Councilman Cohen’s Newsletter: COVID-19 Updates, Celebrating Halloween, 1.8 Million for Local Businesses, and Cracking Down on House Parties

Dear Neighbors,

Happy Halloween everyone! 👻 🎃

Here’s the latest on important issues affecting our community.

COVID-19 Updates

As of Thursday, 991 Hoboken residents have been confirmed as testing positive for COVID-19 and 856 residents have fully recovered. The number of positive tests in our community have substantially increased in our community this October. Likewise, New Jersey’s new daily positive cases have risen to levels not seen since May, which caused Governor Murphy to extend the State of Emergency for another 30 days.

Hoboken’s recent increase in positive cases include 11 new cases on October 24th, and 10 new cases on October 27th, and 17 new cases on October 29. If you have any reason to believe you have been exposed to COVID-19, please 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 go online at www.hobokennj.gov/riverside and book an available time slot. Riverside offers rapid 15-minute COVID-19 test results to Hoboken residents. Employees of Hoboken businesses should get tested through the City’s partnership with Prompt MD. 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 Mondays and Thursdays 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. 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

Although COVID-19 has caused the cancellation of the Ragamuffin Parade, the traditional costume contest we have always enjoyed at the parade’s conclusion lives on in a digital format! Parents or guardians of children up to the age of 12 are encouraged to submit a picture of your child or children in Halloween costume, or the whole family in costume. Photos should be submitted by 6 pm on Halloween — October 31st, with winners in specific age categories announced by Tuesday, November 3rd. To participate and for more information, please visit hobokennj.gov/halloween.

In addition, there will be a 30-minute “Mile Scare Halloween" kid-friendly virtual show presented by the awesome Hoboken-based creative agency, Branding Shorts. Our “Mile Scare Halloween” includes Hoboken's favorite performers, Polka Dot, Fuzzy Lemons, Jeremy Beck Rebecca Pitcher (of Phantom of the Opera), School of Rock, and recent Stevens Institute graduate Mihir and friends, all performing special Halloween musical performances of songs like Monster Mash, Addam's Family, Ghostbusters, London Werewolves and Watching Me. The music videos in the “Mile Scare Halloween” feature lots of Hoboken adults and kids. So, mark your calendars for this special Halloween show, hosted on the City of Hoboken’s Facebook page on October 30th or October 31st from 7:00 pm to 7:30 pm.

Hoboken Awards $1.82 Million CARES Act Funds to Local Businesses

On October 14th, Mayor Ravi S. Bhalla, Hudson County Executive Tom DeGise, and Hudson County Commissioner Anthony Romano announced that 321 Hoboken small businesses were awarded $1.82 million in grant funding through the federal CARES Act. Applicants that applied for CARES Act awards were required to meet federal CARES Act requirements, including:

Operating at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic
Operating as a for-profit entity
Have 25 employees or less
Located in Hoboken

The amount of each grant award was calculated based on Hudson County’s requirements. Additional federal funding may be available in the future if another COVID-19 aid bill is passed by Congress. If you own a Hoboken business or know a Hoboken business that has questions or concerns about its CARES Act award, please submit an email identifying your questions or concerns to smallbizgrants@hobokennj.gov. Thanks to Senators Cory Booker and Bob Menendez, as well as our Hudson County partners County Executive Tom DeGise and Commissioner Anthony Romano for working with Mayor Bhalla and his Administration to issue this critical aid to Hoboken businesses. You can read more about it here.

These awarded federal funds complement more than $410,000 raised locally by the Hoboken Relief Fund, which I proudly Co-Chair with Councilperson Jen Giattino. The Hoboken Relief Fund is providing critical, additional relief to local Hoboken businesses and individuals adversely impacted by COVID-19 and is the official 501(c)(3) vehicle established at Mayor Bhalla’s request for the City of Hoboken to assist our community during these challenging economic times. You can read more about the work of the Hoboken Relief Fund here.

Cracking Down on House Parties

Governor Murphy’s Executive Order Number 173 governs occupancy limits on indoor gatherings in Hoboken during the COVID-19 State of Emergency. Over the past couple of weekends, the Hoboken Police Department has responded to a troubling number of rowdy house parties, several of which were traced by Hoboken’s Health Department to recent positive COVID-19 test results, which are on the rise both here in Hoboken and throughout New Jersey. In response, I sponsored an ordinance that the City Council passed on first reading on October 21, which allows for fines of up to $1,000 when indoor house parties are attended by more than 25 individuals and the house parties also violate other City ordinances such as our excessive noise or public intoxication ordinances. These stiff fines can be assessed against both tenants and landlords. I spoke with New Jersey News Network about this important new ordinance and you can watch the interview here.

This proposed ordinance, which has the full support of HPD Chief Ken Ferrante, makes clear that we have a zero-tolerance for unruly, overcrowded house parties that endanger both our public safety officers who respond to such calls, and our community-at-large.

The ordinance was scheduled to be the only matter on the Council’s agenda for a Special Meeting last night, with the goal of allowing the HPD to issue significant fines and discourage unlawful house parties this Halloween weekend. I thank Mayor Bhalla and Council President Giattino for scheduling this special meeting and taking leadership on these issues, and also thank Councilmembers Doyle and Jabbour for attending last night’s meeting with Council President Giattino. However, on the day when the City learned that Hoboken tallied 17 new positive COVID-19 test results -- the largest single day of positive results since April, five of my Council colleagues unfortunately failed to show up or dial in for the Special Meeting and -- without a quorum of 5 Councilmembers present -- the Council was unable to vote on the ordinance. As a result, the Hoboken Police Department will not be able to issue these summons Halloween weekend -- as Hoboken Police Chief Ken Ferrante had hoped -- on a weekend notorious for such events.

I hope my Council colleagues will come together to support this important measure at our regular Council meeting next week, on Wednesday, November 4th, as we battle to keep our transmission rates low and our community safe, preventing super-spreader events from happening in Hoboken.

Starting Monday, Travelers Who Fail to Wear a Mask or Face Cover at Port Authority Facilities are Subject to a $50 Fine

Starting Monday, the Port Authority of New Jersey and New York will issue $50 fines to travelers without masks or face covers in all Port Authority facilities - including the Port Authority Bus Terminal, PATH stations and PATH trains, the Oculus, New York area Airport Terminals, AirTrain Stations and Trains, and the GWB Bus Station. So, please, if you are commuting into NYC, traveling by plane, or taking the PATH, remember to wear your face cover to help protect fellow passengers and protect the essential workers of the Port Authority -- and protect yourself from getting a $50 fine. You can read more about it here.

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 Monday, October 26th, I hosted my most recent Coffee with Cohen Livestream event. Over 240 people have already viewed the event. My favorite part of Coffee with Cohen is answering your questions, and this week you asked about how we can address the flawed Washington Street bike lane design as well as the latest on the 770 Jackson Street PILOT. If you haven’t seen it, you can check it out here. You can also submit your questions to HobokenPhil@gmail.com and participate in the next event, as I try to answer each question you submit. 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, November 9th and I hope to see you there.

In the meantime, you can follow me on Twitter at @philiphcohen here. 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.