If you could not make Tuesday’s Morristown redevelopment meeting about the proposed M Station office/retail project, here are videos depicting how the proposed roundabout at Spring and Morris streets is supposed to keep traffic flowing.
These were presented by Matt Seckler, traffic consultant for SJP Properties.
Video 1: Animation of proposed M Station roundabout
Video 2: Additional explanation of proposed M Station roundabout:
Roundabouts Elsewhere…
Here’s a recent article on roundabouts in France. We’re not the only ones dealing with this dilemma.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/25/world/europe/france-roundabouts-yellow-vests.html
@Charles, I love the Atlas Shrugged reference. However, I don’t hate old people or view anybody as being pesky. I serve the public every single day, and if I held my nose up to others like that, I wouldn’t have gotten this far. If somebody attacks, I attack back. That’s all. I try not to let others define me.
TL;DR: Trust the people that will profit from this because they work hard and hate old people. Quite a pitch. The Invisible Hand of the market will make it all OK if just these pesky underlings would get out of the way of John Galt. The stock market only goes up. Unlimited economic expansion is possible, etc. etc. etc.
Morristown redevelopment meeting about the proposed M Station office/retail project.
In 12 years, I’ve owned restaurants in Rutherford, Madison, Denville and Morristown. Regardless of the location, the same local cast of characters always make their presence known.
If you’ve ever owned a local business, you know who they are. They walk into your store like they own the place. They proceed to introduce themselves, and the first thing out of their mouths is… “I’ve been a _______ resident for 55 years” Or…”I’m 6th generation in this town”. Then comes a dissertation on every single tenant that existed before you for the last 30 years and how none of them made it. Then they’ll enlighten you on the fact that their proctologist’s 2nd cousin owns the competing business up the street and you should do this, this and this if you want to make it here. Then they shake your hand and wish you well. But their final thought that night is how much they hope you fail, as they fall asleep on the couch with Lawrence Welk playing in the background.
Ignoring their advice is an impossibility, because they helped write the 5 year plan of the local politburo right around the time betamax was all the rage, so that automatically makes them an expert on commercial real estate, retail trends, marketing, architecture, urban planning, construction, traffic engineering, foodservice, earth science and philanthropy.
Because they’ve existed locally longer than you have, the community “belongs” to them, way more than it does to you…regardless of how hard you’ve worked, or invested in it’s infrastructure, people, or fabric. Your voice simply isn’t as significant as theirs is on any given day….because….they’ve just been here all along.
For these folks, life got too complicated after 1967, so any changes in their little fiefdom are unacceptable. Should a forward looking group spend $20 million on acquiring blighted real estate with hopes of improving it, it’s only justified that it ultimately becomes 100% green space with bicycle paths. Any other outcome is morally bankrupt.
If somebody wants to publicly state that I’m clueless, just google their name and see what comes up. Then google “Michael Dey Fattys Weenies”. I work 16 hours a day to build and sustain my businesses. In my world, being a rhetorical blowhard doesn’t help make rent or payroll.
@ Margret – that is such a generalization and I’m sure insulting to a lot of people, especially the owner of Fatty’s. You cant just say people who don’t agree with you have “no real understanding of design, planning, and the complications” because I can just say the same about your understanding of the free market and the business environment.
And tell us – what is the better solution you have which has no possible problems for this area that everyone else is failing to see?
Unfortunately, most who love the idea and are willing to sacrifice their own needs for what is proposed as a future benefit, have no real understanding of design, planning, and the complications of a round-a-bout that is not the recommended configuration, design or in a workable location as it is configured.
This is a site with tremendous potential to become something really special for generations to come and sadly by focussing on just one part of the site, the current proposal promises far more problems than solutions.
@Faith – how much have properties values increased over the past 10 years? Is the town more enjoyable now than 10 years ago? Have the bars been one of the main reasons people want to move into town?
Why do housing prices rise in a free market economy?
the diminishing of quality of life for residents? Seriously? Certainly not for me and thousands others moving here.
Btw – You never answered my question about the known tax rate increase you keep stating from the other post.
JayTee, re; Your previous post:… like you I for one welcome our town with its bars, massive cheap, cookie cutter developments without any respect for Morristown’s architectural heritage, the impact of density, the diminishing of quality of life for residents, higher prices for everything, streets clogged with traffic, non-transparent government, and even better, wait til you see our taxes go up!!…All this is a small price to pay for our mayor and his planner’s concept of “smart growth”…Our administration is so smart !!..Thank goodness Morristown has escaped responsible growth and planning!!..follow the money, my friend, which shall be revealed…..
@ Mike – I think Mark was trying to say how a business owner whose place is getting demolished is even for this plan, which shows the positive impact this redevelopment will have on.
@Michael Dey, as a young business owner in Morristown, your business sense and long term view is to be applauded. Fatty’s is a popular destination and no matter where your business ends up, new and loyal patrons will seek you out.
More business owners should embrace this potential development as an opportunity and revitalization of this section of Town.
@Mark Schwartz, I’m not sure what you’re trying to imply. But just to be clear…
I’m not thrilled by any means that Fattys is getting demolished. However, as an entrepreneur, adapting and changing to the environment around me is what I signed up for.
Development in Morristown is inevitable and every business in our section of town knew this was coming, so I have two choices.
Sit back and complain or seize an opportunity to work with the developer and gain a possibly better location in a modern space with more seating and increased economic activity around me.
I’m at the point in my life where I need to start making 20 year decisions instead of 2 year decisions. Because of that, I’m willing to trade a temporary disruption for all of the above.
Well, I’ll have to agree with Conor on jaytees comment! Sure makes one wonder the reasoning behind the fattys owner praising a project that results in the demolition of his own restaurant! Wow!
Glad to hear JayTee !
Btw – if no one actually liked the development and bars and restaurants you speak of, you wouldn’t need to worry about higher housing prices! Higher prices are because more people are wanting to live and be a part of a higher energy city. There’s plenty of other areas you can live if you want to remove all the things you speak of from town and pay lower prices.
I for one welcome our developer overlords. I will gladly give up two of my favorite places to eat, watch fools who can barely navigate the Green run over dividers while half-buzzed from the 12+ bars we have, sit in traffic longer, and pay more rent – this is a small sacrifice for our developer friends to make bank. They do after all, deserve it. They are our Supermen, saving us serfs from ourselves and from responsible growth and planning.
We should be paying THEM to do this to the town!
I’m in favor of the project as a whole, however I do not have any faith in Morristown drivers to figure this out. Have you ever driven from Market St. (by Starbucks) on to the Green? The right lane is supposed to be for people going toward South St.; the left lane is for cars staying left heading toward Park Pl. Yet 75% of cars in the right lane just drift carelessly into the left lane as they proceed through the traffic light. They either don’t care they were in the wrong lane or they do it intentionally to cut the line.
Either way, people are going to constantly be in the wrong lane in this new pattern and are going to be making aggressive, unsafe moves in order to try and get into the correct lane.
First time through the roundabout will probably be confusing but I have faith in the residents of Morristown that by the third time through they will master it. Raised dividers will ensure that drivers drive slow and stay in there own lane.
This looks absurdly confusing, in what world do they have raised dividers in traffic circles?
I have to admit that I’m anxious about the roundabout also.
I think about the first time I drove around the green! And that has stop lights!
So this feels like the green without stoplights.
That being said, I support roundabouts for traffic flow and think it would work here.
I’ll figure out how to drive it, like I did the green.