Interview 16: Jane Porges

Interview 16: Jane Porges

COVID-19, COVID-19 pandemic, Hoboken, New Jersey

An oral history with Jane Porges, member of the Hoboken Community Emergency Response Team, regarding Hoboken's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as her personal experiences with it.

Hoboken Public Library

Hoboken Public Library

Recorded August 4, 2022

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English

Oral history

Digital audio file

00:54:59

B: Okay, so today is August 4th, 2022. My name is Bernadette. I'm a librarian here at the Hoboken Public Library, and we're conducting our oral history project (unintelligible 00:00:10) today. So if you would like to state your name, if you're comfortable with your age, and any other background or relevant information that you feel that you want to have recorded for this interview.

JP: All right. So my name is Jane Porges. I have lived in Hoboken since 2004, so it's going on 20 years next year. I am 65 years old, so I became a senior in December. So this is my first year as a senior citizen. And I live kind of in the middle of Hoboken…quite near the library, so it's a great resource for me.

B: And you said that you've lived in Hoboken. You've lived here since 2004. Do you also work here in Hoboken?

JP: Well, since 2019 I've been retired, so not working in a salary capacity, but I'm involved in a lot of work.

B: Okay. So I'd like to take this sort of back in time, back to March, 2020 when the pandemic, everyone already knew that this was happening around the world. There were lock downs already being announced. So what do you remember from that day and moment when these things became public, (unintelligible 00:01:43) that we realized our lives were changing?

JP: Well, if you don't mind, I'll take us back a little bit further, because for me it was this shift into retirement in the middle of 2019. So in July of 2019 I was no longer going to the office, and thinking about what I wanted to be doing with my time. So I had some time to sort out financial things and step up some of my activities, art classes here at the library and other things. And I also went on vacation in January. I traveled to France and then to Jordan where I spent a week touring. And leading up to that, I was really pensive about traveling that area because there was some activity. There was the killing of the General in one of the – I don't remember what country it was. Syria or I don't know. And so I was really nervous about going, but the trip went off without any hitches, and people in Jordan were wonderful.

So came back, and then shortly after I began to become aware that there was something in Asia. And I started out in life as a biologist, so I pay attention to these things. And the fact that it kept being reported in media was really on my mind, and the seriousness of this virus was clear, and the fact that it was novel and had crossed from other species to humans was all on my mind. So I think through the month of February as I would hear reports, I became more and more concerned. And then coincidentally the Office of Constituent Services from the Mayor had put out a note towards the end of February saying, “If you're interested in having a meeting with the Office of Constituent Services (unintelligible 00:04:32) at the position at the time, let us know.” And I thought, wow. I'm really concerned about COVID. I think I'll write in.

So I wrote in, and I didn't realize that these were meetings with the mayor. They weren't with the Office of Constituent Services. This was a direct support to the Mayor's Office. So I think it was March 9th or thereabouts I decided to attend a meeting with the Mayor at the Grant School. It so happened that we met outside, because there were kids indoors, and they had originally planned to have it indoors. Because I was already in high alert by then. So they had people lined up sitting in chairs waiting to meet with the Mayor. And they were passing a clipboard and a pen, and I was keenly aware that, you know, if Coronavirus is already here, we were now passing it along. So I said to the man sitting next to me, “What are you here for?” I don't remember whether he said he liked or he disliked the slanted parking uptown on Washington Street, but that's what he was here to talk about. I'm thinking, okay. So I said, “I'm here about Coronavirus.” And it seemed like nobody was terribly concerned.

So anyway, I finally had my chance, and sat with the Mayor, and he was extremely attentive. He was looking me straight in the eye the entire time. And I was prepared not to drone on. And I made several points, but really a couple of clear ones. I said to him, “I'm really concerned about the Coronavirus, and I think that we need to be prepared. We need to begin to prepare for consistent and regular communications. And I want you to know that I'm a member of the Community Emergency Response Team. We've had extensive training in all kinds of incidents, so we're ready to help you. You need only contact us and we'll (unintelligible 00:07:10).” And he knows the contact, so I mentioned the name of our superior. And at the end of our interview, you know, we were sort of standing up and he said, “Well, if this happens,” and I sort of put my hand up without showing disrespect and I said, “Well, Mr. Mayor, I do not want to end on a sad note. I want you to know that it's not a matter of if,” I said, “It's coming. It is coming.” And that was pretty much the end of our discussion, at which point he was standing up, and his right arm involuntarily rose to shake my hand, and then he caught himself. And Caroline turns to me and says, “Do you know how many people shake his hand everyday?” And I said, “Well, that's going to change.” And so it was a funny moment.

So that was my awareness. And coincidentally, I think it was that day, but it may have been Tuesday, Governor Murphy declared a state of emergency. Like coincidental with those meetings. And our team was mobilized on Wednesday, and the next morning after my meeting, the first advisory came from the Mayor's Office. And of course I was on the distribution, and I thought, “Wow, did I have anything to do with this?” Who knows, right?

So I took it upon myself to write an e-mail of thanks to the Mayor and I said, “I don't know whether our discussion had any impact on these actions, but thank you in any case.” And that was the beginning.

B: What happened after that? Like you said that the Community Response Team was like quickly mobilized a few days later. (Crosstalk 00:09:30).

JP: Yeah. So by Thursday a small team – because it's really just four people. I had already advised our leader that I was having the meeting with the Mayor's Office and that I was very concerned about Coronavirus. And he said, “Just keep me informed.” He's a very low-key. He's partnered with Homeland Security, ex-police, and so he keeps his cool. And so by Thursday we were standing at the PATH train station downtown handing out fliers morning and evening to tell people, you know, “Heads up. This is coming, and here are things that you need to be aware of, and here's what you can do.” And so that was week one for me. I don't know the dates, but it was around March 9th.

And then in the next couple of weeks things quickly escalated as cases began to emerge here in the US. And I don't remember the actual date, but we set up an operations center as had been the case after Hurricane Sandy. And at that time I was not a member of that team, but I was aware of what they were doing. It's because of Hurricane Sandy that I took another step and got involved. I was part of another emergency response team before the Medical Reserve Corps, which is kind of a (unintelligible 00:11:15) federal team.

But anyway, so pretty soon, I can look up the dates, but we were installed in the conference room at City Hall on the ground level. And we took over the conference room. Phones were installed so that we could run a hotline and various work streams emerged from that. Well, we had the hotline, but there were services for seniors and directing food and helping to get medication to people who were home bound. And of course now we're talking about deep winter, so pretty soon the whole city was locked down, and we were the only people out on the streets. And I ran my little bicycle around Hoboken. It's just a great way to get around. Easy. So you could see me on a crisp March morning riding my bike in the snow over to City Hall, and it was eerie. There was no one on the streets, and a lot of fear.

And I would try to help people who I know to get calm about – you know, people were afraid to go to the supermarket. They were really freaked out about masks and gloves. I don't know if you remember, but in the beginning gloves were like a big deal. And the problem with gloves is that they really are not so important. What's more important is where you clean your hands. So the fact that people were wearing gloves was important because they were more conscious of what they were doing with their hands. So I used to tell people, I said, “Don't worry about the gloves. You need to (unintelligible 00:13:16) that you use to wash the dishes just so you remember where you put your hands (unintelligible 00:13:23).” And I (unintelligible 00:13:26) for people. I say, “Listen, I'm going out. I'm going to City Hall. If you want, I'll stop by ShopRite and pick something up for you.” The fear was serious.

So you know, this began my new career answering phones at the hotline, which served to both calm me, because we all have our fears about how long I've got to live, am I going to get sick, people are dying. It was pretty bad. But somehow being engaged in something and helping others gives you foundation to stay calm and you can be purposeful that way. So I think it was really helpful to me to be engaged in that, and I would say I was probably going to City Hall three to five times a week in the beginning. So luckily, we had people like me who were no longer required to be at work, and we had some other people who were creative with responsibilities, because they couldn't go to the office. And we dealt with a lot of stories, a lot of sad and dire stories, and we did what we could. I think we helped a lot of people.

B: Yeah. So it sounds like in the Community Response Team, you spent a lot of time answering hotline questions, people were asking for help, you would go out and do delivers, like redistribution or (unintelligible 00:15:06) for people.

JP: There was a team that actually got involved in building a temporary ward. So we are partnering with the Hoboken Police Department, and the Office of Homeland Security. So there's kind of a mixing of agencies, and we're a volunteer organization, but we have ties to the city and to the agencies that support the city, so it was a really nice partnership. And I also remember that early on the Mayor's connection to the Attorney General was really important. I think they went to school together. Because there were decisions being made across state and in city, and Hoboken had to coordinate its decisions with what was going on in Jersey City, what was going on in New York City, what was going on all around, because if a decision was made to close all the restaurants in New York City or Jersey City, yes, (unintelligible 00:16:18) people were going to come, right? And if there was bad behavior, we used to get in the beginning of the pandemic calls from workers in the restaurants saying, “I don't feel safe and nobody's doing anything about it.”

So it was interesting, because I learned about how the various agencies operate. We were not charged to solve these problems, but if it was a problem of (unintelligible 00:16:47), we would refer that to the police department, and they would do their best to follow up, because that's what they do. Try to keep everything running smoothly. It was a tough time.

B: Yeah. And I'm sure in the early days of the pandemic, it looked quite different as time progressed.

JP: Yeah.

B: So I have two questions for you. How long were you on the Community Response Team? And then during your time there, how did you see sort of the needs of the community change, even like the work that the Community Response Team was doing, how did that change overtime?

JP: Yeah, it changed a lot overtime. Because in the beginning it was really disseminating information and trying to help people to shelter in place. And refer them to medical care. I was surprised to find out how many people do not have MediCare. So they'd be like, “Well, I don't have a doctor.” And I'm thinking, “Well, how smart is that?” But okay.

So in the run up, it was a lot of information dissemination, and try to help people to understand what was being done by the city, and where to get access to resources, and get people connected to others who could help them with a problem.

Later on I think the vaccine was not released until mid-2020 – no, I'm sorry. January '21 was the first they released the vaccines. So we ran out the entire 2020 survey. And (unintelligible 00:18:35), if you can believe that. And we even have records of how many hours and everything. (Unintelligible 00:18:44). But in January the first vaccines were being offered to law enforcement and fire. And I remember getting an e-mail through our team offering to vaccinate us. And I cried. I was honored to be invited and thanked for my service. It was really a moment for me. So of course I signed up. And by then, I realized that there was just a small core of people. There were many people. I mean, I would say we had about 25 to 30 people all throughout, but they were more bits and starts. And then there was a core team of like ten or 12 people. So we were the ones who were afforded the vaccine at first, and I think I got the vaccine on January 4th or something. The first dose. Standing out in the freezing cold waiting to be taken in up on 14th Street.

So after the vaccine was rolled out, then our responsibilities changed a lot, because the city was partnering with medical facilities to administer the vaccine. And we were the front line taking the calls, passing the information for scheduling the vaccine.

So going back, throughout 2020, there was all this testing activity. And in order to keep going back to work, they had to be tested regularly. But employers weren't stepping up collectively, so we were getting sometimes people calling and saying, “Well, I have to be tested on this schedule, and we were only able to afford to test people every 14 days.” So it got pretty nasty sometimes. People just, you know, let loose on the phone. It was interesting, because I learned over those 14 months how to handle a lot of things that I thought it would have been great to have some of those skills during my career.

So throughout 2020, as testing peaked, we were all about testing, and that was a big responsibility. Then in January it shifted. January 2021 it shifted to the vaccine, and suddenly the public was now being afforded vaccines. I don't think it was until like late February or March though. It took time, because first the first responders were going to be vaccinated.

And then slowly, slowly the process for registering for the vaccine was automated. It was taken online. The state opened vaccine facilities – there was one in Kearney. And so we were able to scale back, and then finally it stopped. And so we were no longer taking the call volume. And the team had – you know, we lessened their hours. And eventually we kind of tapered it back. So I think in May of 2021 we shut down operations. So it was about 14 months.

B: Yeah. What are some things that occurred during your time on the Community Response Team that others outside of that may not realize? You mentioned (unintelligible 00:22:57) situations. Are there any particular unique experiences? I'm sure there's a lot in that time, but you want to share with us?

JP: Well, I guess what I think happened across the board was that the people had to become keenly aware that, you know, your life is precious, that you need to be thinking about your health. In the end, this is no one's fault, and blaming other people isn't going to help. Blaming groups of people, blaming country. You know, you've just got to get on with it, and live your life, and be smart. You know the old expression, youth is wasted on the young. So remember the stats. So there were these reports on the distribution of infections. And you know, in the beginning it was 20 to 30 year olds that were getting infected, because they were a little bit more adventurous and getting out. They didn't want to sit home as much as others. So I think people became more aware of how precious their health is and their life is.

I still saw more selfishness than I would have liked, but I think personally, what I really came to understand is the value of service. How important it is, and whether a person is working or in a capacity where they're earning money or not, that service to others has a lot of meaning, and whether or not you're being paid. What's important is to be engaged in your community. So that was really important to me.

As far as examples, I'm not going to tell you some of the worst behaviors, because I wouldn't feel comfortable. But there were some people that I wanted to say, “Will you please get over yourself? You're way out of bounds. You have no idea what you're talking about. And if you think that being nasty or yelling is going to help you, it's not going to help.” But there were occasionally people who would come and support us. There would be the restaurant who would send in lunch or whatever.

So there was this one sweet woman who used to come in, and she would mix up bottles of coquito I think it was called. It's like a coconut drink with rum or something. So delicious. And I forget what it was that we were doing for her, but I think we were helping her with her sister who was home bound. And so she'd show up with her bottles of coquito for the staff. So there were these moments.

And then in the beginning of course, some people got real busy with making masks. So I have an incredible collection of masks. I've never bought a mask. I've gotten a lot from my volunteering. No, I did buy some in (unintelligible 00:26:50). But you know, really interesting how generous. People would say, “Well, let's get on it. Let's do what's needed.”

And real early on there was a friend of mine, an acquaintance who had this grandiose idea that he was going to create this secret, wonderful source of masks to save the city of Hoboken. It was pretty fantastic. And so he's letting friends know that he had potentially a source of masks. And said, “Oh, that's great. I'll inquire.” So I inquired, and discovered that the city of Hoboken does not procure things directly. It goes through county and state channels. I think it was state channels. And I thought he was offering masks without asking for payment. So when I found out that he was selling them I said, “Oh, no thank you. The city of Hoboken won't handle procurement through normal channels.” So you know, there were just a lot of highs and lows. And I think that's the case in any kind of extreme circumstance. You see the best and the worst in people.

B: Absolutely. And you know, you were working directly on the front lines, being part of the Community Response Team. How did your view of yourself change? You know, there was like this big narrative about, “Oh, our front line is all about the volunteers and healthcare workers, essential workers, they're heroes.” Or did you see yourself more as like, “Oh, I'm just like a civil, or I'm a volunteer.”

JP: I would not go so far as to call us front line. We were definitely not front line. We were second line (unintelligible 00:28:55) to a funeral in New Orleans. That's a wonderful thing. But we were second line. We were volunteer support, and we were not being placed in harm's way, except for the fact that at one point one of us tested positive. So that was the first time I had to get tested. I was well really throughout. That is very fearful since I claim to be so aware of things, and a biologist as well.

Yeah, so my perception of myself. As I said, I felt more keenly this importance of being of service. And actually I should say that before the pandemic, actually just before the pandemic, I had been working on joining the Peace Corps. And if you read the history of the Peace Corps and you delve into some stories, it's a legacy of service to the world. And many of them have dedicated their lives to service. So it just brought my awareness forward even more. Now I'm in a better position to evaluate my choices, make good choices in retirement, because I understand that even in the absence of an exchange of service for money, there is still an exchange of money. And if in your retirement years you're no longer feeling the pressure to earn money, but you still want to be engaged, you want to be engaged in things that have meaning to you, and that for me means that I'm producing something of value, that I can see my effort paying off in some way, and that's super important to me.

And so if I had ambition, and I did, to do like three year engagement in the Peace Corps, after the pandemic I realized that I'm doing the Peace Corps work right here, and I feel more committed to the local community than ever before. The challenge is that when global events happen, the invasion of Ukraine, it sets in my mind this question of, okay, so what do I do about that? How do I make choices about where I'll put my money and my effort? And it's a balancing act. Everyday you get up and you say, “Why am I still here? What can I do that's going to make this day worthwhile for me?”

B: How was your family's lives impacted by the pandemic? So you shared a lot about your volunteer work. How was the effect at home when dealing with this crisis?

JP: Yeah. Well, my mom who was being cared for at the time had to be moved out of an assisted living. She was moved into private apartment to save her from the infection rates. And she survived. She did not die of COVID. She passed in April of 2021. But it meant isolation, you know. Only people caring for her could see her. I couldn't see her. So I never got to see her for that whole year leading up to her passing. So that was hard. I mean, we have telephones. Let's see, it's 2020, 2021, and here we are in 2022 with a long tail. You know, this isn't over, and here we are masked. To me it feels like this long stretch of time that was just kind of a blur, and because our lives were so disrupted, the things that we used to do that would have meaning, they weren't possible. And now we're in such an emerging from the horrible underground isolation and trying to figure out what has meaning. And it's still a work in progress.

B: Yeah. And what precautions did you take in your everyday life? Of course you have your doctorate as a biologist. You're doing all this volunteer work and seeing the city respond (unintelligible 00:34:44). So what kind of precautions did you take in your own personal life as you were living in the last two years?

JP: Well, you know, I heard there were a couple of instances that stuck in my mind. There was an instance where an acquaintance of mine blamed herself for her mother's death. And I think she was extreme about that. I think it was grief speaking. But what had happened was the family had kind of isolated and were very careful, because their mom was home bound, and they were all caring for her mom and dad. But unfortunately, I don't think they were testing regularly, and so somebody got infected, and they probably all needed to get tested at that point, and they ended up all being infected, and she died. Her mom died. And I thought to myself, you know, there's still some very simple things, even though the dissemination of information was confusing at best. So what I did was I just pulled back and connected with some people who I know who are at least as experienced as me or perhaps more just to kind of project out what's the trajectory of this thing.

So on a practical level I used to come home when I was out, and the first thing I had to remember, okay, first thing I'm going to do before anything, not even take my coat off, got to wash my hands thoroughly and sing Happy Birthday. And those kinds of things were really important. That and making sure to launder masks, and wear a fresh mask. You know, especially in the Center. We were keeping distance from each other, and really good about it. So like, you know, even if we handed something to another person, we would never really be in close contact. Those kinds of things. And as I said earlier, remembering where my hands are. That's probably the most important thing to do. Like, avoid touching your face at all costs. And even adjusting your mask as I'm doing right now, not a good idea, you know. But I was very aware of that, and I had been trained many, many years ago to do sterile culture under a hood. So when you do that actually each of your fingers has a specific function. Like your pinky is going to be used to open jars. And so your hands are doing this like ballet underneath the hood, and the hood is pulling air away from you and up into the filter. So I began to be more sensitive to that when I was in that profession, and just being hyper aware of where I was putting my hands. That was probably the most important in terms of habits.

B: Yeah. Are there any of those precautions that you see yourself still keeping in your everyday life now? Even compared to early on in the pandemic, and now we're still not quite in a post-pandemic world, but are there any that you have kept on?

JP: Not much. Admittedly not much. I mean, I am very thorough about washing my hands, especially when I get home. I enter the house and I'm pretty good about cleaning hands and making sure I'm not taking things into my home. And I usually wear a mask. I usually have a mask available, like I wear it around my neck. And then like three times during the whole pandemic where I was driving somewhere and one day I was getting my oil changed, I forgot the mask. And like I rigged up this sweater that was sitting in the car. It was ridiculous. But anyway. And then the guy (unintelligible 00:39:25). But not a whole lot.

One other thing that I did throughout the pandemic was I was swimming. And not a lot of people were able to go to the gym or go to a facility and swim. It was like this secret, wonderful – I'm not telling you anything about it. But I used to go into the Center and one of the other people there, I won't mention him by name, but he would jump at me and say, “(Unintelligible 00:40:02) get some more COVID over at the swimming pool?” And I'd be like, “Get out of here. (Unintelligible 00:40:07).” But you know, they were really careful, and I give them huge credit for keeping that place open. Summer and winter. It was fantastic. So between working and helping the city, or a good population, and getting to swim, it was a quiet time, but it wasn't like life was without activity.

B: Yes. And of course the pandemic disrupted local supply chains. Whether in your personal experience at home, or in your volunteer work with the CERT team, what was the impact there in terms of procuring supplies, whether it was PPE or other things?

JP: We were pretty okay. We did not require PPE like the front liners did. But it was kind of an amusing story. So you know, the toilet paper supply chain was disrupted, I had this friend. She's probably as into homemade stuff as I am. But she found a recipe to make toilet paper using newspaper. And it was on the net. I even looked it up, because I thought it was like so out there. And apparently she tried it. It did not work out. Yeah, she was getting low I guess. I mean, you can use cloth, and just wash the stuff.

And there was one other thing that I did, crazy thing. So I know that there were a lot of people who switched gears and started making stuff. And I started making these cute little washcloths. One side was terry and one side was like different (unintelligible 00:42:13) fabrics. (Unintelligible 00:42:15), because they were keeping me sane. And I gave them out to friends, and I'm now hoping to launch a revolution where we stop using celluloid sponges. We use recycled terry cloth instead. They work great.

B: Yeah. All kinds of new hobbies and things like that.

JP: It was a young woman who painted jar lids, so she was looking for donations, you know, next door. She would put something out. She wanted donations of glass jars with lids, and she did these beautiful mandala designs on jar lids.

B: That's incredible. Yeah. So in terms of your own experiences, did you feel like anything in your past, whether that's in your work life or personal life, that you feel prepared you for the challenges of this global pandemic?

JP: Certainly 9/11. I was downtown on 9/11, and experienced some of it firsthand. And I remember leaving the downtown area, which was pretty much a disaster area, and then reaching L Street, and it was almost like a filter. Like as soon as you crossed on L Street, the city started to look normal. Like people milling about and there were no debris. It was so bizarre. So I think that experience gave me some resilience to know that like we're all going to do our best here. We're all going do what we can to help ourselves, to help our neighbors, to do our work, even if it's a left turn from what we normally do. And eventually, some of us are going to be here to tell the story.

B: Yes. And earlier you mentioned that we're not quite back to normal. The pandemic is still here. So what effects of the pandemic do you still see regularly? And then how long do you think it will take until we’re finally past it?

JP: Well, because I'm not in a workplace, because I'm not required to go somewhere, for retired people I think it's a new way of engaging with others. And you still have to be careful. So that's a challenge. And I think that as I said earlier, it's going to be a really long trail going on here. We don't know how many variants are going to prevail. We don't know whether the federal government is going to be able to continue to vaccinate the population. That's a big concern. That should be a big concern for everyone. I mean, for those who are okay with vaccination.

There was a day. I don't know, it was an outdoor an event or – but there was a day last summer and I came here to Church Square Park, and I came to the library. I went to the library. It was (unintelligible 00:46:19). I came to the library, all the lights were out. No staff. Nobody was here. And I went to the grab-and-go shelf to get whatever I had come for. And there was another person milling that, she said, “Do you know where the staff is?” I said, “Nope. I don't know. I just wandered in here, but the library was supposed to be open.” So I was a little concerned. And so I said, “I don't know what's going on.” Are we getting close to the time?

B: Yeah.

JP: So anyway, long story short. The library had quickly closed because they had a problem (unintelligible 00:47:15). Something had happened. And Zach had been in the lease, and there was a note on the internet about, you know, the library's closed, but people were coming in and out. I'm like, “What's going on here?” Anyway, through my Emergency Response Team I got word, and so you know, somebody needs to support the library, because whoever was here didn't fix the problem and had left the front doors open.

Anyway, but I had a conversation with another woman who had wandered into the library. We're standing around and she – I said to her, “Would you just stay here while I ride over to City Hall? I just want to let them know.” Well, before that happened though, she turned to me and she started telling me about herself. Said, “Oh, I'm a practical nurse.” Well, eventually she told me that she's totally anti-vax. Doesn't believe in it, whatever. I'm thinking, wow. This is somebody in the medical profession who doesn't want to be vaccinated. Wow. So that was a real eye-opener for me. I just was in my own little bubble of I'm totally into the science. So that was a big deal. And that's going to be part of the long tale, because we still have people who have – you know, we have (unintelligible 00:48:52) and the pandemic, and we have the internet where everybody gets to say something. And even if you say something really innocuous, somebody's got something to say about it. Like somebody's going to say, “I can't believe she said that during the interview. Wow.” Done my best. But it was really eye-opening to meet another person who had (unintelligible 00:49:21) beliefs that are so different from mine. And I simply said at the time, I said, “You know, that's not what we're here to do right now. Right now we have a situation at the library, so if you would just hang here. I'm going to head over to City Hall, and I'd really appreciate that. We're not going to debate this.”

But the long lasting effects of the pandemic is that we have millions of people with different ideas about right and wrong, and health, and wellness, and what the government should be doing for them, how to live meaningful lives. A lot up in the air. I hope to see the library get involved in helping people to find their way, you know.

B: Absolutely. And so two final questions for you. How did the pandemic, if at all, change your view of Hoboken, you know, as a city since you got to work here with the Response Team? And lastly, what would you like to tell future generations of Hobokenites about this unprecedented time in our history?

JP: That's a great question. So just prior to the pandemic, before I went off to Jordan, well, maybe when I was there I was thinking about it, I was getting ready to move back to New York City. I lived in New York City for 25 years before 2004, so I really had a crisis when I moved here. Like, what am I doing here? I felt a real connection to New York City. I had spent so many years there. And so three times in the last 20 years I said, “That's it. I'm moving back to New York.” And this was the third and final time. Well, maybe the final time. But what the pandemic has done is it really, like I said, clarified the meaning of service for me. And the size of Hoboken is really significant. So I don't know what the experience was in New York City except from friends and family. But I know what the experience was here. I know the experience I had. And I am happy to have been here and not in New York City. I think that people can have an impact in a city this size, and I felt really good about the impact that I was able to have, and the recognition. The people see me. (Unintelligible 00:52:24) “Oh, that’s Jane out there, on the bicycle!” So that was really important.

And as far as future generations, I think the demographics of Hoboken have been shifting for a while. We have more families who are choosing to stay as opposed to once they have a couple kids, they move out to the burbs. And so Hoboken is becoming a really sophisticated community. We have a lot of arts, music. I'd like to see more. I'd like to contribute to that. I just went last night to the concert in Weehawken. They have a big series of concerts every summer. Fantastic. And it's just so lovely. Right on the water. Doesn't matter how hot the day was. I had to put on a shirt eventually to stay warm. But Hoboken has a lot of merit and the investments that are being made, we compete favorably with New York City as a small town nestled next to one of the greatest cities in the world.

When I lived in Manhattan, a friend of mine said he's moving to Hoboken. I said, “Hoboken? Where's Hoboken?” As a New York City resident, Manhattan was the center of the universe. And so now I know where Hoboken is.

B: Yes. Thank you, Jane, so much for coming in and sharing all your stories and experiences, especially being I would say front line, but if you want to call it second liner. You know, being out there helping the community during this great time of need during this crisis. And, yeah, thank you for your contributions. Thank you for doing this interview with us so that your story's included in our local history.

JP: Thank you, Bernadette. It's really been a pleasure, and I appreciate the attentiveness that you gave, and the thoughtfulness about the questions. I could see that you were really – yes, of course you were reading the questions, but I felt that you were really interested. So thank you as well.

B: We really appreciate you coming in.

Bernadette Patino

Jane Porges

Hoboken Public Library, Hoboken, New Jersey