Hoboken recently elected a new set of City Council members to serve the Mile Square City, with Jen Giattino as the representative for the 6th ward. In light of the election, The Stute conducted an interview with Giattino to obtain insight into the new council and their plans for Hoboken moving forward.
The current council includes Michael DeFusco for the 1st ward, Tiffanie Fisher for the 2nd ward, Michael Russo for the 3rd ward, Ruben Ramos, Jr. for the 4th ward, Phil Cohen for the 5th ward, and Giattino for the 6th ward. Giattino is looking forward to working with her fellow council members, saying, “Over the past two years we’ve all worked together very well, very collaboratively, and I’m expecting the next two to be the same.”
As a result of the recent demolition of Hayden and the construction on campus, there has been a recent growth in the number of Stevens students making use of housing in Hoboken. Currently, the council has not been doing anything to support Stevens students that require housing in Hoboken. However, Giattino would be happy to work with Stevens if the school wanted assistance, saying, “Stevens has never actually reached out to me to help with student housing […] I would definitely be open to working with them, 100 percent.”
According to Giattino, due in part to the increased number of Stevens students, the housing market for three bedrooms is relatively tight, whereas the one bedroom market has a larger number of availabilities. While this means that there are open locations in Hoboken that are available for Stevens students, many of them are more expensive than preferred since splitting costs with a roommate in a one bedroom apartment is less than ideal.
The council is also set to renew the agreement that allows Lime Scooters in Hoboken after this winter. They hope to review data obtained from Lime over the winter in order to determine the value that the Lime scooters provide to the city. “I think in the beginning it was just a complete disaster […] But I think that the riders are definitely better behaved now. I don’t see as many minors riding the scooters, which makes me happy. I think we have to have an enforcement policy in place and enforcement officers in place before we roll it out again.”
Construction on campus is also supported by the council. The Gateway Building operates between the hours of 8 a.m. and 10 p.m. in order to accommodate the residents of Hoboken. “I think that Stevens worked really well with the administration […] in making sure that [the construction] wasn’t disruptive to the residents, particularly to the residents on Hudson Street, because they’re doing everything off of Sinatra Drive, which is great because there are no residential buildings on Sinatra.”
Further information can be found on https://www.hobokennj.gov/ or by contacting your local council member.
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