Hanging by a Thread: Surviving Globalism and Losing Factory Culture in the Embroidery Capital of the World

UNION CITY, New Jersey – Most people who pass through Union City don’t realize it. It is the home of the entrance to the Lincoln Tunnel to Manhattan, the last bit of New Jersey you see before the big city erases your memory of it, if you flew into Newark Airport.

The criss-crossing highway bridges caging Route 495 blind New York tourists to Union City’s true face – the mom-and-pop restaurants with awnings from the 1970s, the endless Hispanic pride parades down Bergenline Avenue, the endless traffic jams caused by Hispanic pride parades down Bergenline Avenue. The only inkling of anything interesting going on is an eccentric old sign on the bridge carrying Kennedy Boulevard across the entrance to the tunnel.