Dear Editor:
With his complete control of township decisions as mayor, councilman and planning board member, Richard Turner alone is to blame (with help from his hand-picked collaborators) for approving two unacceptable waterfront plans.
Once again Turner tries to "negotiate" with Friends of the Weehawken Waterfront (FWW) by publishing ultimatums in the press. Let’s review the choices. Should we accept either of two plans that provide no on-street parking, virtually no east-west access and either a road with no northern traffic flow and a dangerous 4-foot sidewalk, or no separation of public and private space at all, as in West New York where there are already lawsuits over this issue?
We don’t think so.
FWW has had on the table for several years, a plan for the so-called "brownstone" section of the waterfront that provides as much if not more residential square footage than desired by the developer, along with a typical Weehawken street that’s two way, with on-street parking and pedestrian-friendly sidewalks, as well as plenty of east-west access roads.
Why won’t the Mayor and the developer accept theFWW proposal? Because they want an exclusive enclave that prevents public access to the waterfront walkway park, rather than a plan that facilitates such access.
Richard Turner: It’s time to stop playing games with the future of our waterfront. No one is interested in your threats. It is time to return to the negotiating table. FWW remains eager and available to continue discussions towards a reasonable solution, just as we always have been.
The pity of course is that if Turner and Roseland had not walked away from the negotiating table over a year ago, Weehawken would be able to offer millions of square feet of development to companies now looking to relocate.
There is still time to do the right thing. If instead the Town allows any of the poorly designed waterfront plans to be built, there is only one man that history will hold responsible: Richard F. Turner, Mayor of Weehawken, 1990 -????
FWW Planning Committee