Hands off our Hoboken Shangri-La

"Defend our ferries from Hoboken Leaders"? How about keeping your maintenance facility in Weehawken? 

"Defend our Ferries from HOBOKEN Leaders"- my tuchas!

NY Waterway's problem was not created by Hoboken. 

Once upon a time, Arthur Imperatore, the owner of NY Waterway, purchased two contiguous miles of Weehawken/West New York waterfront at a fire sale price.  In 1987, the New York Times wrote about Imperatore's vision of creating a "Shangri-La on the Hudson"

TRUCKER TURNED BUILDER:
ARTHUR E. IMPERATORE;
Creating Shangri-La On the Hudson

"Mr. Imperatore intends to build on two miles of land he owns that winds through Weehawken and West New York on the New Jersey banks of the Hudson River..... he bought the big parcel of riverfront land in 1981, when wild dogs roamed on it. He got it cheap - $7.75 million - from the liquidators of the Penn Central holdings, and has already watched it multiply many times in value. Since he bought the parcel, he has been moving to create what he refers to as a Shangri-La with a glorious view of the Empire State Building. People who know him are not surprised. He has never thought small."

Fine idea!

Imperatore is free to create his Shangri-La on his two contiguous miles of waterfront- with plenty of room to accommodate the auxiliary building he needs to operate his ferry business.  

Not Hoboken's problem. 

He's got a lot of nerve, trying to destroy our Shangri-La for his Shangri-La.

So instead of being called out on his crocodile tears, NY Waterway's owner has the silence of powerful elected officials-- not a single one of whom has stood up for Hoboken in this tug of war for the UDD property. 

GA is not talking about Phil Murphy, who appears to be wedged in the middle.

I'll tell you what provoked this post: Imperatore's obnoxious Facebook taunt to a Hoboken resident:

Facebook screenshot, courtesy of hMAG

Imperatore seems to know something the rest of us don't.  What would make him so confident that Hoboken "lost" a piece of our waterfront? What could he know?

Let's recap:

(1) The uber-wealthy owner of NY Waterway elects to shut down his own ferry maintenance facility in Weehawken, for  "Shangri-la on the Hudson."

(2) Then blames "Hoboken Leaders" when it was his own decision to oust his ferry maintenance  facility from Weehawken, crying that we threaten NY Waterway ridership. Chutzpah!!!  No, he booted his own ferry maintenance facility for "Shangri-la".  

(3) Hoboken Leaders defend our Shangri-La.  Hoboken leaders move to purchase the property to fulfill our city's vision of a contiguous public waterfront, and pass a resolution for eminent domain. In return, NY Waterway gets a sweetheart deal from state-owned NJ Transit, to block Hoboken from using eminent domain to buy the property.

(4) Except for  Hoboken's elected officials- no one appear to have our city's back.  Now why is that?

Why havent any of our powerful congressional representatives intervened for us? 

See below Imperatore's record of political contributions made to National Committees, PACS, political committees and joint fundraising committees-  at the federal level.

 

GA's conclusion: he's generous.  Included in the spectrum of Republicans and Democrats who have received Imperatore's individual contributions, some represent Hoboken!

• Congressman Albio Sires' Political Committees have received $4,000 in total.
• NJ Senator Bob Menendez has received $20,200 to his Senate Committees, and $1000 from Joint fundraising contributions, in total. 

Oh no! NJ Senator Cory Booker got ZERO! 

Note, other moneys may have been funneled to these candidates via PACs or IEs.   GA thought this one was interesting- Imperatore gave $2,500 to a PAC called Leadership Matters for America PAC Inc, and look who got that PAC's love: 

BLECH

So, what chance does Hoboken have to save our Shangri-La? 

One army has cash galore, spreads it like fertilizer, has powerful, politically connected lobbyists. (All perfectly legal.) 

The other army has PEOPLE.  Hoboken residents are our lobbyists. 

Stay tuned and see what we can do.