We, council members Ravinder Bhalla and Jennifer Giattino, as well as the undersigned members of our community, are writing today in support of our City’s application for the 2016 Safe Routes to School Program for much-needed improvements to the intersection outside Demarest Middle School at the intersection of 4th and Garden streets.

As you may know, Hoboken is a unique, densely populated city with the highest percentage of transit ridership of any city in the country. This large percentage of our population includes our children, who frequently ride commuter buses to nearby stops or just walk every day to and from school. Our City’s schools do not have the traditional parking lots and available street parking that many New Jersey schools rely upon. With rush hour traffic and a large number of residents traveling through our busy streets in the morning, we want to ensure that our children have the safest routes possible for their trips to and from school.

To help this cause, our City is applying to improve the intersection nearest to Demarest School and Church Square Park, a very popular area for children in Hoboken, with a rain garden curb extension demonstration project. This will calm traffic while also absorbing storm-water run-off, thereby reducing flooding in the area as well. Most importantly, this project will create a safer environment for the children of Hoboken as they navigate this busy intersection.