Dear Editor:
Personal garages are clearly one of the solutions to the Hoboken parking crisis. Unfortunately, for those of us who have (and pay dearly for) such garages, this benefit is jeopardized by the City’s inability or unwillingness to keep garage driveways clear of illegally-parked cars.
Typically, an illegally-blocked driveway takes 40-60 minutes to resolve. Half of this time must be spent waiting outside for the arrival of the police, oftentimes in the bitter cold, occasionally in the rain or snow, and almost always late at night. And sometimes, we find our cars blocked in our garages, unable to depart and get to the places we need to be.
But this problem is not merely one of inconvenience. Sometimes the owner of an illegally-parked vehicle is located. When asked to move, on several occasions these individuals have threatened us with violence.
Late last year some of us in the Fourth Ward wrote to Mayor Roberts and Councilman Campos about this dangerous situation. Sadly neither has extended us the courtesy of a reply. Not even a form letter. Given the exorbitant taxes and rents we pay to live in Hoboken, we deserve better. We don’t need a fancy new “Office of Constituent Services;” what we need is simply a mayor and councilmen who care enough to respond to the taxpayers and voters that petition them. A Hoboken taxpayer