Beth Moulds, 62, does not live in Hoboken anymore, but the first Thursday of every month, she gets up early to visit her Hoboken doctor. However, if the city’s new traffic diversion program is implemented at the end of this week, Moulds might have to reschedule.
“I don’t think it’s fair,” said Moulds, who lives in Elizabeth, while her car was stopped at a stoplight at 14th and Willow last week. “Just because I don’t live here, doesn’t mean that I shouldn’t be able to go to my doctor.”
Local residents and motorists were informed last week that drivers entering Hoboken at its northern border from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. who did not have a Hoboken resident parking sticker or work permit would be diverted up the 14th Street Viaduct to Jersey City so that they would not pass through Hoboken as a way to get to Jersey City. The plan is meant to ultimately alleviate traffic congestion at Hoboken’s southern end, where construction is going on.
However, the plan stirred debate at a City Council meeting Wednesday, and County Prosecutor Fred Theemling told Mayor Anthony Russo that day that the plan was unconstitutional. Mayors of other towns complained that they had not been notified of it.
The plan has been postponed until it can be discussed further by city, county and transit officials at a meeting this coming Thursday.
Hoboken Police Chief Carmen LaBruno said last week that he believes that in the end, the meeting will prove fruitful.
“[Other officials] acknowledge that there is an extensive vehicular problem in Hoboken,” said LaBruno last week. “We are now researching a solution that is going to have a regional impact.”
Media frenzy
Controversy over the plan lured television news stations to a City Council meeting Wednesday at which it was debated.
“This would cause great harm to all the regional residents,” said City Council President David Roberts, who is running against Russo for mayor this May. “It doesn’t take a traffic expert to figure that there are better and far less risky ways to alleviate traffic.”
Russo defended his actions last week. “Commuter traffic has increased significantly in the past few months due to the construction in lower Jersey City,” Russo said. “The negative effect of commuter traffic has become a burden to Hoboken residents.”
Councilman Tony Soares, who is running for re-election on Roberts’ ticket, complained last week, “This is a knee jerk reaction to the problem. Someone should tell Mayor Russo that they tore down the Berlin Wall years ago. For him to say that [commuter traffic] is the bulk of the problem is crazy. Having cops at every entrance to the city will only intimidate people and just doesn’t look good.”
Traffic has been a major campaign issue, with Russo’s critics charging that too much development without proper planning was the culprit. Russo has responded that the real problem is that Hoboken is located between the Holland and Lincoln Tunnels, and out-of-towners are using the city as a throughway. The Hoboken Parking Authority recently released a traffic study with recommendations for fixing traffic problems.
Officials surprised, schools delayed
The city’s announcement Wednesday of the intended traffic diversion caused Schools Superintendent Patrick Gagliardi to delay the opening of the schools Thursday morning.
“At 10 a.m. [Wednesday] we were given a notice from the police department detailing the anticipated traffic delays between 7 and 9 a.m.,” Gagliardi said. “As we interpreted the notice, the impact on the school system would be significant.”
Because of his fear that some of the school’s teachers would not be able to get to school on time, Gagliardi delayed the start of school to 10 a.m. Thursday. “We felt the safety of the children was in jeopardy,” said Gagliardi. “It was a distinct possibility that I would have 2,500 students and not a full complement of teachers, so I had to make a decision.”
Neighboring towns also found out about the plan suddenly.
Officials from Jersey City, Union City, and Weehawken reacted to the news with befuddlement.
“It is obvious to me that we should have been pre-notified before such a serious unilateral action is taken,” said Weehawken Mayor Richard Turner Thursday. “I should not have to have found out about this from citizens calling me to complain about this flyer that they were receiving. We were totally taken off guard.”
Turner threatened to block Weehawken roads from Hoboken traffic if the plan was enacted. His fear was that stopping every car in Hoboken would cause such a bottleneck that it would back up traffic to the Lincoln Tunnel helix, which he believes would have the effect of stifling traffic as far away as Secaucus.
On Wednesday, Turner had contacted State Sen. Bernard Kenny (D-Hoboken) and Union City Mayor Brian Stack, whose city would also be affected by diverting traffic onto the Palisades, to express his concerns. He also contacted Hudson County Prosecutor Fred J. Theemling, Jr. to inquire about the legality of such an effort.
Theemling said last week, “I believe the way they are doing this is unconstitutional. What you are doing is restricting citizens from public streets, and you just can’t do that.”
In addition to the constitutional issues, Theemling has a great deal of safety concerns.
“The fact that they are going to check stickers is going to create gridlock at that intersection,” Theemling said. “If the southern end of Hoboken is already blocked with congestion, and now the northern end also has a bottleneck, how are emergency vehicles going to be able to get to an accident or to the hospital?”
While Theemling commended Hoboken for undertaking an extensive traffic study, he said he believes that this independent action was not the best way to improve the traffic situation.
“In order to [initiate such a plan] it would take intricate communication and would call for major changes in traffic and light patterns, and this takes a great deal of communication [between cities and the county],” Theemling said. “In this case, no one was notified. If we had all sat down and started working, maybe we could have come up with a plan that would have not potentially risked people’s lives.”
City defends its actions
According to Crimmins, this measure was made necessary by the construction occurring in Jersey City adjacent to the southern end of Hoboken. “All this is caused by construction in Jersey City,” said Crimmins. “We have to use five to seven officers a day during rush hour to police traffic that is caused by construction projects on Henderson Avenue, Grove Street, and Jersey Avenue.”
Crimmins added that Jersey City has not communicated with Hoboken in reference to the construction and that because of that, they have no other option but to divert traffic in the northern end of town. The two major projects the Crimmins referred to by name were work on the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail and an extensive project to lay cable in Jersey City.
Jersey City officials took offense to Russo’s diversion plan.
“From our point of view,” said Tom Gallagher, the chief of staff to Mayor Bret Schundler, “the Holland Tunnel exists where it does. Obviously we each have to take as many steps as possible to keep cars on major thoroughfares and keep them off of city streets. [But] we should be neighborly to one another.”
While Hoboken city officials believe there has been a breakdown in communications between Jersey City and Hoboken, Jersey City officials have similar feelings. “Hoboken has tried this a number of times,” Gallagher said, citing snow emergencies and last summer’s Op Sail as times when Hoboken threatened to shut down its streets. In fact, during a blizzard in the 1990s, Russo banned non-Hoboken residents from coming into town. The measure earned mixed reviews.
“They seem to come up with this tactic quite often,” Gallagher said. “We will have to review it, have discussions, and talk to the county traffic officer and the chief prosecutor.”
City officials said that Hoboken is a town between two tunnels where a large number of commuters use its city’s streets merely as a throughway. “Right now there are 4,600 out-of-town vehicles using our city streets each day,” said Police Chief LaBruno. “This problem has created traffic congestion, noise pollution, and safety issues. We cannot tolerate that impact on our traffic.”
Business concerns
Local Hoboken businesses were taken by surprise when they first heard word of the plan last week.
“[The Hoboken Chamber of Commerce] was not consulted,” said Chamber President John Parchinski. “It’s going to keep workers out of Hoboken. What about people who pay for garages, but don’t have resident parking stickers? What about people who have children in school or who are teachers? It just doesn’t make sense. Are they saying that there is going to be no shopping between 7 and 9 a.m.? Common sense would say that they would contact us and see if we had any suggestions.”
Crimmins replied that when the program is implemented, there will be concessions and exceptions to who will be let into town. He added that anyone with a justified reason would be granted entrance.
But not every Hoboken resident is confident that the system is going to work.
“What about our business associate that comes to Hoboken for an 8:30 am meeting?” said Hoboken resident Beth Mason at Wednesday’s City Council Meeting. Crimmins replied by stating that they will be able to obtain permits for their cars for any legitimate business purpose. To this Mason replied that this is an added headache that neither she nor her boss should have to deal with.
Torn between two tunnels
Mayor Russo said last week that he has confidence that his plan will eventually be implemented.
“This needs to be done for the safety of Hoboken residents,” said Russo at a press conference Thursday morning. When asked how far he is willing to take this legally, he replied, “I respectfully disagree with the Hudson County prosecutor and find that this is imperative for Hoboken, and I am willing to take this as high as I have to go if that’s what needs to be done.”