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This Hoboken park fights floods by holding 2 million gallons of stormwater
By
Karen Yi
Published Jun 12, 2023
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City of Hoboken
By
Karen Yi
Published Jun 12, 2023
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Hoboken city officials on Monday inaugurated a five-acre park that will double as an underground stormwater basin and help mitigate against chronic flooding.
ResilienCity Park is the latest effort by Hoboken to rebuild resilient infrastructure after Hurricane Sandy left most of the city underwater more than a decade ago.
“This park is a model for the communities across the country that are grappling to deal with the impacts of climate change,” Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla said during a press conference Monday.
He said other communities would “look at ResilienCity Park as a shining example for how a park can be designed.”
The park can hold up to 2 million gallons of stormwater runoff in underground basins and is the city’s largest park, equipped with basketball courts, athletic fields, a playground and lawn space.
Gov. Phil Murphy said that after Hurricane Sandy, Hoboken “did not just rebuild — you learned the lessons of the past and you built back smarter. Hardening infrastructure and making wise design choices like this park, which helps reduce flooding with its underground tanks to hold the stormwater.”
The 5-acre ResilienCity Park in Hoboken includes multipurpose athletic fields.
He said as sea levels rise and weather events get more extreme — as when the remnants of Hurricane Ida killed 30 people — elected officials need to do more to adapt to climate change.
“We are not powerless. We know it is coming so we can prepare,” Murphy said.
At the ceremony, environmental activists disrupted Murphy during his remarks, yelling “stop approving new gas power plants,” and holding signs behind the governor that read, “Gov Murphy Stop all new fossil fuel projects.”
Activists from Food & Water Watch noted the park is miles from two proposed gas fired power plants proposed by the Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission in Newark and NJ Transit in Kearney.
“Governor Murphy claimed that his administration is doing all it can on climate action, but this is simply not the case. The governor can live up to his climate and clean energy promises by denying permits for all of the major new fossil fuel projects being proposed across our state,” Food & Water Watch New Jersey State Director Matt Smith said in a statement.
Hoboken’s park was built on a formerly vacant industrial lot through a $10 million grant from the Federal Emergency Management Authority, a $1 million in Hudson County Open Space Trust Fund dollars and a low-interest loan from the New Jersey Infrastructure Bank.
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new jersey
Karen Yi
Karen Yi covers homelessness and poverty. She joined the WNYC and Gothamist newsroom in 2020. Before that, Karen covered Newark for the Star-Ledger and spent almost a decade working for newspapers in New Jersey and Florida. She grew up in Miami and has a dog named Cashew. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or Signal 917-589-1460.
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