In every issue we will be working out with and getting to know an ink-worthy Hobokenite. Find us in the gym, on the bike path, on the yoga mat—you name it. Who’s up next? Stay tuned.
When you’re walking with Geri Fallo, don’t expect an uninterrupted workout. As Hoboken’s director of cultural affairs, she knows a lot of people who like to wave and stop for a chat. She loves walking along the waterfront, so we did just that, striding around Shipyard Park, the 14th Street ferry slip, and the pier where the Yankee is tied up.
Fallo is a Hoboken native who was brought up the burbs, lived in North Bergen for a while, then came back in 1990 to live in the town she’s always loved.
“People thought I’d always lived here,” Fallo says, “because I was working here and was very involved.”
An art school graduate, she was drawn to the art scene in Hoboken. “Artists started moving here,” she recalls, “and they said, ‘You really should come to Hoboken, it’s a cool place,’ and I gravitated here like other artists and musicians.”
She wasn’t the first artsy type to find fellow travelers at Maxwell’s. “I’d hang out there and other places in Hoboken, and like everybody else, I fell in love with it.”
Though she’s drawn to the city’s old architecture, she loves what’s happened to the waterfront, and indeed, we wouldn’t be walking here now if it weren’t for all the improvements over the past few years.
“When I first came here,” she says, “there wasn’t Pier A, Pier C, Sinatra Park. Go down to Maxwell Place, and there’s a little park there with a lovely boathouse. Now, I can’t imagine living here without them. It’s exciting to see the new waterfront. It’s been very positive for the city.”
Many of the events she plans in her capacity as cultural affairs director take place on the waterfront.
Another thing Fallo loves is sitting in outdoor cafes when the weather is warm. “Everybody comes out of hibernation,” she says. “I bump into people I know. Since Hoboken is only a mile square, it’s easy to get to know people and feel connected to things going on here.”
But one thing she loves about walking on the waterfront is having time to meditate on her own. “I appreciate the Manhattan skyline,” she says, “the breeze, the sun shining off the water, the nature. It feels so calm and peaceful.”—Kate Rounds