HOBOKEN – Bikers, joggers, and power walkers have quickly capitalized on a new walkway on Sinatra Drive, temporarily delineated by cones since last month when the council said they’d consider making it permanent.
Although the new path – which begins near the Castle Point Skate Park and runs along Sinatra Drive and the Union Dry Dock property – has cost the city 34 parking spots on Wednesday, the Hoboken City Council unanimously voted to make the 1,000-foot multi-use walkway permanent.
The path will complete the final segment of the state-mandated waterfront walkway that stretches 18.5-miles from Bayonne to the George Washington Bridge.
Second Ward Councilwoman Tiffanie Fisher said during Wednesday’s council meeting that discussions between the city and Union Dry Dock (which owns private waterfront property in the area) should help eventually complete the walkway closer to the water. Union Dry Dock is the last vestige of Hoboken’s former shipping industry. The company has been approached by developers and agencies that wanted to use its private waterfront land for various purposes. The city’s plan may change if Dry Dock allows this portion of the walkway to run onto the Dry Dock property or if Dry Dock sells the land to someone else who allows it.
Fisher pointed out that the new walkway forces the loss of 34 spaces on Sinatra Drive, and that other recent major projects have also come at the cost of parking. Reorienting the walkway along the Dry Dock property, should that happen someday, might allow the return of the spots.
In other parts of town, the recently-approved Trader Joe’s at the foot of the 14th Street Viaduct will cost the city 24 on-street visitor spaces. In addition, six spots were sacrificed earlier this year for a new brick-paved pedestrian plaza in front of the CVS Pharmacy on Newark Street near City Hall. Read more on the walkway and City Council meeting in this weekend’s Hoboken Reporter. – Steven Rodas