City of Hoboken selected to join Love your Block initiative

Mayor Emily B. Jabbour today announced that the City of Hoboken has been selected to join Love Your Block, an initiative led by the Bloomberg Center for Public Innovation at Johns Hopkins University, to launch resident-led projects that improve cities.

As one of only 25 new local governments from 20 U.S. states to join the latest edition of the program, the City of Hoboken will receive $70,000 to engage residents in efforts that reclaim public space, and better their communities, as well as expert support from the Bloomberg Center for Public Innovation and a dedicated Love Your Block Fellow to support their work.

"Love Your Block is about putting residents at the center of the work to make our neighborhoods stronger, cleaner, and more connected," said Mayor Jabbour. "In Hoboken, we know that some of the best ideas for improving our community come directly from the people who live here, and this program will give residents the resources and support to turn those ideas into action. We're grateful to the Bloomberg Center for Public Innovation at Johns Hopkins for investing in Hoboken and for giving our residents another opportunity to lead, build community, and make a lasting difference in the places they call home."

The new 25 Love Your Block city halls include Albuquerque, NM; Aurora, IL; Birmingham, AL; Chattanooga, TN; Columbia, SC; Deerfield Beach, FL; Dubuque, IA; Eugene, OR; Everett, WA; Frederick, MD; Greensboro, NC; Harlingen, TX; Hoboken, NJ; Honolulu, HI; Jersey City, NJ; La Crosse, WI; Lancaster, PA; Lansing, MI; Macon, GA; Mobile, AL; Newark, NJ; South Fulton, GA; Tulsa, OK; Wilmington, DE; and Winston-Salem, NC.

They join a broader national program that, since its founding in 2009, has helped 50 local governments engage more than 88,000 residents across 33 states to remove more than 7 million pounds of trash, clean over 550,000 square feet of graffiti, create nearly 800 art displays, and transform the area's residents rely on most. These results have also been shown to build ties between city halls and their citizens: a 2021 study by the Urban Institute found that participating Love Your Block municipalities improved social cohesion among residents, increased civic participation, and strengthened relationships between local government and the people it serves.

The City of Hoboken's proposed Love Your Block area will focus on the Hoboken Housing Authority campus and surrounding southwest Hoboken neighborhood, empowering residents to identify and lead projects that improve neighborhood quality of life. Through up to $70,000 in implementation funding for resident-led projects and mini-grants, volunteer activities, beautification and placemaking projects, and community partnerships, the initiative will support improvements to public spaces while strengthening civic participation, neighborhood pride, and connections among residents and local government.

"Residents often have the clearest view of what their neighborhoods need-and Love Your Block helps mayors and municipalities bring them into the work-and see those ideas through," Francisca M. Rojas, Ph.D., Executive Director of the Bloomberg Center for Public Innovation at Johns Hopkins. "That translates to tangible improvements communities want-and that they lead-with their city hall's support, and shows what happens when local government invites the public in to solve problems and deliver, together."

For more information on Bloomberg's program, visit https://publicinnovation.jhu.edu/programs/love-your-block/.

The City will announce Hoboken's program details in the coming weeks.