Dow was the invited speaker for the event, which has been held at the Kennedy Boulevard synagogue for the past 27 years around the time of King’s Jan. 15 birthdate.

Dow’s 10-minute speech was part of the evening’s activities that also featured a traditional religious service carried out by Rabbi Debra Hachen, songs by Cantor Rebecca Joy Fletcher and a blessing ceremony by longtime parishioners Sam Pesin and his sister Judy.

Dow encouraged the audience of about 100 people, which included local officials such as Mayor Jerramiah Healy and At-Large Councilwoman Viola Richardson, to act as good neighbors and good citizens at a time when that notion has been forgotten, as she recalled the Biblical tale of the “Good Samaritan.”

In particular, she related the story to the firebombing of a rabbi’s home in the Bergen County town of Rutherford that occurred two days before the event, one of a series of attacks on Jewish houses of worship in that county in recent weeks.

“We ask when such places and such people are targeted, where is the Good Samaritan?” said Dow, who is now deputy general counsel at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. “Who’s reaching out the helping hand, who’s addressing this horrific conduct and what can we do?”

She then quoted Dr. King’s words about society not being Good Samaritans during his time:
“History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.”

Then Dow asked, “Should those words apply today?”

Dow also called upon attendees to heed the words of his legendary “I Have A Dream” speech in their daily lives.

“Those words that Dr. King so recited, they are part of what we are and should believe in,” Dow said.

She was not the only one to reflect upon the teachings and example set by the late civil rights leader, who was killed by an assassin in April 1968 and would have been 83 years old this week if he was still alive.

Hachen looked back at King’s legacy while remembering that her father, also a rabbi, was present at the historic March on Washington in August 1963, and led an interfaith march in her Connecticut hometown to integrate the school system.

“Honoring Dr. King’s legacy is also not merely about remembrance but about the re-inspired, so that we may stand shoulder-to-shoulder in our day, on the civil rights issues of our own time,” Hachen said.

Giving the closing prayer was Rev. Hugo Rey of Clair United Memorial Methodist Church, located nearby on Communipaw Avenue. Rey recited some of Dr. King’s renowned words while thanking the Temple Beth-El community for welcoming his congregation into the synagogue to continue worship services after a fire destroyed the church in 2001. The church reopened in April of last year.

The MLK-Jersey City Connection

The Temple Beth-El’s annual service honoring the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is not the only connection Jersey City has to the man. Some may not know that King visited the city twice during his short life.

The first time was in 1965 when he was given an honorary degree from St. Peter’s College. The second, and sadly the final time, was in 1968 when he spoke at the Metropolitan AME Zion Church on Bergen Avenue the week before he died.

The obvious indicators are the road (formerly Jackson Avenue) named in his honor that runs through much of the city’s Bergen-Lafayette area, and Public School 11 in Journal Square, which earned the honor when it opened the year after his death. There is also a bust of King along with a stone tablet with his words located next to the NJ Transit Light Rail Station on MLK Drive.

Photos by Ricardo Kaulessar

In a letter from Division of Commerce Director Paul Barna, he explains that Jersey City’s proximity to sensitive transportation hubs puts the city in a position to be more vigilant. The ordinance, writes Barna, seeks to “addresses public safety issues in which both the New Jersey Motor Vehicles Commission and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (“Homeland Security”) have expressed concern. It closely follows the criteria suggested by Homeland Security regarding transportation at major transportation hubs such as the Holland Tunnel and the Turnpike Extension in Jersey City.”

While revamping the code, Jersey City also took the opportunity to re-visit limousine licensing fees in order to “recoup its costs” and align the city with fees issued by other municipalities. Jersey City will now charge a $500 registration fee to each of the 467 registered limousines licensed to operate within city-limit. The fee would come in addition to the $50 fee charged to a limousine company as well as the $10 per-vehicle fee for each limousine in a business. Currently the city does not currently charge enough to cover all expenses, leaving the taxpayer to foot what remains of the bill.

“Practically speaking,” Barna writes, “we cannot continue to have the public subsidize the limousine businesses.”

By point of comparison, Barna notes in the letter that nearby Hoboken charges $750 for the annual registration charge.

Taxicab drivers, however, contend that the city is getting more money from the taxis but are not following up on “promises” to address problems at Journal Square’s taxi queue. These concerns were reiterated at Wednesday night’s Council meeting when about twenty taxicab drivers and owners, unhappy with the lack of dialogue between the city and taxicab businesses, came out to protest the city’s lack of effort.

One such driver, Raphael Moas, said the city promised to install “the taxi line we deserve.” Currently at Journal Square, says Moas, the tax queue has gotten out of hand with private cars double-parking and preventing the taxis from getting back into line to pick up passengers.

“The service we provide has to be done in a timely manner, and biggest problem is rush hour,” says Moas who added that when private cars block the queue taxis can serve fewer customers “We need you to reconsider opening a stand.”

Another concern for Moas is the measure to add additional taxi permits for Journal Square, a plan that will eats into business for current taxis and ignores the crowded taxi lines that cannot afford additional cars.

But according to City Spokeswoman Jennifer Morrill, while the city is looking into how to best address taxi services, no “promises” were ever made.

Morrill says the city had considered a number of steps including changing the use of 10 metered parking spots along the taxicab feed at Journal Square so that only taxicabs could use the area from 5pm to 10pm on Mondays through Fridays. Further, there will be additional police and parking authority presence during peak hours to prevent private cars from inhibiting taxicabs coming in and out of their queue. Also under consideration is the addition of a passenger shelter, but practical considerations have stalled the effort.

“Due to the approaching winter weather and frequent long lines at the Journal Square taxi stand, we are recommending to the City Council to open the stand to additional drivers at specified times,” said Mayor Healy in a statement. “Journal Square is a hub for transportation and as such requires adequate taxi service for our commuters, families and senior citizens.”

For the two and a half month “trial period,” which began following Wednesday’s unanimous City Council vote, additional taxis will be available from 6pm to 12am through February 28, 2012. According to the statement, just 36 taxis had been operating in the evening at what is called a closed taxi-stand, a designation only permitting certain taxis to operate at the stand. Now these taxi stands will be open to any licensed cab in Jersey City.

“We are hopeful that this temporary measure will address the long lines and increased wait times at Journal Square during the evening hours,” Healy said in the statement. “We will continue to seek additional ways to improve the taxi cab service for our residents and visitors.”

This nearly month-old movement is now more subdued but better organized than it was at its start. The group’s only footprint is a card table topped with two pumpkins and some newspapers, a few signs laid out on the sidewalk, some collapsible chairs for weary occupiers, and a flag, which Mike, a New Jersey schoolteacher and community organizer, waved as he entered the scene just past 7 pm. A few minutes later he called out “mic check” — the circle responded in kind and order was brought.

Mike, who declined to give his last name, said he was solicited to be the evening’s facilitator.

“My role is to help us collectively move the group forward,” he told the first two dozen arrivals who gathered around him. This meant keeping the group on point as it received reports and discussed points of order and actions, his eyes clocking both the time, on his phone, and dozens of hands, fingers raised high or low to silently support or shout down ideas while others speak. Every detail, no matter how minute, was subject to a temperature check — everything from the group’s comfort level with Mike’s handling of the meeting to the length of time every issue was discussed.

Not that every topic was minor, and even through the minutiae, one could see signs of real progress. A discussion of the group’s finances, a budget of $309 raised in donations to date — $308 plus a dollar a woman just remembered she had received last Saturday, a far cry from the half-million dollars raised so far by Occupy Wall Street — was eventually followed by a talk of flyers and leaflets to be given out to passersby. After clarifying not just their message but the method with which it is communicated, and the languages to express it — English, Spanish and soon Arabic, after one volunteer raised his hand to offer an accurate translation — there was talk of just when and where they’d be passed out.

One such venue was the Landmark Loew’s Jersey Theatre where, on Nov. 5 and 6, Neutral Milk Hotel lead singer Jeff Magnum is scheduled to play two shows. (Earlier this month, Magnum performed an acoustic set at Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park, the epicenter of the now national Occupy Wall Street movement.) That plan was laid out in the most lively discussion of the night, the topic of which was the group’s future actions, which have only grown smaller, and received less participation, lower attendance, and attracted less public and media interest in the weeks following the failed occupation outside Goldman Sachs on Oct. 6. For a scheduled march last weekend, only one protestor arrived.

However, they remained optimistic. There was some talk about a performance and art show, scheduled meditation, another trip to Goldman Sachs on Oct. 29th, and their next, biggest, goal: a march down Central Avenue on Nov. 5, ending at the Stop and Shop on Manhattan Avenue. The group had shifted its focus and its home far from the financial corporations lining the waterfront two PATH stops away.

Mike Pellagatti, an original Occupy Wall St. protestor, who spends his days sleeping in Zuccotti Park while working and taking classes at night at nearby Hudson County Community College, was okay with that.

“I think over here you can better display the effects of gentrification … and therefore send even a stronger message, and say this is what corporate gerrymandering is doing to the average person,” he told us, standing surrounded by shuttered and low-rent storefronts, in the shadow of a glowing sign for Capital One Bank looming over the square. “And not to mention this is a transportation hub, so the message can get out to even more people than the side of Goldman Sachs.”

Pellagatti is also a member of the Jersey City Peace Movement, founded by his friend and fellow protestor Erik-Anders Nilsson, who often lends Pellagatti his couch and shower when he needs a break from serving as the megaphone or working the cell phone station at the protest across the Hudson.

The Jersey City Peace Movement (JCPM) came under fire over the weekend, when Occupy New Jersey (@OccupyNJ) tweeted “Jersey City Peace Movement…seriously, who are they? @Anon_Central I ask for your help.”

The tweet, from Alexander Waight, the originator of Occupy New Jersey’s social media presence and catalyst for the Goldman Sachs protest, was asking the hacking collective Anonymous Central to look into the JCPM. The JCPM’s members are still allied with Occupy New Jersey despite being maligned online through social media, where members have argued with each other in comments threads up to 50 messages long — in-fighting involving protestors accusing protestors of taking leadership roles in a leaderless movement.

Pointing toward a nearby flower bed before the meeting began, Pellagatti told us, “that’s what we do,” explaining such beautification endeavors are part of JCPM’s agenda.

Nilsson summed up the arguments as a symbol of the transparency to which Occupy New Jersey is committed, airing their grievances in an open forum. And while there are no leaders, there was a facilitator, and after 8 pm, when the facilitator passed his role on, to the man standing beside him — not before the whole group raised their hands in support — more issues were discussed, including why members are leaving the group, and a tutorial for the group on the difference in discourse between libel (such as false allegations on Tumblr) and slander (such as some unkind words screamed at a recent general assembly). There was a reason, when flyers had been discussed earlier, the group agreed to include the address to the group’s website but not its Facebook page.

But when literally seeing eye to eye across the circle, the group engaged with each other in a far more civil way than they had communicated online. They aired their grievances, and going forward there will still be differences — but also general assemblies throughout the week, and protest actions every weekend, from noon to 5 pm.

Monday’s first Occupy New Jersey general assembly at the Grove Street PATH plaza was more subdued and more productive than last week’s attempt at an occupation of the Goldman Sachs building at 30 Hudson Street, which brought out hundreds of police, private security, protestors, and media, and ended the same day with a brief march on City Hall. Yesterday’s gathering attracted none of the media and less than a dozen Jersey City and Port Authority police officers, who observed the 40 protesters from an area cordoned off between the PATH station entrance and farmers’ market.

There were no public statements, no orchestrated sign waving or proclamations from racing scooters. Instead it was an opportunity for the protestors to turn inward – but with total transparency in the public eye – and work out the logistics of implementing their agenda, the who, what, when, where and how; the why could wait.

In many ways it was a success.

The crowd expanded rather than contracted, benefiting from curious passersby waiting for a bus or exiting the train station. Charles O’Keefe, Sherry Johnson, and John Turlington ascended from the PATH on their return from Zuccotti Park, home of the Occupy Wall Street protest, shouting their support for the protesters and receiving applause in return as they crossed the plaza. The three Scotch Plains postal workers used their work holiday to lend their voice to the union workers at the park.

“I’m glad to see people coming out in droves like they are,” O’Keefe, a resident of South Plainfield, told us. “We didn’t support the bailout of Wall Street, but then all of a sudden Congress gave them all this money, and they’re up to the same old crap.”

“They want to privatize us,” O’Keefe said, listing his fears for the future of the postal service. “Cutting out Saturday service will hurt a lot of jobs. They want a part-time workforce with no benefits, to pay them minimum wage,” he added, describing the direction in which he already sees the postal service moving.

They shared their feelings with Alexander Waight as well. Waight, who created the @OccupyNJ Twitter feed which ultimately led to the Goldman Sachs protest, ran from his gathering as the postal workers passed by, engaging them in discussion, as the Cinnamon Snail truck attempted to back up past them, into the farmers’ market, and through the fleet of police patrol cars and trucks flanking the north side of Christopher Columbus, filling the bus stop and lining the sidewalk from Grove Street to Marin Boulevard.

Shortly after parking he tweeted his support to the protesters, offering them free organic fair trade coffee while they were gathered there.

Another observer, a retired local resident, stopping to lean on the gate as he listened to the gathering, supported their actions though admitted he was too old to protest.

“I save my fight for my disability check,” he said. He told us he couldn’t understand why the protesters chose to occupy Goldman Sachs or Grove Street. “They should be down in Journal Square where no one has a dollar in their pocket.”

A common theme among occupations around the country is how protesters see themselves as the 99% making their voices heard to the 1% who have the most wealth in the country. As the main goal of Monday’s meeting was to determine a meeting place, a majority of the debate focused on where the voice of the Occupy New Jersey protest could make the greatest impact.

“One of the advantages of Journal Square is that people there aren’t doing well economically,” one protester said. “There are cities without a 1%, where people have never met a one percenter in their life, but they are still occupying those cities.” Another noted how it offered greater potential for growing the movement fast and strong as they wouldn’t experience the apathy they faced Downtown at Grove Street and Exchange Place.

The debate, which shifted between occupying outside an army recruiting station to using Grove Street as a base of operations and protesting daily at different locations throughout town, ended with Kat Odenthal, a protester who led much of Monday’s meeting, taking a headcount. Twenty-six votes, the majority, raised their hands for a continuous occupation of Journal Square. Four votes went to Grove Street.

It was a decision that had the vocal support of Erik-Anders Nilsson, the founder of the Jersey City Peace Movement, who saw Journal Square as their best bet for a place to use the restroom at 3 am and which had accessible electric outlets for charging phones and laptops.

Then it was only a matter of when they would occupy.

The first suggestion was October 15, a day scheduled for a planned International Call to Action, but Odenthal disagreed.

“Personally, we should occupy as soon as we possibly can, and have a strong showing on the 15th, rather than occupy then and have people wandering by asking if this is the same occupation that didn’t work last time,” she said.

Another protester suggested they don’t wait any longer to act on their enthusiasm. “Let’s not waste the opportunity, let’s go to Journal Square after the meeting.”

The group then voted again, this time agreeing to hold their general assembly tonight, Tuesday at 7pm, at the Freedom Fountain at Journal Square. Then, after discussing the division of responsibilities, from media outreach to kitchen duty, and to create a new Facebook page specifically for the occupation of Jersey City, more than two dozen protestors decamped for Journal Square.

Waight set up the Occupy Jersey City Facebook group last night, and produced a video to explain the new direction deeper into town.

In the video, Waight revealed a particular drama from earlier in the afternoon that appeared in stark contrast to the majority vote the group easily made for a move to Journal Square.

“I had a person come up to me today saying that at the farmers’ market area, a lot of businesses that have the tents felt they didn’t want us there because of the cops being there, and they’re afraid it’s going to deter customers from wanting to step in that area because they think something bad is going to happen,” Waight spoke into the camera.

Unconvinced of this, he asked for signatures from the vendors indicating that sentiment, concerned it may have been one person’s tactic to get them to vacate what could have been an ideal occupation area. Only then did he add: “we did a consensus that people wanted to occupy Journal Square so that’s why we picked it.”

As food truck vendors continue to wait for City Hall to revise Jersey City’s outdated ordinance governing how long they can stay in one spot and other crucial issues, many truck owners have piled up tickets for violating what they say is an obscure and selectively enforced law.

Morris, the owner of the Taste of India truck, is no exception. He says he’s received seven tickets for his truck, which parks at Exchange Place, the Grove Street Farmers Market, and Groove on Grove. What’s more, he believes his reputation suffered when a neighboring truck — the yellow Banana Leaf truck — was shut down for unsanitary food preparation in an unlicensed kitchen, even though Morris himself has always maintained a sanitary, commercially licensed kitchen.

Morris has persisted with the Taste of India despite these challenges, and now he is expanding his food business with the soft launch last week of Oriental Masala, a brick-and-mortar venture located just off of India Square’s main drag. The awning outside reads “OM”, a sacred Hindu syllable.

Morris started Taste of India in 2004, after 18 years in the limousine industry, where he chauffeured big names like Calvin Klein, Colin Powell, Anna Wintour, and Shirley MacLaine. He says the post-9/11 corporate cutbacks on chartering limos led him to leave the business and start the truck, which he says sprang from what he saw as a pressing need for a quick, home-cooked lunch alternative in Downtown Jersey City’s business district.

“I wanted to take the food to the people, not wait for the people to come for the food. They don’t want to carry different boxes from home. You’ve seen how the Indian community has grown and flourished Downtown, and I wanted to give them something they wouldn’t feel as a punch in their pockets,” says Morris. “Companies want their employees to be productive, and they give you half hour or 45 minutes to eat. And that’s why trucks are becoming more successful. The pressure of work is still there.”

Morris – who describes himself as Anglo-Indian-Chinese, “like a fruit salad” – was born and raised in Delhi, India, where his father’s side of family was involved in the restaurant industry, which he joined in 1972. He trained at the Taj Group of Hotels Resorts and Palaces, where he was taught that working in a service industry is the equivalent of serving in the armed forces. Says Morris,

“What I learned there is what I’m exercising now,” he says. “The rules are very stringent.”

Morris lived on Manila Avenue and 1st Street before moving to the Heights in 2004. With his children grown and his years in the limousine industry behind him, Morris had a chance to return to his roots in food.

“I know how to cook everything,” he says. “When my kids were growing up, every weekend I cooked for them. They used to love the cooking I did and even licked the plates.”

Before starting the Taste of India food truck, Morris dabbled in the restaurant industry by opening a short-lived restaurant venture in Queens. In 2006, he opened a Spanish restaurant called El Rincon (now closed) on Jersey City’s Zabriskie Street, and more recently, he was involved in the opening of a takeout restaurant called Kultural Kuisine on Kennedy Boulevard in Journal Square.

Morris has not yet advertised Oriental Masala – which seats about 10 customers and offers delivery service – because he wants to adjust the menu according to initial customer feedback.

“We’re off the main street because the rents are too high. The way we see it is that we’re not rich people so we’re starting from scratch,” says Morris. “We may not have the grandeur of an elegant restaurant, but we guarantee the food is delectable and something that every income group can enjoy.”

The food, which Morris describes as Indo-Chinese, borrows flavors from restaurants just one block south on Newark Avenue, between Tonnelle Avenue and Kennedy Boulevard, where the air is perpetually perfumed with curry. However, the food served at Oriental Masala is a unique interpretation of traditional North Indian cuisine.

“The Indian community loves this kind of food because traditional food is always cooked in the house,” Morris says. “This is a taste of something different.”

The menu was designed by Morris’ chef Nam, who he met while opening the Queens venture in 2003. Nam had experience working in the kitchen of New York City’s Chinese Mirch, the original flagship location of what is now a small Indo-Chinese restaurant franchise. At the time, Chinese Mirch was featured in The New York Times for a “$25 and under” restaurant review. He has also worked in the kitchens of Waldorf Astoria and Marriott franchises.

“The chef is very artistic and intelligent,” says Morris. “He does things the right way. We are professionals.”

So far, popular menu items include American Chopsui, which includes vegetables and chicken tossed in sweet and sour sauce, and Drums of Heaven, Nam’s unique take on lollipop chicken.

Other signature dishes include chili chicken and eggplant in hot garlic sauce – the eggplant is cut into strips the size of steak fries, battered, and then deep fried so that it’s almost unrecognizable. Those who have never liked eggplant should try this dish and reconsider their stance on the purple nightshade plant, which is native to India. Every item on the menu costs less than $10.

Morris says he will also continue to operate the Taste of India food truck.

“We’re going to do it unless the city throws it away,” he says. “I have a following even in storms, rain, and snow. They come and eat. They feel content, they feel satisfied, and they feel full.”

THE DETAILS

Oriental Masala | 117 Tonnele Avenue | 201.332.1882

The 325,000 square foot building was recently sold by Hartz to Gaia Real Estate Investments in partnership with Phoenix Insurance and Menora Mivtachim Insurance, both based in Israel.

2 Journal Square was completed by Hartz in 1987 and has been fully leased since its inception to ADP, and later its spinoff Broadridge Financial Solutions. Broadridge’s lease runs until 2018, and it is expected the company will continue to make its home in Journal Square. That, along with the building’s proximity to New York City and a major transportation center and the fact that the ground-floor retail space is fully leased, made the building attractive to investors.

“The fact that it has been leased on a long-term basis to a premier financial services company and has close proximity to Wall Street, 2 Journal Square drew a great deal of interest from potential investors,” says David Bernhaut of Cushman & Wakefield, which arranged and completed the sale on behalf of Hartz. “The buyer readily understood the value of this offering as one of the premier assets of its kind currently on the market due in part to the building’s technology infrastructure, power and redundant systems.”

Photo via Google Maps

The space at 888 Newark Avenue is home to The Eileen S. Kaminsky Family Foundation and Trinkhalle Restaurant, and brings together artist studios, performance and exhibition spaces, and art-storage facilities all under one roof.

If the name Mana rings a bell to Jersey City art scenesters, there’s a reason. Mana Fine Arts previously operated out of the Moishe’s Moving Company building under the New Jersey Turnpike extension in Downtown Jersey City; the space was an art-storage facility, and it also hosted a number of exhibitions in the first floor gallery, including the 2006 studio tour show What Have You Got to Say?

Mana Fine Arts later secured the massive space at 888 Newark Avenue, and the owners decided to bring in an art foundation to act as a flagship for the building. That foundation ended up being The Eileen S. Kaminsky Family Foundation, which aims to bridge the gap between artists, collectors, galleries, museums and cultural institutions and is now headquartered on the sixth floor of Mana Contemporary. The center’s owners say they plan on eventually bringing five more arts foundations to the building — one on each floor.

“The foundation will create a community and the business will build around it,” Mana Contemporary founder and director (and former Moishe’s CEO) Eugene Lemay says. “There are thousands of galleries in New York. We’re not trying to compete with that. But not everyone shows the eyes of the collector.”

Several floors of the center will be dedicated to art storage, others will include customizable artist studios, and Mana has just announced a partnership with Videoart.net to establish a new screening room dedicated to showcasing contemporary international video art and experimental film. A sculpture garden, theater partnership and artist residency program are all reportedly in the works as well.

And to top it all off, the renowned Austrian chef Kurt Gutenbrunner is bringing his latest creation — Trinkhalle Restaurant — to the center. The restaurant and beer garden will feature a “modern interpretation of Austrian cuisine” from Gutenbrunner, the chef and co-owner of NYC restaurants Wallsé, Blaue Gans and Café Kristall, as well as a series of rotation art exhibitions and performances.

“We want every form of the arts here,” Lemay says. “Now we’re not just an art moving and storage company.”

Photo of Mana Contemporary’s soft opening courtesy of Mana Contemporary.

THE DETAILS

Mana Contemporary Art Center celebrates its Grand Opening this Sunday, May 15 with an all-day celebration that features tours of the Eileen S. Kaminsky Family Foundation and the exhibition on display there, live music from David Sheetrit, DJ Nick Cohen, (U)nity and Hazmat Modine, and the grand opening of Trinkhalle, with an open bar from 4 to 5 pm. For a full schedule of the day’s events, and to RSVP, click here.

While the lineup won’t feature nearly as many performances this year as it did in 2009, it is a good sign that the Journal Square Restoration Corporation, the private nonprofit that operates the Journal Square Special Improvement District (SID), is bringing back some live music to inject life into the Square.

The music performances, which this year are scheduled in three-day bursts this week and the first week of June, will also coincide with a district-wide sidewalk sale, with a number of the local Square businesses offering big discounts those days.

“When you combine great entertainment, diverse products and services provided by the district’s businesses, a wide range of dining options and the convenience of both affordable, secure parking and direct mass transit connections just steps away via the Journal Square PATH station, you’ve created an interesting and inviting community for visitors, residents, business owners and those who work in the district,” Journal Square Restoration Corporation chairman Jordan Galatz says in a statement.

The events are being sponsored by The Provident Bank Foundation, and the United Jersey Blues Network is the music partner for the concert series.

HERE IS THE SCHEDULE OF PERFORMANCES (ALL SHOWS ARE FROM 11:30 AM to 1:30 PM AT THE KIOSK):

• Thursday, May 5: Beauty & The Grease
• Friday, May 6: Kirsten Thien
• Saturday, May 7: Choice
• Thursday, June 2: The Kootz
• Friday, June 3: Nicole Hart
• Saturday, June 4: Dennis Gruenling & Jump Time

Photo: Saxophonist Bryan Beninghove leads his band at a concert in Journal Square (courtesy of Bryan Beninghove)

The measure, which was sponsored by Hudson County Assemblyman Ruben Ramos and five other legislators in the two houses, would extend tax credits to commercial and residential projects under the Urban Transit Hub Tax Credit Act and the New Jersey Economic Stimulus Act of 2009 to mixed-use projects of a certain size.

In 2008, the state passed the Urban Transit Hub Tax Credit Act as a mechanism to stimulate economic development in New Jersey’s cities. Under the initial bill, a business can take advantage of tax credits if it builds or leases office space and creates jobs near urban train stations.

Businesses must employ at least 250 people and invest at least $50 million in a facility within a half-mile of rail stations to be eligible, and the program is only applicable in a small handful of municipalities, including Jersey City. A tenant can also be allowed credits if it occupies space in the facility that proportionally represents at least $17.5 million of the capital investment in the facility, it employs at least 250 persons in the facility and the facility’s owner has invested at least $50 million in the overall project.

And under the New Jersey Economic Stimulus Act of 2009, a developer can receive tax credits of up to 20 percent of its capital investment in a residential project located in an urban transit hub. This credit is subject to the same $50 million project investment requirement as the Urban Transit Hub Tax Credit Act.

Under the bill passed this month, both of these tax credits would be extended to any mixed-use commercial/residential project in which a developer invests at least $50 million total, and at least $17.5 million in each component of the project. The change would give developers another strong incentive to invest in areas like Journal Square, where the long-term redevelopment plan calls for plenty of mixed-use development.

“The best economic stimulus we can provide New Jersey residents is a job,” Ramos says in a statement. “Extending these tax credits will help provide much needed construction and trades jobs while also helping to improve and revitalize existing infrastructure in our cities.”

The bill passed the Assembly by a 56 to 20 vote on Thursday, January 6, and it passed the state Senate later that day by a 30 to 6 vote. It now heads to the governor’s desk for his approval.