The Jersey City Independent "

The Distillery, located on Hutton Street in the Heights, reopens on Saturday April 21 after an 8-month renovation. To celebrate the makeover, the gallery will debut its latest exhibition, titled Third Dimension. We recently caught up with founder/board chairwoman Irene Borngraeber and board member and curator Gabriel Pacheco to discuss the renovation, the new exhibition and the ins and outs of running a community art space in the Heights.

Share/Save There’s a new upscale restaurant in Jersey City and it’s not in Downtown. Modern American Eatery is in the Bergen-Lafayette neighborhood – in fact the only dine-in option in the area that’s not Chinese take-out or fried chicken. It’s a few blocks away from the Liberty State Park Light Rail stop. Since the restaurant [...]



Fashion is a major environmental threat. But there is hope. In the past decade, certain designers in the industry have made concerted efforts to produce eco-conscious designs. Take Jersey City resident Anjelika Krishna, who runs a.d.o (anjelika dreams organic), an eco-friendly clothing line based in New York City.

A retired teacher who once served as Jersey City’s interim mayor, a financial analyst and an engineer, all of them moms backed by Ward E Councilman and 2013 mayoral candidate Steve Fulop, won the seats available in yesterday’s Board of Education election.

It is not a particularly attractive parcel, albeit a tiny part of one of the nation’s most visited state parks in a setting with a bird’s eye view of the spectacular Manhattan skyline. But yesterday at a hearing, officials from Jersey City and conservation groups railed against a proposed lease that would divert .93 acres of Liberty State Park for the Spectra Energy pipeline project.

The eight candidates vying for three seats on the Board of Education in the election tomorrow made one final push in advocating their positions before a mass audience Friday – including what they want in a new superintendent – during the Great School Board Debate at St. Paul’s Church near the Five Corners.

Share/Save Many artists find inspiration in great works of literature. Melissa MacAlpin, thank god, is not one of them. Charles Nelson Reilly is her muse, not David Foster Wallace. So if you love pop culture, as I do, I urge you to visit her new solo show at _gaia gallery. Known for comics and drawings, [...]

The state has informed the Board of Education that, for the past two school budget cycles, it has incorrectly set 2-percent property tax levy increases based on the mistaken premise that not doing so would force it to lose some adjustment aid (now set at $100 million), after JCI asked the state to verify claims board secretary/business administrator Melissa Simmons made.

Share/SaveJersey City’s newest print magazine, Instigatorzine, is an adventurous art and literary publication by recent New Jersey City University grads whose goal is to showcase new talent from local writers and artists. Most of the contributors are just starting out — not unlike the magazine’s founders. “We wanted to offer artists and writers a platform [...]

Great educators can take kids to great heights – sometimes, even to the Academy Awards. A new documentary by Dickinson High School teacher and filmmaker Jonathan Kalafer tells the story of the PS22 Chorus and their trip last year to California to perform at the Oscars.