3/5/05. Revised as a result of your input on 3/6/05, 3/15/05,
3/17/05, 3/28/2005,3/29/05,3/30/05,4/5/05
A plan to revitalize Phillipsburg
What we might become
an overview
Phillipsburg is a town where seniors
live. Seniors have fewer cars and no children to educate.
This
will keep taxes low. There is educational opportunity in the
senior service trades and entrepreneurship.
Phillipsburg has a special lease option
for the aged even in R1 zoning (Be my health aide and handyman and I’ll
give you a deal on the rent).
Downtown is a senior market. Good prices. Magic
finds especially in antiques, art and handycraft . And the students
can fix anything. A full range of restaurants. “Assisted
living motels” for senior tourists at Union Square. A nice
place to live. A nice place to visit.
The demographics of Phillipsburg
The groups
The poor. Federal Housing houses
a large group of citizens of Phillipsburg. They are a market for
handy shopping, used clothing and re conditioned goods. They want
public transportation. We want them to have jobs. They are
a responsibility of Phillipsburg. Phillipsburg would be improved
if we could provide them with a path to end their dependence. Designs
that displace them by moving them from our ghetto to another town’s ghetto
are immoral. Take care of our own!
The resident working middle class. They
cannot afford tax increases. They need the RCA program and Norwescap
to continue. They need the ratio between rich and poor housing to stay
where it is. They are our biggest single group and the most
silent. They made themselves heard a few years ago when by public
referendum they voted that you cannot condemn occupied properties whether
residential or commercial. As part of the market they will continue to
shop at shopping centers.
The upwardly mobile working middle class.
They are market for art, hand craft, handicraft and antiques.
They also enjoy bargain hunting. They will bring their friends to
the downtown. They want commuter trains. They are more concerned
with increasing property values than keeping taxes low. They want town
pride and safety.
The senior middle class. They are a market
for anything fun and convenient. Price matters. They use public transportation.
They do not want tax increases. It would be wise to increase the
size of this group as they use fewer cars and do not have school age children.
The downtown merchants. They want the
museum and other things that draw people to the downtown. They want the
municipal building moved downtown. They aren’t concerned with
increasing taxes.
The developers. They want increasing
values and hence ultimately work for upper class trade and commuter rail
service. Tax increases are unimportant. The developers are
willing to give money and trade profits for meeting our needs.
With the right developer it’s better than bonds.
The absentee landlords. They want no trouble.
The Heritage Group. They want a large
museum.
The miniature railroad group. They want
a museum.
The sightseeing train group. They have
their sightseeing train. That makes them allied with the downtown merchants.
The town government. They want to actually
accomplish something (but it appears no one has been able to put together
a description acceptable to all).
Carolyn Neighbor wants the elimination of
bottlenecks and congestion. This receives much lip service and little action.
The railroads want to freeze Phillipsburg.
I consider them the mutual enemy.
The joint toll commission wants to increase
inconvenience to circumventing the toll on the toll bridge. Hence
they do not remove the bottleneck on the free bridge. This is contrary
to the people’s will.
arguments
I am a member of the senior resident group.
I believe I represent the poor and the resident working middle class as
well. We compose a much larger majority than the vocal groups.
The Town Council was responsive to us when we forced a public referendum
on redevelopment. More recently they have been responsive to the
vocal groups.
The swing group is the upwardly mobile middle
class. They strengthen the vocal groups. The developers are
allied with them.
The as yet unspoken but major issue is
taxes. The solution (as it has always been) is to increase the number of
new people paying taxes to more than offset the new expenses without displacing
the present residents. Contrary to master plan statements, we have
sufficient undeveloped properties.
The appeal of
“Health and welfare lease option for the aged in R1zoning even if age
restricted ”
There’s a certain amount of the fear that if
your house is too crowded then the town is falling apart. This causes the
town to legislate what is overcrowded. Some of the best ideas are put aside
because of this. One of them was made by AARP a few years ago. It goes
like this.
I can live well on a social security check
if I don’t have to support my house. I can support my house by renting
part of it.
“No, no“, shouts the councilman. “I fear overcrowding!
”
Just another old Guy bites the dust, selling
his home because he can’t afford it. After he sells everything he can be
supported by Medicaid. Oh the joy of being supported by the state at a
means to which he has never become accustomed. Old guys never die they
just fade away.
So here’s a local ordinance for you. Even
though you live in an R1 zoned district you can have a tenant under a health
exception (R1 is single family residential).
If you are over 55 years old even if you live
in an R1 district you can have a tenant if and only if they supply you
with specified health assistance and specified repair and maintenance of
the building. (Be my health aide and handyman and I’ll give you a deal
on the rent)
Now the property is never run down and you
are never run down. Realistically you get a few more years of living with
independence, the neighbors get a nice neighbor and your tenant gets introduced
to something I might call God. Everybody gets more than they paid for.
Why we want a senior development
The developer’s first proposal is to build
expensive unrestricted housing. His proposal of 400 unrestricted units
collecting $7000.00 each (in taxes) would give us tax revenue of $2.8 million.
Because we are an Abbott district it costs only $2500.00 more than we get
from the state and Phillipsburg taxes a year to educate a child. Unless
the development brings in more than 1100 students we will end up with a
net gain.
However, with a senior restriction we gain
all $2.8 million.
We would also have the opportunity to be first
to develop a senior friendly town with all its economic advantages.
We would be first to offer “health and welfare
lease option for the aged in R1zoning even if age restricted ”. The argument
showing how it helps seniors has already been made. But it helps
the developer as well. The zoning does not exist in any other community.
It would add a premium to all houses sold to seniors. It would add
a special premium to houses built specifically for assisted living by way
of the lease option.
The proposed low cost senior housing
built on Cherry Alley (with the lease option in mind) which should market
at $100,000.00 will get $140,000.00. We could become a model other
communities copied.
Our South Main Street merchants will prosper.
Seniors don’t run to malls like youngsters. They will go downtown
for entertainment, shopping, eating and healthcare. When they go back to
their 55-year-old restricted housing, there will be a few young people
around (even with a rare child or two) because the town has its “health
and welfare lease option for the aged in R1zoning even if age restricted
”. But they will not be overwhelmed by children.
There are more 55-year-old people (baby boomers)
than ever before. Many do not want to be in a separated leisure town for
seniors. Most would prefer assistance in their home to assisted living
institutions.
the other groups
The Heritage Group loses.
The miniature railroad gets to run its railroad
across the Delaware to connect with Pennsylvania attractions.
The present single family homeowners get what
they want most which none of the other plans deliver; namely no increase
in taxes because there is an increase in ratables to more than cover museum
facilities and no education costs associated with the quarter million dollar
homes.
The merchants still get a market increased
by the seniors who move into town and the chance to draw the rich with
their labor intensive products of craft and art.
The under employed will have the advantage
of an apprentice school system. Fair practices will give them a chance
to upgrade to entrepreneur while keeping their day job.
The poor will have the advantage of employment
but this is not unique with my proposal.
Both the landlords with health and welfare
leases and the absentee landlords get less trouble by using fair practices
for property maintenance (through the school) and fair practice leasing
agreements.
The merchants get a bigger market of residents,
the draw of the museum, and fair practices to make it work.
The physical plan
Please note that this plan uses no occupied residential or business
properties.
Union Square
Request the bridge commission to reline Union
Square and to consider some light grading in order to decongest the present
bottleneck. The bottleneck is unnecessary and, if left unchanged,
will serve no purpose but to put pressure on the population to use the
pay bridge[C5].
Two more diagrams are included to show a two-stage
pedestrian crossing. This would make the intersection pedestrian
friendly[C6] and never stop flow across the bridge[C7].
The plan to pay the other way would
congest the Easton side of the bridge instead of the Phillipsburg side.
In addition all the westbound New York City truck traffic would be going
through Phillipsburg.
A criticism.
The new master plan encourages cooperation
with the bridge commission by increasing the difficulty of circumventing
the toll bridge. Rather they should respond to the will of the people
and make the flow through Union Square easier.
The mayor’s location for the transportation museum.
The new reduced size museum will be open at
the same hours the excursion ride down the Delaware is open. There
will be indoor displays at the train station and the signal power on both
sides of the black bridge. Definitely we wish to contact model railroaders.
In the future the area west of South Main
between the hot railroad lines might hold some railroad cars (if we can
get them cheap) because it’s useless for anything else. It will add something
to poke at and will give a nice view from the signal power.
Out of this reduced museum site the miniature
railroad will cross the Delaware over the old deserted railroad bridge.
The bridge will be widened with light framing so that it also carries a
walking path. Crossing the Delaware by miniature train will have a wonderful
view that includes the entrance to the Morris Canal with as much thrill
as a Ferris wheel. The fee could possibly make the museum self-sustaining
especially if you consider the volunteer nature of our miniature railroad
people and model railroaders.
This will connect us to Easton and all it
means. It will put some parking in Easton relieving some congestion through
Union Square and South Main Street.) It would be hoped that both Easton
and Phillipsburg would have connecting bus services (and appropriate deals)
for tourists. This also may attract federal money if Easton were to consider
some refurbishment on their side of the river (they have already decided
to upgrade their Canal museum to include models).
Also on the mayor’s site build a municipal
building on the piece of property south of the hot lines. We
could trade the present Municipal Building to the developer for a new one
on this plot. This will gain a ratable. I believe it is preferred to the
former Catholic school at Stockton and South Main (I like the old look
better but can’t win them all).
The developer including Union Square
Give us a walking/biking park with prayer stops
in the flood plain, a park on the river side of Howard Street to separate
the expensive housing from the Howard Street industrialism , low cost
senior housing designed with the health and welfare option in mind on Cherry
Alley (enough units to maintain a rich/poor housing ratio in order
to continue receiving all of our state benefits), a municipal building
with parking and landscaping, restore the signal power and
train station at the black bridge, build the Delaware River cross over
on the existing deserted railroad line and the developer can have
the old municipal building, Delaware Park and the old transport Museum
site for age restricted over 55 condominium/homes of his choosing. Keep
a reduced size (Delaware Park) parking lot for the flood plain park users.
Howard Street is wide enough for diagonal
parking on the park side. The public/private status of the Howard Street
Park is negotiable.
As far as developing the Union Square parcel
it must be linked with a significant decongestion plan (it must be made
clear to the developer that no plan will be approved that increases
congestion through Union Square). The two lanes always into Easton
plan is only a catch up.
The decongestion plan would involve a second
crossing of the railroad[D1]. It would take traffic off Broad Street
near the pay bridge exits to the parking garage and its “top of the world”
profitable accompaniment as well as carrying the present Riverside Way
traffic.
Only if the trucking company is agreeable,
then more senior housing is possible along River Way by a land trade off
that moves the trucking company into Ingersoll. This would move the
second railroad crossing to North of the Health center.
The railroad must be forced to deal with us.
A united mayor and town Council might have a chance with a lawyer like
Mike Perrucci coupled with a first class PR person. It is in Mike’s interest
for he wishes to be the developer. We should tie his services into our
deal.
the health and welfare lease option for the aged
If you are over 55 years
old even if you live in an R1 district you can have a tenant if and only
if they supply you with specified health assistance and specified repair
and maintenance of the building. (Be my health aide and handyman
and I’ll give you a deal on the rent)
The purpose of this option is
to create property that Modern Maturity has cited as an advantageous senior
residence frequently disallowed by municipal zoning.
build low cost senior housing specifically designed for the option
Consider the deserted railroad right of way
bordering Cherry Alley (it runs between Howard and Mercer Streets.
If you include Cherry Alley it measures 130 ft. more are less.
Zone this area R1 for seniors .
Refer to the 3 enclosed sketches to see the
condos a developer could build on this right of way. Make a package
of this development on the railroad right of way with expensive senior
condos on the railroad museum site. I believe it is a sweet deal for a
good developer because; 1) these condos can draw a premium price for their
small size because of option , 2) they are marketable to seniors who own
a home (cash cows), and 3) the railroad museum site is suitable for high
priced senior housing .
A criticism
The new master plan contains the goal of increasing
the average per capita income by discouraging things that increase density.
Doing this would increase taxes, lose our RCA, Norwescap subsidies, our
state school subsidy, and our title rental subsidy. I allege that it discriminates
against a large minority if not a majority (the poor, the seniors and the
resident working class) of the residents in favor of a vocal minority (the
merchants and the upwardly mobile) of Phillipsburg. I allege that values
can go up more by good planning then decreasing density.
Institutional pathway for empty storefronts, the poor and the
old
Develop people and they will develop business
Phillipsburg School of Commerce
A division of Warren County Community College
The school will have no physical location.
There will be a registrar operating from a home with a phone and a computer.
The program will coordinate records of masters, landlords, workers, specialty
teachers, apprentices, contractors, and more. It will be an elaborate program
capable of putting the right people in contact with each other, keeping
credit records, even containing basic knowledge of course work.
It will be a hands on school leaning heavily
on low paid seniors consulting with students running their own operation,
apprentices learning from senior masters who teach by showing, and by the
occasional professional necessary for accountability. Credits will be earned
by evaluations, tests, and operation of successful business deals. It will
be a useful accredited education at a lower price than presently exists.
In the event that the school fills the town with successful merchants and
manufacturers, then the graduates stay and the school moves.
The school will also track property of mixed
use and businesses for sale so students can buy in learn and then sell.
From The Bottom Up! Work habit will be learned by working for
students. There will be piecework, minimum wage day work and finally poorly
paying legal sweatshop work (those factories on Stockton Avenue). This
should make them ready to be clerks, construction workers, office workers,
or factory workers...OR GO ON TO
Apprenticeships
with seniors can be arranged through the school so that a person with a
proven work habit can learn a skill, Credits would be by contract. You
could become a plumber, artist, electrician, crafter, tailor, seamstress,
repair man, restorer, or cook...or you could take your credits AND
With your
own little store, manufacturing space, or restaurant and the instruction
of seniors and an occasional over priced professional, construction workers
become contractors, clerks become merchants, factory workers become manufacturers,
cooks become restaurateurs and everyone is ready and credentialed for entry
level management.
Fair practices
Simple functioning contracts.
“Due process” however essential as a bottom
line of practice, is tedious .The backbone of “fair practices” is that
it forgoes due process in favor of binding arbitration, the arbitration
guided by fair practices. Call the arbitrator, Mark Portnoy (for now).
After the parties of the contract select to
insert a fair practices clause Mark Portnoy advises them as to the normality
or abnormality of the contract as a “friend” of the contract. A security
deposit would be accessible by Mark Portnoy rather than one of the parties
of the contract. If he is asked to do anything more than release money
he takes $100.00 for the UEZ as an arbitration fee. Certainly “due process”
can be invoked against a decision, but it will begin by a recognized breach
of contract.
The centerpiece of the arts and crafts plan
“ Fair practice” is required
Let’s start with one problem as an example.
There are eleven vacant storefronts from the black bridge to Jefferson
Street.
Ask the Merchants Association to orchestrate
a loose net agreement so that all eleven stores are always open at a specific
time; for example every Saturday between two and 5:00 PM. make the agreement
consistent with “fair practice ”. Let all storefronts sell labor-intensive
product (art, handicraft and more).
A proprietor rents one of these storefronts.
He signs a “ fair practice” lease.
The terms of the lease might include one year’s
rent in advance of $3600. The landlord is happy.
The proprietor signs a “fair practice” partnership
with 5 knitting women and 1 want-to-be artist. They say they want
to sell knitting (what they really want is social activity with pride).
They each pay $600.00 up front (which pays the rent). They get their place
with 50 Saturdays of sales.
The six people work as partners.
They may be seniors or people who don’t want to leave their day job.
Whoever makes the sale gets 20%, 10% goes to the business under the proprietor’s
control and the maker of the product gets 70%. They may hang
around the store knitting. They may just choose to hang out and have
coffee. All these things simply get the store opened more than the
minimum 2 to 5 on Saturday. The proprietor’s contract with the partners
obliges him to be the salesperson for three hours every Saturday for 50
Saturdays. He can keep his day job.
The proprietor might also be a student with
a “ fair practice” contract with Warren County Community College. When
the student completes the course he will receive nine credits. His
minimum attendance is 50 Saturdays of three hours each. There is some judgment
by a teacher or a journeyman (if he is considered an apprentice).
He is expected to innovate, that is spend that 10% money effectively.
The proprietor is still responsible to the
landlord and the Merchants Association to be open from 2:00-5:00 PM on
Saturday. How the electric bill gets paid, the operating details,
are his responsibilities.
If he is a student he wants to learn all these details
including how to solicit money and partners. With a “ fair contract”
with his partners he can do business.
The backbone of the partnership is “fair
practices. The backbone of “fair practices” is that it forgoes due
process in favor of binding arbitration.
It might contain an agreement between the
landlord, the proprietor, the partners and an arbitrator something like
this; a security deposit would consist of $50.00 from each partner,
$300.00 from the proprietor and $50.00 from the landlord. Rather
than being accessible by the landlord it would be accessible by Mr. Portnoy.
There would be a clause in the contract that forgoes due process in favor
of binding arbitration by Mr. Portnoy. If he is asked to do anything
more than release money he takes $100.00 for the UEZ as an arbitration
fee.
The centerpiece of the service business
A fair practices guarantee contract is required
Those people who cannot work with others
frequently find themselves in business for themselves fixing things.
They fix bicycles, appliances, tools, furniture, toys, clothing, and all
those things sold at big prices at malls. Flea market freaks (including
many seniors and poor people) buy these things, but when you go to a flea
market you cannot get a guarantee.
Our people will fix your broken things and
when they don’t have enough to do fix something lying around their shop.
After all on Saturday between 2 and 5 Phillipsburg will be a marketplace.
The problem is always the guarantee.
If you buy from “ a guarantee store” and you
return the defective merchandise within fifteen days the proprietor will
return the receipted amount or tell us (the insurer) and we will return
90% of your money. This beats every flea market. This will involve
a “fair practice” contract (probably with a seizure clause from insurer
upon proprietor).
Tailor made fair practices
For the tinker who wants to learn to work with
others there could be an apprenticeship arrangement with a senior journeyman
and Warren County Community College. Our community might be able to preserve
some fading skills (for example we probably still have some seniors who
know stone work and black iron).
Certainly many a landlord can use a repairman
who can repair anything. Call the school for an apprentice tinker!
The drunk and disabled Prayer path
It is my tradition to always include something more than you will give.
People receiving permanent disability
live in a catch 22. They are bored by inactivity and cannot afford
to work.
A fakir is a person who lives off of alms
that he solicits for praying for you. In old India the useless could
live as fakirs (there was no permanent disability). Certainly some
took and did not pray (They were called fakers). Let our permanently disabled
supplement their activity and income as fakirs (or fakers, for mystery
is part of faith).
There is a holy place at the South end of
the Delaware Park walking trail. (I personally pray there). To get
there you have to walk south on the walking trail (but it could be anywhere
in the new flood plain Park).
On Saturdays between two and five in
the summer allow fakirs with fair practice (I promise to be sober) permits
on the prayer walking trail. It will give our disabled
something to do, pray for others. It will give tourists something
to do, ask for prayers. Besides, I suspect this holy place of healing.
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