As a firefighter, city councilman, and mayor, David Roberts will tell you that he has always tried to protect this city with all he had.
Some people will agree with the departing mayor’s words and some will not. But no one can question his years of service. On the council for 16 years and as mayor for eight, he always tried to solve the single biggest problem with Hoboken. And what was that problem?
Industrial workplaces were fading fast and Hoboken needed to reinvent itself.
In 1992, the Maxwell House coffee factory on Hudson Street, like Lipton Tea, Hostess, and Bethlehem Steel before it, was closing. The massive plant had been a cornerstone of post-World War II industry in Hoboken.
Roberts sat on the City Council when Mayor Patrick Pasculli made an offer to the coffee company to keep the Maxwell House factory from leaving the city. The “multipronged offering” included a variety of incentives from both the state and city.
“It was a laudable deal,” Roberts said in an interview last week. But Maxwell House declined the offer to keep the plant open.
“That was a bad day,” Roberts said. “That was the day I realized Hoboken was going to have to move in another direction.”
Building the waterfront
“As industry left Hoboken – just as it left so many cities on rivers – how do you fill that void?” Roberts asked. His answer: developing the barren waterfront, once a shipping port, would bring jobs and different types of industry to the mile-square.
Starting in 1993, Mayor Anthony Russo worked tirelessly on the problem along with Roberts and the City Council. A group of city residents and activists put together in previous administrations worked on a solution everyone could agree on, since past waterfront plans had been rejected in public votes.
Roberts was just one player in the waterfront development era, but he was a major player.
“We needed to fully take advantage of our waterfront,” he said. “Not just for the joy of residents, but to fuel our economy.”
The creation of the new-look waterfront came in “fits and starts,” Roberts said. It began before Russo and Pasculli, he said, when he sat on Mayor Tom Vezzetti’s “Waterfront Corporation” group.
With other longtime players like waterfront preservationist Ron Hine, the group searched for direction.
The goal, Roberts said, was to create public space, economic growth, and a clean river environment.
Roberts said those goals were met over the years, and he is proud to have been a part of it. He especially takes pride in the cleanliness of the Hudson River today.
“The city of Hoboken has evolved,” he said triumphantly.
Opposition groups fought against overdevelopment, ensuring complete public access to the waterfront and making sure the city wasn’t just handing over a waterfront goldmine to a group of developers.
“You’re going to get me to give credit to waterfront activists,” Roberts said with joking angst. He agreed that activists like Hine and Helen Manogue were the heads to his tails.
“They had a very positive impact,” he willingly admitted. “At the time, I didn’t agree, but I actually [admire] how the citizen groups worked in a collaborative way.”
Leaving a mark
A large city deficit aside, Roberts will be most remembered on some accounts for his passionate affinity for historical preservation. “We have a glorious history,” Roberts said.
Roberts was at the forefront of many historical preservation efforts, including having the city’s main streets added to the historic district so that people could only renovate them in line with preservation guidelines. Robert was also a leading force behind historical revivals of the Clock Tower at Hoboken Terminal, the Hoboken Boathouse, and Sybil’s Cave.
His campaign promise of approving a Master Plan for Hoboken – a document that outlines development over the next 20 years – was almost fulfilled. After countless hours spent by countless people devising it, this blueprint for “smart” development was approved by the Planning Board, but its components were never codified into zoning law.
Now, the Master Plan is a rapidly aging document for the next administration to do with what they please.
“I was never afraid to think big.” – David Roberts
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Among his other accomplishments, Roberts highlights the arrival of the posh W Hotel, the movie theatre uptown (which should open in August), the Light Rail, and a handful of new parks.
Other initiatives, like the Stevens magnet school plan, fell short due to political maneuvering, he said. “I had all the activists on my side those days,” he remembered.
Unapologetically, he added, “I was never afraid to think big.”
The tough times
Roberts saw the city through the tragedy of Sept. 11, after taking office months earlier. He still recalls the day, the ensuing days, and the lingering pain from the loss of 57 members of the community.
“The World Trade Center was so close, I mean, it felt close enough to touch some days,” he recalls. “It was such a sad time in our history.”
He recalled a husband and wife who spoke on the phone that day; one on Pier A looking to Manhattan, one in the World Trade Center looking back to Hoboken, and both knowing it would be their last conversation.
“Hoboken had the largest loss of life of any one zip code,” Roberts said. He credited community groups for pulling the city out of the depths of grief.
Fiscally speaking
Roberts remains confident, despite the city’s recent tax hike and state financial takeover, that the city is healthy fiscally.
Would it have been better to incrementally increase taxes every year? He admits that it would have been the better option and cites political pressures as one reason he kept tax rates flat.
“No one on the City Council wanted a tax increase,” he explained. “They want all of the parks, all of the services, all of the quality of life amenities that we have; all of this stuff. But don’t raise taxes. It’s an unreasonable environment.”
Roberts said he will recommend annual incremental tax increases to Mayor-Elect Peter Cammarano.
Nonetheless, he said, Hoboken’s total value has risen on his watch and debt has stayed the same.
Next chapter
Roberts said he will take time to enjoy his family and travel before trying to answer the question, “Where could I be useful?” He is married with two sons and a daughter.
Roberts was a fireman from 1981 to 1985, a councilman from 1987 to 2001, and a mayor from 2001 to 2009, quickly filling out his resume without ever leaving the square mile.
He is leaning toward finding a position related to transportation, but has nothing in mind.
“This past year and a half has been particularly difficult,” he said. “When I think of the job Peter has in front of him – there’s so much work. He’s going to need help.”
Roberts thanked many people individually and the people of Hoboken in general for his time in office.
“I’ll never forget the opportunity,” he said. “I’ll never forget the kindness. I walk away with no regrets.”
In the typically passionate bravado the public has been accustomed to for the last 24 years, Roberts left one last reminder.
“Remember,” he said, “I never lost an election.”
Timothy J. Carroll may be reached at tcarroll@hudsonreporter.com.