Inside Salumeria Ercolano in September 2025. Photo by Adrienne J. Romero / SOC Images.
As the Jersey City city council prepares to meet tonight at 6 p.m. at downtown’s city hall, the Marion community is keeping their eyes open.
At yesterday’s regular caucus meeting, there was an attempt to bring back an ordinance regarding the Fayette Broadway Redevelopment Plan—the project that the Marion Neighborhood Association (MNA) has been urging councilmembers to vote no on and residents to help spread the word about—but the council has kept it as a “deferred or tabled agenda” item for tonight’s meeting; meaning the ordinance was not brought back tonight and they won’t be voting on it.
But there’s still at least one more opportunity for the Fayette Broadway developer representatives to bring the ordinance back. That would be for the Wednesday, Dec. 10, the last regular council meeting left before the new year and new local administration, which will be determined after the Dec. 2 runoff election.
Natalie Limon, a longtime Marion resident and member of the MNA, said she’s relieved it’s still tabled for tonight, but she and the MNA will be working to ensure that the ordinance remains off the next meeting agenda; and community members can help with that.
“It shows me that the council people are still not comfortable with voting on this ordinance given the community’s fierce resistance to it,” Limon told Slice of Culture.
“… What we [Marion Neighborhood Association] can do and what people can do to help our side be heard is people can send emails [and] people can sign up for public comments at council meetings… [People can] post about the issue helping us to get the word out about it…
“We [will be working on] email templates if people need them or if they need more information to make an informed phone call or write an informed letter or make an informed public comment at one of these upcoming council meetings.”
Limon emphasized it’s important to mobilize now because, ahead of the Dec. 10 meeting, the Fayette Broadway developer representatives get to argue their case, again, earlier at the caucus meeting on Dec. 8. She further added:
“It’s my understanding that if [the Fayette Broadway Redevelopment Plan ordinance] goes to vote at some point, it’ll just go to vote and we will not have a chance to say our last words before they vote and so given that… To help prevent it from being on the agenda on [Dec. 10 or] Jan. 14, when we would not be allowed to speak, and in between council meetings, [people can help] make phone calls write letters and emails.”
The Marion Neighborhood Association does not have any social media presence at this time. If you’d like to get into contact with them, you can email [email protected].
To view tonight’s city council meeting, you can request to join the livestream here. Due to the holiday week, the second to last Jersey City city council meeting of the year has been moved up to today, Nov. 25, at 6 p.m. at City Hall, at 280 Grove Street, city officials confirmed to Slice of Culture.
What Happened?
The Fayette Broadway Redevelopment Plan, listed as 11.11 and numbered as Ord. 25-087, has been tabled since September. The ordinance, which states a proposed amendment by the project’s developers, is something that was not prior discussed and agreed upon with the community, the MNA has argued.
On Sept. 10, Limon, Marion residents and other locals accepted a win when the council unanimously voted 9-0 to table the decision regarding the amendment to the Fayette Broadway Redevelopment Plan, which is part of the overall “West Side Square” project.
At that meeting, speakers vocalized that: developers were not holding up their promises to the community; a traffic study needed to be conducted; and concerns regarding the future of next-door neighborhood deli, Salumeria Ercolano’s. Representation for the developers argued that they offered a lease for Ercolano’s to move into the new development to help preserve their business.
But the attempt to bring back discussions was yesterday, on Tuesday, Nov. 24, when the city held its regular caucus meeting—a smaller, private meeting compared to public council meetings—where towards the end, representation for the developers of the Fayette Broadway project, Eugene Paolino, urged the council to untable Ord. 25-087 and vote yes on it.
Ward F Councilman Frank Gilmore asked Paolino if he had notified the council about his request prior to Tuesday’s meeting, and Paolino said he only emailed a few members—Council President Joyce Watterman was one—but not all. Ward C Richard Boggiano, the councilman of that Marion section, emphasized that the community is “ticked off” and against the project. He suggested the developer host another community meeting to speak with residents, because the previous one held in October did not go well.
“They ruined most of the Journal Square in our area. Now, they’re trying to ruin that area down there [in Marion, West Side] and the people do not want it,” Boggiano said.
You can listen to that portion of the meeting here, starting at 1:28:09 until 1:36:49. The councilmembers did not vote on untabling the ordinance; looking at the Nov. 25 agenda, it is still listed as “deferred or tabled agenda.”
Another note Paolino made at the Nov. 24 caucus meeting was that the owner of Ercolano’s did not sign the developer’s proposed lease. He cited reports that the staple Italian eatery will instead be moving into Miss America Diner, located in the Greenville section of Jersey City, which closed last month.
Once the deli moves, it will leave Ercolano’s large space, at 1072 West Side Avenue, and Puccini’s former restaurant, located at 1064 West Side Avenue, vacant. It’s right next door to the Fayette Broadway project, which will be residential.
“Ercolano’s was in many ways the last remaining Italian restaurant in the area frequented by lifelong Marion residents. Marion was built by the Italian community, and still has active old-timers who attend the church, and enjoyed celebrating life’s occasions at Ercolano’s,” Limon added.
“Many of them don’t drive anymore and don’t leave the neighborhood, but with Ercolano’s, they didn’t have to. They looked forward to celebrating all of life’s occasions there, both happy and sad.
“We are happy the restaurant will thrive somewhere else, but to us it’s still a tremendous loss and there’s really no way that we can be made whole. We were promised this would never happen, but it did.”
The Next Step For Marion
The city council meeting is, and always is, open to the public. You can sign up to speak at the meeting, beforehand, by visiting here and following the instructions.
It is scheduled to start at 6 p.m. at City Hall, located at 280 Grove Street. Once you arrive, you can let the front door know you’re there for the meeting. You can view what’s on the agenda by clicking here. Printed agendas are available at the front of the room where the meeting will be held.
The Marion neighborhood continues to keep an eye out on what’s next.
“We need folks to just stand up and voice their support for our resistance [to] this,” Limon said in a written response.
“… Will they [the councilmembers] stand with David or will they stand with Goliath?”
