From the desk of Councilman Peter Cunningham:
Happy new year to all our friends, family and neighbors in and around
the 5th Ward.
There’s so much to write about from public schools to parking. Not
having a computer at home for several weeks over the holidays was a
real challenge. Then having to find something suitable to replace my
ailing satellite pro was even more difficult with hundreds of laptops,
notebooks, etc. to choose from. Well, I settled for a Sony Vaio.
I’ll send a separate note on the progress made at our Public Schools,
because quite frankly, it deserves it’s own separate highlight.
Since the sale of the Hospital, things have been relatively quiet,
unless you live in the NW part of Hoboken. Progress is good when
we’re cleaning up contaminated sites that have sat dormant and look
awful for years. But when construction banging is constant, a
chemical like smell is seemingly around the clock, it begins to
bear down on you hard. We had one community meeting with the
Developer in early December to explain in detail what was going on at
this site – past, present and future. It was an informative meeting.
See www.advancere.com/willow14 for details. In a couple of months we
expect to learn of the single commercial tenant at street-scape level.
In the interim, periodic reports are being provided to update the
neighborhood of their progress and challenges on an ongoing basis.
The second large scale project is the 14th Street viaduct
reconstruction project. That has posed a series of issues for many of
the same folks, and we are working with the County to address those
issues too. A community meeting is expected in the near future. In
the interim, please see www.14thstviaductreplacement.com/ for details.
Both projects are scheduled for completion by the end of 2013.
Since the addition of a third shift by the Parking Utility this past
fall, many of us have seen an uptick of parking tickets written for
cars parked on our neighborhood corners – where it had not been much
of a problem before. The problem is complicated when its illegal to
do so, and public safety comes first. The SOLUTION, thanks to a
change in Trenton where municipalities can legislate parking within 25
feet of a corner; so we’ve started the process several weeks ago to evaluate
intersections citywide to legislate legal parking SAFELY back to our
neighborhood corners. There are some restrictions (of course); but
for the most part, we are legally bringing four out of eight spots
back to each intersection. In the case of where there’s a stop sign
at the intersection, it’s actually eight spots. Technically the rule
is 50 feet from an intersection where there’s a stop sign. This has
generally gone unenforced in Hoboken. Parking will be from 7pm to
7am, not less than 15 feet from the corner. If you are inside 15
feet, and public safety vehicles cannot make the turn in an emergency,
you will be towed.
This new law will be up for second and final reading next Wednesday.
A stop sign has been approved for the corner of 10th and Park.
An evaluation of the situation at 11th and Adams is under way to find
a solution to mitigate the awkward flow of traffic to prevent
accidents from occurring.
And we will be amending the law to extend the ‘one way’ on Madison one
more block north of 11th street to 12th Street.
Lastly, relating to parking and transportation, the current four hour
rule will been tweaked. Currently the law says anyone without a
valid permit will have a four hour grace period after which they will
be ticketed , booted, etc. The law does not say “grace period” per
DAY, though it’s implied. I tried to argue for five or six, for
commercial districts, but the counter argument won for good reason to
limit any additional negative impact on resident parking. We’re
working on another solution that I believe will be more satisfactory
in the end.
Sorry for such a long update. Please share with your friends and
neighbors, and let me know if you have any additional questions. Look
forward to more information soon. Thanks, Peter
—
Peter Cunningham
