RED BANK: BROAD REOPENS TO TRAFFIC
After a four-and-a-half-month closure, the northern blocks of Broad Street in downtown Red Bank were reopened to vehicular traffic Monday.
RED BANK: BOLLARDS WITHSTAND FIRST HIT
One of downtown Red Bank’s traffic bollards survived its first real-world test when it was struck by an SUV early Monday.
RED BANK: SETTLEMENT FORCES LOT RE-DO
Workers laying the sidewalk that blocked access to White Street from the Better Housekeeping Shop, the beige building visible at far right, in October, 2020. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
See UPDATE below
By JOHN T. WARD
Less than three years after a complete makeover, downtown Red Bank’s main parking lot would be reconfigured to comply with the terms of a lawsuit settlement up for approval Thursday night.
At issue: an 84-year-old appliance shop’s truck access to the street.
RED BANK: HOUSE TO BE RAZED (AGAIN)
A plan to redevelop a stretch of Shrewsbury Avenue in Red Bank was withdrawn almost two years ago. So why is a house on the site boarded up, with a bright red X painted on the front door?
RED BANK: BROADWALK BOLLARDS GO BIG
Red Bank officials this week began to address one of the foremost complaints about the downtown Broadwalk zone: the presence of “ugly” orange safety barrels used to supplement steel bollards installed last year.
RED BANK: MORE STATION UNITS PROPOSED
The project would replace three commercial buildings on Bridge Avenue and two houses on Oakland Street. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
UPDATE: The May 18 zoning board meeting has been cancelled, according to a notice on the borough website.
By JOHN T. WARD
A proposal for 32 new apartments across the street from the Red Bank train station is scheduled to go before the borough zoning board next week.
If approved, the project would add to a development boom around the station.
RED BANK: SIX-MONTH BROADWALK ON HOLD
RiverCenter’s proposal includes plans to boost weekday activity in the Broadwalk zone. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
A six-month season for Red Bank’s Broadwalk dining plaza would feature enhanced efforts to boost weekday visitors and battle litter, a business representative told the borough council Wednesday night.
The council, however, withheld an immediate decision on the request.
RED BANK: MAKING SPACE FOR MAKERS
Debbie Eisenstein at the Red Bank Artisan Collective earlier this month. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
Five years ago, Debbie Eisentein opened the Red Bank Artisan Collective at 43 Broad Street, following her parents into the world of retailing downtown.
Though her family is an owner of the building, Eisenstein said she pays market rent, which is covered by subrents and consignment fees from the artists and craftspeople selling their works in the space.
redbankgreen visited Eisenstein recently for chat that revives the long dormant Human Bites feature.
RED BANK: JEWELRY STORE BURGLAR SOUGHT
A photo from surveillance video showing the burglar. (Photo via Red Bank police. Click to enlarge.)
Red Bank police are investigating an early-morning smash-and-grab burglary at a downtown jewelry store, Chief Darren McConnell told redbankgreen Wednesday.
RED BANK: DETOURS, FOUR-WAY STOP COMING
Motorists who travel Spring Street in Red Bank will need to adjust for some temporary changes resulting from road work this week and next.
And there will be a permanent change in place once the work is done: a new four-way stop intersection.
RED BANK: ARREST MADE IN BURGLARY SPREE
A Newark man is in custody on charges arising from a burglary spree that impacted six downtown Red Bank stores and restaurants in one night last month, redbankgreen has learned.
RED BANK: BUSINESSES HIT IN BURGLARY SPREE
Six Red Bank stores and restaurants were burglarized in a break-in spree along Monmouth Street earlier this week, police Chief Darren McConnell said Saturday.
The lone burglar, who has not been arrested, also tried but failed to break into two other stores, he said.
RED BANK: BOLLARDS, AND BARRELS, VANISH
Red Bank borough workers lowered safety bollards into their subsurface silos and reopened upper Broad Street to vehicular traffic Monday morning.
Marking the end of the abbreviated third season of Broadwalk, they also carted off the orange-and-white safety barrels used in conjunction with the bollards to keep vehicles away from the outdoor dining plaza.
RED BANK: BROADWALK ENDS SHORT RUN
The abbreviated third season of Broadwalk, Red Bank’s outdoor dining plaza on upper Broad Street, is scheduled to end Sunday night, with a reopening to vehicular traffic Monday.
Created by the borough council in 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and renewed in 2021, Broadwalk didn’t get a green light for this year until late July, delayed by a streetscape project. Then it was allowed to continue another month past its original termination of Labor Day, meaning the new vehicle-blocking retractable bollards (seen at right) vehicles would remain up.
Though the council has not yet determined the future of the economic experiment, Bob Zuckerman, executive director of the downtown promotion agency Red Bank RiverCenter, said he’s “hopeful” the endeavor will return in the spring of 2023.
Meantime, here’s some info on the season-ending activities. While Friday night’s weather appears conducive to a final raising of wine glasses, the rest of the weekend could be a bit chancy. Here’s the outlook:
RED BANK: ENGLISH PLAZA, LIGHTLY ACCENTED
Most of the shops along the strip are owned by immigrants. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
The street is named English Plaza, after a former Red Bank mayor. But for the majority of businesses along the short block, English is a second language.
Of the eight shops in the strip of one-story business, at least six are owned by immigrants. That far outpaces the borough’s foreign-born population, which comprises 20 percent of residents, according to the Census.
Here are the stories of five, owners of two restaurants, a home decor shop, a beauty salon and a liquor store.
RED BANK: BROADWALK GETS ANOTHER MONTH
With the extension, Broadwalk is now scheduled to continue through October 2. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank’s council unanimously approved a one-month extension of the Broadwalk plaza Thursday night. But at least three of its members weren’t happy about it.
RED BANK: BROADWALK SET FOR RETURN
An employee of Catch 19 setting up tables Friday. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
With borough workers and contractors putting finishing touches on an eight-month-long streetscape project, a handful of restaurants hastily set up for a return of Red Bank’s Broadwalk plaza Friday.
Outside the traffic-free zone, however, none of the parking-space streateries used over the past two summers have returned, following a sixfold increase in fees by the borough council.
RED BANK: BROADWALK RELAUNCH “ON TRACK”
Gleaming new retractable security bollards are expected make their debut on Broad Street in downtown Red Bank with the return of Broadwalk Friday.
But will businesses be ready for the late-starting third season of the dining and shopping plaza?
RED BANK: PAVING TO BRING DAYS OF DETOURS
A crew from Montana Construction adjusting one of the new retractable bollards on Broad Street Friday. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Accustomed to detours and dust from an eight-month-long rebuilding of Broad Street, merchants and motorists in Red Bank will face what officials hope will be one last series of shutdowns next week.
Weather permitting, several days of paving and striping should all but finish the streetscape project.
RED BANK: BROADWALK CURTAILED, FEES UPPED
Businesses readied for the second year of Broadwalk in May, 2021. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Delayed by months, the third season of Red Bank’s Broadwalk shopping-and-dining plaza may finally get going July 22.
This year’s edition, however, is slated to run only through Labor Day. And new fees for in-street dining will cost restaurateurs twice what they paid over the past two summers, said Bob Zuckerman, executive director of the downtown promotion agency Red Bank RiverCenter.
RED BANK: BROADWALK ACTION EXPECTED
Newly installed retractable bollards will allow for upper Broad Street to be converted quickly to a vehicle-free Broadwalk. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank’s council is scheduled to hold two meetings Wednesday night, its only sessions in July.
Though not on the agenda for either the workshop or regular meeting, action to enable a third season of Broadwalk is anticipated by the downtown business community.
RED BANK: BROADWALK CONCERNS AIRED
A view of Broadwalk at lunchtime last October. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank merchants and residents pressed officials with concerns regarding a third season of Broadwalk at a community forum Wednesday night.
With less than a month to go before a disruptive streetscape makeover project wraps up, they called for efforts to address litter, traffic, speeding on residential streets and more.
RED BANK: BROAD STREET PROJECT NEARS END
Retractable bollards were installed on Mechanic Street near Broad Street Wednesday. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
See UPDATE below
By JOHN T. WARD
A messy, overdue and over-budget makeover of upper Broad Street in Red Bank is expected to conclude in late July, acting borough Administrator Darren McConnell said Wednesday.
The project, which began last November, marked a milestone with the installation this week of retractable hydraulic bollards that will enable quick closure of the street to vehicular traffic.
Still to be determined is when the Broadwalk dining promenade will return for a third, if abbreviated, season.
RED BANK: MERCHANTS BLAST FEE HIKE
Red Tank Brewing owner John Arcara speaking at Wednesday’s council session. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
The Red Bank council voted Wednesday to boost the fees charged to restaurants to maintain tables in parking spaces converted to streateries.
The action followed claims by two business owners that the hike was onerous.
RED BANK: STREATERIES ON HOLD
Borough workers created a streatery outside Bombay River and Tacoholics restaurants on Broad Street in July, 2020. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
At the Red Bank council’s first in-person session in more than two years last week, a lone member failed to advance a pandemic-era fix said to be favored by two merchant organizations: street eateries.