Hoboken Reporter, September 10, 2000

Dear Editor:

The proposed expansion of the Shipyard Project onto Pier 1 is a wonderful idea for the 120 affluent families who can no longer afford Riverside Drive (NY) apartments but who will buy on the North Pier to achieve the most desired views of the Hudson River and the New York skyline. Not only will they enjoy the view, they will have the convenience of onsite indoor parking, saving them the three or four block trudge to the nearest garage, or even worse, the 7 a.m. wake up to move cars on alternative days.

But it is a disaster for the thousands of born and raised Hobokenites who bemoan the loss of community as they watch what they consider home being paved sky high from east to west. Not only are they sad that there is less and less room to walk, to sit, to watch the ships go by, they are distraught that so much of the remaining space in the city is being filled with unaffordable apartments and the disappearance of places for them to live. It is a disaster for the other thousands who have come to Hoboken seeking the purported community and to enjoy the views of New York City, to walk along the Hudson River to the George Washington Bridge on a state promoted walkway, to find a patch of green for relaxing and breathing unpolluted air. For all, it is a matter of broken promises, promised by the developer for public access to open spaces. Tennis courts for public use are not profit-makers. The three promised has been reduced to two. Is a ping-pong platform an acceptable substitute? Promises by the community to ensure that those who have made Hoboken what it was, places to live for themselves and their families.

Will the privileged owners of these most desirable residences enjoy traffic at their front doors? Will they enjoy keeping blinds over their windows, blocking the views for which they have paid, in order to shield them from the scrutiny of bicyclists, roller bladers, people with baby carriages and family groups encroaching on their front lawns while they are preparing barbecues? How long will it take for the proposed masonry entry markers to have added to them Private Property, Access Prohibited?

Will the developer return to us taxpayers the fortunes of federal, state and county dollars spent to improve his property with walkways and roads intended for unimpeded public access? It is especially interesting that a city which places constraints on architectural designers to conform with turn-of-the-century style would even consider the faux ocean-liner profile of this disaster.

What will these 120 families contribute to Hoboken? They will add to the congestion, to additional pressures on community services: fire, police, sanitation. They will add to the already polluted atmosphere. Will they contribute to the Hoboken economy or will they continue to shop of Madison Avenue?

Helen Hirsch
Hoboken