| Author |
Message |
    
Mlj
| | Posted on Wednesday, March 14, 2001 - 11:27 am: |     |
Goodolddays, you misjudge me. Allow me to share...I have been living in Maplewood for 14 years. I have shopped and dined on Springfield Avenue, and would be very happy indeed to see it flourishing. However, I am not much of a park go-er. Cheers. |
Harold
| | Posted on Wednesday, March 14, 2001 - 11:28 am: | |
The Truth,your efforts and ideas are to be applauded, but you must know by now you're swimming against the tide.
Read between the lines on some of the above postings [or any posting on Spring. Ave.] and you'll see the true colors of the majority of citizens from the west side.
A possible thought,...organize all the voters on the east side to equalize the inequities in town.
Please don't give up....we surely can use someone like yourself to help us on this side of town. |
Algebra2
| | Posted on Wednesday, March 14, 2001 - 11:40 am: | |
Harlod -- you need to give a little more info. tell me what you have read between the lines -- a little honesty. You want to judge MY true colors??? I'm curious as to what you mean. Explain. |
Njjoseph
| | Posted on Wednesday, March 14, 2001 - 11:47 am: | |
Algebra2, I'm sorry you started this. :-(
I think most posters have learned their lesson.... |
Algebra2
| | Posted on Wednesday, March 14, 2001 - 11:51 am: | |
I KNOW ... but I can't help it. |
Townie
| | Posted on Wednesday, March 14, 2001 - 11:57 am: | |
Algebra2,
I'm not sure you want to take the bait. Harold is a well-known poster who likes to paint portraits of west siders as hypocrites who are really racists. His mind is made up.
thetruth,
I wanted to add something to my post if you don't mind: It seems to me that the 4th of July event is centrally about nostalgia and the celebration of nostalgia and something unchanging. People want to support the fact that this 'olde tyme' circus has survived all these years in the same location. It's location is a symbol of something, in and of itself. I don't think it's as movable a feast as you do.
But I wish there was a cultural event in Maplewood called "The Maplewood Modern" -- anywhere in town. If anything, Maplewood suffers too much from the "It's Mayberry" mentality -- as if all of us wanted to live in the 50s or the 70s! Most people who've been moving here in recent years have been looking for diversity combined with something other than the harshness of urban life. We like the trees, we like the open-minded people. Yet the civic life of the town is too much focused on reviving the past. Let's look to Maplewood's real future.
I'd be first out the door to go to anything in Maplewood that was like Lincoln Center's "Serious Fun" festival, with lots of avant-garde offerings. In addition to the maxim "Feed them and they will come," I think "Hit 'em where they ain't" is also a good strategy. Offer something a lot of ex-urbanites are pining for. People think the olde tyme circus is nice, but something 21st century would be great, too.
In the long run, free movies in the park in the summer, a couple of ice cream and smoothie joints and other attractions that make Springfield Ave. a destination is what is needed. I'm all for it. |
Algebra2
| | Posted on Wednesday, March 14, 2001 - 12:07 pm: | |
I've had run-ins with Harold before. I just like him to pick apart and read between the lines. Sorry guys, but his narrow-mindedness amuses me. |
Njjoseph
| | Posted on Wednesday, March 14, 2001 - 12:13 pm: | |
Free movies in the park is an excellent idea. However, since Maplecrest is in a residential area, we need to consider the noise and traffic levels.
Montclair has the Met Opera in Brookdale Park, but the field is so far in I don't know if it disturbs the neighborhood. I'm sure the traffic and problems are a nuisance for the folks who live near the park. Although the opera is only 2 or 3 times a season, I'm sure they have many events there in the evenings which make the parking problem more regular.
I also like the idea of arts festivals and ethnic food fairs. What about a bazaar of some sort? In the city, there is a bazaar once a month where they sell a few different kinds of food (usually crepes, italian sausage, smoothies, chinese, etc.), but a wide variety of other items: candles, bed linens, sweaters, belts, manicuring supplies, herbs and spices, 10-minute massages, wireless phone service, "as seen on TV" products, etc. We could include tables of all the businesses on Springfield Ave who wish to participate and "introduce" themselves to townspeople that don't know them.
What a great thread you started, Thetruth! |
Vicdeluca
| | Posted on Wednesday, March 14, 2001 - 12:47 pm: | |
Maplewood is only 4 square miles and we need to start thinking more about the total town rather than east vs. west side. The Township Committee and civic groups throughout town are working to improve each and every corner of the community. There are improvement projects on streets and parks and in shopping areas and residential neighborhoods in the entire township.
The idea of having more community celebrations throughout the town is a good one. On Saturday, May 5th, there will be another Spring on Springfield Ave. in front of the Hilton Branch of the library. On Saturday, June 2nd, the Hilton Neighborhood Association will have an International Festival in DeHart Park. On another June Saturday, Arts Maplewood will have Arts in the Park at DeHart.
A resident group, Fields of Dreams Committee, and the Township are establishing an official Little League ballfield in Maplecrest Park. The field should be up and running for this season. Plans are to have a Little League parade down Springfield Ave. Another initiative in that park is Cafe Maplecrest, a local vendor who will set up a food shop in the park.
A new playground was just built in DeHart Park off Ridgewood Ave. A few years back new playgrounds were built in Memorial and Maplecrest Parks. Next year the playground at DeHart is scheduled for replacement.
We too are disappointed about the slowness of the Springfield Ave. development but do not mistake the delay for lack of commitment and attention. We are waiting to close on a few details with the State Dept. of Transportation. We will then begin the construction of the first phase from Yale Street to the Union border.
We just received word from the NJ Dept. of Community Affiars that Maplewood was one of 8 municipalities slected to participate in the Neighborhood Preservation Program. This will mean grants of $325,000 over the next three years to be used in the eastern part of the Hilton neighborhood to do home fix-ups, business facades, and other bricks and mortar projects intended to keep up the area.
We are installing a new intersection at Baker St. and Maplewood Ave. along with new street lights in Maplewood Village. The lower portion of Elmwood Ave. will be paved.
We are looking at other arts and cultural events for our parks and the Burgdorff Center.
Keep the ideas flowing - we will pass along the suggestions to the Recreation and Cultural Affairs Department and the Maplewood Civic Association (responsible for the 4th of July and Memorial Day Parade).
Let's just lay off the east vs. west stuff. It is not going to get us anywhere positive. |
Mtierney
| | Posted on Wednesday, March 14, 2001 - 1:50 pm: | |
Truth: "He is however working within the political system that appointed him. I trust that he will examine this issue reasonably but the pressures on him must be enormous."
Really?
I though the people elected him. That being the case, he should be "pressured" to accomplish the things that the people want and/or need.
I have said it before, but it can be repeated: This reval has done more to harm Maplewood than anything else in the many years I've been a resident. We have generated class-warfare big time! |
Greenetree
| | Posted on Wednesday, March 14, 2001 - 2:12 pm: | |
I wasn't going to get involved in this, but I do have one comment: in the 4 years I've lived here, I'd never heard of the 'east-west' competition until I started reading this board in the last 2 months. I have many friends of all races and economic situations who also don't see this as a problem.
Of course there are differences among neighborhoods. It's how we treat each other that is important.
I, for one, am personally concerned about what the Springfield Ave rehab is going to do to traffic on Elmwood. It is much worse since I moved here, as people increasingly use it as a freeway to bypass the lights & one-lane of Springfield Ave. (OK- that was 2 comments) |
Njjoseph
| | Posted on Wednesday, March 14, 2001 - 2:14 pm: | |
I don't think the town has been harmed by the reval. Some individuals will have a difficult time ahead of them, but the town as a whole will go on, and won't even remember the reval in another 2 or 3 years. |
Townie
| | Posted on Wednesday, March 14, 2001 - 2:16 pm: | |
Thanks Vic. That's especially good news about the Preservation Program grants. I hope the other events you mentioned are well-publicized.
The advice about east-west I think is especially good. When I first came house shopping in Maplewood, my realtor handed me a map that had the Wyoming area at the top, so I just assumed that was the NORTH. Until very recently, I thought I'd bought a house in north Maplewood. Now people tell me that there isn't such a place, unless you count the area next to SOUTH Orange. I still have a hard time relating to Maplewood in terms of directions, and would rather not start!
For me, what the reval did was make it painfully obvious that Maplewood is one town where it really matters when property values all over town don't keep pace with each other. Those paying the highest property taxes should be among the most eager to invest in the revitalization of Springfield Ave. and other civic projects to boost other neighborhoods. It's the only way our taxes will be going back down.
k. |
Eliz
| | Posted on Wednesday, March 14, 2001 - 2:39 pm: | |
OMG Townie - I just had a realization when I read your post ... normally I am very good at positioning myself in a new place and getting around and reading maps - however since I moved to Maplewood I've been so "discombobulated (?)" - had trouble thinking about directions and where things were relative to the big picture on a map.
When I read your posting I realized it's because I picture Maplewood in my head exactly like the map given by my realtor which shows the "west side" on top (north) and the east side on the bottom (south). |
Townie
| | Posted on Wednesday, March 14, 2001 - 3:02 pm: | |
That's it, Eliz. Those first impressions are hard to dislodge. I was starting to notice lichen growth on the sides of trees in an effort to calculate due North.
But all the chatter surrounding the reval straightened out the picture!
k. |
Nakaille
| | Posted on Wednesday, March 14, 2001 - 3:38 pm: | |
Now I think I finally understand why people kept referring to the area south of Springfield Ave as the East side. Now, if we were talking about the southeastern corner or "rim" of Maplewood, I would have better understood.
Bacata |
Harold
| | Posted on Wednesday, March 14, 2001 - 3:46 pm: | |
Harold took his "nice" pills...not gonna argue...wouldn't be prudent....read between the lines...and don't get your panties in a bunch!!!!! |
Algebra2
| | Posted on Wednesday, March 14, 2001 - 3:55 pm: | |
Funny you mention my panties Harold ...
It is nice to be nice. Isn't it? |
Yvette
| | Posted on Wednesday, March 14, 2001 - 4:36 pm: | |
Vic,
Is Spring on Springfield Avenue, where they have food vendors, games and activites for the kids and tables set up with people selling things and/or things for you to sign up (ie modeling for kids) oh and there was a live band --the gym was raffling something off I forget, but I think it was a couple of free days.
For people concerned of crossing Springfield Ave. They had hands on sand sculpture makings across the street from the Park -- that wasn't a problem.
I went to that the summer of 1999 and I had my kids and their friends -- we had a ball, this past summer I didn't hear of it so we missed it.
It needs to be advertised a little louder. |
Joancrystal
| | Posted on Thursday, March 15, 2001 - 8:42 pm: | |
Vic:
I appreciate your most recent post on this thread and agree with its message whole heartedly. We need to reinforce the image of Maplewood as one town not a lot of squabbling factions.
It is unfortunate that some of the posters on this thread are upset by some of the town's traditions. Traditions are a strong foundation for stability and stability has encouraged all of our property values to grow -- though at different rates.
We do need to look towards making the entire town safe and attractive. We should encourage people to more fully utilize all of the great features this entire town has to offer.
Yes, people chose their own homes for a variety of reasons: what was on the market at the time, what was the size they needed at the price they could afford, etc. but let's remember that we all chose to live in Maplewood! By focusing on what drew each of us here in the first place, we should get a good idea of where to go to make things even better. |
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