Gentrification Concerns Discussed at Montclair Fourth Ward Meeting

MONTCLAIR, NJ - Montclair Fourth Ward Councilor Aminah Toler held her second community meeting on September 17 at the Montclair Fire Department headquarters and had new presentations for her constituents from departments other than the departments who presented information about their responsibilities back at her first meeting in July.

The residents, in turn, gave a presentation of their own, talking about how new luxury-apartment construction and greedy landlords have been pricing out long-time Fourth Ward residents.

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Councilor Toler began, ironically, by citing development and redevelopment projects in the Fourth Ward presently up for review, listing properties that are slated for new construction. Two properties on Mission Street are to be reviewed by the Zoning Board of Adjustment – 61 Mission Street for conversion into a single-family home from a duplex, and 86 Mission Street for space for the adjacent First Seventh-
Day Adventist Church for its education programs. Two other properties up for review by the Zoning Board are 10 Enfield Avenue, for a two-story addition, and 5 Wheeler Street and 400 Orange Road for subdivisions, the latter sparking huge controversy for a plan to build multiple townhouses on the property that used to be the Wallwood Gardens nursery.

A community meeting organized by opponents of the project is scheduled for Monday, September 23, at 6:30 P.M. Councilor Toler also said
that the council plans to name a developer for the Lackawanna Plaza project, but multiple lawsuits against it have delayed it indefinitely.

Then, Montclair Nursing Director Maragaret Brodowski led a presentation of the work of the Department of Health and Human Services, citing numerous activities the department is involved in. Among its duties are overseeing the Section 8 housing voucher program, senior services, running the animal shelter, and facilitating vaccinations for local residents. The department has also distributed health education and disease awareness materials on a regular basis and has collaborated with the Montclair Ambulance unit for first aid training in dealing with opioids and has instigated or participated in various public health screenings, including immunization programs for the uninsured and blood pressure screenings for seniors. The department is also involved in screening for lead in houses, encouraging the testing of pregnant women and children at one and two years of age. Some lead cases are monitored for years depending on the severity of the situation.

Austin Ashley, the current director of the Montclair Department of Community Services (DCS), gave a presentation for his department. He concentrated primarily on refuse and recycling, saying that residents could get an application on their devices, the Recycle Coach App, that provides information on what can be recycled and/or thrown out and what cannot. But he did go into further detail at this meeting; according to DCS guidelines, paper, plastic bottles, bare metal, can be dropped off at the DCS yard at 219 North Fullerton Avenue on Saturdays between 9:00 A.M. and 1:00 P.M., with regular recycling pickup on Thursdays; garbage pickup is every Tuesday and Friday, and bulk pickup is every second and fourth Wednesday. Ashley also advised residents how to avoid rodents, urging them to secure bags and garbage can lids and waiting until 6:00 P.M. the night before pickup to put out garbage. Bags in boxes are not permissible to use for placing mixed paper in because they can break in open in inclement weather and bags can be blown across streets on windy days.

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Also, Emanuel Germano of the Montclair Parking Utility updated residents about the department’s activities. He said that the license plate numbers on cars are now registered to serve as permits so that parking rules and regulations can more easily be enforced, and the utility now follows a grid system to police the township. The parking utility covers certain parts of Montclair based on the grid on a day-by-day basis. One resident of Brooklawn Road, a small side street Montclair shares with Glen Ridge, asked about street sweeping, another DCS responsibility, and insisted that Brooklawn Road is rarely swept by the township and residents must sweep it themselves. DCS representatives lamented that Montclair has only one street-sweeping truck and there are no shared-service agreements with other towns to sweep streets, but Ashley did say that there is communication with other towns over the possibility of settingup such a deal.

In general questions and comments, resident Sarah Avery said that more people in town and the Fourth Ward in particular needed more ways of obtaining township information, since not everyone can attend a community meeting, and said that the township needed to send more mailers to residents to accommodate those less computer-literate. But most of the comments at this meeting concerned gentrification of the Fourth Ward. Avery cited numerous properties on New, Mission, and Washington Streets – traditionally locations of lower-middle-income housing – were being purchased by landlords and rented out for rates beyond most people’s ability to pay them. She cited two new houses at 10 and 12 Washington Street, both offering rental units. The two houses replaced decrepit houses along what has long been a street with lower-middle income housing that was once anchored by St. Vincent’s Hospital and is now anchored by the Bullock School.

While the newly constructed houses have been an improvement for the neighborhood, the rents have not. Affordable housing is defined as housing costing no more than 30 percent of a person’s annual income; to afford the monthly $6,000 rent for the new Washington Street properties, a tenant would have to make $240,000 a year – hardly “affordable” for longtime residents of the Eastern Gateway area.

One Fourth Ward resident lamented that she makes too little money to afford to live on her own and that she and her mother are facing eviction. The general complaint from residents was that while Montclair Center was thriving and bringing in profits for the town, Fourth Ward residents were seeing none of the profits and benefits of such businesses, and families who have lived in Montclair for generations are increasingly priced out by rising rents caused by gentrification. Resident Bonnie Fogel urged recognition of the unique predicament the Fourth Ward faces as the bulk of new construction of luxury units is centralized in the ward while the other wards, already more affluent, reap the benefits of Montclair’s economic success.

Councilor Toler reminded her constituents that she stood for election to the council to address those same issues, and she urged residents to bring their concerns to council meetings so that the full council could hear them. Councilor Toler also told the young woman facing eviction that she would speak to her personally about her situation.

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