Dear Editor:
It seems that poor Church Square Park is always in the cross hairs. Someone is always trying to remake this central section of land in Hoboken to become something else other than what it is suppose to be: a park. And when someone wants to put their stamp in the park, by rearranging things, a tree gets cut down or damaged or destroyed in the process. In a town with various points of view, most everyone you speak to can agree that what many recent changes to Church Square Park have been a travesty. To make room for existing and proposed playgrounds, Astroturf, jungle gyms, and expanded basketball courts, many trees have been and will be eliminated.
As the world become conscious of the benefits of “Being Green”, why is our Church Square Park being loaded down with all sorts of man-made materials that are inching out flowers, bushes, and large trees that offer beauty, shade and homes for the small animals?
On Tuesday, June 12, 2012, from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m., a public hearing will be held on the second floor of the Hoboken Public Library regarding future plans for Church Square Park. Please make a point of coming to state your views on your park. All people that use the park must be heard and their views considered, not just those who want to turn it into artificial playgrounds.
At issue is the possibility of the city destroying five large trees adjoining the existing four basketball courts in order to combine them into one large basketball court. A couple of Saturday’s ago it was very hot and as I approached the park I saw men playing basketball in the midday sun. I couldn’t believe they were doing so until I got closer and saw that the shade from the large trees around the court (the trees in question) were shielding them from the intense rays of the sun. I remember looking at how beautiful the leaves looked on the courts–in a beautiful peaceful dappled grey pattern gently moving with the men. These trees not only provide shade needed on hot summer days, they also block the intense lights that surround the courts in the evening that would otherwise glare upon Garden Street residents. These magnificent decades-old trees offer so much to our park and the town’s residents. We must do what we can to preserve them.
Mary Ondrejka