Jersey City Council hears fiery public comment on Canal Crossing PILOTs and Glenwood buy

JERSEY CITY — Public comment ran hot at Wednesday’s Municipal Council meeting as speakers squared off over two of the night’s biggest development fights: a pair of 30-year PILOT deals for the Canal Crossing project on Garfield Avenue, and a stalled plan to use CDBG money to buy 128 Glenwood Ave. for a pocket park and community garden.

The council ultimately approved the Canal Crossing tax exemptions 7–0 with two abstentions (Ward F Councilman Frank “Educational” Gilmore and Council President Denis Ridley). Hours later it tabled 9–0 the Glenwood acquisition ordinance and withdrew 8–1 the related CDBG resolution (Ward B Councilman Joel Brooks casting the lone no). Hudson TV isolated four of the sharpest podium moments from the official livestream.

Full meeting video:Jersey City Municipal Council — Sept. 23, 2026 (YouTube ID Ga5KJVohCWo).

Canal Crossing: Balcer calls PILOTs “evil”

On second reading, the council took up Ordinances 26-045 and 26-046 — long-term tax exemptions / financial agreements with Garfield Phase 1A and 1B Urban Renewal entities for the Canal Crossing redevelopment near the Garfield Avenue light-rail stop. Phase 1 is pitched as about 508 rental homes, including 102 affordable units, plus commercial space and a new park, financed with 30-year payments in lieu of taxes.

Resident Yvonne Balcer opposed the abatements in public comment, arguing PILOTs shift costs onto homeowners and quoting published figures about forgone conventional tax revenue. She did not mince words:

“It’s evil, absolutely evil… you’re stealing people’s homes with a pen.”

Clip: Balcer, Canal Crossing (against) — YouTube start=3744 / end=3772 (about 1:02:24–1:02:52).

Alston: equity and “reparations” for the South Side

Moments later, Bruce Alston of Hudson County Chronicles urged the opposite outcome. He framed Canal Crossing as overdue investment for a neighborhood that waited decades after industrial decline and cleanup fights, invoking the South Side and a 1977 benchmark:

Projects that “bring equity,” he said, and that also bring “reparations” back to the South Side community — citing the last project of this scale on the south side in 1977 and the Salem Lafayette buildings.

Clip: Alston, Canal Crossing (for) — YouTube start=4080 / end=4139 (about 1:08:00–1:08:59).

Union trades, Fair Share Housing Center, HCIA leadership, and multiple residents also spoke for the project. Council debate largely tracked that support: members said the vacant, formerly contaminated site would not be rebuilt without a PILOT and highlighted affordable units, union labor, and school share of PILOT revenue. Gilmore and Ridley said they backed the concept but abstained over disclosed campaign-donation concerns tied to the developer’s orbit; both ordinances still passed 7–0 with those two abstentions.

Glenwood: Conner calls the buy a “developer giveaway”

Much later in the marathon session, the council turned to measures to acquire 128 Glenwood Ave. for a pocket park / community garden using Community Development Block Grant funds — a lot once tied to Saint Peter’s, later sold to a private owner, and long used informally as garden space by neighbors.

Eric Allen Conner, co-founder of Better Blocks NJ, argued the city was on the wrong side of housing supply and price. He said the private owner was ready to build apartments and that the city proposal would pay far more than the earlier sale price not to build:

The city, he said, is proposing to pay that private developer “over $1.2 million” not to build housing — which, “to me, sounds like a developer giveaway.”

Clip: Conner, Glenwood — YouTube start=13647 / end=13720 (about 3:47:27–3:48:40).

Garden and McGinley Square advocates pressed the opposite case: scarce West Side green space, incoming housing on Glenwood, and a shovel-ready CDBG use under federal timeliness pressure. The owner’s attorney also urged approval.

Startz: “giant middle finger” and a mayor “rolling” the council

Stephanie Startz, who runs the Prevailing Sentiment Instagram account critical of Mayor James Solomon’s administration, hit the politics harder than the horticulture. She cast the purchase as a handout that also skips taxing the rich, then aimed at the council–mayor dynamic:

A “developer handout,” a “giant middle finger” from the mayor to the council, and a warning that “he’s rolled you before, he’s rolling you tonight, and he’s gonna roll you in the future.”

Clip: Startz, Glenwood — YouTube start=16064 / end=16130 (about 4:27:44–4:28:50).

Council members then spent an extended stretch pressing Business Administrator Ruby Choi and the administration for CDBG eligibility lists, HUD extension answers, scoring timelines, and purchase-price justification. Ward E Councilwoman Eleana Little and others said Monday caucus answers had been incomplete; several members said they would not vote yes that night. The acquisition ordinance was tabled unanimously (9–0). The council then withdrew the CDBG funding resolution 8–1, with Brooks voting no.

What passed — and what did not

• Canal Crossing PILOTs (Ords. 26-045 / 26-046): Adopted 7–0, Gilmore and Ridley abstaining — ~508 homes / 102 affordable, 30-year financial agreements on Garfield Avenue Phase 1A/1B.
• 128 Glenwood Ave. park/garden: Ordinance tabled 9–0; related CDBG resolution withdrawn 8–1 (Brooks no). No acquisition vote that night.

Wednesday’s hearing showed how the same room can treat tax tools and federal grant buys as either neighborhood repair or giveaway — depending on who holds the microphone. The four clips above are the sharpest versions of that argument from the official Sept. 23 stream.

Sources: Jersey City Municipal Council meeting video, Sept. 23, 2026 (YouTube Ga5KJVohCWo); meeting agenda / Ords. 26-045 & 26-046 (Garfield Phase 1A/1B financial agreements); Hudson County View — Canal Crossing PILOTs; Hudson County View — 128 Glenwood Ave.; City of Jersey City “Building for Working Families” Canal Crossing summary.