Money spent on a new park, that was built very quickly all the while the rest of city parks becomes shitty

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And this surprises you? I get it all the time on here... If you live in Greenville you must be a drug addict or can not afford to live any place else. JClisters are notorious for injecting their judgments...

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Any park that takes or has ever taken state green acres money for anything has agreed to make the park open to the public. There are few who can resist the sweet flow of free green state money. Which is not to say there are not signs discouraging non-residents, only that once a municipality has suckled from the teat of state funding their parks are open to the public.

In the article it states that a school from Hoboken will use the park. In some towns in N.J. you have to be a resident to enter a local park.

Hey, it only took six posts for an article about a new park to turn into a race discussion. Way to go JCList!


Regarding the actual park, this quote struck me:

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What's hilarious is that the beautifully lush lawn at Newport Green is actually artificial turf. Still not a whole lot of natural grass over there. (Insert your own pot-dealer joke here.)

It's a private park. Stevens uses it for recess time, but it's no different than what happens to all the parks in JC in Hoboken during recess/lunch. It's not like they close the park so the Stevens kids use it and not let anyone else in.

The park is great. And I'm actually happy that it's a private park because there's plenty of security guards patrolling the area and NO DOG POOP! I also see lots of people maintaining the park and picking up garbage.

yeah, when I hear "urban kid," I think of my friends' children, who have everything but a lawn. it may have once meant "inner-city kid," but no more.

Agreed, but to your point it no longer really means that, at least in the NYC area where urban basically now means "gentrified or about to be gentrified". That's why I was pushing Frankie's buttons.

Ironically, Newport doesn't even have a white majority. It's about 80% (!!) Asian.

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Since the 1970s, "urban" has been a coded synonym to mean black, and too a lesser extent hispanic. Its a misappropriation of word that substituted for uglier phrases.

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Are white and urban mutually exclusive adjectives? The West Village is pretty darn white; does that mean it is no longer urban?

You've lost me...

With the rapidly changing demographics of cities, "urban kids" will fast becoming a code word for "rich kids" or "future trust fund babies"

"Urban kids" should not be considered code words for people of any particular race or color. While the outdoor space at Newport is indeed woefully inadequate for the population density over there, there's nothing wrong with providing play space to kids who live at Newport -- regardless of their ethnic origin.

Its Lefrak's park. There is with that park what you would call an open public invitation. Its there as much to attract customers to the stores in the Newport buildings as it is for the residents of Newport. Its unlike the Newport dog park in that users of the dog park are expected to be residents of the Newport buildings.

The interesting part about this is New Jersey court rulings dealing with the relationship between public and private space. Perhaps because the state has such a mall culture, we have had one of the most progressive court rulings regarding privately held public space. In essence, since malls have become de facto town squares, the court has said free speech rights must be protected and allowed within private property. There is probably a solid argument to extend these protections to private parks like those in Newport, and certainly to the private shopping plaza in front of the Shore building.

http://www.casebriefs.com/blog/law/pr ... east-v-j-m-b-realty-corp/

So is this a private park or a public park? The private schools seems to be using it for gym classes and recess. I've also seen private, for-profit lessons being advertised for park activities after school and on weekends. It doesn't seem like this space will be available on a regular basis for area kids that aren't affiliated with private, for-pay entities.

Kind of defeats the whole premise of a park for "urban kids."

Who is overseeing permits for use? Who is maintaining the park?

There are a lot of PATH access vents on this portion of the property, I wouldn't be surprised if they would have had trouble with driving piles over a portion of this area.

I heard or read somewhere there use to be an actual beach down here on Danforth... anyone old enough to know about that?

there's some in JC's water that makes city and state planners slow imo. i remember calling the city and saying that they should close off the street in front of duane reade at GROVE PLAZA. I was told that couldn't happen because of the buses. but ultimately, they did close off that street and cover it up and it looks so much nicer.

Gov. Chris Christie and U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez on Thursday afternoon officially opened a 4-acre ?urban beach? in the Jersey City development of Newport, overlooking the Hudson River.
Invoking his infamous warning that residents seek shelter ahead of Hurricane Irene, the Republican governor told the crowd of developers and politicians to ?get the hell on the beach.?
?This is a perfect example of what can be done when visionary members of the private sector work with the public sector who believe government can have a role,? he said.
Menendez, a Democrat, noted that federal dollars helped build the development, which includes hotels, commercial space, office buildings and apartment towers with more to come. "It's a legacy for the entire nation to observe," he said.
Menendez said his kids, raised nearby, would have liked a place like Newport Green, with its playground and carousel, to play. ?There was no park like this in Union City at the time,? he said.
The LeFrak family started building the 400-acre development under the Gov. Tom Kean administration, when blighted warehouses dotted the riverbank. Richard LeFrak and his sons Harrison, who sat on Christie?s economic development transition committee, and Jamie were there for the ribbon cutting. LOL good stuff...

Thats a lot of white kids in that photo of a park intended to benefit "urban youth".

One thing is very clear after living here for nealry 10 years. The word "Foresite" was removed from the JC playbook decades ago and there is no sign of it returning. The utter lack of city planning here is conteptuous, embarrassing, and boneheaded.

Has anyone had the luxury of dealing with the building dept in JC? I swear universities who specialize in Urban & Regional Planning should use it as a posterchild of how NOT to do things. No accountability, just corruption, nepotism and cronyism.

The entire Embankment fiasco is a perfect example. They let it go for a song when the residents (ones with foresight and brains) screamed fowl. Now, years later, the light bulb finally went off and the city is having to spend millions to get it back.

is it a private park?

I've been to this park, and it does liven up that barren stretch between Newport and Hoboken. But yeah, drop in the bucket, space-wise.

Whoopie! So Newport, a high rise city unto itself, is very proud of finally having a park the size of Hamilton Park, that serves a neighborhood of brownstones and is heavily used. That's 4.5 acres of park for 5000 homes (going up to 9000). They should be embarrassed, not proud.

Gov. Chris Christie and several metro area athletes, including former New York Giants running back Joe Morris and former New York Mets star Mookie Wilson, visited Jersey City yesterday to commemorate the opening of Newport Green, a new, 41/2-acre park in the city's Newport section.
Christie and Morris said the park, which includes an observation scope, an urban beach and a large playground, will help urban children get the outdoor exercise they need.
"We all have memories of things we did as children. These children will have memories of this park," said Christie. "We know when we revitalize urban areas of New Jersey, we revitalize New Jersey."
Morris noted that when he grew up in North Carolina, he spent plenty of time outside. He said many kids who grow up in urban areas are missing this important activity.
"One kid told me, 'I don't know what grass is.' It's really sad," said Morris. "It made us better natural athletes, being outside all the time. That makes this special."
Nearby Stevens Cooperative School in Hoboken will use the park during gym classes for their students.
Stevens spokeswoman Wendy Eaton said the park is a wonderful place for the kids' physical education classes.
"It's a big priority at Stevens -- rest and play. It's fantastic."

JJ