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This neighborhood was previously called "WALDO", an acronym for Work And Live District Overlay, but has since been renamed though is still occasionally used on maps and in local parlance. Part of what was once called the Horseshoe Section, the neighborhood's informal borders are Newport to the north, Exchange Place to the east, Paulus Hook to the south and Harsimus Cove to the west.[citation needed]
WALDO (for "Work and Live District Overlay) was the name of a planning strategy adopted into Jersey City zoning in 2002 per a proposal written by the Urban Land Institute, and was deleted from the zoning on January 24, 2007. As the name implies, the purpose was to most effectively re-use an eight block area of industrial buildings, and transition them to include more residences, without zoning them a purely residential use. Currently, most zoning codes do not allow industrial and residential uses to co-exist on the same lot. The district also aimed at retaining the high bulk, low rise industrial buildings which were threatened by development of high rise towers in the area.[citation needed]
The plan indicated that roughly half of the apartments built in the existing industrial buildings in the eight block neighborhood must go to artists. Under the district plan, two industrial buildings were renovated into loft apartments, and one new building, Waldo Lofts, was constructed. During the district's lifespan, there were several attempts to bring in more housing and studios for artists, to make the area more pedestrian friendly, and to bring in art schools or museums. There were also been proposals to turn the Powerhouse into residences, shops, galleries, and museum space.[citation needed]
The term Waldo has been used before the zoning plan was introduced. Waldo Avenue is named for Samuel Waldo [probably true] who built and owned three attached brownstone homes located on the NW corner of Magnolia and Waldo Avenues [not correct]. Today, the three structures still stand. The avenue, which runs south from Newark Avenue to "The Island" that overlooks the Waldo Yards, was originally used by the Pennsylvania RailroadJersey City Branch. It is currently used by Port Authority Trans Hudson mass transit trains.[citation needed]
This is not fully correct - and since some weird sites that scrape Wikipedia add this disambiguation as part of their "articles," I will add some original research done by the Jersey City Library here as a corrective. Samuel Waldo did in fact own property at present day Waldo Ave. around Magnolia - and is almost certainly the source of the name - but there is no evidence he lived there. Just happened to own property when the street needed a name. He died in 1861, while the three houses on the northwest corner date from between 1873 and 1887. [1][2]Jwbkmn (talk) 19:03, 12 October 2021 (UTC)jwbkmn - librarian, New Jersey Room, JCFPL[reply]
