Dear Neighbors,
As we head into the holiday season, I want to wish Happy Holidays 🎄☃️ to all and a Happy Hanukkah 🕎 to those celebrating the Festival of Lights!
COVID-19 Updates
The number of positive tests in our community has unfortunately substantially increased in the past few weeks. 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 spike in positive cases includes 23 new cases on December 1st, 21 on December 4th, 24 on December 6th, 24 on December 7th, and 24 on December 8th. In July we celebrated the landmark of having no COVID patients at Hoboken University Medical Center (HUMC). However, now we have 28 COVID-19 patients at HUMC, including 7 Hoboken residents. Accordingly, if you have any reason to believe you have been exposed to COVID-19, please quarantine and then schedule an appointment for a COVID-19 test at least 5-7 days after potential exposure. Please remember: wearing a face mask and practicing social distancing is the key to keeping our community healthy and safe.
Since March 30, 32 Hoboken residents have died due to COVID-19, including the recent death of a Hoboken resident in her 60’s. I want to offer my heartfelt condolences to each Hoboken family that has endured this unimaginable pain. Please know that you have the full support of your neighbors and 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.
Free Testing Available for Hoboken Residents: Riverside and Medicine Man
Riverside Medical (351 16th Street)
Thanks to Bijou Properties, Riverside Medical Group is now offering City testing at an indoor location. Bijou Properties has generously made available its property at 16th and Clinton Streets rent-free to accommodate the City’s Riverside test facilities. The donated space includes a 25,000 sq. foot warehouse and 30,000 sq. foot parking lot allowing for a sheltered and self-contained test center, replacing the open air facility under the viaduct. This new facility makes testing easier and more comfortable for our residents and for Riverside’s hard-working staff.
You can conveniently book an appointment at www.hobokennj.gov/riverside. If you are a Riverside patient, you should call your local Riverside primary care office to schedule your appointment. New appointments are available every Wednesday for the following week. Patients without a vehicle should enter the test facility on Clinton between 15th and 16th Streets. Those driving should enter on 16th between Clinton and Grand. Riverside offers rapid 15-minute COVID-19 tests as well as PCR tests for Hoboken residents. Testing is available 6 days a week, Monday thru Saturday.
Medicine Man Pharmacy (605 Jackson St.)
Dates: Saturday (December 12), Saturday (December 19) and Sunday (December 20)
Time: 8 am – 12:30 pm
Location: 605 Jackson Street
Type of testing: PCR
Who: Hoboken residents only
Free Testing for Hoboken Residents and Hoboken Business Employees: PromptMD and ivee
ivee (at Multi-Service Center, 124 Grand St.)
Dates: December 15-18, 21
Time: 8 am – 3:30 pm
Location: Multi-Service Center (124 Grand Street)
Type of testing: PCR
Who: Hoboken residents, Hoboken business employees
When signing up for testing through ivee, you will need to provide your information first and then a link will be sent to you to choose an appointment time. ivee’s PCR test results are emailed within 24-48 hours.
PromptMD (Jackson St. Gym, 605 Jackson St.)
Dates: December 14, 15, 17, 18, 21
Time: 8 am - 3:00 pm
Location: 605 Jackson Street
Type of testing: PCR
Who: Hoboken residents, Hoboken business employees
PromptMD offers PCR testing most days at the City’s 605 Jackson Street location from 8 am until 3 pm. To schedule an appointment - visit www.hobokennj.gov/promptmd. Results are typically provided through Prompt MD within 48-72 hours.
State-Provided COVID Testing in Housing Authority (221 Jackson St.)
Governor Murphy and the New Jersey Department of Health are providing Hoboken with new pop-up test options in the Hoboken Housing Authority on December 18th from 1 pm – 7 pm in the community room at 221 Jackson Street. No appointment is needed. The testing provided is a saliva-based test, and those getting tested should not eat or drink 30 minutes prior to testing.
Thanks to Governor Murphy and his team for working with Hoboken to prioritize this testing for the Housing Authority and Hoboken residents, and thanks to Hoboken Housing Authority Marc Recko.
Local Private COVID Test Facilities
In addition to Hoboken’s four free, public COVID-19 facilities, 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 should call ahead to confirm test availability.
Police Superior Officers’ Contract Approved
At the last City Council meeting, we unanimously approved terms for a new 5-year contract with the Hoboken Superior Officers' Association, the union that represents sergeants, lieutenants, and captains of the Hoboken Police Department. The previous contract expired almost three years ago.
The terms of the new contract are well-deserved. Between 2018 and 2019, Hoboken’s crime rates decreased by 22%, with only 8.6 crimes per 1000 residents and violent crimes dropping by 34.2%. Under the leadership of Chief Ken Ferrante, the Hoboken Police Department is a leader in community relations and professionalism. For example, in the past six years, the HPD has not had a single civil suit or complaint against any police officer alleging the use of excessive force. Further, the HPD’s innovative policing strategies include creating a new Waterfront and Parks Unit in 2015; establishing the department’s first Emergency Service Unit; and doubling the size and annual hours worked by our dedicated Investigations Bureau.
The new Superior Officers’ contract includes salary raises across the board for the past three years and an increase for supervising officers on a tiered scale, providing our frontline public safety officers with a fair and just contract that appropriately compensates them for their efforts on behalf of our residents. The union agreed to not collect retro pay for 2018, 2019, and 2020, then deferred 2021 salary increases, which will be paid out in the form of a retro payment to be paid in the first month of 2022. Accordingly, this agreement gives the City the time and flexibility to deal with massive COVID-related financial stresses and uncertainty with respect to whether Hoboken will receive any Federal CARES Act funding next year.
Hudson County’s Contract With ICE to Detain Individuals Seeking to Become US Citizens
Hudson County residents learned Thanksgiving week that the Hudson County Commissioners scheduled a vote to extend its contract slated to expire at the end of 2020 with the U.S. Department of Immigration and Customs (ICE). The agreement with ICE nets the county $120 per day, per detainee, or less than $4 million per year, based on the current detainee population, towards our $725 million County budget.
I spoke out against this contract and shared my concerns with Hoboken’s County Commissioner Anthony Romano before the meeting and to the entire Board of Hudson County Commissioners at its November 24th meeting, as did Hoboken Councilperson Emily Jabbour, and the Chair of the Hoboken Democratic Party, Rachel Hodes. You can read about this meeting here and here.
Unfortunately, our County legislators voted 6-3 in favor of renewing the ICE contract, including Hoboken’s Commissioner Romano. Last week Commissioner Romano said that people seeking the end of the ICE contract were acting on “misinformation” and that many of the speakers before the legislators were “activists” that were not his constituents, not addressing the concerns of many Hudson County representatives and residents who unanimously spoke out in opposition to renewing the ICE contract.
I was heartened to see Senator Bob Menendez and Senator Cory Booker speak out decisively and clearly -- in the wake of the Hudson County legislature’s decision to renew the ICE contract – that no governmental entity in New Jersey should accept money from ICE to detain individuals seeking to become US citizens. Indeed, Senator Menendez described these funds as “blood money”. You can read our Senators’ powerful comments here. I thank Senators Menendez and Booker for their leadership on these matters of conscience that align with the views of the vast majority of people I represent.
I hope County Executive DeGise reconsiders the Board of Commissioners’ decision and exercises the option to terminate the ICE contract within 30 days of the Board of Commissioners’ approval, as permitted. Doing so would embrace our nation’s founding principle that our diversity is our strength — as memorialized in the words of Emma Lazarus’s poem at the base of the Statue of Liberty. The promise of America and the principles of this great nation are more valuable than the few million dollars generated by the ICE contract — a small fraction of our annual County budget.
Virtual Winter Concert Series
The City of Hoboken’s Virtual Winter Concert Series is underway, and you can enjoy some holiday cheer in a socially distanced fashion on the City’s Facebook page. The next three Saturday nights promise to be great concerts for you to enjoy. Here are the details:
Sat. Dec. 26, 8 pm - The Eagles Engagement, an ALEO Production featuring a group of 30 plus musicians from Hoboken and greater Hudson County to celebrate the music of a particular band or artist who has made an impact. This year’s subject is The Eagles.
The Hoboken Artists’ Mural Project Beautifies Washington Street
I love the new public art created by 15 local artists on Washington Street. Thanks to Hoboken’s Arts Advisory Committee headed by Chris O’Connor for administering this major effort that took uninspiring electrical boxes and made them into amazing works of public art.
Every panel was created by a local artist. You can read the stories behind the panels, meet the talented artists who created them, and see the wonderful murals 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, I hosted my most recent Coffee with Cohen Livestream event. Already, over 240 people have viewed this event. This week I covered a number of topics including an upcoming Council vote to fund capital expenditures for our Hoboken Fire Department and Hoboken Police Department and discuss the results of my poll on whether you would support and patronize a winter farmers’ market. Over 100 people responded to this poll with an extraordinary 97% expressing support for keeping an outdoor market going through the winter months. My favorite part of Coffee with Cohen is answering your questions. This week you asked about the maintenance of the ShopRite Park. If you haven’t seen it, you can check it out here.
You can submit your questions for my next event to HobokenPhil@gmail.com. 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 online. My next event will be at noon on Monday, December 21st 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, 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.
