“You take a look at what’s across the river near the World Financial Center,” says Ron Smith, referring to the walkways, lawns, gardens, and playgrounds along the waterfront in Manhattan, “and you think, why can’t we have that on this side?” Smith is a member of the Jersey City Waterfront Parks Conservancy, a nonprofit group formed in 2007 to spearhead the somewhat complicated process to make community desires for a waterfront park in Paulus Hook a reality.

“What we’re doing is trying to bring awareness to the whole process,” says Smith.  The JCWPC has initiated the process of connecting the parcels of land owned by the city, the state, and private businesses to form one park and also is trying to figure out how to connect the funds to make it happen.

The Light Horse Tavern, co-owned by Smith, will be hosting a Clambake and BBQ fundraiser for the JCWPC on Sunday June 1 from 3-7. The money raised will go towards hiring a landscape architect to design the plans for the park. The tickets for the Clambake are $100 for adults and children under fifteen are free. Half of the ticket price will be donated to the JCWPC. If it’s nice weather, the event will be held outdoors on a closed portion of Morris Street between Washington and Warren. In addition to food and drinks, there will be games for kids, live music, and a silent auction. Smith hopes it will be an event the whole family will enjoy. Tickets can be purchased on June 1 or before.

The group wants a world-class architect to design a world-class park. According to Smith, having a visual idea of what the park can look like is the first step to getting the landowners and those controlling city and state funds, on board.

Many residents support a new waterfront park for several reasons. They think it would be a beautiful gathering place for the community and the design would address the current erosion of the land. Keeping the land as a park would also prevent it from high-rise development.  The area offers views of lower Manhattan, the Statue of Liberty, and the Verrazano Bridge. “The vista is so spectacular. It would be a shame to lose, or to not maximize it,” says Smith. Currently, Peninsula Park is the main parcel available for public use. The other large section of open land, Veterans Park where the large Colgate Clock is, has fencing blocking public entrance.

Several questions remain about how to make the vision a reality. Different sections of land around the Morris Canal are each owned by different city, state, and private groups.  Each group would maintain ownership, even though the land would all be part of one park. Understanding what funds are available to make the park a reality, and how to access them, is a main question. There is possible city and state money that had been earmarked for other projects such as a retaining wall and for the completion of the waterfront walkway from Hoboken to Bayonne. But what part of that money the new park could share in is unknown.

Besides government funding, another possible source of funds for the park is money from Goldman Sachs. The company had put money aside to be used for green space development along the waterfront when they built in Jersey City. But accessing that money is several steps away in the park development process.

The very first step in the process of creating the park is to create the design. The efforts of which will be made possible by the support of the JCWPC, including those who come out for the June 1 Clambake and BBQ.

In addition to trying to connect the parks, the nonprofit is connecting residents concerned with keeping and improving the green space in their neighborhood and giving them a voice. Smith has been in Jersey City for the last two decades and has seen the transition Jersey City, and especially the Paulus Hook neighborhood, has made. “It used to be so transient,” he says, referring to the neighborhood. “But now there are more families, and people are buying and placing a stake. We have our children here and we want to see the neighborhood grow and be all it can be.”