LOOSE ENDS: Hey, pal, Rahway deserves a shout-out

By PAM HERSH Special Writer
    “How does Rahway rate a shout-out?” shouted out a jogger to his running mate, as they — in their Princeton University T-shirts — whizzed by the Nassau Street sign that shouted out “Rahway — 27 miles.”
    “Who cares how far away it is? Why would anyone want to go to Rahway other than to go to prison?” he added.
    If I were not such a pathetically slow slogger, I would have caught up with this guy and embarked upon a rant about how it is unfair to diss a town without knowing the facts.
    My reaction was somewhat over-the-top in the style of a criminal (perhaps imprisoned at Rahway State Prison) who has found religion. I am ashamed to confess that up until three weeks ago, I occasionally made the following disparaging remark to my Princeton-centric friends and associates, who would whine incessantly about Princeton: “You ought to try living in Rahway, if you have so many problems with Princeton.”
    My epiphany about Rahway occurred when I was summoned to Rahway to participate in a Downtown New Jersey Conference, one of the organizers of the conference being former Princeton Borough Mayor Marvin Reed. Serving as secretary of the organization, Marvin asked me to participate in a panel discussion analyzing the relationship between downtown hospitals and their communities.
    Since Marvin, whom I have known for decades, undoubtedly has heard me making my snide comment about Rahway, his motive for my invitation to speak may have included his desire to get me to walk the streets of downtown Rahway.
    One of the first things I learned as I got off the train and entered the modern, newly renovated train station — with a clean, bright ladies room featuring ample amenities— was that no ominous, Stalin-era, barbed-wire encased prison was visible in any direction.
    After doing a little research on my Blackberry as I sipped coffee (albeit not Starbucks or Small World, but not bad) in the train station convenience store, I found out that the infamous prison was not in Rahway. According to Wikipedia, the prison’s mailing address is in Rahway, but it is physically situated in Woodbridge Township at the border with Rahway. The citizens of Rahway in 1988 successfully lobbied to get the name changed to East Jersey State Prison.
    My Rahway 101 course continued when I walked the few blocks from the train station to the conference location, the Union County Arts Center, the restored Rahway Theatre, which has been designated the centerpiece of Rahway’s recently established Arts District.
    I met the mayor of Rahway, James Kennedy, who told me that Rahway, celebrating its sesquicentennial (150th) anniversary of its incorporation as a city along the beautiful Rahway River, actually has a history dating back to the 1600s.
    I could not stay for the reception at the Park Square Redevelopment Project, the new mixed-use development of Landmark Properties, but did walk by the new residential rental and retail community. Every apartment overlooks a tree- lined street, is two minutes from the train station, 20 minutes from Newark Airport, 40 minutes from Manhattan.
    At lunchtime, I conversed with Rick Pasek, a Berklee School of Music-trained guitar instructor, who was asked by the mayor to bring a little musical life to the square across the street from the Downtown New Jersey Conference. He brought his Frank Sinatra CD collection and boombox to the arts park. Conference attendees strolled around the neighborhood and ate to the music of a New Jersey icon.
    I passed a second-hand shop with a funky tiger scarf, perfect for a PU football game. The shop was closed, however, thus giving me “yet another reason to return to this great community,” Mayor Kennedy suggested.
    I was particularly struck by the fact that the Rahway downtown had none of the problems over which Princetonians angst — as they did at a Princeton Future meeting that took place a few days after my Rahway-based conference.
    Downtown Rahway seemed to have no parking problem, no congestion, no crowded sidewalks with outdoor tent signs, no skateboarders, cyclists and pedestrians all competing for space, no big tax- exempt institution (employing thousands and attracting annually hundreds of thousands of visitors) sitting smack in the center of its downtown, no collection of cigarette butts in its sidewalk crevices, no worries about how to water the hanging plants and planters because there were none to water, no glut of “chain store” retailers.
    I got the impression that Rahway would just love to have some of Princeton’s problems, all of which reflect a thriving downtown. Even in the midst of this scary national fiscal meltdown, Princeton has a new cupcake store, and a new frozen yogurt store is about to open. There still are lines to get into PJ’s Pancakes every Sunday morning, and this past Saturday night people waited in lines to get into several of the downtown Princeton restaurants.
    The downtown maintains a healthy ratio of local to national retailers, as well as a thriving funky block of shops on Witherspoon Street where cigar aficionados interact with skateboard dudes and croissant and brioche lovers.
    Thank you, Marvin, for my Rahway enlightenment, which gave me a better appreciation of Princeton’s problems — which more accurately should be described as issues related to the success and vibrancy of the downtown, rather than its failures.
    I am confident that these issues can be worked out by the ever-expanding and devoted group of caring citizens, who have the option of convening in a brand new gorgeous arts center, designed by a world-famous architect or in a brand-new gorgeous public library, designed by another outstanding architect.
A longtime resident of Princeton, Pam Hersh is vice president for government and community affairs with Princeton HealthCare System. She is a former managing editor of The Princeton Packet