Today marked Trenton Walks' 68th walk. To date they have 845 participants covering 1697 miles -- enough to have walked from Trenton to Key West, and then from Trenton to Bangor, Maine. Today's walk will add 2.1 miles to that distance. Becky and Tim started these walks with the goal of learning more about where we live, and meet more people.
Today we were led by County Executive Dan Benson, a man I've heard about, and voted for, but had not met until that day. He is younger and more energetic than I expected. His experience as the former chair of the law and public safety committee, and current chair of the transportation committee, was put to use as he made sure we all crossed roads safely. I'm used to people who lead talks stay at the front answering questions and guiding to the next stop, and people like me sticking around in the back making sure we stayed together and that no one was hit by a car. I was impressed with his ability to do both, and do both well. He waited until we all gathered round before continuing his talk. As I tend to lag taking pictures after people walk out of my way, it kept me moving along with crowd and I got to hear everything.
We started at his office building located at 640 South Broad Street, across the street from a huge parking lot that was mostly empty on that Sunday afternoon.
The main focus of our two-hour trip was to learn about the South Broad Street Streetscape Improvements Project set to start officially in 2027, but might start unofficially as early as this summer. The project ties together twenty individual projects. The county is spending a lot of time working with the stakeholders to make sure every part has buy in. As businesses open, they want the businesses to have sidewalks that are in working order. As a two-way cycle lanes are going in, which will take away street parking spaces, they want to make sure other parking is available. The last time a large scale improvement happened to this area was in the 1980s, when Dan was a student at Holy Cross, which we passed on our tour. This project is personal.
Included in the plan is purchasing "nuisance properties." Dan emphasized several times they are only interested in properties that are abandoned, they do not want to kick people out of homes they love. Okay, that was a paraphrase, but it is the impression I had.
Though a little warmer than the day before, and sunny, it was still a little brisker than the 70 degree day we last Thursday. This Spring the weather has been all over the place, which I suppose is typical for New Jersey.
Dan described the footprint of the project with his office in the knot. In one direction, it goes to the Cure Arena, including the historic Eagle Tavern and Griffin Electric buildings, and in the other direction to Cass Street and the area with Holy Cross. I took a lot of pictures, but only wrote four pages of notes.
As we walked towards the arena we passed the former police station. Dan explained it was built when the police used horses. It is not currently being used and the county is in talks to acquire it. As I stood there looking at the building I imagined it as the future home of the historical society. With convenient parking across the street at the arena it has a lot of potential. It could be a gem.
On the corner is what I think of as the flatiron Griffith Building, as in Griffith Electric. Dan told us in 1872 it was the sales office for the Oyster Cracker Company. The county is in talks to purchase it and use it, perhaps as a restaurant.
make sure every parking lot has dual purposes. He pointed to the empty parking lot by the Cure Arena and said he hopes to turn this into a Farmers Market that would attract people from the suburbs into Trenton.
In front of this modern building is an obelisk stone post marking the trail George Washington took during the Revolutionary War with his troops. There are about a dozen of them in Mercer County. One was pointed out to my group on a tour around Port Mercer last Spring. They are easy to ignore, but once they are pointed out to you, you begin to notice the other ones.
After that sad note, Dan focused on some successes. The block that includes the Trenton Social Club has night clubs, an Hispanic radio station, and office space. Almost every part of the building is leased except for a music performance space that shares a liquor license with Trenton Social.
We cut through the arena parking lot that is used for jury parking. New Jersey Realtors is a redevelopment project that resides here. Further down the street is the Van Sciver Building. The medieval façade is a Trenton landmark, and will be kept. Though it looks like a church, it was the home of Van Scriver Furniture. The plans are to turn it into a mixed use building, including housing. We did not walk down that far.
Across the street is what is referred to as the smokestack property. The plan envisions creating a plaza. Roebling two was scheduled to take place, but the funding fell through. It actually felt good to have some reality included in our walk. Life is not perfect.
We cut between the Roebling Market and the Roebling Building on a hardscaped area officially called Millyard Park. I like the area. Though it was empty that afternoon, I could picture the space filled with street musicians, children running around, maybe even some skateboarding taking place on the cobblestones. Filled with benches, and next to the market, it has potential to enjoy a snack outside on a nice day.
projects in Trenton. It has so much potential! Until just before the pandemic it was only used a few days a year to house Art All Night, a 24-hour art festival that has since moved to the War Memorial. It used to be the home of the Trenton Circus Squad. Dan said it will receive a new roof and windows this year. The hope is it becomes a civic space hosting multiple events every year.
building. He pointed to an empty lot he plans to turn into a new park, raised to the level of where we are standing so cars don't run into it. A real park that will be maintained and not simply an empty lot.
At the turning point of our tour is the former senior center that is being rehabbed into a new senior center to be reopened using county money.
Across the street is a hole in the ground with sidewalks blocked off by ugly chain link fences. They are using eminent domain to take over the space and convert it into off-street parking to offset the space taken by the bicycle lanes. The end goal is that pedestrians and bicyclists will have priority over cars. I think they also recognize that if there is not enough off-street parking, people will not travel from the suburbs and support the businesses.
We popped into Casa Cultura, which is housed in the former Polish Falcons building. Nothing so succinctly tells the story of the demographic changes that have happened to Trenton as that can do. Today the space is home to the cutest coffee shop (Trenton Roasters), a podcast studio and is the home of Latino Arts and Culture. They have a cozy space where they are conducting oral histories, a project that started when their director, Samuel, was working on a project through The College of New Jersey about Trenton's Hispanic population and found no resources. Now he is working to create them.
We said our goodbyes in the parking lot near our cars. Across Route 129 is the state prison. This parking lot is used as an overflow lot when Trenton Thunder has students taking school buses to the games (the drivers hang out here, not the students), so it serves a purpose from time to time. Mostly it is vacant. It is also deceptively large, as in several acres. I think I remember him saying it it eight acres, but by then I had put away my notebook. Certainly large enough for another housing project. One with parking (especially for those popular games). But something has to be done about the view of the prison. And people would need to feel safe.
Between this, a presentation I recently heard about 120 East State Street (which I did not blog about because I did not take notes), seeing shows at Mill Hill Playhouse, and the Downtown Fit Running group I am feeling more connected to our capitol city. I want them to thrive. There is a lot of potential. They have been on the cusp for decades. May this be the time it truly happens.
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