Former Gov. Jim McGreevey, a candidate for Jersey City mayor, is urging the city council to reject the new proposed special improvement district (SID) in Journal Square that would help fund the Centre Pompidou project.
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
“Since February 2024, I have urged Jersey City to reject the proposed Centre Pompidou as an expensive and unnecessary burden on our renters and homeowners,” McGreevey began in a statement.
“Jersey City is a vibrant and iconic city. While the Centre Pompidou may be well-intended, our financial challenges demand that we prioritize urgent needs, including safer streets, better schools, more recreation centers, and stable taxes for renters and homeowners. We simply cannot afford this extravagant expense.”
As he noted, McGreevey’s stance is anything but shocking, celebrating when the New Jersey Economic Development Agency (NJ EDA) pulled their funding and then later suggesting building 1,000 affordable units instead.
This evening, the city council will vote on a Cultural Arts Special Improvement District that would provide about to $1 to $2 million in funding annually to the Pompidou, a concept that drew a lot of questions at Tuesday’s caucus.
“Jersey City should invest in its own cultural initiatives, dance studios, museums, theaters, and artist collectives rather than import a foreign institution. Under the agreement with France’s Centre Pompidou, external considerations rather than local voices would partially influence key decisions,” McGreevey added.
“Other Pompidou satellite locations in Spain and China have struggled with attendance and financial viability. If the Jersey City branch underperforms, it risks becoming a financial drain on taxpayers rather than a cultural asset.”
Mayor Steven Fulop, a Democratic candidate for governor, chided McGreevey’s position in a post on X.
“So silly…. This is one million dollars and won’t make or break the project budget at all. The only reason we put this forward is that these big developers will benefit financially from the CP so why should they not pay more? Some that oppose are trying to give a pass to the big developers is all that is happening here,” he wrote.
Two of McGreevey’s opponents in the non-partisan November 4th election, Council President Joyce Watterman and Ward E Councilman James Solomon, who opposed the 30-year tax break for the Pompidou, will vote on the measure tonight.
The Jersey City Council convenes this evening at City Hall, 280 Grove St., at 6 p.m., with the public session also streaming live on Microsoft Teams.
Editor’s note: This story was updated with a comment from Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop.
Whatever you think of the Pompidou, the real issue is that McGreevey already violated the public trust as governor. He may have turned his life around, but that doesn’t entitle him to another chance at elected office.
The position of Jersey City mayoral candidate Jim McGreevey rejecting this or other proposals to make a Centre Pompidou possible in Jersey City smacks of a lack of respect for our Country’s Oldest Ally. Without French extensive military and economic support, we could not have won our Independence. Washington and Lafayette dined under an apple tree not far from the Apple Tree House, now a Jersey City Museum. On his extensive tour of the United States many years later, the grateful folks at Five Corners presented him a walking stick made from a branch of the historic apple tree. General Anthony Wayne wrote to Pennsylvania Governor Reed in late July, 1780, that the real reason elements of his two brigades attacked a Loyalist blockhouse in what is now known as North Bergen Township, was to divert the British on York Island from attacking the French forces which had recently landed in Rhode Island. While our own President seeks to walk away from helping Ukraine defend itself from the unwarranted Russian Invasion, let us stand with France as they stood with us in our War of Independence. Let us not turn our backs on the country that gave us the Statue of Liberty. Let us find a way. Not just Jersey City, or Hudson County, but New Jersey, as well, to extend our arms across the sea to our Fraternal French Cousins, and help foster and usher in a New Age of Enlightenment, that with the Light of Lady Liberty will always and forever shine the way out of, and away from, the bondage caused by ignorance, malice, and greed, and towards civility and a more perfect Union