Could anything about the Monarch condo development be more important than the tax abatement proposal Plainfield's city council will take up tonight?
Maybe.
While the Council struggles with the ramifications of giving buyers of the condo units a tax break as a way of boosting sales and helping out the developer formerly known as Dornoch Plainfield LLC, realtors are facing a different issue.
While the Monarch's marketing materials are touting the condos as a luxury experience, the view from units on the western side of the building is anything but, revealing tipplers consuming their purchases from the next door liquor store in the strip mall's parking lot.
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The neighborhood has seen some improvements, notably to the building diagonally across the street which currently houses the Plainfield Senior Citizens Center. The new owner added a fake front to the building and subdivided it, drawing in several new businesses, including a restaurant, a billiards parlor and a Papa John's pizza franchise.
But the city appears to be snoozing as far as the strip mall next door goes. You'd think with all the time they've had since ground was broken for the Monarch in the summer of 2006 that some attention would have been paid -- either to enforce quality-of-life laws more strictly or to encourage upgrading the businesses there.
Surely one of the goals of the C.O.P.S. (community-oriented policing) program is to address just such issues as realtors are noting with the Ben Franklin Liquor Store. With the C.O.P.S. substation across the street, it makes sense that the liquor store would be part of its focus. But it appears not to be.
Driving by other liquor stores in the downtown shopping district (Watchung Liquors on Watchung Avenue, Station Liquors on Park Avenue and Fenrose Liquors on West Front Street) one does not see customers tippling outside the stores.
So why is it apparently tacitly allowed next to a multi-million dollar development where so much is at stake -- not only for the developer, but for the reputations of Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs and Assemblyman Jerry Green, whose really big deal this is?
Are they avoiding a 'Grey Goose v. Ripple' war because they're afraid of being called elitists?
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3 comments:
Dan, it's no different than the public drinking across from the police station on Watchung in the alley right there or at the train station. It's not noticed or solved because those that should care about it and try to have something done about it....DON'T. Welcome to Plainfield ( as you step off the train )..Please avoid the homeless person hitting you up for money, peeing on the lamppost, spilling their bottle of beer on you or being in your way as you walk along the sidewalk. Also, once you get down to the street as you stroll our lovely streets, ignore the drunks holding the "brown bag" ( probably concealing a bottle of water )who will harass you more than you would probably like. Oh..and yes..we have luxury condos for sale down by some dumpy strip mall with it's own drunks. Again, welcome to Plainfield.
I think we need to get it perfectly clear that the Monarch Condos if not in an upper class area and most people inside and outside Plainfield will not consider moving there, even with a tax abatement, which I am against.
The strip mall next to the Monarch is just another example where the current administration is asleep at the wheel. I agree that the whole area around this eyesore of a building should have been upgraded.
I've lived in Plainfield over 25 years and think the building is out of place and ugly, but I also think the Park-Madison buildings are ugly, when compared to the beautiful architecture that Plainfield is known for.
The bottom line is that even with upgrades to the neighborhood this project is going to be a hard sell, and anyone who has lived in Plainfield for more than a few years knew that. Good luck with this dieing goose.
I think the reason Plainfield is so simple, is because it is run by simple people. The one attitude I notice most about Plainfield is that people do not expect anything from this city. So any morsel that is thrown to them is appreciated.
This city will not change until people realize that they are no longer second class citizens and have a right (not a gift) to a clean, safe, and thriving city.
So, people of Plainfield, are you still going to vote for the same people who are giving you nothing, or perhaps view yourselves better, and vote for a change?
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