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You say tomato, I say Thai

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After jumping out to an early 9-1 lead in the early days of the latest poll, Thai held off Japanese to be the choice of Rahway Rising readers:

“What type of restaurant would you like to see downtown?”
Thai 38 percent (17/44)
Japanese 27 percent (12/44)
Indian 15 percent (7/44)
American 9 percent (4/44)
Chinese 4 percent (2/44)
None; plenty as it is, 2 percent (1/44)
Other 2 percent (1/44)
French 0 percent (0/44)

The poll results were record setting, smashing RR’s previous high of 30 votes — a 46-percent increase! (Of course, there’s no way to know if someone just ran around voting from different computers, but we’re on the honors system here!)

The choices in the poll leaned Asian as I tried to avoid offering choices that are already in the area (Portuguese, Mexican, Irish, etc.). Not sure if there’s a Thai, Japanese or Indian place on the way, but the four readers who favored American might be in luck. And to those two who favored Chinese, there’s still hope.

2008 could be the year of the restaurant in Rahway. On top of Cubanu and Luciano’s, another new addition could join the scene. Developers of Carriage City Plaza are in “serious talks with a steakhouse operater that is a New Jersey institution,” according to a representative of Elizabeth-based Silcon Group. “New Jersey institution” — any guesses? My first thought was Tiffany’s, but that’s more known for ribs, no? Another reader suggested Arthur’s, which has three New Jersey locations, none very close to Rahway.

UPDATE: You’ll have to come up with some new guesses. According to a representative of Silcon, they were approached by Tiffany’s and “rejected the concept as not being upscale enough.” Same goes for Arthur’s, though “we never talked to them.”

A 6,000-square-foot steakhouse (more along the lines of a Lone Star) also is planned to accompany a new 72-unit Sleep Inn to be built near the Best Western at East Milton Avenue and Routes 1&9. That project was re-approved by the Planning Board last month after several years of being tied up at the state for waterfront development permits, among other things.

Speaking of the hotel, Silcon is in the final stages of negotiations with a fitness center/spa that will open along with the Hotel Indigo in June. Other potential retail tenants might include a bank, dry cleaner and “several coffee house concepts,” among others. Homeowners are expected to be moving in some time in May. More than 100 of the 209 condos at Sky View have been sold, the representative said, and expect “to be sold out very soon.”

P.S. In case you’re interested, here are Rahway’s presidential primary results from Tuesday night.

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Luciano’s open for business

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Luciano’s Italian Ristorante & Lounge opened for business Thursday after an invitation-only grand opening the previous night. It’s the second restaurant to open downtown in the last month or so, joining Cubanu.
If you’re having trouble finding anything about it on the Web, you’re not alone. A fruitless Google search led me to make a phone call for the Web site, which has a menu (senza prices) and hours, but not much more . A woman answering the phone suggested dinner for two with a bottle of wine might run about $100. Strangely, the Web site displays their location about five blocks too far up Main Street, at Elizabeth Avenue.
The three-story building at Main and Monroe streets also houses 14 rental apartments and had been open for private parties late last year.
Keep an eye out for a review in the coming weeks. Ciao.

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Housing market, bad; rail towns, good

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The Transit-Friendly Development newsletter is one of those wonk-ish things that probably doesn’t get much pub outside of public policy and bureaucratic circles. So, of course, I subscribe.

A joint effort between NJ Transit and the Alan M. Voorhees Transportation Center at Rutgers University, the newsletter publishes three times a year. In the previous edition, it reported on the Town Center plans and has featured Rahway in the past. The January edition reported on a presentation at the League of Municipalities Conference last fall by a real estate appraisal and research group. Basically they said the housing market is a nightmare — with one exception:

“Affected by the strength of the Manhattan housing market, as well as a national trend showing distinct preferences among 20-somethings and baby boomers for live-work-play locations such as New Jersey, one bright spot in this slumping sector is housing in transit-rich locations. While expensive suburban homes languish on the market, with 48 weeks of inventory, housing near locations with excellent rail connections to Manhattan is flourishing with less than a six-month supply of unsold homes.”

The piece fails to mention either the North Jersey Coast Line or Northeast Corridor, instead pointing to Glen Ridge and Montclair on the Montclair-Boonton Line; South Orange, Maplewood, Millburn, Summit and New Providence on the Morris & Essex Gladstone Branch; and Roselle Park, Cranford, Westfield and Fanwood on the Raritan Valley Line.

Granted, most of the towns cited are more affluent than Rahway to begin with. However, say what you will about NJ Transit or its service, the city probably has better rail connections than any of them. It’s one of the few places Rahway can be mentioned in the same breath as those (and one thing it has in common with Summit, which like Rahway is where its two train lines split). While the Morris & Essex line also has a train to Hoboken, the Raritan Valley only goes as far as Newark Penn Station and weekend service doesn’t exist on the Montclair-Boonton.

P.S. The newsletter also has an update on downtown redevelopment efforts further down the Northeast Corridor line in nearby Metuchen.

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Rahway’s ‘Ring of Steel’?

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London has its “Ring of Steel,” New York City is looking into getting its own version, and now a pilot program will bring surveillance cameras to downtown Rahway, starting with the Rahway Center Partnership offices.

The city’s crime rate has dropped considerably in the last decade, according to data from the Uniform Crime Report (UCR), taking a similar pattern to countywide numbers. Compared to 10 years ago (39.1 incidents reported per 1,000 residents), the crime rate in 2006 was down by a third, and has dropped each year since 2001. To put it in perspective, Rahway’s 25.8 rate in 2006 was similar to Union County’s overall figure (25.3), slightly higher than Roselle (23.6), but lower than Union (28.7). It varied compared to its immediate neighbors: Clark (14.7), Linden (32.9), Edison (26.1) and Woodbridge (31.0).

Given all those data, there are still more than a few people I know who aren’t comfortable walking downtown at night. Will cameras help? If something were to occur, you’d think there would be a better chance of getting it on video, but the NFL’s instant replay hasn’t exactly solved every problem. Cameras won’t be much help in the dark, and they didn’t stop the Hat Bandit. At least taxpayers aren’t picking up the tab on this one. It’ll be interesting to see the results of the pilot effort.

With cameras also popping up at intersections to catch motorists running red lights, it seems as if life is getting a little more Orwellian every day. A step closer to life imitating art? And how about the acting police chief’s sounding like a character right out of 1984: “It’s only scary if you have something to hide.”

What do you think? Will cameras help?

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All in favor say aye

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Readers of this blog prefer two-way traffic downtown by a margin of 2-to-1, according to a poll that concluded Friday.
Responses to a poll asking “Would you prefer two-way traffic downtown” came in 10 for and five against, making for a two-thirds majority, 66 percent. Keep in mind, this is not a scientific poll, and one that can be easily manipulated by someone who has nothing better to do.
Still, the results are similar to a survey of merchants the city conducted a couple of months ago, which had 24 of 39 (61.5 percent) in favor of two-way traffic. The City Council eventually will be responsible for approving any plan to designate new traffic patterns.
Any suggestions on a new poll question?

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Up or down?

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Is it good news or bad news? Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG), the firm that will run Rahway’s new hotel (most of which actually will be condos — floors 5-15, 222 units) announced that profits plunged 60 percent in the third quarter. Not only was that expected, but operating profit was up 22 percent. If you’re not one of those zany finance types and you’re thinking, “Profits are down, yet up…huh?” Not to worry, it’s good news.
The Windsor, U.K.-based hotel group operates Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza as well as Hotel Indigo, which is the brand coming to Rahway. I think I’m more curious whether Rahway will be added to the list of exotic locales where you can find a Hotel Indigo (Atlanta, Boston, Buffalo…Buffalo?). It would be a good match with the Rahway Center Partnership‘s “Paris, Rome, Rahway” T-shirts.
The 102-room hotel is expected to open in the spring, but Director of Building, Engineering, Planning and Economic Development Lenore Slothower said during a Planning Board meeting last week that the building has a “list of snags” and hopes to “pick up the pace with some code requirements.”

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Change of direction

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Most downtown businesses prefer two-way traffic along Irving and Main streets, according to a survey of merchants by the Police Department. Executive Director Peter Pelissier reported at Monday night’s Redevelopment Agency meeting that 24 of 39 businesses surveyed (61.5 percent) favored two-way streets. The 15 tallied as not in favor of two-way traffic included those who were unsure, he added, while 11 were not even aware of the plan. Some merchants had concerns, including parking.
Pelissier said a circulation plan would show what parking spaces might be eliminated with two-way traffic. He would like to meet with the Police Department’s Traffic Division and city engineers to confirm the eliminations before meeting with merchants about the plan and ultimately the City Council.
The City Council approved a $360,000 bond ordinance Oct. 9 for “downtown street loop modifications,” namely signalization in the new direction at several intersections on Irving and Main streets. Changing street patterns will come via designation from council later, Pelisser said at that meeting.
The bond ordinance does not address the realignment of Fulton and Irving streets (at East Milton Avenue), Pelisser said, and would take months to implement, by May or early summer next year. The Fire Department’s main concern was along Main Street as it curves toward Irving behind the Union County Arts Center, he said, and several feet on the UCAC side of the street could be used to address the issue.

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