Hoboken, New Jersey

Hoboken, New Jersey
City
Pier A
Nickname:  The Mile Square City
Location of Hoboken within Hudson County. Inset: Location of Hudson County highlighted in the State of New Jersey.
Census Bureau map of Hoboken, New Jersey
Country	United States
State	New Jersey
County	Hudson
Incorporated	April 9, 1849
Government
• Type	Faulkner Act (Mayor-Council)
• Mayor	Dawn Zimmer D
Area
• Total	2.0 sq mi (5.1 km2)
• Land	1.3 sq mi (3.3 km2)
• Water	0.7 sq mi (1.8 km2)
Elevation	30 ft (9 m)
Population  (2009)
• Total	41,015
• Density	30,239.2/sq mi (11,675.4/km2)
Time zone	UTC-5 (Eastern (EST))
• Summer (DST)	UTC-4 (EDT)
ZIP code	07030
Area code(s)	201, 551
FIPS code	34-32250Template:GR
GNIS feature ID	0885257Template:GR
Website	http://www.hobokennj.org

Hoboken is a city in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2000 United States Census, the city's population was 38,577. The city is part of the New York metropolitan area and contains Hoboken Terminal, a major transportation hub for the region. Hoboken is also the location of the first recorded baseball game in the United States, and of the Stevens Institute of Technology, one of the oldest technological universities in the United States.

Hoboken was first settled as part of the Pavonia, New Netherland colony in the 17th century. During the early nineteenth century the city was developed by Colonel John Stevens, first as a resort and later as a residential neighborhood. It became a township in 1849 and was incorporated as a city in 1855. Its waterfront was an integral part of the Port of New York and New Jersey and home to major industries for most of the 20th century. The character of the city has changed from a blue collar town to one of upscale shops and condominiums.

Geography

Image of Hoboken taken by NASA (red line shows where Hoboken is).

Hoboken lies on the west bank of the Hudson River across from the Manhattan, New York City neighborhoods of the West Village and Chelsea between Weehawken and Union City at the north and Jersey City (the county seat) at the south and west.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 5.1 km² (2.0 mi²). 3.3 km² (1.3 mi²) of it is land and 1.8 km² (0.7 mi²) of it is water. The total area is 35.35% water.

Hoboken has 48 streets laid out in a gridiron. Many north-south streets were named for US presidents (Washington, Adams, Madison, Monroe), though Clinton Street likely honors 19th century politician DeWitt Clinton. The numbered streets running east-west start two blocks north of Observer Highway with First Street, with the grid ending close to the city line with 16th near Weehawken Cove and the city. Neighborhoods in Hoboken often have vague definitions making Downtown, Midtown, and Uptown subjective. Castle Point, The Projects, Hoboken Terminal, and Hudson Tea are distinct enclaves at the city's periphery. As it transforms from its previous industrial use to a residential district, the "Northwest" is a name being used for that part of the city.

Hoboken's zip code is 07030, and its area code is 201, with 551 overlaid.

Demographics

Historical population

Census	Pop.	Note	%±
1860	9,662		—
1870	20,297		110.1%
1880	30,999		52.7%
1890	43,648		40.8%
1900	59,364		36.0%
1910	70,324		18.5%
1920	68,166		−3.1%
1930	59,261		−13.1%
1940	50,115		−15.4%
1950	50,676		1.1%
1960	48,441		−4.4%
1970	45,380		−6.3%
1980	42,460		−6.4%
1990	33,397		−21.3%
2000	38,577		15.5%
2009 (est.)	41,015
historical data sources:

As of the censusTemplate:GR of 2000, there are 38,577 people (although recent census figures show the population has grown to about 40,000), 19,418 households, and 6,835 families residing in the city. The population density is 11,636.5/km² (30,239.2/mi²), fourth highest in the nation after neighboring communities of Guttenberg, Union City and West New York. There are 19,915 housing units at an average density of 6,007.2/km² (15,610.7/mi²). The racial makeup of the city is 80.82% White, 4.26% African American, 0.16% Native American, 4.31% Asian, 0.05% Pacific Islander, 7.63% from other races, and 2.78% from two or more races. Furthermore 20.18% of those residents also consider themselves to be Hispanic or Latino.

There are 19,418 households out of which 11.4% have children under the age of 18 living with them, 23.8% are married couples living together, 9.0% have a female householder with no husband present, and 64.8% are non-families. 41.8% of all households are made up of individuals and 8.0% have someone living alone who is 65 years of age or older. The average household size is 1.92 and the average family size is 2.73.

In the city the population is spread out with 10.5% under the age of 18, 15.3% from 18 to 24, 51.7% from 25 to 44, 13.5% from 45 to 64, and 9.0% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 30 years. For every 100 females, age 18 and over, there are 103.9 males.

The median income for a household in the city as of the last census was $62,550, while the median income for a family was $67,500 (these figures had risen to $96,786 and $107,375 respectively as of a 2007 estimate). Males had a median income of $54,870 versus $46,826 for females. The per capita income for the city was $43,195. 11.0% of the population and 10.0% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the total population, 23.6% of those under the age of 18 and 20.7% of those 65 and older were living below the poverty line.

The city is a bedroom community of New York City, where most of its employed residents work. Up to 25% of the population (as of 2008) works in finance or real estate.

Name

File:Hoboken-license-plate3-mmr.jpg

Hoboken, New Jersey

The name "Hoboken", pronounced by some as HO-bo-ken /ˈhoʊboʊkən/, was decided upon by Colonel John Stevens when he purchased land, on a part of which the city still sits.

It is believed that the Lenape (later called Delaware Indian) referred to the area as the “land of the tobacco pipe”, most likely to refer to the soapstone collected there to carve tobacco pipes, and used a phrase that became “Hopoghan Hackingh”.

The first Europeans to live there were Dutch/Flemish settlers to New Netherlands who may have bastardized the Lenape phrase, though there is no known written documentation to confirm it. It also cannot be confirmed that the American Hoboken is named after the Flemish town Hoboken, annexed in 1983 to Antwerp, Belgium, whose name is derived from Middle Dutch Hooghe Buechen or Hoge Beuken, meaning High Beeches or Tall Beeches. The city has also been cited as having been named after the Van Hoboken family of the 17th-century estate in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, where there is still a square dedicated to them. It is not known what the area was called in Jersey Dutch, a Dutch-variant language based on Zeelandic and Flemish, with English and possibly Lenape influences, spoken in northern New Jersey during the 18th and 19th centuries.

Like Weehawken, its neighbor to the north, Communipaw and Harsimus to the south, Hoboken had many variations in the folks-tongue. Hoebuck, old Dutch for high bluff and likely referring to Castle Point, was used during the colonial era and later spelled as Hobuck, Hobock, and Hoboocken.

Hoboken's unofficial nickname is now the "Mile Square City", but it actually covers an area of two square miles when including the under-water parts in the Hudson River. During the late 19th/early 20th century the population and culture of Hoboken was dominated by German language speakers who sometimes called it "Little Bremen", many of whom are buried in Hoboken Cemetery, North Bergen.

History

Early and colonial

Hoboken was originally an island, surrounded by the Hudson River on the east and tidal lands at the foot of the New Jersey Palisades on the west. It was a seasonal campsite in the territory of the Hackensack, a phratry of the Lenni Lenape, who used the serpentine rock found there to carve pipes. The first recorded European to lay claim to the area was Henry Hudson, an Englishman sailing for the Dutch East India Company, who anchored his ship the Halve Maen (Half Moon) at Weehawken Cove on October 2, 1609. Soon after it became part of the province of New Netherland. In 1630, Michael Pauw, a burgemeester (mayor) of Amsterdam and a director of the Dutch West India Company, received a land grant as patroon on the condition that he would plant a colony of not fewer than fifty persons within four years on the west bank of what had been named the North River. Three Lenape sold the land that was to become Hoboken (and part of Jersey City) for 80 fathoms (146 m) of wampum, 20 fathoms (37 m) of cloth, 12 kettles, six guns, two blankets, one double kettle and half a barrel of beer. These transactions, variously dated as July 12, 1630 and November 22, 1630, represent the earliest known conveyance for the area. Pauw (whose Latinized name is Pavonia) failed to settle the land and he was obliged to sell his holdings back to the Company in 1633. It was later acquired by Hendrick Van Vorst, who leased part of the land to Aert Van Putten, a farmer. In 1643, north of what would be later known as Castle Point, Van Putten built a house and a brewery, North America’s first. In series of Indian and Dutch raids and reprisals, Van Putten was killed and his buildings destroyed, and all residents of Pavonia (as the colony was known) were ordered back to New Amsterdam. Deteriorating relations with the Lenape, its isolation as an island, or relatively long distance from New Amsterdam may have discouraged more settlement. In 1664, the English took possession of New Amsterdam with little or no resistance, and in 1668 they confirmed a previous land patent by Nicolas Verlett. In 1674-75 the area became part of East Jersey, and the province was divided into four administrative districts, Hoboken becoming part of Bergen County, where it remained until the creation of Hudson County on February 22, 1840. English-speaking settlers (some relocating from New England) interspersed with the Dutch, but it remained scarcely populated and agrarian. Eventually, the land came into the possession of William Bayard, who originally supported the revolutionary cause, but became a Loyalist Tory after the fall of New York in 1776 when the city and surrounding areas, including the west bank of the re-named Hudson River, were occupied by the British. At the end of the Revolutionary War, Bayard’s property was confiscated by the Revolutionary Government of New Jersey. In 1784, the land described as "William Bayard's farm at Hoebuck" was bought at auction by Colonel John Stevens for 18,360 pounds sterling.

• On a side note...

The term Hobo was coined when a man without residence became well known in the metropolitan New York area. When asked from wence he had came he then replied, Hoboken. Then it spread that he was a Hobo from Hoboken. It then became a widely used term to describe the homeless.

The 19th century

Ferry slips at Terminal

The Hudson River during the 1880s, offshore from Hoboken and Jersey City.

In the early 1800s, Colonel John Stevens developed the waterfront as a resort for Manhattanites, a lucrative source of income, which he may have used for testing his many mechanical inventions. On October 11, 1811 Stevens' ship the Juliana, began operation as the world's first steam-powered ferry with service between Manhattan and Hoboken. In 1825, he designed and built a steam locomotive capable of hauling several passenger cars at his estate. In 1832, Sybil's Cave opened as an attraction serving spring water, and after 1841 became a legend, when Edgar Allan Poe wrote "The Mystery of Marie Roget" about an event that took place there. (In the late 1880s, when the water was found to be contaminated, it was shut and in the 1930s, filled with concrete.) Before his death in 1838, Stevens founded The Hoboken Land Improvement Company, which during the mid- and late-19th century was managed by his heirs and laid out a regular system of streets, blocks and lots, constructed housing, and developed manufacturing sites. In general, the housing consisted of masonry row houses of three to five stories, some of which survive to the present day, as does the street grid. The advantages of Hoboken as a shipping port and industrial center became apparent.

Hoboken was originally formed as a township on April 9, 1849, from portions of North Bergen Township. As the town grew in population and employment, many of Hoboken's residents saw a need to incorporate as a full-fledged city, and in a referendum held on March 29, 1855, ratified an Act of the New Jersey Legislature signed the previous day, and the City of Hoboken was born. In the subsequent election, Cornelius V. Clickener became Hoboken's first mayor. On March 15, 1859, the Township of Weehawken was created from portions of Hoboken and North Bergen Township.

In 1870, based on a bequest from Edwin A. Stevens, Stevens Institute of Technology was founded at Castle Point, site of the Stevens family's former estate. By the late 1800s, great shipping lines were using Hoboken as a terminal port, and the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad (later the Erie Lackawanna Railroad) developed a railroad terminal at the waterfront. It was also during this time that German immigrants, who had been settling in town during most of the century, became the predominant population group in the city, at least partially due to its being a major destination port of the Hamburg America Line. In addition to the primary industry of shipbuilding, Hoboken became home to Keuffel and Esser's three-story factory and in 1884, to Tietjan and Lang Drydock (later Todd Shipyards). Well-known companies that developed a major presence in Hoboken after the turn-of the-century included Maxwell House, Lipton Tea, and Hostess.

Birthplace of baseball

Early baseball game played at Elysian Fields, Hoboken (Currier & Ives lithograph).

A historical marker stands at the intersection of 11th and Washington Streets, site of Elysian Fields.

The first officially recorded game of baseball in US history took place in Hoboken in 1846 between Knickerbocker Club and New York Nine at Elysian Fields.

In 1845, the Knickerbocker Club, which had been founded by Alexander Cartwright, began using Elysian Fields to play baseball due to the lack of suitable grounds on Manhattan. Team members included players of the St George's Cricket Club, the brothers Harry and George Wright, and Henry Chadwick, the English-born journalist who coined the term "America's Pastime".

By the 1850s, several Manhattan-based members of the National Association of Base Ball Players were using the grounds as their home field while St George's continued to organize international matches between Canada, England and the United States at the same venue. In 1859, George Parr's All England Eleven of professional cricketers played the United States XXII at Hoboken, easily defeating the local competition. Sam Wright and his sons Harry and George Wright played on the defeated United States team—a loss which inadvertently encouraged local players to take up baseball. Henry Chadwick believed that baseball and not cricket should become America's pastime after the game drawing the conclusion that amateur American players did not have the leisure time required to develop cricket skills to the high technical level required of professional players. Harry and George Wright then became two of America's first professional baseball players when Aaron Champion raised funds to found the Cincinnati Red Stockings in 1869.

In 1865 the grounds hosted a championship match between the Mutual Club of New York and the Atlantic Club of Brooklyn that was attended by an estimated 20,000 fans and captured in the Currier & Ives lithograph "The American National Game of Base Ball".

With the construction of two significant baseball parks enclosed by fences in Brooklyn, enabling promoters there to charge admission to games, the prominence of Elysian Fields diminished. In 1868 the leading Manhattan club, Mutual, shifted its home games to the Union Grounds in Brooklyn. In 1880, the founders of the New York Metropolitans and New York Giants finally succeeded in siting a ballpark in Manhattan that became known as the Polo Grounds.

World War I

When the USA decided to enter World War I the Hamburg-American Line piers in Hoboken (and New Orleans) were taken under eminent domain. Federal control of the port and anti-German sentiment led to part of the city being placed under martial law, and many Germans were forcibly moved to Ellis Island or left the city altogether. Hoboken became the major point of embarkation and more than three million soldiers, known as "doughboys", passed through the city. Their hope for an early return led to General Pershing's slogan, "Heaven, Hell or Hoboken... by Christmas."

Following the war, Italians, mostly stemming from the Adriatic port city of Molfetta, became the city's major ethnic group, with the Irish also having a strong presence. While the city experienced the Depression, jobs in the ships yards and factories were still available, and the "tenements" were full. Middle-European Jews, mostly German-speaking, also made their way to the city and established small businesses. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey was established on April 30, 1921. The Holland Tunnel was completed in 1927 and the Lincoln Tunnel in 1937, allowing for easier vehicular travel between New Jersey and New York City, bypassing the waterfront.

Post-World War II

The war provided a shot in the arm for Hoboken as the many industries located in the city were crucial to the war effort. As men went off to battle, more women were hired in the factories, some (most notably, Todd Shipyards), offering classes and other incentives to them. Though some returning service men took advantage of GI housing bills, many with strong ethnic and familial ties chose to stay in town. During the fifties, the economy was still driven by Todd Shipyards, Maxwell House, Lipton Tea, Hostess and Bethlehem Steel and companies with big plants still not inclined to invest in huge infrastructure elsewhere. Unions were powerful and the pay was good.

By the sixties, though, things began to disintegrate: turn-of-the century housing started to look shabby and feel crowded, shipbuilding was cheaper overseas, and single-story plants surrounded by parking lots made manufacturing and distribution more economical than old brick buildings on congested urban streets. The city appeared to be in the throes of inexorable decline as industries sought (what had been) greener pastures, port operations shifted to larger facilities on Newark Bay, and the car, truck and plane displaced the railroad and ship as the transportation modes of choice in the United States. Many Hobokenites headed to the suburbs, often the close-by ones in Bergen and Passaic Counties, and real-estate values declined. Hoboken sank from its earlier incarnation as a lively port town into a rundown condition and was often included in lists with other New Jersey cities experiencing the same phenomenon, such as Paterson, Elizabeth, Camden, and neighboring Jersey City.

The old economic underpinnings were gone and nothing new seemed to be on the horizon. Attempts were made to stabilize the population by demolishing the so-called slums along River Street and build subsidized middle-income housing at Marineview Plaza, and in midtown, at Church Towers. Heaps of long uncollected garbage and roving packs of semi-wild dogs were not uncommon sights. Though the city had seen better days, Hoboken was never abandoned. New infusions of immigrants, most notably Puerto Ricans, kept the storefronts open with small businesses and housing stock from being abandoned, but there wasn't much work to be had. Washington Street, commonly called "the avenue", was never boarded up, and the tightly-knit neighborhoods remained home to many who were still proud of their city. Stevens stayed a premiere technology school, Maxwell House kept chugging away, and Bethlehem Steel still housed sailors who were dry-docked on its piers. Italian-Americans and other came back to the "old neighborhood" to shop for delicatessen. Some streets were "iffy", but most were not pulled in at night.

Waterfront

The waterfront defined Hoboken as an archetypal port town and powered its economy from the mid-19th to mid-20th century, by which time it had become essentially industrial (and mostly inaccessible to the general public). The large production plants of Lipton Tea and Maxwell House, and the drydocks of Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation dominated the northern portion for many years. The southern portion (which had been a US base of the Hamburg-American Line) was seized by the federal government under eminent domain at outbreak of World War I, after which it became (with the rest of the Hudson County) a major East Coast cargo-shipping port. On the Waterfront, consistently listed among the five best American films ever, was shot in Hoboken, dramatically highlighting the rough and tumble lives of longshoremen and the infiltration of unions by organized crime.

With the construction of the interstate highway system and containerization shipping facilities (particularly at Port Newark-Elizabeth Marine Terminal), the docks became obsolete, and by the 1970s were more or less abandoned. A large swathe of River Street, known as the Barbary Coast for its taverns and boarding houses (which had been home for many dockworkers, sailors, merchant marines, and other seamen) was leveled as part of an urban renewal project. Though control of the confiscated area had been returned to the city in the 1950s, complex lease agreements with the Port Authority gave it little influence on its management. In the 1980s, the waterfront dominated Hoboken politics, with various civic groups and the city government engaging in sometimes nasty, sometimes absurd politics and court cases. By the 1990s, agreements were made with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, various levels of government, Hoboken citizens, and private developers to build commercial and residential buildings and "open spaces" (mostly along the bulkhead and on the foundation of un-utilized Pier A).

Panorama of Manhattan from Pier A.

The northern portion, which had remained in private hands, has also been re-developed. While most of the dry-dock and production facilities were razed to make way for mid-rise apartment houses, many sold as investment "condos", some buildings were renovated for adaptive re-use (notably the Tea Building, formerly home to Lipton Tea, and the Machine House, home of the Hoboken Historic Museum). Zoning requires that new construction follow the street grid and limits the height of new construction to retain the architectural character of the city and open sight-lines to the river. Downtown, Frank Sinatra Park and Sinatra Drive honor the man most consider to be Hoboken's most famous son, while uptown the name Maxwell recalls the factory with its smell of roasting coffee wafting over town and its huge neon "Good to the Last Drop" sign, so long a part of the landscape. The midtown section is dominated by the serpentine rock outcropping atop of which sits Stevens Institute of Technology (which also owns some, as yet, un-developed land on the river). At the foot of the cliff is Sybil's Cave (where 19th century day-trippers once came to "take the waters" from a natural spring), long sealed shut, though plans for its restoration are in place. The promenade along the river bank is part of the Hudson River Waterfront Walkway, a state-mandated master plan to connect the municipalities from the Bayonne Bridge to George Washington Bridge and provide contiguous unhindered access to the water's edge and to create an urban linear park offering expansive views of the Hudson with the spectacular backdrop of the New York skyline.

Pre- and post-millennium

During the late 1970s and 1980s, the city witnessed a speculation spree, fueled by transplanted New Yorkers and others who bought many turn-of-the-century brownstones in neighborhoods that the still solid middle and working class population had kept intact and by local and out-of-town real-estate investors who bought up late 19th century apartment houses often considered to be tenements. Hoboken experienced a wave of fires, some of which were arson. Applied Housing, a real-estate investment firm, took advantage of US government incentives to renovate "sub-standard" housing and receive subsidized rental payments (commonly known as Section 8), which enabled some low-income, displaced, and disabled residents to move within town. Hoboken attracted artists, musicians, upwardly-mobile commuters (known as yuppies), and "bohemian types" interested in the socio-economic possibilities and challenges of a bankrupt New York and who valued the aesthetics of Hoboken's residential, civic and commercial architecture, its sense of community, and relatively (compared to Lower Manhattan) cheaper rents, and quick, train hop away. Maxwell's (a live music venue and restaurant) opened and Hoboken became a "hip" place to live. Amid this social upheaval, so-called "newcomers" displaced some of the "old-timers" in the eastern half of the city.

This gentrification resembled that of parts of Brooklyn and downtown Jersey City and Manhattan's East Village, (and to a lesser degree, SoHo and TriBeCa, which previously had not been residential). The initial presence of artists and young people changed the perception of the place such that others who would not have considered moving there before perceived it as an interesting, safe, exciting, and eventually, desirable. The process continued as many suburbanites, transplanted Americans, internationals, and immigrants (most focused on opportunities in NY/NJ region and proximity to Manhattan) began to make the "Jersey" side of the Hudson their home, and the "real-estate boom" of the era encouraged many to seek investment opportunities. Empty lots were built on, tenements became condominiums. Hoboken felt the impact of the destruction of the World Trade Center intensely, many of its newer residents having worked there. Re-zoning encouraged new construction on former industrial sites on the waterfront and the traditionally more impoverished low-lying west side of the city where, in concert with Hudson-Bergen Light Rail and New Jersey State land-use policy, transit villages are now being promoted. Once a blue collar town characterized by live poultry shops and drab taverns, it has since been transformed into a town filled with gourmet shops and luxury condominiums.

Government

Local government

Hoboken City Hall, on Washington Street between First Street and Newark Street.

The City of Hoboken is governed under the Faulkner Act (Mayor-Council) system of municipal government by a Mayor and a nine-member City Council. The City Council consists of three members elected at large from the city as a whole, and six members who each represent one of the city's six wards, all of whom are elected to four-year, staggered terms. Candidates run independent of any political party's backing.

The Mayor of Hoboken is Dawn Zimmer, previously the City Council President, who took office on July 31, 2009 after her predecessor, Peter Cammarano, was arrested on allegations of corruption stemming from a decade-long FBI operation. Zimmer, who lost a June 9, 2009 runoff election to Cammarano by 161 votes, served as acting mayor until winning a special election to fill the remainder of the term on November 3, 2009. She was sworn in as mayor on November 6. Zimmer is the first female mayor of Hoboken.

Members of the City Council are:

• At-Large: Ravi Bhalla
• At-Large: David Mello
• At-Large: Carol Marsh (Council Vice-President)
• 1st Ward: Theresa Castallano
• 2nd Ward: Beth Mason
• 3rd Ward: Michael Russo
• 4th Ward: Michael Lenz
• 5th Ward: Peter Cunningham (Council President)
• 6th Ward: Nino Giacchi

State and federal

At the federal level, Hoboken is included within New Jersey's 13th congressional district, currently represented by Democrat Albio Sires. At the state level, the city is part of the 33rd Legislative District, which is represented by State Senator Brian P. Stack and Assembly members Ruben J. Ramos and Caridad Rodriguez, who are all Democrats.

Fire department

Fire Station # 1 on Washington Street.

The city of Hoboken is protected by the City of Hoboken Fire Department (HFD). The department operates out of 4 Fire Stations, located throughout the city, and operates a fire apparatus fleet of 4 Engines (including 1 Reserve Engine), 3 Ladders (including 1 Reserve Ladder), 2 Rescues, 1 Haz-Mat. Unit, 1 Fire Boat, 1 Command Vehicle, and numerous other special and support units. The City of Hoboken Fire Department responds to, on average, approximately 4,000 emergency calls annually.

Fire station locations and apparatus

• Fire Station # 1 - 1313 Washington St. - Uptown
  • Engine 1
  • Ladder 1
• Fire Headquarters - Fire Station # 3 - 201 Jefferson St. - Midtown
  • Reserve Engine 3
  • Reserve Ladder 4
  • Rescue 1(Special Operations)
  • Tour Commander
  • Special and Support Units
• Fire Station # 4 - 801 Clinton St. - Uptown
  • Engine 4
  • Rescue 1
• Fire Station # 5 - 43 Madison St. - Downtown
  • Engine 5
  • Ladder 2
• Fire Museum - 213 Bloomfield St. - Midtown

Transportation

The trackage of Hoboken Terminal

Hoboken Terminal, located at the city's southeastern corner, is a national historic landmark originally built in 1907 by the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad and currently undergoing extensive renovation. It is the origination/destination point for several modes of transportation and an important hub within the NY/NJ metropolitan region's public transit system. Currently, the City of Hoboken is planning a large renewal project for the terminal area, consisting of high-rises and parks. The project is still in development.

Rail

• New Jersey Transit Hoboken Division: Main Line (to Suffern, and in partnership with MTA/Metro-North, express service to Port Jervis), Bergen County Line, and Pascack Valley Line, all via Secaucus Junction (where transfer is possible to Northeast Corridor Line); Montclair-Boonton Line and Morris and Essex Lines (both via Newark Broad Street Station); North Jersey Coast Line (limited service as Waterfront Connection via Newark Penn Station to Long Branch and Bay Head); Raritan Valley Line (limited service via Newark Penn Station);
• Hudson-Bergen Light Rail: along Hoboken's western perimeter at 2nd and 9th Streets, and at Hoboken Terminal, south-bound to downtown Jersey City and Bayonne, and north-bound to the Weehawken waterfront, Bergenline, and Tonnelle Avenues.

• PATH: 24-hour subway service from Hoboken Terminal (HOB) to midtown Manhattan (33rd) (along 6th Ave to Herald Square/Pennsylvania Station), (via downtown Jersey City) to World Trade Center (WTC), and via Journal Square (JSQ) to Newark Penn Station (NWK).

Water

• NY Waterway: ferry service is available across the Hudson River from Hoboken Terminal and 14th Street to World Financial Center and Pier 11/Wall Street in lower Manhattan, and to West 39th in midtown Manhattan. A "free" transfer is included to a variety of buses, but it is a well known fact that NY Waterway will fuck you in the ass to get all of the $8.50 they charge to travel some 400 meters across the hudson river. In short, dont take the ferry unless you want it in the ass, and out of your wallet.

Surface

• Taxi: Flat fare within city limits and negotiated fare for other destinations.
• NJ Transit buses west-bound from Hudson Place/Hoboken Terminal along Observer Highway: 64 to Newark, 68, 85, 87, to Jersey City and other Hudson and suburban destinations.
• NJ Transit buses north-bound from Hudson Place/Hoboken Terminal along Washington Street: 126 to Port Authority Bus Terminal via Lincoln Tunnel, 22 to Bergenline/North Hudson, 89 to North Bergen, and 23, 22X (rush hour service) to North Bergen via the waterfront and Boulevard East.
• Zipcar: An online based car sharing service pickup is located downtown at the Center Parking Garage on Park Avenue, between Newark Street and Observer Highway.

Major roads

The 14th Street and Wing Viaducts connect Hoboken, Jersey City Heights and North Hudson.

• Lincoln Tunnel: north of city line in Weehawken, with eastern terminus in midtown Manhattan and western access road NJ 495
• Holland Tunnel: south of city line in downtown Jersey City with eastern terminus at Canal Street, Manhattan and western access roads I-78 (New Jersey Turnpike extension) and Routes 1&9
• 14th Street Viaduct to Jersey City Heights and North Hudson
• Paterson Plank Road to Jersey City Heights, North Hudson, and Secaucus

Air

Hoboken has no airports. Airports which serve Hoboken are operated by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey

• Newark Liberty Airport (EWR), 12.8 miles (20.6 km) is the closest airport with scheduled passenger service
• LaGuardia Airport (LGA) is 12.8 miles (20.6 km) away in Flushing, Queens
• John F. Kennedy Airport (JFK) is 19 miles (31 km) away on Jamaica Bay in Queens
• Teterboro Airport, in the Hackensack Meadowlands, serves private and corporate planes

Education

Public schools

Hoboken High School

Hoboken's public schools are operated by Hoboken Board of Education, and serve students in kindergarten through 12th grade. The district is one of 31 Abbott Districts statewide.

Schools in the district (with 2005-06 enrollment data from the National Center for Education Statistics) are three K-8 schools — Calabro Primary School, Connors Primary School and Wallace Primary School and A. J. Demarest High School and Hoboken High School for grades 9-12.

A.J. Demarest High School is a vocational high school offering such programs as Culinary Arts, Construction and Cosmetology.

Hoboken High School is a four-year comprehensive public high school that is part of the Hoboken Public Schools. As of the 2005-06 school year, the school had an enrollment of 621 students and 61.0 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student-teacher ratio of 10.2.

Hoboken High School was the 139th-ranked public high school in New Jersey out of 316 schools statewide, in New Jersey Monthly magazine's September 2008 cover story. The school was ranked 260th in the magazine's September 2006 issue, which surveyed 316 schools across the state. The September 2008 issue of the magazine noted the school as the second most improved high school in the state. The school jumped from 260 in 2006 to 139 in 2008.

In addition, Hoboken has two charter schools, which are schools that receive public funds yet operate independently of the Hoboken Public Schools under charters granted by the Commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Education. Elysian Charter School serves students in grades K-8 and Hoboken Charter School in grades K–12.

Private schools

The following private schools are located in Hoboken:

• All Saint's Episcopal Day School
• The Hudson School
• Mustard Seed School
• Stevens Cooperative School
• Hoboken Catholic Academy

University

The Castle Gatehouse at Stevens Institute of Technology

see Stevens Institute of Technology

Commerce and innovation

Hoboken has been home to a number of historically noteworthy businesses and innovations. The first centrally air-conditioned public space in the United States was demonstrated at Hoboken Terminal. The first Blimpie restaurant opened in 1964 at the corner of Seventh and Washington Streets. Today Hoboken is home to one of the headquarters of publisher John Wiley & Sons.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Hoboken's unemployment rate as of September 2009 was 6.3, the lowest in the state, compared with the highest, Union City, at 15, and a state rate of 9.8%.

Notable residents

Main article: List of people from Hoboken, New Jersey

Local attractions

Lower Frank Sinatra Drive

Clock at Eleventh Street

Sites

Main article: Landmarks of Hoboken, New Jersey

Events

• Frank Sinatra Idol Contest, an annual contest held in Sinatra Park in which Frank Sinatra sound-a-likes compete for the distinction of best Sinatra impersonator.
• Hoboken Farmer's Market, Tuesdays, June through October, on Washington Street, between Observer Highway. and Newark Street.
• Hoboken House Tour-an inside view of private spaces of historical, architectural or aesthetic interest
• Hoboken International Film Festival
• Hoboken Studio Tour-open house at many studios of artists working in town
• Hoboken Arts and Music Festival, which features music, arts and crafts on waterfront and Washington Street
• Hoboken (Secret) Garden Tour
• Saint Patrick's Day Parade (usually the first Saturday of March)
• Hoboken Flip Cup
• Seventh Inning Stretch-presentation of newly commissioned base-ball inspired one-act plays by Mile Square Theater Company
• Feast of Saint Anthony's
• St Ann's Feast
• Hoboken Italian Festival, Feast of Madonna Dei Martiri (Madonna of the Martyrs), held at Sinatra Park the Thursday thru Sunday after Labor Day
• New Jersey Transit Festival-transportation-related exhibitions at Hoboken Terminal, including train excursions
• Movies Under the Stars, an outdoor film series

Parks

Four Hoboken parks were originally developed within city street grid laid out in the 19th century:

• Church Square Park, a town square
• Columbus Park, the only Hudson County park in the city
• Elysian Park, the last remnant of Elysian Fields
• Stevens Park

Other parks, developed later, but fitting into the street pattern in the city's southeast:

• Gateway Park, the smallest and most remote of the city's parks
• Jackson Street Park, the most concrete park in town
• Legion Park
• Madison Park, abutting senior housing complex, more plaza than park

The Hudson River Waterfront Walkway is a state-mandated master plan to connect the municipalities from the Bayonne Bridge to the George Washington Bridge creating an 18-mile (29 km)-long urban linear park and provide contiguous unhindered access to the water's edge. By law, any development on the waterfront must provide a public promenade with a minimum width of 30 feet (9.1 m). To date, completed segments in Hoboken and the new parks and renovated piers that abut them are (from south to north):

• the plaza at Hoboken Terminal
• Pier A
• The promenade and bike path from Newark to 5th Streets
• Frank Sinatra Park
• Castle Point Park
• Sinatra Drive to 12th, currently under construction, at former Maxwell House Coffee plant
• 12th to 14th Streets, at former Bethlehem Steel drydocks
• Hoboken North New York Waterway Pier
• 14th Street Pier (formerly Pier 4)
• 14th Street north to southern side of Weehawken Cove, at the former Lipton Tea plant

• Other segments of river-front held privately (notably by Stevens Tech) are not required to build a walkway until the land is re-developed.

The Hoboken Parks Initiative is a municipal plan to create more public open spaces in the city using a variety of financing schemes including contributions from and zoning trade-offs with private developers, NJ State Green Acres funds, and other government grants. It is source of controversy with various civic groups and the city government. Among the proposed projects, the only one to that has yet materialized is at Maxwell Place, whose developer is obligated to build a public promenade on the river. Others include:

• Hoboken Island, a 9/11 memorial connected by bridge to Pier A. Hoboken, New Jersey lost 39 of its citizens, making its September 11 death toll the highest in the state of New Jersey and the second highest in the entire United States (after New York City).
• Pier C, which no longer exists, to be-rebuilt and include sand volleyball court and fishing pier
• Stevens Tech Ice Skating Rink: temporary rink at the eastern end of 5th street to become permanent
• 1600 Park Avenue, 2.4 acre (10,000 m²) park with two handball courts, two basketball courts, and two tennis courts
• Hoboken Cove, a 5-acre (20,000 m²) park along Park Ave at the waterfront
• 16th Street Pier, 0.75 acres (3,000 m²) extending into Weehawken Cove, with playground and overlook terrace
• Green Belt Walkway, also known as the Green Circuit, on city's western perimeter north of the projects, including rooftop tennis courts and swimming complex.
• Upper West Side Park, in the northwestern corner of the city adjacent to the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail tracks north of the 14th Street Viaduct, a 4.2 acre (17,000 m²) park with athletic fields

Media

Hoboken is located within the New York media market, most of it daily papers available for sale or delivery. Local, county, and regional news is covered by the daily Jersey Journal. The Hoboken Reporter is part of the Hudson Reporter group of local weeklies. Other weeklies, the River View Observer and El Especialito also cover local news. The campus newspaper at Stevens Institute of Technology, The Stute, has also covered Hoboken news.

The production company for the 2009 film Assassination of a High School President is based in Hoboken.

Notable media appearances

In film and theater

• In the 2000 film Dude, Where's My Car?, the Nordic keepers of the Continuum Transfunctioner attempt to banish the group of evil alien women to Hoboken.
• In Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle, the fictional characters Harold and Kumar reside in Hoboken and shots of the city, including Washington Street, can be seen in the opening credits.
• The Looney Tunes short "8 Ball Bunny", starring Bugs Bunny, features a baby penguin that Bugs brings to Antarctica, only to have the penguin show him that he was supposed to go to Hoboken instead. In another short, "Merlin the Magic Mouse", Merlin announces that he and Second Banana will open their act in Hoboken.
• The musical comedies Nunsense and Nunsense 2 feature the Little Sisters of Hoboken, a fictional religious group.
• The rapper Lyrics Born refers to Hoboken in his song "Hot Bizness" by saying "I'm the toast of both coasts from Oakland to Hoboken."

On television

• Hoboken is home to Carlo's Bakery, which is featured in the TLC reality show, Cake Boss. The popularity of the show has resulted in increased business for Carlo's Bake Shop, and increased tourism to the Hoboken area, resulting in both positive and negative reaction from local residents and businesses.
• The Twilight Zone episode "The Mighty Casey" features a robot named Casey pitching for a team called the Hoboken Zephyrs.
• Hoboken was the backdrop of "The Mad Real World," a parody of MTV's The Real World, a skit on the sketch comedy show, Chappelle's Show.
• The short-lived 1995 ABC sitcom Hudson Street, starring Tony Danza and Lori Loughlin, was set in Hoboken. Danza played a former Hoboken detective, and Loughlin played a crime reporter for the fictional newspaper The Hoboken Gazette.

In music

• Hoboken Saturday Night is the name of the 1970s album produced by The Insect Trust, a band based in the city at the time.
• Hoboken is mentioned in The Vandals' song "I've Got an Ape Drape". The lyrics include the line, "You can go Hoboken and get one too. Then you'll have a mullet like I do."
• The Tori Amos track "Father Lucifer" contains the lyric, "...and girl I've got a condo in Hoboken."
• The now-defunct band, Operation Ivy, whose members went on to form Rancid, penned and recorded the song "Hoboken" about the town.
• Scottish band Franz Ferdinand named a remake of their song "Jacqueline" as "Better in Hoboken".
• Springsteen's "Glory Days" video was shot in Maxwell's in Hoboken.

In video games

• A post-apocalyptic Hoboken is the setting of the computer role-playing-game The Superhero League of Hoboken, by Legend Entertainment.
• In the PC version of the video gameMadden NFL 2002, The Hoboken Sugar Buzz are a secret team.
• Hoboken is the name of the working class neighborhood in the PC game, Mafia, which is set in the 1930s.

Miscellaneous

• Hoboken is home to the Macy's Parade Studio, which houses many of the floats for the famous Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

See also

• Bergen, New Netherland
• Gateway Region
• Gold Coast, New Jersey
• Landmarks of Hoboken, New Jersey
• National Register of Historic Places listings in Hudson County, New Jersey
• Hoboken Reporter
• Hoboken Parks Initiative
• Hudson River Waterfront Walkway
• Hoboken Terminal
• Pavonia, New Netherland
• Hoboken Pier Fire, A large and extremely destructive fire that occurred on June 30, 1900.
• Stevens Institute of Technology

External links

• City of Hoboken
• NJ.com Hoboken Now The insider's guide to Hoboken news, real estate and nightlife.
• Hobokeni.com Online guide to the mile square since 1995.
• HobokenReporter.com Online version of city's main newspaper.
• Template:Wikitravel
• Hoboken Public Schools
• School Performance Reports for the Hoboken Public Schools, New Jersey Department of Education
• Data for the Hoboken Public Schools, National Center for Education Statistics
• USGS satellite image of Hoboken
• Kannekt - an unofficial guide to Hoboken.
• Hoboken Bar Network - Complete Bar Guide for Hoboken, NJ.
• Hoboken Menus - Download Menus from the local Hoboken Restaurants.
• Historic photos of Hoboken and Hamburg America Line ports