Dear Editor:
With every other house in Hoboken being gutted (owners selling because their property tax, already high, was doubled after the recent ill-advised “reval” and are now the highest in the world), perhaps City Hall could revisit their curb-painting project of a few years ago. What’s the connection? Well, parking on the street, always hard, is now, with all the No Parking signs (to accommodate the gutting), nearly impossible.
On every corner, parking spaces are lost due to the painted curbs. Take a typical corner, Garden and 12th. 12th is one-way going east toward the river, Garden is one-way going south toward City Hall. The curbs were ostensibly painted to give big trucks room to turn on our narrow streets, and when the painting crews went out it was one size fits all. But one size doesn’t fit all. Very few big trucks come down 12th and turn right on Garden St. If one does come down 12th, it proceeds to Washington and turns there. If it does turn right on Garden, why deny a parking space on the northwest corner of 12th? A turning truck could not possibly hit a car parked there. Similarly, big trucks rarely come down Garden and turn left on 12th heading toward Washington St. They’ll go one more block and turn at 11th, a divided street. Even if one does turn left on 12th, there’s no reason to deny a parking space on the south west corner of Garden and 12th. The only thing that would hit a car parked there is something falling from an airplane.
Many parking spaces could be freed up if the painting was done with more aforethought. A driver wouldn’t have to go around and around, greeted by No Parking signs, eventually having to park blocks away from her house. Of course, a bloated and lawsuit-liable City Hall, always ravenous for revenue, of which parking tickets are a welcome source, might just leave things as they are.
T. Weed
