Area in need of Rehabilitation

[Editor]

http://www.northjersey.com/news/business/cart-storage-complicates-grocery-store-plan-1.1270829

[Homer Jones]

Mr. Chiusolo's thinking on this application reflects a transformation of Hackensack's status from a buyer's market to a seller's market. In other words: if you want to come to the dance, follow the dress code. If not, we can wait for the right partner. Congratulations to John.

[Editor]

http://www.bergendispatch.com/articles/35761952/Hackensack-Looking-For-Micro-Brewery-To-Stimulate-Rehabilitation-.aspx

[Editor]

Here's a better link to the latest NJBiz Article with full story.  No login required (for now)

http://www.njbiz.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20150202/NJBIZ01/301299998/Hackensack%E2%80%99s-grand-plan-starting-to-take-shape&template=mobileart

[Editor]

http://m.bergendispatch.com/default.aspx?p=articles&news=35776646&title=Sanzari-Enterprises-Contributes-Funds-to-Support-Hackensack-s-Revitalization-Vision

[Editor]

http://www.northjersey.com/mobile/news/council-welcomes-breweries-1.1283628

[Editor]

http://www.northjersey.com/news/hackensack-planning-board-takes-step-toward-readying-former-site-of-the-record-for-redevelopment-1.1286828

There was also an article about the city raising its sewer connection fees today but I do not see it online yet. The fee was raised from $1000 to $2500. 

[Editor]

http://www.northjersey.com/news/state-supreme-court-sides-with-hackensack-on-redevelopment-plan-1.1294152

[Editor]

http://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/stemming-the-blight-new-jersey-supreme-72570/

[just watching]

Wow, this has really become a precedent-setting case affecting all of New Jersey.

I agree that there needs to be eminent domain, certainly for construction of schools and highway, etc.  And in the case of downtown areas in the State's inner cities, it is needed for economic development, to provide jobs for residents and tax revenues for struggling cities. Furthermore, the new development will have either residents or employees who will patronize local stores and restaurants, improving the economy. That is all good in principle. The issue is whether or not that principle is relevant in Hackensack.

Hackensack should consider itself VERY lucky to have won this, because that whole block is not blighted.  It's really just one property, and the property owner was taking steps to redevelop on his own.  The city is very lucky to have won.

I am glad for the precedent, and I believe that the precedent is needed more in much more troubled areas of Paterson, Passaic, Newark, etc., where there are many vacant properties, burned houses, vacant lots, graffiti and dumping, etc. These are areas with high crime and gang activity.  In some cases, there's a need to develop new housing that is affordable, and if a whole block needs to be cleared out, and most of it meets the definition of blight, that's a step in the right direction.

[Homer Jones]

This is good case law for our cities. There was a case in Connecticut a few years ago which put the brakes on the use of eminent domain which slowed down the redevelopment process in areas that needed it.
It is important to note, however that if cities use eminent domain to acquire and dispose of real property there is still the obligation to relocate tenants and pay fair market value to the property owners.
Just because a business owner has a successful business that is located in an area in need of redevelopment doesn't mean that he should get screwed because of the overall economic redevelopment process.
I think that the State of New Jersey has some control over relocation as well they should.

[just watching]

And a New Jersey case law decision by the NJ Supreme Court is going to count more in New Jersey than some other case in Connecticut.

[Editor]

http://www.nj.com/bergen/index.ssf/2015/04/long-anticipated_downtown_redevelopment_takes_shap.html

HACKENSACK -- The city is changing. The signs are everywhere.

 There's the six-story apartment rising on a State Street block that once sat mostly vacant. There's the former parking lot on Atlantic Street in the midst of being transformed into a park. And there's a bulldozer, lording over a pile of rubble destined to become a 14-story mixed-use development on Main Street.

 It's the biggest year yet for Hackensack's long dreamed-of redevelopment. The Meridia Metro development on State Street is set this summer to become the first new residential to project to open under the rehabilitation effort, and other projects have broken ground.

[Editor]

http://www.northjersey.com/mobile/community-news/developers-donate-into-fund-to-revitalize-downtown-1.1317735

[BLeafe]

(For all of you unhip reverse bridge-and-tunnel types, SoMer is the area south of Mercer St. Be prepared to jump back and forth between the story and the pix...............a lot)


After photographing the rubble of 76 Main on Sunday morning, I headed up Moore St to go home (I live in NoPass - north of Passaic St). As I approached Mercer St, I saw what looked like the ruins of a very localized earthquake...........just utter brick (first picture, 3-photo stitch, click to enlarge and keep scrolling to the right).

It looked like a blown-out battleground. Coincidentally, stores across the street had signs that used words like "BLOW-OUT" and "BATTLEGROUND".

I parked my car and got out to investigate. There were barrels of.......something standing around and remnants of buildings that had front doors and nothing behind them, like a prop movie set of a town. If you needed a doctor or a lawyer, you had to crawl through a window and over mounds of rubble to get to one.

I felt bad for the buried authorized cars.

And there it was - THE BANK - still standing tall (and next to a slightly-clearer path to Blow-Out City).

I turned onto Mercer St to inspect the bank's north wall and its well-maintained interior ceilings. On the Main St side, I saw the welcoming front door and its address - 170X. But as soon as I got past the bank, I saw another 3-photo stitch-worth of flattened buildings.

I couldn't find Lowit's, but I did see the former home of The Wreckord in the background. Closer inspection revealed what appeared to be the huge graves of millions of bricks. It was too much for one broken brick that stood on the ledge contemplating, uh, something not good.

I had to look away and when I did I saw god-awful things: stairs and drainpipes that led nowhere and some horrendous orange-looking thing.

I couldn't take it anymore. I took one last photo of the bank, waved to the tourists on the aerial SoMer devastation tour, hopped in my car and drove home to the safety of NoPass, where I'll stay until rehabilitation is over (Main Street's, not mine).