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Re: Slums of Cliffside Park
Posted By: Hot East In Response To: Re: Slums of Cliffside Park (BARBARA GERALD)
Date: Tuesday, 5 April 2005, at 12:09 a.m.
Barbara,
Sadly, many of the people responsible for the decay and urbanization aren't the ones who have the responsibility to keep the overall properties maintained. Many of the homes were multiple dwellings which may be owned by non-resident landlords. The money goes into their pockets rather than into keeping the buildings and grounds maintained.
Some days I think I'm going to find chickens walking up and down the street in between the cars and jitney busses. I can't pin this all on the landlords. "Back in the day," people cared more. The immigrants we got from Italy, Yugoslavia and many other places cared about their living environment as much as their outward images of themselves. It was also a time where the man could save a decent amount working a factory job in Edgewater or Ridgefield, and not have to work a second or even third job. The woman would raise the family, or do embroidery work or ride the bus to a housekeeping job as supplemental income. After working that hard, you wanted to have a nice-looking place. Now, you have to work so much that fixing things can get away from even the handiest people.
Evenings were spent at home, and when it was warm, everyone would sit outside and you would meet your neighbors. Some you liked, others, maybe not so much, but at least you knew who they were. That's how I remembered it. If you go "down the shore," there are still neighborhoods where people know each other and at least come up to the fence to speak. Not here anymore. Now houses are sealed up tight. Back then it was suspicious. The people who lived in those sealed houses must have been witches! Now it's the norm. Nobody goes outside unless it's to the car. People come and go so fast that you can hardly establish a sense of community. I can't blame that part totally on the immigrants, either.
With all of the finger pointing between tenants and landlords - there was a great message posted here before about how the borough should scoop out garbage that stuck to the bottom of a trashcan because the building super won't clean the garbage cans... and the tenant won't clean their garbage cans, so the only one left is the borough (surely they have to clean all of the cans because it's no one else's job) - there has to be a ton of money to be made with code enforcement. But the borough writes letters, just as the neighbors can do, and may even write tickets showing a little more teeth than a simple letter can, too. But if no one feels that it's their civic obligation to clean up and be presentable, then no one will (and the borough will be in court forever trying to collect on the fines).
That's all just my opinion; I could be wrong.
This whole thing is not one person or group's fault. It's been a downward spiral in which one side slips a little, then the other slips and so on. Each time, the limits are pushed and someone finds that nothing happens if they start raising chickens and goats on their porch. Eventually it's exhibited as decay. Then, the structures come down and a $750,000 duplex is erected on the property. The people who didn't care for the property in the first place pocket all of the money from it.
Gotta love it.
BTW, dear, please turn your capitals off. You made great points and I completely empathize with how you feel, but the caps made it difficult to read.
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