The Streetscape Project

I couldn’t decide whether or not streetscape is a noun or a verb and now I see it used as an adjective. I guess a made up word can be whatever we want it to be. Then again, aren’t all words made up?

What a coincidence that in an election year our good mayor puts up a sign to take public credit for a public works project.

Actually, I don’t mind a sign explaining the (perhaps) obvious. I’m not interested in writing about politics in this blog, and there are better places to go for the latest scoop on the fascinating intricacies of city government or Jersey City’s colorful pack of politicians. Some argue all of life is political and these materialists have some pretty good arguments on their side, so avoiding politics completely may be impossible. Nonetheless, I try.

As cities go, in spite of my wisecracks about some of the stuff I see, Jersey City, for all its foibles and lingering corruption, is actually pretty well run. Can we do better, yes we can! But there are plenty of cities that are worse and Jersey City has done worse than it is doing now. There you have it: a ‘political’ opinion.

Jersey City is wrestling with a dilemma that urban areas across the nation face. You can’t rely on merely upkeep of infrastructure to maintain our quality of life. Infrastructure— like sidewalks—must be replaced and/or severely renovated from time to time. Infrastructure improvements will attract new business and housing development, in turn attracting new populations. Newcomers can revitalize a community and all communities require at least some revitalization.

The dilemma is, when implementing the improvements you must also minimize any negative impact so a city’s character and quality of life are not diminished. I love a lot of things about my city, especially the multicultural dynamic and I’m not just talking ethnic groups but economic class diversity. We all can benefit from improvements. But making housing too expensive, displacing populations, driving folks out who don’t fit the new resident profile is damaging for those individuals and the city that rejected them. This happened to Hoboken in the 80s and in my opinion, that rampant gentrification (for lack of a better catch phrase) destroyed a lot of what was wonderful about our mile-square neighbor. The city has never fully rebounded, and quite frankly, a dominant white yuppie culture in place for 20 years or so has erased much of the vibrancy the birthplace of Frank Sinatra had when its population was more mixed. I love Hoboken, but I used to love it a lot more than I do now.

That said, for now Jersey City maintains—if far from ideal—a pretty good balance of upgrading infrastructure and attracting new citizens while preserving the character of the city and quality of life for its people. Social programs helping the disadvantaged are supported, there are some pretty strong, well-enforced tenant laws in place, which combined with slowing down of the real estate market has stifled the push to displace families with eminent domain condo development projects. Not a perfect record, but the scenario that could have played out is far worse than the reality now occurring.

No matter how you feel about change—usually I’m opposed—change is the master of us all. All change is not progress, and all progress is not good. What to change and what to let remain and strengthen, is far from an easy decision to make. It is never only one decision and some change is indeed ultimately inevitable. Deciding on those pesky details of change that then can either improve or destroy a community is not simple or easy. The decisions—and the results of those decisions—are never obvious. This constant conundrum confronts us all.

The final result of Streetscaping? Time will tell I suppose. Businesses on Newark avenue have been trying to improve the street for years. They want more lighting, strict façade regulations. Newark Avenue is a noticeably safer and more pleasant urban experience now than back in the early 90s. Nicer sidewalks might be even further improve the boulevard and physically express the egalitarian spirit I believe our dear metropolis aspires to. Everybody should benefit.

I’m under no delusions that when this project was planned, developers with short term profits in mind, didn’t see it as a leap towards the “SoHo-ization” of Jersey City, but now the economy has stifled this objective. Moves towards replacing those smaller, older buildings—some find shabby, others (me) quaint—on the table after nearby Grove Pointe was up and running have been halted. Tearing down the old buildings and erecting new ones still might happen, but there are no signs of it happening now or on the pre-downturn timetable developers, some politicians and other merchants proposed.

Gentrification—a misleading term—in Jersey City has always been about fits and starts. You saw it attempted in the 90s a couple of times. but never fully sustained. Seemed we were on the fast-track to a SoHo or Hoboken downtown around the Y2K era, then 9-11 happened. Things were put on hold, although many new developments took shape in the Paulus Hook area. When the Post 9-11 housing bubble took shape earlier—fueled by banking misdeeds—in this decade, development quickened in Downtown and that other city was built between Grand Street and Liberty State Park. At the same time, New Jersey enjoyed better economic growth than other parts of the nation, causing another interesting phenomena—there are more people than ever who live in Jersey City and commute not to New York, but to other parts of the Garden State.

Now, economic uncertainty reigns across the land. Gentrification as a means to attract new populations to an area can no longer have that sole purpose if the jobs aren’t being created or if banks are not lending to fund home purchasing, business growth or development projects. Those are the things that enable populations to move. But, if gentrification means improving infrastructure, then it can improve the quality of life of existing residents and enhance the viability of existing economic activity.

Thus, I’m optimistic that the 99 cents stores and CH Martin can survive alongside the fancy new restaurants or whatever else might move in; it is what has taken place so far. The Streetscape Project may prove to be an improvement we all can benefit from. The social forces that transformed Hoboken and SoHo are no longer at work and when the dust settles from the recession and growth emerges again, the paradigm urban communities once operated from—kicking out the lower middle class and bringing in the upper middle class—will not be the same as the new paradigm. Most of the old rules will no longer apply. What exactly the new paradigm will be, all we can do is wait and see.

So, enjoy the open dirt pits for the time being on Newark. Gives it a kind of Deadwood feel. Be careful walking.

I also hope that somebody in designing this new streetscape has thought about fixing some of the sewer systems below. Seems sort of a waste doesn’t it—if this Streetscape Project in Streestcaping “from Grove to Coles” gives us a nice looking Streetscape—but every time it rains, we still have to hop over the same old corner lagoons of filth sorrounding the curbs.