Someone must be interested in buying The Chowder Pot, the long-closed bar in Lincoln Plaza near the Colonia border.
There were several keyword searches the week before last that led to Rahway Rising, namely, “how can I purchase the retail property of the chowder pot in rahway,” and “chowder pot rahway nj out of business.” Another one of interest was “are there any available liquor license in rahway nj.” Is there nothing Google Analytics can’t do?
I’m told that The Chowder Pot’s liquor license was sold at auction following bankruptcy proceedings but has yet to be transferred.
There also were 14 keyword searches the same week for “Wolff & Samson Carriage City” that eventually found the blog, though not all were new visitors. The trend continued last week with 8 searches, though none were considered “new visitors.” The West Orange-based law firm represents Carriage City Plaza and it’s the third week in a row that a number of keyword searches made it to the blog. One visitor’s keyword search was “problems at Carriage City Plaza.” [Dec. 5 update: I’m told Wolff & Samson no longer represents Carriage City, “after both parties were not pleased with each other’s work.”]
There’s also the keyword searches you wouldn’t expect would find their way to the blog, like “How to wash laundry in the river.” Sorry, can’t help ya there.
I’m blogging early this week from the West Coast so the posts might arrive at odd times and I’m also catching up on local items. A regular reader already commented on this nj.com story about downtowns in this downturn, but I thought it’d be worth linking to; though it doesn’t mention Rahway, it’s relevant.
Then there’s this report about the St. Georges Apartments selling for $3 million, in which Rahway is mentioned as “very attractive to investors because there is no rent control and it has an impressive downtown redevelopment area taking form as we speak.”
Here’s an article describing how towns with train stations are coping with the real estate collapse:http://tiny.cc/MQzuJNo big surprise – homes with easy train access are faring better than homes without. The article touched on how transit-centric development should’t treat kids as toxic – a valid point since Rahway and other towns for their revivals have targeted Baby Boomers with empty nests and childless Gen Y couples who will start a family when they put down their iPhones and stop Twittering their 300 Facebook friends about what they had for breakfast. Rahway’s identity as a “train town” is very much a work in progress, so we’ll see how things go as the meltdown unravels.
I really don’t understand the lamentations over perceived lack of “family housing” in/near downtown Rahway. There are many 2- and 3-BR apartments in that area. Within walking distance of the train station (what is reasonable? 1/4 mile? 1/2 mile?) I think MOST of the housing is single-family homes. Because MOST of the homes in Rahway are single-family homes. No, they’re not right on Main St. But they’re a 10-minute walk from the train station. And what about this line from the article ncr posted: “But new demographics show families are having fewer children or forgoing them altogether” ?What would make transit-centric development “kid-friendly”? Improving schools would certainly help, but that’s not as simple a development issue as putting in housing and retail. I really don’t get the idea that kids are considered “toxic”. Just sounds like loaded language to me.
While there may be many 2 and 3 BR apartments and houses near downtown, large swaths of them are in sketchy areas that I would hesitate to occupy with a family in tow, unless Babies R Us starts stocking Kiddie Kevlar Body Armor. And when kids grow up, Rahway schools (unfairly I think) are perceived as a more likely path to membership in MS-13 than Phi Beta Kappa. The “toxic” children reference in the article took me a while to digest: I interpreted it as describing the desire of municipalities to attract residents who will pay property taxes and patronize local businesses yet not draw upon city services such as schools and SWAT teams – in the past this was achieved by spacing out McMansions in subdivisions while downtowns rotted. Remember, gas was only $1.69 a gallon back then making sprawl cheap to live in. Now that family size is shrinking, multi-unit downtown development no longer threatens to overload schools making such development more appealing. The problem for Rahway with respect to other train towns is that options are limited once children are involved – I don’t see the three or four ok blocks downtown becoming a mini-Park Slope where strollers abound for a decade or more. Property values hold (or not crash as much) when a unit appeals to many types of buyers, not just the childless.
ncr, good point about the sketchy issue. I have commented on it here before.Put your child in their stroller and walk around downtown 5 blocks in each direction around noon time. Some streets make you feel like you are in Cranford, others make you feel like you are in the “bad” part of [insert sketchy town name here].I don’t believe there are many 3 BR rental apartments in downtown. (Only one available on the MLS as of right now.) There are likely many 3BR homes but most are up for sale, not for rent.There are infant/toddler “things to do” at the library sometimes and at the RecCenter on occasion but really, a set of swings and a jungle gym is too much to ask in the new park?Oh well, at least they put an ice rink up for three days that didn’t seem to get much use. How much did that cost the taxpayer? Please tell me it was a donation.
realist, I’ve been told that the ice rink will return to the plaza next week. The city had to build a more level surface for it.