Hello and welcome to the latest Weehawken Gazette.
We’ve got some serious stories, and some feather-light ones. We’ve been going since April 2024, and for the past two years when September rolls around, I tend to hop over 9/11, or mention it very briefly. Maybe you haven’t noticed, but I have.
As we approach the 25th anniversary, I felt it was time to tell more.
I was in downtown Manhattan that day. Afterwards, I performed in benefits for the first responders. I was traumatized by what happened, but it was nothing compared with what so many others experienced and sacrificed. I’m also overwhelmed, still, by all the important stories. How can you just focus on one?
Last week, we told the story of the 9/11 memorial in Jersey City that’s controversial because of neglect. That’s the opposite of a feel-good story.
Luckily there’s a local story I found almost by accident that’s both deep and inspiring, because it’s centered around a group of North Hudson locals who are still remembering, never forgetting, and going the extra mile, all these years later, to help something beautiful grow from the ashes.
I hope you enjoy it, and thanks for reading.
The Four-Block Town Punching Above Its Weight
Hoboken is known as the mile-square city, but Guttenberg is literally the quarter-square-mile town, and if you only count land, they are both even smaller. As of 2020, Guttenberg was the most densely populated city in the US, with Union City, West New York, and Hoboken right behind them. Yes, this was part of a Jeopardy clue in June.
But with a mix of old and new offerings, Guttenberg has been low-key killing it these days.
They have Seifert’s, seen above, the groovy old-school pharmacy with an antique scale that gives you your fortune for a penny (see our recent video here on Instagram and shout out to Yolanda for telling us to go), a new jazz club called Fat Swami’s (which we covered here and then found the jazz club hostess also works at the pharmacy), and of course GP’s, which was our 2025 Weeward Winner for best restaurant. Shoot their Pasta fagioli straight into my veins!
We’ve also been seriously impressed by some of the moves the town has made in planning, beautification, and community events. So we reached out to the mayor, Wayne D. Zitt, to ask some basics, and got the skinny on many new and exciting projects they are spearheading. In short, some basics and juicy stuff we learned:
Mayor Wayne periodically does in-person “community meetings” in all the town’s districts to update residents and take questions. The latest one was on August 18th in district 7, and the mayor gave info and answered questions about a possible new traffic flow to improve pedestrian safety, and many parking questions. One example: now Guttenberg uses an app called Parky, where most towns instead use Park Mobile. The mayor said switching to Parky saves the town roughly $38K a year in fees. The latest community meeting ran nearly an hour, and the mayor answered all questions and concerns from the agenda, and then invited all questions, off-topic encouraged. At the end of the meeting he told people to call. Amazingly, this entire meeting is available to watch on their robust website, which has town news and ordinances clearly laid out. They also have an app.
Guttenberg is considering sending its high schoolers to study in West New York. Not having its own high school, it currently spends millions a year to send local kids to North Bergen High, but is looking into the feasibility of switching.
The town recently added flower baskets to the lampposts, which was funded through its inclusion in a UEZ (Urban Enterprise Zone) which helps NJ sales taxes flow directly back to Guttenberg.
The mayor sometimes bartends at The Office at 68th, “particularly during football season.” We were charmed when he advertised one of these appearances on social media by saying, “Come have a great lunch with a mediocre bartender.”
Hot local goss: The mayor says Guttenberg is looking into getting a proper library, which will be put to a public question. They don’t have one, although they opened a Resource Center in 2018 which serves the town with library borrowing and other services.
Anyway, leaving my chat with Mayor Wayne, I noticed a painting on the wall of his office. I asked about it, and it unlocked a beautiful and personal story…
On September 11, 2001, Christopher Amoroso, 29, was a husband, father, and Port Authority police officer who was one of the first on scene after the first plane flew into the North Tower.
Although he had already sustained an injury to his face, Amoroso refused medical treatment, and went back into the towers multiple times to try and rescue more people. He was last seen entering the North Tower. He died a hero.
Amoroso was captured in an iconic photo by Todd Maisel, where he is seen helping an injured woman. That photo is interpreted in the painting above.
20 years after the photo, the woman he helped was identified, and she was alive and well, and a grandmother who thanked Chris’ widow and said, “…I’m alive because of him.”
Mayor Zitt grew up with Amoroso, and they both graduated from North Bergen High School. He had some words about his friend to share:
“Chris Amoroso grew up across the street from me. He was my pee wee football coach and grew to be a great friend.
Chris wasn’t just a great friend—he was someone whose friendship I will carry with me for the rest of my life. Chris was a tremendous person with a big heart, a loyal friend, and someone you could always count on.
On September 11, 2001, we lost Chris far too soon. But more than 25 years later, the memories of his friendship, his personality, his laughter, and the impact he had on all of us remain as strong as ever.
September 11 will always be a day of tremendous sadness, but when I think of Chris, I also think about how fortunate I was to call him my friend. His life meant something. His friendship meant something. And he will never be forgotten.
I miss you, Chris, and I will always be proud to call you my friend.”
I then spoke with another childhood friend, Gregg Natosi. Gregg is a Marine Corps veteran, long-time supervisor of motor vehicle inspection programs, and president of the Chopper 2002 Association, a group forged after spending time with Chris’ mom and sister after 9/11. They all wanted to do something. What’s interesting is not only that they did something, but that they are STILL doing something. A lot of 9/11 charities no longer exist. Here’s what Gregg told me about their origin story, and what they’ve accomplished since:
“2002 was Chris’ badge number. Chopper was his nickname, and there are two or three different stories about where it came from…
We played football and hockey, stickball… we played football at 7 and 8 years old, on teams via what street you lived on. North Bergen was a tight group.
We started a softball tournament in his honor. We got t-shirts, 11 or 12 shirts from the Strobert foundation, started by the family of a Secaucus kid who died on 9/11 — we only had enough for the team. The next year we got more shirts, we paid our own money because people wanted the shirts. Then we decided to start our own tournament. In 2004 we also had a family fun day, bouncy houses, clowns — the entry fee for the 16 teams went to scholarships. In 2008, we became a 501c3.
To date, we’ve given away approximately $25,000 in scholarships. And 5-10k to other 9/11 charities. It’s a lot of work. At times I’m overwhelmed… but then I think about what Chris did. We will never forget.”
The foundation has also hosted corn hole tournaments and beefsteaks with another foundation honoring Anthony Giordano, another North Bergen native lost too young.
Their annual Italian night dinner for the association happens on September 11th. At the 20th anniversary of 9/11 they had 400 people show up. On this, the 25th year, they hope to have 500 people. It is held at 7 PM at the VFW in Hasbrouck Heights.
25 Port Authority Color Guard pipes and drums will come and play, and they eat and drink free. See the flyer below and even if you can not attend, you can send a donation to the Venmo.
The photographer who captured Chris, Todd Maisel, has a new book out about his 9/11 experiences. I asked him about that day and he offered up this:
“I could never have imagined that I would be rescuing the rescuers. And that is what I found myself doing on 9/11. At the same time, I realized that many of my firefighter and police officer friends that I’d known for years had perished. I questioned myself as to why I am alive and the heroes were gone. It occurred to me that my surviving unscathed twice was no accident and that there was a deeper purpose…I would swear to never forget.”
Learn more about and order Todd’s book here: To Hell and Back: A Photojournalist’s Journey From the 9/11 World Trade Center Attack
The Signs They Are A Changing
In local news, Acme in Edgewater, NJ is out, and zoom in on the van and you’ll see, Shoprite is coming in. Guess Coyote wasn’t buying enough hummus and dynamite?
Acme closed on August 15 and reportedly, no other Acme markets in the area are slated to close, in case you were worried, which we don’t think you were.
In the background, you see the half-finished housing we wrote about in September 2025. See: Dude, Your Condo Is So High. The only update we can find is from February 2026, saying the town refused to dump the lawsuit against the development, and asking on Facebook, people claim it’s still being battled in court.
Unreal Estate: Weehawken Mansion On Zillow Doesn’t Exist
Lately we’ve noticed a lot of local house listings where the offerings are amped up. Maybe you have too. A house with nothing but weeds and concrete goes onto a real estate site showing off bushy pink and purple hydrangeas and high-end outdoor furniture and night lighting… but when you drive by, nope, it’s just weeds and no buttery outdoor spotlights.
We made a choice not to highlight those listings that stretch the truth with AI makeup, but this most recent luxury mansion sent to us by a reader is notable: it’s in Weehawken, can be yours for only $900k, and has 20 eye-catching photos on Zillow: but thing is, it doesn’t exist. It’s Barbie’s AI hallucination dream house.
One clue that this is AI is that the Hudson River keeps moving. Sometimes it has a view of the top Manhattan to the north, and sometimes Manhattan is behind it, to the west. And Manhattan is… just an idea of Manhattan, none of the buildings match reality. And is that a screening room where someone is watching a video of fake Manhattan?
In one photo, the home is surrounded by neighbors, and in another, it’s set back surrounded by lush gardens. In another photo, it seems it’s basically in a forest.
In defense of this listing, the 18th photo has fine print that calls it “a conceptual single-family cliffside estate.”
Reddit went nuts with this on a post in Zillow Gone Wild.
We reached out to an agent to find out exactly where it is and haven’t heard back yet. A “for sale” sign seems to be on the wrong side of the road and further down the road, but maybe that’s another plot for sale too? This is the same road seeing new development we wrote about in May, and the same road that suffered a hurricane-induced mudslide after Hurricane Ida. It’s also the road that had a car crash through a barrier and plunge down from above in 2025. Good news is, although the car burst into flames, and the heat from the power lines melted the road, the victim was moved to safety. See: An Unusual Crash In Weehawken.
The numbering on this road is odd so we can’t be sure 64 is next to 62. But if it was, here’s the site for sale:
The listing does say “Seller will entertain a deal subject to as-of-right approvals” which we think means that the concept house or maybe any building here would need the town’s permission to actually build, so the seller will wait until the buyer gets them. But not sure. Anyway, are you enticed to buy it and start building and filling your Palisade-perched pool? If so, let us know. We’ll bring the s’mores.
Preview: Bu Bu Coffee & Bakery
Soft opening: September 1, 2026 — grand opening TBA “in 2 or 3 weeks.” So like, this is not a review, just a preview.
Where: 2405 Park Ave. Union City
Hours: 6A-6P weekdays, 8A-6P Sat, 8A-4P Sun
Tried: One tuna sandwich with onions. The super seedy, lightly-toasted bread was fab.
Prices: Very reasonable! All sandwiches under $10 and a drip coffee for $2? Nice. And an avocado toast for less than $8? How ya gonna mock someone for that? Answer: You can’t.
Vibe: Cozymaxxing
Fun fact: Owner’s name is Burcu, hence the name. She was lovely.
Verdict: Yay! It’s good. Will go back for sure. Follow Bu Bu Coffee Bakery on Instagram.
In Brief: RIP Stan’s Sport Center & More
🌳 Interesting item about the Skyway Park in Jersey City. Didn’t know it was a thing, and maybe because of pollution in the river it won’t be a thing, but it’s a thing. Read the story here on Neighborhood Character: From Landfill to Park.
⚾ 🥺 Stan’s Sport Center is closing its retail location in Hoboken after 80 years. In a moving post on Instagram they said they would continue to supply to teams but they “held onto our retail storefront for as long as we could.” In the notice they encouraged others “to support the local businesses you love while they are still there. Stop in. Buy something. Recommend them. Choose them when you can. Those decisions matter.” Indeed. Every time you lose a small historic business, your town becomes more vanilla. See: Stan’s Sport Center closing post.
Related story we did: 🍟 Does Hoboken Have A Same-ification Problem?
A Cool Thing
The Weehawken Gazette editor, publisher, founder was chosen to participate in a intensive 3.5 program aimed at helping people in news level-up their product skills. I also received the NJ scholarship that was on offer, funded by the Center for Cooperative Media at Montclair State. It started last week. Really intimidated and thrilled. Sidebar: we wrote about it before, but ICYMI, Montclair State is the new home of NJ PBS.
Truth is, I almost applied last year, but did not, as I got intimidated in the self-pitying “they’ll-never-choose-the-little-ol’-Weehawken-Gazette” kind of way. This year, I drank a glass of me, did the application, the interviews and… it happened. 🥂
Read all about it here: newsproduct.org/blog/meet-the-sixth-cohort-of-the-news-product-management-certification and if you are a journalist at a major pub or tiny indie one, applications for the next cohort begin in October, so get on their list.
You Don’t Have To Go Home But You Can’t Stay Here
OK that’s it! Many thanks to our unpaid copyeditors: Hugo, and the one who wishes to remain anonymous.
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