Giattino wants to remove handicapped parking spot for Juventus Club

Council VP Giattino argues to remove handicapped parking used by Juventus Club members, many of whom are elderly. 

A curious exchange occurred at last week's Council meeting. It was during the 2nd Reading of an ordinance to remove 6 handicapped parking spots in total; 5 corresponded to specific people (name with address). However the 6th spot corresponded to a location (no name).

For some reason that didn't make sense to me,  6th Ward Councilwoman Jen Giattino was arguing for the removal of the 6th handicapped spot- the one tied to a location only. Note, Giattino is the Chair of the Parking and Transportation Subcommittee; presumably her subcommittee authored the Ordinance. 

I didn't understand why Giattino wanted to take away a handicapped spot in her own ward.  Neither did Councilwoman Emily Jabbour. 

Jabbour asked  Transportation and Parking Director Ryan Sharp, "..The last spot is for general use, and to your earlier point  Director you said that there's a shortage in terms of the city's compliance overall with having enough general use handicapped spots so why would we eliminate this particular spot if we're still not in compliance with ADA requirements?

He answered,"...I wouldn't recommend removing it unless there's a good reason.."

Council VP Giattino interrupted, "In the past we've never approved any of them that were not in front of a public building... "

False. According to Director Sharp, the handicapped spot in question was approved by the Council in 2016.  Which means Giattino was on the Council that approved the handicapped spot she was arguing to remove two years later.

Jabbour persisted, "But why would we remove this now, if there's several small businesses and clubs that use that spot on a regular basis.  Isn't that depriving them of the ability to have handicapped customers?"

"Well then," Giattino replied, "On the other hand we could say why aren't they [handicapped parking spots] in front of every business!"

"But if we are overall on the balance not providing enough [handicapped] spots," said Jabbour," at such time that we come up with that [holistic] plan, why would we eliminate one..."

"and, and..." Giattino interrupted, "..the one that we did in front of the library was specifically for library hours, so at night it still was a parking space."

Boy, oh boy! Giattino was really going to the mat to eliminate this particular handicapped spot. Why this one spot...?

A friend texted me later that night.

My favorite part of the night was when Jen could not/would not answer Emily's questions bout removing the handicapped parking spot. Jen and Ruben pushed to remove it because they are under the assumption that Leo Pelligrini got that spot. If you catch it, Jen asks who reminded you about the spot? They are mean and vindictive people. Yet they try to play victim all the time. 

Leo? From someone else who watched the meeting:

The sole purpose of that [removing the parking spot] was Jen going after Leo Pelligrini for not supporting her for mayor. He's a member of the Juventus Club where the general handicapped parking spot is located. If you watch the video, Jen tries to play "gotcha" with Director Sharp for him to say that Leo pushed the spot. This is just another example of Jen being vindictive which is in itself awful, but in this scenario, she is trying to remove parking spots for handicapped people which is even worse. 

Boy, that sucks.  It is hard for me to reconcile the people I used to know, with the people they are today.

 Bhalla loyalist Hoboken Director Leo Pelligrini is a member of the Juventus Club

GA passes the Juventus Club frequently. I often see elderly folks there, some of whom may need that handicapped spot.

I'll say it again: boy, that sucks.