True `open space update'

11/25/2006 HR

Dear Editor:

Dave Roberts likes to claim credit for things that he had nothing to do with. For example, in his last campaign, he listed the automated garage at 916 Garden St. as one of the accomplishments of his first administration, while it is common knowledge that it was initiated by the administration that preceded his. (I'm wondering, considering the cur-rent state of affairs at the garage, if it's still some-thing he wants to have on his resume.)

The recent brochure about the Southwest Redevelopment Plan that was mailed to us by the Office of the Mayor, amongst other distortions and bogus claims (the new toddler' park at Church Square Park as "completed open space"?), lists "new basketball & tennis courts" at Columbus Park as part of the "Open Space Update". To begin with, for those who do not know, Columbus Park is a county park, not a city park, and the courts .were already there, albeit in a terrible state of disrepair. Yes, they were rebuilt this past summer, but it was part of an ongoing project to rebuild courts in all the Hudson County parks. The City of Hoboken had nothing to do with it.

Mr. Roberts could have had some positive involvement on the project, however, if he had made an effort, as he had been asked to do by members of the tennis community, to get the county to schedule the work during the off-season. (The project has been on the drawing board for a couple of years.) Instead, the work was started last May, just when it had gotten warm, and although it was only supposed to take six to eight weeks, was not completed until early October, having stopped completely for several weeks during the middle of the summer. As a result, there were no public tennis courts available in Hoboken for the entire summer of 2006. Was the Mayor even paying attention? Somehow 1 doubt it. But now he wants to take credit for the beautiful new courts.

As a footnote, being a diehard tennis player myself, I recently went out to play in the 50 degree weather, and was very dismayed to find a group of kids playing softball on one of the courts, hitting heavy balls into the brand new net and throwing their metal bats onto the nice new surface. I told them they shouldn't be playing softball there, and in typical Hoboken fashion, they told me tb take a hike (in so many words). I asked them why they couldn't move over to the High School field, and they said they weren't allowed to play there, and that there was nowhere else to go.

This is the true "Open Space Update".

Steve Kosmacher