Township officials today announced that they will be revitalizing the downtown area – and they want your input.
Among the suggestions already brought forth, is converting Town Square into a parking lot.
Watch the video below from Rabbi Moshe Zev Weisberg.
Town Square attracts drunks with open containers
They want our suggestions here but won’t listen to them when we beg them to stop overbuilding?
Very nice of them but keep your backhanded slaps to yourself
I have an office on Clifton between first and second street. As a young woman I am petrified of being outside of the office building alone at any time of day. When I come to work in the morning I often find people passed out on the sidewalk.
During the day, if I want to grab some food it feels very unsafe and I get shouted at or approached for money. I’m afraid to park in the municipal parking lot because it feels too hidden and no one will see if I’m in danger.
It’s often hard to find parking on Clifton and I will waste a lot of time trying to find a spot close enough and out in the open. I’m not sure what can be done but it’s definitely not safe to be out there alone.
I been in Lakewood all my life I don’t think they will harm you because all they want is a drink and drugs and a couple of dollars to get it Don’t get me wrong there is a couple of loose canans out there but during the day they on safe mood
Please, please, please do not put in a parking lot! There is so much potential in a shared public space and the last thing we need is more cars in the downtown!
Here are some suggestions for improving the square:
– Replant the trees (bonus points for native species)
– Plant flowers and shrubs that will fill in at various times around the year
– Add some benches and chairs
– Add dining outdoor options (tables and chairs, umbrellas)
– Add a water feature or an art sculpture as a focal point
– Update lighting throughout the square (soft yellow light is aesthetically pleasing and welcoming)
– Add places for people to lock up their bikes and scooters
– Garbage cans
– Water fountains
– Lending library
– Community events like night markets, seasonal events, etc. (For example, fruit and vegetable stands throughout the growing season, or art or music events, shiurim, etc.)
In other words, make it as welcoming as possible and allow everyone to use it how they want (as long as they aren’t bothering or harming anyone, of course.) Make biking, walking, skating, scootering, etc. through and past the square a comfortable experience.
Another thing that will encourage a steady flow of foot and bike traffic (a key to making a place feel safe) is to make sure the edges of the square are facing storefronts and other doors and windows. This is what Jane Jacobs called “eyes on the street” and it can make or break the feeling of a park or square. The reason it’s primarily used by homeless people is because no one else feels welcome there. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy, where, once people see certain types of people they want to avoid, they stop coming, and it becomes a “homeless hangout spot.”
Lakewood’s square is a historic place, one that can be revived to host its residents in new street life. It would be a crying shame to pave its classic bricks over with ugly asphalt just so more people can drive their cars into the downtown, a practice that will certainly not improve the already rampant congestion!
Leaning into the fact that this is a public space will encourage more people to linger there, making it safer and more welcoming for everyone.
A parking lot will gut the heart of downtown even more, and make traffic worse than it already is.
The answer is never more cars!
Lakewood isn’t a tourist town, we don’t need places for people to hang out. Lakewood isn’t Atlantic City, it is geared for other purposes.
We have lots of parks, and if we need more parks, build more.
But the downtown is not supposed to be a place to hang out, it is a place of business.
I agree 100% with you. Why take away a the town square it’s been there for as long as can remember. It’s bad enough all the fun things out town use to do no longer happen . I drive through other towns they decorate for all occasions. We don’t even do that anymore. This is a multi cultural area it should be treated equally for all of us. To much traffic and we are becoming over populated. .
Why do they only do this close to elections?
Let’s have elections more often!
Get rid of all of the homeless addicts who litter the streets. They make our wives and daughters feel incredibly unsafe. And no, informing them of programs or handing them vouchers won’t cut it. Remove them and ensure that they never come back. The rights of addicts and homeless people cannot trump the right of the citizens of this town to a clean and safe downtown area.
Can they make it a 2 lane road?
Turn Town Square into parking?
No….
This is the place where community events can take place.
Rather than a parking lot…….police the area for those causing problems for our community.
How convenient that the township officials decide to revitalize, a few days before elections. Oh, and tuition relief too. Yeah, right…
Another parking lot? After a short walk recently downtown it’s very obvious what’s needed to revitalize the downtown area. I remember township workers walking around picking up trash strewn around now….no one does it. There is garbage everywhere… it’s just plain dirty. Walking towards the bus terminal the sidewalk is buckled so badly it looks like a volcano if an elderly person was to fall they could really get hurt. I don’t see how covering town square with a parking lot could possibly make the area look any better.
Please please please fix the brick side walks. Some are missing or have raised up to the point you can trip and fall.
Gee, you gonna make Red Square into a parking lot. How much money did the town fathers spend to change it FROM a parking lot INTO Red Square?? Yes, I remember that.
Why is so much emphasis put on issues that hardly matter to the residents of Lakewood and they totally ignore the real issues that affect all residents on a daily basis?
The downtown is an obsolete concept and no more money should be wasted trying to revitalize a outdated concept.
Bingo
Let’s all relax and remember we are still in galus
Busy beautifying our town !!
Sick
I think they should take away all the street parking and convert clifton st to a 2 lane. The missing parking should be made up by converting town square into a parking lot. By doing this it will greatly ease the traffic on clifton and the 9.
yes!!
Down Town’s are suppose to have slower traffic because more people walk through them.
Slower traffic means that it safer to walk and cross streets.
Down Town’s are not suppose to be speed ways.
I agree
Most stores have a back access to municipal parking lots. If those entrance can be transformed into the main entrances to stores in a uniformed appealing way then each block will have they feel of its own shopping plaza and shoppers won’t have to walk through the streets where they feel vulnerable.
+1
TWO LANES IN BOTH DIRECTIONS.
Only then can you solve the Cedarbridge parking lot.
Getting the liquor store out of the area would definitely help
A parking garage
Bring back Tent City – get the homeless off the streets and out of your way.
Change zoning laws to allow stores like Aldi and Dollar Tree in walking distance of the apartment buildings.
Hire Elon Musk to build a hyperloop to Brooklyn.
Hold off, Herschel Hershkowitz has been advocating this for the past fifteen years.
Vote hi in, and he’ll have it done right and economically.
I tried posting two comments criticizing the current administration but they were not posted, I suggest that they were doing this close to an election and the best choice is the person that has been suggesting idea all along but it wasn’t posted, I wonder why?
We need more parking down town!!!!!!
Business there are chocking. It’s embarrassing to habe all drug addicts by twin square
On the same topic of traffic, paving, and parking… Why don’t we just close up lake Carasaljo and get rid of all parks and green areas so that we can accommodate more cars and housing in this beautiful little town?