As a result, in the fall she and other residents formed a group called Stop Toxic Unnecessary Noise, or STUN.

Night life, to a large extent, is the reason this river city has flourished over the past two decades. Several bar owners criticized the new policy, saying they were pressured into agreeing to it under veiled threats of harsher measures like pushing up closing time from 3 a.m. to 1 a.m.

''It's hard for me to tell people, 'Don't come in here,' '' said Mr. Steriti. ''We work as hard as we do to make the people want to come here. They have to want to be here to come here. To send them away is scary. Six months from now they are not going to come back.''

Over the past 20 years, Hoboken has attracted increasing numbers of young professionals and families escaping Manhattan rents. A debate about overdevelopment became the centerpiece of the mayoral election last May, in which Mr. Roberts defeated the two-term incumbent, Anthony Russo.

It is a place where politics, friendships and businesses intertwine, sometimes uncomfortably. Mayor Roberts, whose family owns property and runs restaurants in town, said that his brother, Charles, has chided him for not supporting the industry that supported his family for decades. One of the bar owners outraged over the new lines policy, Dave Carney of the Madison Bar and Grill on Washington Street, Hoboken's main drag, pays $4,500 a month in rent to the mayor's brother, his landlord.

The new mayor said that he was approaching the bar issue with an open mind and that he was willing to hear suggestions. ''We're not racing in with our police department and we're not changing laws that are very aggressively hurting businesses,'' he said. ''But we're firm, we're holding our position.'' He said more police officers had been moved to the night shift to patrol the streets around the bars.

Some owners of more upscale restaurants and bars are pleased with the no-lines policy, which they hope will make Hoboken more attractive to a less rowdy crowd, which already makes up a good part of the social scene.