the train at the Watchung Avenue
stop. At Hoboken, he either hops on
the ferry to Wall Street, or takes the
PATH train into the city, where he
picks up a Citibike and rides it to his
lower Manhattan office.
“What ultimately sold me on
Montclair was the option to use
Hoboken rather than Penn Station,”
says Wright. “I love the idea that I
can avoid it altogether. I don’t have
to fight with all those angry Penn
Station-ites every day. Hoboken is
so much more humane, and it’s a
beautiful train station.”
HE AND HIS WIFE RECENTLY
DID SOMETHING PREVIOUSLY
UNTHINKABLE: THEY BOUGHT A
MINIVAN.
One of the things that appealed to
Wright and his wife about Montclair
is that you don’t have to rely on a
car. Nevertheless, as parents to three
little ones, they recently found
the need to buy a second vehicle.
“It’s a Chrysler minivan,” he says.
“A Chrysler. I literally talk about
it in therapy.”
HE WAS HIRED BY JANETTE
SADIK-KAHN TO CREATE THE
BROOKLYN GREENWAY.
Sadik-Kahn was Commissioner
of the NYC Department of
Transportation during the Bloomberg
Administration. “Janette was a big
bike proponent and pedestrianized
Times Square,” says Wright. “And
she’s still doing amazing things
around the world.”
HE TRANSFERRED FROM THE
UNIVERSITY OF OREGON TO
RUTGERS- CAMDEN.
After high school in San Francisco,
Wright attended the University of
Oregon, but wasn’t happy there.
“It was too small of a town for me,”
he says. So in “a weird transition,”
he says, he transferred to Rutgers-
Camden because of his interest in
urban planning.
Ultimately, he moved to Rutgers’
Bloustein school in New Brunswick,
TWO-WHEELED VEHICLES WELCOME A view onto part of the Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway in
Williamsburg that Wright created with his team.
which was a “great opportunity,”
he says. “That’s what put me on
the East Coast trajectory.”
HE ALREADY HAS IDEAS FOR A
MONTCLAIR “GREENWAY.”
In addition to being impressed
by the number of train stations in
Montclair, Wright has noted that the
stations and parks run in a more or
less straight line down the middle
of the town. “I’d love to see a path
of protected bike lanes connect the
parks in Montclair and allow us to
get to and from the train stations
without driving,” he says.
He’d also like to see a “light-
weight” bike share program. “I think
it would work really well. Montclair
is a town where people like to share
resources,” he says. “It would also get
more people out on the road. Once
you show people the possibilities, it
changes them, it literally changes the
way people look at the space around
them.”
HIS PHILOSOPHY ON GETTING
PROJECTS DONE? JUST START
BUILDING.
Early in his career, Wright was
assigned to a waterfront project in
New York City that was in the plan-
ning stages. When he returned to
the DOT ten years later, most of the
project was still theoretical. “Instead
of putting together these plans that
look great on paper, instead of talk-
ing about it, start building it,” he
says. “It doesn’t need to be perfect,
but you need to get something out
there so people start to expect it.
And doing something makes the rest
of the project seem easier. Any busi-
ness operates this way: If your idea
is to have a chain business, you don’t
start with 300 stores, you start with
a couple and grow out and build off
that. You don’t let perfect get in the
way of progress.”
WRIGHT AND HIS WIFE BOUGHT
THEIR HOUSE FROM BESTSELLING
NOVELIST CHRISTINA BAKER-KLINE
AND HER HUSBAND DAVE KLINE.
“It’s kind of funny how it works
with life stages,” says Wright.
“Christina and Dave moved into the
house years ago, [raised] three kids
and left with no kids to move into the
city. We took their place, with three
kids. And I’d ultimately like to move
back into the city when the kids are
grown.” ■
MONTCLAIR MAGAZINE SPRING 2019
19