Hoboken council tables measure to bond for $1.2M for Washington Street bike lanes

The Hoboken City Council tabled a measure seeking to spend $1.2 million to install bike lanes on Washington Street, the city’s main thoroughfare, at last night’s meeting.

By John Heinis/Hudson County View

“Councilman DeFusco and Councilman Cohen approached the administration about including work to develop a plan and execute on protected bike lanes on Washington Street,” Business Administrator Jason Freeman explained as last night’s meeting approached 10:30 p.m.

“That was $1.2 million which was estimated by our transportation department. So the $3.5 million plus the $1.2 million is how we arrived at the $4.7 million.”

Freeman was describing the second reading of a bond ordinance that called for authorizing additional funding to complete “various infrastructure projects” such as repaving and resurfacing, which includes a small allocation ($47,000) for public art installations.

Resident Paul Presinzano, who questioned the specifics of the local legislation, was incensed at the fact that this would even be considered during the last meeting of the year without any notice to the public.

“Let’s wake up and do something here: angry Paul is out. You guys just redeveloped Washington Street … you just put bump outs there. If you move the cars out, they are now in the street and those bump outs mean nothing,” he stated.

“If you just watch the fire that happened on 4th and Washington, Chief Peskins can say this, I believe what the fire trucks do is they pull up onto the yellow lines, and that’s what they’re told to do. And if you come from two different points in the city, there’s a whole ‘nother problem.”

Presinzano added that while he supports protected bike lanes, he questioned if any business owners had been appraised of this plan: “guys, your process up here is horrible.”

Hany Ahmed, the managing partner of Pegasus Partners, was one of a handful of other residents who also said they read the agenda and had no idea this ordinance was seeking to add bike lanes to Washington Street.

“It’s concerning: I was in this debate five, no even longer, I’m sorry, seven years ago, eight years ago before you did Washington Street. People were really upset with this,” he recalled.

“Councilwoman Fisher specifically brought up, about the bike lanes, and made it clear that you didn’t have enough [room] for a door opening or something else that would happen in a crash impact – they weren’t even legal lanes that you guys originally drew. So that was withdrawn, luckily so: we don’t want to be sued from every biker who gets hit by a door.”

Next, Cheryl Fallick asserted that Hoboken bicyclists often do not follow the rules of the road, stating that she had been hit by one on nine separate occasions.

” … If there’s a protected bike lane, they’re gonna whiz through every red light and I have been hit crossing Washington Street. I have … Sometimes you have to give some credibility to the people in the room,” she said.

“If you have to pull it, fine, but don’t pass it. Don’t put protected bike lanes behind the backs of all the citizens. Let Hudson County View do a story and let everybody know.”

6th Ward Councilwoman Jen Giattino asked Corporation Counsel Brian Aloia how this ordinance could possibly impact bike lanes on Washington Street when neither term is written in the measure.

He responded that bond counsel was asked that question and the agenda item included their recommended language, which he referred to as “form language.”

Upon further questioning from Giattino, Freeman reiterated that the bond was initially written for $3.5 million, and while it was being finalized 1st Ward Councilman Mike DeFusco and 5th Ward Councilman Phil Cohen asked what it would take to include the bike lanes.

Giattino called the tactic a “go around,” to which Freeman disagreed, but the councilwoman’s opinion was unwavering: “you’re trying to trick the public.”

“I just want to be very clear: this is not tomorrow there’s going to be construction on bike lanes, this is the bond to do them, so there will be design, there will be conversation. The bond is required per our Department of Transportation,” Freeman added.

4th Ward Councilman Ruben Ramos said that while he’d like to see the repaving of Sinatra Drive, Court Street, and Castle Point Terrace move forward, he wouldn’t approve bonding for bike lanes on Washington Street on a moment’s notice.

“There hasn’t been one meeting that has been held. Every two weeks, we’ve been pretty consistent, for every council meeting, the transportation committee has met every two weeks twice a month, all year. July and August included, maybe more in some months,” he began.

“Never was this discussed. Not once … We’ve discussed Castle Point a bunch of times, Court Street a bunch of times, never once did this come up. So I would like to pull the Washington Street portion of is, just for discussion.”

Council President Mike Russo noted that if they separated the items out, they’d have to revert back to first reading. Councilman-at-Large Jim Doyle said that there would be no harm in pulling the item since there will be no changes on the council in 2023.

Freeman then noted that there could not be a vote on first reading until it is advertised, therefore a vote could not be had tonight in that scenario.

With that said, Russo believed that it was in their best interest to either vote on the measure tonight or table it, indicating he didn’t have a preference to either.

Cohen, who called into the meeting, pointed out that DeFusco brought this topic up during new business at their previous meeting. Despite that fact, the majority of his colleagues were not persuaded to vote on it immediately.

Doyle made a motion to table, which was seconded by Ramos, and it passed 7-2, with DeFusco and Cohen voting no.