Hoboken, a great little city

I was in Hoboken, NJ, yesterday. Whenever I come up north, I make it a point to visit. It's just one train ride away from New York City, right under the Hudson River on the PATH train, one stop from Greenwich Village. While it's part of New York City, it's a whole world away. Even the trains are spotless and so are the stations, look at that floor. People saunter off the train at the stop, they don't rush to be the first one off like on the New York subways. I like to compare these little towns I come across, to Coconut Grove. It's interesting how they are similar but many times quite different.

And every street has a beautiful view. It's right on the water's edge, and unlike here in Miami and Coconut Grove, the water is unblocked, that's a great thing about New York and New Jersey, the water views are available for everyone.

I spoke about Riverhead, Long Island, recently and Hoboken is similar. Both towns remind me so much of Coconut Grove. Hoboken is very small, it's only one square mile, but it is it's own city with it's own mayor, city council, etc. It's right next to Jersey City and in the last 10 years or so, that whole section of Jersey across from lower Manhattan has been built up. Where it was sort of a gap tooth skyline, now it is one big swath from Jersey City up to Hoboken. But I do like that they kept a lot of the history. New Jersey as a state has more saved history than many places. That is downtown Manhattan from the Hoboken side of the Hudson River.

Manhattan is so close, you can almost reach out and touch it. But in Hoboken, it is quiet and less hectic. It's not hectic at all, in fact.

There are large parks on the water that face Manhattan.

You can get three daily New Jersey newspapers in Hoboken with dozens of comic strips in each one (New York has many local newspapers, too).

The streets are clean and quaint. They have everything we have but just more preserved history. There are local restaurants but there is a Jimmy John's sub shop, just like us. There's CVS, Walgreens and even a Spirit Costume shop on the main street.

The police station reminds me of Mayberry for some reason.

At left is City Hall; at right is Starbucks in this cool building.

 The Lakawanna Ferry building greets you as you arrive in Hoboken. For years I would see this structure from the piers in Greenwich Village wondering what it was all about.

For such a small city, it's quite a transportation hub, the ferry building houses not only the ferry, but the subway to and from Manhattan and trains that go out into New Jersey land.

If it wasn't for the cold winters, I would love to live here. Hoboken Grapevine, or Hoboken Herald, how does that sound?