can't say that i do. after newport mall was built things started to go up in that area almost overnight. i'm from the greenville section of jc, though i hung out on first street & grove throughout high school since i had friends living down there.

before the mall was built there were a lot of gangs and drugs downtown; a totally different environment that it is now.

even though i worked at the mall, and have always kind of hated it, it really was the spark that ignited downtown.

most revolve around hanging out at the V.I.P. diner in journal square after midnight, lol.

this is the jersey city i grew up in. things were scary at times but had a good time there during the 70s and 80s.

memories....

i don't know if i ever found it unwelcoming, but it is definitely a product of its time. especially the buildings that were built in the 1920s.

for example, you'll find some floor tiles with swastikas on them, which is not cool today, but before 1930s germany, not so bad.

The Margaret Williams Theatre at New Jersey City University is supposedly haunted. I worked there for several years and can confirm weird things happening. Mostly sounds.

For example, there were many times I would be alone in the office backstage and no one else would be in the theater (we were very strict about having unauthorized people in theater) and I would hear footsteps crossing the stage. (there was an overhead microphone wired into a speaker box in the office so we could hear what was going on onstage and in the house.)

Sometimes we would hear some of the doors rattle. And a few of these doors had no access to the main building. Think loading dock type area with no access to the public. Doors could only be opened from the inside like an emergency exit, so they led from the theater directly outside.