The Hoboken Blog

I’m Blogging live from the parks meeting at the Connors school. I have to say this feels like a good idea gone horribly wrong. I don’t get the sense that the supposed leaders from this town really want to create park space.

Everyone who speaks, from the mayor, council, and planners are always saying we are “trying” to get the space but they say that with the idea that we have to make deals with developers to get it done. Its total BS! They leave that crumb for people to bite on but leave themselves room to get out of it.

This meeting was better than the last, however. There were less angry people attending. The planning company did have some ideas but without an effective assessment of how much this is going to cost, they can’t move forward. They did supply some concepts to discuss but they weren’t meaningful without the money.

With all this talk going on about the city trying to get parks why doesn’t the town just buy the damn land and get it over with? Why can’t the town just give the people what they want? If it will make people happy, do it! When parks increase the value of our property, when it gentrifies the area, when it adds makes the area nicer to look at, and it gives families a reason to stay, live, and grow in this area, why don’t they do it?

Why struggle with the people and fight them on getting the park? Why invite disaster by forcing confrontation which is what I’m seeing at these meetings? Why get up in front of the crowd and say “I hear what you are saying and I agree with you and want and will work to get it BUT….”

“But” is a negative word. It means no to most people as if I’d like to help you but I can’t. Or he/she is a good person but… It reverses your words just spoken and it only says to me that you are lying.

I don’t want to say the town is lying to is but I don’t get the idea that they are serious. I think we need to pressure the town into just buying the land and giving is an 11 acre park. Let’s not accept anything that involves development or concessions.

Come on Hoboken! Let’s get them to give us a park with no strings attached!

Sent wirelessly from my BlackBerry.

One of the most annoying things I have to deal with as a resident of Hoboken is the near constant sound of car horns going off at corners, traffic lights, and, well, just about everywhere. Its one of the worse quality of life issues I face in this town. Before, I thought it was a just a rare and minor annoyance but now I see that everyone who drives around Hoboken is rude, impatient, and trigger happy. It’s become a serious concern of mine and I really wonder if there is anything we can do about it.

Case in point… This morning I was walking to the PATH station and when I got to First Street, someone who had stopped at the stop sign slowly eased out intending to cross First and head over to Newark or Observer Highway. Suddenly, a car traveling down First started honking at the guy for doing whatever he was doing. From what I saw, the car crossing wasn’t going slow - nor did he dart out in the middle of traffic. And the person who honked didn’t appear to be going fast (although many people fly through first and that has to be dealt with too). But instead of slowing down to properly adjust for someone crossing the intersection, the driver on First St just simply honked the horn and slammed on his breaks. At that point it appeared that the honker just choose not to slow down in response to an object in his way and felt that honking would suddenly make this crosser go faster. The guy could have been daydreaming and not have seen the guy but that’s no reason to honk. I was taken out of my peaceful walk because of the loud noise.

And cars crossing the intersection get more than once! If there is a backup at an intersection, the cars waiting behind the one at the crossing honk and honk to get the person moving faster. Its as if the other traffic doesn’t even exist! Somehow, they think that honking is going to make this guy realize that crashing into another car is a risk he needs to take so that others can get to work on time. Next time, I wish they would just get up earlier and not take their tardiness out on someone else. Just because people are trying to be good about letting pedestrians cross or cars that have the right of way go through doesn’t mean they should be berated for it.

The worst offenders are the those who forget that pedestrians have the right of way. They are the ones that come speeding down a residential street at 40+ miles an hour and blow through the crosswalk like it didn’t exist. One day, someone - possibly a child - will be struck and killed buy these maniacs. But until then, I’m sure that they will honk at the people who walk - for health or for work - who dare cross the street when others are trying to drive it. I’ve been honked at (and almost hit by) so many drivers that I’ve often felt like carrying eggs to throw at then in retaliation. Of course, that is not what a civilized person does and I try to lead by example. However I have gotten into shouting matches with drivers over who has right of way.

Funny story actually… After getting into a verbal altercation with a young woman (can’t call her a lady) over me walking through the crosswalk as she tried to traverse the intersection, I was called a yuppie and that I should move out of town (because I was ruining it). And as she sped off in her $35,000+ Audi A4 luxury car, I couldn’t help but laugh at the irony. Truth be told, sometimes I incite the arguments so I can’t claim total innocence here. I’ve commented on their “nice stop” or I’ve applauded them for (not) yielding to pedestrians in the crosswalk.

And before someone says it - I’m a driver and I think the other drivers are nuts! I have always driven and only recently gave up my car. But while I had it here in Hoboken, I made sure I slowed down at the crosswalks. And its sometimes hard to see the other cars and pedestrians sometimes - its not easy being a driver here. But I still did what was right and never honked at someone when they had the right of way. But I’ve been honked at for slowing down for them.

Anyway… The observation I hold true is this: drivers in Hoboken are edgy and all too quick to use their horns to express their displeasure with those who walk or cars that get in their way. Ignoring the other safety issues I brought up earlier, the horns are a major annoyance and the frequency is driving me nuts - no pun intended. If you cross the intersection, you get honked at. If you drive defensively, you get honked at. And when that happens, everyone suffers. I don’t even know what to do about it. If I think of something, I’ll let you know.

Well folks, Hoboken is officially on the, uh, map. That is to say we have reached infamy that only a few elite can lay claim to. What is it, you ask? No. It’s not the birthplace of baseball. It’s not the birthplace of Frank Sinatra, Joe Pantoliano, G. Gordon Liddy, or Pia Zadora. And no, its not the place where the first Blimpie, wireless phone call, electrified train, and air conditioning unit is from, used, demonstrated, and installed, respectively (according to Wikipedia).

So what is Hoboken now famous for? Hoboken has been Slashdotted!!!

And now, you ask, what did we get Slashdotted for? The automated parking garage on Garden Street between 9th and 10th streets was written up on Wired.com. Slashdot, being a technology focused site, highlighted the issues of software licensing and a commentator quoted in the source article suggests that open source software (OSS) - which is almost always free - as a possible solution to (or could have prevented) the fiasco that shut down the garage recently.

Apparently, Hoboken didn’t pay to renew the software for the system and it was shut down. Hoboken didn’t pay because it, according to the article, accused the company that operates the system of deliberate sabotage. The two wound up in court and the mess boiled over when the police removed the employees of the company from the facilities (and taking with them the knowledge needed to run it).

The article is well written and I’m not going to talk about the technology part of the article like the other sites have. I want to focus on the observation that Hoboken got itself into hot water by not negotiating the contract properly. Who is our General Counsel and where were they in this deal? Shouldn’t he have done a better job reviewing and writing up the contracts to build, operate, license, and maintain the system?

I used this garage when I was living uptown (right next to it, in fact) and I loved it! It was fast, easy, and 95% reliable. The few times that I had to wait for my car was not because of a technical glitch but of happenstance. I knew the person who operated the system and found them likeable enough; he even let me into the control room once to see the robotics in action. If I live uptown again, I’ll probably use it again too.

But if I can get back to how Hoboken messed up another contract for a moment. We seem to be getting into a lot of bad deals of late and this is really starting to get to me. A few years ago, the government shut down. This year, it couldn’t pass a reasonable budget without some wacky scheme to sell land and lease it again - its a financing deal, they said.

Well, whatever these debacles were, its obvious that we have lots of them. When are we, as citizens, going to do something about this and kick these people to the curb? Who’s running this town, anyway? Krusty the Clown?

Check out the coverage here, here, here, and here.

UPDATE 8/10, 8:30pm: Ars Technica also has coverage here.