Hoboken 1st Ward Councilman Paul Presinzano hosted a Town Hall at City Hall’s downstairs conference room last night, where they discussed a myriad of topics including street safety, parking, Garage B, and much more.
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
The downtown councilman thanked Mayor Emily Jabbour for giving him the opportunity to speak to constituents, noting that this was not something that would have happened under her predecessor, Mayor Ravi Bhalla, now a state assembly for the 32nd Legislative District.
From there, Presinzano kicked off the roughly 90-minute meeting by asking residents what issues concerned them and writing them down on a dry erase board. The topics also included shoveling sidewalks, potholes, flooding, and PATH station upgrades.
“The 1st Ward is the epicenter of every quality of life issues that exists. So if we can get in right in the 1st Ward, those of you that are outside of the 1st Ward will benefit as well. But we live it every single day,” Presinzano said after collecting residents’ feedback for about 20 minutes.
“So, one of the key things is I think is the communication line with Mayor Jabbour has been open more than in the past. So right now, I think, as any of you could understand, it’s kind of like drinking from a firehose when you sit down on the first day of the job. And you’re probably taking all this in and at the same time you’ve got a bunch of complaints as well.”
Noting that it has been a busy few weeks in 2026 with a blizzard likely on the horizon, Presinzano noted that the administration and the city council have addressed some of the concerns that came up during the Town Hall.
He noted that there is a section on the city website where there is an overview of all the construction taking place throughout the Mile Square.
“Bother us as much as you want: That’s our job. If you don’t contact us, sometimes we don’t know. If you call me twice, 10 times, 30 times, I might slowly pick up your phone calls, but please call us when there’s an issue,” he urged the 35 or so residents on hand.
He also addressed the status of Garage B, clarifying that the project is still in its infancy and therefore there are a lot of decisions that still need to be made before construction begins.
“I have an idea or a plan that would involve taking that height down, it would do a little of moving things down, however, maybe not violating the height of 205 Hudson [St.], which is 13 stories, and somehow getting a police station, a garage, and a school. Looking at some rough numbers, this may be feasible,” he explained.
Presinzano added that he already has a plan in mind that would cut down the size of the 24-story proposal.
“We haven’t approved anything … We tentatively approved a developer for 180 days, so basically we’re probably going to have to go back to the drawing board at some point, that’s what it sounds like from here.”
In order to proceed, the owner of the Bank of America and the Marineview 5 buildings would have to be on board, with the councilman noting that his plan could potentially come to fruition without any further costs to the city.
Presinzano also noted that the Camera-based License plate Enforcement for Access and Response (CLEAR) program expired on December 31st and is unlikely to come back any time soon, noting that funding for the pilot has been almost completely expended.
” … It was going to be a study of loading zones and then it morphed into something else, so we [the council] were kind of caught in between and it was rolled out without any of us knowing about it,” he said.
He continued that he lives across the street from Garage D and it’s always full by 9 a.m. during the week, which he believes is a strong indicator that this was the wrong time for something like the CLEAR program, which he said was a detriment to local businesses.
“Right now, currently the system the way it’s set up, the parking utility has the ability to adjust for inflation without coming to the council, that’s why we’ve seen parking rates go up marginally every single time,” Presinzano stated.
“Again, we’re waiting for this study to come and be presented to us that we spent half a million dollars on: We want to see some results, we want to see what’s going on, like I said, it goes back to the administration, and currently, this should be a more transparent process so we can see some more stuff on that.”
The meeting streamed live on Facebook and can be viewed here.
