Parreott: Incumbents foster Springwood Renaissance
'Finally, finally, finally, we will begin to see new developers'
Editor, the Asbury Park Sun:
My family has been a part of this community for over 100 years and I have been a resident of Asbury Park for 79 years. I’ve seen this city’s ups and its downs. I served on the city council for four years and on the police force for 29 years. I remember Springwood Avenue in its heyday. It was a boulevard of prosperity, restaurants and jazz clubs — there was life in the community! Then the riots changed everything.
Within a matter of a few years, Springwood Avenue went from a bustling stretch filled with strolling families and playing children to the most dangerous street in the city. Jazz clubs were replaced by burned-out buildings. Shops and restaurants closed up, residents fled and a corrupt city government did nothing to save the West Side from the incoming gangs and drugs that poisoned our children for decades.
It took the current city council, three of whom are now running on the Forward Asbury Park ticket, to begin the long road back. They restored the residents’ trust in City Hall. If I look back on where Springwood Avenue was in 2001, clearly things are finally getting better. The Springwood Center was built, under-budget and under-schedule I might add, a police substation was created, and, most importantly, the city council invested $10 million in infrastructure for Springwood Avenue redevelopment. That means a redone streetscape, the burned-out houses were demolished, and new streetlights and sidewalks running along the entire corridor, and coming soon, a new park is going to be built at Atkins and Springwood.
Finally, finally, finally, we will begin to see new developers building on Springwood Avenue — something I haven’t seen in decades. And there’s already talk of an adventurous group of pioneers that are looking to open up restaurants and cafés as well.
These are real solutions to real challenges that face not only Springwood Avenue, but also the entire West Side. The Forward Asbury Park team, which includes council members Sue Henderson, John Loffredo and Kevin Sanders, paved the way for this Springwood Renaissance, and that’s why I’ll be casting my vote for them and their running mates, Greg Hopson Sr. and Will Potter, on May 14.
In my 79 years as a resident of Asbury Park, I have had the privilege to serve as a councilman, as a police officer for 29 years, as local Democratic Chairman, as reverend. Now I am asking that you give these great people the opportunity to continue to serve. I am asking that you vote for 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 — to keep Asbury Park alive and moving forward.
— Rev. David J. Parreott, Asbury Park
[This letter represents the opinion of its writer and is not representative of any opinion of the Asbury Park Sun staff. All readers are welcome to submit Letters to the Editor to news@asburyparksun.com for our consideration. For guidelines on letter-writing and submission, click here.]
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