Here’s a look at today’s news around Hoboken:
Morning Rush: Wednesday, Aug. 15
by Craig
Wednesday August 15, 2007, 8:02 AM
The saga of trying to get a public entrance created at a public park takes another twist; and, in other park news, the “turf war” at Church Square Park continues; and local experts weigh in on how the subprime loan mess will affect the real estate market.
The strange story of the public park at Maxwell Place keeps getting stranger. Hoboken411 has video of workers delivering cinderblocks to the site, presumably to seal up the public entrance that was created just a couple weeks ago.
If you haven’t been keeping up, here’s the story in a nutshell. Mayor David Roberts says when Toll Brothers built this development, they promised to include a public park. And they did — only without a street-side public entrance. Most people walking by probably assume that the triangular-shaped lawn next to Maxwell Place (and surrounded by a low concrete wall and topped with an iron fence) is for the pleasure of the well-heeled residents of the development, not the hoi polloi. At the end of July, workers removed a big section of the concrete wall and fence for a street-side entrance, and then a few days later Roberts and Toll Brothers held a press conference to announce it. The very next day, Construction Code Official Al Arezzo ordered Toll Brothers to put up massive concrete blocks at the new entrance, saying they didn’t have a permit to do the work. Then, Toll Brothers replaced the blocks with trees in planters. Earlier this week, Roberts says, Arezzo threatened Toll Brothers again, saying he would issue a stop work order for the entire Maxwell Place project unless they sealed up the entrance. Yesterday, workers brought a big stack of cinderblocks and left them at the entrance.
Hoboken Now and The Jersey Journal have repeatedly tried to get Arezzo’s side of the story, but he’s always either “out of the office” or “on vacation.” We’ll try again today, as usual.
Some questions you may be asking: Why is a construction code official more powerful than the mayor? Why is Arezzo so concerned with keeping a public park away from the public? What is the City Council doing about this? We’ll keep trying to get the answers, but in the meantime, remember — that is a public park. If you feel like using it, go ahead!
Meanwhile, at Church Square Park, residents continue to complain about the synthetic lawn installed in the northeast corner of the park. In today’s Jersey Journal, residents again said they’re unhappy that the artificial turf was installed without consulting the community first.
“In the future, we will not touch a public park without a forum or putting a bulletin board up,” Mayor Roberts told the newspaper. “There will be no changes made to any public park inHoboken without public involvement.”
Finally, Jarrett Renshaw has a column today about how the subprime lending market collapse will affect the real estate market. Renshaw reports as many as 1 in 5 people who were given adjustable-rate mortgages with low introductory rates will eventually wind up in foreclosure as the rates go up. That will not only put more properties on themarket, but there also will be less buyers — since mortgage brokers are now being a lot more cautious about loaning money.
So what does this mean for Hoboken? Maybe not much. Renshaw reports there weren’t many subprime loans issued to Hoboken buyers over the last few years, relative to what was happening elsewhere in the state. Of course, Hoboken residents looking to one day move out to a three-bedroom in the ‘burbs will certainly want to keep an eye on the state’s overallhousing market.