To The Editor
The Jersey City Reporter:

NJ Devils hockey team owner John McMullen is seeking a new stadium to be built on a platform over the Hoboken train station. Such a monstrosity would obscure a historical landmark. It would also require a great deal of publicly-financed infrastructure, including an expensive driveway, the proposed Bergen Arches highway on old rail bed through the Palisades in Jersey City, connecting the waterfront to the Meadowlands. McMullen has failed to explain how his stadium would generate sufficient net economic benefit to the local economy.

Mayor Anthony Russo of Hoboken, to his credit, now appears to have second thoughts about the stadium. But, to date, Jersey City's Mayor Bret Schundler still stubbornly supports both stadium and highway. He is undeterred by community opposition. The prospect of increased air pollution, noise, and congestion doesn't move him. He scoffs at alternative proposals for economical and environmentally-sensitive passenger light rail service through the Arches. He has hired Trenton lobbyist Hazel Gluck (with Jersey City public dollars!) to flog his highway in the State House. He has told highway opponents in the Hamilton Park area, residents who would be most injured by an Arches highway, that they are "selfish people". His chief traffic engineer, Cheryl Allen-Munley, has reportedly asked NJ DOT bureaucrats how to steamroller citizen opposition. Such arrogance!

Your readers may find a copy of a proposal for a Bergen Arches light rail link on the website of HART, the Hudson Alliance for Rational Transportation, at www.hartwheels.org. The LRT would link Newport, downtown Jersey City, to jobs in the outlet stores, United Parcel Service, US Postal Service, and other work places in the Meadowlands, Secaucus Transfer rail junction, and NJ Transit's Pascack Valley line. It would enable many suburbanites to commute comfortably to work at the Jersey City waterfront. It would run, for the most part, on existing rail rights of way.

I hope that more of my fellow citizens will study this LRT proposal and let the Mayors, their city council representatives, the County Executive, and other public officials know that they want improved public transportation that would benefit both the environment and the economy and make Hudson County a more pleasant and healthy place to live.

Sincerely,
Steve Lanset