Waterfrontin’

Hoboken has a sand beach, for goodness sake!

It’s probably not going to get the same kind of attention as crime and taxes and some of the other sexy issues in this year’s mayoral race, but citizen access to the Jersey City waterfront is a sad tale of missed opportunities and corporate and (local government) indifference. Compare the JC waterfront and the Hoboken waterfront when it comes to access, and you will find a drastic difference, a difference which should embarrass our city leaders.

If it weren’t for Liberty State Park (which is technically a state park) Jersey City would have exactly one public waterfront park (for a population of nearly 300,000). It took me a minute or two to get my brain around that one as I cycled from Chilltown to the MSqC today. You could probably fit all of Hoboken in Downtown JC, yet Hobo has done more to get its people access to the waterfront than Jersey City has by like 10 to 1. And I’m not talking about paved walkway. I’m talking about great lawns of grass and trees and actual separate jogging and cycling lanes.

You can take this ride yourself, and you will see. Grundy Pier at Exchange Place is the beginning and end of our waterfront park system. While we’ve been promised a small park in the shadow of the Goldman Sachs building and a pier park in Newport, we have gotten neither. With all the waterfront office and residential towers that have gone up in the nearly 20 years since Grundy Pier opened, not a single new public park has been built on the JC waterfront. As if to mock us, most of the private green spaces near the water feature “Keep off the grass” signs.

By contrast, Hoboken has the magnificent Pier A Park with a Great Lawn (my caps) and Sinatra Park with a public bathroom, kayak launch, a burger place and a full soccer field, open to the public. They’re building a Pier C Park just up the street. There’s even a beach, complete with trucked in sand. I watched a little kid dig up (pretty clean) sand and drive his dad crazy today.

Pier A Park's green expanse

There’s a lot I don’t like about Hoboken. They’ve run the city’s finances like a drunken politician on a Jersey Shore bender; they’re the capitol of clenched Yuppies and beer-bonging frat boys, and their streets are in general disrepair. Yet, they got it right when it came to waterfront access. (Hell, they have a skate park with a view of Manhattan that is breathtaking.)

Those of us of a certain vintage will recall that it took at least two referenda and stubborn community activism (Dan Tumpson!) to force the city to make a better deal for its residents when it came to their one true valuable natural resource. At one point in the late 80s/early 90’s it looked like the Port Authority was going to get control of the land. If that had happened, the Hoboken waterfront would’ve looked a lot like the concrete slab that is the JC waterfront. (There certainly wouldn’t have been a friggin’ skate park!)

Historic preservationists have saved some of our city’s great buildings and landmarks, but our open space advocates, not so much. Like I said, you’re probably not gonna hear a lot of talk about this during the upcoming election. Even our Downtown (Ward E) candidates will have little to say on the matter. But, so far, all we’ve gotten out of the last 25 years of waterfront boom is a few benches and a lot of brick pavers. Sadly, I think we’ve peaked.

There was supposed to be a park right here