PLAINFIELD LAMENT

 What’s new in Plainfield??? The same old??

 Dan is only partially right; The Council has forgotten its manners by not formally thanking Rebecca Williams for her services and also not congratulating her upon becoming a Freeholder.

 In almost 30 years that I have attended Council meetings it has been an accepted custom to do both. Since I missed the previous meetings I do not know if this Council failed to recognize Linda Carter’s appointment to the Assembly.

 But what should we expect from a Trump, pardon me a Mapp Council that can finish the business of two sessions in less than 90 minutes.

 We do hear of progress in revitalizing Plainfield. Perhaps “One Plainfield” means that it is no longer a Jerry Green possession but a Mapp controlled city.

 As further evidence of the new revitalized Plainfield  we are given as examples  not only the approval of apartments  on the Muhlenberg Campus  but the vague promise  of a “Medical Mall” there without any clear definition of what  in will contain that will improve the health care for the area.

 Of course what should we expect from a series of  local politicians that permitted without a fight the closing of the hospital and the availability of institutional urgent/ emergency care to locations that could be 30 minutes away.

 Yes we seem to disregard the anticipated closing of the YMCA, the vehicle motor inspection center, the reduction of open hours in Plainfield’s chain pharmacy-Walgreens, etc.as evidence of the new “One Plainfield”.

 Also there is questions about the future of the west end Community Health Center as noted in this April news article;”A federal court hearing will be conducted April 10 on the procedures for the sale of the health center's 7.8-acre property at Rock and Myrtle avenues as part of the bankruptcy proceedings for the health center's parent company, Neighborhood Health Services Corp. (NHSC), that has dragged on for four years.”

 I have no knowledge of any recent developments except rumors of professional staff shortage.

 There has been no Westfield type stores or restaurants relocating “down town”. Or any manufacturing plants which bring tax income and jobs, anywhere into the city.

 The building spree in apartments with the hopes of renting to commuting no children families will only be successful if direct trains become a reality. That seems to be at best decades in the future.

 I regret that what is ongoing here is so reminiscent of Trump’s and a Republican Congress’s Washington.