The City of Hoboken launched an online survey today to kick off the public planning process for improvements to Tom Olivieri Park, a 5,000 square foot green space located near the corner of 13th Street and Willow Avenue.
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
“Tom Olivieri Park is loved by many, providing critical open space for residents of all ages. But due to frequent use, and wear and tear, it’s clear that some upgrades are needed to ensure it continues to meet the needs of our community,” Mayor Ravi Bhalla said in a statement.
“I encourage everyone to share their feedback and ideas to help us create a revitalized park that continues to be a space for residents to gather and children to play.”
The survey is here and is scheduled to close on Friday, January 24th at 6 p.m.
Public feedback from the survey as well as future community meetings and stakeholder engagement sessions will be used to determine improvements to the park, which was last updated in 2014.
The park, formerly known as Legion Park, was renamed Tom Olivieri Park in 2019 to honor its namesake, Teofilo “Tom” Olivieri, who was one of the City’s first tenants’ rights activists.
Today, the park includes a playground, spray park, a mature tree canopy, and passive space as well as two murals which will remain at the park.
The murals, which were approved by the Hoboken Arts Advisory Committee, include Flight by Rorshach as well as a mural honoring Olivieri designed and painted by his son Teofilo Olivieri, Ray Guzman, and other community members.
The renovation of the park will increase accessibility and could include a number of improvements such as new furniture, improved landscaping, new playground equipment, upgraded spray park, updated lighting, a bathroom, and more.
The city will be applying for Green Acres funding to construct the improvements identified by the community and designed by the City’s project consultant, Arterial.
For additional project and grant application information on the project, click here.
How about instead of issuing pointless survey to improve or build new parks, we actually fix and maintain our existing and build our promised parks?
Church Square Park is a mess and we all know the safety issues with it, NW park is still under construction and the splash area fountains are still broken due to pipes bursting because the city failed to winterize it last year (they blamed it on the earthquake – LOL), and walk along the waterfront and check out the state of the railings and such. Maritime Park is a pipe dream, there’s been nothing done to even start or update us on 800 Monroe, the downtown community center (with pool that was also promised in 3 of the 4 final designs at 800 Monroe), and the SW Park expansion is dead.
Ravi loves to spend money on architects, marketing, and PR firms to make it look as easy things are actually getting done when, in reality, he’s just wasting our money n promoting his obviously failed political career.
He needs to get out of politics, back on good graces with / reinstated to the NJ and NY bars who censured and suspended his license for unethical behavior and failure to maintain state standards.
Most everyone can finally seen what many of us have known for years: Ravi is racist and vengeful who has only played the victim and virtue signaled in a pathetic attempt to get to DC or even Trenton. He needs to go back to ambulance chasing and anti capitalist lawsuits which suit both his “talents” and his personality – or, more accurately, lack thereof – much better.
Most people think it is a private space for the residents of the low income housing block south of it.
The should ask architect Dean Marchetto of MHS which has it’s MHS office is in the converted church just north of it and obviously should be involved. MHS is a long time high end Hoboken firm building many projects here and have the vested interest in further improving their neighborhood.