Dear Editor: The following is in response to an article appearing in your July 23rd issue: The article states that the “Zoning Board of Adjustments,” has blocked plans for the building of a new Hudson School. The newspaper further stated that the reason for delaying the school construction was that the plan did not faithfully recreate the former “Martha Institute” that occupied the site. This appointed Board acknowledged that the school needed the space for its students and that the City Library was in danger of losing its grant funding to continue its wonderful modernization program. The reason for blocking these two important projects was reported to be simply, that the building “just doesn’t look like the old one did” ??? I have some points and questions. I am a lifetime Hobokenite. I was born and raised less than two blocks from the site in question. As a child I climbed up and down the strange, attractive steps of the all but abandoned building along with similar steps in front of the old St. Mary Hospital Building. I remember that there were three soda fountains less than a block from there. It was nice. But now, the ice cream sundaes are gone along with the butcher shop and other places I recall. In fact, the stairs of Martha’s were torn down long before my children grew up! To put it simply, the neighborhood has changed. But it has remained vibrant! While we’re on the subject of new schools, a few administrations ago, a public school was built in the very same neighborhood despite an already declining public school enrollment. I won’t question the motivation of that decision. Fortunately, that “eyesore” of a building did not destroy the neighborhood either. Here then is the rub. The City has a Board, or maybe a Sub-Board, who are determining the merit of a building based purely on its architecture. Neither its safety, nor its traffic impact, nor its environmental benefits are being cited. Further, the article did not mention the qualifications of the Board Members. This reader would be interested in their respective backgrounds be they in architecture, history or even education. This reader would also be interested in knowing why some of his fellow citizens hold such loyalty to an old derelict building. I failed to hear the same outcry when a modern hospital was erected in town. And when Steven’s Castle, which appears on the Hoboken City Seal was demolished for a steel and glass skyscraper, hardly anyone wept. These projects were clearly necessary. This reader would really like to know what the Board and the new building’s critics desire. I don’t think it’s financially feasible to duplicate the original edifice brick for brick. I just hope the Board isn’t thinking of building the usual parking garage with a “Hollywood Style Back Lot” facade to placate the nostalgia of a few who “think” they remember Hoboken. I hope it will not become an apartment complex for developers who could be donating a lot more back to the city. Just remember, readers, no one alive can recall the Union Club having a mansard roof, though we can all admit it is a nice looking building today. The Library and the Hudson School provide things for us now, in the present and for the future. Let them proceed with their new building. Our grandparents will forgive us. After all, they were about kids’ futures. Jack Lisa