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A Conundrum in Hoboken

By
Real Estate Agent with Sothbey's International Realty

If you live, work or shop in Hoboken, you probably understand that parking is at a premium here. Shoppers from Jersey City or elsewhere can find it frustrating to come to the mile-square city and spend half an hour driving around looking for a parking space.

The people who run the city also understand that there is a problem. That is why they hired a prestigious planning firm, Arup, to study the situation and make recommendations. They have finished their study and are preparing to make their proposals to the City Council. After that, the council will seek input from the public, business owners and others who are affected, and try to come up with a firm five-year plan.

Hoboken has grown by 14,000 residents, just since the year 2000. Most of these new residents are young, affluent and they like the independence of owning a car. However, many of them do not use their cars for daily commutes. This means that all those people who come to Hoboken during the day have to compete with the local residents for on-street parking.

One topic that will surely be discussed is the state of the available municipal parking garages in town. A lot of them are dated as far as design is concerned and are uninviting to potential users. Another problem is that the cost of permits is completely backwards if you want to encourage garage parking over on-street parking. The least expensive permit to park in a city garage for residents is a whopping $160 PER MONTH, while a permit for on-street parking is a mere $15 PER YEAR for residents.

The same reverse signal is given to visitors for parking. On a weekday, parking at a meter on the street for 2 hours costs $2.00. Parking in a municipal garage for the same period of time costs $10. In both the residential and the visitor situations, the costs need to be adjusted to encourage more garage use and less street use.

Other recommendations made by Arup involve increased use of public transportation, encouraged by the creation of “community mobility hubs”. These would have available, not only taxis and buses but things like bike-shares, Hop shuttles and the like. This would prompt less use of individual automobiles.

Since walking is popular in Hoboken, another suggestion to increase this popularity is to post way-finding signs that would indicate the distances between where you park and different places of interest in the city. These and many other ideas will be discussed at up-coming City Council meetings, and they want your input.

How do you think Hoboken should handle the parking situation?

 

Edward

 

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Edward Perez, Broker Associate
NJ Luxury Group at Sotheby's International Realty
201.344.2886 mobile
edward@NJLuxuryGroup.com

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Comments (2)

Nicholas Costantino
Engel & Völkers - Hoboken, NJ
CRS, ASP, e-Pro

Always informative my brother. I'm not sure what the answer is but building more parking garages and making it more affordable would definitely be a good starting point.

Sep 24, 2014 08:34 AM
Edward Perez
Sothbey's International Realty - Hoboken, NJ

Thanks for that comment, Nicholas!

Oct 05, 2014 11:34 AM