NO ROOM TO LIVE

I believe it was Jennifer Beck who recently stated in a news article that there was no more room for anyone else to live in Red Bank. I think she is just too young to remember or know that in the 1950’s and 60’s the population of Red Bank was around 14,000. Today that number is around 12,000 a drop of over 2000. I grew up in Red Bank and was in high school here during the 60’s and knew the town well.

There was less traffic during those times even with 2000 more people living here. Today the problem with our traffic is that we are a travel hub for people going to and from work from Middletown, Fair Haven, Rumson, Sea Bright and Monmouth Beach. During the 50’s and 60’s the shore towns were deserted during the winter and only busy during the summer months. All that has changed with people living all year round in the shore towns and commuting to work.

There have been thousands of condos and homes built along the shore towns from Atlantic Highlands to Long Branch as well as in Navesink and Rumson. Many of these people travel through Red Bank while coming and going to work. Like Eatontown, during peak traffic times we are inundated with cars on Highway 35 and East and West Front Streets. There is light traffic during off hours and getting around Red Bank is not difficult.

We still have room and space for those 2000 people we lost over the years. Many of them would commute by train or bus by living in our Smart Growth areas. An additional number of them would be retired and looking to live in a “downtown” area that Red Bank is noted for. The whole idea of Smart Growth was to use our town and city infrastructures for places to live and stop the urban sprawl.