If you are not yet subscribed to the Jersey City Times, I encourage you to make the investment. Because, as I detail below, we need the press on a very basic level when it comes to civics.
Action 1: Jersey City Together’s public action at Christ the King R.C. Church in Greenville
On April 27th, 2026, Jersey City Together hosted a public action at Christ the King R.C. Church in Greenville. At that meeting, Jersey City Together secured public commitments from Mayor James Solomon around affordable housing, enforcement of the payroll tax, and the other commitments. The Jersey City Times details the commitments secured
“Solomon committed to using every tool at his administration’s disposal to ensure compliance with a law requiring Jersey City employers to pay a 1% tax on the payroll of nonresident employees to support the public schools. Solomon also said his administration would enforce fines for noncompliant employers and would begin regularly and publicly reporting the amount of payroll tax the city collects and sends to the school district.
And:
Solomon also promised to make Bayfront his “number one development priority” and to provide “a clear timeline for accelerating its progress.” The project being built on remediated industrial land once poisoned by hexavalent chromium is set to include more than 8,000 housing units, 35% of them affordable.
And:
Solomon also committed to asking New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill to waive a $500,000 statewide cap on subsidies for affordable housing units. Cityline Church Bishop Joshua Rodriguez, one of the event’s co-chairs, said each of Bayfront’s affordable units will cost roughly $597,000 to build. He said the state’s subsidy cap “makes projects like Bayfront unworkable at the scale we fought for,” but “one call” to Sherrill could change that.
And:
Solomon also committed Monday night to introducing two policies intended to curb exploitative and illegal landlord practices. The first would ban landlords from raising tenants’ rent while their properties have outstanding housing code violations. The second would require landlords to obtain pre-approval from the Office of Landlord-Tenant Relations for any “vacancy capital improvements” — upgrades made to rent-controlled units between tenancies that allow landlords to raise the units’ rent.
As Gecan points out in Going Public, civic groups organize to grow power. And, an organizing maxim that Jyl and I will share more about as the Going Public Book Club progresses is that there are three stages of growing power (each stage demonstrates more power):
1–Power to Get a Meeting.
2–Power to Secure a Commitment.
3–Power to Keep the Commitment.
One reason a group ‘runs an action’ like the one on April 27th is to secure public commitments. And…once you get those commitments, you have to then ensure you can keep the commitments.
On Saturday, June 27, from 10 am to 12 noon, Jersey City Together is hosting a follow-up action in an effort to keep the commitment. Jersey City Together is meeting to present its progress report on the April 27th commitments from the Solomon administration agenda. The team hosting the agenda – which includes my Going Public Book Club co-host Jyl Josephson – will have a report card and provide updates on the items on affordable housing, enforcement of the payroll tax, and the other commitments made at our April 27 meeting.
If you are curious what this organizing looks like or how you can start to engage the principles in Going Public in real life, consider joining.
New Hope Missionary Baptist Church is located at 472 Bergen Avenue in Jersey City.
