Jersey City’s Mayor Fulop Announces Plan for Newark Avenue Pedestrian Plaza

Plaza to Enhance Vibrant Downtown Commercial and Cultural enter with Expanded Outdoor Dining & Entertainment 

 JERSEY CITY – Mayor Steven M. Fulop announced today a plan to convert a portion of Newark Avenue into a pedestrian plaza to enhance the City’s vibrant downtown commercial and cultural district and support the City’s growing ‘Restaurant Row.’ 

With tens of thousands of people passing through the adjacent Grove Street PATH plaza daily, dozens of restaurants and shops in the downtown Newark Avenue area and a thriving arts and cultural scene, Mayor Fulop wanted to expand the district’s useable area by closing the roadways to vehicular traffic and designing a pedestrian plaza. Specifically, Newark Avenue between Grove Street and Barrow Street and Erie Street from Newark Avenue to Bay Street would be

closed to vehicular traffic allowing restaurants to set up outdoor dining and create additional performance spaces.
The area hosts more than a dozen outdoor concerts and performances annually through the Historic Downtown Special Improvement District’s ‘Groove on Grove’ concert series, JC Fridays and the Creative Grove Arts Market. These are all expected to grow with the creation of the new pedestrian plaza on Newark Avenue.
“Jersey City is a dynamic urban area and a true pedestrian city where residents want to be able to move freely between our shops and restaurants and take in the culture of our city,” said Mayor Fulop. “As we work to develop Jersey City into the best mid-size city in America, we want to capitalize on all of our assets. We have an amazing plaza at Grove PATH and by extending the successful promenade further into Newark Avenue we are able to grow our commercial and
cultural community.”
 The administration will present the measure to the City Council at their meeting next week.
The ordinance, which will go into effect for the summer months and serve as a trial run for up to one year, would also create more foot traffic in the down area thereby stimulating the local economy. The measure has gained the support of the Historic Downtown Special Improvement District, who is partnering on the creation and on-going maintenance of the new promenade.
“The Historic Downtown Special Improvement District (HDSID) applauds Mayor Fulop and the City Council for making this innovative project a reality,” said HDSID Board President John
Reichart. “We are excited to partner with the city in furthering the revitalization of the district by building a safe, multi-functional pedestrian promenade where the public can gather, socialize
and take advantage of our tremendous and ever-growing variety of eateries, shops, and markets.
The weekly community events sponsored by the HDSID, along with the ongoing residential development in the neighborhood has created a dynamic urban environment.”