Workers on upper Washington St. in recent days heading to completion. The project has been ongoing since 2016.

The great news on the Washington St. project, it’s almost completed. So, there’s much to celebrate with the town’s main drag being converted from a Third World roadway. Congratulations to those who are bringing it to completion: Mayor Ravi Bhalla, his administration, former mayor Dawn Zimmer and all the workers who made it happen.

The bad news? Well, that’s, unfortunately, a long list too with deadlines long expired and a projected $12 million price tag that will likely see a final tab surpassing $20 million when it’s all said and done with a consulting bill more than double to boot: pardon the pun. Read More...

Silence is golden. Especially if you’re Mayor Ravi Bhalla eyeing a bigger prize: a congressional seat in Hudson County.

So on Earth Day, Ravi Bhalla emanated virtue signaling blowing wind in every direction but the North Bergen power plant where gas will flow to New York City if the project sees final approval.

Here’s a report by Hudson County View with staged pomp and circumstance as Ravi Bhalla signs his Climate Action Plan featuring nary a word on the biggest climate and environmental controversy in the area. Read More...

Last Wednesday leading into the holidays, the City Council passed a redevelopment agreement for 1300 Jefferson St.

The redevelopment agreement passed on a 6-2 vote. Council members Jim Doyle and Tiffanie Fisher voted no and City Council President Jen Giattino, reportedly away in Iceland did not vote. The redeveloper agreement is concerning for some due to a lack of 10-day public review. The City Council last December added that requirement by resolution. A new hotel is proposed at the location where hundreds of residential units and a bowling alley previously failed to obtain approval.

From the approved redevelopment agreement:

Official release:

  Many of you have questions about Hoboken’s visitor side metered parking zones.    Where/What is a visitor side metered parking zone? Generally the south and east sides of the street in permit parking zones. Non-permit holders pay to park for up to four hours.   Who has to pay meter in visitor side metered parking zones? Visitors   Who does not have to pay meter in visitor side metered parking zones? ALL PERMIT HOLDERS Residential Parking Permit  Business Permit  Visitor Permit Visitors with hangtags(available at City Hall but will be online shortly)   Why have visitor side metered parking zones? On-street parking capacity in Hoboken is limited. Visitor side metered parking zones generate more turnover from visitors and help improve parking availability for resident permit holders.    How do Handicapped or disabled person’s pay for parking in visitor side metered parking zones?  With a valid disability license plates or placards pay for the minimum amount of purchasable time (15 minutes) within the visitor side metered parking zone, then no additional payments are required for the remaining 3 hours, 45 minutes that the vehicle is allowed to park within the zone. After four hours, the vehicle must be moved out of the zone.  ‍ How do I add license plate numbers to my account?   From Parkmobile app, tap on “more” on the bottom of the screen, then “vehicles”. From there you can add and store up to five license plates at a time.  I have my Mom and Aunt’s license plate added to my account so when they visit it is simple for me just to pay.   Do you believe you have received a violation in error? Email the Hoboken Parking Utility at parking@hobokennj.gov to schedule a time to meet with a Parking Enforcement Supervisor. Include as much evidence as you can to demonstrate the error, including a photo of the ticket, photos of the parking situation, and your Parkmobile parking session receipt.Based on the supervisor’s review, they may provide a written report to the municipal court for the judge to take into consideration when making his or her determination. You may still need to schedule a court date and appear in court.    

Where do residential permit holders have to pay? Read More...

Official release:

  Dear friends and neighbors: Since 1994, Hoboken has repeatedly sold its future water revenues to fill unexpected budget gaps.  But tonight, for the first time in 25 years, the City Council will be voting on a new contract with Suez that returns our water revenues to where they belong – back to Hoboken.  This is the biggest step to date towards solving our infrastructure issues which have been a top priority for me because it is a top priority of all of you.         Click above to hear my remarks at Friday’s press conference or here to watch my interview with Hudson County View.  If you have not yet done so, you can read the announcement from the City as well.  This agreement and new contract with Suez accomplishes so much for Hoboken:

Generates significantly more revenues for Hoboken to invest in its water infrastructure – enough to cover all $33M of the necessary upgrades in Hoboken’s Water System Renewal Plan. 

Provides for new state of the art leak technology that will help us detect leaks as early as possible.

Establishes an operational best practice framework going forward for operating our water system.

Resets our go forward partnership with Suez.

Changes to a fixed fee structure to manage and operate our water system.

Creates a water utility that will be fully self-funding. 

Read More...

Hoboken’s corruption past meets the present as a trial is set for June 11th surrounding the criminal allegations of vote buying.

The Jersey Journal reports Frank “Pupie” Raia and Dio Braxton facing allegations of buying votes in 2013 will stand trial together beginning June 11th, per an order of the court.

Another alleged member of the conspiracy Liz “Church Lady” Camis was the first arrested in the vote-buying allegations using Vote by Mail ballots. She’s pled guilty and is likely to appear as a witness for the government. Read More...

Official release:

DeFusco, Giattino Propose New Pet-Friendly Ordinance to Replace Ban on Dogs from City Parks

Councilman Mike DeFusco and Council President Jen Giattino are working together to change Hoboken’s outdated law prohibiting dogs in City-run parks. Last week, Mayor Ravi Bhalla began strictly enforcing these antiquated laws without warning, resulting in unnecessary tickets and fines being imposed on Hoboken residents. The current ordinance allows dogs to walk through parks only to gain access to dog runs. DeFusco and Giattino will co-sponsor a replacement ordinance during tonight’s City Council meeting that will permit dogs into City parks, while penalizing careless owners who don’t clean up after them $2,000 Read More...

Saddled for decades with a water contract originating back to the corrupt dark days of the Anthony Russo administration, the new water contract announced Friday is a big win for Hoboken.

The details are not fully clear and the contract itself isn’t available but the ties to the historically bad contract where water revenues were surrendered in return to plug a budget deficit led to huge losses, seen and unseen.

Mayor Ravi Bhalla announced the new agreement with Suez on the problematic water contract. Councilwoman Tiffanie Fisher spoke on the negotiations and was joined by councilmembers Jim Doyle and Emily Jabbour last Friday.

In one visible aspect, Hoboken was limited to 300K annually in infrastructure repairs to its antiquated water system with segments fully a century or more old. As the pipes began to burst, the 300K annually was quickly surpassed and residents inflicted with a growing million dollar =&0=& bill. When former mayor Dawn Zimmer proposed late in her second term a new deal, all of the bad was buried along with a suggested outstanding $8.5 million bill. The sovereignty question and competitive analysis were sorely missing in her proposed contract. The council balked and no council member sponsored it for a vote. The infrastructure portion of the bill continued climbing into the double-digit millions as the City Council sought a competitive bidding process to reclaim sovereignty for the City, much-needed dignity and any semblance of fair pricing. Finally, Mayor Ravi Bhalla after some initial saber rattling about suing for past sins signed on to the dotted line in decades past worked with the City Council to hammer out a new deal with Suez more favorable for the City of Hoboken. The thoughtful and timely focus appears to have finally turned around an abysmal situation. More details and analysis is required but there’s plenty of reason to be positive with the daylight in over $30 million in committed infrastructure without the significant increases proposed in the Zimmer proposal, as reported on the Hudson County View.

Official release:

=&0=&:  Milling and Paving on upper Washington St. starting tomorrow (4/15).  Click HERE for the notice just sent from the City about diverted 22, 89 and 126 buses.  Warning… I think the instructions aren’t quite correct… and I have informed the City.  But you can get the gist with this, just be on the look out for a corrected one.   Tomorrow night (Monday) is Budget Hearing #3 that will cover the following departments: 

• Community Development (Development, zoning and affordable housing) – 6-7pm
• Health & Human Services (Recreation, seniors, and rent control) – 7-8pm
• Parking and Transportation (self explanatory…) – 8-9pm 

You can tune in online HERE (click on the April 15th date) or on FB Live.  Please tune in or better yet, attend in person and participate in the hearing!  

If you are someone who has raised questions or concerns about how we plan to manage development, affordable housing, rent control or our recreation and senior programs, then this is the hearing for you! 

If you are someone who wants to know HOW MUCH DOES HOBOKEN MAKE FROM PARKING METERS and other types of permit fees and what we do with these revenues, then this hearing is for you! 

Read More...