By Chris Gadsden

Dear 400 Claremont LLC,

I grew up at 357 West Side Ave, on the same side of the street as Diamond Auto Body. I live down the street from Diary Queen and around the corner from Carmine.

I have concerns about the gentrification of the area. I believe your project expedites the process of removing the original inhabitants of the community with our new neighbors. Not saying I have anything against our new neighbors, I am just advocating for a more inclusive community where everyone will benefit from the development that is happening in our community.

According to Jersey Diggs, your project will have retail and restaurant space along with a fitness center, coffee bar, golf simulator, rooftop community garden, and private bowling alley. Your project calls for 631 units to be included along with 12,044 square feet of retail space and 279 parking spaces, according to the notice. The Real Deal also reported last month that the $120 million project is being referred to as “The Element,” it is expected to benefit from opportunity zone funding, and there are also plans for a “saltwalter pool” at the development.

I have a problem with the exclusiveness of the project. Your private bowling lanes, day care center, and market rate rent tell the surrounding neighborhood that they can’t afford to live around you and that they are not wanted.

You probably have your general contractors all ready to go, they know who they are going to hire to get the project complete, so there is probably no need to ask about how many local people will help develop the project because you don’t need them.

I think you are a selfish developer because you build projects without the need of the community being considered. Who are you selling this project to? How does this community benefit from this development? What is the community give back? Being that you don’t have affordable housing in the project, what are you doing to address this need in Jersey City? I already know the answer, you don’t have to. As a community leader, I am asking you to care.

I am asking that our leaders: planning, City Council, MUA, and Traffic and Engineering work on doing a thorough parking and sewer study of the Bayfront, NJCU West Campus, Culver/440, Droyers Point, Waters Street redevelopment zone because with increased density comes additional infrastructure concerns that cannot be addressed on a project by project basis. The NJ Transit Light Rail is scheduled to be closed for a year. How does your study correlate or (weigh) effects what’s being done at the light rail stations.

Based off the requirements in the redevelopment plan, you’ve met your parking requirement. But moving forward, Fields Construction is planning on building another 400 plus units down the street towards 440. Close to 1,000 new vehicles will need more than an extended stretch of Yale Avenue to accommodate the parking needs of the community. I say you build parking that will take at least 75% of the parking in your projects. Then as people habits change, public transportation improves, and the area becomes more bike friendly, then you can phase out the parking, maybe sell parking to the public to make a profit.

Overall I think you are another developer who will put profit over the original people. You have to sell a product to a group of people who are not here yet. “Close accessibility to transportation to New York, in an up and coming area of Jersey City.” “Why pay those huge rent in Manhattan, when you can move to a community and watch the original people in it leave, so that you can make it yours.”

Chris Gadsden is a former Jersey City Ward B Councilman and a Greenville resident.

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