Like the tide itself, Jersey City’s waterfront always seems to be changing. One side climbs toward the sky with tall office towers and apartment complexes. But further south, Liberty State Park is heading back to nature with expanding recreational areas and wetlands.
And to link it all together, segments of the Hudson River Waterfront Walkway are being built piece by piece so residents will one day be able to stroll or bike along the entire shoreline from Bayonne to Fort Lee.
This summer, Jersey City’s waterfront will come alive with festivals and other events.
As longtime residents know, it’s an entirely different scene than just 20 or 30 years ago, when the city’s waterfront was a mess of abandoned industry.
“We always knew it had potential,” says Maryanne Kelleher-Arango, director of cultural affairs for the city. “It’s finally realized the potential we knew it had.”
Liberty State Park
Celebrating its 30th birthday this June, Liberty State Park has come a long way since it opened in 1976.
“When you come here, there’s always a place where you can come and feel like it’s your own spot,” says Gail Zavian, a local writer and artist who has authored several children’s books inspired by Jersey City’s waterfront.
On a walk earlier this year with her sister Karen Zavian, another longtime Jersey City resident, Gail described some of the sights she’s come across on her walks. One time, the park was filled with monarch butterflies; another time there were sea turtles in the harbor.
As if on cue, she pointed at the horizon. “Oh – a rainbow!”
She added, “It’s the last open space. It’s the last place you can bring your kids to give them a taste of nature.” As with the Zavian sisters, the park seems to hold a unique appeal for each resident and visitor.
Local bird-watching enthusiasts know the park is a rest stop for migratory birds, particularly waterfowl. For others who haven’t yet fully experienced the park’s wildlife, an interpretive center and nature walk offer a good introduction.
The city’s kite flyers know that the park’s vast lawns and steady harbor winds make it well-suited for kites. The park hosts the annual New Jersey Sport Kite Championships each July.
The 1.5-mile Liberty Walk’s causeway provides a place for fishing, although there is no swimming or camping at the park.
Change continues. The park’s major project is to return about 240 acres in the interior of the park to a natural state, complete with walking trails.
“The green urban open space is such a tremendous, uplifting aspect of the park,” says Sam Pesin, president of the Friends of Liberty State Park. A benefit walk for the Friends of Liberty State Park is scheduled for Saturday, June 10.
A Cultural Arts Festival is expected to draw many residents to the park this summer, as it has in years past. The festival is usually held on the second Sunday in June. There’s also a summer concert series planned at the Central Railroad of New Jersey (CRRNJ) Terminal at the north end of the park this season.
For more information about Liberty State Park, visit www.libertystatepark.us or call (201) 915-3440.
In and around the park
The CRRNJ Terminal, which contains a ticket office for the ferries to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty, is also the temporary home for Liberty Science Center. The interim exhibition area – called Liberty Science Center: Riverside – will be open while the science center’s main building undergoes an extensive renovation that is expected to last until 2007.
Also in the park, Liberty Landing Marina offers docks for boats, a ferry service, sailing charters and lessons, and two waterfront restaurants: Liberty House Restaurant and Lightship Barge & Grill.
The marina hosts the annual New York City Powerboat Poker Run, scheduled this year for June 17-18. For more information about Liberty Landing Marina, visit www.libertylandingmarina.com or call (201) 985-8000.
The light rail runs to the park, and a shuttle bus circles from the light rail station to various points in the park every 20 minutes most days in the spring and summer.
Outside the park, the new Liberty National Golf Course, designed to cater to the wealthy movers and shakers of the metropolitan area, is set to open July 4.
Exchange Place & Newport
Further north on the waterfront, the bustling financial district at Exchange Place – once the site of a massive rail terminal where passengers and cargo were “exchanged” from trains to ferry boats – hosts a weekly jazz concert each Thursday at noon in the summer.
With plenty of great restaurants and a location just a short walk from the Historic Downtown district, Exchange Place will also host more than a dozen ethnic festivals on weekends this summer. The Jersey City Division of Cultural Affairs keeps a calendar of summer events. For more information, call (201) 547-6921.
Arts and culture festivals will also be a common sight in the warmer months around Newport, just north of Exchange Place.
“There’s probably an event every weekend, if not every other weekend,” says Sonia Maldonado, president of the Newport Waterfront Association.
The Newport-Liberty Waterfront Run, a benefit scheduled for Oct. 8 for the Jersey City Medical Center children’s hospital that includes a half-marathon, will start and end at the Newport waterfront. Another benefit run, the Newport 10K, is scheduled for May 13 this year.
Additionally, the walkway connecting Newport to Hoboken may be completed as early as this summer. But even on a quiet day, the rhythmic sounds of the waterfront – the water lapping against piers, joggers huffing past with the patter of tennis shoes – make it a peaceful place to be.
“Just sitting there and watching the boats go by can be very relaxing,” Maldonado says. “It doesn’t have the fast pace that Manhattan has, but at the same time it is sophisticated.”