Twelve to Twenty: An Age Group Overlooked by Hoboken

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Hoboken is a great town for those who are twenty-one or older. There are also numerous playgrounds and activities for younger children. However, for tweens and teens, outside-of-school recreation options are limited.

Growing up in the suburbs, I played pickup games of basketball, football or baseball nearly every day after school: my friends and I weren’t confined to playing in a small section of a city park, where older Hoboken children are often chased away for an activity as harmful as tossing a football. On bad weather days, a parent would drop me and my friends off at the mall- then considered a safe option. We spent very little but were usually well behaved. Large, finished basements were perfect for gathering and playing board games like Risk (then a favorite of mine). Our town offered several movie theaters, a couple bowling alleys, pool halls, arcades, batting cages and more. Indoors or out, there were many great recreation options suitable for middle school and high school-aged children. We could be kids and didn’t need to worry about being chased away.

Hoboken will never have everything I had growing up, but in many ways it has more. There are more restaurants within a few blocks of me than existed in my whole hometown. We have a theater and art. Nightlife is plentiful. Coffee shops are numerous. I can walk to three different supermarkets. The things Hoboken is missing disproportionately affect one particularly overlooked age group.

This issue is so pervasive that two different questionnaires and one of the two debates asked city council candidates about recreation options. This is already an important issue to me and one where I have a lot of experience. I have made recreation in Hoboken my business and opened Play! Hoboken in order to provide indoor golf, billiards, games and more. While Play! Hoboken is a for profit business, my facility is affordable and I have worked with Hoboken schools, youth groups and the City itself to offer special discounted programming with and group rates. Working with local businesses not only supports local business, but it also represents an enormous cost savings opportunity for the city. If Hoboken or the School System did exactly what I’ve done with my facility the cost to taxpayers would be more and the facility less accessible to the general public. Hoboken already has businesses able to offer theater, dance, rock climbing, art and other activities, and more public private partnerships between the city and the businesses we already love would be a win for everybody.

The city needs to create more spaces for teens and tweens the same way it provides playgrounds for younger kids. Allowing the movie theater to change its use, especially after the developer was given special incentives by the city to be built as a movie theater, is shameful and the opposite of what Hoboken needs. You might not know it, but Hoboken already has another recreation building that is mostly unused, the YMCA building at the corner of Washington and thirteenth streets. The city needs to prioritize refurbishing and reopening this building that has been sitting barely utilized for 10+ years. The pandemic has shown us more than ever the importance of parks and open air recreation opportunities. All of Hoboken’s new parks should include spaces designed specifically for teens and tweens.

As a city councilperson, I intend to prioritize increasing indoor and outdoor recreation opportunities in Hoboken, especially for tweens and teens. I have great ideas and my skills in business and specifically starting and running businesses in Hoboken would allow me to positively impact the operation of our city and its governance. Election Day is November 2nd, but early voting has already started. Head down to City Hall now to cast your vote. My name is Ian Rintel and my city council ballot position is 3H. I’m also planning to vote for Cindy Wiegand (13H) and Manny Rivera (1H). I believe the three of us are the best choices to represent and serve the residents of Hoboken.

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