Great Jersey City article in The New York Times yesterday.
As property values soar even in Brooklyn neighborhoods once viewed as on the fringe, New Yorkers are looking across that other river that separates Manhattan from the rest of the world: the Hudson. And some of them are heading to Jersey City, which has a flintier personality than Hoboken, its preppy neighbor to the north. New Jersey’s second-largest city, it now has a branch of the popular Williamsburg arcade-bar Barcade; farm-to-table restaurants; and a new mayor who worked for Goldman Sachs, served in Iraq and rappelled down a skyscraper.
Jersey City has long attracted the Wall Street crowd to its splash of waterfront high-rises that promise cheaper rent and a speedy ride to Manhattan. But for years, the rest of the city was an afterthought with a reputation for high crime, failing schools and a lack of night life. But as the economy and housing market improve, other Jersey City neighborhoods are enjoying newfound attention, with boutique storefronts opening and New Yorkers steadily moving in.