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| This image was produced after one of Cohen's fans called him a "tyrant." Phil would make a dashing tyrant! |
Y'know, 5th Ward Councilman Phil Cohen sends the best newsletters. They're written in giant-sized print, bigger than the top letter of an eye chart. Without a doubt Phil Cohen is an exceptional councilman. He is so good that when he retires from public service, he's getting two keys to the City. Yes, two keys: one for the front door, one for the back. Of course, the City will honor Phil with a giant pair of pants to put those keys in.
Oh, I tease Phil. One of his great attributes is that he can take a joke or five. Fifth ward residents are really lucky. His newsletters, his frequent constituent meetings, his responsiveness to his ward. In fact Councilman Cohen's latest newsletter is so informative, it is posted below in its entirety (plus a few extra pictures). Thank you, Phil!
Dear Neighbors,
Even with COVID-19’s presence shadowing our community, summer nights are still magical in Hoboken. Whether it’s walking through our neighborhoods, taking in Washington Street, dining al fresco in a sidewalk cafe or a strEATery, or grabbing a bubble tea, I love Hoboken’s summer nights when the air is cooler and people are about. With this, my third July newsletter, I want to bring you up to speed on the latest affecting our community.
COVID-19 Incidence Update and Continuing to Bend the Curve
As of Thursday, 640 Hoboken residents have tested positive for COVID-19. The rate of positive tests has bumped up significantly, after being flat around 590 cases for a number of weeks. Many of our positive tests are trending younger, with most recent positive cases coming from people who are under the age of 35 as well as folks returning from 22 states outside New Jersey with rising COVID-19 rates.
Thankfully, for the past six weeks, Hoboken has had no new COVID-19-related fatalities. Since March 30th, 29 Hoboken residents have died from COVID-19. For those of you who have endured such a difficult loss at this extraordinary time, please know that you continue to have the full support of our entire Hoboken community. We are with you. Together, we send you our prayers and extend to you our wishes for your comfort, healing, and peace.
Thankfully, for the past six weeks, Hoboken has had no new COVID-19-related fatalities. Since March 30th, 29 Hoboken residents have died from COVID-19. For those of you who have endured such a difficult loss at this extraordinary time, please know that you continue to have the full support of our entire Hoboken community. We are with you. Together, we send you our prayers and extend to you our wishes for your comfort, healing, and peace.
Updated 14-day Self-Quarantine List of States From NJ Department of Health
The New Jersey Department of Health has updated the list of states for which our residents should quarantine for a full 14 days after visiting. Unlike New Jersey, these 22 states have rapidly rising COVID-19 rates.
As of July 14, they include Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, North Carolina, New Mexico, Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Wisconsin.
If possible, please try to limit travel to these states. We do not want to risk triggering rising transmission rates due to people returning from these hotspots. If you have traveled to any of these states, assume you have been directly exposed to the infection. Please take responsible precautions by self-quarantining and getting a COVID-19 test and allow the City’s Health Department to conduct contact tracing for all positive cases. Hoboken has already seen an uptick of positive cases from residents returning from these states. Five to seven days after you return to NJ, please plan to take your COVID-19 test. You can also walk into Hoboken’s CityMD office (231 Washington St.) for a same-day test with no appointment (as I did last Sunday afternoon) or call the CERT team at (201) 420-5621 (hours: Mon-Fri 9-1) to schedule an appointment for your test at 15th and Jefferson. All tests will be at no cost to you, whether or not you have insurance. Please take these precautions and keep yourself, your neighbors, and our Mile Square City safe.
As of July 14, they include Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, North Carolina, New Mexico, Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Wisconsin.
If possible, please try to limit travel to these states. We do not want to risk triggering rising transmission rates due to people returning from these hotspots. If you have traveled to any of these states, assume you have been directly exposed to the infection. Please take responsible precautions by self-quarantining and getting a COVID-19 test and allow the City’s Health Department to conduct contact tracing for all positive cases. Hoboken has already seen an uptick of positive cases from residents returning from these states. Five to seven days after you return to NJ, please plan to take your COVID-19 test. You can also walk into Hoboken’s CityMD office (231 Washington St.) for a same-day test with no appointment (as I did last Sunday afternoon) or call the CERT team at (201) 420-5621 (hours: Mon-Fri 9-1) to schedule an appointment for your test at 15th and Jefferson. All tests will be at no cost to you, whether or not you have insurance. Please take these precautions and keep yourself, your neighbors, and our Mile Square City safe.
New Face Mask Requirements
Governor Phil Murphy announced important new regulations for wearing masks in public on July 8th. Executive Order No. 163 requires individuals to wear face covers in outdoor public spaces when it is not possible to socially distance and keep six feet from others.
Let’s be real folks. In Hoboken, if you step onto the sidewalk, you should have your face cover on -- because before you know it, someone will be within six feet of you. Face covers are not necklaces, chin straps or bracelets! They work when they securely cover your mouth and nose. Governor Murphy’s executive order is here.
Exceptions to the public face cover requirement include:
- While consuming food or beverage during outdoor dining
- Children under 2 years of age
- Exercise outdoors while remaining socially distant. If those exercising are unable to social distance, a face mask is required
- Health issues that prevent the wearing of a face mask
- Children in sprinkler areas and water spray areas in parks, as the CDC mentions that cloth face coverings can be difficult to breathe through when wet
With these exceptions, Hoboken residents are now required to wear face masks outdoors in public places. The City continues to educate the public about these new rules. For example, the City’s clear and eloquent “NO mask NO entry” signs are all over the 5th Ward and Hoboken’s businesses, including our restaurants and stores, as clear reminders to customers to protect themselves, our essential workers, and our retail employees.
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| "No mask, no entry" |
City signage mandating face covers are also up at public playgrounds, street poles, outdoor parklets, strEATeries, and more. You can read about our public health department’s community messaging efforts here.
City staff and volunteers will also hand out masks and inform residents of the new face mask requirement in various locations. Further, the City plans to issue warnings to folks who do not wear face covers in public. There is no present intention for the City to issue tickets or summons to mask-less scofflaws. Wear a mask, save a life!
Council Resolution Addressing High Tech High School’s 2020 Yearbook
At the Council's July 8 meeting, I Introduced a resolution encouraging High Tech High School to replace a page of its 2020 yearbook. The resolution asks High Tech’s administration to reconsider its refusal to do so in response to complaints from members of High Tech’s community, including members of the High Tech community who had contacted me. You can see the community’s petition to High Tech’s administration (now with over 1,200 signatures) here.
This issue arose when parents and students expressed concern about one student’s yearbook quote which consisted in its entirety of the symbol “88.” The Anti Defamation League includes '88' in its database of hate symbols and classifies it as “one of the most common white supremacist symbols.” (H is the eighth letter of the alphabet, and 88 corresponds with “HH” — or “Heil Hitler” — for white supremacists.) High Tech responded to these complaints by conducting an investigation, which concluded that “Disrespect wasn’t the intention” of the student, but instead, referred to a park at 88th Street in North Bergen. On July 3rd, High Tech’s superintendent announced it would offer refunds to any student who wished to return the yearbook and implement better controls for future Yearbook publications.
The resolution I introduced, which was unanimously adopted by the City Council, encourages High Tech to produce and send to each purchaser of the yearbook a replacement page substituting language such as “88th Street Park” for the symbol “88” in order to both accurately reflect the intention of the student and to remove the symbol from the Yearbook. The editorial page of the Jersey Journal called for High Tech’s administrators to do the same in this editorial. I want to acknowledge and thank Councilwoman Jabbour for co-sponsoring this resolution. I also want to thank my Council colleagues for their unanimous support of the resolution which you can read here (on page 567). This story, including the Council’s actions, was reported on in The Forward, a leading news source for American Jews, in which I was interviewed. You can read The Forward’s story here. I believe High Tech’s response to date has been inadequate. Students keep their yearbooks for a lifetime. Rather than make this unfortunate incident a true “teaching moment”, High Tech has minimized the community’s concerns and genuine pain and frustration this incident has caused. Hopefully, High Tech’s administrators will do the right thing and fix the 2020 yearbook.
Police Chief Ken Ferrante’s Contract Renewal
At our July 8 City Council meeting, Mayor Bhalla presented for approval a contract for our Police Chief, who has been working without a contract since the new year. In our form of municipal government, the Mayor’s Administration negotiates contracts for public safety chiefs, and the City Council either votes the proposed agreements up or down. However, with no advance notice to me, during the meeting 6 members of the City Council supported motions to 1. “table” for a future meeting the vote on the Chief’s negotiated contract preventing any vote on the contract at the Council meeting; and 2. introduce two key terms for the parties to consider for inclusion in the contract: i) reducing the proposed 3-year contract to a 2-year contract, and ii) reducing the Chief’s annual vacation days from 30 to 25.
Chief Ferrante has been an exemplary leader of our Police Department since his appointment by Mayor Zimmer in 2014. Look at the numbers reflecting the reduction of crime. Between 2018 and 2019, Hoboken’s crime rates have decreased by 22% at only 8.6 crimes per 1000 residents with violent crimes dropping by 34.2%. You can read more about Hoboken’s reduction in crime rates here. Of particular note, during these days of Black Lives Matter marches and the critical importance of good police relations with the community-at-large, in the past 6 years, the HPD has not paid a penny in civil liability, judgments or settlements for any reason, or had a single criminal complaint against any HPD Officer for excessive force or racial bias.
The numbers speak for themselves. Hoboken is a safer community with Chief Ferrante at the head of the HPD. In addition to delivering consistently improved crime statistics, the Chief has implemented innovative policing strategies including the creation of a new Waterfront and Parks Unit in 2015; establishing the department’s first Emergency Service Unit; and doubling the size and annual hours worked by our best-in-breed Investigations Bureau.
Along with Councilwoman Jabbour and Councilman Doyle, I voted against tabling Chief Ferrante’s contract -- and I plan to vote for the contract when it returns. I abstained on Councilwoman Fisher’s motion to send back new terms to the Chief and Mayor Bhalla -- shortening the term of the Chief’s contract and cutting his annual vacation days. I abstained because I believe it is wrong for council members to insert themselves into contract negotiations when they have no seat at the table. Also, I believe this sends the exact wrong message to the dedicated men and women of the Hoboken Police Department -- a message that the City Council does not support the HPD. I also note that in this year -- a year of unprecedented public safety challenges -- the Chief agreed to take no raise in salary just as he took no raise in 2019. The proposed contract provides Chief Ferrante with a modest 1.5% salary increase per year, despite the fact that six other Police Chiefs in Hudson County (who have shorter tenures than Chief Ferrante) are paid significantly more than Chief Ferrante.
New Jersey Unemployment Benefits Extension
This pandemic has led to great economic losses for Hoboken residents and New Jerseyans. However, Governor Murphy has delivered some good news for unemployed workers. Those who have run out of unemployment benefits can now qualify for an additional 20 weeks of state unemployment. Previously, unemployment would have run out after 39 weeks for those receiving it. If you are currently collecting unemployment, you do not need to reapply for these benefits, as they will continue automatically.
Coffee with Cohen . . . the home edition
To practice social distancing, rather than eliminate my monthly Coffee with Cohen constituent events, I turned to the internet. On Monday, July 13th, I hosted my latest Coffee with Cohen Livestream event. I enjoyed updating you on what’s going on with COVID-19, new mask regulations, High Tech Highschool’s yearbook, and other helpful information for our residents. If you tuned in, you also learned the results of my latest poll in which I asked whether you had voted in the New Jersey primaries, and if so, how? Over 200 people have already viewed Monday’s event, and if you haven’t seen it, you can check it out here. My favorite part of Coffee with Cohen is answering your questions, which you can submit to HobokenPhil@gmail, and participate. The event is hosted on my Facebook page @Philcohenforcouncil and you can watch it here.
As long as we have this state of emergency, I plan to continue hosting the event twice a month, and I hope you join me at noon on Monday, July 27th for the next one!
In the meantime, please like my City Councilman Facebook page, and follow my regular Facebook posts of interest to the community here. You can also follow me on Twitter here, or Instagram here.
As always, if you’d like to reach out with any questions or concerns at any time, or if I can be of any assistance to you or to your family, do not hesitate to contact me at HobokenPhil@gmail.com
Stay safe everyone!
Phil Cohen
5th Ward Councilman
City of Hoboken, New Jersey
(862) 234-9053
P.S. I plan to take a vacation from July 31st through August 14th. If you need assistance while I am away, my Legislative Assistant, Emma Pizzuti, will monitor my emails and is happy to help you in my absence.
P.P.S. You can learn more about me and my ideas for Hoboken (as well as read this newsletter and all my prior newsletters) on my website philcohen.org.
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