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THE NLTA WINS! TCR'S DOOMSDAY PLAN DEFEATED |
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Friday, 13 March 2009 |
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WE WON!
By this time you all have no doubt heard the news: a unanimous, 7-0, vote to deny TCR's plan the throw us out and tear Neumann down - the conclusion of eight months of hearings, and close to $40,000 in expenses on our side.
How sweet it is. The Board was clearly torn between a desire to see the Neumann eyesore cleaned up, on the one hand, and all our arguments about diversity, jobs, historic significance, and zoning-by- variance on the other. I believe they were really "on the fence" until we rolled out our heavy artillery on Thursday night. It was high drama at City Hall until the final vote came at 12:42 AM.
Thanks go to our lawyer, Ira Karasick, and our team of expert witnesses. They got caught up in our "cause," and performed above and beyond the call of duty. The members of the public who worked so
hard for us and spoke so eloquently on our behalf, too numerous to
mention individually, were truly angels from heaven. It would have been
a lonely battle if we'd had to go it alone. Special thanks to former
Council president. Rich DelBoccio, whose impassioned speech brought tears to the eyes of many in the audience.
And of course, thanks and congratulations to the Neumann tenants who
came to all those hearings, worked on publicity, engineered the highly
successful fundraiser at Maxwell's, made the display boards, paid all
those dues, etc. What a team! We are especially grateful to John Nastasi whos
in-kind contribution in producing our "hybrid, piazza" plan (soon to be
presented to the City Council) will be hard to match.
The Zoning Board has given Neumann a reprieve, in a way. The eyesore still needs to be addressed. A positive development needs to happen to recalibrate Neumann for the 21st century. We can't just sit and expect the Hoboken public to maintain its sympathy for us indefinitely. This is the task before us. While we celebrate our victory we have to remember that the war has not yet been won.
Tom Newman
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