JERSEY CITY – The Jersey City Landmarks Conservancy is asking residents to cast a vote for the Sixth Street embankment in the 2011 This Place Matters Challenge, an annual contest run by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
At stake are three cash prizes in the amounts of $25,000, $10,000, and $5,000.
The Embankment Preservation Coalition has for years tried to restore the remnants of the old Pennsylvania Railroad Harsimus Branch for use as a habitat-oriented park, a portion of which would be used for the East Coast Greenway biking and walking trail from Maine to Florida. The Embankment is located at Sixth Street and Marin Blvd. Members of the coalition have said that any money won from the This Place Matters Challenge would be used to continue their preservation work.
But the Embankment has been tied up in legal wrangling between the city and New York resident Steve Hyman, who currently owns the site. Last year the city thought it had an agreement with Hyman to buy the property for $7.7 million and the City Council passed a resolution last summer to issue bonds to buy the land. However, Hyman later filed a lawsuit to have the elevated rail line torn down.
The Jersey City Landmarks Conservancy still hopes to prevail in matter and still plans to preserve the historic site for open space land use.
As of June 29, the Sixth Street Embankment, officially known as the Harsimus Branch Embankment, ranked eighth in a field of 100 landmark conservation projects competing in the challenge and had received 2,688 votes.
To vote, visit www.preservationnation.org/communitychallenge. The Sixth Street Embankment is listed on the site under the heading “Embankment Preservation Coalition.”
Voting ends Thursday, June 30 at 5:59 p.m. EST. – E. Assata Wright