|
Community: Weekends: Free Shuttle Service to Grove St, Increased Light Rail Service + Cross-Honoring PATH Tickets to Exchange Pl
During weekends when the PATH to 33rd Street will be closed in order to speed up restoration of PATH service to Hoboken, the Port Authority will provide free shuttle buses from Hoboken to Grove Street and NJ Transit will increase weekend light rail service, which goes to Exchange Place, and will cross-honor PATH tickets on the light rail between Hoboken and Exchange Place. From Grove Street or Exchange Place, you can take the PATH which will run on weekends from Newark to the World Trade Center.
The full announcement from the Port Authority is below:
PORT AUTHORITY WILL PROVIDE FREE WEEKEND SHUTTLE BUSES AND NJ TRANSIT WILL ADD EXTRA LIGHT RAIL SERVICE TO HELP PROVIDE PATH CUSTOMERS WITH SERVICE TO MANHATTAN
Additional service will help get riders from Hoboken and Jersey City
to PATH stations with service to Manhattan
PATH riders who travel from the Hoboken and Newport stations to Manhattan on weekends will be able to take free shuttle buses to the Grove Street station or extra light rail service to the Exchange Place station this weekend and next while the Newark to 33rd PATH train line is closed for post Superstorm Sandy repairs.
The Port Authority is putting the additional transit alternatives in place to assist its customers while PATH crews work unimpeded on the Newark to 33rd Street line.
Providing crews with 48 hours of uninterrupted work time will shave as many as five or more days off the agency’s recovery timeline to restore service to Hoboken Station and 24-hour service to the overall system. The current nightly shutdowns between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. provide less than six hours of actual repair time once set-up and mandatory testing is taken into account.
PATH’s Newark Penn Station to World Trade Center train line—which includes stops at Grove Street and Exchange Place—will be operating this weekend (Dec.8-9) and next (Dec. 15-16) from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays.
The Port Authority will provide free shuttle buses at the Hoboken and Newport PATH stations, which will bring passengers to Grove Street, where they can access the Newark-WTC line. Alternatively, NJ TRANSIT will increase its weekend light rail service, which will bring riders to the Exchange Place PATH station, where they also can access the Newark-WTC line. NJ TRANSIT will honor PATH tickets on the light rail, so there will be no extra service costs for riders. Details on shuttle bus schedules, pickup locations and routes will be available later today.
Additionally, there will be extra Route 119 buses between Journal Square and the Port Authority Bus Terminal between 5 a.m. and 10 p.m. this weekend and next.
Weekend PATH customers traveling between New Jersey and Manhattan can use the MTA’s subway lines near the World Trade Center PATH line for travel to Uptown Manhattan locations and back. Nearby subway lines include the 1, 2, 3, A, C, E and R trains.
The R train is at the Cortlandt Street station across Church Street from the World Trade Center. The A, C and E trains can be accessed at the Chambers Street Station, with various entrances along Church Street. The 2 and 3 lines are available just north of the WTC site at the Park Place Station at the intersection with Church Street. And the 1 line is available at Chambers and West Broadway.
Alternatively, NJ TRANSIT trains offer weekend Midtown service to New York Penn Station, while various bus lines also operate weekends between New Jersey and the Port Authority Bus Terminal.
Additionally, cross-Hudson River ferry service is available from New Jersey to Midtown on the city’s West Side. For example, Waterway operates ferry services from Weehawken, Hoboken/14th Street, and Lincoln Harbor, New Jersey to 39th Street in Midtown Manhattan on the weekends. Connecting shuttle bus service is available in Manhattan and New Jersey. For more information on schedules, visithttp://www.nywaterway.com/WeekendSchedule.aspx.
Additionally, Port Authority customer service representatives will be available at PATH stations during this weekend and next to help riders find their way with a minimum of inconvenience. |
Office of the Mayor announces:
|
|
|
| Thursday December 6, 2012, 7:52 PM |
City of Hoboken
|
|
Advisory: Statement from Mayor Zimmer on Weekend PATH Closure to Expedite Restoration of Service to Hoboken
Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer issued the following statement following the announcement from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey that they will be able to expedite restoration of service to Hoboken by closing PATH service to Midtown Manhattan during the next two weekends. According to the Port Authority, each weekend of suspended service will reduce the schedule for restoration of service to Hoboken by as much as five or more days:
“A higher percentage of Hoboken residents – 56 percent – rely on mass transit for commuting than any other city in the country, so the loss of the PATH has had a disproportionate impact on our community,” said Mayor Dawn Zimmer. “I am very grateful that the Port Authority made this decision that will fully restore PATH service as quickly as possible. Hoboken is open for business, and we look forward to the PATH coming back online sooner rather than later so our residents and visitors can enjoy all that makes our community great.”
The full announcement from the Port Authority is below:
PORT AUTHORITY TO TAKE MEASURES TO SPEED RETURN OF SERVICE TO HOBOKEN
Changes to PATH weekend service will hasten post-Sandy storm repairs
Seeking to return PATH rail service to Hoboken as quickly as possible, the Port Authority will run weekend service only on the Newark Penn Station-World Trade Center line for the next two weekends, allowing crews to proceed unimpeded with post-Hurricane Sandy repair time.
While the Port Authority crews already are working 24/7 to make expedited return of at least partial PATH service a top priority where safely possible during the week and weekends, repair time proceeds significantly faster when power to third-rails can be turned off and trains are not running in construction zones.
Each weekend of suspended service will provide PATH crews with 48 hours or more of uninterrupted work time, which in turn will shave as much as five or more days off of the recovery schedule.
PATH trains will operate between New Jersey and New York only on the Newark-WTC line from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. this Saturday and Sunday (Dec. 8-9) and next Saturday and Sunday (Dec. 15-16).
The Port Authority understands shutting down the Newark to 33rd Street PATH line for two weekends will pose additional hardships on our riders, but the agency anticipates this action could help restore service to Hoboken and 24-hour service within weeks. This is because the current nightly shutdowns between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. net less than six hours of actual repair time. Work cannot begin until about 11 p.m. because of set up and must stop about 3:30 a.m. because of time needed to clean up work areas and conduct mandatory testing to ensure the entire system is operable after the work.
The storm damage to equipment serving Hoboken terminal was enormous. Salt water that poured into the Hoboken tunnels shorted out electrical systems and corroded decades-old equipment, rendering much of it inoperable. Fixing the system has required complicated staging operations, following the extensive pumping of water from the station and connected tunnels along with restoration of power in the first days of recovery. Damage assessments of signals, switches and tracks followed, with removal of destroyed equipment and ongoing efforts to get certain replacement parts manufactured. Thousands of wires to signals and switch equipment need replacement, with each individual wire requiring subsequent safety testing.
“We understand our late night and overnight passengers have endured significant hardships these past weeks with all PATH service shut between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. each day,’’ said Stephen Kingsberry, PATH’s acting director and general manager. “While shutting down PATH’s Newark to 33rd Street line for at least two full weekends will add to passengers’ short-term inconvenience, it will help speed the return of service not only to Hoboken, but also to the PATH’s regular 24-hour schedule throughout the system. Continued patience now will be rewarded later.”
Weekend PATH customers traveling between New Jersey and Manhattan can use the MTA’s subway lines near the World Trade Center PATH line for travel to Uptown Manhattan locations and back. Nearby subway lines include the 1, 2, 3, A, C, E and R trains.
The R train is at the Cortlandt Street station across Church Street from the World Trade Center. The A, C and E trains can be accessed at the Chambers Street Station, with various entrances along Church Street. The 2 and 3 lines are available just north of the WTC site at the Park Place Station at the intersection with Church Street. And the 1 line is available at Chambers and West Broadway.
Alternatively, NJ Transit trains offer weekend Midtown service to New York Penn Station, while various bus lines also operate weekends between New Jersey and the Port Authority Bus Terminal.
Additionally, cross-Hudson River ferry service is available from New Jersey to Midtown on the city’s West Side. For example, Waterway operates ferry services from Weehawken, Hoboken/14th Street, and Lincoln Harbor, New Jersey to 39th Street in Midtown Manhattan on the weekends. Connecting shuttle bus service is available in Manhattan and New Jersey. For more information on schedules, visithttp://www.nywaterway.com/WeekendSchedule.aspx.
Additionally, Port Authority customer service representatives will be available at PATH stations during this weekend and next to help riders find their way with a minimum of inconvenience. |
=&0=&
=&1=&
=&1=&
=&1=&
=&4=&
Hoboken could see a court ordered vote of its City Council if a strikingly similar Newark case where a bruising battle over what constitutes a tie in a council back filling appointment comes to bear.
According to a Newark Patch story, a judge ordered all eight council members to vote on the open Newark council seat appointment. As in Hoboken, a council member had avoided showing up and invalidated a vote by the city’s mayor, Cory Booker, leading to the court intervention.
|
| Jim Doyle addressed the City Council as a citizen earlier this year. He’ll be bach. |
Councilman-in-waiting Jim Doyle will see his turn when a hearing set for later this month in Hudson Superior Court takes place. Doyle had been appointed when a 4-3 vote was held twice over consecutive meetings in October and the mayor issued an additional vote. The judge in the Hoboken case initially said five votes were required and he anticipated an application from the City calling for a full vote of the City Council. Read More...
=&0=&
A Washington Street parking meter proposal to have all or half of December free to help business failed to pass in a 4-4 vote in the City Council last night.
The idea sponsored by Councilwoman Terry Castellano at the previous meeting had gone to committee for review and the City went ahead with its alternative December plan for free four hour parking in the municipal garages with a $20 proof of purchase.
The damages from Hurricane Sandy to both the City and residents isn’t anywhere near from over but political strains escalated on this and other issues as the legal challenge by MORTe to the earlier council appointment temporarily leaves Councilman-in-waiting Jim Doyle on the sidelines.
(A follow up hearing is scheduled mid-month on the council appointment in Hudson Superior Court.)
|
| An empty council chair awaits court input on the at-large backfill appointment. |
A long discussion on how to aid local business without turning Washington Street into a parking lot led to no consensus. Castellano insisted her plan would see some abuse but it would be overall beneficial to the businesses downtown. City planner Steve Marks added to the council wrangle saying free metered parking on Washington Street for the month would not add “one iota” of business.
Councilman Dave Mello proposed an out-of-the-box idea for moving parking revenues to business promotion but the details were unclear and that proposal wasn’t explored in the final party line 4-4 vote where the Old Guard council members failed to turn one of the reform oriented members.
=&1=&
In a better alignment of opinion, the city council voted unanimously to grant the resolution request for funding 500K to the YMCA and help them complete residences now under renovation at 13th and Washington St. The funds do not come from Hoboken’s tax revenue but are sourced from a dedicated low income housing account.
Leading into the vote during the hour long discussion, Paul Somerville, President of the Board of Directors along with the Y’s tax credit advisor fielded questions from the council. Some floating rumor-mill issues about contractors and architects was cleared up in the hour long discussion.
Councilman Dave Mello who serves on the board of the city’s housing authority gave a cogent argument for approving the Y’s request, pointing out the city can encourage developers to provide low-income housing but they cannot be forced to do so even with a recent ordinance setting minimums. He noted the ordinance doesn’t guarantee low-income housing units will be built
in the city, whereas the Y’s project is almost completed adding 91 low-income housing units.
Some chatter arose over the Hoboken Housing Authority’s wall to wall 20-20 plan recently scaled back. In the end, the discussion wound back to the final need for the Y. It’s set to go fully operation this January completing an almost seven your journey for the historic organization.
=&2=&
Earlier in the meeting, the Old Guard looked to return to one of their favorite pastimes – warring with Mayor Zimmer on simple matters of year end budget line transfers.
Councilman Michael Russo began with his position he is “vehemently” against line item transfers. In the end, the matter would pass unlike in recent years where the financial issue often taking seconds in other NJ municipalities was tied up in obstructive politics over weeks.
Council President Peter Cunningham summed up the discussion on the line item budget transfers of approximately 150K calling them routine adding “the numbers we’re seeing for end of year line item transfers are the smallest we’ve seen” over years. He credited those results to the former Finance Director Nick Trasante and the phenomenal work of others in the Administration.
The line item transfer “problem” was quickly forgotten in an 8-0 vote.
=&3=&
A “final” 13K bill for the hospital’s bankruptcy attorney Okin, Hollander & DeLuca held over from the last meeting failed to obtain one vote among Mason, Occhipinti, Russo and Terry Castellano (MORTe).
The law firm has successfully achieved the sale of the hospital and staved off bankruptcy for the City but didn’t get pre-approval to cut off a legal challenge to the hospital agreement in the spring leading to a 4-4 tie without agreement to pay.
That was the reason given in opposing the 13K payment and stiffing the law firm. The dissolution of the hospital authority itself was removed from the agenda and pushed to the next meeting.
=&4=&: Councilman-in-waiting James Doyle awaits court direction for =&5=& on his appointment. Chalk up a win for MORTe for getting in a shot at the bankruptcy firm for its magnificent representation in seeing the hospital sale through and protecting the City from bankruptcy.
Apparently they aren’t over it.
=&6=&
=&0=&
The Old Guard insider, Deep Uvula has returned from a hiatus warbling about the BoE election disaster underwritten by Beth Mason’s allowance money leading to a Kids First sweep.
The Deep Throat figure surfacing again on Grafix Avenger lets loose on the disastrous results for the Old Guard and Beth Mason’s “funny” desired ambition for a county backed election position.
Of the Beth Mason Nazi Truck rumbling across town flashing a Nazi swastika on two separate nights at the Wallace School and outside a City Council meeting on Washington Street, DU declared it political “suicide” and those who thought so “were right” adding Beth Mason’s allowance money from her husband who also acted as treasurer of the Mason PAC “ain’t getting anyone elected anymore.” Read More...
In the beginning there was Election Day and the Republic thought it good. In Hoboken, the Old Guard heard the words Election Day in November and full out panic ensued.
On the loveliest Valentine’s Day last February, the Old Guard came out to stand against this concept of November elections on (gasp) Election Day. A Hoboken commenter showed exactly what the Old Guard was afraid of:
Turnout
Council members Michael Russo, Terry Castellano and Beth Mason were joined by Frank “Pupie” Raia, Jamie Cryan, Michele Russo and a number of their supporters in a less then spontaneous orgy against letting more people decide at the voting booth.
They came, they complained, they jeered and they were conquered in a 5-4 Kids First led majority vote. The Old Guard cried, whined, and sniped about the outcome even later in the City Council vowing to overcome the larger electorate, by hook or by crook.
Vote analysis especially on four digits of paper ballots is required ahead but they really tried, especially the crooked part. In early August, a long planned SLAPP suit was issued against more than a dozen Hoboken residents who demonstrated too much eagerness in expressing little tolerance for corruption and the ugly antics of Beth Mason and the Russo clan. No major sin went unnoticed and they showed how citizens of conviction can beat down the local rumor mill (and the Hudson Reporter) punishing the Old Guard line of the moment with in-depth details on any number of issues including the Mason led attempt to shut down the hospital and bankrupt the City. Read More...
NJ Tech Meetup announces:
HealHoboken.org=&1=& Since we launched www.HealHoboken.org, we’ve raised over $27,000. The 1st batch of tshirts and hoodies arrived last week, thanks to volunteer Edan Golomb. eBay, Magento, and Hoboken’s Red Stage chipped in to rebuild the site using Magento and we now have offers from local businesses like East LA to support the cause. Get a discount to East LA, StearClear, CleanPopo, Adameus Design, and EatDrinkNJ. Here are things you can do:
Donate now. Check out all of the offers here.
Have a product or service to donate to the cause? Please let us know.
We are seeking a corporation that will let us use its shipping account or reimburse the shipping expenses so more funds can go to the cause, and not to shipping.
We need someone to be the point person for all of the marketing opportunities that are coming our way and to call upon more business to donate products and services.
Read More...
A casualty of Hoboken’s anti-wheeling law, where limits placed on money entering into the City from outside parties such as Political Action Committees (PACs) took its first big hit when Councilwoman Beth Mason flooded thousands of illicit dollars into the recent Move Forward BoE campaign.
The exact figure may not be determined in the end, even when campaign filings are made with NJ ELEC but an earlier filing shows there was over $7,000 in-kind expenditure made from the Mason PAC, Friends of Beth Mason in October.
|
The Hoboken based Beth Mason PAC broke the anti-wheeling ordinance.. The numbers already exceeded the
$500 limit in September and observers think it’s been trampled in the tens of thousands of dollars.
Beth Mason says the ordinance doesn’t apply to her because she says so. |
=&0=&: The Friends of Beth Mason committee address is incorrectly listed (above) per Ines Garcia Keim who noted she is no longer the treasurer of the committee. The 2012 treasurer of the committee is Ricky Mason. She also said she had no connection to the 2012 filing (shown above in Schedule B) for The Friends of Beth Mason committee explaining whoever filled out the above form did so referencing dated checks.
=&1=&: Beth Mason has decided the law does not apply to her based on pure whim. Voting against an ordinance does not give license to trample it simply due to opposition after its passage.
Does anyone find the irony in Beth Mason passing local ordinances and saying she herself is above the law on those she doesn’t like?
|
Final campaign election reports are up ahead but who’s going to declare ownership of the Beth Mason Nazi Truck costs
including the Move Forward commercial? It’s one of many large expenditures yet to be declared. |
=&2=&: Grafix Avenger connects the dots on the politics of the SLAPP and the BoE election. The pattern of attack is evident and a certain letter of dubious origin.
https://hobokenhorse.com/2012/12/step-up-hector-torres.html
Update: In regards to taking legal photographs on a public street, re: 12th and Washington, there’s nothing illegal about returning to take photos of signage that didn’t come out the first time. It certainly doesn’t justify anyone running out of an office committing assaults particularly when Hoboken was in a state of emergency. Read More...
From the City of Hoboken Facebook page:
VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITY: On Saturday, December 1st, we will continue canvassing the city by foot, hitting every city block affected by the flooding, to post flyers with information regarding where to seek additional assistance. FEMA is still here, as well as other organizations such as AmeriCorps, Catholic Charities, Salvation Army, and Small Business Association (SBA). They are located at 59 Washin
gton Street next to Office Depot and are open 7 days a week from 9AM-7PM.
Because many in our community do not have access to social media and may not be aware of all the resources available, a team of trained volunteers will also being going door to door over the next week to assess the unmet needs of our residents whose homes were affected. If you or a neighbor are seeking assistance, please stop by 59 Washington Street or speak with the AmeriCorp team that will be knocking on doors. The team will also be reminding everyone to register any damage with FEMA, even if you made repairs on your own. The more accurate the accounting of total losses to the city, the more we can advocate for Hoboken to receive additional funding. Read More...
| | | | |
