Re: (erielack) Ramsey, Mahwah NIMBY

["Tom Beckett" <tabeckett_@_stny.rr.com>]

Your point is well taken. On Long Island, just about everything is oriented
toward NY City, mostly by virtue of geography, which constrains LI-after
all, it is an island-and limits sprawl as well as access. Jersey has the
advantage(??) of being between NY and various other places-mostly Philly,
but others as well-and can orient its "suburbanness" in several directions;
it's also considerably larger than LI. Thus, there are more places to go,
with many of them not requiring, or not accessible to, rail service. Still,
if that's true, you'd think the powers that be would want to reduce the
resulting congestion from all those car trips by encouraging those who can,
to use some other means of transport besides the highways. But apparently
not if the station parking lot is in their neighborhood. When I grew up in
Queens, we were two blocks from a LIRR station, which had limited parking
due to geographic constraints. This pushed many commuters into the local
streets for parking, so during the usual rush periods, it was quite busy. We
all survived, and nobody got whacked by any vehicles that I can remember.
Were we all that much smarter or faster in the 60s than kids today? I doubt
it, but we also had enough street smarts to stay out of the way when playing
in the street in front of my house, which we all did in those days. It's
great that these people are worried about their kids' well being, but maybe
they ought to spend a little less time protecting them from the world, and
more time teaching them how to live in it-like how to cross a street with
traffic. It's ridiculous to hold a whole community hostage to prevent
something which will benefit the greater good of that community.

TAB
- ----- Original Message -----
From: "Gripp, William [NCSUS]" <WGRIPP_@_NCSUS.JNJ.COM>
To: <erielack_@_lists.railfan.net>
Sent: Tuesday, December 18, 2001 10:04 AM
Subject: RE: (erielack) Ramsey, Mahwah NIMBY


>
> > What Alan says is true. I lived in Little Neck NY, on the
> > Port Washington
> > branch, about two blocks from the station. My mom, who still
> > lives in that
> > house, says property there is going in the $250,000 range,
> > even for the
> > small houses. These command a somewhat higher price than a
> > house farther
> > away.
>
> I don't know that this is (as) true in NJ.  I think on LI, a greater
> proportion of the pop is interested in commuting into NYC (via the LIRR)
> hence the desirability of being close to the RR.  And with the LIRR you
can
> go to either Penn or Flatbush Ave, either of which have easy access to the
> NY subways which get you just about anywhere in the city.
>
> In NJ, the move has been away from NYC and more toward the sprawl of the
> variuos business spread around the state, many of which left NYC some
years
> ago for lower taxes and more space in NJ.  This tends to make NJ commuters
> less likely to take the train and more likely to use their own car, hence
> the mentality of the property near the station is not worth as much.  And
> the folk in Ramsey/Mahway who might commute to NY have to go to Hoboken,
> then via PATH or ferry.  And if that doesn't get you close enough, city
> subway/bus or taxi.  A bit rougher that what those coming from LI have to
> endure.
>
> I think these factors make the NJ side a bit less amicable to NJT than the
> LI side to the LIRR.
>
>
>

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