From the New York Times:
Revitalizing a Former Factory Town
THIS town named after a father of invention — Thomas Alva Edison — is facing the challenge of reinventing itself.
Edison has already shown it has the mettle for such a challenge: As manufacturing jobs disappeared here in the last decade, Edison continued to attract new businesses and jobs while maintaining stable residential neighborhoods. Just last month, Money magazine put Edison on its list of the 100 Best Small Cities in America, ranking it No. 28, based on criteria like job opportunities, school performance and crime rate.
Still, there are some large empty spaces here that illustrate as plainly as any billboard the challenges that lie ahead.
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The most glaring empty hole is along Route 1 where the Ford assembly plant used to stand. The Secaucus-based Hartz Mountain Industries purchased the 102-acre site, took down Ford’s buildings three years ago and this year proposed an intensive mixed-use Town Center development. The plan was denounced by public officials and residents as too dense, and too uninspired in design, despite Hartz Mountain’s earlier efforts to generate public feedback while working on a draft of the plan.
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Meanwhile, two large sites on Route 27 — a former Revlon plant and a former Frigidaire factory — have also been mostly vacant for many years. The New York Times Company recently announced that it would close its printing operations in Edison and would be subleasing its plant here by 2008.Developers interested in various sites around Edison have proposed adding large blocks of condominiums to Edison’s housing stock. Local officials — and vocal residents — have generally been critical of adding any housing that might further burden local schools already pushed to full capacity.
another wonderful nj town.
what a dump
Without know the town of Edison, which I am a little familar with, why/how do you take away so much industry and replace it with housing? Will the people who are building the housing be buying and living in it?
KL
Just think of all the job creation! We’ll need thousands of immigrants to work illegally to put these structures up!
The opportunities are endless!
-Richie
edison is gross.
If the housing boom goes bust, so do illegal workers
ONE of the effects of the housing boom that has followed the dot-com bust of 2000 has been to draw hundreds of thousands of illegal workers to the United States. What will happen to this large illegal work force if the building boom busts?
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With housing being the biggest jobs driver in the post-dot-com boom, it’s not surprising that 20 percent of the 7.2 million illegal work force is laboring in construction and related building jobs. In some specific construction trades, illegal workers account for large percentages of the work force.
For instance, according to Pew, 36 percent of all insulation workers are estimated to be illegal, as are 29 percent of roofers and 28 percent of drywall and ceiling tile installers.
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To address the earlier question, if the boom busts, there will be a large illegal work force unemployed and, by extension for those with spouses and children here, more illegal dependents without a primary provider. The effects of unemployment will reverberate throughout the economy. New jobs will be difficult to come by; and there will be greater demand on social services.
Those parts of Edison would be better served with offices and maybe light industrial – they have good road access and the area needs the work.
They could also use some green space and some leisure facilities.
There are already tons of malls and big box stores in the area so there is absolutely no need for more.
A smart move by Edison officials not to entertain the mixed design by Hartz Mountain. Hartz has a history of buidling failing uninspired towne centers, just look in secaucus and North Bergen. Their success in real estate developmentonly seems to be in bigbox WallMarts and Hotels. Just look at all the mis-managed/mis-developed properties they have in hudson county.