Sept 2004 - Updated with new photos
In 1996, Schundler wanted to extend Jersey Avenue to Audrey Zapp Drive and Phillips Drive in Liberty State Park. This would require filling in the Morris Basin Canal, which is a wetland, or building a bridge over it at a cost of $2-$5 Million. In June 1996, The City Of Jersey City awarded Dames & Moore a $279,000 contract to secure the permits to fill in a portion of Mill Creek. The funding was paid by Jersey City property taxpayers, which is unprecedented. Usually state or federal funds finance highways. (See LINK - HART's web site for more details)
In the same area, Jersey City is building a new School 3 complex of 2 schools. The Elementary School is currently designed to cover 1.12 acres and educate 550 students with a staff of 82 and 64 parking spaces. The Middle School is designed on 7.81 acres, 775 students with 103 employees and 68 parking spaces. The razing of the properties on the site started in winter 2000.
The proposed School 3 complex site is the "Sabrett Site" bordered by
Grand Street to the south, Monmouth Street to the west and Bright Street to the
no
rth. The
south side is on Grand Street directly across the
treet from the proposed Jersey
City
Medical Center.
(Site is above).
The open field will have the new medical
center. The tall building in the background
is the Sabrett Site which will be torn
down for the new School #3.
<<<<<<<<<<< September 2004...
This is the school site
now under construction -
School should be
completed by September 2005...
The new 360 bed Jersey City Medical
Center with a
parking garage will be
bordered by Grand Street to the north, Jersey Avenue to the east and
Monmouth
Street to the west. The land was remediated, the site plan was approved April
2000,
and construction should begin by summer 2001.
September 2004- New JC Medical Center to the right
>> 
Next door is the "Liberty Harbor North site" which runs along Grand Street from Jersey Avenue to Grove Street. It skirts the Boys Club but basically goes south to the Light Rail alignment at what would be the extension of Morris Street to Jersey Avenue. It is 8 acres and owned by developer Peter Mocco. Hundreds of homes are projected to be built there and a lite rail stop has been built.
In addition, the $1.1 Billion Hudson Bergen Lite
Rail System, which began operating April 2000, crosses
Jersey Avenue at Aetna Street and continues to the Paulus Hook Area with a
scheduled train every 2 minutes at rush hour! Patients and visitors of the future JC
Medical Center who use HBLTR must cross Jersey Avenue to the hospital!
Imagine what the area of Jersey Avenue and Grand Street will be like with the 2 schools with 1325 students, 185 staff/teachers with their cars, dozens of school buses and the new Medical Center with their flow of patients and ambulances all in the same area! Add the danger of the HBLRT trains that cross Jersey Avenue as shown below. This was taken facing north on Jersey Avenue at the light before the new medical center on the left and the Jersey Avenue HBLRT stop on the right. The new PS #3 will be at the red brick building on the left side of photo.
Schundler's propaganda was his concern that the downtown people of Jersey City
have a direct route to Liberty State Park so they could ride their bikes
there! Can you imagine any parent wanting their kids biking in that kind of
congestion. The Mayor consistently used his daughter's right to bike to LSP as the
reason for the extension! Sad but he always uses his daughter for all
his battles, as if we're going to roll over and play dead when he does. Of course, Downtown
Councilman Mariano Vega, who is a candidate on Glenn Cunningham's mayoral ticket,
concurred but
that's nothing new since he agrees with
whatever Schundler wants, safety
hazard or not…
Within a month of operation of HBLRT system at another stop: " Light rail car crash hurts one… New system has first accident", JJ 5/12/00. "Rail gates urged for the MLK light rail crossing" … "We do not need more studies on this matter. We need action now." Bret Schundler, Jersey City mayor", JJ 6/24/00. In the article "Schundler said in a prepared statement Friday that he is "committed to getting NJ Transit to install gates at the intersection." (Update 2/27/01, no gates have been installed)
CRAJAE, "Citizens & Residents Against the Jersey Avenue Extension" activist group, of which I was a founding member, did the research and questioned city officials only to be continually lied to. We wrote a letter to Mayor Schundler asking for an explanation of the Dames & Moore contract and the intent to extend Jersey Avenue. Millennium Man 2001 Kevin Sluka, Director of Public Works, wrote back on behalf of the Mayor, and denied the extension. Upon receipt of Sluka's letter, I picked up a copy of the ordinance which clearly stated the funds were to obtain all permitting for the extension and the request was signed by Sluka! Lies, lies, lies and more lies….. (see
LINK for the letter and ordinance). Kevin Sluka is running for mayor. Remember this on Election Day, May 8th.What could be worse planning? This is all new construction and had we at CRAJAE not stepped in and plowed through all the plans, maps, lies and inaccurate information and pieced it all together, we'd have at least a 2 if not 4 lane highway extending Jersey Avenue from the park into our congested neighborhoods! All this so suburbanites could bypass the turnpike traffic and take a short cut through our neighborhoods to the tunnel and waterfront?
This is what happens when you have a mayor who lays off 75% of the Planning Department in 1994 and is more concerned with winning suburbanite votes than the SAFETY of SCHOOL CHILDREN, HOSPITAL CLIENTS & GUESTS and residents. To this day, I hear repeatedly, Schundler is still pushing for this extension. If he had any bonding capacity left, he'd probably build the bridge so as to avoid the Corp of Engineers' mandatory public hearings. Maybe all along he wanted it for the NYC tourists travelling to the LSP Waterpark to have easier access to the Holland Tunnel by cutting through our neighborhood? (see Waterpark
for Liberty State Park )
FOR MAIN TOPICS, CLICK BELOW