Twelve towns, one county, and I walk most of them every week. Tap a town — or a section of Jersey City — and I'll show you the day the way I actually live it: coffee, the walk to the train, the laundry that picks up, dinner, the park on Saturday. Then tell me which parts are yours.
Each one is its own neighborhood, not a town on a list. Tap a name or tap it on the map.
Live now Downtown · Hamilton Park · Van Vorst Brownstones on tree-lined blocks, Grove Street PATH ten minutes from almost any door, and more coffee shops than one person can keep up with. This is where I live, so this day is the most personal one on the site. Live now Paulus Hook · Exchange Place · Newport The waterfront: glass towers on the Hudson, Exchange Place one PATH stop from World Trade Center, and the ferry for the days you'd rather see the skyline than a tunnel. Newport adds the mall, the marina and the green. Quieter at street level than people expect. Live now The Heights Up on the Palisade it's a different Jersey City: two-family houses with porches, Central Avenue's bakeries, Riverview-Fisk Park with the whole Manhattan skyline for free, and the 9th Street elevator that drops you into Hoboken in two minutes. Where my clients get the most house for the money this close to the city. Live now Journal Square The PATH hub and the new towers rising around it, India Square on Newark Avenue, the restored Loew's on the square, and Lincoln Park's lawns and lake. Thirteen minutes to the World Trade Center. A few Bergen-Lafayette places appear in this walk because that is genuinely where the day goes. Live now Hoboken One square mile and all of it walkable: Washington Street, the waterfront from Pier A up to Maxwell Place, Church Square Park full of strollers by nine. Hoboken Terminal gives you PATH, NJ Transit and the ferry from one building. My office is on Harrison Street, so this is the town I'm in every working day. Live now Bergen-Lafayette The neighborhood between Downtown and Liberty State Park: Berry Lane Park, the cafés and bars on Communipaw Avenue, and brownstone blocks still priced below the ones a mile north. Live now West Side West Side Avenue from Communipaw down to Lincoln Park and the Hackensack: a real main street of Vietnamese, Haitian, Cuban and Italian kitchens, the county's biggest park, and a light-rail stop. Live now Greenville The south of Jersey City, from Bayview Avenue to the Bayonne line: houses with driveways, three light-rail stops, and the biggest price gap from Downtown of any neighborhood on the same rail line.Every town in the county has its day now, built from the places locals rate highest and walked by me. Something I missed? Tell me and I will add it.
Live now Bayonne A peninsula city with its own light-rail stops, a long waterfront walkway, and more single-family houses than anywhere else this close to the harbor. The Bayonne Bridge and the cruise port are the landmarks; the value is on the side streets. Live now Union City One of the densest cities in the country and the heart of Cuban and Latin Hudson County. Bergenline Avenue is a mile of bakeries, restaurants and everything else you need on foot, and buses to Port Authority run all day from almost every corner. Live now West New York Boulevard East looks straight across at Midtown, Bergenline Avenue does the shopping, and the waterfront at Port Imperial has the ferry and the light rail. Pre-war walk-ups sit a few blocks from new waterfront towers, so there is a price point for almost everyone. Live now Weehawken Small, hilly and all about the view: the overlook on Boulevard East is where I take clients who need convincing. Lincoln Harbor ferry to Midtown, the Lincoln Tunnel for drivers, and a real small-town feel ten minutes from Times Square. Live now North Bergen Braddock Park's lake and ball fields at the top of the hill, Tonnelle Avenue for the big errands, and a mix of two-families and mid-rise condos that stays more affordable than the waterfront towns. Buses to the city are frequent; the light rail runs along the river side. Live now Guttenberg Four blocks wide and one of the most densely populated places in the country, sitting on the cliff above the river with Boulevard East on one side and the Galaxy towers on the other. Small town, big views, easy bus to Midtown. Live now Secaucus The suburb inside Hudson County: single-family streets, Laurel Hill Park on the Hackensack River, Mill Creek Marsh for a walk, and Secaucus Junction with trains in every direction. Where clients go when they want a driveway without leaving the county. Live now Kearny A working town on the Passaic with a Scottish and Portuguese heritage you can still taste on Kearny Avenue, Riverbank Park along the water, and new life at Kearny Point. Detached houses with yards at a price that is hard to find east of the Turnpike. Live now Harrison The Harrison PATH station and Red Bull Arena turned old industrial land into a new neighborhood of rentals and condos along the Passaic. Direct PATH to World Trade Center, and the old town's two-families a few blocks west. Live now East Newark The smallest municipality in the county, a handful of quiet blocks on the Passaic between Harrison and Kearny. Tight-knit, unhurried, and a short walk to the Harrison PATH.Not a sponsored list. These are the coffee shops, restaurants, barbers and shops I use myself — the ones I send new clients to on their first weekend in the neighborhood.
Some entries below are still placeholders while this list gets filled in. Every real entry is listed as a personal recommendation only, with no business relationship and no compensation involved. Ratings aren't shown here — tap Directions for the current Google listing.
Before you go
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Next neighborhood day, you'll hear about it first. Now, back to the walk.