West End - Ledger - West End gets $100K to plan its resurgence

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Published in the Star-Ledger

West End gets $100K to plan its resurgence

Friday, May 26, 2006

BY MIKE KARSNAK
Star-Ledger Staff

Mary Barnett, a resident of the West End of Plainfield for the past 40 years, longs for her old community.

"We need the neighborhood to be cleaner and safer, so we can sit out on our porches like we used to," Barnett said.

Barnett, 86, has seen Plainfield's West End decline over the decades, stricken by crime, poverty and dilapidated housing. Attempts to jump-start the community in the past have been unsuccessful, including the failed plan by the broke School Construction Corporation to build a middle school. Now all that sits in the area on Plainfield Avenue is an empty lot.

Where government has failed, the residents of the West End hope to succeed.

Barnett was one of several residents to attend the opening ceremony yesterday for a new community group called POWER, or the Plainfield Organization for West End Revitalization.

Working with a $100,000 planning grant from Wachovia Bank and help from Homefirst and a division of Rutgers University, they -- collectively known as the POWER Partnership -- hope to begin rebuilding the 4th Ward of the Queen City.

"I think that this part of Plainfield has largely been ignored by the people of the West End," said Curtis Conway, vice president of POWER and a West End resident since 1978. "For it to work, it can't be a political movement, it has to be a people movement."

Along with residents, there were plenty of politicians and corporate representatives on hand at the ceremony yesterday at the Hannah Atkins Community Center. Among those in attendance were Assemblyman Jerry Green (D-Union), Plainfield Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs and 4th Ward Councilman Elliot Simmons.

"The 4th Ward shall be one of the highlights in the City of Plainfield," Robinson-Briggs said. "I'm looking forward to all the wonderful things that are to be done."

"We can no longer talk about issues unless we have solutions," Green said.

The solutions are still in their early stages, however.

After speeches were made and pictures were taken with the large cardboard check, residents were able to sign up for one of six task forces. Each task force focuses on a different area of development: youth services, adult services, neighborhood building, affordable housing, arts programs and economic development.

"The residents have identified six areas that are in need of redevelopment," said Parv Shalov, finance and housing associate for Homefirst, a nonprofit that focuses on providing housing to those in need.

The money from the grant will be used for meeting space, publicity, salaries and other gatherings such as neighborhood barbecues, Shalov said, although she acknowledges that turning planning into action will not be easy.

"You can't just put a Band-Aid on it, it takes a concerted effort," she said.

Part of that effort is Rutgers University's National Center for Neighborhood and Brownfields Redevelopment. The organization will help survey lands in need of redevelopment.

Part of that planning may be a new police station in the area, a medical center and residential and commercial buildings. No plans have been finalized.

"This is something that is going to take five or 10 years," said Henry Moyer, executive director of the Rutgers organization. "But the difference is you now have a community that is interested in making a difference."

The jury is still out on whether this planning grant will turn into actual planning and then to action, but residents and politicians alike are optimistic.

Said longtime West End resident Barnett: "They spoke about exactly what needs to be done."

Mike Karsnak covers Union County. He may be reached at mkarsnak@starledger.com or (908) 302-1503.

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