Exchange Place, Jersey City, NJ October 2008
[from FB post: July 12, 2010]
Back from a great day in Jersey City with old college chum Dean! We did some good walks and I just marvelled at how that place has gone from being "down and out" to totally trendy!!! His new apartment has KILLER views of Manhattan and the river. And you can see the Statue of Liberty from the apartment roof deck/swimming pool. AND it's all on top of the PATH subway into NYC! I mean... can you say "perfect"??
The view over to Manhattan from Exchange Place in Jersey City is iconic. The best views of New York City are mostly from New Jersey - how ironic. (NB: this was in the "in between years" of no Twin Towers and No Freedom Tower). From "Les Miserables: the musical" Javerre: A memory stirs. You make me think of man from years ago... Jean Valjean: Say what you must, Don't leave it there. My first trip to New York City was with GU besties CWL, MA, and Dean in the mid '80s. Dean was from Kearney, NJ - a rough place to grow up in those days, an old Jersey working class neighborhood right next to downtown Newark. We were on a weekend road trip staying at Dean's house to explore New York City. Dean had spent his high school days roaming the streets of Manhattan, so he was to be the guide. We all slept on the floor of his parents' place. Ah, youth and adventure. We drove to the Harrison PATH station (scary neighborhood), parked, and took that forgotten stepchild of a subway over to Manhattan. We got off at Christopher Street Station - we were in New York. Not only that, we were in Greenwich Village! Other than being totally overwhelmed by the City as a first timer, I don't remember much of anything we did. I was impressed and intimidated. I never imagined that one day I would live there and actually love it. It was just too overwhelming on that first visit and I was in awe of Dean for feeling at ease in such an intense place. He had been venturing there since high school. Later in life, post-911, Brian and I bought a place in Hoboken, NJ. Jersey City became a familiar place to me - it was my new backyard. We had even considered buying a condo in Paulus Hook, the swankiest bit of Jersey City. In the intervening years from that first trip with Dean, the Jersey side of the Hudson had seen quite a renaissance - so much so that Dean had his last residence in the NYC metro area there. With his incredible job in the City, he took a place in a luxury high rise around Grove Street. He now rented that iconic vista and could drink it in from his balcony window every day. He was very proud of his view of the Empire State Building. I admit I was envious. I wonder if Dean from Kearney, New Jersey ever thought he would live so close to home in such luxury? Any time anyone visited me from overseas and we were in New York City I insisted on a trip to Exchange Place, Jersey City or Hoboken just for that view of Manhattan (preferably by ferry but the PATH train was always an option, too). All celebratory fireworks in New York City were best viewed from the New Jersey side. Very little could beat the Manhattan skyline as a backdrop for those displays. Only Hong Kong had matched that in my life when we saw New Year's fireworks before the British handover to the Chinese. Lower Manhattan viewed from New Jersey is not technically New York City, but for me that view was something defining. My first glimpses of New York City were from Jersey and I was astounded. It was part of the New York City experience for me and looking back it makes things clearer for me. The first place I entered the City was from Jersey on a PATH train and the last place I lived before I left was on the PATH line, too.