Dana Reigns
I am writing to find out where the cover photo of Queen Latifah was taken. I have been a firefighter with the Jersey City Fire Department for 36 years, and I thought I knew all the streets in the city. However, I cannot place this one. Also, I spent a year or two working in the old firehouse you show as the home of Flavor Unit. It used to house Engine Company 1, and the 1st Battalion Chief. Engine 1 is no longer in service, and the 1st Battalion Chief is now located at 355 Newark Ave. The house was closed when the newer firehouse on Marin Boulevard (formerly Henderson Street) was opened in 1982.
Tim Kearney
Editor’s Note: Tim’s right. The photo was shot across the river. You can see Jersey in the background. On a related note, see our story on firehouses.
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It was with great joy that I read the Queen Latifah article in your latest issue. I am indeed the neighbor of whom Dana spoke so glowingly! My partner Daryl Edwards (mistakenly named Rob) and I lived in the Dixon Mills apartment next door to the Queen’s, and I remember those days not only with much fondness but with a tinge of sadness also.
Dana was a wonderful neighbor, always fun and loving but never invasive. Our cat Nigel would sometimes end up perched on the terrace ledge on Dana’s side, and she would call us to come and rescue him. Amusingly she would sometimes borrow the vacuum cleaner (it was early days for her) and we would always raise a glass on special occasions, a delight in such an urban situation! At the time I was a tad intimidated by hip hop as a genre, but Dana (who was a rap artist at the time) would see me and give the biggest hug I had ever experienced and almost sweep me off my feet! (She is a tall woman; I am on the short side.)
I was particularly cheered to see that Dana remembered her days as our neighbor, as Daryl is no longer with us. Daryl was tragically killed in the TWA 800 airline disaster in 1996, and I know that he would be honored to be thought of in such a sweet way, as a good neighbor and a fine representative of his “hood.”
Daryl and Dana were both born and raised in Newark, and as such shared a kinship that most African Americans from Newark hold dear.
All praise to the Queen for not forgetting her roots and for also taking it to the hilt in Hollywood. I know that Daryl would be so proud to see a woman of color from his hometown rise to the heights of success and fulfillment that she has, setting an example to all young people who think that they don’t have a chance in this world!
All hail the Queen!
Michael Steward
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My adventures with Queen Latifah were always exciting and unpredictable. To this day I still have to laugh about the time I accidentally rolled her finger up in the car window. (She’s probably still pissed.) The Queen, my daughter Talia, and I went on several appointments where people greeted us with open doors, as well as those where sellers did not want to let us into their homes. (I guess we did not look like the buying type?)
After we negotiated the old Jersey City firehouse deal in1996, I convinced her to look at the Wells Fargo Condominiums (formerly the Wells Fargo stable house circa 1850) where I previously lived. She took a liking to those as well and decided to buy two adjacent units with the possibility of combining the two and making one fabulous loft to live in. However, her life changed very rapidly and she was off to Los Angeles. A year or so later she let me know she was just too busy to renovate and decided to sell the two units and search for a home. So off to suburbia we went, Llewellyn Park in West Orange. Unfortunately we did not find the right place.
As it turned out, my nephews Dante and Rhett Del Forno, also musicians/real estate investors, purchased one of the units from the Queen in 2000 also to hopefully live there. But once again the climate of the real estate/stock market changed and they decided to sell it in July 2001.
Now we are in another crazy market (2009). Hopefully the Queen will reappear in my life and we can do it all over again; this time with some music too… (Hi Dana.)
Paul Del Forno
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I recently picked up a copy of Jersey City Magazine at Project Pilates and I very much enjoyed your articles on Queen Latifah and the downstairs bowling alley at Barrow Mansion (“Down Memory Lanes”). What a find! I am so happy to see this publication addressing culture and history on our side of the Hudson, where I have lived for the past three years.
Sharyn Jackson
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Slip-Up
On page 40 of your Fall/Winter issue (“Adios Eldorado”) is a picture which shows the old oil pipeline from the Standard Oil Company. The army pier was at the end of Chapel Avenue, where Port Liberté is now. The pier was fantastic. However, the people at Port Liberté did not want anyone coming down to the pier and fishing. Magically, a boat supposedly hit the pier and it was deemed unsafe and knocked down. Many of the old fishermen at the time complained that the pier was knocked down intentionally. At one point, the Caven Point military base was an Italian prisoner of war camp and there were more than 4,000 soldiers at this base. However, in time the government basically gave away the land for little or nothing, and this historic land is now mostly Port Liberté or the golf course. (Ed: See our golf story.). If it were any other city, this whole historic area would have been preserved. We do not see the old military bases in New York being destroyed, but then this is New Jersey and New York rules.
Rich Boggiano
Former Historic Commissioner
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In your Fall/Winter issue, an aerial photo appears on page 40, which is of the Black Tom/Caven Point area. The “pier” in the photo is not the Caven Point army pier, but the pipeline trestle. The pipelines ran from the oil tanks on the lower right-hand corner of the photo, on Caven Point Road, out to near the Statue of Liberty. In the left center can be seen Black Tom, and the old National Docks piers, on the first section, which is now Liberty State Park. The rip rap jetty and part of Caven Point beach can be seen in the photo. The army pier was about three quarters of a mile to the south of this photo. The pipeline trestle was perhaps wide enough for one vehicle to drive on, although it was abandoned by the time I “discovered” it in 1974. The army pier, on the other hand, was wide enough to accommodate perhaps one vehicle in each direction.
Daniel Burgos
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Grave Matters
First, let me congratulate you on your beautiful Jersey City Magazine. I just love it, and it’s just what Jersey City needs. Great work, you should be very proud!
Second, our board was thrilled when we saw Jack Murray’s full-page “Parting Shot” photo in the Fall/Winter issue of an old Blessed Mother headstone located in our special cemetery. We’ve gotten permission to use Jack’s photo on our website.
The cemetery was neglected for many years and finally abandoned 11 months ago. Our new board was organized this summer in an effort to protect this forgotten but special place. It is so rich in American history, it is just unbelievable. We are now embarking on a major restoration project to ensure the protection and preservation of these sacred grounds that were once battlegrounds during the Revolutionary War. We have also just uncovered an ammunition bunker and fortification from the War of 1812 that sits on our grounds but was hidden by years and years of overgrowth and neglect. We currently have no staff and very limited funding and equipment, but have a detailed plan in place to secure state and national landmark preservation status that will open us up to historical grants and funding.
Eileen Markenstein, President,
board of trustees,
Historic Jersey City and Harsimus Cemetery,
435 Newark Ave., jerseycitycemetery.org
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Kudos
What a fantastic issue! Congrats!
Christine Goodman
Art House Productions
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Got my hands on an issue of your delightful and informative magazine. Kudos to you, keep up the good work, a J.C. comeback is imminent!
Robert S. Vena
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I just put my hands on your Fall/Winter edition. Amazing, I must say. It has been nearly two years since I moved to the United States, and almost one since I have been living in Jersey City. I follow your magazine every time when it comes out with the same interest that I have in watching this little city growing within its own identity. Throughout the last year I’ve noticed little changes to the lifestyle in JC, new restaurants, coffee shops, galleries… anything that made me stay here. I always thought of this as a transition city, somewhere you move before you make your “big entrance” to Manhattan. Well, now I see things different. I had met amazing people that not only inspired me, but they helped me stay here. Orlando, the owner of 58 Coles, Michelle, the owner of Skin Organix, the people from Marco and Pepe’s, the two young owners of The Stockinette, Maggie from Skinner’s Loft. Everybody from JC deserves an article about them in your magazine. I just think (my humble opinion) that if I would read about the ways they became business owners it would inspire me (and others) to stay here, and live… and not be in the shadow of Manhattan.
Rouge DeRose