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Cocoa Bakery on Grand Street in Jersey City has been without internet and phone service for more than a week, thanks to an outage affecting the Liberty Harbor neighborhood.

(Terrence T. McDonald | The Jersey Journal)

JERSEY CITY -- Residents of Jersey City's Liberty Harbor neighborhood are on their eighth day of an internet outage that is affecting residents of the area and some local businesses.

The outage, which began late last week and has also affected telephone and cable television service, has Liberty Harbor residents questioning why they are forced to use a single internet provider, Gold Coast Broadband, that is tied to Liberty Harbor developer Peter Mocco.

"They will not allow any other company," said Jessica Isaacs, owner of Cocoa Bakery on Grand Street, which Isaacs said has been without Gold Coast's internet and phone service since last week. The shop has seen a dramatic dip in orders as a result, she said.

The outage has angry residents looking for legal options. Complaints have been filed with the state Office of Cable Television and Telecommunications and a U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez's office.

In the meantime, residents are venting and trading temporary solutions in a private Facebook group. One person managed to get internet service and set up a guest network for anyone in range.

"Wahhhhhhhhhh no internet=no life," reads one resident's post.

Gold Coast Broadband, located on Grand Street in Jersey City, is the sole internet provider for much of the Liberty Harbor neighborhood.

Gold Coast Broadband has an office on Grand Street. Peter Mocco, the developer's son, declined to comment to The Jersey Journal. A phone call seeking comment from his father was not returned. One of them is listed as the company's registered agent on its LLC certification.

The Liberty Harbor development sits on the southern end of the Downtown, overlooking Liberty State Park.

Mark Liberfarb, who works in financial reporting for an advertising agency, has had no internet in his Regent Street home for the last eight days. He said Gold Coast has said it doesn't know what the problem is and has given no estimate for when they can get it fixed.



Liberfarb, who rents his unit, said he may move out before his two-year lease ends.



"I'm seriously considering breaking my lease because there's no end in sight," he said.

An email the property manager for the condos at 10 Regent St. sent to residents on March 15 said the building's board of directors will review what the master deed requires, send a legal notice to Gold Coast and look at alternative internet providers.

Terrence T. McDonald may be reached at tmcdonald@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @terrencemcd. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.