Crew at work on Geraud Avenue, funded by federal Stimulus monies.
President Obama's stimulus money reached a dead end in Plainfield even as authorities are concerned that the Mob may seek a cut of the stimulus pie (see story here).
The dead end?
Geraud Avenue, which begins where the Drake House sits on West Front Street and continues (now) for one block, to end at the bridge into North Plainfield which has been closed except to foot traffic for a decade now.
The leafy street, which connects the truly dead-end Brookside Place (and its 19 homes) to Front Street, gets barely a trickle of traffic compared to the thousands of vehicles a day that traverse the stretch of Somerset Street from Front Street and Park Avenue to the North Plainfield line.
Map shows Brookside Place's connection through Geraud Avenue.
Geraud Avenue work, with Drake House at right.
The Geraud Avenue bridge has been closed to traffic since 1999.
Though the teeth-rattling Somerset Street block is a memorable entrance to the Queen City, it is not 'grand' by any stretch of the imagination -- being more a rude reminder that you are leaving smoothly paved Somerset Street in North Plainfield.
The joke here is that among the 'shovel-ready' projects the Robinson-Briggs administration listed on its 'Stimulus Watch' web pages is Somerset Street (see here).
So how come the dead-end street gets top billing over the busy portal to Plainfield?
Thank God we don't have to worry about the Mob in Plainfield, but do I have to spell it out?
Dead-ends as a metaphor for this Administration's priorities?
Nah!
- Plainfield Today --
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3 comments:
Only in Plfd do we worry about a dead end to no-where and ignore the main areas that have already fallen apart. Eighth St came out nice and so did Watchung, but they were OK to begin with. I guess we cant fix the bad roads, only the good ones. Well at least the folks that hang out and drink on the side of the Drake House will have a nicer spot to do it in.
to 6:43 AM --
My only question is about your including 8th Street as an OK street...
Maybe you never drove the block right by the Library? It would have shaken your hubcaps off.
So bad, it was the only part of the entire project that was reconstructed from the roadbed up and not just repaved.
Well how about my Jefferson Ave ?? Oh, it is in Plainfield and Dunellen so there are a problem !! Duh, I thought our Assemblyman [for both towns] had influence to get things done !! My mistake. PS forget about asking any other towns to helps with the Rescue Squads, etc., if Plainfield is unwilling to fix a little of their side two.
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