Tag Archives: Hudson County

General

Shoreline Clean-Up at Rutkowski Park Bayonne Set for Saturday, March 23

Bayonne Nature Club Volunteer to Shoreline Clean-up of Rutkowski Park  in Bayonne

 CITY OF BAYONNE SEALBayonne Mayor Mark A. Smith  announced that the Bayonne Nature Club has volunteered to lead a shoreline clean-up at Mayor Richard A. Rutkowski Park on Saturday, March 23, at 10:00 a.m. Rutkowski Park is located in the northwest corner of Bayonne, on Newark Bay, just above the northern end of Stephen R. Gregg-Bayonne County Park. Mayor Smith said, “I would like to thank the Bayonne Nature Club volunteers for spearheading this shoreline clean-up. Their efforts will help to maintain the park in its natural condition. The Bayonne Public Works Department will provide logistical support for the work of the volunteers. The Nature Club and the City of Bayonne encourage any interested organizations and individuals to join the shoreline clean-up on Saturday.”

Continue reading Shoreline Clean-Up at Rutkowski Park Bayonne Set for Saturday, March 23 →

Cover Story, Live On Stage

Curtain Up! STAGEfest 2013 in Jersey City

Mar20thCoverRVO ONE TO USE      The Play’s the Thing at STAGEfest 2013, the Loew’s Jersey Theatre’s First Play Festival

By Sally Deering

In her prime, she was a real looker. Decked out in red velvet and adorned in crystal and gold, the Loew’s Jersey Theatre was a glamorous show palace when it opened in 1929. Today, the Loew’s is a New Jersey Registered Historic Site owned by Jersey City and after many years of restoration by the volunteer group Friends of the Loew’s, the movie palace has ‘come back to life’. Like an aging Ziegfeld showgirl with gorgeous gams. the Loew’s is a grandly vintage venue for film festivals, film retrospectives – even weddings – and for the first time this month, the Loew’s will host its first every performing arts festival, STAGEfest 2013.  

Loew's Theatre, Jersey City hosting STAGEfest 2013 River View Observer
The beautiful lobby of
Loew’s Jersey Theatre
Jersey City, New Jersey

Starting Fri, Mar. 22 and running through Sun, Mar. 24, STAGEfest 2013 raises the curtain on a weekend of theatrical, dance and musical performances highlighting Hudson’s arts and artists.  The festival will feature three days of shows by local playwrights, musicians, dancers and solo-artists who will perform their works not just on the theater’s main stage, but also in its lobbies, salons, promenades and hallways. The weekend event also features a costume exhibit by Leading Lady Costumes and refreshments by local vendors in the Grand Lobby Café.

“This marks the return to live theatre – in addition to classic film and concerts,” says Colin Egan, Executive Director of Loew’s Jersey Theatre.  “We always said we wanted theatre to be part of the Loew’s, but with all the work of renovating it and running the other shows here, we kept putting it off. So STAGEfest is the first of an annual (and maybe more frequent) theatre festival the Loew’s will host.”

THE PRODUCERS

Coordinating the event with Egan and the Friends of the Loew’s volunteers are Christine Goodman, Founder of Art House Productions in Jersey City, and David Zimmerman, Executive Director of the DeBaun Center for Performing Arts at Steven’s Institute of Technology in Hoboken.  Zimmerman knows his way around play festivals; DeBaun formerly hosted the Hudson County One Act Play Festival. Continue reading Curtain Up! STAGEfest 2013 in Jersey City →

General

City of Bayonne, St. Patrick’s Day Parade March 17th, 2013

The parade route was lined with a smiling sea of green as the Bayonne St. Patrick’s Day parade
made its way up Broadway. The River View Observer was there to catch some of the day’s festivities.

City of Bayonne’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade 2013 from River View Observer on Vimeo.

The crowds came out today for the City of Bayonne's St. Patrick's Day Parade.
The River View Observer was there to capture today's festivities.

Education

Two TCNJ Students from Hudson County to Perform at Lincoln Center

TCNJ Students to Perform at Lincoln Center

TCNJ Center for the Arts and the Department of Music are pleased to announce that TCNJ’s Choirs will once again be performing in Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Frederick P. Rose Hall as part of the second annual Project Hand-in-Hand concert.

The following students will be among those performing in the TCNJ Choir:

Sergio Hernandez, a resident of West New York

Agnes Kalinowski, a resident of Bayonne

The choirs, led by Dr. John P. Leonard and Dr. Ryan J. Tibbetts, along with 80 high school students from the earthquake disaster-area in Japan and The Friends of Japan Orchestra, comprised of members of New York City Opera Orchestra, will collaborate to perform Guiseppi Verdi’s Requiem on Friday, March 22, 2013 at 8:00pm. The Project Hand-in-Hand performance serves to support Japan’s long-term recovery efforts as well as a means to express gratitude for the support that has been received from around the world. Continue reading Two TCNJ Students from Hudson County to Perform at Lincoln Center →

General

Shop Bayonne! Introducing a Property Tax Reward Program

by Evelyn Bonilla

buez luncheon March 1st 2013
Nick Campanella,  Managing Director   from  Fin Credit Inc. holding the “Shop Bayonne.” card at the recent March 1st, 2013 luncheon to announce the program to Bayonne businesses

 On March 1st the program was introduced to Bayonne business owners and Bayonne residents at a special luncheon hosted by the Bayonne Urban Enterprise Zone and the Bayonne Special Improvement District.   And a special mailing will go out to Bayonne Businesses and Bayonne residents explaining how the program works.

 “Shop Bayonne” is a program initiative that provides a tax credit to residents who make purchases from local businesses in town. Once you enroll in the program, you are assigned a property tax card similar to the reward cards you get in other stores; you’ll use it when you make your purchases with local merchants who are participating in the program. Residents who use their PTC-Property Tax Card will accumulate property tax dollars towards their tax bill.

Continue reading Shop Bayonne! Introducing a Property Tax Reward Program →

Business Views

River View Observer Financial Views-Declining Debt, New Tax Revenues Lead to Moody’s Upgrade of Bayonne’s Bond Rating

 CITY OF BAYONNE SEALMayor Mark A. Smith announced that Moody’s Investors Service has upgraded the City of Bayonne’s bond rating from Baa1 with negative outlook to Baa1 with stable outlook.  Smith said, “This upgrade is very good news.  It shows that Bayonne has made significant financial progress during my Administration.  Moody’s has raised Bayonne’s rating for the first time in more than five years. Our hard work and fiscal discipline are paying off. We have turned a corner and are moving in the right direction.”

            Moody’s cited several factors in its decision to improve Bayonne’s rating: 1) The agency recognized that the Bayonne Municipal Utilities Authority’s (MUA) joint venture with United Water and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) removed $120 million from the local debt burden. The transaction paid off all the MUA’s debt and a portion of the debt of the Bayonne Local Redevelopment Agency. 2) Moody’s noted that the City no longer has any deferred charges.  All charges deferred in the past have been paid off. 3) The City of Bayonne has a declining reliance on tax anticipation notes (TANS) to cover its cashflow needs.  4) Bayonne has a large tax base.  5) Bayonne has declining debt.  6) Bayonne has new revenues from payments in lieu of taxes (PILOTS) coming from newly developed properties. Continue reading River View Observer Financial Views-Declining Debt, New Tax Revenues Lead to Moody’s Upgrade of Bayonne’s Bond Rating →

General, Hudson Then...Again

Hudson Then . . . Again- INFLUENZA

by: Maureen Wlodarczyk

 

1918 Spanish Flu Patients
1918 Spanish Flu Patients

When I was five years old, we moved from Jersey City to Union Beach, a place where my parents could afford to purchase a small ranch house with carport. For many years after, I spent two to three weeks each summer back in Jersey City, visiting my maternal grandparents at their apartment on Rose Avenue in Greenville. I loved staying with them and being the center of my grandmother’s attention. My grandparents never owned a car so my grandmother and I would take the bus to Journal Square to shop or see a movie. One summer I unexpectedly came down sick, very sick. My grandmother tucked me in up to my chin in her own bed and called for the family’s faithful physician, Dr. Front. He was what used to be called a (very) “tall drink of water,” and had to duck his head when coming through the doorways of the apartment. When he appeared at my bedside, I am told that my eyes opened wide like saucers. No doubt. Looking up from my sickbed to take in the whole of him was quite an experience. His diagnosis: the grippe.

Today, the word grippe, coming from a French word meaning “seize suddenly,” has been replaced by the modern term “influenza,” the two words being essentially synonymous. For decades before that summer I took sick in Jersey City, Hudson County residents had been stricken by periodic grippe outbreaks including in 1889 and 1892. The most serious of those was the 1918 “Spanish” influenza pandemic that first broke out in Europe and killed thousands of soldiers on the battlefields of World War I before making its way to the United States.    Continue reading Hudson Then . . . Again- INFLUENZA →

Live On Stage, Music Views

MUSIC -If You Play It, They Will Come – Union City Chamber Players Enchant Local Audiences with Classics

By Sally Deering

 

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAOne of the great things about living in Hudson besides its close proximity to Manhattan is the community of artists who reside here and share their talents. Dancers, actors, singers, musicians, visual artists – you name it! – lots of creative folks who perform professionally call Hudson home and some even find time in their busy schedules to share their talents with local audiences, like the musical artists who call themselves the Union City Chamber Players.

 

Union City Chamber Players (L-to-R) Pianist Marina Korsakova-Kreyn, Violinist Peter Borten and Vocalist Bernadette LaFond

Violinist Peter Borten; mezzo-soprano Bernadette LaFond; and pianist Marina Korsakova-Kreyn are Union City residents and professional musicians who banded together to share their love for classical musical and their talents as classical musicians. At St. John’s Episcopal Church in Union City, recently, the trio presented a classical program, a “Love Concert” that featured Gounod’s “Ave Maria”; Mozart’s violin sonata K.526; French love songs by Faure and Massenet; Strauss’s “Stiller Gang” and Rachmaninoff’s “In the Silence of the Secret Night”. Continue reading MUSIC -If You Play It, They Will Come – Union City Chamber Players Enchant Local Audiences with Classics →

Education

Hudson County Families Invited to Bring the Kids to Hudson County Community College’s Sixth Annual Literacy & Family Day

The FREE March 2 celebration of Dr. Seuss’ birthday is open to the general public and will feature several child-pleasing activities                                  

 

hccc-logo300dpiJERSEY CITY, N.J. / March 1, 2013 — Hudson County Community College (HCCC) invites area families to gather the children together and come to the College for a day of reading and fun. The College will hold its Sixth Annual Literacy & Family Day on Saturday, March 2 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the College’s Culinary Arts Institute/Conference Center, 161 Newkirk Street, just two blocks from the Journal Square PATH Station in Jersey City. There is no charge for admission; all children must be accompanied by an adult.

 HCCC President Dr. Glen Gabert said the event, which is prepared and presented by the College’s Academic Affairs Division and the Culinary Conference Center, is an annual celebration of the birthday of Theodore Seuss Geisel, who is better know to generations of Americans as Dr. Seuss, author of Green Eggs and Ham, The Cat in the Hat and 44 more beloved children’s books. Continue reading Hudson County Families Invited to Bring the Kids to Hudson County Community College’s Sixth Annual Literacy & Family Day →

General

HUDSON COUNTY RESIDENTS: AEREO ANNOUNCES EXPANSION OF CONSUMER ACCESS TO ITS GROUNDBREAKING TECHNOLOGY ACROSS THE NEW YORK CITY GREATER METROPOLITAN AREA INCLUDING HUDSON COUNTY

Aereo’s technology is  now available to more than 19 million people in 29 counties across  the New York City greater metropolitan area, providing consumers increased access  to free-to-air, local broadcast television

 televisonNew York, NY (February 28, 2013) – Aereo, Inc., today  announced that its groundbreaking television technology is now available to the more than 19 million people living in the New York City metropolitan area. The New York City metropolitan region,   commonly referred to as a designated market area (DMA), includes 29 counties across New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania. Previously, Aereo was only available to residents of New York City’s five boroughs. The expansion into the NYC metropolitan area comes less than two months after the company’s announcement in January of its intention to expand to 22 additional markets in 2013.

 Aereo’s innovative remote (cloud-based) antenna/DVR technology makes watching television simple and user friendly.  Using Aereo’s technology, consumers can pause, rewind and fast-forward any program that they are watching live, or save a program for future viewing. Continue reading HUDSON COUNTY RESIDENTS: AEREO ANNOUNCES EXPANSION OF CONSUMER ACCESS TO ITS GROUNDBREAKING TECHNOLOGY ACROSS THE NEW YORK CITY GREATER METROPOLITAN AREA INCLUDING HUDSON COUNTY →