Defining the key to Hoboken’s success as a thriving urban community

Hoboken has been called the “miracle mile-square city” for its many positive urban attributes. Hoboken is eminently walkable. The turn-of-the-century architecture has been remarkably well-preserved within a clearly defined street grid. The town is densely populated with over 50,000 people yet has maintained its human scale. Washington Street, also known as “the Avenue,” is a thriving mile-long commercial center filled with people throughout the day who enjoy the countless small-scale shops, restaurants and bars, many of which are home-grown. Hoboken is also a transit hub with 56% of its working population (ranking highest among the nation’s cities) taking public transportation to work via ferry, train, light rail or bus.

Hoboken has been defined primarily by its Hudson River waterfront,with some of the best views of the New York City skyline. Its western border sits at the base of the Palisades Cliffs. The south end of town is clearly defined by the train tracks leading to the historic Hoboken Train Terminal. To the north sits the Weehawken Cove and Lincoln Tunnel.

Hoboken, once a gritty waterfront city, with longshoremen, merchant marines and ship builders, is now a mecca for young people and young families who prefer the lively urban environment rather than the suburbs as well as the easy access to New York City. Yet Hoboken’s revival and success seems to have occurred in spite of its local government and was actually grounded in the planning and development that occurred more than a century earlier.

Col. John Stevens, known as the father of Hoboken, owned 564 acres most of which became the town as it is known today. More than 200 years ago, Col. Stevens hired surveyor Charles Loss to create a plan referred to as the Loss Map of 1804. The Loss Map delineated Hoboken’s streets and the blocks and lots for private development. It also designated the town’s first public parks. For the most part, the Stevens’ plan for Hoboken with its well-defined blocks and lots remained intact, preserved largely through benign neglect. Some of the 1950s and 1960s developments, such as Church Towers and Marine View Towers, introduced the failed “tower-in-the-park” concept. But for the most part, the plan first laid out by the Loss Map of 1804 was left in place.

A hundred years ago, during the turn-of-the-century, Hoboken experienced a building boom. This development created the brownstones and the 3 to 5-story walkups that still exist today and give the town its character and charm. By the 1970s, these rows of buildings hugging the front lot lines were snatched up by urban homesteaders who began renovating the old structures. Private developers followed restoring the apartment buildings, including many units converted to affordable housing through the federal government’s Section 8 housing program. By the 1990s, developers began building new structures. Most of these were built as infill housing within the existing lots lines and within existing blocks, thus maintaining the original scale and character of the town.

Although largely lost on today’s elected officials, a plan begins by mapping the streets. Hoboken mostly has narrow one-way streets, all mapped long before the automobile was invented. But today these streets work. The many streets rather than few, allow various alternate routes for traffic flow. The narrow streets with parking on both sides also serve to slow down cars, thus making the town more pedestrian-friendly.