Dear Editor:
Some more of my concerns about Weehawken:
There isn’t enough parking available for citizens who need to conduct business with the town departments located in the Public Works building. Consequently, members of the public, official visitors and town employees routinely double park their vehicles in the street outside these town offices while they visit the departments housed within. These visitors sometimes indiscriminately block the driveways of homes across the street from the town building, and, unbelievably, even park in the yellow, striped median in the center of the street while they run in to take care of their business – sometimes for just a few minutes, and sometimes for hours. Consequently, every day there are near collisions and countless close-calls as unwary drivers are surprised by these illegally parked vehicles and forced to negotiate around this phalanx of hazards on this busy avenue. Wouldn’t it be safer and more sensible to establish, for instance, a few “15-minute parking only” zones out in front of this town building so those who need to visit briefly to conduct business could do so without endangering or inconveniencing others?
Lastly, just a few hundred feet further South of the DPW building is the long-embattled property belonging to a couple who recently have been in the news and indeed even in this newspaper because of their ongoing fight with the township, the Mayor, the Police, the Building Department and many of their neighbors. For years, these individuals have stripped the cliffs surrounding their home of vegetation, trees and soil, and sullied their little slice of the precious and protected Palisades cliffs above and beside their home. While I understand they have been somewhat vindicated by a Superior Court Judge who awarded them a $157,000 settlement from their uphill neighbors over a disputed broken sewer line which ran beneath their property, this victory doesn’t mitigate the fact that these residents have largely destroyed the character and beauty of the neighborhood around them and allowed their grounds to become a disgrace to the town and the surrounding area. Yellow police tape and orange construction barrels have ringed their Park Avenue property, which has created not only an eyesore but also a hazard to pedestrians. While I understand the constraints imposed by active lawsuits, it’s unfathomable to me that the town hasn’t the power to have this property cleaned-up.
As I said in the beginning of this letter (two weeks ago), all of these glaring problems are on daily display within just 1000 feet of our beautifully-restored town hall. Isn’t it time that Weehawken’s officials do something to right these wrongs? Our beloved town and all our lives certainly will be the better for it.
Sincerely,
A proud & concerned Weehawken resident
Name withheld by request