Dear Editor:
Monday’s City Council meeting was packed with citizens eager to hear about the Southeast Waterfront Development Project. Why so many people? Because we’ve already hears so many versions of this project that we want real answers. We want the truth.
The architect’s renderings of the planned structures to be built on the middle block of the project ("Block B") were very handsome. Proudly, the architect explained how the buildings had been "scaled back" and redesigned to allow improved views of the river and present less mass on the street level where human beings walk. It was very pretty. It was also déjà vu all over again: was it only three years ago that I sat in the same Council chamber, admiring the artist’s rendering of 333 River Street, with its views of the river and corridors for light and air? The monolith that crouches on Block C is the reality that gives the lie to that rendering and those promises.
After the conflicting "facts" and mysteriously changing numbers thrown at us last night, the taxpayers and citizens of Hoboken have a right to know the truth.
I asked a number of plainly worded questions at last night’s meeting. If truthful answers to these questions about the reality we will live with are forthcoming, we will be able to make informed decisions about the Southeast Redevelopment Project. These are my questions: (1) What is the true maximum size of the project? We heard conflicting versions of minimums and maximums. What’s the truth? (2) What is the finished height, in feet, of the building on Block A, the office building partially occupied by Wiley & Sons? (3) What will be the finished height, in feet, of the companion tower, now under construction? (4) What is the finished height, in feet, of the building on Block C, 333 River Street? (5) What is the confirmed height for the building to be constructed on the south portion of Block B? (6) What is the confirmed height for the building to be constructed on the north portion of Block B? And, finally, but by no means least, (7) The city planner and the architect did not bring it up, but many in the Council chamber last night knew about the "bonus" awarded to Applied/Starwood as an incentive for them to make an accelerated PILOT payment of $4 million to the city. What bonus? Extra floors for the hotel planned for the north portion of Block B – a hotel that should not even be there! Was any thought at all given to putting a hotel in the Northeast Redevelopment Project, which we’ve just begun to hear of?" Would that not be logical — a splendid waterfront view, easy access to the tunnel and the ferry, and no need to fight the heavy Washington Street traffic between 14th Street and 3rd Street?
Last night, people stated that they were not against construction in the Southeast Waterfront Development project. They did, however, make it clear that they are fed up and disgusted with being given disinformation, excluded from the planning and development process, and with being expected to obediently accept anything thrown their way without question. Hoboken recently demonstrated that it has found its voice. No longer will we sit silent, no longer will we accept "facts" without proof. Tell us the truth.
Shelley Miller
Hoboken taxpayer