For a while, an ice cream truck parked all day on Ninth Street between West Hamilton and Jersey Avenue. Some days there were several. According to the Hamilton Park Neighborhood Association, the trucks brought engine noise and diesel fumes right next to where kids play and people live. The fix came from City Hall. It also put an end date on the park's summer, and that date has already passed.
The city allows one ice cream vendor around the park, on a permit that runs from May 1 to September 30. Since October 1, the curb spaces set aside for that truck have had no permitted vendor. What's left on the fall schedule is almost all organized by the neighborhood: a movie night at the gazebo, an opera performed by zombies, a Wednesday market that runs into the week of Christmas, and a long effort to bring back the fountain that vandals knocked over in 2018.
The curb rules were written for summer
The measure HPNA calls a resolution is actually an ordinance, Ord. 25-058. It creates a seasonal vendor zone, "Zone 3," around Hamilton Park. Each year the city issues one permit, for an ice cream or similar frozen-dessert vendor. Other mobile food vendors are barred from the zone, unless they're part of a farmers market or a similar event. The truck can't settle into one spot. On weekdays it rotates among three designated parking spaces from 3 to 8 p.m. On weekends it uses two bus stops from noon to 8 p.m. It has to alternate locations and can't stay anywhere longer than two hours.
TAPinto Jersey City covered the proposal in May 2025, focusing on the rule that the vendor rotate around the park. The council gave it final passage on June 11, 2025. That farmers market exception is the clause that matters for the fall calendar, because it lets food vendors set up when the neighborhood puts something on.
So the summer arrangement is tightly managed and ends on a set date. The fall arrangement depends on whoever books the park next.
October belongs to three evenings and an afternoon
HPNA's upcoming events list fills the second half of October.
- Friday, October 16: HPNA Movie Night, "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice," at the gazebo. There's no set start time. The film begins once it's dark enough to see the screen, and HPNA asks people to bring their own chairs or mats.
- Sunday, October 18: Artisan Fair, noon to 7 p.m. HPNA lists it as a private event planner's event and doesn't name the planner or the vendors.
- Saturday, October 24: Zombie Opera. It's the largest production of the month and the one with the longest history in the park.
The Zombie Opera is staged by Undead Arts, a Jersey City nonprofit, and BroadwayWorld says this is its seventh annual concert. The announced singers are Melina Jaharis, Heather Bobeck, Molly Dunn, Joshua Viltrakis, Teddy Balfour Austin, Raul Morales Velazco, and Phillip Bullock, with Mae Czuba as emcee and opening act. Catriona Rubenis-Stevens directs. The cast also includes TerpsiKord and the Rising Voices youth chorus. The zombie chorus is made up of North River Sing members, Kean University students, and local residents.
BroadwayWorld's schedule runs longer than the park listing. It says vendors and food and coffee trucks arrive at 4 p.m., the concert runs from 6 to 7:30 p.m., and a DJ-led park party starts at 8. HPNA's event page lists 6:30 to 8 p.m. If you want a good spot on the lawn, plan around the earlier time and confirm with Undead Arts the week of the show.
Wednesday keeps going until December 23
The movie night and the opera are one-off evenings. The farmers market is the event that carries the season. It runs every Wednesday from 4 to 7 p.m. Stony Hill Farms' 2026 schedule puts Hamilton Park's season at May 6 through December 23, on 8th Street between McWilliams Place and West Hamilton. The Jersey City Office of Cultural Affairs calendar only shows weekly dates through December 9, so if you're planning a holiday visit, the farm's schedule is the one to go by. The city's listing also says live entertainment is scheduled for the first and second Wednesdays of each month.
HPNA's regular vendor list mixes produce stands with dinner stalls. On the farm and pantry side there's Stony Hill Farms, Pickles and Olives, Scale Fish, Juicy City, and Sourdough Society. For hot food there's Eno Pizza, Taste of Poland, El Chilango Taqueria, Gringos Arepas, and Empanadas el Oso. Bloom with Sam sells flowers.
Some vendors come on a rotation, so the market changes from week to week:
- Analog Kaffe: first and third Wednesdays
- Orin Essentials: second and fourth Wednesdays
- Mountainville General Store: first Wednesdays
- Hudson Grinding: specific dates, including December 16
Hudson Grinding's December 16 date lands one week before the final market. It's one of the few specific December dates anywhere on the neighborhood calendar.
November moves partly indoors
HPNA's calendar gets thinner after the Zombie Opera, but it doesn't stop. On Sunday, November 8, a Repair Cafe runs from 1 to 4 p.m. in the gym at Church Van Vorst, 39 Erie Street. On Saturday, November 14, the PS #37 Annual Fun Run is listed for Hamilton Park from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., pending a city permit.
After that, HPNA's upcoming list jumps straight to past events. As of now there's no December event and no tree lighting posted. That leaves the Wednesday market as the only regular public event in the park from mid-November until it closes on December 23, unless something is added later.
The fountain is the project with no date
Every event above has a date and a time. The fountain has neither, and HPNA's own summary explains why:
"Plagued by vandalism: intentional and accidental, fallen into disrepair due to funding shortages, the HPNA is spearheading a fountain redesign."
The trouble goes back years. NJ.com reported that the cast-iron fountain near the Eighth Street and Jersey Avenue entrance was knocked over on August 20, 2018, and that city workers then removed it. At the time, the city was deciding whether to repair it or order a new fountainhead. That article also mentions the park's 2010 renovation.
The current effort is being led by neighbors. HPNA says it worked with Aquatic Arts in 2025 on a design meant to hold up better against vandalism and wear. It calls that design one of several possible options and is running a resident survey to find out which one people want. The association favors a complete redesign, which it acknowledges is the most expensive choice. It has applied for a grant to cover the cost and says it will share the result. No outcome had been posted as of this writing, and none of the local outlets we checked has reported a construction schedule.
The fountain shows the limits of the neighborhood's approach. A movie night needs a screen, a permit, and a dark sky. Fixing the centerpiece of a public park needs money that a volunteer association has to go out and request.
Up 8th Street, another park gets its funding by a different route
At Division and 8th streets, the Jersey City Planning Board recently approved an eight-story, 115-unit mixed-use building at 33 Division Street. It will replace two paved lots next to World's Boxing Gym and include a 726-square-foot retail space. According to Jersey Digs, the applicant agreed to pay $35,000 for each additional unit, $1.68 million in total, toward improvements at Enos Jones Park. In exchange, the project received a density bonus for 48 more apartments.
These are two neighborhood parks with two very different ways of paying for upkeep. Enos Jones Park's improvements are being funded through a development agreement. Hamilton Park's fountain depends on a resident survey and a grant application that hasn't been decided.
If you live around Hamilton Park and want to talk about what the next few months could mean for your block or your building, Dwellings with Leda & Co is here to help. Leda has spent years working alongside the neighborhood associations behind calendars like this one, and she's happy to talk it through. Let's Connect.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
