Dear Editor:
I was both surprised and disturbed by Beth Mason’s recent statement regarding the proposed uptown redevelopment, that “If [Hoboken] stops building, it will die. You have to continue to grow to some extent. You cannot stop”. As one of the “reformers” on the city council, I thought Ms. Mason was against development, and for open space and quality of life. Either I was mistaken or she has changed her tune, whatever her motivation might be.
What is her actual basis for making this comment? As we know, Hoboken is a finite place, so the only way it can grow is for it to be further built up. The idea that we can or want to continue this in perpetuity is highly questionable. Aside from the builders, brokers, and bar owners (and the politicians?), who does it really benefit? What does it cost us in quality of life and where does it end? After over a decade of unbridled development here, can we say that Hoboken is a better place to live?
From an urban planning perspective, take the Northwest Redevelopment Zone. Block after block of monolithic, prefab, sheetrock palaces, with hardly a patch of green, no street life, and, other than a supermarket, dry cleaner, and nail salon, virtually no commercial services. It doesn’t even feel like Hoboken. Do we really want more of this? Can we continue to absorb more people, and their cars, without also providing a commensurate amount of open space? And what happens when we run out of “blighted” areas and funky old buildings to tear down? Would Ms. Mason suggest that we then build on the existing parks, or perhaps start replacing the beautiful old houses with more highrises and “luxury” condos?
Financially speaking, despite all the new taxable property, the city is of course broke. While this is partially the result of mismanagement and waste, it can also be attributed to the additional costs associated with providing services and maintaining infrastructure for an expanded city – a little something our officials fail to point out to us when they promote the golden egg of development. Beyond that, however, at every level, we are starting to see the folly and unsustainability of economies based on unlimited growth and development, not only financially, but also environmentally. At a certain point we need to scale back. There is no saying that Hoboken cannot thrive as is, albeit subject to the changing economic realities of the moment.
Before the building boom started, we already had a perfectly livable, human-scaled city. The more we build, the less so it becomes. No, Hoboken will not die if we stop building. But if we don’t stop, I believe we’ll kill it. Or at least transform it into something unrecognizable and less desirable than what it was before.
Steve Kosmacher