Dear Resident,
I hope everyone stayed safe during yesterday’s snow storm! First, let me express my thanks to the Hoboken Department of Environmental Services, our Office of Emergency Management, the Hoboken Police Department and Hoboken Fire Department for clearing our streets in a timely fashion and keeping our City safe.
With Hoboken being a walking City, I also wanted to make sure that our intersections and crosswalks were cleaned and passable for residents walking to transit areas today. We had seven bobcat crews working throughout the night to clear snow from corners. When traveling through the City, please report any unshoveled sidewalks at www.hoboken311.com or via the Hoboken 311 mobile app.
Below is a brief recap of a few of the projects my team is hard at work with in City Hall during my first week.
Washington Street
In my first director’s meeting on Tuesday, an important topic of conversation was moving forward our Washington Street project. I am 100% committed to getting this project done as soon as possible. Already, I met with the Washington Street contractors to discuss operations and met with the team in the field. I have instructed my administration to gather daily updates from the contractors to ensure constant communication and prevent additional delays.
Office of Constituent Services
I’m pleased to announce that in the coming weeks, we will be opening an Office of Constituent Services at City Hall. This office will be solely dedicated to providing efficient and enhanced constituent services to residents, no matter how big or small the issue. This office will be fully staffed and located near the entrance to City Hall and open after business hours, so residents can always have a place to turn to for assistance.
Unruly bar crawls/cons
We all saw the unruly behavior that resulted from the return of the “Santa-con” bar crawl. I find it unacceptable for people to come into Hoboken and trash our City, while enriching the profits of the bar owners at the expense of our residents and other legitimate businesses. At my inauguration, I announced that I am forming a task force comprised of police, fire, and emergency management officials, who together with local business leaders will develop and execute strategies to put this menace to an end.
PSE&G Resiliency Project
I’m thrilled to let you know that the City Council approved an important amendment to advance the critical PSE&G $170 million energy project on Wednesday. This PSE&G project will consolidate our two energy substations into one elevated facility, and substantially strengthen Hoboken’s electrical grid. This critical investment of $170 million will ensure Hoboken’s energy grid is more resilient from major flooding events, like the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy when our substations failed and we were without power for two weeks. A special thank you to our City Hall team, as well as Mayor Dawn Zimmer for moving this project forward.
I look forward to staying in touch in the weeks ahead.
Sincerely,
Ravi S. Bhalla
Hoboken Mayor