The Jersey City Independent "

The federally funded planning project that’s studying how best to transform the Montgomery Gardens-McGinley Square corridor into a mixed-income neighborhood hosts a public meeting this evening. Earlier this year, the project received a $250,000 grant under the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) new Choice Neighborhoods Initiative, an extension of the HOPE VI program [...]

The Jersey City Housing Authority (JCHA), in cooperation with Siemens’ Building Technologies division, is launching a $9 million energy efficiency initiative that will bring a wide range of improvements to public housing all over Jersey City. The initiative is funded by Siemens and federal stimulus money, with upgrades being implemented at more than 1,600 units [...]

The Jersey City Housing Authority (JCHA) has scheduled a public hearing next week on its “One-Strike” policy, which allows the agency to evict residents who have been charged with certain crimes, as well as the families of those residents. The hearing is part of the agency’s review of the policy to ensure that it keeps [...]

- Montgomery Gardens’ Future: Jersey City Housing Authority executive director Maria Maio confirmed yesterday that Montgomery Gardens is the next Jersey City public housing project to get the HOPE VI treatment, with most of the 434-unit high-rise complex slated to be leveled and will be replaced by a seniors building and 60 to 90 other [...]

Officials gathered today at the A. Harry Moore public housing development on Jersey City’s West Side to herald the $9.7 million HOPE VI grant.

- Woman Evicted from Public Housing: A 25-year-old mother of two is facing eviction from the Booker T. Washington housing complex after last year’s arrest of her 20-year-old brother, who lives with her. The Healy administration and Ward E councilman Steven Fulop had worked to try to have the eviction overturned, saying the brother’s disorderly [...]

- Hudson County’s unemployment rate has skyrocketed in the last two years, from 5 percent in September 2007 to 6.7 percent one year later to 11.6 percent in September 2009. It is now higher than both the state and national averages. Jersey City’s 12 percent unemployment rate is not the highest in the county; that [...]

- As we reported yesterday, Jersey City detective Marc DiNardo has succumbed to injuries he received during last week’s shootout on Reed Street. A funeral is planned for Friday. JCPD officers wore black bands and flags flew at half-mast to remember him, while a handful of residents held a prayer vigil at the site of [...]

- Today is election day for three seats on the Jersey City Board of Education. Polls are open from 2-9 pm. To find your polling place, click here. To see the JCI questionnaires of eight of the 12 candidates, click here, here and here. – The two animal control oversight ordinances introduced by Ward E [...]

photo by Steve Gold Wednesday’s City Council meeting was a doozy: Clocking in at 4 hours 5 minutes, the meeting was almost an hour longer than the last two combined. But I suppose that’s to be expected when you have a proposal to change the very nature of a roughly 244-acre swath of land — [...]