanced technology that unlocks a substantially more efficient way to grow our unrivaled strawberries. Our largest farm yet pairs the next frontier of indoor farming innovation with the care and precision of centuries-old Japanese farming techniques,” said Koga.
That care and precision — heightened sweetness — comes at a price.
Oishii’s Omakase Berries will be sold in bunches equivalent to $1.82 to $8.33 per individual berry. Trays of 11 medium berries or eight large berries will be sold for $20; Trays of six medium berries will cost $11; and trays of three medium berries will cost $6. The special-edition First Flower Berry will cost $50 for a tray of six.
Stony Hill Farms, which sells strawberries at farmers’ throughout Jersey City, charges $5.99 to $8.99 per quart of the “Chandler” variety of the fruit depending on the time of year. According to food website TheSpruceEats, this translates to $0.25 to $0.38 per medium-size berry.
Oishii, named one one of the “World’s Most Innovative Companies” by Fast Company magazine in 2022, was the first to grow vertically farmed strawberries for consumers. Management chose the “sophisticated” crop for farming because of its long cultivation cycle and “perfected the fruit through its first-of-its-kind pollination method” in a process without pesticides, Oishii also mentioned.
Those curious about working for Oishii can apply for numerous jobs they have open in sales, marketing, operations, engineering, finance and other areas by visiting the company’s LinkedIn page.
Editor’s note: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that Oishii is a Japanese company.
What some are saying may be the toughest plastic bag ban in the country, goes into effect today.
Beginning on today, New Jersey retail stores, grocery stores and food service businesses may not provide or sell single-use plastic carryout bags and polystyrene foam containers. Under some circumstances, single-use paper carryout bags will be allowed. However, grocery stores 2500 square feet or more will only be allowed to provide or sell reusable carryout bags.
Plastic straws may be provided, but only upon the request of the customer.
The law was passed on November 4, 2020. Businesses and consumers were given 18 months to prepare for it. Time is now up.
A “reusable bag” is defined by the DEP as:
One made of polypropylene fabric, PET nonwoven fabric, nylon, cloth, hemp product, or other washable fabric; and
Having stitched handles; and
Designed and manufactured for multiple reuses.
Created by NJ Department of Environmental Protection
Violations of the law could be costly. Following a warning for the first offense, a person or entity “may be fined “up to $1,000 per day for the second offense, and may be fined up to $5,000 per day for the third and subsequent violations.”
Kim Myles, the creator, producer and star of High Design on Discovery Plus, is one of many people who yesterday celebrated the first day of legal cannabis sales in New Jersey.
Myles won HGTV’s Design Star 2 award in 2007, and her show Myles of Style ran for three seasons on HGTV. She won an Emmy for the Oprah Winfrey Network’s Home Made Simple.
On High Design, which premiered April 13, Myles makes over struggling mom and pop cannabis dispensaries. “I’m going to take what I know—my expertise as a designer, worker in cannabis world, and consumer—to lift up mom and pop shops,” she said.
“I’ve been a lover of cannabis since I was 20, so…many years.” She laughed, “It was striking to me that I was in dispensaries and spending a lot of money and the retail experience did not match the receipt. Looking around waiting rooms, there was a diverse range of people, diverse range of ethnicities, ages, and needs. Why are all of us standing around in hovels like we’re doing something wrong?” she wondered.
Myles decided to rectify the situation. She spent 2017 working her way up from “budtender” to assistant general manager of a major dispensary in Beverly Hills in order to understand the retail cannabis business (or “cannabusiness as it’s called) and learn the moving parts of the industry and the legal issues involved. “It’s like normal retail jacked up 100 percent as far as complications,” she said.
And even though she had worked for a larger outfit, Myles said she had always supported smaller dispensaries.
“We wanted to cast a diversity of stories, different stories in different states, different backgrounds, different women, different people of color. I wanted to dip in as much as I could in six episodes: why so many people are getting into [the cannabis business] and what the hurdles are.”
For Myles, the process is not just artistic in nature but emotional. On the first episode, she cried after the reveal ”because this is why, this is the point: real people, real entrepreneurs in the green rush of this amazing industry, and these small mom and pops fighting to hold on and compete in this onslaught of huge corporate money,” she explained.
The biggest challenge Myles faced in the show was navigating each state’s laws. “For example, you can’t come in through one door because there is a live feed to the state. If someone from my team doesn’t have an ID, that’s a $100 thousand fine to the owner,” she said. Or another example: Some states allow TV crews to touch cannabis while dressing the sets; other states don’t.
Myles moved to Jersey City in 2018 “because Jersey City is the bomb.” Originally from Queens, she moved to LA for work, and said that when it came time to come back to the East Coast, she wanted to live in Harlem but that “when it came time to buy, I said, ‘Hi Jersey City!’—particularly the Heights. I love the vibrant, artistic, diversity of people, the old buildings, the super old gross trees…the best restaurants. it’s alive, and it feels really good. It’s a good vibe and good community.”
Myles looks forward to visiting local spots such as Leaf Joint once they are an approved dispensary. “I never thought when I was buying my weed from a dude in the apartment downstairs that one day I would be able to see this, to be able to buy my medicine,” she reflected.
