by Josh Payne
NARR: Today's Hoboken looks nothing like the gritty underworld potrayed in Elia Kazan's film, "On the Waterfront." Over the past decade, Hoboken has gained an award-winning public lawn, a skate board park, and a walking path on the Hudson. The docks once inhabited by longshoremen are now home to strolling families and joggers. Omayra Castro was born in Hoboken and still lives here. She remembers the drab waterfront of her childhood.
TAPE: CASTRO: The waterfront was pretty, somewhat gloomy. Um, it was gray. It was, um, sometimes a little
on the dirtyish side.
NARR: Castro can hardly believe how her city has changed. Much of this progress is due the Fund for a Better Waterfront, a non-profit group. In 1990 The Fund was created by citizens who organized to fight the commercial development of Hoboken's southern docks. The Fund won, and designed their own plan for a continuous park along the river. Two years later, they defeated a proposed 30-story office building with a public referendum, and that site became a five-acre lawn. Now, Ron Hine, the Fund's director, is fighting again. Stevens Institute of Technology plans to build a four-story, 725-car garage facing the river. Hine is incredulous.
TAPE: HINE: One of the worst uses you could possibly come up with is a mega garage. You know, a massive parking garage facing the waterfront. So instead of offices and classroom space facing the waterfront,
they're giving views to automobiles. It just makes no sense.
NARR: It makes perfect sense to Stevens, which has a high number of commuters in its students body. Hine says he's not opposed to the garage, but wants it to be hidden from the waterfront Fund. His fund even paid for architectural plans showing ways to mask the garage, but Stevens was unpersuaded. Henry Dobbelaar, vice president of facilities and construction management director at Stevens, thinks the garage will be an asset.
TAPE: DOBBELAAR: Everybody forgets that what Stevens does that enhances their facility, enhances Hoboken.
NARR: Hine took his case to city hall, but officials are backing Stevens. Hine expected as much.
TAPE: HINE: Developers have a lot of money. They have a lot of influence in local government. They contribute very heavily to political campaigns and it's very difficult for a civic group to compete with that.
NARR: So he's been fighting through the zoning board with some success. Omayra Castro is not surprised at the behavior of one of her lifelong neighbors.
TAPE: CASTRO: Stevens has always been in their own little world. I've never - growing up I never noticed them being around. Only that I knew there was a mysterious place in the uptown of Hoboken that there was a university. But there was never any type of interaction with the community.
NARR: For now, the Fund's lawyers have forced Stevens to reconsider their proposal based on a zoning technicality. Hine says that Stevens proposal will not be approved at the final zoning board meeting scheduled for February 23rd. Through public referendums, effective litigation, and non-stop advocacy Hine has proven himself a contender in the fight for Hoboken's waterfront.
For Columbia Radio News, I'm Josh Payne.
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