Politics & Government

HHA Director Schedules 4 Informational Public Forums on Vision 20/20

A series of public forums on the controversial plan to revitalize Hoboken's public housing stock are scheduled over the course of the next five weeks.

Editor's note: The dates and locations of the four public forums have been updated from an earlier version of this article. 

Hoboken Housing Authority executive director Carmelo Garcia, who has faced criticism from the Zimmer administration and its council allies for what they consider to be the rushed and opaque presentation of his housing authority redevelopment plan, will hold a series of public forums at various housing authority buildings over the next month to shine light on the Vision 20/20 process.

Garcia said he hopes holding the forums will dispel any notions that he’s trying to sneak through his revitalization plan — the initial phase of which calls for building a five-story, 44-unit building on the corner of Harrison and 4th streets — without serious public input or scrutiny. 

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“The way you refute [the negative rumors] is by doing all of these things we had already set out to do,” he said. “Everything has steps.”

Before any of the public forums are held, however, Garcia plans to meet privately with a number of community stakeholders to share his vision and encourage them to share his plans with their memberships.

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“Anyone who is a partner of ours, I want them to learn about it if they don’t know about it,” he said, listing the Clergy Coalition, Quality of Life Coalition, HOPES, Go Ye Therefore Ministries, Hoboken Grace Community Church, Church of God of Prophecy and Hoboken branch of the NAACP among the organizations with which the HHA has ties.

He said meeting with community leaders from each of the HHA’s partners would serve the twofold purpose of educating them on Vision 20/20 and encouraging them to spread the word to their members about the upcoming forums on the multi-phase housing authority revitalization process.

Council president Peter Cunningham applauded Garcia’s willingness to hold meetings and inform the public about his redevelopment vision, but said he thought the meetings needed to extend outside the realm of the housing authority’s campus. 

“I think it’s great that he’s having the meetings to fully inform the benefits to the residents of the housing authority, but he’s kind of missing it,” Cunningham said. “When we talk about community meetings, we’re talking about community meetings for the city as a whole.”

By holding the forums at housing authority buildings, Cunningham said Garcia was “really playing to his own base.”

“If this is that important to Carmelo Garcia then he should be proactive in reaching out to the community at large,” Cunningham said. “He’s not going beyond that and I don’t know why.”

The public forums on Vision 20/20 are currently scheduled for 6 p.m. Wednesday, July 31 at 411 Marshall Dr.;  10 a.m. Friday, Aug. 9 at 220 Adams St.; 6 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 14 at 221 Jackson St.; and 6 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 28 at Fox Hill Gardens, located at 311 13th St. (the Aug. 28 meeting date has since been pushed back to Sept. 4)


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