Journal Square's Renaissance Around the PATH Station

Journal Square has always been a working center of Jersey City: a bus and PATH hub, a shopping district and a crossroads for neighborhoods including the Heights, Bergen-Lafayette and the city's west side. In recent years it has also become one of the city's most visible construction zones, with new residential towers rising around the transportation center.

The PATH station and the bus terminal beneath the Journal Square Transportation Center remain the anchor. Thousands of commuters pass through daily on their way to Manhattan, Newark and other points in Hudson County. Around them, Kennedy Boulevard and the streets near the square carry a mix of longtime small businesses, restaurants reflecting the city's many immigrant communities, and newer development.

A symbol of the change is the Loew's Jersey Theatre, the grand 1930 movie palace facing the square. Long the subject of preservation efforts, the theater has been undergoing restoration aimed at returning it to use as a performance venue. Its marquee is a reminder that Journal Square was an entertainment destination long before the current building boom began.

Growth here raises familiar questions. Residents and business owners talk about the need for housing people who already live in the area can afford, for reliable transit service as ridership grows, and for public spaces that serve the whole neighborhood. City planning for the square has tried to balance taller buildings near transit with protections and improvements for surrounding streets.

The best way to take the measure of Journal Square is on foot at rush hour, when the station entrances are busy, buses are loading along Kennedy Boulevard and the restaurants around the square are filling for the evening. It is not a finished story. It is a neighborhood in the middle of change, with its transit roots still clearly visible underneath.