Fund for a Better Waterfront
21
September
9/21/2007 Update:
Mayor Roberts responds to the FBW regarding the Maxwell Place Park:
“I believe in progress.
The City’s parks concepts, especially the one that pertains to the Maxwell Place Waterfront Park, have evolved over the years.
When first conceived, before my Administration, one of the ideas from the proposed developers was to create a parks conservancy to manage and administer new open space facilities, such as the one at Maxwell Place. This idea was embraced by Ron Hine and his Fund for a Better Waterfront.
Over the past few years it was determined through careful planning in close partnership with the City Council, zoning board, and progressive members of the community that the City, not a conservancy, should operate and maintain City owned public spaces. Unfortunately, Mr. Hine, who hoped to administer the conservancy, apparently opposes the fact that the City is maintaining Maxwell Place Waterfront Park in conjunction with Toll Brothers, the developer of the project at the present time.
As you are aware, this is a beautiful facility. It contains more green space than the original plan, a child’s play area, a stunning beach, a waterfront walkway, and soon, a fishing pier and kayaking program for kids and adults out of the boathouse. It is breathtaking. There’s even a place for you to bring Oscar, your trusted dog.
It is unfortunate to hear that Mr. Hine’s love for granite curbs has clouded his vision of green spaces for people to enjoy.
This park is a gem and I was proud to officiate the grand opening. We are committed to creating even more open space and ball fields and to working for you.
Please feel free to share this with your many readers.
Mayor David Roberts“
9/20/2007:
Article from The Fund for a Better Waterfront website on this week’s Grand Opening of Maxwell Place Park.
The good news and the bad concerning Maxwell Place Park
On Tuesday, September 18, Hoboken Mayor David Roberts cut the ribbon to officially open the waterfront park at Maxwell Place. What has been in the works since early 2001, prior to Roberts election as Mayor, is now becoming a reality. This park is noteworthy for several reasons. The fact that the developers devoted more than 1/3 of their land for a public park is unprecedented along New Jersey’s Hudson River “gold coast” where developers have sought to keep as much of this valuable land for their own use as possible.
In addition, Maxwell Place Park, which will be about five acres when completed, provides a significant addition to Hoboken’s continuous, linear waterfront park. The Fund for a Better Waterfront (FBW) is responsible for both the original concept of a continuous, public waterfront park for Hoboken (part of its plan for the Hoboken waterfront created in 1990) and the proposal at the Maxwell Place site to dedicate the land on the riverside of Sinatra Drive North for a public park.
Unfortunately, the park that was opened with great fanfare on Tuesday was not the park promised back in 2001. Once the developers decided to donate the parkland to the City, the City chose to exclude FBW from the process of creating this park. Concrete curbing was substituted for granite. Most of the expansive natural beach was covered with rip-rap. The number and size of the trees, especially along the walkway was drastically reduced. The opportunity to create a world class waterfront in Hoboken has been seriously diminished.
Description – The mission of the Fund for a Better Waterfront (FBW) is to secure the water’s edge along the Hudson River as public parkland that will be enjoyed by people of all walks of life for generations to come
Website – www.betterwaterfront.org
Address – PO Box 1965, Hoboken, NJ 07030
Telephone – 201-217-0500
September 20th 2007 - 20:26:42 |
But shouldn’t Fund for a Better Waterfront be happy that they helped fight against the evil Stevens proposal for the Maxwell site that would have included amenties such as the ones at the new park in Weehawken like a running track, a baseball field, etc.
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September 20th 2007 - 21:25:55 |
the Fund for a Better Waterfront’s plan does look a lot more GREEN that what Maxwelll place really offers. Btw, even MP’s promotional material shows a new pier at the foot of 12th street. But as far as I can tell the building is almost complete and there is NO PROGRESS on the pier! I thought to get their Cert of Occupancy from the Town they had to have the waterfront public space COMPLETE at the same time as the building opened?
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September 20th 2007 - 21:57:45 |
From yesterday’s JJ:
Danny Gans said: “Maxwell Place park is only one-third complete, said Gans. A dock for fishing and a pier that will stretch into the Hudson are planned, he said.”
From Fund for a Better Waterfront:
“This is also our understanding that this north pier (at 12th Street) will be built in phase 2, similar to what you see in the FBW plan. It will jut out into the Hudson some 400 feet. In the next several weeks we will be taking a close look at the plans & construction drawing that are in the Planning Board/Building Dept. and compare these to what has actually been built.”
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September 20th 2007 - 22:38:02 |
that’s a shame
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September 20th 2007 - 23:10:52 |
hoboken411 wrote:
Yeh, they still haven’t finished the private park that will be on the roof between the two new towers.
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September 21st 2007 - 08:22:31 |
stopped off in the MP sales office and looked at the MODEL. The next pier project looks to be entirely cement – no green whatsoever except for a couple of shrubs that they call trees.
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September 21st 2007 - 10:54:28 |
homeworld wrote:
Stevens’ proposal for a soccer field and running track was at the Union Dry Dock site. The plan for this private athletic facility was to construct it on a platform over the Hudson River. To get an idea of the cost, take a look at the long-awaited Pier C Park at Hoboken’s south waterfront. This 2-acre park to be built in the Hudson River comes with a $20 million price tag! Stevens could not afford to build the soccer field/running track, could not afford to purchase the property from Union Dry Dock and would never have gotten the necessary approvals from the NJ Department of Environmental Protection. Stevens unrealistic proposal for Union Dry Dock collapsed; similarly, their proposal for the Maxwell House site also failed due the simple fact that Stevens could not afford to purchase this highly valuable waterfront site.
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September 21st 2007 - 13:19:02 |
Bottom line: citizen advocates (FBW in this case) fought for a public ammenity. The politicians take the credit. Happens all the time, but it doesn’t stop the true believers in public service from doing what they believe is right. Bravo, FBW!
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September 21st 2007 - 15:52:06 |
dough boy roberts is the biggest bs’ing blowhard
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September 21st 2007 - 16:27:13 |
“…Hine’s love for granite curbs.” Zing!
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September 21st 2007 - 17:03:45 |
Just a point: Mayor Roberts financed most of the people on the Hoboken City Council political campaigns under the name The Roberts Team.
Mayor Roberts appoints all but one of the people on the Planning Board and the CC appoints one of their own to the board.
Mayor Robert appointed all of the Zoning Board.
Is it any wonder why they “all worked together”
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September 21st 2007 - 17:09:25 |
What a riot! Does anyone in Hoboken think the park would even exist if FBW did not fight for it?
It is unfortunate that Mr Roberts’ love of concrete has clouded his vision for green spaces for people to enjoy.
…
“The City, not a conservancy, should operate and maintain City owned public spaces”.
Does anyone else smell astroturf?
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September 21st 2007 - 17:13:33 |
i know this site likes to break balls on the mayor but certainly he is right in the fact that this is a nice facility.
Also, that fact that we are getting him and other people from city hall here on Hoboken411 is a good thing… I dont think the best thing we can do is give these people a hard time every time he comes here…
A while back people were bitching that no one from the mayor office had any presence here.. A few weeks back the councilman for the ward that has church square park came in and gave the heads up about the astroturf… I think some people broke his balls too… When these people provide us information and we belittle them I it only promotes them to shutting us out.
One of the worst things I feel about Hudson county polictics is the disconnect between the elected and the people. When these guys make an effort to come here and bridge that gap we should give them a litle break..
In addition I think Mayor Robert’s comments about the park are fairly dead on.. I certainly am greatful for the fund for a better waterfront and I know they are a lot of reason why this park got built… But when you consider Shoprite Square Park
and other developer givebacks this park is really not that far from what was promised. if the biggest thing that got axxed is some granite peices got coverted into concrete I think we consider that a win…
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September 21st 2007 - 17:14:49 |
KenOn10 wrote:
dough boy is a real city slicker, he doesn’t like real grass or trees.
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September 21st 2007 - 17:20:42 |
This is the same Dave Roberts who promised we would have a re-creation of the Elysian Fields baseball diamond at Maxwell Place Park. When Toll told him they didn’t want it, Roberts caved. Now all we have is a plaque.
If it was up to Dave Roberts what we enjoy today as Pier A Park would be Pier A Office Tower.
FBW and Ron Hine led the charge against Dave Roberts and Senator Bernie Kenny when they wanted to allow the Port Authority to build a high-rise on Pier A. When the people voted for a park, Roberts’ political sugar daddy Kenny actually changed state law so nobody could ever do that to his Hoboken power structure again.
We have these parks in spite of the Mayor, not because of him.
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September 21st 2007 - 17:35:37 |
It IS a re-creation of the original Elysian Fields. Just a grassy field right?
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September 21st 2007 - 17:51:46 |
Let me get this straight…. I’m not supposed to bust on the mayor (who gave us Shoprite “park”) because he’s reaching out to us (in order to take credit for FBW’s efforts)? … okay, I’ll take it easy.
Red Haven wrote:
Spot on Red Haven.
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September 21st 2007 - 18:04:23 |
KenOn10 wrote:
I appreciated what Dawn Zimmer accomplished with the simple gesture of a wiffle ball game. But I think the real test of her meddle would be to see what she can come up with for more than 2 people to do in Shoprite Park.
btw, maybe a name change would help, like Shoprite Fields or Shoprite National Park.
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September 22nd 2007 - 10:54:26 |
The Mayor misses the point, for this is not about Ron Hine nor is it about who should manage the park. It is about inclusive government and good design.
The agreement by the developers to donate more than 1/3 of their land as public open space, thus creating Maxwell Place Park, is a remarkable achievement that we — the Mayor, Fund for a Better Waterfront (FBW) and the entire Hoboken community — should all be proud of. FBW hammered out this agreement with the original developers. It called for the entire cost of the project to be paid for by them and the annual maintenance to be covered by the revenue derived from this residential project. In this day of shrinking public dollars devoted to the creation of parks, this is a model that we should all learn from.
The original design by FBW’s planner and landscape architect would have made Maxwell Place Park the jewel in the crown of Hoboken’s waterfront parks. It is unfortunate that our Mayor is unable to recognize features that make the difference between great parks — Pier A Park for example — and one that is just mediocre. It is also unfortunate that he does not appreciate the value of working with the many citizens and civic groups in Hoboken that have played such a constructive role in the past helping our city create a waterfront that is today enjoyed and dearly loved by the entire community.
With the completion of Maxwell Place Park, the potential for making the proposed public park stretching along the entire length of our waterfront is now within reach. I urge our Mayor and City Council to work together with us and other passionately interested citizens to ensure that this concept, first proposed in 1990, becomes a reality and that it is done to a standard of which we can all be proud.
James D. Vance
President
Fund for a Better Waterfront
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September 23rd 2007 - 08:11:24 |
It did break my heart to see those old amazing great trees torn down. And I bet that small rock rip-rap on the beach could easily be moved away too. I bet in one day. I don’t think it would be hard to correct those two things if we try. We need a tree planting day… and…Lesson learned… I don’t think the developers should ever have the say in the final design process for the community.
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