Chris Bernardo

Trenton arts community seeks collaboration to drive economic growth in the city

TRENTON — Local art lovers know that Trenton is full of arts groups and efforts to promote the arts, from relatively new projects such as the Trenton Mural Arts Project and the CityArts alliance to established organizations, including Artworks, the Passage Theatre and local colleges.

So many groups, educational programs and individual artists call the city home, in fact, that often they don’t know about each other, despite their proximity, arts boosters say. As a result, these groups don’t collaborate as much as they could, and they have not fulfilled their potential as an economic engine for the city.

“What Trenton needs to do — and this is an issue with Trenton over at least the last 20 years — is build the connection between these initiatives and other things that are going on in the city,” said Leonardo Vazquez, an urban planner at Rutgers University who is helping create an arts and heritage tourism plan for Trenton. “It’s not just a matter of having organizations there,” Vazquez said. “It’s really, how do those things fit in with other efforts to improve the city?”

Members of the arts community say they are slowly beginning to make progress, though.
One step was a Feb. 2 Trenton Arts Summit organized by Samara Lentz, a grant writer for Mayor Tony Mack, to explore ways of energizing the arts scene. Some CityArts organizers also attended a Feb. 11 conference on building “creative communities” that was organized by Vazquez, who heads the Professional Development Institute at Rutgers’ Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy.

The Haves and Have-Nots

From Common Ground – A monthly publication from the Community Associations Institute

January/February 2011

By Mike Ramsey

Different backgrounds, different rules, different assessments—the challenges of mixed-income communities.

When Kimberle Winzeler was shopping for a two-bedroom condo near Chicago's notorious Cabrini-Green housing project nearly a decade ago, friends had a similar reaction: Are you nuts?

She was not. The marketing and sales professional was looking for a competitively priced property in a transitional neighborhood with great potential.

"If I couldn't afford to live in some of (the trendier) neighborhoods because the costs were so high, I could afford to live here and help be part of the solution to developing another area of the city," Winzeler says. "It would be a great spot to be if you were willing to work through all the gentrification of the neighborhood."

There was an additional catch. North Town Village—her chosen community of 260 condominiums and townhomes—was one of Chicago's first mixed-income redevelopments being built to replace the city's public-housing towers. Under the ambitious plan, owners like Winzeler would share the streets, sidewalks and, in some cases, the same buildings as Chicago Housing Authority tenants.

Things did not go smoothly when she moved in during the summer of 2002. Some of the carefully screened CHA residents had regular visits from friends and family who still lived at Cabrini-Green. There was loitering, boorish behavior and vandalism. Winzeler, who serves as the secretary of her community association board, says she feared for her safety.

New Ironbound District Contractor Earns High Marks For Supplemental Cleaning Services

NEWARK, N.J., February 18, 2011 – Commercial District Services (CDS), the Ironbound Business Improvement District’s (IBID) new streetscape cleaning contractor, has quickly made a positive impression on local business owners and residents. The “Clean Team” started on January 2nd, and has already dealt effectively with the difficulties caused by this winter’s record-setting snowfall.  "CDS has the capacity to expand our cleaning efforts to include supplemental sidewalk power washing, graffiti removal, poster removal, monitoring and reporting of illegal dumping, some landscaping, and other cleanup and maintenance needs," said Seth A. Grossman, Executive Director of the IBID.

Manny Lopes, longtime owner of Lopes & Sons Hardware on Ferry Street, said the CDS employees are friendly and enthusiastic about their work. “I think they are doing a great job of keeping the district clean, despite the difficulties including this winter’s record snowfall,” Lopes added.

“We were excited to get started, and prepared to deal with the challenges of keeping a busy area like the Ironbound District clean,” noted Chris Bernardo, a CDS principal who is personally supervising the effort. “The experience we have gained working in other commercial districts and public spaces has helped us learn what equipment and manpower is necessary to get the job done and we look forward to making a positive impact.”

The View from atop the High Bridge

N.J. towns use art to fill vacant stores during recession

By Eliot Caroom/For The Star Ledger

MONTCLAIR — Since the beginning of the recession, lights have gone dark and windows empty in many downtowns around the state, leaving prime retail locations vacant. Now a growing number of municipalities are fighting the appearance of blight with art.

In Montclair, Boonton, Rahway, Newark and other towns around the state, officials are working with local artists to fill empty storefront windows.

“We tried to fill some of our vacant storefronts with art because it looks nice, and we are an artistic community, so it provides that sense of identity to us,” said Karen Korinda of Boonton Main Street, whose organization promoted a series of exhibits in vacant stores last year and helped a local gallery run another such effort this summer.

It’s a strategy that dates at least to the 1970s, when a vacant store in a section of Jersey City hosted art installations, according to Main Street New Jersey director Jef Buehler. For the last nine years, the Newark Arts Council has organized tours that include work in vacant spaces.

Passaic River front in Summit garners Council's attention

SUMMIT — The meandering Passaic River front that makes its 80-mile journey through Summit to Newark Bay is gradually becoming a bucolic setting for boating, picnics and contemplation.

Common Council will appoint a Greenway Task Force to make recommendations for the city’s portion within the next six months. The task force will include members from: the Environmental Commission, Planning Board, Department of Community Services, Common Council, a local environmentalist, a local developer and a representative from home owners whose properties abut the Passaic River.

Community Services Director Beth Kinney said the greenway “would provide new recreational opportunities for residents, help the community become more connected to the river and provide a natural buffer that will help protect water quality and habitat.”
She noted the proposal could include cooperation with New Providence and Berkeley Heights.

Redeveloped, re-energized Asbury Park attracts crowds to bars, boardwalks

Brace yourself for the sacrilege: This is no longer Bruce Springsteen’s Asbury Park.

The boardwalk area is no longer the worn boot-heel town of Springsteen’s youth. The Pony has a summer stage, draped in sponsor banners. Wonder Bar is freshly minted in Palace Amusement green, Tilly and all. Fluorescent mood lights illuminate the refurbished Empress Hotel, which for years had mattresses and broken furniture piled on its balconies.

And on this Saturday night, as whispers on the boardwalk said Bruce would make a late-night showing at Wonder Bar, the big draw in town was a Dutch DJ named Tiesto. He was in the electronic cockpit of a sold-out rave at the Paramount, a retinal and tympanic membrane assault of laser lights and synthesized thumps, playing to kids whose parents were teenagers back when Bruce put out "Greetings ..." in 1973.

People, Parklets, and Pavement to Parks (plus Mojo Bicycle Café)

Managing New Jersey's Canada goose population

 

Union County partners with U.S. government to solve geese problem

By Carmen Juri/The Star-Ledger

May 16, 2010, 7:00AM

Using a kayak paddle, Kyle Russell gently shooed a goose away from her nest at Echo Lake Park in Mountainside as Kim Gurlavich waited nearby.

While Russell, a wildlife biologist, fended off the goose, Gurlavich punctured the nest eggs with a pin and stirred up the yolk.

Gurlavich, wildlife specialist with the United States Department of Agriculture, then returned the eggs to the nest. The goose would eventually return to incubate them, unaware they would never hatch.

The geese problem is so vexing in Union County that officials decided to partner with the Wildlife Services Bureau of the U.S. Department of Agriculture for a year-round, three year management program that cost $347,000. Previous programs were conducted on a seasonal basis lasting only three months.

Raptor Trust in Long Hill is a healing refuge for wounded birds of prey

LONG HILL -- More than 40 years ago, a man who fell in love with hawks bought 14 acres in a swamp and started caring for injured birds of prey in his backyard.

Today, Len Soucy’s backyard has turned into the Raptor Trust, a rehabilitation center in a rural corner of Millington where thousands of wild birds have been healed and released into the wild.

And for nearly 30 years, the trust has taken on a second mission: to educate New Jersey residents on the wide spectrum of raptors - birds of prey with curled talons and hooked beaks - that live in their own backyards. Open year-round to the public, the trust houses a number of injured “educational birds” native to New Jersey, including peregrine falcons, bald eagles and red-tailed hawks, for people to observe in outdoor aviaries.