Gentrification by arson: Hoboken burns in the 80s, as seen in Delivered Vacant
A 14-year-old documentary being screened this weekend hits home for residents being displaced by luxury development.
By Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg
Cliches are a writer’s worst enemy but sometimes they’re apt: The more things change the more they stay the same.
This weekend, as part of the Jersey City Artists Studio Tour, BrightMoment Meetup, the community group founded by Jersey City’s Dale Hardman, is screening Delivered Vacant, Nora Jacobson’s brilliant, eerily relevant 1992 documentary about gentrification in Hoboken during the 1980s. The film, shot over a span of eight years, chronicles how working poor and moderate-income families were pushed out (by arson, eviction, or harassment), in favor of wealthy “New Yorkers” – a term used by those interviewed to describe any outsider to Hoboken, including the filmmaker herself, a Vermont native.
“Our problem is the fact that we have the upper crust living in the New York City area,” Dudley Griffith of New Jersey Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), an advocacy group for affordable housing, told City Belt. “Many are now flocking into New Jersey. Now developers are building units in New Jersey to accommodate people coming out of New York.”
It seems it’s time for a “Delivered Vacant II” – but this time about Jersey City.
“They ultimately want to turn [Jersey City] into a twin of Hoboken,” said Denise Booker of Jersey City ACORN, a panelist at Saturday’s screening of Delivered Vacant. “They are definitely squeezing out the moderate-income and low-income individuals – essentially the mixed-income individuals.”
Booker felt that squeeze.
From 1990 to 2001, she was paying $800 a month for a three-bedroom apartment in Journal Square. But once the landlord died, his children raised the rent to $1600. The rent was out of her reach.
“Prior to that, I had left work. I sustained an injury on the job – I was in law enforcement,” she explained. “And besides that, I had a special needs child that was born that needed my full attention. It was just a choice between career and family, and I chose my family.”
She moved into a two bedroom with her two children and one grandchild in Greenville for $900 a month. Affordable housing in Jersey City, she says, is, “underground, it’s worse than the mafia. It’s well-hidden.”
The dearth of affordable housing, defined by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) as housing costs of 30 percent or less of a household’s annual income, is not limited to Hudson County.
“Our analysis is that the overall need for low- and moderate-income housing for the period of 1999-2014 is about 650,000 units,” wrote Paul Chrystie, executive director of the Trenton-based Coalition for Affordable Housing and the Environment, in an interview with City Belt. “Those [Council on Affordable Housing] rules only call for about 50,000 new units, and are likely to produce far fewer than that.”
And this problem is not just reserved for the working poor either – moderate-income people also have trouble finding affordable housing.
“It is clear that people earning 80-120 percent of median income are facing many of the same housing challenges as people below 80 percent of [the] median,” wrote Chrystie. “There is a gap there as well that is not addressed by standard affordable housing programs.”
The prices of available housing, especially downtown, certainly don’t reflect Hudson County’s median income, which was $38,781 in 2003 (compared with the New Jersey median of $56,366), according to the US Census. For the same year, 15 percent of people lived below the poverty line in Hudson County, compared with 8.9 percent in all of New Jersey, according to the Census.
Despite the high poverty rate and relatively low median income, finding luxury condos in downtown Jersey City is like shooting fish in a barrel, even though only 28.2 percent of Jersey City current residents own their home, compared with 65.6 percent statewide, according to the 2000 Census.
The cheapest condo available in Gulls Cove, a new development at Grand St. and Marin Blvd., is a studio for $311,000-$312,000. When I asked the agent if any units were set aside for low or moderate income families, he politely said no.
The much talked-about Grove Pointe, at the Grove St. PATH station, which will offer rental units once the building is complete, will have no rental apartments set aside for low or moderate income people, I was told when I called the office inquiring about prices.
Dixon Mills apartments on Wayne Street sets aside 65 units for low and moderate-income families, but when I called all were taken – not a surprise considering how few apartments I was finding. There was no waiting list – I was instructed to call back periodically to check on their availability.
Developers are enticed to build in Jersey City with promises of tax relief, in the form of abatements. And developers from Donald Trump to Toll Brothers have answered that call. Activists with ACORN aren’t blaming the developers for taking advantage of a lucrative deal but they insist the city should require them to set aside more units of affordable housing.
Affordable housing activists are petitioning Jersey City’s City Council to pass an ordinance that would require luxury developers to set aside 25 percent of the housing stock for rentals to “mixed-income” individuals, Booker said.
“I don’t even use low-income’ anymore, because it’s just as bad as saying ‘terrorist’ to someone,” she said. “I say mixed-income. Once you say low-income, that shuts down the meetings.”
Beyond the unfairness of the city simply trading its low- and moderate-income residents for wealthier ones, this sort of rampant development eventually creates segregation.
“Mixed neighborhoods, as well as mixed-income neighborhoods, are stronger,” Booker said. “It doesn’t just help the mixed income people – everyone benefits from that. It promotes tolerance and understanding of other cultures.”
But this integration is often a casualty of gentrification.
“Look at what they’ve done to Hoboken – they’ve literally corralled, like animals, the minorities into that one-box area where the projects are,” she said.
Also see City Belt's photo essay on development, The Boom.
Saturday night's screening is a fundraiser for St. Lucy's Shelter and Children's Camp Liberty, two groups dedicated to helping out Jersey City’s less fortunate. Appearing on the panel discussion to follow the film are Nora Jacobson, director of Delivered Vacant; Susan Mearns, division chief of the Hudson County Division of Housing and Community Development; Denise Booker, of Jersey City ACORN; and Steve Fulop, Ward E City Council member.
Details:
Oct. 21, 6-9 pm
Middle School 4 Auditorium
107 Bright St.
Jersey City, NJ
On the Web:
BrightMoment Meetup
ACORN
E-mail the author
i've been going into hoboken my whole life. while the average hoboken resident now flashes much more $$$$$, the ethnic composition of the town has not changed all that much. people on washington street have been warning visitors to stay away from the projects and "the presidents" since the eighties at least. you go up there now and you see the same stuff you did when nora jacobson made her movie: a typical urban neighborhood not that different from the area just east of chinatown.
one of the toughest challenges any municipal government has is coping with rapidly rising land values. your average sim city player thinks that automatically translates into more green for the town. not so. hoboken had the crazy spike in land value that we all know about, and they were able to hang on to their pedestrian-friendly retail strip on washington and encourage the growth of another pedestrian-friendly retail strip on newark & first. they put a park on the river. hell they put a *skate park* on the river. maxwell's is still there, the beat 'n' path is still there as whiskey bar, the mid-priced singel-proprietor restaurants and pubs are still there and doing great. they elected the guy who owns east l.a. mayor. they haven't wrecked the scale of the town.
i never remember washington street closed to traffic for months while some developer threw up his big box. i never remember chain link fence interrupting sidewalks so you can't walk to the path train station without nearly getting hit by a bus, now a daily treat for commuters on montgomery street.
jersey city land values are soaring and the municipal government is definitely not mimicking hoboken. instead, they are approving every hi-rise project under the sun so they can close their budget gaps with pilot money. the plan has been to have no plan -- just incoherent, piecemeal, big box construction. this is not a jerramiah healy thing. this has been the policy of the last four mayors. bret schundler stepped down at the beginning of the decade but in some ways his term never ended. there is still an utter disregard for cohesion here.
jersey city has a long way to go before it can start throwing stones at hoboken.
mixed income tris
Posted by: tris mccall | 10/19/2006 at 11:50 AM
Tris,
I agree with that, from a bird's eye view, Hoboken handled its development/gentrification as well as it could, or at least better than JC. The city certainly did a better job with retail than municipal, though, and handled both of those in better ways than residential.
While they gave green space and retained much of the small-scale retail charm, the condo parade indeed has made its way to "the presidents," and I think to say that that part of Hoboken looks the same as it did in Nora's documentary is a bit of a stretch, though. It retains some of the mulit-ethnic characteristic, for sure, but it is clear that this too is disappearing.
But I do agree that, compared to what will happen to downtown JC, what happened to Hoboken could even be considered ideal. There are few high-rises in Hoboken and few big-box stores -- exactly what we're preparing to get more of here in JC. Perhaps if we didn't give so many abatements, we wouldn't have such a budget shortfall in the first place, and wouldn't have to approve so many projects.
Perhaps the analogy was wrong to begin with -- maybe what they're actually trying to turn Jersey City into is the next Paramus or Woodbridge. I guess we'll find out soon enough.
Posted by: Editor | 10/19/2006 at 12:21 PM
I live in Journal Square, and there is literally nothing for the young professionals to do, instead you have to go on the PATH train to Grove street or Hoboken to find an art gallery, live music performance, bookstore, etc.
Downtown JC is too expensive.
Posted by: anon | 10/19/2006 at 12:43 PM
Excellent article, Elizabeth! John, love your photo essay, "The Boom" as well.
I do hope that everyone comes out to see Delivered Vacant, hear Nora Jacobson discuss this award-winning film, and hear our dais panel discuss issues of low-income housing and the Hudson Alliance "Ten Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness in Hudson County".
BrightMoment Meetup together with the Harsimus Cove Association, is doing this event as a benefit for both needy children's placement for summer camp in Camp Liberty 2007 and to benefit St. Lucy's Shelter for the Homeless.
We would hope that any of you who are able to donate monies for this benefit will do so.
For anyone who would like to see the film and cannot afford the price of a $5 ticket, please come anyway and ask for Dale and you will be admitted as BrightMoment Meetup's guest.
Go to the link I've provided to buy tickets online, make donations and for more information as to venue,and to join (free)BrightMoment Meetup:
BrightMoment Meetup
http://filmind.meetup.com/257/boards/
BrightMoment Meetup will be producing member events(free to join as member) in film, music, poetry, theater, dance,poetry, spoken word performance, panel discussions,and more, that engage the community beyond the event itself and that all may be welcome.
Posted by: Dale Hardman & BrightMoment Meetup | 10/19/2006 at 02:13 PM
A few months ago, I moved back to Journal Square after moving away about ten years ago. I'm struck by the spastic gentrification that's happening in this neighborhood. Unlike the Grove St, Hamilton Park, and Paulus Hook areas, which seem to have experienced marked changes in the character of retail options and nightlife as well as residents since I was in high school, Journal Square remains something of a desert for young professionals, despite the fact that they're moving in by droves.
There's a "luxury" rental building (studios starting at $1500 and completely occupied, last time I checked) next door to the same discount store that's been there as long as I can remember. You can buy a condo in the high-end building on Magnolia behind the Loew's, and the plans to build another big condo building right in the heart of the Square are still on the table, but your dining options are basically limited to fast food, decent arroz con pollo, and a couple of Egyptian fish restaurants.
I'm not really lamenting this phenomenon, although I'd be lying if I said I don't want a Commerce Bank, a New York Sports Club, and a Trader Joe's around the corner from my house. I'm only echoing Tris's comments about JC's seemingly piss-poor planning.
On another note, I'd be remiss if I didn't respond to the comment by the anonymous JSQ resident: the Upstairs Art Gallery has been in business on Bergen Ave right next to PS#11 since 1967. It's part of the Jersey City Artists Studio Tour, but doesn't get much attention since it's sort of out of the way of the other galleries on the tour. Also, Urban Medley at Five Corners had live music on thursday nights up until it closed its doors a few months ago for lack of business.
I guess here's where the exceptions prove the rule.
Posted by: Shane Smith | 10/19/2006 at 02:16 PM
"Perhaps if we didn't give so many abatements, we wouldn't have such a budget shortfall in the first place, and wouldn't have to approve so many projects."
it should be just the opposite, though -- pilot payments are supposed to make the city more money than regular taxation, because the government doesn't have to share with the county and the schools. for instance shore club argued that the city government would make close to a million dollars more from their pilot than they would have if they were taxed normally. even if you think they're fibbing about the number, the city government would not have approved the scheme if it was not seeing big $$$$$ according to its projections.
everybody in the municipal government believes that pilots are the way to get more money quicker. the trouble comes when you want to change the ratable scale, because now you're stuck with all these 20 and 30 year deals at fixed rates. what you're doing is sacrificing financial flexibility --that's the price you pay for these arrangements. and when you think about it, it's a very jersey city way to operate: we've got a budget issue somewhere?, okay, let's get our short-term fix by approving a hi-rise and ask for pilot money. never mind the rest of the county and the schools -- we're an abbott district and we've got the political clout to keep things that way. keep on mainlining that money.
the longer i am here, the more i think that the problem in jc is not budgetary. i think the problem is penis envy.
Posted by: Tris McCall | 10/21/2006 at 09:26 AM
Here is a followup review of our screening of Delivered Vacant, dais panel discussion and Benefit for St. Lucy's Shelter and Children's Camp Liberty, from Monarch Housing, one of the principal partners with the Hudson Alliance to End Chronic Homelessness in Hudson County:
*******************************************
Good Morning!
I wanted to share with you that the latest issue of the ENDING HOMELESSNESS IN NEW JERSEY EZINE has been published. The current issue can be found at this link: http://www.monarchhousing.org/news/ehtezine.html
This issue features an article on the fundraiser to benefit St. Lucy’s Shelter and Children’s Camp Liberty that was held last weekend, and organized by the Harsimus Cove Association. The event included a panelist discussion, which Susan Mearns, Division Chief, Division of Housing & Community Development, and Councilman Steven Fulop participated in. During discussion Susan Mearns highlighted the Alliance’s progress on the Ten Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness and the need for community involvement in this Year’s Point in Time Count/Project Homeless Connect.
Other articles in this issue include:
An update on the Camden Homeless Summit including photos and a slide show;
Information on the proposed changes to the McKinney-Vento program;
Information on how to insure that McKinney-Vento is fully funded next year;
Information on Project Homeless Connect;
An update on Passaic County’s effort to develop a ten year plan to end homelessness.
We hope that you will find this of interest and will subscribe to receive future issues by clicking on the link below:
http://www.monarchhousing.org/cgi-bin/dada/mail.cgi/list/ezine/
To view the archive of previous issues use the link below and then select the back issue you would like to read.
http://www.monarchhousing.org/cgi-bin/dada/mail.cgi/archive/ezine
Yours,
Ms. Kristin Green
Monarch Housing Associates
15 Alden St., Suite 10
Cranford, NJ 07016
908.272.5363
908.382.6326 (fax)
kgreen@monarchhousing.org
Monarch Website:
http://www.monarchhousing.org
Monarch's Ending Homelessness Ezine:
http://www.monarchhousing.org/news/ehtezine.html
Posted by: Dale Hardman & BrightMoment Meetup | 10/30/2006 at 10:47 PM