Hello, friends!
It’s been a minute, but that’s because there’s a lot of exciting stuff happening behind the scenes and in real life. Read on to learn about some awesone local events, see some hilariously sketchy marketing, and read a profile of a new business that just opened in Jersey City written by one of our freelance writers, who is paid for by the few excellent people who support this newsletter with their pledges.
🪄Attend A Magic Show In Houdini’s Union City Workshop
First off, the Weehawken Gazette and Beni Coffee (which we profiled last year) are hosting a one-night-only magic show on Friday October 30th with a world-renowned magician in Union City. Why? Well Harry Houdini’s 100th deathiversary is coming up, and since Beni Coffee is located in Harry old workshop, we wanted to do something epic to mark the occasion.
It’s for ages 21+ and the magician, David Corsaro, took home a trophy on Penn & Teller: Fool Us — a rare feat, as the show has been on TV for over a decade, and only about 10% of magicians have taken home a F.U. trophy. Thing is? This one night only show is almost full. It’s an intimate venue, and everyone will be up close to the magic. Tickets are here, but act fast because although we only posted it a few days ago, tickets are nearly sold out already. Note: Weehawken Gazette paid subscribers, at any level, had an early heads up when tickets went on sale.
Amazingly, John Cox, an acclaimed author who writes about Houdini, picked up the story of this show, and now every magic fan in America knows about it. Thanks John! See: Attend a magic show in Houdini’s former film lab!
Update: it sold out (!) but we are going to open a few more spots on the Eventbrite, so stay tuned to our social media and the newsletter chat.
This NJ Gold Coast Real Estate Advertising Will Make You Trip Balls
In September 2025, we noticed that two local waterfront buildings were using photos and video of two different women wearing white and drinking coffee in cities thousands of miles away to advertise their buildings, so we made a video showing what they had done called, “Weehawken is not in Canada or Atlanta.”
After our video launched, the posts we referenced were quietly removed. Yay for that. However, we found that some buildings have new delights on their social media to unwrap. First, here’s a post The Estuary shared back in June of this year:
Isn’t it beautiful? Look at the leaves and the stunning view of the Palisades. Thing is: That is no longer the view, and it hasn’t been for years. That view is now blocked by another condo’s parking garage. To prove it, here’s a picture of the Declan’s garage from July 2024:
In short, The Estuary is no longer showing other cities, but they are instead turning back the clock, and showing off a view that no longer exists. Which is a super weird thing to do, unless you’re the Weehawken Historical Commission.
Well they aren’t alone in presenting social media madness. The Declan is gettin’ freaky. Check out this post from last month. Yes, there’s yet another woman seen from the back wearing white, which seems to a luxury rental trope. But see if you can spot what’s wrong with this picture:
You need to enlarge it, but above, AI seems to be in play. How do we know? Well, this is a photo of the Weehawken waterfront, and notice that THE WORLD TRADE CENTER IS WAY NORTH OF WEEHAWKEN. So, yeah, that’s just cray.
Also, the man above is walking his dog with two leashes, and he doesn’t seem to be holding either of them… the leashes sprout from his wrists like Spiderman’s webs. Here’s a closer look:
Also, notice the benches of the Declan’s Weehawken waterfront do not match reality.
Speaking of unreal stuff, just last month we wrote and shared pics of a Weehawken AI mansion on Zillow that doesn’t exist.
And ICYMI, in 2024, we wrote a piece entitled Location, Location, Lo — Wait, Where Are We? In that piece we discovered Hoboken Point, a Weehawken building, sometimes said they were in Hoboken. Two years later they still tout “our modern apartments in Hoboken” on their homepage. And don’t get us started on the Weehawken buildings that are showing off their river views that no longer have river views because new buildings have sprouted in front of them.
So what do you think? Does it matter? Or is reality for old fuddy-duddies?
Anyway, on to more positive developments…
Spotlight On New Heights Pilates In Jersey City
Note from the Gazette! In July, guest contributor Jennifer Doherty wrote our excellent feature on the Oak Deli, which detailed the real-life struggles of a small local business, and their ability to survive and thrive.
Now she’s back, having scoped out New Heights Pilates, which is located on Palisades Ave at the tip-top of Jersey City. New Heights is indeed new, and she found it offers hands-on instruction to help people who are new to “Reformer Pilates” not feel intimidated. Also! New Heights Pilates has a special offer for our readers: mention the Weehawken Gazette when buying a membership or class pack and you can get a free guest pass!
So without further blather, I hand the talking stick to Jennifer...
A Pilates Class That Will Kick Your Keister With Kindness
I am uncoordinated. It took me time to accept this truth; I spent a fair bit of my 20s wobbling through yoga classes and colliding with my neighbors at Zumba. But eventually I found comfort in mat Pilates, a set of exercises that can be done largely on your back, on the floor.
So when the Weehawken Gazette reached out about trying a class at New Heights Pilates, a slick new studio in Jersey City, I was excited, and then nervous. You see, New Heights is a Reformer Pilates studio, which means instead of assuming my tried-and-true dead bug position on the floor, I’d be gliding around on a moving leather bench that looks, to the uninitiated, somewhere between a chaise longue, a torture rack, and a sex swing.
For a klutz like me, it felt like a lot could go wrong. But it was too great an opportunity to turn down. Off I went down Palisades Avenue.
Thirty minutes later, as I lay on my back trying to wrap my toes around the footbar on the surprisingly comfortable Reformer machine for “high heels,” it occurred to me that more fitness studios should paint murals on their ceilings.
I didn’t have long to admire the rendering of Jersey City landmarks by local artist Punk Cat before the studio co-owner, Andrea Deck, came over to help me. With a gentle nudge on my misplaced feet and a quick explanation of the muscles to engage, I suddenly felt both more stable and more certain I’d be sore later.
Once I was no longer endangering my calves, Andrea moved on to help another student while the lead teacher, Heidi, polled the class on whether we wanted to do triceps or glutes next.
Maybe it was the small class size — the studio comfortably fits seven Reformers — or maybe it was the two-teacher approach, which meant I wasn’t holding up the class each time my form needed fixing, but in three decades of intermittently trying to become a fit person, I have never felt so relaxed while working my muscles so hard.
After the class I chatted with my neighbor, Alexandra, 30, a fellow Reformer newbie.
“I’ve tried several fitness classes in this area and this is the first one that’s actually welcoming to real beginners,” she said, adding that after just a handful of classes, she’s already made two friends through New Heights.
Andrea, a Pilates devotee for 22 years, said that this had been exactly her goal in opening a studio. She got into Pilates as a way to reconnect with her body after she was diagnosed with Type I diabetes, and sometimes found herself at studios that cultivated the kind of cliquey, upmarket atmosphere I’d been dreading. She wanted her studio to be more welcoming.
Her goal, she said, was to create an extremely pretty space, “with none of the ego attached to it.”
Andrea and her husband and business partner, David Switzer, pictured, were uniquely prepared to manage the space. Before launching this passion project, the pair dealt in corporate real estate, acquiring vacant storefronts in The Heights and filling them with businesses they felt could serve the surrounding community.
“We a) believe in the area, and b) put our money where our mouth is,” Andrea tells me of their decision to move into one of those storefronts themselves.
It’s hard to believe the airy studio with floor-to-ceiling windows, ambient lights shaped like dinosaur eggs, and bespoke wallpaper in the restroom previously spent 50 years as Moe’s Bait and Tackle, a neighborhood institution stuffed to the gills with fishing gear. Moe’s daughter started looking to sell the shop shortly before Andrea and David landed in the Heights, and the rest is history.
Permitting and renovations took longer than expected, but classes started in August, and the studio had its grand opening on September 12.
Along with The Beginner classes each week, “The Classic” — taught in either English or Spanish – offers a faster-paced workout. Jump board and “Yin” stretching sessions are also available.
I was sore for three days after The Beginner class, but what I never felt at New Heights was the awkward flailing feeling of trying to keep up with a new fitness class. It’s a place to come as you are. Just remember to bring grippy socks for the footbar.
New Heights Pilates is located at 10 South Street, Jersey City, NJ
newheightspilates.com | Instagram here.
Intro offer: 2 classes for $49 | Single class drop-in $42
Drop-off childcare avail at Smart Start Academy $35/ hour
Class packs, memberships, and private training available. Mention “Weehawken Gazette” for a free guest pass with class pack or membership.
Saturday 10/24/26 Halloween Party With Karaoke At Weehawken Elks
Really we can’t beat what’s on this ad by Chris Tsakis so we won’t try. Unlike most karaoke nights at the Weehawken Elks downstairs pub, it’s not free, but also, there’s gonna be decorations and good food here with the cost of admission. Plus the drinks are highly accessible (they don’t like to say they’re cheap), but just remember to bring cash as they don’t take any new fangled plastic or Venmo/PayPal.
Grammy-Nominated Harpist To Play Gala Fundraiser In Weehawken
“A Night on the Hudson” benefits the United Children’s Music Project (UCMP), and it’s a lot of fun. I know because I attended last year’s event at Chart House. This year, Chart House is gone, and it will be held a hop and a skip away at The Envue.
This year will feature performances by internationally-acclaimed Colombian harpist Edmar Castañeda, pictured, a 2026 Latin Grammy nominee and UCMP’s youth orchestras and ensembles.
Guests will enjoy live music, cocktails, and hors d’oeuvres while enjoying the good vibes of knowing they are helping make high-quality after-school music education accessible to Hudson County children and teens. See below for details.
Event: “A Night on the Hudson”
Date: Friday November 13, 2026
Time: 7:00-10:00PM
Location: The Envue Hotel, 550 Avenue at Port Imperial, Weehawken, NJ
To buy tickets or program ads or to become an event sponsor, visit www.ucmusicproject.org.
The Hoboken Chicken Emergency
Did you know this was a thing? Was new to me. The adorable kid, who starred in A Christmas Story, Peter Billingsley, a.k.a. Ralphie, starred in the TV movie adaptation of a kids book called The Hoboken Chicken Emergency. 70’s icons Dick Van Patten (Eight Is Enough) and Gabe Kaplan (Welcome Back, Kotter) are in it too. The plot involves the wacky adventures of a guy in a cheap chicken suit “266 pound chicken who turns the town of Hoboken upside down.”
Best we can tell none of it was filmed in Hudson County. AI said it was, and shows references… but when I dug into the references it cited, I found no truth to that.
Seems it was probably shot in LA, but if anyone knows for sure, be in touch. The entire movie is available in terrible quality here on YouTube.
Anyway we found this by accident after going down the rabbit hole on Billingsley, who is coming to Bergen PAC in Englewood on November 14th for a screening of A Christmas Story and Q&A.
In my opinion this is one of the best holiday movies of all time. People clearly agree, as this event that has tickets ranging from $49-$95, seems to be selling well. Tickets are here: An Evening With Peter Billingsley and Screening of A Christmas Story.
Stick A Fork In This Issue, It’s Done
Hugo is on unpaid editor sabbatical (he’s in college doing more fun and important stuff), but we had help from a crazy dude who just rode 45-miles around Manhattan on Sunday.
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Susie
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