Will the commercial schemes for the interior 240 acres of Liberty State Park never cease? It appears not, even after Governor Whitman, years ago, properly put to rest a golf course proposal that was wildly unpopular with citizens. Now Mayor Schundler is advancing another expensive (likely $10-$18 dollars per person fee) commercial proposal for a multi-acre water park for the southwest corner of the interior of the park. Once again, as with the golf course, this proposed use could be an asset for Jersey City area residents, but not on scarce, state-owned open space at Liberty State Park, a very special place. Here's why we think some politicians and developers keep proposing inappropriate uses for the park's interior.

Unfortunately, they persist in viewing the interior 240 acres of the park as a void to be filled in much the same way that they relentlessly paved over the rest of this region. And of course they hope that the price of the land from the state will be far cheaper than rounding it up in the private market. Blinded by the lure of the hoped for "sweetheart" deal, they won't see the parkland for what it really is: an increasingly complex and biologically diverse area that is going to get better and better over time, as both nature and restoration ecologists work to provide citizens with the great green park they deserve.

We thought we had a consensus between the state, the citizens of the region, and local officials that the interior of Liberty State Park would be modeled after the nation's great greensward parks - like Central Park - except that the natural areas would be given even greater emphasis here because of the extreme shortage of such natural park areas in the Jersey City Hudson County area. We believe that public access via trails and walkways is not incompatible with the enhancement and protection of nature, nor are jogging and bicycling paths if carefully placed. We hope to add a watercourse or two, resembling, as closely as possible, natural streams, where wild creatures can bath and drink, and children wade on hot summers days, just as they would in a more rural park. And our high expectations for people and nature in the park's interior are guided by an appreciation of the very rare character of the setting for these 240 acres.

For this is one of the nation's - and world's - most special sites. We think that 300 years from now, when history books describe American and indeed, world civilization in the late 20th century, they will have a picture of the lower Manhattan sky line as one of the era's signature images. And that view of the very nerve center of the world economy is nowhere more spectacular than from Liberty State Park. The view, however, contains much more than this. The view from Liberty State Park also encompasses the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, two icons of American culture that still resonate with tremendous emotional force. That's because so many of our own families came through and by them, and America, to this day, remains a symbol of freedom, a nation built by and open to, immigrants from around the world. In other words, the view from Liberty State Park, a free public park, carries such emotive and very personal force for so many park visitors that it borders on the nature of a religious feeling. It is a place that evokes memory, the recollection of the hardship endured by millions to get here and the hope for success in their struggle up and out of poverty. It seems to us that these feelings and recollections are built into this site, making it virtually one with these powerful American cultural emblems.

And that means, for us, a proper attitude and disposition towards a place with such sacred views and memories. Thus, a quiet, green park, where one can commune with the Nature that has long held such significance for Americans, almost a religious significance, and where families can walk, run, and picnic together against a backdrop of one the world's greatest visual settings - fits perfectly together with the character of the site.

But a waterpark does not fit well at all. It is a very intensive use that will draw thousands of cars per day, soon inviting a parking garage and additional expensive supporting infrastructure, which will in turn invite other intensive commercial uses once the precedent is set. Now it is in the "nature" of waterparks that they are noisy places where children and teenagers can cut loose and let go on a hot summer's day. Indeed, they generate an almost a perpetual roar of screams of delight and terror, depending on the mixture of the rides. And that can be a wonderful sound in itself - in the right place. But not next to Saint Patrick's Cathedral, or in the heart of Central Park, or on the rim of the Grand Canyon. From this you can see that we view, with deepest respect, the prospect and potential of our beloved Liberty State Park - it should be thought of in this esteemed company. This is no exaggeration; this is the nature of the site.

While we thank Governor Whitman for stopping the golf course, she is about to toss the waterpark option out for public view because she and previous administrations insist on allowing the interior of the park to be dealt with piecemeal, without a unifying vision or design. It is time for this poverty of public imagination to end because it no longer can employ its earlier rationale - that of state fiscal poverty - as an excuse. Isn't it ironic that in the political era when all the politicians have such high expectations for educating urban youngsters, NJ politicians have such low expectations for what could be truly one of the world's great urban parks? Witness with sadness just the passing grades in landscape design achieved when the state recently tinkered with the land adjacent to the park's wonderful waterfront walkway. That's not good enough and not what we have in mind for the rest of the interior.

At the Conservancy, we think we have a better vision for the park interior, as outlined above. Composed and green, with flexibility for appropriate recreational activities worthy of and in keeping with the special nature of the site. A reflective place where the mind and body can be repaired, just as we and nature work to repair the damage previously done by the earlier industrial history of the site. In brief, this should be a restorative site, for nature and the human spirit. For it is the human spirit that is most engaged when looking up and out upon the vaulting New York skyline and the eloquent, historic symbols in the harbor. Urban kids need and deserve cool and clean waters during our hot summers, but a huge waterpark that they might not be able to afford is no more appropriate here than in the center of the Mall in Washington, DC. We hope too, that some day Jersey City residents will be able to swim in the harbor waters right off the city's shoreline, something that is already happening on the New York City side of the harbor.

We think that our vision for a restorative and educational green park with waterways, healthy wetlands, forests, fields and public trails needs a unified landscape design for the 240 acres. We hope politicians aren't implicitly saying that 21st Century New Jersey can't match the majesty of the 19th Century's Central Park. We think that based on the values contained in our vision, which exclude intensive commercial uses of this magnificent public land, there should be an international competition among the world's best landscape architectural firms, especially those that specialize in restoration ecology. The people of Jersey City, the state, and visitors from around the world, and the very unique nature of this great urban site, deserve no less. Let us set our expectations and standards as high for our park's landscape as for the educational goals for our children.

Willam R. Neil