We’re really excited to be reconnecting with our “Life on the Peninsula” readers and grateful to all of you who kept in touch with us on Facebook in the interim. In fact, you gave us a bunch of story ideas, some of which you will see in this issue.
You couldn’t ask for a person more emblematic of Bayonne than Tammy Blanchard, who chatted with our writer Al Sullivan for this cover story. She is a true Hollywood star, who chose to continue living in her hometown of Bayonne.
We have a number of powerful women in this issue—quite literally, in the case of power lifter Christina Marie McDonnell. Reverend Dorothy Patterson shot baskets with writer Mario A. Martinez, and Melissa Goliczewski started her own pole-dance fitness studio. She messaged us on Facebook with her story, and the rest is herstory.
We spent some time on the waterfront during the warmer months—a wonderful summer morning at the Coast Guard station and another in the big open field that will become Harbor Station North. You’ll also want to catch the gorgeous shots of GCT Bayonne.
On the first day of school, it was senior citizens, not school kids, who caught my attention. But you’d hardly know the difference as I joined folks at the 56th Street Senior Center for a delicious lunch and watched them take part in a Zumba class, and a lively book-club discussion.
In the last six months, I’ve had a chance to experience firsthand the Bayonne narrative—a story that embraces generations and geography, economics and ethnicity, class and culture.
There is much more in this issue, and in the months to come. I look forward to meeting more of you, hearing your stories, and sharing them in the pages of Bayonne: Life on the Peninsula.—BLP
Our Digital Archive from 2000 – 2016
