What's Up With Parking In This Town?

Ask any Hobokenite—or a visitor for that matter—about major issues in town, and parking will come up within a few seconds. With more than 40,000 people living in one square mile, trying to park your car can be a challenge. In a conversation in City Hall, Parking Utility Director Ian Sacs talked about plans to (partially) resolve the issue. 

One of the plans on the table to help make parking in town less of a problem is replacing the single space meters with multi space ones, Sacs said. Vendors who offer that meter technology have until Feb. 5 to submit their bids to the city. There have been bids, but they have been turned down, Sacs told the City Council during its meeting last week. 

The multi-space meters should be in the street around late March, early April, Sacs said. 

"It improves efficiency," Sacs said about the multi space meters. Adding, "it dramatically improves accountability ... and it reduces street clutter."

The issue of parking comes up during most City Council meetings. The council has also been looking to change its policy and provide residents in Hoboken with parking permits. 

"It needs to happen quickly," said Councilwoman Beth Mason during a meeting earlier this month.

Another plan Sacs is pushing for, is an on-street car sharing program, such as Zip Car. He claimed that for one such car, between 10 and 20 households give up their own.

Although this can be in no way guaranteed, Sacs said he trusts research that has been done on the matter. 

"By putting one of these cars on someone's block," Sacs said, "it's not going to take away one parking space, it's going to add 10."

For this plan, too, the city is accepting bids from vendors. The car-sharing company will have to pay the city to be allowed to park its cars in town. No bid has been accepted yet. 

The last issue I raised with Sacs is the rumor that the A&E television show Parking Wars—a show that follows parking authorities in several cities as they write tickets—wants to shoot its show in Hoboken. 

Sacs confirmed that the show's producers have an interest in Hoboken. But what's in it for the city?

"It's a chance to improve the city's image," Sacs said.