Planning The Future of South Orange, Part 2

This is the second in a series of articles that examines the Board of Trustees’ thoughts on the future of South Orange.  You can view part one .

On Monday, June 20, South Orange’s Board of Trustees met on the campus of Seton Hall University to discuss their thoughts about the town and their ideas for their current administration.  Following a survey facilitated by Seton Hall faculty member and South Orange resident, Janine Buckner, the board laid into a variety of topics that are affecting the town.

Within the discussion of how to further the development of South Orange was talk about the demographics in town and how they are served.  The 2010 Census showed that South Orange had decreased in population by 766 people in the last ten years.  Essex County in total had one of the biggest population decreases in the state.  The board of trustees discussed how to combat the recent decrease by making South Orange more attractive of a town to move to.

Senior Citizens

The senior citizen population in South Orange was first under discussion. The board floated the idea that families that move to South Orange for reasons that benefit their kids such as the school system or the various activities around town, tend to leave when their kids move out.  Trustee Howard Levison suggested that the town look at the services offered to senior citizens and see if South Orange was a viable place for residents to spend their later years.

 “There is a trend for a regeneration of our housing stock with people moving in,” said Levison.  “One key attraction is our education system, the other is, if we want to build in these sites, we may want to build it so that we have people with seniors (moving to South Orange).  Because of where we are and the convenience and the sense of cultural arts that we have in the village, we may want to retain seniors from leaving the village.”

Among the reasons that senior citizens leave the town and the state in general are the lack of services for senior citizens, the weather and property taxes. 

“I think in New Jersey, because of the property taxes, seniors are being driven out of the state,” said Trustee Mark Rosner.  “I think we actually want to target and market to wealthier seniors.”

“We don’t provide all the senior services, the kind of services we may want to provide to that group of people,” continued Levison. 

Cultural Arts Town

South Orange’s rich history of cultural arts was mentioned as a reason to come to South Orange.  In addition to the shows and events held at SOPAC, South Orange offers various other cultural arts events on a regular basis, such as the annual Concerts in the Park and the concert series.

“I think if I had to narrow it down to one or two words that describe us, it would be a cultural arts and transportation town,” said Trustee Deborah Davis Ford.  “I think that sets us apart.  Those are two strong identifiers.”

A Younger Crowd

Another demographic that was targeted was described as the “Post-Hoboken” crowd.  This is the age demographic that is mostly single and interested in nightlife.    The trustees agreed that there was some work to do to convince this demographic from going to close-by cities like Hoboken and Montclair.

“I know many people who would just love to live here and they just literally can’t afford it,” said Village President Alex Torpey while discussing residents who have completed school and want to stay in town.  “A lot of them are living in Orange, or East Orange, or Newark.  They do something close by and they are just literally move out of their parent’s house, and go down South Orange Ave., or go down Center Street or go down Scotland because they just can’t find housing here.”

Torpey went on to explain his view that while this demographic may not be home buyers, they are crucial to the town’s economy, specifically downtown. 

“Although they aren’t creating a root in the town such as one buying a home would, by growing up here, these people are having friends over, going to bars, and they are bringing people out here that otherwise might not come,” said Torpey.

Rosner brought up that there wasn’t much of a difference in rent prices between South Orange and towns such as Hoboken.  He credits the lack of single scene and the lack of jobs as reasons for the younger crowd moving away.

“If you really want to drive more younger people here, you need to drive more jobs here, which means office space,” said Rosner.  “Instead of building condos above retail space, you need to build offices.”

Rosner went on to explain that a problem with building offices, however, is the lack of parking in the village that could accommodate the offices.

Stay tuned for part 3.