Will it be just a facility for kids to come in the afternoon to prepare for high school, or a magnet for increased traffic and noise on a quiet, dead-end street?
That is the debate between two opposing groups over 183 Pine St., where a building will be constructed and operated by the Jersey City non-profit group Team Walker, run by former high school basketball stars Jerry and Jasper Walker.
Team Walker currently operates after-school athletic and academic programs at Public School 22 on Van Horne Street.
“We would like to help Jerry find a suitable location; Pine Street is not a suitable location.” – Deborah Sinico
________
“There are vacant lots, but they are spoken for, as in, some developer already has a claim on the property,” Walker said.
The Pine Street site is a double lot that Walker said is zoned for commercial use, and currently occupied by a boarded-up house that would be torn down. Walker has not purchased the property yet, saying he is awaiting approval for the facility from the Planning Board at its next meeting on Dec. 15. As far as financing, he says he has over $920,000, including an $822,000 Community Development Block Grant (CDBG).
Walker said the facility would be two stories, and have a few classrooms and a driveway for a transportation van. He plans to have 15 seventh and eighth-grade kids at a time in the building for after-school prep classes.
He says the kids are “high-achievers” from the various Team Walker programs, students that he is steering toward some of the top high schools in the city, such as St. Peter’s Prep, St. Dominic Academy, or McNair Academic.
But residents on Pine Street and the tiny block of Boltwood Street are unsure if 183 Pine St. is the right location for the new facility. They made their opposition known at the City Council meeting on Nov. 24, and they met last week at a closed meeting with Walker and City Councilwoman Viola Richardson to discuss alternative sites.
Build it somewhere else
Those who spoke in opposition at the Nov. 24 council meeting actually support Walker’s program – they just prefer to see the facility built somewhere else.
Miles Poindexter lives with his wife and two young children at 175 Pine St., a restored 1871 house only a few doors down from Walker’s proposed site. Poindexter wants his block to remain purely residential.
“I’m not sure why Mr. Walker is trying to build a commercial structure in the middle of this residential block at 183 Pine St.,” Poindexter said. “I don’t know why he would want this lot, because there are so many empty lots on Communipaw Avenue that are mixed-use and commercial.”
Last week in a posting on the local website, jclist, Poindexter said he had located a site at 378-380 Communipaw Ave. with an abandoned two-story brick building.
Another Pine Street resident, Deborah Sinico, said at the meeting, “We would like to help Jerry find a suitable location; Pine Street is not a suitable location.”
Another Pine Street resident, Bernice Davis, said the project has to be questioned because the federal CDBG funding for the project benefits very few children, which she said is not a “good use” of taxpayer dollars.
However, Walker had his supporters too, such as Susan Curry, a lifelong Pine Street resident. She said Walker’s project represents three valuable components for success in society – “family,” “community” and “development.”
Ricardo Kaulessar can be reached at rkaulessar@hudsonreporter.com.