Bhalla invites NY Waterway officials to discuss Union Dry Dock at Hoboken public meeting

7

Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla has invited New York Waterway officials to publicly discuss their plans to turn Union Dry Dock into their ferry maintenance and refueling station.

A rendering from New York Waterway of what their ferry refueling and maintenance site would like like at Union Dry Dock.

By John Heinis/Hudson County View

“I believe it is critical to be as open and transparent with the public as possible. As I communicated to you via email, I applaud Council President Jen Giattino’s decision to deny your request to present your proposed renderings of a refueling station at a closed session of the City Council, without any members of the public permitted to attend,” Bhalla wrote in a letter today addressed to NY Waterway President Arthur Imperatore and NYW Chair Armand Pohan.

“Previously, I understand you presented your proposed renderings at another closed door, private meeting with undisclosed participants – yet another attempt to shut out the public.”

As Hudson County View first reported, NY Waterway first presented their Union Dry Dock at the Elks Club on April 17th.

They made a pitch to make a similar presentation to Wednesday’s council meeting on May 1st, but as Bhalla noted, Giattino rejected it based on the fact it would be during closed session and would therefore involve no public input.

Instead, the mayor is calling for a community Town Hall meeting to address this subject head on next week.

“In the interests of transparency, I am willing to host a town hall meeting in Hoboken for New York Waterway, where you can present your renderings and plans to the public so residents are given an opportunity to offer you feedback,” he continued.

“My office would be glad to assist and offer a third party to moderate the forum. Please let me know if you can join the Hoboken community the evening of Thursday, May 9 at 7:00 p.m. We also extend this invitation to members of the Governor’s staff should they wish to join.”

A spokesman for NY Waterway did not immediately return an email on Friday.


Warning: A non-numeric value encountered in /home/hcvcp/public_html/wp-content/themes/Hudson County View/includes/wp_booster/td_block.php on line 353

7 COMMENTS

  1. Governor Phil Murphy, even with Ravi Bhalla’s change of heart comments that he stands with Hoboken on Union Dry Dock remains silent. In fact, he’s said next to nothing about the matter and offered absolutely nothing to give Hoboken hope.

    So, the idea of inviting NY Waterway to make public remarks while nice is pretty meaningless since they’ve already won and own the property.

    Just tell us what’s the deal done already Ravi. Did you get them to expand the walkway on that side a few feet? Other than that, Hoboken isn’t entitled to dispossess NY Waterway off the site no matter how much anyone wishes.

    • If the past is any indication, all NYWW has to do is ask Ravi for a legal referral, some lobbyists phone #’s and who to make the campaign donation cheques to and Ravi won’t just invite them to a meeting….Ask the Barry’s, NJ Transit and his many developer friends he is seen dining with around Hoboken under the guise they are long personal friends… Yeah right!

      Zimmer spent 8 years delaying the Suez payments, negotiating with Union Dry Dock ( the FBW warned her instead the Shadow talked trash about FBW’s leader due to a long personal vendetta against him… ), exploiting Storm Sandy, destroying Washington Street and causing overages on the Southwest PLAZA.
      Dawn’s legacy will be Pier Development and a Ferry fueling station. Oh and a bunch of settled lawsuits due to sloppy terminations of 2 Hispanics…

    • Unfortunately Fisher, Giattino and DeFusco, with the encouragement and support of the FBW blocked Hoboken’s ED process for just long enough for the sale to NYWW to be completed. Hoboken is still paying the price for their stuoid political game playing, but kudos to Mayor Bhalla for taking the high road and working with them to fix the problem rather than pointing fingers no matter how well deserved.

        • Thank you for weighing in Lewis. With 20/20 hindsight, do you think Councilwoman Fisher regrets her leading role in delaying Hoboken’s ED until after the sale to NYWW was completed? It seems like a pretty big mistake she ought to be taking responsibility for, don’t you think? We’ll never know for sure how damaging her actions were – path not taken – but certainly she must now recognize that her mistake damaged the City’s position.

        • L&C remind us how the Trumpers always shriek “Hillary, Benghazi, Uranium One!” when asked to explain the latest outrage of their Dear Leader. Never seen a group that so loved chattering online and so feared actually addressing the content of comments they replied to.

  2. It was no secret that Union Dry Dock was for sale. Zimmer tried to low ball the price and she got beat. Ravi did nothing. UDD followed the rule of law and sold the property for a use tht is clearly permitted under the Hoboken Master Plan. Now Ravi wants to pretend that he did everything possible to stop NYWW from using it’s property. How many deals were discussed between UDD and NYWW? We have a right to know what Ravi has discussed with NYWW and when/if he had those discussions. We also have a right to know what conversations Zimmer had with NYWW. I think NYWW should file suit against the City of Hoboken so that the public can find out what it’s elected officials have been promising behind closed doors.

LEAVE A REPLY