Will Hoboken Residents Get Weehawken Pool Access Or Swim Lessons This Year?

HOBOKEN, NJ — As the city of Hoboken continues discussing ideas for a pool some time in the future — and as temps get hotter — a question remains: What's it doing now?

[UPDATE: See the Weehawken pool announcement for 2023 here.]

A Hoboken mom has started a petition, which has garnered more than 400 signatures, asking the city to move forward with a pool project now, rather than waiting several years for a major development complex to include it.

Pool frustrations have become so agonizing in Hoboken that in 2008, a city worker said she quit her job because she was unfairly blamed for losing the chance to have a floating pool in town.

So where will Hoboken residents cool off in summer 2023?

Weehawken has not yet revealed which hours it will open its new pool complex to its own residents for summer 2023 — nor the hours for towns including Hoboken. But Weehawken is required to allow all New Jersey residents to use their new complex because it was built with state Green Acres funding.

A controversy erupted last year after a Hoboken dad began asking when the pool would open to residents of other towns. The state demanded that Weehawken open it to others, but the town delayed doing so until August.

As for this year, "My kids still ask me when we are going to the Weehawken pool," said father Andrew Strobel last week. "I haven't heard anything further about access. Would be good to get ahead of it as summer is fast approaching. NJDEP has rules governing reasonable access but enforcement is slow."

Of all the towns close to Weehawken's new waterfront pool complex, only Hoboken lacks its own pool.

Patch reached out to Weehawken Town Administrator Gio Ahmad this week regarding summer 2023, and will update this story when he responds. (Here is 2022 pool information.)

So what else will Hoboken offer this summer?

Pool Petition

Hoboken residents have been promised a pool for more than two decades. One local mom of small children started a petition saying she was tired of the city counting on a massive development to include a pool.

Samantha, who asked that her name not be used, suggested that the city start work on a pool as a standalone project, and also offer low-cost swim lessons as many nearby towns have done to keep children safe.

"The pool is an option in every land proposal, which is great, but also could result in always thinking another location will be better and it not coming to pass," Samantha said. "This is why the original intent of the petition was to make the pool a standalone issue with several options to choose from."

Last year, Mayor Ravi Bhalla announced that Hoboken residents would have two types of pool access. The public schools opened the Hoboken High School indoor pool to residents starting in July (although it had limited hours, which also caused a back-and-forth about who decided to restrict those hours. Eventually more hours were added).

Bhalla also noted last year that Hoboken residents can register to use the Stevens Institute of Technology pool in summer, for a fee.

The pool has also been part of several proposals, including in 2020 and in 2022. Just last month, the city announced that two of three options for a proposed complex at 800 Monroe St. include a pool. But Samantha noted that this is no guarantee.

A Hoboken City Council candidate — Liz Urtecho, who's running for 5th Ward — said she believes the plans including the pool would allow less retention of groundwater, and thus may not happen.

Samantha said, "It's my feeling that 800 Monroe should be significantly off the ground, both for the environmental cap and for ease of construction. They are already saying it's going to be so expensive to set it on a certain foundation. My thought is, if this pool were floor two of a high rise, just without a roof atop it, would this really be so costly and problematic to construct? ... This is is why I say, build it a few stories up, but I am not an engineer."

She said it would be wise to at least get started on a standalone pool.

"People definitely want lessons," she noted. "We also need more than one pool. But start somewhere. An indoor option would be great, perhaps built underneath so lessons could take place year round."

Samantha's petition had gathered 407 signatures as of Thursday.

'Life-Saving Skill'

The petition notes that last year, two New Jersey-based planning experts said that it's important for cities to have a pool so that children in urban areas can learn water safety without spending a lot of money.

In their piece in NJ.com, Rutgers Associate Professor Khadijah Costley White and urban planner Devyani Guha wrote that a municipal pool is a way for "children to learn a life-saving skill and for children of all races and ethnicities to have fun together."

They cited the 2020 drowning death of a Maplewood high school senior who had no pool to learn in, as the pool that normally offered lessons had been shut down.

For the coming summer, Maplewood is offering lessons at $50 per child. Weehawken has had similar rates.

So far, Hoboken has announced two 2023 summer recreation programs starting in June/July for kids, but hasn't listed information about pool hours or swim programs.

Bhalla noted the need for a pool six years ago in his recreation plan when he ran for mayor, and floated other ideas for using local space:

A new recreation plan will also include exploring more community space in the acre of land adjacent to our new Northwest Park land, as well as a potential partnership with the former YMCA at 13th and Washington Streets to rehabilitate that facility. Together, new multi-service space would allow for amenities such as additional gym space, a multi-sport indoor turf field, a renovated senior center, and two popular amenities that I am strongly in favor of — a community pool and indoor ice skating rink. Additional ideas I've heard proposed by residents that I'd like to explore include a new teen center, an additional Hoboken Library branch, dance studio, renovated meeting space, and utilization of the roofs of new City facilities to include cost-effective activities. With more recreational space, it is my vision that Hoboken can finally host its own summer camp for kids. As someone with two young children, I know how important having an affordable and local option for children during the summer months is for parents. Like you, I'm eager for residents of all ages to enjoy access to more multi-user recreational space while we continue on the fiscally responsible path we've taken over the past eight years.

Hoboken currently has 53 acres of open space. The city recently announced the opening of the Northwest Resiliency Park field.

Other Pools Available In Summer

Both Union City and Jersey City offer pools that Hoboken residents can use, although Jersey City's pools require a fee.

Union City's pools are free and offer a wide range of delights for children.

There's a kiddie pool/music park for toddlers on Park Avenue, near the Weehawken border. The town also has a creative mini-pool complex with small waterslides on 33rd Street, and an Olympic-sized pool (with splash pad for kids) up the 14th Street Viaduct on the Palisade cliffs. See Union City's offerings here. Still, those options aren't as walkable as pools in Hoboken and Weehawken.

"Advocacy for Hobokenites to gain access to Weehawken's facility, while much appreciated, pulls focus from addressing our core need for a pool," Samantha said. "Efforts to facilitate the use of our local university and public high school pools are helpful, but they can't compare with a free, outdoor, low-cost option for use by all residents — one that would also allow for low-cost/free Recreation Department lessons to teach crucial water safety. Further, the school district has many other pressing priorities."

Hoboken reached out to City Hall on Wednesday and will update this story when more information is received.

What would you like to see in terms of pool access and public swim and summer options for Hoboken residents? Comment below or here.