Jersey City council caucus previews Wednesday agenda with bike-share expansion, HUD grants and road project

At a Jan. 13 caucus meeting, the Jersey City Municipal Council heard briefings on several items headed to a formal vote at the regular council meeting on Wednesday, including a proposed Citi Bike expansion funded with a state ferry grant, the Community College/Communipaw Avenue intersection construction project, and the city’s program-year 2024 HUD entitlement allocations.

The council’s most detailed transportation briefing came from Mike Mandela, director of the Division of Transportation Planning in the Department of Infrastructure, who described a plan to use State of New Jersey grant money tied to Port Liberte ferry-service restart efforts to extend the Citi Bike system into the southern part of the city and add roughly 21 new stations. Mandela said the grant is limited to transportation services near the ferry terminal and that “this is the first step in the expansion process,” noting long lead times for equipment and a likely earliest installation timeline toward the end of summer. He also emphasized outreach to promote Citi Bike’s reduced-fare program for Jersey City Housing Authority residents and SNAP beneficiaries.

Mandela told council that the city’s contract with Lyft/Citi Bike requires the municipality to identify funding for expansion and that the city has subsidized the system in past years. He said the city…