Hoboken - Still overrun by frat boys? (Ridgewood, Washington: 2009, home)

[cloud9shopper]

My husband and I are considering Hoboken as a potential new neighborhood to move to. I currently work in the city and find the commute via the Path train very easy. We walked through the town this past Saturday afternoon and found the area very charming and neighbor-hoody (albeit a bit homogeneous).

From reading all of the posts here I noted that many complain about the weekends turning into Hoboken's version of "Animal House". Some of these posts appear to be older (2006ish) or written by people who just gave a general "yuck" to the scene based on their opinions from awhile ago.

Can anyone give me a current, as-of-August-2009 assessment on Hoboken's environment regarding what I can expect on weekday/weekend evenings?

Thank you very much in advance!

[LynnePatrice]

Well it's not just the weekends that you will find the whole frat boy scene going on, it's pretty much every day.

The area is very homogenic to say the least. If you want to get a good indicator of who lives in Hoboken, ride the path train to/from there a few times.

There is a larger percentage now of older yuppies with children there so there is quite a large "young parent" scene happening if you are interested in that at all. Take a stroll on the water front, see who is hanging around the park.

Many of the restaurants are very kid friendly and there are still a few dive bar type places if you want to escape the frat boy scene.

I'm sure if you visited various places over a period of time you would be able to find restaurants, etc., that suited your particular tastes. There are so many of them to choose from.

If you are looking for diversity of some sort, this is not the place for you. I personally would never live there but understand why some like it. It is very pretty, full of shops, etc. Parking is a total nightmare though.

[scottiemobes]

I lived in Hoboken for a year then moved out when the economy fell off the cliff. Hoboken is a truly mixed-bag. Yes, there are A LOT of younger people (Typically right out of college) on the weekends, especially at night.

Obviously, any major event (St. Patty's parade) will draw a HUGE crowd and with it a lot of drunk debauchery. That being said, I think Monday-Friday, you'd be fine but your weekends would be a real crapshoot.

In my opinion, its terrible for kids. Every day is a "stroller derby". There are many stay at home parents in Hoboken whether they be moms or dads. Depending where you are, there is some degree of arrogance and pompousness. Personally, I don't find the people in Hoboken to be "real" It's heavy image driven due to its proximity to New York. The parking situation is terrible and only getting worse.

I'm sick of it at age 25 only because I found it overpriced, overrated, arrogant. Hope this helps.

[luckyshoes]

Yeah, I'd say it's still the same. And as far as the stroller derby, most people leave if they have kids by the time the kids need to start school. I still think it's a very nice place to live though. I have some friends who are choosing to remain "child-free" and they love it there and they are in their late 30s.

[somebodymiami]

hoboken should lower their prices and taxes. also they should build a parking garage thats about$ 5-$10 for a monthly spot naw mean.

[Mightyqueen801]

The area is very homogenic to say the least. If you want to get a good indicator of who lives in Hoboken, ride the path train to/from there a few times.

I don't think that's particularly accurate advice, since most of us who ride the PATH train to Hoboken Terminal aren't living in Hoboken but catching trains to elsewhere in Jersey or upstate NY.

[scottiemobes]

I would say wait outside the PATH terminal would be a better bet. Those people aren't boarding trains.

[elflord1973]

Originally Posted by cloud9shopper

My husband and I are considering Hoboken as a potential new neighborhood to move to. I currently work in the city and find the commute via the Path train very easy. We walked through the town this past Saturday afternoon and found the area very charming and neighbor-hoody (albeit a bit homogeneous).

From reading all of the posts here I noted that many complain about the weekends turning into Hoboken's version of "Animal House". Some of these posts appear to be older (2006ish) or written by people who just gave a general "yuck" to the scene based on their opinions from awhile ago.

Can anyone give me a current, as-of-August-2009 assessment on Hoboken's environment regarding what I can expect on weekday/weekend evenings?

Thank you very much in advance!

Try going there on Fri/Sat night. There is definitely a "scene" there, and it really does have a spoiled frat boy vibe (I was there this year).

The baby strollers are coming in, but in terms of night life, it's really a 20-something bar scene.

Downtown JC is more of a 30-something scene (I went to Zeppelin hall, a new beer garden in downtown JC, and there were people there with baby strollers!)

[cloud9shopper]

Originally Posted by Mightyqueen801

The area is very homogenic to say the least. If you want to get a good indicator of who lives in Hoboken, ride the path train to/from there a few times.

I don't think that's particularly accurate advice, since most of us who ride the PATH train to Hoboken Terminal aren't living in Hoboken but catching trains to elsewhere in Jersey or upstate NY.

I actually take the Path train on a daily basis since I commute from the Ridgewood area. Right now my commute is roughly 1.15 to 1.30 hours long depending on the train I catch.

I really appreciate everyone's opinion. The appeal to Hoboken for us is that we can walk everywhere. The con is that we'll have to park our car at a garage and I'm guessing that'll be another $150 - $200 on top of the rent. While I do enjoy the hustle and bustle of the city, the idea of getting away in the evenings to another place sounds really relaxing to me. What doesn't sound great, though, is the fact that I wouldn't like going out on a Friday/Saturday night with my husband to Washington and worry about rowdy crowds. It's not that we're much older than the frat crowd (we're in our late 20's, early 30's) but we've developed a much more mature sense of what is considered a nice night out, haven experienced Miami for the past 7 years or so.

And even then we stayed far, far, far away from South Beach during the major holidays when frat boy tourists would come in and flood the scene.

[BergenCountyJohnny]

Originally Posted by cloud9shopper

My husband and I are considering Hoboken as a potential new neighborhood to move to. I currently work in the city and find the commute via the Path train very easy. We walked through the town this past Saturday afternoon and found the area very charming and neighbor-hoody (albeit a bit homogeneous).

From reading all of the posts here I noted that many complain about the weekends turning into Hoboken's version of "Animal House". Some of these posts appear to be older (2006ish) or written by people who just gave a general "yuck" to the scene based on their opinions from awhile ago.

Can anyone give me a current, as-of-August-2009 assessment on Hoboken's environment regarding what I can expect on weekday/weekend evenings?

Thank you very much in advance!

The report for any given night in Hoboken is for heavy frat-boy, with a good chance of hipster, tapering off into yuppy. But the Italian food in that city still can't be beat.