To the Citizens of Hoboken:
The tax payers of Hoboken need a clearer picture as to the direction and the eventual outcome of future development. We need a more direct participation in the matter than electing someone whose vision for the future of Hoboken only appears to be compatible with ours. I’m suggesting a referendum, or its equivalent, to establish rules that will guide those elected in their decision making.
Politicians are people who seek the power to lead and must convince people that their views are similar to that of a majority of voters. In Hoboken’s past this has led to failure, as two out of the last three mayors have been indicted. This task of shaping our future is too important to leave to a system that has failed us so shockingly. We live in a town that’s recently been packed with new condos and we suffer all of the resulting secondary problems of this phenomenon. The payoff for this barter was supposed to be lower property taxes– “additional ratable mean lower taxes for the rest of us,” we were told. We got all the negative ramifications of dense urban development and got a 40 percent tax INCREASE (shared by renters, too).
Somewhere between the rhetoric of electioneering, raising the money to run a campaign, the election, the granting of tax abatements and the issuing of building permits, the interest of the tax payers has been thwarted. I arrived in Hoboken in 1971, and at that time Hoboken was a poor, river town with a congo beat. The only similarity shared between today’s Hoboken and the one I first encountered is the square mile itself. Middle class people moved in one direction back then– away. Now Hoboken is a “destination.” For years rising property values have paralyzed the interest property owners might have in controlling the direction of Hoboken’s development. It was only until the values started falling and the tax bill came that the spell was broken. We need to cherish and preserve the little character Hoboken has left. A direct vote to establish guidelines for politicians would better enable us to do that. The tax bill comes to our mailbox. Let us, the bill payers, take control of our future.
Sincerely,
Gene Turonis