Dear Editor:
As the director of the Hoboken Environmental Services Department, which includes city parks, I am pleased with the progress the Roberts administration has made toward improving and creating additional open space throughout our city. In a time when funding is sparse, Hoboken has been successful in obtaining grants from Green Acres and others. In addition, the city’s 2002 bond issue included a commitment for $400,000 for park improvements.
Our goal is to double or triple the amount of open space in the city before the end of this decade. This plan, which will still leave Hoboken far short of New Jersey open space standards, will take time, but is achievable. As most are aware, construction of a new park on Jackson Street has begun. The reuse of a former public works garage, this park will provide much needed recreational space in the Fourth Ward. Construction will also soon begin on the resurfacing of the city’s only soccer field, a skateboard park on the waterfront and new safety surfacing at Church Square Park and Stevens Park.
And more parks are on the design board. A public hearing was held to launch Pier C Park, which is being designed by nationally renowned landscape architect Michael Van Valkenburgh. Landscape architect Allan Goodheart is currently designing a facelift and new facilities at Church Square Park, including a new toddler play area. The county, with input from the city, will soon designate a designer for the Weehawken Cove walkway which will provide access to the cove and promote access for boating.
The city is also seeking public spaces on sites that are currently private. The developers of Maxwell House have committed to not only a four acre waterfront park, but a park for ball playing on the site of Elysian Fields, the birthplace of baseball. The developers of Hoboken Cove, at the city’s request, are proposing significant park improvements adjacent to the Weehawken Cove as part of their current application before the Planning Board.
Through the master plan process, additional sites have been identified for park uses, including two and a half blocks in the Northwest Redevelopment area to be used jointly by the city and the Board of Education. These site are the subject of current and future funding requests.
Working with developers, public officials, government agencies and the public, we will achieve our open space goal. I would like to thank Mayor Dave Roberts for his leadership in attaining this goal, and State Senator Bernard Kenny for lobbying this mission in Trenton.
The process of retaining world-class professionals to work with the administration and public to develop high quality public spaces is slow and time consuming, but we are already seeing the rewards.
Cassandra Wilday