A holiday eyesore? Holland Tunnel critics drive point home

JERSEY CITY, N.J. — The Holland Tunnel between New Jersey and New York City may be in for a makeover after critics called the placement of its holiday decorations a distraction, a possible trigger for people with obsessive-compulsive disorder — and just plain ugly.

Wreaths have adorned the entrance to the tunnel around the holidays for decades. But some are upset by the configuration in which wreaths cover the letters “O” and “U” on the entrance sign and a tree-shaped decoration covers the letter “N” in “Holland.”

The decoration would fit more snugly over the “A,” several have said.

On a day when the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the tunnel’s operator, approved an $8.5 billion budget and celebrated record traffic at its ports and airports in 2018, most of the questions after its monthly board meeting focused on the decorations.

Cory Windelspecht, the Manhattan man who has been the public face of the push to move the decorations, addressed the board.

“The only reason we are here today is that we spoke loudly,” he told board members. “We just wanted to get noticed.”

Windelspecht said he travels through the tunnel several times a week as part of his job in medical sales and that he has been irked by the sign for several years because of the placement of the tree decoration over the “N.”

In a lighthearted notice sent Wednesday and styled to mimic the poem that begins “‘Twas the night before Christmas,” the Port Authority said it is conducting its own public poll. Participants have until Sunday to select one of four options, and Executive Director Rick Cotton said thousands have already voted.

He wouldn’t give details but said, based on results so far, “change is in the air.”