The Jersey City Independent"

Photos: Steve Gold
Turnout was relatively light at Wednesday’s meeting of the City Council, the first regular meeting since late April. About 25 people were in the audience for the meeting, which lasted a little less than two hours. Among them was newly elected Ward C councilwoman Nidia Rivera Lopez. Council president Mariano Vega kicked off [...]

Developer Steve Hyman, whose family currently owns the 6th Street Embankment, is weighing in on this year’s mayoral election with an anti-Healy flyer. Hyman’s attempts to develop the embankment have been stifled and he is currently in negotiations with the city and the Embankment Preservation Coalition over the future of the vacant rail line.
The flyer, [...]

- Irene Borngraeber puts two cents in on how the businesses that participate in JC Fridays handle the art displayed during the events. “JC Fridays is not about art,” she concludes. Someone from Art House Productions responds in the comments: hopefully this conversation will continue and make JC Fridays even better.
- Ian Sacs of Planetizen [...]

Photo: Master Sgt. Cecilio Ricardo, U.S. Air Force
This week in Washington, when Barack Obama became the first black president of the United States, it signified to many leaders in Jersey City that change was on the way in America.
“It’s a turning point for the United States,” state Sen. Sandra Cunningham says. “It [the inauguration] happening [...]

- At the Temple Beth-El’s regular service honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. last night, the dean of UMDNJ talked about race in America, linked King and Barack Obama, but said that work still needs to be done to achieve true equality. The Journal notes that the service was well attended by local pols, including [...]

UPDATE (2.18, 4:18 pm): Is this the same Eric Hunt? If so, the “lone wolf” theory that the SFPD seems to be working on would be out of the picture. But this site reeks of internet celebritizing. It wasn’t created until after the Wiesel incident, and seems pretty fake. But who knows — we’re trying [...]

Editors’ note: A lot can happen in five years. As people take the opportunity today to reflect and remember what happened on 9/11, we thought it was important to remember some things that happened that day that just might not fit within the mainstream press’ themes of heroism, unity, and courage in the face of [...]

A young black man took the stage and shouted, “When I say ‘fire,’ you say ‘burn’!”
“Fire!” he shouted.
“Burn!” the crowd replied with the fervor of a Jamaican audience at a Capleton show.
But this call-and-response exercise was not a homophobic demand to “bun di chi-chi” at a dancehall concert.
“We have war on Iraq,” said the poet [...]