Last spring this page announced several exciting changes to Jersey City Magazine, with a hint of more to come. As promised, the issue you hold in your hands is brimming with even more new features and improvements.
We’ve dedicated more space to our cover story (“The Cultural Elite“) than ever before. The extra space was necessary, we felt, to do justice to the larger-than-life characters that populate the city’s arts and culture scene. Diana Schwaeble, editor of the Hudson Current newspaper, joins the crew in this issue to lend a hand with the project.
Given that cover story, it only seemed logical to also expand our Entertainment in the City listings to include The Arts.
Elsewhere in these pages, you’ll find two new departments – Small-Biz Spotlight and Then & Now. The former marks the first appearance here by veteran writer Joe Harkins; expect to see Joe and more unique local businesses in upcoming issues. The latter offers a side-by-side photo comparison of how our city once looked with how it appears today; special thanks are due to the staff of The New Jersey Room for their invaluable help with this new department.
Speaking of photography, it gives me great pleasure to print in this issue some original work by Hudson County photographers Brandon Jennings, Michael Steele and Ben Fernandez.
We also welcome back three writers who have previously appeared in JC Mag – Mary Beth Cole, sports reporter Jim Hague, and humor columnist Christopher “Hal” Halleron. Mary Beth profiles the Black Maria Film & Video Festival; Jim follows up last fall’s baseball history with a history of boxing; and Hal brings his unique perspective to navigating the Downtown construction boom.
I hope you enjoy the ongoing transformation of JC Mag as much as I have.
– Christopher Zinsli