IN THE DEAD OF WINTER, HOBOKEN CITIZENS CAME OUT- Mary Ondrejka, Neighbor
What is important to one person or group can sometimes cause much harm to many other people. The referendum put forth by the Board of Education, for a vote on January 25th, for the $241 million sports complex with a high school attached, to be built on the existing football field, had no public input and therefore was doomed to fail. The harm this project would cause? It was vast. The expensive, overly-large project would have cost taxpayers 30 years of debt with higher taxes and would push old-time homeowners and some tenants out of town. Columbus Park would be permanently harmed by a three- and five-story structure that would tower over it because it would be built smack dab right next to the park, crowding it and casting shadows over it all day. The hockey rink, which would have had to be raised 15 feet above street level due to the flood plain would be expensive to construct and maintain. (Ice is very heavy.) The existing football field would have to be dug up and who knows what toxic ground underneath would have to be remediated. They were not paying attention to that when the field was first built and as they say, when one opens Pandora’s Box, who knows what is lurking inside ready to come out. Sadly athletics was stressed over academics in the new proposed high school. A hockey rink, basketball court, Olympic-sized swimming pool and weight room were stressed as amenities for the building. Is this how you raise math and literacy test scores for Hoboken High School?
Since the Board of Education did not approach this project with what should take priority in a school, or did not bother to include the public in the planning of the school, the people of Hoboken took it into their own hands to vote the project down. The BoE underestimated the anger of the population of Hoboken regarding this secret expensive project and thought that their referendum, held in the dark, cold days of winter, would garner a low voter turnout to allow the ‘YES’ voters of the project to win. But the public had other ideas and they cared that the BoE created this project behind their backs, did not ask for their input and yet expected the public to accept it and pay for it. There was no open debate about what our school system really needs. How do we get the test scores up? What help do our students need? It certainly would not be a cavernous new hockey rink high school.
We will not be taken advantage of anymore. We will not be told what to accept because the political faction in power at the moment desires it. As I have said many times before, the declining Hoboken school population does not warrant any new additional school buildings to be built. They can work with what they have. This is the age of being ‘green’ and recycling. Remember buildings do not teach students. Teachers, parents, tutors and mentors do. Don’t worry the children will be fine.
