Photo credit: Sophia Castiglione
Kate Jacobs, co-owner of Little City Books, talked about her Aunt Jane to start off Hoboken Jane’s Walk 2026. Jane Jacobs wrote her seminal book, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, in 1961 citing many examples from her West Village neighborhood in Manhattan. But she could have been describing densely populated Hoboken, with its rows of walk-up residential buildings built more than 100 years ago, interspersed with ground-floor shops, cafes, bars and restaurants.
Photo credit: Sophia Castiglione
At First Street and Park Avenue, tour leader — FBW Executive Director Ron Hine — talked about how Hoboken’s character was formed throughout the 1800s and early 1900s, following Col. Stevens’ original plan with its uniform public street grid and clearly defined lot lines. Stevens’ plan became part of Hoboken’s DNA.
Col. Stevens’ original 1804 plan for Hoboken was handed out to tour participants as it designated the blocks and (small) lots for future development and fundamentally shaped Hoboken’s character. The greatest amount of public space in any city is accounted for with its public right of ways — its streets and sidewalks.
Photo credit: Sophia Castiglione
The tour stopped at Church Square Park established in the 1804 plan. What surrounds public parks — in this case two schools, a library, a church, residential & retail — is equally important as the park itself. Those buildings/uses define & frame the park. The massive London Plane trees were planted when the park was first built and are thus over 100 years old.
Photo credit: Sophia Castiglione
In the 1960s, the City of Hoboken undertook an urban renewal project typical of that era that destroyed three historic blocks between 1st & 4th, River & Hudson. What took its place — Marine View Towers/massive parking garages — ran counter to Hoboken’s scale and character. Jane Jacobs was harshly critical of these urban renewal projects that decimated entire neighborhoods.
Photo credit: Sophia Castiglione
FBW’s Plan for the Hoboken Waterfront has shaped the development of Hoboken’s waterfront carving out a space for the public along the water’s edge: a continuous, public waterfront park. Hine explained that the key to the success of this plan was extending the traditional public street grid to the waterfront, clearly delineating the public park from the private upland development. Other Hudson River waterfront municipalities failed to do this, allowing private developers to drive the planning process.
Photo credit: Sophia Castiglione
Tour leader Ron Hine described in detail the landscape plan for South Waterfront created by Henry Arnold, a landscape architect with an international reputation who wrote the book: Trees in Urban Design. The design created a passive park with an emphasis on green space: rows of canopy trees (nearly 200 London Plane trees) and an expansive lawn on Pier A.
Photo credit: Sophia Castiglione
At 2nd and River Street, the City’s ill-conceived 24-story proposal for Garage B (seen in background) — including a 17-story parking garage — was discussed.
FBW’S Plan for Lower Hudson Street was also handed out for tour participants, showing a rational alternative for what the City has proposed. FBW’s plan respects the building heights of surrounding structures and includes surrounding parcels that were included in the City’s redevelopment area designation. (For more information see https://betterwaterfront.org/a-plan-for-lower-hudson-street/.)
Hudson Square South and North plus Garage D (between 2nd & 4th, River & Hudson) have blank walls facing the street. The Hudson Square buildings have front doors facing interior courtyards. This is contrary to Hoboken’s character and is in opposition to what Jane Jacobs described — active streetscapes — that enliven neighborhoods.
