The ferry's been down there for decades and the light rail was finished in 2005... I feel like the only thing that changed was the Imperatore family and others deciding to develop the land?

The developers say it's safe but tbh you couldn't pay me to live on top of a chemical waste site with the amount of corruption that goes on in the redevelopment industry.

the giant UBS building never existed prior to 2007 /s

Different direction down the street, cloudy day vs sunny day... has all the hallmarks of those late night infomercials that you see. Top quality post.

That picture could be anywhere along the Central Railroad on the Northside or Southside of route 28 from Elizabeth to Cranford. Then from Cranford to Scotch Plains on the Raritan Valley line. The amount of apartments built in the last 10 years is staggering with no end in sight. The small town vibes of Roselle Park, Cranford, Garwood, and Westfield along the corridor has been changed for better or worse I suppose.

Union City area had public transportation for ages. The only thing that has changed recently is exorbitant real estate prices, which incentivized the developments. (But let me guess, the core users of r/fuckcars probably against those greedy developers as well simultaneously, because, you know, greedy capitalists)

But there is more.

Development in the whole Union City are just immensely ugly. On a photo Union City looks like a city, but when you arrive there it feels like you're walking between giant parking lots all the time.

Just look at it: https://www.google.com/maps/@40.773191,-74.0138385,3a,75y,129.38h,89.9t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sZ8YrkFi2FkHyIbJiXkkoYg!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

Such a nice vibe of soulless brick walls and obscure service doors with nothing interesting for an eye to latch on to.

Here is the building from the photo: https://www.google.com/maps/@40.7745921,-74.012889,3a,75y,63.39h,94.29t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sMO1eR6haWyQD5mov7SR7JA!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

https://www.google.com/maps/@40.7751815,-74.0124786,3a,75y,122.62h,96.79t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sZNfokqUdpe4XiowBhwBZUA!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

First 3 stories are just soulless parking. I would not want to walk around that street. There is nothing to do there. Even during the day time it's ugly. At night it's creepy.

Why does it look so? 2 reasons. First because zoning laws are just purely stupid in many places in America. First floor should be lovely commerce or public places. Second is stupid or lazy or cheap architects, because this style is just everywhere in America. Tons of tons of residential building one after another with no break for commerce or parks or squares.

The funny thing when the money is in they can definitely build healthy high and mid-rises. Just look at the nice parts of Jersey City or Boston.

Yes developers are generally how housing and commercial units get put into new areas. Their decision to do so may very well have been because of increased foot traffic coming from public transit.

Steve ballmer voice "Developers, developers, developers, developers"

I agree with what you're saying, but this is Weehawken and not Union City. Union City is a real walkability city with culture (head down Bergenline Ave for the best Spanish food in the US).

Also, in 2007 the road was one lane in each direction, now it's two lanes in each direction. Which is a bit ironic for /r/fuckcars.

Yes, Weehawken, called it Union City because that area is dominated by the Union city. I know we love our little "these 7 blocks are a different city" in NJ, it's just a bit tiring sometimes.

what transit, the lux buildings are there for the views

> Their decision to do so may very well have been because of increased foot traffic coming from public transit.

I mean... you might be right but I'm skeptical.

It's faster to take a bus from Weehawken to NYC than the light rail down to Hoboken and the PATH across (or the ferry downtown if you're rich) and I don't really see what the draw is for people in Bayonne, Jersey City, or Hoboken to shop in Weehawken or Edgewater.

[deleted]

"How the rotation of the earth around the sun can change an area (also theres a new building)."

Yeah, that was the waterfront views of NY, not transit.

I like how they picked a cloudy day for the before picture.

Typically due to this NJ Transit Hub tax breaks.

https://www.state.nj.us/transportation/works/njfit/njtransit.shtm

I was just thinking how while yes pollution is there, the first picture is CLEARLY from a craptastic day in fall/winter.

But not everyone in Weehawken works or shops exclusively in NYC.

The light rail wasn't intended simply to provide a connection to transit to NYC. It also improved transit connectivity within Hudson County (+ maybe Bergen county at some point) as an alternative to the traffic clogged streets.

I know people who live in Port Imperial and take the light rail to work in downtown Jersey City. Such a commute would not be as attractive without the light rail. A bus would likely be slower and less reliable without a dedicated right of way like the light rail has.

cars bad, that’s why i get around by hot air balloon

Ya well we need more housing in the state in order for prices to go down. It's incredibly expensive for many NJ natives to live in this state unless we all become doctors or engineers. For example as a young teacher It's incredibly difficult to afford living within an hour distance of most school districts, most my friends that are living alone are commuting almost 2 hours just to live semi affordably. Increasing housing supply (which means building more high density housing in the form of apartments or multi family homes) is the one of the few effective ways to combat rising costs of housing.

The light rail isn't a terrible thing, but it only fits certain commutes from there. Bus\ferry is going to be a lot faster and potentially cheaper for people once you do connections.

What really helped was hoboken more or less fully developed and they started running out of room places to put larger developments there. Then once a few things did creep in over that way, it hit a critical mass that could sustain itself and become a bit of its own thing.

Also those places rented and sold for a bit less, or were a little bit nicer\bigger, than what you could do in hoboken at the time. I know because we looked at them a few times between 2008 and 2015.

25+ years ago, New Jersey started to promote "transit friendly development" by concentrating new housing within a 1/4 mi radius of transit hubs like train stations. At that time, auto-dependent suburban sprawl was gobbling up hundreds of acres of open space in NJ each week.

As someone that uses the ferry service daily, while it does count as public transit, it also probably encourages more driving - people fed up with NJ Transit and the MTA who would rather drive to the ferry and use the boat + private bus service.

“Hudson County” is what I generally refer it too.

💯

There are at least 10 different apartment complexes currently being built in Union County alone. These small towns are about to get a lot more crowded.

I'm pretty sure most of the northern half of this state is a chemical waste site. My town is like 2 sq miles and we have at least 2.