Top Parenting Hacks Hoboken City Council Needs Right Now

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By: Cindy Wiegand for Hoboken City Council LLC

Cindy Wiegand fills many roles in her daily life, and one of them is as a mom to three young children. Below are some of the parenting skills she will use to move things forward for Hoboken on City Council.

1) Fixing things that are broken. My three daughters have asked me to glue cracked art projects back together, mend clothing, and bandage boo-boos. These at-home constituents will not take “it can’t be done” as an answer, so creative problem solving is a must. Parking, flooding, cost of living, you name it—I’ve got your back, Hoboken!

2) Managing budgets and setting limits. My kids want everything. In a catalog that recently came to our home, they took me through the items they wanted me to buy them. Guess what, it was everything. They can’t have everything. Just like with Hoboken, it would be great to spend on everything, but we must be guardians of taxpayers’ money and prioritize critical needs.

3) Digging into details. My daughters call it nosiness; I call it curiosity—I like to ask questions to be on top of what’s going on. Budgets and city business are complex. We need representatives who will pay attention to the smallest detail to get the best outcome for Hoboken and minimize expensive surprises (I am looking at you Northwest Redevelopment).

4) Putting the needs of others first. When my youngest daughter is struggling to reach the monkey bars, my oldest will step away from her activity to give her a lift. We need people on City Council who understand it is not about what the Council wants or what a particular elected official’s aspiration for higher office is; it is about what is best for Hoboken and the city’s constituents.

5) Mediating conflict. Yelling, teasing, hair pulling—I am ready for anything a City Council meeting throws my way. And, Hoboken, rest assured, I give epic time outs.

6) Appreciating our beautiful surroundings. I teach my kids to keep their surroundings clean and play outside. These activities teach them to appreciate the beauty around them. Likewise, I am passionate about keeping garbage off our streets and sidewalks, advocating for pedestrian safety, and expanding our recreation programs—including building an urban farming program, as well as a waterfront public pool on the Union Dry Dock site.

7) Practicing behavioral modeling. My kids can spot if I act in a way that I tell them not to act themselves (as much as I would like to eat a bunch of cookies for breakfast, they would be all over that). With my kids, so with our government. If residents are supposed to shovel snow on their property in a timely manner, the government should too.

8) Knowing when to step in and when to get out of the way. It is a fine art knowing when to let my kids learn, and possibly fail, and when to step in and give them a boost. To maximize the quality of life and ease of doing business here for both residents and small business owners, we need people in government who excel at the skill of identifying and balancing which issues require local government support and which require officials to get out of the way.

9) Multi-tasking. Dinner-prep time is my kids’ favorite opportunity to ask for something they need from me “right now.” There are numerous issues on our city docket at any given moment. We require leaders who are experts at both balancing priorities and making room on their plate for new urgent ones.

10) Valuing impromptu public dance parties and fearlessness. I am not afraid to dance at a festival on Washington Street as my favorite pop song comes on. I similarly teach my kids to let loose, even if people are watching. We need local leaders who will advocate for the Hoboken community and who are not afraid to put themselves out there, speaking boldly and with a smile.

To learn more about Cindy Wiegand visit her website cindyforhoboken.com or find her on Twitter and Instagram @cindy4hoboken

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