Hudson TV received the following letter to New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, written by North Bergen resident Robert Walden, pertaining to the 25 year old controversy surrounding the pre-school trailers located in James Braddock Park.
Dear Governor Murphy –
I understand you visited the North Bergen Preschool with local officials and you are supportive of North Bergen receiving a NJ DEP diversion so that it can build a permanent preschool in Braddock Park. Please reconsider…A park location is a beautiful location for a school for any child, especially children from under-privileged areas, but this is not a good reason to convert to school use Braddock Park, one of only two major and historic parks that Hudson County owns, so that one out of twelve towns in the county can provide essential services.
It took NJDEP 10 years to notice the Braddock Park and 20 years to notice the 43rd St. illegal diversions. NJDEP is supposed to inspect every 3 years.
The notion that with this diversion, park land is being increased, replaced at a 5:1 ratio sounds good but in reality, the replacement park land that North Bergen is offering does not meet diversion regulation guidelines and NJ DEP doesn’t seem to care. More importantly, diversions are not supposed to be approved when alternatives exist. Alternatives do exist – North Bergen has sabotaged plan after plan that NB agreed to. The latest plan involved moving 7th & 8th graders out of elementary schools and into the newly acquired High Tech HS, which is being converted to a junior high school. High Tech added 1700 seats to a District with approximately 7000 students. There is no reason why NB cannot move the 7th and 8th graders (there are about 1100), into High Tech and move all the preschoolers (there are 189 this year and NB projects 395 in the future), out of Braddock Park and into the elementary schools – that’s what NB promised the public and assured NJDEP it would do, no later than 08-31-21 and that’s what can still be done.
Or, the NB BOE owns 5 acres of land which doesn’t contain a single classroom, on 64th Street which can be used.
North Bergen has operated this preschool in trailers for 24 years – this is a violation of N.J.A.C. regs. North Bergen did this without permission from either NJDEP nor NJDOE. NB operated this preschool in trailers which lacked emergency exits – also a violation. And NB operates this preschool utilizing a roadway that doesn’t meet State guidelines – the roadway is too narrow and lacks sidewalks. In 2019, a pedestrian was run over and killed in a crosswalk, just a few feet from a parking lot that NB’s preschool utilizes and the Hudson County Sheriff’s accident report noted the high amount of pedestrian and vehicular traffic in the area due to the preschool – the preschool that has been in the park illegally for 24 years, with no end in site.
If this diversion is granted, say goodbye to recreational land in important parks throughout the State – they will be diverted for all kinds of uses and replaced with pocket parks, which while needed, do not provide the same quality of parkland. In North Bergen, much of the replacement park land being offered will be closed to the public (because of landslide potential), or it is synthetically surfaced. PLEASE WITHDRAW YOUR SUPPORT OF THIS DIVERSION.
The NJ Conservation Foundation, The NJ League of Women Voters, Sierra Club and other organizations are opposed to this diversion.
The Hudson County towns of Union City, West New York and Weehawken, NJ have all signed resolutions opposing North Bergen’s diversion of Braddock Park.
Brian Stack, my State Senator, also opposes the diversion. Stand up for this Overburdened Environmental Justice community which has problems expressing its views, partly because there isn’t a PTA/PTO to represent preschool families.
Thank you for your consideration and Happy Holidays,
Robert Walden
7855 Boulevard East #15i
North Bergen, NJ 07047