Hey! My name is Kayla Baquiran (she/her). I am a sophomore at Haverford College and a potential Economics/Cities double major. Outside of school, I take ballet and contemporary dance classes and do watercolor paintings and mixed media collages. I am the treasurer for Shift Dance Company, so if you are interested in auditioning or just taking some classes with us, feel free to message me (shameless plug haha). Fun fact: I have a pet parrot!
I am from Jersey City! Because Jersey City is part of the New York metropolitan area, I hardly ever find myself truly bored. Whenever I want to go out, I often just spend time in the downtown area. But if I can’t find something in Jersey City to do, I turn to NYC. For me and many others, life in Jersey City is so intertwined with NYC that it is almost impossible to describe the former without the latter. Besides the fluidity of my social life between the two cities, another reason why I feel this way is because I went to school in Manhattan and my mother works for the NYC Department of Education. Many other Jersey City residents commute to do their schooling/work in NYC.
(You get a pretty nice view of the Statue of Liberty from Jersey City)
The gentrification that has made Jersey City’s downtown as lively as it is, has also pushed lower-income families out of the downtown area and in some cases, out of Jersey City entirely. Because luxury apartment development is so concentrated in the downtown area, Jersey City has become divided by race and class.