SQUARE NEEDS PERMANENT SOLUTION

Editorial

June 26, 2002

I f you came to Jersey City's Journal Square this week to shop or to catch the bus or PATH, you may not have noticed a change.

The 3-foot-tall weeds are gone from the Kennedy Boulevard and Bergen Avenue medians and the landscaped areas of the Square.

Over the past weekend, some members of the Friends of the Loew's, a nonprofit group restoring and operating the historic move palace, decided to do some rehabilitation work outside of the theater.

The volunteers weeded and pruned ornamental plants. The result: 42 trash bags full of weeds and clippings.

"So we couldn't help notice how overgrown things were getting out here," said Patricia Giordan, president of the Friends of the Loew's. "And that wasn't good for the Loew's or the for the city in general. Journal Square is the heart of our city, and the doorway to Loew's. It needs to look like the important cross roads that it is."

Things have gotten this bad because the Journal Square Restoration Corp. collapsed earlier this year. It was reliable for much of the maintenance, security and other services for the commercial area.

A shell of the Restoration Corporation now exists. It and the city Economic Development Corp. provided the Loew's volunteers with gloves and bags.

The city is grateful to the Loew's volunteers but these efforts, including those of Ready, Willing and Able volunteers and the use of prison work crews, are stopgap measures.

Journal Square is turning ugly.

Walk on those decorative sidewalks installed only less than a year ago and the amount of gum and other debris - that was once steamed cleaned - has already marred the multimillion-dollar streetscape.

The city needs a permanent resolution.

By the way, when will the Journal Square fountain spout water again?

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