SQUARE TO GET BACK ON TRACK

CUNNINGHAM FORMS OVERSIGHT TASK FORCE

By Jason Fink, Journal Staff Writer

08/21/02

Jersey City Mayor Glenn D. Cunningham took the latest stab at breathing new life into Journal Square with the announcement yesterday of an inter-agency task force that will help oversee security and maintenance at the commercial and transportation hub.

The once-vibrant city center, which over the past decade has been revitalized in fits and starts, has been plagued recently by dirty streets and a decline in morale among many local business owners. The number of homeless people drawn to the area has also increased.

But all that is about to change, Cunningham told a cheering crowd of about three dozen city officials, property owners and volunteers in the restored lobby of the Loew's Jersey Theater, itself a half-restored relic of a more prosperous time for the neighborhood.

The task force, which will include officials from a host of city agencies including the Municipal Utilities Authority, the Incinerator Authority, the Neighborhood Improvement Division and the Parking Authority, as well as liaisons from the Special Improvement District, will be run by veteran NID manager Wayne Anderson, who will work out of the police mini-precinct on Kennedy Boulevard.

The purpose of the group, which will meet once a week starting tomorrow, will be to work with business owners and the Journal Square Restoration Corp. - the SID's management arm that was resurrected this week after closing its doors with a mountain of debt earlier this year - on the two essential components for revamping the Square: security and maintenance.

"I am 150 percent committed to Journal Square," said Cunningham, who brought along two deputy mayors, three department directors and several aides, an indication of the political importance of revitalizing the area, whose central pedestrian plaza sees roughly 30,000 commuters and shoppers pass through each day.

"The dream is to make Journal Square the best it can be," the mayor said. "It should be a thriving business community."

A $7.5 million revitalization project completed under former Mayor Bret Schundler brought a new pedestrian plaza, an impressive, computer-controlled fountain and a kiosk meant for a cafe.

The facelift was supposed to clear the way for an ambitious redevelopment plan that would bring offices and an expansion of Hudson County Community College to the dilapidated Hotel on the Square building, which dominates the eastern portion of the Square.

But several years later, the kiosk remains empty, the Hotel on the Square has not been touched and the plaza itself is often strewn with litter.

Cunningham enlisted inmates from the Hudson County jail in Kearny, as well as city workers to clean the plaza after the Restoration Corp. - which formerly provided maintenance and security - temporarily went belly-up. Cunningham said yesterday the first step is to improve the general quality of life in the area and then court developers to invest in the Hotel on the Square.