In addition to the residents, a few city officials who were in attendance could be seen paying close attention to urban planner Craig Whitaker's lecture on successful coastal planning and the ideology of public waterfront communities. Whitaker is an author, architect, and an adjunct professor of planning at New York University.
During his lecture, he emphasized the importance of public places at waterfronts and the negative impact of privatization of coastal properties. The waterfront, he said, belongs to the people.
"The problem is to make a public place out of something that was meant to be private," said Whitaker.
Right now, state law requires waterfront developers to contribute to part of an ongoing public walkway up the Hudson River from Bayonne to the George Washington Bridge. But some want to ensure better waterfront access than that alone.
As developers continue to build along the Hudson River's waterfront at a frenetic pace, civic groups are asking where the parks are, according to Waterfront Association president Robert Isaco.
"We did this to open a discussion with the City Council," Isaco said. "We're gaining lots of support from associations in Jersey City. This presentation was very successful. Now is the time to make changes."
But as development in the Newport area has already begun, Councilman Junior Maldonado said that making an immediate impact on developers' existing waterfront plans would not be easy.
"[Much] of the development is underway, but we're here listening and open to ideas," said Maldonado.
Isaco and members of the Waterfront Association decided to have the presentation last week, since the Queens-based Lefrak Organization, the developer of the Newport area on the waterfront, asked the City Council in December to let them amend the Newport Redevelopment Plan to add more office space in 31 acres of the Northeast Quadrant. The amendments were tabled by the City Council after Lefrak objected to some of the conditions by the city. Officials say discussions between the city and Lefrak are ongoing, but a vote on the amendments has not been set.
Ed Cortese, a spokesman for Lefrak, said he could not comment because nobody from Lefrak attended Tuesday's presentation.
In order to create a quality waterfront that is open to the public and still suitable to private residents, Whitaker suggested having the open space on the waterside and keeping the development across the street facing the water, as communities do in Miami Beach, Fla.
"The solution is quite simple," Whitaker said. "Have the buildings on one side and the people on the other."
After the slide presentation, several residents engaged in a question-and-answer session with Whitaker. Sam Pesin, president of the Friends of Liberty State Park, suggested the creation of a large public park in the waterfront.
Whitaker is better known for leading the planning team working with the Fund for a Better Waterfront in Hoboken. Other communities now look to Hoboken as a model for waterfront planning, Isaco said.
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