By Heather Gibbons | FBW | July 31, 2017 “This park is so beautiful!” marveled the young woman I met strolling along Hoboken’s northern waterfront with her family. They were visiting New York City from Alabama, and had taken the ferry over from New York to visit a friend. “We walked all the way [...]
Guests boarding the Classic Harbor Line's Manhattan II yacht. (Photo credit: Paul Schoenberger.) Larry Bijou of Bijou Properties with Tricia Hrotko, Heather Gibbons & Monica Pollock. (Photo credit: Frank DeGrim.) The Classic Harbor Line's Manhattan II yacht circling the Statue of Liberty. (Photo credit: Frank DeGrim.) Inside the [...]
FBW | March 1, 2017 On February 28, 2017, a three-judge Appellate Court panel in New Brunswick heard oral arguments in the six-year old legal battle over the Monarch Towers development proposed by the Shipyard Associates for a Hoboken pier. In 1997, the Hoboken Planning Board approved the 1160-unit Shipyard Planned Unit Development (PUD) [...]
This article is an excerpt from Reclaiming the Waterfront, A Planning Guide for Waterfront Municipalities published by the Fund for a Better Waterfront in August 1996. The street. It is the river of life of the city, the place where we come together, the pathway to the center. It is the [...]
Monarch Towers decision appealed to New Jersey Supreme Court. On August 21, 2017, the Fund for a Better Waterfront, Hudson Tea Building Condo Association, Hoboken Planning Board and City of Hoboken petitioned the New Jersey Supreme Court to review the August 3, 2017 decision of the Appellate Court that upheld automatic approvals for the Monarch [...]
FBW | December 8, 2016 Early in the next century, more than half of Hoboken will be under water. By then, sea levels in the New York-New Jersey-Connecticut region will have risen six feet, permanently flooding over 600,000 residents in coastal communities. As early as 2080, sea levels could be three feet higher filling [...]
Are you in the new flood zone? Use the FEMA address lookup tool for Region II to find out: Address Lookup FBW | December 6, 2016 Joan Golizio, age 81, lives at 625 Garden Street in Hoboken. She has lived on that block since 1957, nearly 60 years. She says the neighborhood has never [...]
Jane Jacobs helps explain: what makes a better waterfront? from Heather Gibbons on Vimeo. More videos
2016 FBW Riparian Award Recipient Renee Steinhagen from Betterwaterfront on Youtube. Related links Renee Steinhagen receives FBW 4th Annual Riparian Award More videos
Related links FBW Architect/Urban Planner Craig Whitaker More videos
Old Hoboken-HD (1080p) from Heather Gibbons on Vimeo. More videos
Planning Matters from Heather Gibbons on Vimeo. More videos
Update: The Hoboken City Council at its Monday, November 14th meeting in City Hall voted unanimously to reject the Monarch settlement after a long line of speakers opposed the deal. FBW | November 2, 2016 The City of Hoboken is ready to sign an agreement that showers tens of millions of benefits on brothers [...]
The City of Hoboken has acquired the BASF property for $30 million. Construction costs, including underground flood retention basins, will add an estimated $19.5 million. By Ron Hine | FBW | October 6, 2016 Nearly all of the great parks and most successful ones in this country are bounded by streets, [...]
FBW | September 1, 2016 From Hoboken’s award winning South Waterfront, one site remains an eyesore: the rear of the Hoboken Post Office with its loading dock and parking for postal vehicles. Along Sinatra Drive and Newark Street, there is no public sidewalk. The sidewalk at First Street is so narrow as to be [...]
FBW | September 21, 2016 During closed sessions at the last two Hoboken City Council meetings, attorney Joe Maraziti of Maraziti Falcon briefed the Council about settlement talks that have been underway between the City and developers Michael and David Barry. The developers have proposed to withdraw their proposal to build the controversial Monarch [...]
FBW | September 8, 2016 Since 1970, I have lived and/or worked in a low-lying neighborhood in Hoboken, New Jersey. The property I bought in 1979 faced Newark Street between Park and Willow Avenues. During a storm, especially at high tide, the street and sidewalk would fill with stormwater and sometimes sewerage as well. [...]
Detail from the Commissioner's Plan of 1811 for Manhattan. This plan was laid out over a hundred years before the last parcels were developed at the northern end of the island. This article is an excerpt from Reclaiming the Waterfront, A Planning Guide for Waterfront Municipalities published by the Fund for a Better Waterfront [...]
FBW | July 28, 2016 After Superstorm Sandy, the federal government initiated the Rebuild by Design (RBD) competition aiming to create model, innovative programs for making communities flood-resilient. The Hoboken area became the beneficiary of this program, being one of just ten sites selected in the northeast United States. The mostly Dutch-based OMA Team [...]
12-1-2016 Update: Oral arguments will be heard by Appellate Court Part G Room 1114, Veterans Courthouse, 11th Floor, 50 West Market Street, Newark, NJ on Tuesday, December 13, 2016 at 9:30 am before Judges Yannotti, Fasciale and Gilson. By Ron Hine | FBW | May 17, 2016 In December 2011, the New Jersey Department [...]
