A deal worked out by the Healy Administration and billionaire owner Lloyd Goldman contained the following: the creation of a special "residential zone" within the so-called Powerhouse Arts District, using spot zoning (a type of zoning that Mr. Goldman lamented in one of his lawsuits against the City). It will now entitle him to build whatever he wants on the 110 and 111 sites. The Healy administration rescinded (or gave up on trying to enforce) the 78 million dollars in fines that had accumulated on the 111 property presumably in exchange for Mr. Goldman dropping his 100 million dollar paper lawsuit. Mr. Goldman also paid the City the sum of 1.2 million dollars as a sop earmarked for the Jersey City Museum and the Loew's Theater. World-renowned Dutch architect Rem Koolhaus recently made public his design for the 111 site. My initial reaction was that it's a welcome change from the uninspired corporate detritus now littering the downtown landscape. However, upon reflection it's 2nd rate Koolhaus. The design does not live up to the inspired architecture Mr. Koolhaus is noted for - especially his design for the Seattle Library, a masterpiece of contemporary architecture. I urge Mr. Koolhaus to go back to the drawing board and give it another go.

Recently, Mayor Healy presented a check for $330,000 in settlement money to the Jersey City Museum. While both the Museum and the Loew's Theater are worthy entities deserving of funding, accepting money from a source that evicted and brutalized the artist's community at 111 is tantamount to accepting Blood Money. It reminds me of an incident in the aftermath of 9/11 when an arab prince gave Mayor Giuliani a check for 10 million dollars. A deluge of criticism erupted for accepting this kind of money from that kind of source. Mayor Giuliani returned the check. Memo to the Museum and the Loew’s: what are you waiting for?

Mindful of "sour grapes", I can’t help but think of what could have been. The 111 Artists Community had plans for the building that would have preserved it as affordable live/work studios with community outreach programs like guest artists-in-residence and art classes for local children and adults. We and our professional advisers were fully aware of the monetary and human costs involved in such a huge undertaking. We worked furiously to try to make it happen while fighting eviction daily, but were undermined when the Healy Administration turned its back on us. Doomed, we were eventually evicted, our hopes and plans demolished.

The City, and especially this administration, needs to ask itself if development promulgated in such a manner is truly healthy, with its primary goal of enriching the few. Untrammeled development driven by “Narcissistic Capitalism” will ultimately erode a city rather than enrich it. Development is "food" and should nurture accordingly. You are what you build.

William Rodwell Former artist-in-residence 111 First Street Jersey City, NJ


Welcome to the home page of the 111 First Street Arts Center and the community of artists, craftspeople, musicians, performers, and art-related small businesses that had for the last 15 years made it their home.

Ironically, perhaps inevitably, one of the saddest casualties in the struggle to redevelop Jersey City's old warehouse district as the Powerhouse Arts District was the loss of the Arts Center and the eviction of the community it once housed --the very artists whose efforts brought the district back from blight and crime and who led the struggle to establish the P.A.D. If you're unfamiliar with the byzantine machinations of our local politicos you can read more about the story below.

This is a time of transformation for the arts community in Jersey City. As the struggle for the P.A.D. and the Arts Center heated up we all learned a lot the hard way. Neighborhood associations, church groups, small businesses, clubs, and other organizations reached out to one another and to the arts community. Networks and coalitions were formed. The ArtsFirst Foundation ( a not for profit 501c3 ) was born. Even as demoltion crews whacked away at 111 First Street like it was a pinata the arts community in Jersey City was laying the foundation of something new and very interesting. Please watch this site for news and commentary. There is much more to come...

The Arts Center at 111 First Street, after 15 years as the heart of Jersey City's arts community, is empty, quiet. The art, the music, the bustle, hustle and muscle, the good vibes, the funk, the crankiness, craziness, the sublime and the ridiculous and of course the artists--every single one of them --have been driven out of the what the city is pleased to call its Powerhouse Arts District.