The building, although it was a part of local history, had been slated for demolition because it lacked structural integrity. But, as is so often the case in the city's seized-up bureaucracy, the process stalled, and so there it sat, a rotting reminder of Paterson's once-fearsome industrial muscle, dying with one last howl as Father Time finished the job that local officials could not.
Once, mills like that made up the heart of a New Jersey manufacturing juggernaut that harnessed the power of the 77-foot-high Great Falls to produce textiles, firearms, locomotive parts, and so much silk that the word found a home in the city's nickname.
And, like so many in the state who have some Italian blood in them, my family roots wind their way back to those hulking brick-and-mortar behemoths along the Passaic — growing up, I heard many a story about my own great-grandfather, a sharply-dressed, wealthy man who owned one during Paterson's heyday.
When I was a kid, I would try to imagine what it looked like during his time, when it was a thriving boomtown of shops and tenements fueled by the energy of thousands of European immigrants streaming off the ships every day. All I could see then, through the thick glass of a car windshield, was a shattered shell that looked moments away from imploding.
But hey, it was the 80s, wasn't it? White flight, urban blight, the crack epidemic, and outsourcing took their toll, and finding a safe downtown anywhere was difficult. Hoboken was in shambles, Newark was long dead, Jersey City was rough as ever. Times Square was filled with hookers and pushers and peep shows, and the Bronx, with its crumbling buildings and tagged up facades, could have been Beirut's stunt double.
Years later, though, there's less of an excuse. Jersey City is rebounding, parts of Newark burn bright, and Hoboken is exclusive. Times Square is again the glittering jewel it was meant to be, and even the Bronx has made headway.
And then, barely limping along, there is Paterson, torn up and hemorrhaging blood from the twin bullet holes of crime and corruption.
Where is the redevelopment? Where is the falling crime rate? Why, after all these years and all these millions spent, has nothing changed?
People are terrified to even drive through, and cringe when their GPS sends them across the river` for a "shortcut." Just last month, a kid from my hometown died in the street from a gunshot wound to the neck in a neighborhood described as "the Wild West," and days ago a man was arrested for nonchalantly carrying a fully-loaded machine gun on East 16th.
The state still runs the utterly failed school system, the police force has been gut-punched by massive cutbacks, and the murder rate is unchanged. All the while, the city administration, instead of addressing the myriad of problems, recently announced that it's ready to move ahead on an initiative to — get this — debut a line a of bottled water that would be named after the Great Falls.
What the hell is going on?
Undoubtedly, some will say that I'm focusing on Paterson's many negatives at the expense of its positives — and they'd be right — but that's only because I badly want this madness to end.
And don't get me wrong, I don't know how you fix things; I'm not a municipal planner or a police chief or a mayor. But I do know that if it can be done in New York, it can be done anywhere, and that a real, solid effort to turn the city around must be made — and soon — before Paterson starts challenging Camden for a title that it wants no part of.
Otherwise, it will continue its long descent, and decaying silk mills will be the least of the worries.
Email: janoski@northjersey.com
http://www.northjersey.com/news/217869481_In_Paterson__that_s_just_the_way_things_go.html?page=all
Tags: Paterson, Silk City, Great Falls, New Jersey, History, Politics
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