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Hey, I Think I'll Run For Mayor!
4 · Jun · 2007
We met the mayor.
She stopped by our neighborhood (after some prompting from a councilman someone talked into meeting with us as well) last Saturday to talk to us about a proposed restaurant that may be opened at the end of our street.
You see, our little nook of Fear Town is located at the corner of Main Street and a highway. For you Midwest folks, it’s not a real highway; more like Reno Avenue in OKC. California peeps, it’s a little like the 101. Anyway, this means that a lot of people have been speeding through our area to avoid a traffic light.
As I mentioned before, we live on a narrow street, lots of kids and SUVs parked on the street as well. You can imagine the problem, no doubt. So we, us and nearly all our neighbors, are fighting this restaurant which will not have enough parking and increase traffic on our street. Not to mention the new construction totally jacks one guys beautiful yard and will make a mess of noise for him too.
So that’s why the mayor was here.
I was impressed that she stopped by and stood in the sun with us talking about all this. MJ was too and he took the opportunity to ask her about the much-anticipated revitalization of our downtown and our train station. There are many problems there too, all of which have to do with a once small town managing traffic and maintaining the charm of a historic place. Parking, speeding, commuters, attracting new businesses, etc.
But let’s be honest. This is not rocket science. It’s been done before and is actually a major trend right now to breathe life back into small towns. Small towns are IN. They are what people want. They want Mayberry. And what could be better than Mayberry less than 40 miles from NYC?
Every argument we had for the improvement was rained on by her citing the various obstacles to change. (Obstacles that were overcome by many other NJ towns like Red Bank, which is a mere 15 minutes down the highway.) Then Mike finally asks her, “So what do you do then? How do you make this happen?” And do you know what The Mayor said?
"I don’t know. I don’t know what we can do."
Well thank God she’s the Mayor. Otherwise I might get worried the city is being led by a bunch of idiots.
Posted by Penny Rene at June 4, 2007 09:55 PM
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Comments
Wow. It's good that she came by but I don't think it is a good idea when you are in a position like that to cite all of the obstacles. I would think something like "We are doing our best to work on these changes." Some people just don't get it. I think I would rather hear that than "I don't know what we can do."
Posted by: Larry on June 5, 2007 12:48 PM
I admire her honestly, but not her intelligence. At least she admitted she didn't have an answer. Though she should have, you have to respect that she didn't feed you some nonsensical double-speak to appease you.
It amuses me to hear that MJ was debating with the Mayor though. He is one of the more politically savvy people I know, and I can only imagine how that Mayor felt when she ran across two people who can actually debate with intelligence and knowledge on issues that most people are oblivious to or only have a vague familiarity with.
Posted by: JP on June 5, 2007 04:30 PM
Without redevelopment this Borough will not survive. Come to a Borough Council meeting and see the lack of leadership the Mayor exhibits. The Redevelopment Committee has been meeting in order to be prepared to move forward with Redevelopment once the appeal with Silver Oaks is concluded. Perhaps the Committee would share their vision with the Mayor. Perhaps they don't think she will understand. The Mayor cannot conduct a meeting and keep order. Frightening she is the senior elected official. Matawan needs new leadership....
Posted by: matawan advocate on June 14, 2007 02:56 PM