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Originally Posted by chris08876
The gentrification of Downtown Newark and its proxies like University District is waaayyy overdue. About time. Time to clean the area up.
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I don't like it when people throw that word (gentrification) around like it is the magic fix all for everything. It is not. That area is primarily business and education. What those vacant sites need is development, which was put on hold during the financial crisis. And that's because of the proximity to multiple modes of transit (multiple rail lines, air, and interstate). When you have that kind of access to transit, particularly the rail lines, you need dense development. And this will not just be a tower development with no pedestrian or streetlife.
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Pedestrian movement will be prioritized. Parking garages will be relegated underground, streets will be designed with the pedestrian and non-automobile transportation in mind, and there are plans to only have one shared street for automobiles running through the site.
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The complex will also include 120,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space, mainly intended for small or medium-sized shops and restaurants. And there will be an entertainment venue that Korman said would be comparable to Brooklyn Bowl, the 600-capacity concert hall and bowling ally in that borough's Williamsburg section.
Those kinds of uses, Korman said, will encourage pedestrian traffic from inside and outside of the complex. And, he said, the complex will also generate street life along McCarter Highway on its northern edge, across from the Passaic River, an area now bereft of almost any commercial activity, pedestrian-oriented or otherwise.
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It's the kind of development we need throughout the metro area, and we have been seeing a lot of it take shape.