Our 1990 “Power Walk” along Hoboken’s derelict waterfront

by Ron Hine | February 23, 2026

“Want to Change Your Neighborhood? Start with a Power Walk.”  That was the title of a New York Times article published on February 17, 2026. It told the story of Rosa Chang and her campaign to transform nine neglected acres below the Brooklyn Bridge into Gotham Park. During the 1980s, this stretch of Lower Manhattan had fallen into disrepair and was largely closed to the public. The area sits amid some of the city’s defining landmarks — Chinatown, South Street Seaport, One Police Plaza, City Hall, and Pace University. The article included a video interview by Times architecture critic Michael Kimmelman, in which Ms. Chang explained how she’s helping bring this space back to life and restore public access to this once-derelict site.

Her story echoes what we experienced in Hoboken decades earlier.

During the 1980s, Hoboken’s waterfront was in similar decline. Abandoned maritime industries had left behind rotting piers and empty warehouses — tangible reminders of a once-thriving port city. Most of the shoreline was fenced off and inaccessible. Yet, amid the decay lay a once-in-a-century opportunity to redefine Hoboken’s relationship with the river.

In 1989, the City of Hoboken and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey proposed a massive redevelopment: a 33-story office tower on Pier A and half a million square feet of housing on Pier C. Many residents were alarmed. The project felt out of scale with Hoboken’s historic character and threatened to wall off the public from the waterfront.

Galvanized, local citizens petitioned to put the City’s agreement with the Port Authority to a vote. In a July 1990 referendum, Hoboken voters overturned the deal — clearing the way for a new vision.

Our “power walk” took place shortly after that election victory. Climbing over rubble and upended slabs of concrete, I joined three architects and a landscape architect, all Hoboken residents except one — Craig Whitaker. To me, the prospect of transforming a mile-and-a-half of derelict shoreline was daunting, but my colleagues were undeterred.

Afterward, we went out for drinks to speculate about what could be done. Craig, who taught urban design at NYU and had served as principal architect for the unbuilt Westway project in Manhattan, warned that the Port Authority’s plan would privatize the waterfront. A few weeks later, he returned to Hoboken with a slide lecture showing how cities had evolved in the 19th and 20th centuries — and how successful waterfronts around the world shared one thing in common: they were public.