JERSEY CITY – People joke about dead bodies stashed away in New Jersey dumps and for years, acres of industrial land off Route 1&9 probably was what they had in mind. To complete the Jersey stereotype, this old dump actually caught fire in the 1970’s and burned for years.

Even after the fire was put out and thousands of barrels of buried industrial waste removed, the place was still a junkyard.

So, it truly was a big deal today when Mayor Steven Fulop hosted a news conference to highlight plans to turn the old PJP landfill into a 12-acre Skyway Park. In case you haven’t guessed, the iconic Pulaski
Skyway is nearby and very visible.

The park’s signature creation will be a grove of trees commemorating city residents who have died from COVID-19. That number is 503 today.

Fulop said most, if not all, of these victims were unable to receive an appropriate funeral.

The mayor speculated that the park will become “a special passive place.” Plans also include pedestrian bridges and a connection to a Hackensack River walkway, which is envisioned to run from Secaucus
south to Bayonne.

The city is investing $10 million in the project and if things go well, the ribbon cutting will be a year from now.

To longtime Jersey City and Hudson County residents, the past is as stirring as the future.

It was mentioned that the land has experienced the power and the downside of industry. How true.

Industrial activity dating back to the beginning of the last century helped form northern New Jersey’s major cities, providing jobs for many families – long-time residents, newly-arrived European immigrants
and blacks migrating from the south.

But the “downside” in simple terms were the chemicals and other waste dumped in rivers and buried in the ground.

The PJP landfill was ultimately deemed a federal Superfund site and cleaned up. But it will take state Green Acres money and the city’s investment to create the park.

A number of speakers waxed poetic about what they hope to see in 12 months – the memorial grove of trees, open land and an authentic Jersey vista. Few would quibble with the latter point.

Stand in what soon will be the park and you see not only the hulking skyway, but a railroad bridge, highways and planes landing at Newark Liberty Airport.

Bill Sheehan, who runs the Hackensack Riverkeeper, a local environmental group, searched the sunny sky looking for eagles; he said they have a nest  in nearby Kearny. But alas, there were no
eagles today.

They must be waiting for the ribbon cutting.