I used to work at a weekly newspaper, Plainfield Today, that had offices on North Avenue in the 1980s. The Hetfield family had offices in an imposing building at the corner of Park Avenue and the late Bill Hetfield was a frequent visitor to our newspaper office, sharing his views on local politicians and admonishing us to "keep their feet to the fire." Hetfield and my bosses, Jan and Henry Johnson, were the mainstays of the historic district association and kept a close eye on property maintenance and other quality of life issues in the district.
With changes over time, the association folded and the current population may not even be aware of the district's significance. For a while, Jayson Williams and a partner had an office in the district and Williams even floated a redevelopment plan, but it faded away.
Developer Frank Cretella was supposed to acquire, stabilize and preserve North Avenue historic buildings as part of another redevelopment plan in 2006 but that didn't work out either and Cretella refocused on the PNC Bank block and other locations.
Each of the city's historic districts is supposed to have a district association, but only a few have strong groups and most have none. Correction: Scott Bauman of the Plainfield Planning Division has provided Plaintalker with a list of contacts for all but one of the 10 historic districts. The active groups monitor their districts, seek enhancements, educate the public about their particular attractions and act as goodwill ambassadors by inviting visitors to house tours and special events. Proceeds of house tours are plowed back into improvements to the districts. Distinctive signage and web sites keep up the interest and pride of these districts.
Some districts suffer from a high degree of absentee owners, tenant mobility and lack of knowledge about the city's preservation movement. A couple of them may have been formed with enthusiasm, but relied heavily on the founding members and did not generate successors to carry the torch.
Preservation is often cited as a hallmark of the Queen City, but it needs nurturing and advocacy or you see results like the decay on North Avenue. The Historic Preservation Commission was not intended to do the day-in and day-out care that a well-functioning district association can provide.
Meanwhile, the three-story North Avenue building that was the site of a suspicious fire on Dec. 17 is up for demolition.
The fate of this district, once so promising, now remains to be seen. With a little help from their friends, other historic districts will survive well into the 21st century
--Bernice
Go to the former rust belt cities of Upstate NY and try to stucco one of their buildings in their downtowns....IMPOSSIBLE.
ReplyDeleteBuffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Utica, Albany, Saratoga, Glens Falls, Whitehall, Ticonderoga, Troy and Schenectady..all cities of varying size, diversity, income, population and business or lack thereof, type.
You cannot simply ignore and disregard these buildings. The city of Albany spent hundreds of thousands of dollars dragging an absentee landlord through court to repair a structure collapsing mere blocks from the state capital building. The same hundreds of thousands of dollars the city of Plainfield is willing to spend to demolish the buildings it neglects.
Successful revitalization of downtowns is not attained through neglect, loose or non-existent zoning and overlooking code violations. It is attained through STRICT and thorough attention to detail and making the developers and owners adhere to the details of the buildings original architecture.
The city of Plainfield has the time and money to spend dragging homeowners into court for driveways with potholes and uneven sidewalks yet ignores their streets and the buildings that create the downtown business district.
All 7 City Council Members ( RDO and New Except When It Matters Democrats ), the Mayor and the city employees in charge of these issues are responsible.
Absentee landlords get away with what you will let them get away with. When the city becomes such a dead weight around their neck they will get rid of the building to someone for a song to stop dealing with the headaches of being such a property owner in Plainfield. The new owner may or may be an absentee landlord, but they will be forced to deal with a city government that will not tolerate neglect.
Again, how does this occur? By deciding that's the way it's going to be. Can that happen in Plainfield?? Not likely. You have a fractured city council that could do something meaningful if it wanted but can't decide how it's going to screw the other side better than it's getting screwed. A Mayor who quite simply cannot do the day-to-day operation of the city much less have a vision. A city work force that has no direction from the top. Plainfield is simply attempting to stay afloat. Not exactly a vision, is it?
A ship can change course once it's left port, but it will never get anywhere unless it sets sail. If action, any action is VISION, I guess our city government on all levels has failed us and we by keeping them all in office have failed ourselves. If the New Except When It Matters Democrats want to really change start with this:
1) Get the city IT director to set up a page on the city website for reporting potholes with dates of posting so the city will have to pay for repairs for damage to cars after dates of posting---- this will inspire the Mayor to demand they be filled immediately.
2) ENFORCE, ENFORCE, ENFORCE and RE-ENFORCE ZONING, CODE VIOLATIONS and issues downtown. R
3) Enact an architectural review and coding for all buildings downtown
4) Get the hell off the backs of the homeowners in Plainfield for things like sidewalks and driveways until downtown is cleaned up
5) Since your petty bickering between the RDO and New Except When It Matters Dem Party is nothing more than showboating end it and agree with the RDO's that preserving, protecting and enhancing downtown will eventually be what saves the homeowners in Plainfield on their taxes --- MORE BUSINESSES equal more taxes which lessens the blow to homeowners.
Bernice,
ReplyDeleteThe North Avenue HD has been left to its own by the city, why? Because so far business ownership of the area has been viewed as non-contributing despite of the success it has within the Latino population. You say that perhaps the current population is not aware of the areas' historic significance, I ask: Who has bothered to teach (to anyone) the significance of this area? I have been here for six years and I have yet to read any article on the significance of the area and why it matters. What is more, business owners of the area have been told that they shouldn't invest money on the area because the area "has been designated as redevelopment". How then can it be expected that the area residents/businesses attach themselves to something they know might be gone at the snap of an elected official's fingers? With city officials only looking into "Transit Oriented" development the North Avenue HD has lost any hopes of ever being restored to its historic best.
Bernice: as you know I am a member of the City's Historic Preservation Commission, and this year one of my tasks was to find representatives for each of the historic districts. North Avenue does indeed have one, a Latina business owner. She and I have talked about the importance of a strong presence from the North Avenue area. Believe me, the HPC does its best to use the city's enforcement mechanisms there, and elsewhere. The previous director was sitting at an HPC meeting listening to our pleas when he was summoned to the previous collapse - literally. Maria, too, served on the HPC. We're doing our best, but any assistance is welcome: fourth Tuesday of the month, 7:30 p.m., City Hall Library.
ReplyDeletein response to Pat's comment. The Historic Districts in the neighborhoods are either actively engaged by the principle parties ( the homeowners ) or they are not. That's their own personal investment choice or it is not.
ReplyDeleteDowntown...is THE CITY. The driving force should be coming from THE CITY. All citizens being involved would be fantastic, but the THE CITY ( Mayor, Council, etc ) need to be the driving force whether it's by special zoning, code enforcement or what have you. The downtown represents THE CITY..IMHO.
Please work on getting the Parking Meters operating first.
ReplyDelete