Dear Editor:
In her April 7 letter to the editor, Ms. Humphrey seems quite upset over the fact that Mayor Turner is well liked and admired by the majority of Weehawken residents. Get used to it, Ms. Humphrey. There is a love affair between Weehawken and Mayor Turner. And it goes back many years, almost from the moment the State of NJ sent Richard Turner here to try and save the town from the financial disaster and chaos left us by the mismanagement of the previous administration (I won’t go into all the history now. You can check it out. I’ll just say that when Stanley Iacono was elected mayor, he went to the State and asked for help. Help arrived in the form of Richard Turner.) Those of us who are long-time residents should remember what it was like back then — no real amities, two police cars. It was not good. I don’t want to risk that happening here again. Weehawken now is a desirable place to live. I want to keep it that way.
You see, WIN scares me. They scare me because they are intelligent people. They scare me because they are a fundamentalist-type organization. It’s their way or no way. They are a minority segment of the population of Weehawken, yet they know what’s best for all of us. They scare me because they are glib, and talk without saying anything. A few months ago I was talking with one of the founders of WIN and was told that since I have been somewhat active in policing the activities of the waterfront development and have raised questions about certain issues, I should join their organization. I asked her to explain to me their platform and what they proposed to do to make Weehawken a better place to live. Her answer was, they hadn’t gotten that far. They had only formulated what they didn’t like but had not gotten around to how they would go about making changes.
They scare me because they don’t tell the truth, and they seem to have no problem with that. For example Ms. Humphrey in her lettter inferred that there had been no traffic impact study done on the waterfront development, no reports on pedestrian access to the ferry and light rail.
This is not true! There was a traffic impact study, etc. I know, I sat through hours of meetings and listened to them. I did not see Ms. Humphrey at these meetings. As for open and available minutes of the meetings, the meetings are open to the public and the times are published in this paper. Anyone can come. So come on down. There’s nothing secret or clandestine going on here. But they scare me most of all, because I’ve seen their organizers in action. I’ve seen them rant and rave and disrupt public gatherings and town meetings, then storm out in a huff when they didn’t get their way. Yes, they scare me becasue I don’t think they care one bit about Weehawken or what happens to this town. Their sole objective seems to be “Get Turner!” But they talk a good talk.
Ms. Humphrey wants a different kind of council. With the WIN team we would certainly have that. We would have a group of intelligent people who haven’t a clue on how to manage a town. Do they know how to get Greenacres Grants for our parks? Do they have the connections with the neighboring communities and the State of NJ to keep up the standard of living we have come to expect and take for granted? Would they have the wherewithal to keep our taxes stable? Would they have the ability to deal rationally with state agencies, or would they still continue to yell and scream and leave if they didn’t get everything they wanted? I could go on and on, but enough!
As for me, I’ll stay with the Weehawken and You team. I don’t have to agree 100 percent with everything they do. But they’ve brought this town back from the brink of bankruptcy and made it into the kind of town that I am proud to call home.
Sarah Crew