To Whom It May Concern :

There has been a problem with vibrations of passing heavy vehicles on South Clinton Avenue for many years. During the administration of Mayor Holland I wrote to him concerning the collapse of the ceiling on an anterior stairwell, since repaired, and suggested that unless something was done to alleviate the obvious problem the results could be catastrophic.

The section of South Clinton Avenue, from Dye Street to Greenwood Avenue was planned at the turn of the century, having, then, single family homes and some businesses, including the sprawling Roebling Complex, of mostly brick construction. The streets were paved with bricks and Belgian blocks and the traffic was much less than it is today. Jewelry, clothing, hat, flower, travel agency, a pharmacy and other specialty shops, as well as restaurants and pizza eateries were located there, some less than 10 years ago. Few remain. A handful of the properties along this 7 block stretch have been officially designated as historic buildings.

The surrounding neighborhood has evolved in the present day into a largely minority area in which 3-5 families now reside in homes originally constructed as a single unit, and the owners are mostly "absentee landlords", with few one-family owned residences still remaining. This results in a much higher population density in a relatively small area, with most of the renting families owning at least one automobile. Needless to say, these observations obviously make the available parking spaces hard-to-come-by, as most properties do not have adjoining garages.

With the recent passage of one of Governor Whitman's heavy truck traffic bills, with which I am not textually familiar, it seems that heavy trucks are not permitted on certain inner-city streets and must remain on the main highways, or something to this effect. In concept it is great thinking on the part of our Governor, always concerned with the quality of life of her constituents. Remembering the recent accident in neighboring Lambertville, where a truck ran into a video shop, resulting in loss of life, as well as not infrequent similar occurrences in New York City, it is a tribute to Governor Whitman's wise forethought to have passed legislation in this regard.

This brings us back to the heavy vehicular traffic which, since the new State ordinance went into effect, has increased to alarming proportions on Hamilton and South Clinton Avenues. Instead of using the main highway, scores of trucks turn from Dye Street onto South Clinton Avenue, and from Rt 29, at the Arena (an extremely poorly planned and executed intersection) onto Hamilton Avenue and then turning onto South Clinton Avenue to circumvent the new regulations. I have a surveillance recorder in my shop on South Clinton Avenue, and have reviewed 2 tapes, finding that :

on 4 April, between 02 and 14h, a total of 267 18-wheelers and other heavy industrial haulers traveled my street = 22/hr!-- if I am not mistaken, this was the date of the water main break on South Clinton and Greenwood Avenues, thus there was some contact between the truckers about the work in progress at that intersection translating into less traffic!, and

on Tuesday, 25 July, between 06 and 18h, 301 heavy vehicles were recorded on tape = 25/hr

If we take an average of 23.5/hr, in a week there would be 3,948, or 15,792/4-week month, or 189,504/year!! The underpavement of these streets was made at the turn of the century for horse-drawn vehicles and the few cars there might have been in the area!

This traffic load has caused various problems, both to the City of Trenton and to the residents of this part of the fringe of the Wire Rope District©.

There was a broken water main on the corner of South Clinton and Greenwood Avenues , which caused the water to be turned off to many residents. It was not announced, as I might have expected from a municipality with any semblance of emergency infrastructure, making it a hardship without water for a period of about 24 hours! Even in third world countries previsions are made to truck-in water for the inhabitants in such an emergency.

The repairs were finally made, but the street surface had to be repaved a number of times due to the subsidence of the same zone. We might question WHY the water main broke in the first place. There is a traffic light on the aforementioned corner. Trucks weighing many tons have to stop exactly there on a red light. It is therefore not surprising that they had a stress effect on the underlying pipes. As the streets have been successively resurfaced by simply adding layers of asphalt, and even patches of concrete (!) under areas of the asphalt, the resulting street surface is noticeably curved in most of the area, sloping towards the sidewalks. If this were to continue into the future, the street will eventually be ABOVE the sidewalks! In my non-contractor opinion, this manner of paving is totally illogical and unprofessional. Under South Clinton Avenue and many of the cross streets, Pearl Street among them, there lies an enormous number of bricks and Belgian blocks, which, in their day, perhaps provided a firm vehicular foundation.

Due to what I consider a shoddy paving effort, as well as a subsurface unprepared for an excessive traffic load, the vibrations caused by the influx of very heavy industrial traffic is having a dangerously negative effect on the neighboring buildings. Likewise on the perpendicular streets, when such traffic passes on South Clinton Avenue, including even municipal busses, the entire structure shakes as if in an earthquake, and I am sure that any simple seismograph-like apparatus would register it! I have spoken to several neighbors, and they all complain that cracks have been appearing in foundations and walls , stucco siding is falling off , bricks are becoming loose, solid stone window casements are fracturing , and things have fallen off of shelves and walls inside the home. In my shop, the grill of an air conditioner fell off, a heavy bronze sculpture fell from a shelf , and an expensive oriental plate fell and broke ; an aluminum storm window fell from a third-story window, luckily onto the adjoining alleyway, and a roof rain-drainage pipe became unattached causing rainwater to flow along the outside of the home! All of the cracks which are forming will be further widened during freezing weather due to ice wedging, as the water changes to ice and expands. It is a natural form of weathering, occurring to rock outcrops and national monuments made of solid granite!

It is not only a hazard to the dwellings and other constructions, but also to the high-density population living in the area. Potential disasters might include: collapsed outside walls (which has happened in New York City on several occasions in the recent past!), interior ceiling collapses, plate glass windows becoming unseated and falling out, collapsed roofs, more water main breaks, any one of which might probably result in serious injury or death. What would happen if a heavy commercial transport truck swerves to avoid a child on a bicycle, crashing into a house? Flammable tankers pass by, one explodes and destroys part of the neighborhood!

I feel certain that I am not the first person to bring these things to your attention. The City has had highly paid professional urban planners on the payroll, and I can only assume that they may have noted some of these things in their reports.

The City now has the Sovereign Bank Arena, which is the centerpiece of a long-awaited revival of this much neglected urban area which I have called THE WIRE ROPE DISTRICT©, a designation which brings a little "class" and originality into the usual way Trenton seems to have in naming its redevelopment zones. Had the Arena and the planned and already active specialty businesses to succeed, the entire WRD area must be creatively and logistically planned and executed or we will just wind up with another expensive structure catering to some in-house sports teams and an occasional show of trained horses.

ALL of the area streets should be ENTIRELY redone - NOT just resurfaced with another layer of asphalt on an inadequate base! Extend the partially brick sidewalks and vintage-style lighting found already in the immediate Arena area. Reduce the clutter of all the telephone poles by placing the wiring underground, with "junction" boxes resembling the round or rectangular kiosk-like structures found throughout Europe on street corners, having the sides available for posters, street plans and event schedules for all to see. As a matter of fact, there may already be a law on the books which requires totally repaved streets to include rerouting surface wiring underground?

What about some trees, a one-way South Clinton with parallel resident parking on both sides, which would alleviate the lack of parking spaces noted at the present time, and the same on Canal Street in the opposite direction?

What about the South Clinton Avenue area ? The 400 block has an entire side of the street with the remains of three long-abandoned structures , as does the adjoining Hamilton Avenue in the direction of the Arena. A small area of the Hamilton Avenue side has new sidewalks and lighting. The only change in the 400 block of South Clinton that I have noticed was a out-of-touch painted window with a flowerpot on boards over a smashed plate glass window, while the burned-out upper windows, open to the elements, allows passersby to see the sky through the holes in the inside roof! Really classy! Not to mention the other out-of-place looking painted windows in the 200 block, situated right next to boarded-up homes! Did they run out of paint or what?

This street is one of the major entrances and exits to our City, and I have had many potential customers, and even friends,tell me that they wouldn't park their car in the vicinity due to the slum-aspect it presents! Although there are far worse looking streets in Trenton, they are NOT located in a high traffic area such as this.

Unless the redevelopment is done with all of the seemingly minor details taken into consideration, as well as the major concerns, as I am sure those who were highly paid to analyze the situation have also probably concluded, the great expectations of a revitalized Wire Rope District© will become just another waste of money and necessitate a constant redoing of what was already accomplished in an incomplete and/or shoddy manner.

Had things to continue as they are at the present time, the local politicians wouldn't have to worry about their illogical squabbling about whether a couple crack houses should be torn down in the name of better planning and a more beautiful area, the structures will collapse due to the incessant vibrations and probably many will lose their lives, and the blame will be squarely on City and State officials who could or would not act to prevent such tragedies from happening! I can see the headlines in not only the local papers, but on a national and international scale, and foresee serious legal suits resulting, and not without merit! Or will local officials pass the buck to the State government, saying it's their game because it is a State law?

The intersection of Route 29 and Hamilton Avenue must be reassessed. It brings to memory the fiasco along Lamberton Street, fronting the shores of the Delaware River, right in front of the Waterfront Park baseball stadium, where they are currently constructing a tunnel of some sort to attempt to alleviate the same sort of problems occurring in and around the Wire Rope District©. Once again, although I am not an expert in urban planning, I could have logically foreseen the glitches on Lamberton Street, where I had a home right accross from the ballpark. Hindsight is usually very costly and disruptive -- for a second time!

City Council , as well as other responsible agencies/authorities MUST act immediately to avoid a highly likely disaster, as well as situate some business on the abandoned side of the 400 block of South Clinton Avenue -- one which does NOT get a notable tax write-off for their potentially highly profitable venture. Rather they should add to the City coffers with their share for the opportunity they might be given for participating in the rejuvenation of the Wire Rope District©. The City has handed out an excessive number of free rides up to this point!

If the area is made to look as a more fitting entrance way into the State capital from the major arteries leading in and out of it (Routes 206, 29 and 1), the residents might even take more pride in their neighborhood. We might see less broken glass and refuse littering the streets and sidewalks, such as they are ! (a full-sized couch was left on the sidewalk at the corner of South Clinton and Pearl, beside Irwin's Tobacco the week of 6 August 2000!), fewer boarded-up homes just waiting for a family to acquire in a "nice" area, close to the train station and the proposed specialty shops accompanying the Arena zone (one in particular, The Urban Word Cafe, is an absolute delight, not only for its conservation of original structural details and creative additions, but also for its fine menu and varied schedule of cultural activities). Visitors would not be intimidated by appearances, and I could even reopen my collectibles shop after 12 years of inactivity because the only visitors I seemed to get were druggies trying to sell me the latest things they stole from somewhere, while casing the shop at the same time! I am one of only 4 original businesses which have remained at their present location along this section of South Clinton Avenue for at least 15 years, patiently awaiting its renewal! And waiting for some more police surveillance in the neighborhood to cut down on the vandalism in the area, including that done to my car on TWO occasions this year alone while parked right at my front door on Pearl Street. The street light goes out regularly, inviting the LOCAL individuals to take advantage of the situation! February 2000 * 24 August 2000

Here's to a much needed and long overdue revitalization of the Wire Rope District©!

Further pics may be forthcoming as I take some which I consider important. Thanks to Jose for the photos of some of the trucks.

Sigmund J. Kardas, Jr.

Bernie Handler

Frank Di Giuseppe

Donald Salentre

Allen Asay

Jose Sierra

Carlos Colón

Aida Colón