Dear Neighbors,
As autumn leaves change color and fall 🍁 🍂, I write to update you on the latest affecting our community.
COVID-19 Updates
As of Thursday, 868 Hoboken residents have been confirmed as testing positive for COVID-19 and 748 residents have fully recovered. The number of positive tests continues steadily to increase, after flattening to around 590 cases for several weeks in July. Unfortunately, our recent rounds of daily positive tests results include October 10 when we had 12 new cases and October 15 when we had 8 new positive cases.
With this recent uptick in positive cases, if you have any reason to believe you have been exposed to COVID-19, schedule an appointment for a COVID-19 test with Riverside Medical Group at 15th and Jefferson at least 5-7 days after potential exposure. Scheduling appointments no longer requires phone calls to our CERT team; you can simply go online at www.hobokennj.gov/riverside. Riverside offers rapid 15-minute COVID-19 test results to Hoboken residents and employees who work in Hoboken. You can get your test 6 days a week, Monday through Saturday.
Prompt MD is also hosting COVID-19 testing in partnership with the City on Monday the 19th at 605 Jackson Street from 8 am until 3 pm. It’s easy to schedule an appointment - visit www.hobokennj.gov/promptmd. Please remember: wearing a face mask and practicing social distancing is the key to keeping our community healthy and safe. Testing at Prompt MD is now open to Hoboken business employees as well. Results are typically provided through Prompt MD within 48 - 72 hours.
In addition to Hoboken’s public COVID-19 facility, you can visit City MD at 231 Washington Street or PromptMD at 309 1st Street, and walk-in without an appointment to get your COVID-19 test at their private facilities. To be safe, you can call ahead to confirm test availability. Recently, I walked into City MD’s offices without an appointment for my test, and from the time I registered to the time I left, I was done in half an hour -- and got my negative test result two days later. This option is also available for you.
Since March 30th, 31 Hoboken residents have died from COVID-19, and -- thankfully -- that number has remained unchanged for several months. For those of you who have endured such a difficult loss at this extraordinary time, know that you continue to have the full support of our entire Hoboken community. We are with you. Together, we send you our prayers and extend to you our wishes for your comfort, healing, and peace.
Halloween in Hoboken
Halloween is always special in Hoboken. But as COVID-19 has changed so much in our lives, it will change how we celebrate Halloween this year. First, the Hoboken Ragamuffin Parade is canceled. Also, the traditional Halloween uptown block parties (on Garden Street and Bloomfield Street between 11th and 13th) will not be celebrated this year.
This year, Hoboken will host a virtual Halloween costume contest for children. You can submit photos of costumes, and the kids’ winning costumes will be announced on the City of Hoboken’s Facebook page. This picture of my daughters Madeline and Anna on our 11th Street stoop from 2002 is a happy Hoboken Halloween memory for my family.
Madeline and Anna (Hoboken Halloween - 2002)
Here are some recommendations for non-trick-or-treating ways to celebrate Halloween:
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Pumpkin carving and decorating
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Halloween-themed family movie night
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A Halloween-themed scavenger hunt at home
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Decorating the house with a Halloween theme
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Virtual costume contests with friends or relatives
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Coordinating with your schools to wear costumes during a designated day
Also, on Thursday, October 29, Friday, October 30, and Saturday, October 31, there will be Halloween-themed drive-in Movies Under the Stars. The times, movies, and locations will be announced soon— stay tuned!
Indoor Halloween parties are highly discouraged because of the risks of COVID-19. For those who host or attend such indoor Halloween gatherings, Hoboken advises you self-quarantine for 14-days. Hoboken has not banned trick-or-treating, but whether and how you decide to trick-or-treat is an individual decision for Hoboken’s families. Here are recommendations to help your family safely trick-or-treat:
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Wear a face mask
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Trick-or-treat with family members or household contacts only
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Trick-or-treat only in your local block or neighborhood
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Maintain appropriate social distancing by allowing one person to collect candy at a time
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Host trick-or-treating during off-peak hours for children on your block to reduce crowding for treats
For residents that do not wish to participate in trick-or-treating, you can signal to your neighbors that you are not participating by keeping the lights off and/or leaving a “no candy” note on your gate or door.
7th and Jackson PILOT Agreement
This past week I have heard from many families concerned about the City Council’s efforts to ensure that the payment in lieu of taxes, or PILOT, for the 770 Jackson Street development is fairly shared with all of Hoboken’s public schools. To give you some context, the 770 Jackson PILOT agreement negotiated by Mayor Zimmer was approved by the Hoboken City Council in 2016, four years before I was sworn in to serve on the City Council. The agreement between the developer and the City included $52 million worth of community givebacks, including the resiliency park at 7th and Jackson, which includes a children’s playground, a pedestrian plaza, underground flood prevention infrastructure to store 450,000 gallons of rainwater during storms, and a new gymnasium, along with 42 units of affordable housing in the project -- all accomplished without impacting Hoboken’s municipal budget.
PILOTs like the 770 Jackson Street project do not pay traditional taxes to municipalities, so Hoboken’s Public Schools are not entitled to any funds paid from a PILOT payment to the City. So in 2017, the City Council passed a resolution declaring its intent to provide monies from the developer’s PILOT payment — in an amount equivalent to what the Board of Education’s tax levy would have been — to be set aside and given to the Hoboken Public School District going forward.
Unfortunately, controversy arose when misinformation regarding the City Council’s resolution was disseminated claiming that making such payments to Hoboken’s Public School District would by-pass the Charter Schools and short-change funding for Charter School students’ education. This is not true.
The State of New Jersey — using a formula that it devises and is based on the Charter Schools’ enrollment — determines the annual funding for Hoboken’s Charter Schools. The determination of the amount of annual funding for our Charter Schools is made by the State Department of Education — not by the City of Hoboken and not by the Hoboken Board of Education. Hoboken’s Public School District annually receives all funds from the school taxes levied, and it then disburses the appropriate funds, as required by the State’s allocation formula, to each Charter School.
I support ensuring that the portion of the 770 Jackson Street PILOT payment is paid to the Board of Education in the amount that otherwise would have been paid by the developer in the absence of a PILOT. This result is both fair to the students in Hoboken’s Public School District and to the students at Hoboken’s Charter Schools. In this manner, the State’s formula can ensure the funding of all students in Hoboken’s public schools at State-mandated levels — both the traditional public district schools and the public charter schools.
Ally Fung: The Hometown Teenager Who Launched Hoboken’s Teen CERT Team
We all know that young Hobokenites do great things. In my recent newsletters, I have highlighted extraordinary accomplishments by Hoboken kids. Feel free to email me at HobokenPhil@gmail.com if you want to let me know the special things Hoboken kids are up to, and I may feature them in a future newsletter.
Today I want to highlight Allison Fung, who was only 9 years old when Superstorm Storm Sandy devastated the Mile Square City. At that time, Ally and her parents jumped in to help their neighbors in need -- providing food and supplies to neighbors who were flooded out of their homes and were without electricity for days. Since then, Ally’s mom and dad became members of Hoboken’s award-winning Community Emergency Response Team (the “CERT team”). Hoboken’s CERT Team is comprised of dedicated community volunteers who have provided invaluable service to our community for years and have especially distinguished themselves through the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ally was one of the CERT Team’s youngest members, starting as a 15-year-old in 2018. When Ally took her CERT training course, she realized CERT training could be tailored to teenagers like herself and other teens could effectively serve as community volunteers to respond to emergencies. This experience gave Ally a “big idea” -- creating a Hoboken Teen CERT Program. She worked with leaders of our CERT Team (Brian Onieal, John Dalton, Nadja Rutkowski, and Valerie Sessa) as well as Hoboken Director Caleb Stratton and OEM Coordinator Sgt. William Montanez to make it happen. Ally saw her vision through and earned the highest Girl Scouts honor -- the Gold Award -- for her project. With the launch of Hoboken’s Teen CERT Program in July of 2020, Ally’s “big idea” was realized and since then more than 40 Hoboken teens have enrolled to participate in the Hoboken Teen CERT Program! The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has noticed. FEMA was so impressed that Ally was interviewed and featured in FEMA’s national newsletter! You can read the article and Ally’s interview here.
Ally working the phones at CERT Team HQ
If you know a Hoboken teenager interested in serving our community by joining the Teen CERT Team, or you want to apply to be a Teen CERT Member, you can apply here.
Way to go Ally! Good luck with the college application process and pursuing your future in the field of environmental engineering. Not only has your “big idea” empowered other kids to do great things for Hoboken, but you have helped make Hoboken a safer community, something we appreciate now more than ever.
Coffee with Cohen . . . the home edition
To practice social distancing, rather than eliminate my monthly Coffee with Cohen constituent events, I turned to the internet. On Tuesday, October 13th, I hosted my most recent Coffee with Cohen Livestream event. Over 150 people have already viewed the event. If you haven’t seen it, you can check it out here. You can also submit your questions to HobokenPhil@gmail.com and participate, as I try to answer each question. The event is hosted on my Facebook page @Philcohenforcouncil and you can watch it here.
As long as we have this state of emergency, I plan to continue hosting Coffee with Cohen twice a month. My next event will be at noon on Monday, October 26th and I hope to see you there.
As always, if you’d like to reach out with any questions or concerns at any time, or if I can be of any assistance to you or your family, do not hesitate to contact me at HobokenPhil@gmail.com
Stay safe everyone!
Phil Cohen
5th Ward Councilman
City of Hoboken, New Jersey
HobokenPhil@gmail.com
(862) 234-9053
P.S. You can learn more about me and my ideas for Hoboken (as well as read this newsletter and my prior newsletters) on my website philcohen.org.
