COUNCILMAN PHIL COHEN ENDORSES TEAM BHALLA FOR MAYOR, COUNCIL

Today, Hoboken Fifth Ward City Councilman Phil Cohen announced his endorsement for Ravi Bhalla for Mayor, and the Team Bhalla slate of Jim Doyle, Emily Jabbour and Joe Quintero for City Council.

“I’m proud to enthusiastically endorse Ravi Bhalla for Mayor, and Jim Doyle, Emily Jabbour and Joe Quintero for City Council,” said Councilman Cohen. “Council members Jabbour and Doyle have a proven track record of working with Mayor Bhalla on some of Hoboken’s most consequential issues, including defending our waterfront from a refueling station and large-scale development, and keeping our residents safe during the pandemic. And I know Joe Quintero has the smarts, work ethic, and tenacity to make an excellent addition to the City Council. I encourage all residents to cast their vote for Team Bhalla on Tuesday, November 2.”

Councilman Cohen released a full statement, which can be read in full below:

“Over the past two years, it has been an honor to represent you on the Hoboken City Council, and work with Mayor Ravi Bhalla to make Hoboken an even better place to live. I’m proud to announce that I’m enthusiastically endorsing Mayor Bhalla and his City Council team of Jim Doyle, Emily Jabbour, and Joe Quintero.

On the City Council, I’ve seen firsthand how Emily and Jim have worked with Mayor Bhalla on some of the most critical issues facing our City. When we were fighting for Union Dry Dock, Jim and Emily were right there – front and center – speaking out and supporting the Mayor’s acquisition of the waterfront property. When the Monarch project came before the City Council, Jim and Emily were the ones casting critical votes paving the way for the City to prevent two residential towers on our uptown waterfront. And thanks to Jim and Emily, we’ve been able to move forward with several improvements in pedestrian safety through Vision Zero, make progress on our Northwest Resiliency Park, replace thousands of linear feet of our aging water mains, and much more.

And, throughout this pandemic, Jim and Emily’s continued support of Mayor Bhalla helped elevate Hoboken as a national leader on everything from an early shut-down, testing and vaccinations, delivering meals to homebound residents, and more. Jim and Emily were there packing dinners, providing information on testing, handing out flyers on vaccines, and serving as trusted advisors to the Mayor during an extraordinarily difficult time.

Over the past few years, I’ve also seen another committed public servant in Joe Quintero. I first got to know Joe Quintero, his wife Kim and daughter Kara when Joe was elected as an Executive member of the Democratic Committee. I know he’s got the smarts, work ethic, and tenacity to make an excellent addition to the City Council. Already, Joe has put out well-researched policy positions on flooding, transportation, and open space issues – with more to come. He’s 100% committed to moving forward with a park at Union Dry Dock, adding parks with underground flood infrastructure at the Southwest Park and at 800 Monroe, installing protected bike lanes, bringing an on-demand ridesharing program like Jersey City has with Via to Hoboken, and more – all projects I’m excited to work with him on.

Above all, working with Ravi, Jim, Emily and Joe, side-by-side through a pandemic, extraordinary challenges and pressure, I know they are in it for the right reasons – to improve the quality of life for our residents. I hope you’ll join me in supporting Team Bhalla on Election Day in November.”