Anyone who doubts that Church Square Park has become artificial, over-landscaped and over-developed needs a bird's eye view of the space. That's what we got when we used a Google Earth satellite photo of Church Square to make a diagram of the recent changes and the space now devoted to different uses. Sure enough, dogs at present have more open space than people.
The diagram is available online at www.churchsquare.homestead.com for those interested.
For anyone too old for the playgrounds (age 8 to adults), Church Square now offers nothing other than lots of trees to look at and a tiny patch of AstroTurf the powers-that-be have granted us. There is no natural-grass place left for parents and kids to play catch, for singles to sunbathe or tossing a Frisbee. We're frankly fed up with politicians micro-managing our lives and dictating what we do and even where we play.
Four grassy areas in Church Square have been taken away from Hoboken's citizens today and from future generations, unilaterally, in the last four years. The most recent unwelcome and unauthorized alterations are the four trees planted last fall in the only remaining open natural grass space along Willow Ave.
The placement of these trees last autumn was done in an intentional manner to alter the existing use of this grassy area north of the dog run. It also decreased the amount of open and clear space to almost nothing.
The remedy is simple. The four trees in that grassy area should be moved into the dog run or as close as possible to the sidewalks that surround it. As simple as this solution is, it has been met with inaction (thus far) by the elected officials that we with many others have been lobbying for five months.
Politicians like to talk about compromise. The fact is Church Square Park has already been compromised enough. The former open natural grassy areas along 4th and 5th Sts. are compromised and gone, forever. Politicians, like AstroTurf, come and go. But trees can last a century or more.
The compromise for our elected officials is simple. Move all four trees or leave some or all of them where they are to become political monuments to an impractical, out-of-touch Administration and City Council. And just like trees, these are monuments that will only grow bigger each year.
Anyone who doubts that should look at the diagram.
Matt Losordo
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