As you enter the labyrinth you begin to feel uneasy, even a little afraid. You attempt to travel straight toward your destination, but suddenly you’re confronted by a snarled mess right before your eyes. You turn quickly, only to find another horrifying display of disfigurement. Fleeing the scene, you dodge obstacles and enemies coming at you from all directions.
There is no order here, just anarchy.
What sounds more like a riveting round of Resident Evil, a horror-fantasy game for your Xbox, is unfortunately the frightening reality of driving in Downtown Jersey City as of late. As overly dramatic as the comparison may seem, it’s disturbingly dead-on due to a recent surge of construction and seemingly perennial roadwork that has choked the Downtown area from Hoboken to Liberty Harbor and from the Hudson River to Grove Street.
A trip through the tangle
Take, for example, the following narrative of a recent trip through the tangle…
A left turn off of Observer Highway onto Marin Boulevard is soon met by a road crew just beyond the railroad tracks. It initially appears that 18th Street is closed to traffic, but actually it’s narrowed to one lane. Of course, without a flagman there’s no way of spotting the half-lane artery until you’ve almost passed it.
Soon, 18th Street morphs into Washington Boulevard, where a puzzling pattern of traffic control occurs near Pavonia/Newport. While stuck at a red light, a traffic light all of 50 feet further down the road turns green, taunting the driver like a toreador waving a cape at a bull still in its paddock.
Through the light, construction once again appears and the sidewalk near Sixth Street is closed off. A bit further down, near the construction of the 34-story “A” Condominiums (415 Washington Blvd.), is where things get hairy. Sometimes cars are allowed down this route, but this time the road is closed. While the three cops standing around do nothing to explain, the Light Rail cuts off the right side. You make a left on Second Street, since apparently that’s the only option.
From there, drivers are on their own. The absence of detour signs would confound the out-of-towner, but more surprising to the local was the fact that Hudson Street was actually open for the first time in nearly a year. Of course, none of the traffic lights worked, but it’s a start; at least it’s finally possible to get to Fatburger, on Washington Boulevard, without jumping a wall of aptly named “Jersey barriers.”
But just beyond Fatburger’s beacon of hope is essentially the hell-mouth of Downtown construction woes, near the corner of Greene and Montgomery streets. There are no lights, no lanes, and no sidewalks – just a cacophony of car horns, catcalls and cop whistles. The exasperated look on the cop’s face says it all, as he shrugs in apathetic defeat while cars swerve around him.
Turning right onto Montgomery Street and left back onto Washington Boulevard, minor construction pops up here and there en route to Essex Street like little skirmishes behind the front.
Escape from Jersey City
In retreat, an alternate route is pursued along Grove Street, but it soon becomes clear that the hope of an unencumbered journey is futile. As road crews resurface the street, cars are literally face to face as they converge at Wayne Street. The officer on duty, meanwhile, peers down a hole in the ground as she enjoys watching the fellas dig.
Maneuvering through there and turning right onto Christopher Columbus Drive, the looming spines of Grove Point Condominiums (100 Newark Ave.) and the 35-story Columbus Plaza (303 Warren St.) darken the horizon. A left turn proves difficult, as a flatbed has squeezed the Marin Boulevard artery into a capillary. Working your way past 140 Bay St. requires care, as the trip finally returns to Hoboken via the seemingly mortar-scarred pothole path through Coles Street’s no-man’s land.
All this at 2 p.m. on a sunny weekday – no rush hour, no flash flooding, just a run-of-the-mill sortie into Downtown Jersey City.
Constructive criticism
And how do robust and resilient New Jerseyans cope with such daunting obstacles? We gripe about them.
“It’s retarded,” says Trish, a Hoboken resident working in Jersey City who asked for her full name to be withheld. “Every turn you take there’s another detour.”
“There are no lights and the cops just stand there,” adds Sue, who also works in Jersey City and asked for her full name to not be printed.
“It’s a nightmare navigating around the area,” says Walter Burns of REMAX Villa Realtors, who spends his day driving potential clients around the city. “What used to take 10 minutes now takes 30 to 40. In the morning, you can’t get through when there are 20 cement trucks lined up on Washington [Boulevard].”
‘If you build it, they will come…’
But realtors like Burns certainly stand to gain a lot from all this growth. The development of numerous 30-story high-rises as well as widespread smaller-scale construction would seem to bode well for the entire area. But growing pains concern many local business owners.
“A lot of people come in for parties from out of town,” says Annemarie O’Brien, owner of The Merchant restaurant. “When they ask if there’s parking, I have to tell them to circle and keep circling.”
While O’Brien looks forward to the influx of potential customers, her concern is that the new development could make an already tough parking situation even worse. While most of the new units will have parking available, O’Brien fears that “some people won’t pay extra for their parking, they’ll look for it on the street.”
As it is, O’Brien has adopted a precarious parking method, claiming, “I actually time my coming to work around the street cleaners.”
Padraig Hennessy, owner of the newly opened O’Connell’s Bar & Grill, on Montgomery Street, takes a glass-half-full approach. “All that traffic congestion will give people more of a chance to check out our new bar,” he jokes.
Having witnessed the growth of neighboring areas, Hennessy truly embraces the development of Historic Downtown, particularly the businesses. “All the new restaurants will create not so much another Hoboken, but a new style of Hoboken,” he says.
Lessons from the old school
Of course, not everyone agrees. The Flamingo Restaurant & Bar, on Montgomery Street, has already felt a pinch from the new development.
“It’s affected us,” says Linda, the charmingly no-nonsense waitress on duty, who requested that her full name not be printed. “People can’t park here anymore – they used to be able to pull up in the afternoon.”
Linda and her establishment cater to a different kind of Jersey City, one that might be seen as a bit more down-to-earth than the smoked glass, stainless steel and rich mahogany piling up all around her.
“Between the streets and the sidewalk and the cranes, seniors are afraid. In fact, one of them actually fell,” Linda says. “You’re taking your life in your hands out there.”
When asked how she would feel once the work was done, Linda maintains her cautious skepticism. “It’s hard to say,” she says. “I don’t think this area was ever meant for this. There are areas like this in New York City where there’s just gridlock constantly.”
However, living in the now, Linda finds some solace. “But we do get quite a few construction workers, and they need to eat.”