FloatingWeight t1_izv96yv wrote on December 12, 2022 at 2:29 AM

Reply to comment by gabagool213 in All brush was cleared out of the fenced-in area behind the Colgate Clock: change coming? by Delicious_Adeptness9

I believe it’s supposed to be a park, but the soil is super contaminated so it has to be remediated and it’s just never happened

Delicious_Adeptness9 OP t1_izve2c1 wrote on December 12, 2022 at 3:09 AM

AFAIK, it's been undeveloped for years. Still, I was surprised to seem a semblance of maintenance there. It's owned either by the city or the state.

FloatingWeight t1_izvq6el wrote on December 12, 2022 at 4:52 AM

Looks like it state owned and the city has funding to build a park, but state isn’t cooperating

kevstev t1_izx75oz wrote on December 12, 2022 at 2:54 PM

There was contamination from an old oil tank that was buried on the site, but that was cleaned up a bunch of years ago. Its slated to be a park, they ran out of money a bunch of years back. IIRC- GS had set aside a lump sum, and then a smaller maintenance sum annually for several years, and then it ran out, but they would occasionally do some work as the maintenance money trickled in. You can see the walkway extends back there.

FloatingWeight t1_izy7dnd wrote on December 12, 2022 at 6:53 PM

From Solomon’s ama “Unfortunately, as of today, the state of NJ wants to develop the property. Jersey City cannot turn it into a park without their approval (they also can’t develop it without our approval). So we are in a stalemate at the moment. My commitment is to find a way through it but it is going to take some time and negotiation to get it done.”

kevstev t1_izybjer wrote on December 12, 2022 at 7:19 PM

I mean... if that's what Solomon says, I guess... but they have already done work in that part of the property that the state owns... so how did that happen?

I am not saying Solomon is being outright dishonest here, but he may be misunderstanding the situation.