After the Hoboken City Council debated parking regulations at their meeting on Wednesday night, they voted 7-2 to award a $1.5 million contract to a company to place 156 new parking meters at corners anywhere in town where visitor or business permit parking is currently allowed. The metered parking will apply to people who have no permits.
Right now, most streets in Hoboken are designated for residents only on one side and for permit parking on the other side. Permit parking applies to both visitor permits (for friends and relatives of residents) or annual business parking permits. People stopping into town who have neither a business nor a visitor permit can still park on the permit side of the street for up to four hours for free, but then must use a garage or meter or find some other place to park after that.
Soon, the four-hour free parking for them will be a thing of the past.
When a Roseland-based company installs the meter machines in the fall, visitors will have to pay a dollar an hour for up to four hours. This is based on ordinances passed in 2014.
Thus, people coming to town to eat, sightsee, or do business may need to pay the meters or find garage or private parking after these meters are installed in fall.
Before voting on the ordinance, council members debated whether people should be able to fill the meters all day, and discussed the enforcement of existing parking regulations that limit on-street parking to four hours without a permit.
Councilman Michael Russo expressed a concern that the citywide meters’ hardware might not regulate specific hour limits, leading to a need for stronger monitoring of parking spaces.
Councilwoman Tiffanie Fisher clarified that the meters’ technology allows enforcement officers to know who is refilling them. Depending on how the council plans to enforce parking ordinances in the future, the technology could help the officers issue tickets.
Councilman Ruben Ramos vehemently opposed the resolution, fearing that visitors to Hoboken will have limited options if parking regulations become stricter. He said the Hoboken that has four-hour parking ordinances is “not the Hoboken I grew up in.”
“We don’t want to be that closed community,” Ramos said. “That’s what Hoboken has never been and never will be.”
Councilman Peter Cunningham argued that investing in the technology may not be worth it if it becomes outdated.
“In short time, we will have bonded a couple of million dollars on 156 meters that are going to become obsolete,” he commented.
Ramos and Cunningham voted against the resolution.
The meters will be part of the existing pay-by-plate system in which people put their license plate to be able to park and pay. Such machines are already in existences in parts of town such as Washington Street and at Fifteenth and Grand streets by the Biergarten.
The meters will not run up and down the street, but will be placed one per block near an intersection, said city spokesman Juan Melli.
After the bond is paid off for the program, the city would like to use the meter money to continually invest in its transportation infrastructure.
According to a press release, “Based on a recommendation from Hoboken’s Parking Master Plan and following a successful pilot in northern Hoboken, the City Council adopted legislation to expand city-wide the use of hybrid permit/meter zones on all ‘Permit Only’ streets and authorized a bond for the purchase of parking meters. The meter expansion applies only to the ‘Permit Only’ side where visitors are already permitted, not the ‘Resident Only’ side. Everyone with a valid Hoboken parking permit (Resident, Business, Visitor, Senior, etc) will be able to continue to park without paying the meter.”
Skating away on the thin ice of a new day
In other news at Wednesday’s meeting, the council also voted unanimously (9-0) to award an emergency contract to Reggio Construction for repairs to the outdoor skating rink at the Multi-Service Center on Grand Street, which would not exceed $36,475.
Russo, who said he was at the Multi-Service Center recently, expressed support for the funding because he noticed that the rink was in “rough shape” and “unusable.”
Michael DeFusco disagreed that the contract was an emergency, stating that the rink has already been in a state of disrepair for months upon years, but later on voted in support of it.
“I used to skate there,” Ramos said. “At this point, either condemn it altogether or fix it. It’s unfortunate that it’s in this state after years of disrepair.”
SIDEBAR
‘Love is love’: Hoboken clergy, officials speak at vigil for Orlando shooting victims
Just before Wednesday night’s City Council meeting began in Hoboken, hundreds of residents stood outside City Hall with white candles, under both the American flag and a gay pride flag, and spoke of love and equality.
Members of the local LGBT and Muslim communities were there to share their sentiments at a candlelight vigil for the 49 victims of the Sunday-night shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Fla.
Rabbi Robert Scheinberg of the United Synagogue of Hoboken and Father Gregory Morgan of All Saints Episcopal Parish led the crowd in prayers.
Two members of Hoboken’s City Council also spoke at the event. Michael DeFusco — whom Mayor Dawn Zimmer introduced as the city’s first openly LGBT councilman — and Ravinder Bhalla, the first Sikh councilman, both shared their thoughts.
“We must have dialogue occur around prevention before weapons are drawn and lives are taken.” – Laura Knittel
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He acknowledged the progress the LGBT community has made in recent years, but said that last Sunday, the day of the massacre, he woke to a “frightening reality.”
“Although the size of the attack was unusual, hate crimes against the LGBT community are still common,” he said.
The massacre was perpetrated by Omar Mateen, who ultimately killed 49 people inside the club and wounded 53 others.
Shayan Farooqi of the Jersey City Islamic Learning Center condemned the attack.
“Over the last 1400 years, Islam has a long history of protecting the vulnerable and voiceless,” Farooqi said. “American Muslims stand with you in your time of tragedy so that one day, we can walk together in times of joy.”
Laura Knittel, a local LGBT community activist, gave an emotional speech about the danger of guns.
“It is ironic that we as Americans who long to preserve and protect what we love and hold true in our lives, have now grown a type of cancer as a nation… it is the disease of automatic weaponry,” Knittel said. “We must have dialogue occur around prevention before weapons are drawn and lives are taken, like our sisters and brothers in Orlando, those in Sandy Hook [Conn.], and California, and so many other mass murders.”
Bhalla said every morning, Sikhs pray for the peace and the prosperity of all humankind.
“In the Sikh tradition, there is no ‘other,’” he said. “There’s no distinction between race, religion, gender, caste, sexual orientation – there’s only oneness in our faith.”
After the series of speeches, Knittel and Councilman DeFusco read the names and descriptions of the victims.
“Love is love, love is love, love is love,” Knittel repeated.
To conclude the vigil, Rabbi Scheinberg led the city in prayer, asking God to “help us make a safe world for our brothers and sisters who are gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender, who so often are targets of hatred, oppression and violence.” – Gianluca D’Elia