View: Paterson Plank Road Was No Super Bowl Boulevard

Photo: Eileen Hillock

NJ was very excited to have the Super Bowl in our own backyard. Yes, it should have been billed as a NJ Super Bowl because that’s where it was, but we live in the shadow of the greatest city on earth, and everyone around here takes advantage of that, so as a Northern New Jerseyan it didn’t bother me that we shared the title with New York.

Many of the towns around here had SuperBowl festivities, some on their own and others as an official event. Towns such as Ridgewood. Westwood, Secaucus and others had events, as did the Mahwah Chamber of Commerce. Liberty State Park in Jersey City was host to the official Super Bowl Kickoff Spectacular with fireworks and a concert with The Goo Goo Dolls, Daughtry and The Fray. I had heard on the news that hundreds were there but a friend who braved the elements told me more like two hundred if that many. It was just too darn cold, even though it was free. It is after all, winter in Jersey. Jersey City also had a Pre-Super Bowl Fashion Week.

No one really thought that the small business owner in NJ would benefit monetarily, and I don’t think they did. At the Super Bowl party I was at, there were two Bergen County people – the county the stadium is located in - that had signed up to be volunteers in NJ. They got really cool yellow jackets for volunteering and and were stationed at hotels within a mile of the stadium. (Kinda reminded me of an episode of The Middle when the mom volunteered at her local Super Bowl and got port-o-john duty). One of the volunteers at the party, Kathy Lang, said how she was all prepared and excited about giving people advice on where to eat. She said “I lived in that town where the hotel was, so I knew exactly what restaurants I would tell them to go to.”.Then she said, “But no one asked, I only got a few questions, and they were all about how to get to the stadium.”. Another volunteer there concurred, “All the questions were about getting to the Rutherford train station and taxis.” Overall they did say that the system and the timing of the trains left much to be desired.

Police Commissioner Bratton on the Blvd

The Bright Ligts of Super Bowl Boulevard

All NYC photos by Eilleen Hillock

Over in New York, Super Bowl Boulevard was bustling. The excitement was in the air there. I was there a few days earlier and it was pretty crowded even though it was pretty cold. It was not as crowded as it sometimes is during the holidays, even the taxi drivers said it really wasn’t that much of a change, especially the week before, with the exception of the Friday before showing some change. I did hear the toboggan ride was sold out at certain times.

I used to work at that stadium when it was Giants Stadium. The Cosmos played there back then. We’ve come a long way since then with our big, shiny new stadium. Not to mention the big orange and blue monstrosity across the road (wonder if anyone noticed that?). We had fun but aside from some Jersey Pride did we reap any profits from this game?