PRESS Articles & Releases
Preservation
Coalition
March 16th - Coaltion meets with Mayor Cunningham and Conrail.
Coalition Members met with Mayor Glenn D. Cunningham and Conrail at City Hall on Tuesday, March 16th to discuss acquisition of the Embankment by the City for use as a public parkland and nature preserve. The Mayor announced that representatives of the state's Green Acres Program are committed to helping the city apply for and receive funding in the form of a 75 percent grant and a 25 percent loan to acquire the Embankment from Conrail. The Mayor asked the Embankment Preservation Coalition to serve on the steering committee to help guide the complex process of moving the Embankment from rail road property to public park. Following this meeting the city forwarded the Coalition's grant application to Green Acres, hopefully to be fast-tracked by the state.
March 12th - Mayor states he will condemn the Embankment Property to ensure it is preserved as a public park.
The Mayor took his committment to the Embankment to the next level publicly stating that he would take the Embankment by eminent domain for a public park.
See articles....
Jersey City Reporter: Sixth Street Embankment preservation moves forward
Jersey Journal: Flintkote Abatement Nixed. City will take Embankment
March 11th - City Council stands by the Embankment - Council members decline Steve Hyman's offer to trade his option to purchase the Embankment for a tax abatement on the Flintkote property. Junior Maldonado and others tell Mr. Hyman that they will stand by the historic landmark designation of the Embankment which they unanimously approved in January 2003. See articles:
Jersey Journal. A Night of Surprises at City Council
March 2004 - Jersey City ranks #3 Among Top Most Walkable Cities
Prevention magazine and the American Podiatric Medical Association have named Jersey City, NJ as the third most walkable city in the US – just behind #1New York, NY and #2 San Diego, CA.
The Prevention study considered the major US cities and then tabulated and weighed 20 criteria of interest to pedestrians, including crime, mass transit, air quality, and the number of historic sites, museums, and gyms. The 125 best cities for walking are ranked in the March issue of Prevention, and Jersey City comes in third (second in the Northeast, with the first being New York City).
The Embankment Preservation Coalition has worked to extend Jersey City's walkability: a street-level promenade to the waterfront along the base of the Embankment, and Embankment use as a segment of the East Coast Greenway. We applaud the Prevention ranking. We are working so that the next time this study is done, Jersey City will have its Embankment promenade and East Coast Greenway and may eclipse our neighbor across the Hudson in the rankings.
See http://www.prevention.com/cda/feature2002/0,2479,s1-6862,00.html? for the full article.
February 2004 - Embankment Preservation Coalition receives grant. The New Jersey Conservation Foundation awarded the Coalition a grant which will be used with matching funds from NY/NJ Baykeeper, to hire an Embankment acquisition consultant. The consultant, Andrew Strauss, AICP/PP, has extensive experience in complex planning and land use matters, including acquisition of abandoned railroad rights-of-way.