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Community: Update on Washington Street Project
Dear MSV readers,
Recently there have been a number of inquiries from residents about ongoing construction as part of the Washington Street project. Below is an update with information addressing some of the most common topics. The project is expected to be completed by summer of 2018. For the latest updates and additional information, visit www.washingtonstreetproject.com.
CURB EXTENSIONS
Through the multi-year community planning process for the Washington Street project, we learned that our community’s top priority was pedestrian safety – with 98% of residents saying it was important to them and the vast majority supporting the use of curb extensions.
Curb extensions are one of the most effective pedestrian safety measures and are recommended by all federal, state, and local engineering design manuals. They prevent dangerous illegal parking in crosswalks, improve the ability of crossing pedestrians and drivers to see each other, reduce pedestrian crossing distances and exposure, and slow turning vehicles, which is a major cause of pedestrian collisions along Washington Street.
In addition to a high frequency of vehicle-pedestrian collisions along the corridor, a senior citizen was struck and killed by a turning vehicle as she was crossing Washington Street in 2015. As is often the case, the driver said that poor visibility was the reason for the crash. Curb extensions improve visibility between drivers and pedestrians, and by slowing turning vehicles, they help ensure that if a collision does occur, the injuries are minimized and the chance of survival increases dramatically.
Curb extensions don’t extend into the travel lane – they take up less space than a car parked car at the curb – so they don’t block traffic. As part of the design phase of the project, turning templates were performed for all vehicles including fire trucks using Hoboken specific fire truck sizes, and the curb extensions are designed to accommodate these turning movements.
The attached diagram shows the turning template for a Hoboken-specific fire truck at a typical intersection indicating that there are no encroachments.
TREES
The City is adding over 50 new trees through the Washington Street project. This is in addition to approximately 30 new trees that were planted between 1stStreet and 5th Street in the past few years through the Shade Tree Commission’s Washington Street Beautification Initiative. For this project, three trees have been removed and 16 more are planned to be removed due to utility conflicts such as drainage improvements. We are working to save or replant existing trees where possible, including an evaluation by the project engineer to determine if possible drainage alternatives would result in keeping some or all trees. No more trees will be removed until the City has reviewed the engineer’s report. The City also conducted a walkthrough with the Resident Engineer of the project and a representative from the Shade Tree Commission to evaluate which trees were likely to survive a replanting. An arborist and landscape architect are also evaluating if the t rees can survive replanting and where they could be replanted. |
=&0=&: The Washington St. project suffers from a number of issues most critically the timing and complaints about curb extensions or bump outs.
MSV has been fielding numerous complaints about the bump outs, mostly connected to concern on emergency vehicles inability to navigate them at critical times. The appearance here of the “vast majority” supporting them means an avalanche of complaints are likely reaching City Hall too.
The City Council has expressed concern and Councilman Ruben Ramos has been vocal saying it’s a mistake. There’s been no action on the funding which was passed comprehensively as part of the overall plan. Previously, the public by a huge margin rejected the concept of installing separate bike lanes on Washington St.
Mayor Zimmer alienated many in the public with her insistence on dedicated bike lanes on Washington Street. She clearly wants to regulate the flow of traffic on Washington St. The curb extensions are another means for her to do so.
Even with a costly adjustment later, some mayoral candidates are likely to criticize the construction of the ongoing Washington St. construction for this and other reasons.
The Washington St. Project was originally slated for completion before the November election. Then the objective slipped to complete half of the street by that time.
It’s doubtful Hoboken will see half of Washington St.’s reconstruction complete by Election Day. The project is officially rescheduled to continue well into 2018.
According to a story on the Hudson County View, Councilman Mike DeFusco plans to turn Hoboken’s riverfront into a “floating pool and urban beach” if he’s elected.
The plan as envisioned is unclear if it will include a reunion of the Village People and Beach Blanket Bingo for seniors.
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| The new beach line replacing the Hudson River in the imaginings of new energy from Councilman Mike DeFusco. |
For more of this Hudson County View story, see:
http://hudsoncountyview.com/if-elected-mayor-defusco-plans-to-bring-pool-and-beach-area-to-hoboken/
Talking Ed Note: Just what Hoboken needs, a public place on the waterfront for urination from a bunch of bathers. Don’t even ask where the money would come from for construction and maintenance of this summer sales job. Read More...
Instagram, the land of friendly pictures of kittens, puppies and fauna turned into the site of political brawling yesterday.
Councilman Dave Mello who was announced yesterday joining the Romano for Mayor council at-large slate had a few choice words on the Instagram account of Councilman Mike DeFusco yesterday.
It started with publication of this by Councilman Mike DeFusco:
DeFusco included a short video where Councilman Dave Mello criticized Hudson County for the large tax increases on Hoboken. In recent years it’s increased over 50% and is now the largest portion of the taxes Hoboken residents pay. Read More...
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” President Trump’s comments yesterday on Charlottesville were a failure of moral leadership. Let’s be clear. There can be no moral equivalence between white supremacists and neo-Nazis, and those who stand up to bigotry. There can be no “fine people” who march with those chanting racist words. More than ever, for our neighborhoods, communities, and schools we need a message of calm, healing, and affirmation of our nation’s highest ideals.”
Official release
Governments in general, and the current occupants of Hoboken
City Hall in particular, often go with solutions in search of problems. From
the ongoing Washington Street Destruction Plan, to the Benches for Beggars
(which replaced parking by the downtown CVS with red chairs and tables), to
repeated back and forth efforts to “fix” traffic in the south and southwest of
town, the majority of our current crop of political “leaders” are victim to
their own groupthink and hubris. An attitude of doing something because they
can and of confusing their preferences with the priorities of our urban
community have sadly become pervasive.
Naturally, these “leaders” have consulted with handpicked
“experts.” They have undoubtedly conducted a “study” (or two) with an engineering firm that clearly
has no interest in having repeat business, has an 100% immunity to confirmation
bias, and in no way, shape, or form, would ever return the results it was asked
to sign off on to secure said future continued business. The reality is that it
doesn’t take the people of Hoboken an expensive study to know that traffic has
gotten worse on Observer Highway and that the Washington St Destruction Plan
includes dangerous curb extensions and kills parking spots on the Avenue. The people
know Court St isn’t a project to be taken up for the County Board of
Freeholders because it’s not one of the handful of county roads our taxes pay
so much (and get so little in return) for.
From barely used bike lanes on main streets to tax dodging schemes
called PILOTs (Payment in Lieu of Taxes), our city leaders have done things
based on their conception of their public image not for the betterment of
Hoboken, the bottom line of the taxpayer, or to help ease the schlep in and out
of town for the car driving commuter. This pattern of negative behavior is
worse than the benign neglect many of my fellow council candidates have engaged
in with their silence on the issues.
When elected to city council I will not be silent, I will
see if proposed solutions actually address a real substantive problem facing
our city or are more of them same attempts by many to “make their mark”.
Hoboken has real issues, perennial flooding, a high cost of living, an
anti-small business climate, a shortage of housing stock, and an extreme
deficient of parking. When elected, I will ensure our city council doesn’t
ignore these problems by inventing others.
Joshua Einstein is a member of the New Jersey Republican
State Committee and the Hudson County Regional Jewish Council. He co-founded a
Democrat-Republican Dialogue group which alternates meetings between Hoboken
and Jersey City. He writes a regular column for a north Jersey community
newspaper and has been published in over 14 sites and newspapers. He walks dogs
in town and is an Executive Board member of the New Jersey State Young
Republican Federation.
Read More...
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