More than 30 speakers spoke at Wednesday’s Jersey City Council meeting, mostly in favor of the preservation of the Flamingo Diner on Montgomery Avenue.
Council President L. Harvey Smith announced before the public portion of the meeting that no decision on the ultimate fate of the 34 year-old eatery would be made that night.
“The council’s committee on the Flamingo has examined all the testimony,” Smith stated. “We will soon have a meeting with the lawyers for the city and the Flamingo to come to a conclusion.”
Early last year, the city began condemnation proceedings on The Flamingo, located at 31 Montgomery Ave., in order to widen roads in the area for traffic headed toward the nearly completed Goldman Sachs building. The diner’s owner, Andrew Diakos, launched a spirited public campaign to keep his restaurant at its present location. Before Wednesday’s meeting, Smith said the Council’s committee, comprised of himself and Councilmen E. Junior Maldonado and Jerrimiah Healy, had come up with some ideas that would “allow the Flamingo to stay in business.”
When asked, Smith would not say what those ideas were.
Attorney Leonidas Doumas, representing Flamingo management, said the city has frustrated his clients’ efforts to keep the Flamingo where it is by making a number of engineering objections to restaurant’s staying put.
“The most recent was a sidewalk traffic study which Mr. Diakos had commissioned,” said Doumas. “The study showed that eight feet of sidewalk would more than handle 7,000 pedestrians daily, the number the city said would be walking there.”
The street widening plan the city has put forth calls for the removal the building that the Flamingo is housed in and the creation of six lanes for traffic headed to and from the Goldman Sachs building. According to Doumas, the plan has 14 feet wide sidewalks, six feet of which would be taken up with plantings and benches.
“This would leave us with eight sidewalks in the end,” Doumas stated.
Despite Smith’s announcement, a number of downtown and Paulus Hook residents spoke about the Flamingo, largely in favor of its remaining where it is.
Paulus Hook resident John Weinert stated the widening of Green Avenue next to the diner was not needed. He said that many of the professional buildings in the downtown area were becoming vacated.
“Those buildings are emptying out,’ said Weinert. “There will not be as much foot traffic in the area of the Flamingo.”
Weinert added that the close-to-complete Goldman Sachs building was not going to occupied completely by Sachs employees, and the investment firm was looking to sublet the rest of the building.
Chanda Gibson, corporate services associate for Goldman Sachs, said Thursday that Sachs was going to have employees in the Jersey City tower and would still looking for other tenants for the building. Speaking about the Flamingo issue, Gibson said Goldman Sachs was working to be a good member of the Jersey City community.
“We are still in favor of the relocation of the Flamingo,” said Gibson, noting the diner could be moved to a number of locations in the downtown or Newport sections of the city.
“We are acting in the interest of the community and of our employees,” said Gibson. “We don’t want to lose the Flamingo.”
Joanne Diakos, daughter of the Flamingo’s owner, told the council the fate of the Flamingo was a right-to-property issue. Noting her father came from Greece and built the business he currently owns, Diakos said the right to decide where a business is located is very important.
“If you think the city should get shrubs and benches instead of my father having his restaurant,” said Diakos. “Then I dare say the American Dream is on its deathbed.”
Speaking in favor of the relocation of the Flamingo, Historic Paulus Hook Neighborhood Association President Diane Case said she firmly accepted the street widening plans.
“When the plan first came out, I was opposed,” said Case, who identified her self as a professional building preservationist. “Now, I have come to the conclusion that they have to take down that building. This is something I do not say, as a preservationist, lightly. The Flamingo can be relocated and still be the heart and soul of the downtown.”
Budget comments
The city has still not passed its 2002-2003 fiscal year budget.
York Street resident Yvonne Balcer reminded the council that the city’s fiscal year was coming to an end on June 30, making a complete budget imperirative. Balcer again told the council that the savings from the recent refinancing of municipal debt should pay off the city’s debt, instead of having it go in the latest $324 million budget.
“There has to be a real solution to our debt problem,” Balcer said. “Refinancing the debt once to plug the budget is not the way to do it.”