Jersey City Condo's
Jersey City, the state's second most populous city, has been the state's first in other ways: the site of the state's first permanent settlement (1660), the first place to be occupied by the enemy in the Revolution (1776) and the first to declare itself a nuclear free zone.
Although they were sporadic settlements in the early years of the 17th century, disputes with the local Native Americans caused the early residents to leave, and it was not until 1660 that a permanent settlement, known as Bergen, was formed. You can still trace the outline of the original town square. Alexander Hamilton saw the potential for developing Jersey City as a transportation center and formed an association similar to the one he had established for Paterson. His plans never materialized: he was killed in 1804; until 1834, New York asserted its right to control the Hudson to the low-water mark on the west bank, thus preventing Jersey City from developing its own waterfront; and the railroads came to own the association's waterfront land.
The city nevertheless developed as a transportation and manufacturing center, and some sense of its former prosperity can be seen in the abundance of extravagant architecture: there are any number of architecturally exuberant churches and public buildings to be seen in Jersey City. Like many of the state's other cities, Jersey city suffered an economic decline, but in the 1970s New Yorkers and others rediscovered it as a desirable place to live; many of the city's brownstones and row houses have been rehabilitated and many of the commercial buildings converted into condominiums; the process continues today. At the same time, developers have been working on ambitious plans for the waterfront. Although not all the grand schemes of the 1980s have come to pass, the waterfront has totally changed. Like other rediscovered cities, Jersey City has become involved in the "cargo versus quiche" controversy, the commercial equivalent to the displacement of long-time residents in the gentrification of a neighborhood: many of the few shipping-related business that have managed to survive along the waterfront are being forced to relocate by the more glamorous developments.
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