The
Neumann Leathers Tenants Association has been formed to protect,
sustain and encourage the entrepreneurial, inventive and creative
culture that exists at the Neumann Leather complex, which has played
such an important historical role for the city of Hoboken, New Jersey
for well over two decades.
Located
on Observer Highway at the corner of Willow Avenue, we are a mixture of
artists and artisans, craftspersons and professionals, and creative
technology-based small businesses. We have joined together because we
are concerned about the continued elimination of the industrial
buildings that once were at the heart of Hoboken's industrial base and
which now provide an economical support base for this creative
community.
Wide-sweeping
housing development has, over the last 25 years, brought either the
demolition or conversion of historical industrial buildings, which were
once a central part of the city's history for well over 100 years. One
of the last few structures, the Neumann Leather complex, remains as a
small island that supports Hoboken's tradition as a center for arts and
industry.
Our
interest, as Hoboken continues its over-development, is self-evident.
We want to protect and preserve this important arts and entrepreneurial
business complex, not just for ourselves, but for what Neumann provides
for the city at large-a thriving creative community that drew
developers to this city in the first place, yet who now, ironically,
threaten to destroy the very identity that continues to make Hoboken so
attractive. We also want to protect ourselves as a business community,
as we provide unique and interesting jobs for residents of Hoboken and
its immediate neighbors.
In
recent decades Hoboken led the country in providing a variety of
affordable housing projects aimed at preserving the ethnic and economic
diversity of its population. In a similar way, we need to make it a
goal to preserve the diversity of land uses that has formed our
history. We ask the City of Hoboken to take positive steps to join us
in this vision, through its various governmental powers and through
programs that that will encourage and reward the protection of
locations that support arts and industry.
We
are here to publicize, mobilize and help plan projects that will
protect and preserve the Neumann complex, for ourselves and for our
community at large. We invite you to join us.
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