Jersey City's business curfew will be enforced in earnest starting tomorrow, and city and police officials hope it will curb violent crime at nighttime gathering spots. "Residents have been calling for this for some time," said Mayor Jerramiah Healy, who announced stepped-up enforcement of the curfew at a City Hall ceremony with Police Chief Robert Troy last month.

"We've responded with enforcement of an ordinance that will be an instrumental tool for law enforcement to control open-street violence and also help improve residents' quality of life."

The curfew requires stores in designated areas to be closed between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. or face fines up to $1,250 and the possibility of up to 90 days in jail. The curfew applies to businesses on Communipaw Avenue from Martin Luther King Drive to Grand Street, King Drive from McAdoo Avenue to Communipaw, Monticello Avenue from Communipaw to Orchard Street, Ocean Avenue from the Bayonne line to Bramhall Avenue, Pacific Avenue from Communipaw to Grand, Communipaw from Monticello to West Side Avenue, and Communipaw from Pine Street to Manning Avenue. Heights areas affected are: Franklin Street from Central Avenue to Palisade Avenue, Kennedy Boulevard from North Street to Secaucus Road, Palisade Avenue from Beacon Avenue to North Street, and Summit Avenue from North Street to Secaucus Road. In the Journal Square area, businesses on Sip Avenue from Summit to Bergen avenues are subject to the curfew. The city adopted a business curfew ordinance in 2003, but it was never enforced due to legal challenges that argued it unfairly impacted minority neighborhoods. That ordinance applied only to parts of Communipaw, King Drive, Monticello and Ocean. Officials say they hope the wider range of areas covered in the new curfew will make it immune to such challenges.

For more information on the curfew, call (201) 547-5300.