By Rev. Alexander M. Santora

The night before the Lime Scooter program ended in Hoboken. I was driving up Clinton Street. After a Stop Sign at First Street, it is clear sailing up to Sixth Street. But at Second, a man as thin as a rail on a scooter sailed through the Stop Sign as I was approaching the intersection. I stopped and cursed him out in my head. I avoided another potential disaster over the six-month trial period. Whoever was responsible for rolling out that city program should be tarred and feathered.

Traffic in Hoboken is always a mess; the Scooter program multiplied it to the umpteenth degree. It was unsafe for drivers, cyclists and pedestrians. Many people thought Hoboken was like Great Adventure, which might be where people should ride scooters – in the northwest side of the city where a huge park exists. Let them torment each other. For them, it was a game.

Earlier this month, 25 percent of Hoboken’s registered voters went to the polls to elect the six ward City Council members. Five incumbents won and one open seat went to Mayor Ravi Bhalla’s candidate; his other candidates lost. Not a good sign for a minority mayor since there were no runoffs when he won. Dawn Zimmer was also a minority mayor though with greater vote totals. The Zimmer-Bhalla axis exposed itself when she made two rare public appearances at park ribbon cuttings in the campaign season. And she penned and mailed a failed letter supporting Jen Giattino’s opponent.

Zimmer ruined Hoboken by engineering traffic jams all over town and hiring Parking Utility heads who should have been called Driving Depression Directors. This latest vote showed that voters have had enough. They want their quality of life back and this has nothing to do with the eponymous group that oddly advocates the opposite on many hot button issues. The Lime and Blue scooters should be scrapped permanently. Enough said.

Washington Street avoided protected bicycle lanes because of the business community lobbying, yet the premier street in town is still a mess. Look at all the empty storefronts. People are opposed to protected lanes on north-south streets: Clinton, Grand, Adams, Jefferson and Monroe. How about painting all the bike lanes so the drivers and double parkers know that they exist primarily for cyclists. I ride a bike mostly for exercise and worry that out-of-town drivers cutting through town to either tunnel forget that they share the road with cyclists since the paint has faded.

Next door, Fulop is hell bent on ruining Jersey City’s main roadways with protected bike lanes and it is already a mess during pre, post and actual rush hours. When will these out-of-touch mayors realize that much of Hudson County is a business and commerce powerhouse where trucking, buses and cars will always dominate. People voted driver-friendly towns.

Which leads to parking. Instead of pop-up parks, build another permanent parking garage. It could be located in the northwest part of the city, bring in lots of revenue, and make parking easier in town. Hoboken does not need another park; there are plenty of them. Now that Hoboken is copying Jersey City’s neat building murals, how about painting a park scene on its high wall exteriors.

Hoboken residents voted common sense policies so they can enjoy life in the Mile Square City. It would be wise for people in power to listen to the people, whose voting holds politicians accountable and can send some scooting out of town.

The Rev. Alexander M. Santora is pastor of Our lady of Grace Church in Hoboken and is a faith columnist for The Jersey Journal.

Submit letters to the editor and guest columns at jjletters@jjournal.com