Good morning and hope you’ve all been enjoying your summer. It’s been a busy few weeks and I wanted to quickly update you on what’s happening around Hoboken.
A $250 FINE FOR NOT WEARING A MASK?
At last night’s City Council meeting, the mayor and his council allies proposed an ordinance that would’ve allegedly given the Bhalla Administration authority to impose a $250 fine to anyone not practicing social distancing in public. Factually speaking, the ordinance rehashed an existing July 8th Executive Order from Governor Phil Murphy, word by word. The proposed legislation only added two short and questionably enforceable clauses: one that broadly define the city employees able to issue a summons; the other set the limits of the fine at $250.
What's curious here is that the mayor is already legally authorized under the Faulkner Act to use city resources to enforce the governor’s mandate without any formal action of the City Council. Financial penalties are also defined in the Executive Order, which means the mayor can work through the Hoboken Police and County Prosecutor’s Office to issue fines. Finally, the fairness of having employees not trained in public health and the possibility of bias impacting their decision creates a dangerous slippery slope, policy wise.
For all of these reasons, I along with a majority (6-3) of the City Council voted against the measure, and the ordinance failed to pass. Given this legislative overreach was more press stunt than policy, I call on Mayor Bhalla to put politics aside and continue working with the City Council, as he has each step of the way during this pandemic, to protect the health and welfare of all Hoboken residents.
I remain fully committed to seeing an aggressive enforcement of the governor’s Executive Order, so long as it does not include a financially punitive fine. Instead, let’s focus our city’s resources on continuing Covid-19 education / outreach, mask distribution and bringing Hoboken together through science and facts, not driving us apart with politics.
REVITALIZING A DOWNTOWN PARK INTO AN URBAN OASIS
For far too long, the park on the corner of Newark and Garden Streets has been cut off from the community by a fence and sadly, underutilized for years. I’ve long envisioned a better use of this space, which is why I’m excited to announce a plan that will modernize and renovate it into a public park with a locally owned coffee kiosk, at no cost to taxpayers.
When the park was constructed during the late 1990s, the owner of the property entered into a limited access agreement with the city, meaning anyone can use the park, but only during certain hours. After speaking with the current owners, Equity Apartments, we’ve all agreed the park needs to be rehabilitated into a space that is more accessible and welcoming to residents. I’m proud to say, I’ve secured a financial commitment to do just that.
The pocket park at Garden and Newark Streets
Late last year, the mayor began negotiating a redevelopment project across the street from the park that would build an 11 story building on Willow Avenue. As the Councilman for the neighborhood, residents approached me with their concerns about the size of the building and a need for more accessible green space to accommodate more people moving into the area. After bringing these concerns to the developer and demanding a fair shake for my neighbors, I was able to secure a commitment of $500,000 to rehabilitate the park.
A conceptual rendering of the rehabilitated park on Newark and Garden Streets
Although Mayor Bhalla initially signaled that he was in support of this, he has since changed course and is unwilling to provide the necessary assurances that his administration will use the money for the park revisions should the Council approve his development agreement. It’s frustrating when good ideas that benefit the community get sidelined for political showmanship, but regardless, my top priority remains seeing that this park is properly renovated. Smart urban planning is about creating special spaces across our city -- places that entice residents to stop and stay, to appreciate our city and I won’t stop fighting for this vision for the future.
THE MAYOR'S PROPOSED 9.8% TAX INCREASE
After months of keeping taxpayers out of the loop by refusing to publicly address the true state of the city’s finances, Mayor Bhalla has proposed raising municipal taxes by 9.8% amid an unprecedented economic recession. While the mayor continues to blame a global health crisis for his years of financial mismanagement, the fact of the matter is that we learned about a $7-14 million budget shortfall back in December, months before the COVID-19 outbreak.
The proposed 9.8% municipal tax increase is being offset by Hudson County delivering a 6% county tax decrease, which has allowed the mayor to sweep the municipal increase under the rug. Further, the County has already secured $1.4 million in relief from the federal CARES Act on our behalf to offset the city’s pandemic related costs, which is the first of three tranches earmarked for Hoboken. In a time where so many people are out of work and many of us are worried about what this pandemic means for our own personal finances, it’s unconscionable for the mayor to ask Hoboken taxpayers to carry this economic burden.
Sadly, we’ve already seen the administration force 26 essential city employees out of their jobs as a result of their misspending, and we simply cannot let that happen again. I’m committed to working with the mayor and entire City Council, to put Hoboken back on a fiscally responsible path forward and identifying ways for us to deliver a budget with no new tax increase.
CLOSING SINATRA DRIVE TO VEHICULAR TRAFFIC
One of the great things about being on the City Council is pushing for new ideas to make our ever changing city become better. Hoboken’s waterfront has long been a destination for residents and because of the pandemic, we’ve seen an increase in crowds and decrease in quality of life on our waterfront this spring and summer -- and something needed to be done about it.
To address this issue, I was proud to work with Councilwoman Tiffanie Fisher to close Sinatra Drive to most vehicular traffic, with the exception of caregivers, daycare dropoff and emergency vehicles, for the month of August. By doing this, we are giving people the room they need to properly distance, expanding recreational activities and freeing up more space for our waterfront eateries to expand their outdoor cafes.
SECURE BIKE STORAGE IN MUNICIPAL GARAGES + CITI BIKE
More Hoboken residents are turning to bicycles as their primary mode of transportation, and as such, we as a city need to make investments in our infrastructure that reflects this trend. That’s why I was proud to work with Councilwoman Fisher to adopt a plan that would create secure bicycle storage options in our Municipal Garages for $1 a week. The reason we pushed for this plan is simple: in an urban community like Hoboken, far too many residents do not have space to store their bicycles within their apartment or home.
Unfortunately, the mayor chose to veto our legislation, despite receiving a 6-3 approval from the Council. I’m proud of the Council majority for working together to override the veto so we can move forward with this initiative. I’m now looking forward to working with the administration to build affordable and safe bike storage options in Hoboken.
At last night's Council meeting the administration finally introduced a shared program between Hoboken and Jersey City to bring CitiBike to town -- this is something I've been advocating for since 2017 and I couldn't be more excited. The contract was made available to us shortly before the meeting started and upon review it was found that the proposal included a provision for electric bikes. Given the rushed rollout of eScooters last spring and the administration's inability to currently curtail bike use on sidewalks, the Council has requested an enforcement plan before moving the contract forward.
As a daily cyclist myself, I am eager to work with everyone to see this contract approved quickly with appropriate safety mechanisms included, that we can enjoy the convenience of CitiBike this fall!
THE FUTURE OF BUSINESSES DURING COVID
Since the beginning of the pandemic, I’ve worked tirelessly to help put good policy in place that will help our small businesses recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. This led to the legislation that eased up on sidewalk cafe regulations, allowed businesses to build parklets in front of their establishments, activated underutilized space for popup markets, instituted a summer streets program for businesses to expand their operations outdoors and created a Riverfront Food Truck District.
We have undoubtedly created a blueprint for municipalities across the state and country to follow and I’m proud to have been the first leader in Hoboken to call for these programs. But now, with the summer months coming to an end, there’s more work to be done to support the hospitality industry in particular and keep residents safe. We need to get creative and innovative here, and that could mean making the parklets that are working best a permanent fixture in our city, or even adopting new ideas for cold weather outdoor seating like the "igloos" that are being used in other cities.
There’s no simple solution, but you have my work that I won't stop proposing new ways to support our local businesses and give Hoboken safe options for dining when the weather gets colder.
As always, should you have any questions or concerns please feel free to reach out to me directly on my cell: 646.372.4341 or via email: mike@mikedefusco.com.
P.S. Really excited to see Mulligan’s Pub finally be given the greenlight to transform their storage space facing First Street into a beautiful outdoor dining experience. The owners had long envisioned doing this, but unfortunately some red tape and zoning concerns caused a number of setbacks.
After connecting the owners with our zoning officer and neighboring residents, I was happy we were all able to agree on a renovation plan that works for everyone. I’ve always said neighborhoods are built around our mom and pop businesses, and now more than ever we need to work collaboratively to help them succeed during these difficult economic times. Congratulations to Paul and his crew on their new space, Slainte!