We the undersigned citizens and taxpayers of Hoboken hereby call for dramatic changes to the City’s parking ordinances and to the enforcement practices of the Hoboken Parking Utility. Outdated regulations and draconian enforcement – both geared toward revenue generation for the City instead of preservation of residential parking spaces for taxpayers -- have made an already impossible parking situation far worse. We demand that the Mayor’s office, City Council persons, City Council candidates and the Hoboken Parking Utility consider seriously the following changes:

1. Limit the number of parking spaces rendered unavailable for parking because of Temporary No Parking Signs to 4 per block per day with 7 days advance notice to residents required. Such notice should be given via street signs, social media, email and the City website. Any work requiring any more than 4 reserved parking spaces per day requires the same 7 day notice but also includes the distribution of flyers to residents’ homes PLUS suspension of street cleaning on that and all adjacent blocks.
2. Require residents, contractors and City employees to remove Temporary No Parking signs once the reserved parking is no longer needed.
3. Return the green-lined Zip Car spaces to City garages.
4. Courtesy call any resident before booting or towing.
5. Ban valet parking that utilizes residential parking spaces citywide.
6. Limit the number of block party closures to one per 5 block radius per weekend day.
7. Immediately stop the construction of concrete barriers and curbs on street corners that are eliminating even more parking spots, do nothing to improve pedestrian and driver safety and in fact push pedestrians further out into traffic. Plus they’re ugly and do not fit at all with the historic character of Hoboken’s streets!
8. Create designated motorcycle/scooter spaces at the end of each block so that smaller vehicles aren’t taking up larger spaces.
9. Lose the bike lanes! The addition of bike lanes has created even worse traffic problems, particularly in Southwest Hoboken. Bike lanes don’t belong in a City with such narrow streets. And putting bike lanes next to rows of parked cars is extremely dangerous for the bike rider.
10. Nix the idea of reverse angle parking Citywide. It’s just a bad idea.
11. Reinstate the Utility’s long-standing practice of sending snail mail notifications to residents notifying them that their parking permit is about to expire. Have HPU enforcement officers attach a notice to any resident’s vehicle notifying them that their permit has either expired or is about to expire and give them 7 days to renew before being ticketed. In addition, anyone ticketed because of the City’s failure to notify should be reimbursed in full retroactively.
12. Retrain all HPU employees – including enforcement officers and office employees who answer the telephone -- in the proper and respectful way of dealing with City residents and discipline those who won’t comply.
13. Allow anyone who arrives at their automobile before a street sweeper is 100 feet away to move their vehicle without being ticketed.
14. Clean both sides of Washington Street only every other day. Instead hire more street cleaners who are more effective than the sweepers in gathering trash.
15. Add “No Parking from Here to Corner” signs instead of using color coded curbs that do nothing but confuse drivers. Contract with a street-painting firm that actually knows how to measure and paint a straight line!
16. Ban tractor trailers from all avenues and side streets except Washington. And insist that Fresh Direct and other such companies send only vans to Hoboken for deliveries, not trucks.