Dear Editor:
On December 2, I attended the Army-Navy game and I was totally impressed by the city of Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. What a beautiful waterfront was developed for the people to enjoy. People were commenting about the shops, tourist attractions, boats and many more activities that were available. Mainly people were impressed at how safe it was to walk around late at night.
Now I come to our Jersey City and a waterfront which has more attractions that any other city in the world. For instance, we have Ellis Island, The Statue of liberty, the New York Skyline and numerous historical sites and yet we are developing not for tourism or the people, but for greed. We have an 1100 acre park which should be scaled down to 25 acres behind the statue and 10 acres by the railroad terminal. The rest should be developed into a port for cruise ships, novelty stores, a baseball and football stadium with light rail going to the stadium’s front door just like in Baltimore. The rest of the waterfront should be townhouses mixed with commercial development. It is absolutely ridiculous to have 1100 acres of park in a city that is only 16 square miles.
The politicians over the years have destroyed the upper end of the waterfront (Exchange Place) so now it’s time for us to take our waterfront back and utilize the remainder with people in mind. If you want to see what I am talking about, go to Baltimore and visit the Inner Harbor and experience what a wonderful job the city of Baltimore has done. In no way am I advocating a waterpark type atmosphere but a place that people, residents and tourists can exclaim “Boy is Jersey City beautiful.”
Richard Boggiano