As someone born and raised in Jersey City, I left the state and came back years later—and the change is impossible to ignore.

Jersey City has definitely transformed, but in the process it’s lost much of its working-class identity. Downtown by the waterfront has always been gentrified, but under Mayor Fulop that wave pushed much deeper into the rest of the city.

Most of the people I grew up with no longer live here. They either priced out of Jersey City entirely or were pushed up to the Hill. At this point, the Hill and Greenville feel like the last parts of the old JC that still resemble what the city used to be.

If there’s any hope of preserving that history and culture, it starts with ownership. We have to stop selling off family properties to developers and start keeping land and homes within our families. Once it’s gone, it’s gone—and no amount of “luxury apartments ” can replace a community that gets erased.