November 4, 2025 is election day. Hoboken voters will go to the polls to elect a new governor, mayor, at-large city council candidates, and members of the board of education. This voter guide focuses only on the candidates running for mayor. If no candidate wins more than 50% of the vote on November 4, then a run-off election will be held in December.
Better Blocks sent each candidate a questionnaire asking about their positions on housing, transit, street safety, and public parks. We have provided a brief overview on their answers, what we liked, what we didn’t like, and a link so you can read their full response to our questionnaire.
We have no endorsement for the November 4, 2025 election in Hoboken. We would, however, prefer to see Councilwoman Emily Jabbour and Councilman Ruben Ramos as the two candidates a December run-off race (if nobody wins more than 50% of the vote). Read why below.
Our Voter Guide to the Hoboken Mayor’s Race
Candidates are listed in alphabetical order by last name and the order is in no way indicative of our level of support.
Dini Ajmani has the most reductionist views of housing policy and the various tools available to Hoboken to finance affordable housing. Her opposition to much needed affordable housing on sites like Garage B is troubling. Even more worrisome is her opposition to Vision Zero improvements like day-lighting intersections.
The one interesting aspect to her candidacy that might be worth exploring more was her proposal to put a bus rapid transit line down Washington. She also showed strong support for better bus transit infrastructure overall.
We reached out to Councilwoman Tiffanie Fisher multiple times to her campaign, council office email, and (yes) on Twitter so we know she got our survey.
Unfortunately, she chose not to respond. Given her general opposition to housing developments like Garage B and needed zoning reforms, Fisher would not be our choice for mayor on those issues alone. Her choice of at-large slate also gives us pause as candidates like David Mello do not seem to grasp the basics of the role of Hoboken’s council in shaping housing policy.
Councilwoman Emily Jabbour had the best answers on Vision Zero, parking reform, and adding protected bike infrastructure.
We also appreciated her focus on redeveloping municipal land for other uses, especially Garage B. Her plans to expand Hoboken’s IZO from 10% to 15% gives us pause as affordable housing mandates often have the opposite effect of providing less affordability and less housing overall. In downtown Jersey City and in Boston, raising mandates over 10% has actually had the counterproductive effect of decreasing even Income-restricted affordable housing production. Her candidacy would be stronger if she focused on the judicious use of incentives rather than the heavy hand of mandates to build affordable housing.
Due to her strong support for Vision Zero and safer streets, we hope to see Jabbour in a December run-off.
Councilman Ruben Ramos is our other choice for the Hoboken run-off election in December.
Of the candidates, Ramos has the least bad approach to housing. He is supportive of plans to redevelop Garage B into mixed-income housing and Ramos, crucially, would not increase mandates that stifle housing production.
Where Ramos loses our support is on his approach to safe streets. While he says he is supportive of Vision Zero goals and transit-oriented development, he opposes key improvements like parking pricing reform and adding protected bike lanes on Hoboken’s busiest streets that would likely do more to alleviate some of the issues he is concerned about regarding Hoboken’s roads.
Councilman Dr. Michael Russo is a strong supporter of income-restricted housing and is willing to enter into PILOT agreements to get those projects built. He takes credit for the Garage B plan being 100% affordable and workforce housing. Like Councilwoman Jabbour, Russo supports increasing the mandatory IZO, which we worry will slow housing production unless fully funded.
The other aspect of Councilman Russo’s vision for Hoboken is his focus on increasing the amount of parking, which induces the demand to drive in an already notoriously congested city. This invites more traffic conflicts that undermine the goals of Vision Zero.
Our recommendation is to vote for Emily Jabbour or Ruben Ramos on November 4, 2025! We also hope that Jabbour or Ramos moderate their plans if they were to make it to the December run-off election.
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