by Jan Lazor

Created on: July 12, 2009

Today Jersey City, New Jersey bills itself as the Gateway for Opportunity. Its thriving downtown center is a blend of refurbished historic buildings and glass and steel high-rises that provide ultra luxurious residential and premier corporate offices.

The city's vibrancy has not always been obvious. Twenty years ago, Jersey City's historic downtown was becoming a wasteland of vacant buildings with crumbling facades and businesses struggling to keep their doors open.

City leaders knew something had to be done, but the task would not be easy nor would it be a quick turn-a-round for the New York City neighbor. One of the first thing leaders did was assess their community and determine its strengths and weaknesses.

Built on the shores of the Hudson River, Jersey City played a major role in providing a base for immigrants leaving the Ellis Island immigration center. Many of the European families leaving Ellis Island boarded trains at the Central Railroad of New Jersey terminal that sits at the north end of Liberty State Park today to begin their journey to a new life.

This diverse ethnic culture left its mark on Jersey City, a fact leaders relied on when they sought to tally the community's strengths. But they knew diversity alone was not enough to rebuild Jersey City. Neither was its close proximity to Downtown and Midtown Manhattan.

Using creative thinking, public officials developed a partnership with private business leaders whose vision and experience helped reverse a dying city and turn it into a thriving cultural and business center.

The key to the city's successful turn-a-round started with one neighborhood at a time. In the past, small towns relied on the main street concept to keep business centers flourishing. Taking a step back in time, leaders based their revitalization plan on the main street concept, except they applied it to neighborhoods instead of the entire city.

State legislators created a Special Improvement Districts (SID) in Cranford Township in 1985. Once an area has been designated as a SID, business and property owners pay voluntary assessments to an association. These fees are matched by dollars from the Urban Enterprise Zone program.

The association determines how to spend the funds to improve the district. Members may decide to build new sidewalks, complete a building face-lift or sponsorship a street fair to increase foot traffic for local merchants.

In 1992 Jersey City implemented its SID program and began rebuilding its community one neighborhood at a time. Now nearly 20-years later, city leaders are reaping the results of their careful planning and visionary approach to revitalizing the state's second largest city. Newark holds the top spot as the Garden State's largest city.

Today Jersey City lays claim to the title New Jersey's Premier Destination. It was recently voted the top New Jersey city in which to live and work. Ample housing, plenty of jobs and multiple parks for recreation make it easy to see why Jersey City is a top choice of places to live and work.

Besides it is the only city that can promise a close-up view of the New York City skyline, a claim even New Yorkers can't brag about.

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