Demolishing Homes In Maplewood

Jaytee said:

joan_crystal said:

Supposedly the house is set too far back on the lot for neighbors who claim it is intruding on their enjoyment of their backyards.  I haven't walked by to check it out for myself.

unbelievable that all these years that house has been there somebody is complaining that it disturbs them.

It’s currently being built.

Jaytee said:

unbelievable that all these years that house has been there somebody is complaining that it disturbs them.

According to posts on another site, the corner house was on a double lot, which they've divided and the owners of that house are building a second house on the second lot. It is a new house, set quite far back from the sidewalk, which places it very close to neighboring yards and homes given the layout of properties on that section of the street. 

Your intrepid reporter here. 

It’s probably hard to see from the two pictures. I was bold enough to take, but yes, the house is set pretty far back. It looks like the front of the new house is about even with the back of the house to the right. It does look like it’s about the same size as other houses in the neighborhood.

There are at least two other houses on Prospect that are set even further back than the house in these pictures.  One I know of is between North Crescent and Oakview.  The other is near the intersection with Elmwood.

I drove by it as well.  Regardless of the rational for placing it there, and with the assumption that it's all legit, my disappointment comes from the posts that lead me to believe the neighbors were never even spoken to.  That's not a good way to build something like this.  

sprout said:

The sketch of the proposed new building takes a lot of liberties with the area around it. 

• Where the river actually is, it's drawn to look like grassy greenspace with trees. 
• Where the YMCA parking lot is across the street, it is also made to look like grassy greenspace, with a grassy berm (IRL there is no berm for much of that sidewalk). 

In reality, it will look like a totally paved over area. It's like they put it through a 'face-tune' filter for outdoor areas that adds grassy highlights and tree contouring.

The rendering is hysterical.  The surrounding area is not even close to being accurate.

mrincredible said:

Your intrepid reporter here. 

It’s probably hard to see from the two pictures. I was bold enough to take, but yes, the house is set pretty far back. It looks like the front of the new house is about even with the back of the house to the right. It does look like it’s about the same size as other houses in the neighborhood.

It's being built on part of the lot pictured below (the large one outlined in blue).

[Map info from NJ Map (njmap2.com)]

27 St. Lawrence stays the same with its huge dumpster,portable toilet and nothing happening. Today was garbage day and the W M truck rolled down the street. All 3 workers lined up to use the toilet. Is this legal? They are not employed by this property owner. We would like to know what is happening here. Maplewood can do better. 

Don't bust the chops of the guys who collect our trash.  That's one of the hardest jobs out there.  They can't get up from a desk and walk to a restroom.

galileo said:

27 St. Lawrence stays the same with its huge dumpster,portable toilet and nothing happening. Today was garbage day and the W M truck rolled down the street. All 3 workers lined up to use the toilet. Is this legal? They are not employed by this property owner. We would like to know what is happening here. Maplewood can do better. 

Portable toilets that are "available" are popular among runners and bikers as well.

I can understand Galileo’s concern. If the job site is shut down, the contractor is not paying for the porta potty pick up anymore. So if people keep running in there and fills it up then there’s another problem. The neighbors have to live with this, so I can see the concern here.

If it was one person I could understand an emergency but all 3 was really laughable.

galileo said:

If it was one person I could understand an emergency but all 3 was really laughable.

Use could have been preemptive since they would not know when or if they would come across another opportunity to use the toilet during their shift. 

yahooyahoo said:

Portable toilets that are "available" are popular among runners and bikers as well.

"Is this legal?"  No.  It is "theft of a utility." Another example of theft of a utility --- you rent a dumpster. Neighbor puts stuff in it. That is also illegal. 

There was a case in the "Ledger" about 15 years ago .... guy rents a dumpster. Somebody threw stuff in it. Renter tracked some papers to the person who dumped. Somerset County prosecutor charged him with theft of utility.

This does point out the need for public toilets.  

joan_crystal said:

This does point out the need for public toilets.  

Very few public toilets in Maplewood, and they are not advertised.

Soon the topic will become “demolishing toilets in maplewood”

Any updates on the height check?  Are they back to the drawing board?

jamie said:

Any updates on the height check?  Are they back to the drawing board?

I was in that neighborhood the end of last week and there was no activity.

I think that we have more important things to worry about than whether a garbage worker is using a port-a-potty. Perhaps the town should have public restrooms available for whoever needs them but I don't see that happening.  IF nobody is emptying the port-a-potty, that's a separate issue that should be dealt with, but let's have sympathy for the garbage workers here.

Where should the town install these public toilets? Maybe in the parks? 

Most of the parks in Maplewood have public toilets, though they are not always available.  Where else to locate a public toilet is an issue.  Most of our streets are residential.  Locating public toilets on those streets could be problematic.  Having public toilets in commercial areas such as Maplewood Village, Valley Street, and Springfield Avenue might be possible.  However, an attempt to get a public toilet at Yale corner when the town was leasing it went nowhere.

joan_crystal said:

…Having public toilets in commercial areas such as Maplewood Village, Valley Street, and Springfield Avenue might be possible.  However, an attempt to get a public toilet at Yale corner when the town was leasing it went nowhere.

I’m sure this is the right answer, but easier said than done, as you note.

joan_crystal said:

Most of the parks in Maplewood have public toilets, though they are not always available.  Where else to locate a public toilet is an issue.  Most of our streets are residential.  Locating public toilets on those streets could be problematic.  Having public toilets in commercial areas such as Maplewood Village, Valley Street, and Springfield Avenue might be possible.  However, an attempt to get a public toilet at Yale corner when the town was leasing it went nowhere.

Are you talking about porta potties? Of course that is never gonna fly around here. In fact I don’t think any town or city would allow that. I remember maplecrest had a washroom, dehart too. On maplewoodstock weekends we used to get permission from njt to keep the station open and that was great. The cleaning up afterwards was on us because transit wouldn’t come in to clean up until the Monday evening. Jamie supplied the toilet paper and the concierge was open. 
To have public toilets you would need someone there to monitor and clean it., and that costs money.

Jaytee said:

Are you talking about porta potties? Of course that is never gonna fly around here. In fact I don’t think any town or city would allow that. I remember maplecrest had a washroom, dehart too. On maplewoodstock weekends we used to get permission from njt to keep the station open and that was great. The cleaning up afterwards was on us because transit wouldn’t come in to clean up until the Monday evening. Jamie supplied the toilet paper and the concierge was open. 
To have public toilets you would need someone there to monitor and clean it., and that costs money.

In addition to DeHart and Maplecrest, Orchard has bathrooms.  Memorial used to have bathrooms at the Civic House until the Y leased the property.  You could use the bathrooms at the main library when it was open and should be able to do so again when construction is complete.  When Town Hall is open, that is another option, as is the train station.  All of the above are only open at certain times but that would be true anyway given the need for maintenance and some form of attendant.  I am not familiar with Borden.  Someone else would have to comment on the situation there.

joan_crystal said:

I am not familiar with Borden.  Someone else would have to comment on the situation there.

Borden has had its own problems in the past, I don’t think there’s a toilet there. These little parks were designed for the immediate neighborhood residents who could easily get to their homes if they had to use the bathroom. 
Imagine a public toilet next to the pantry on Springfield Avenue…ugh

Slight thread drift - re theft of utilities / dumpsters, another issue with these is people dropping dog poop bags in there. We don't have a dog any more and a few years ago when we had a Bagster we'd find poop bags in there every single day. I see bagsters when I am out walking and see piles of poop bags in them, which in most cases were unlikely to have been put in there by the homeowner.

This kind of waste isn't allowed in the bagsters and Waste Management won't pick up if they see it in there. So people with dogs, please don't be mean to your neighbors and don't put your poop bags in bagsters. Even worse to put them into dumpsters - dumpsters tend to be on the property longer so stuff can really get rank. They are also deeper so harder to see if you toss in there, and much harder to pick that sort of thing out.

HatsOff said:

Slight thread drift - re theft of utilities / dumpsters, another issue with these is people dropping dog poop bags in there. We don't have a dog any more and a few years ago when we had a Bagster we'd find poop bags in there every single day. I see bagsters when I am out walking and see piles of poop bags in them, which in most cases were unlikely to have been put in there by the homeowner.

This kind of waste isn't allowed in the bagsters and Waste Management won't pick up if they see it in there. So people with dogs, please don't be mean to your neighbors and don't put your poop bags in bagsters. Even worse to put them into dumpsters - dumpsters tend to be on the property longer so stuff can really get rank. They are also deeper so harder to see if you toss in there, and much harder to pick that sort of thing out.

To this I would add please don't put dog poop bags in recycling bins left out for collection.  Not only are they not on the list of items that can be recycled but the town can be fined when these items are found in recycling which means all of our taxes will go up as a result.

HatsOff said:

Slight thread drift - re theft of utilities / dumpsters, another issue with these is people dropping dog poop bags in there. We don't have a dog any more and a few years ago when we had a Bagster we'd find poop bags in there every single day. I see bagsters when I am out walking and see piles of poop bags in them, which in most cases were unlikely to have been put in there by the homeowner.

This kind of waste isn't allowed in the bagsters and Waste Management won't pick up if they see it in there. So people with dogs, please don't be mean to your neighbors and don't put your poop bags in bagsters. Even worse to put them into dumpsters - dumpsters tend to be on the property longer so stuff can really get rank. They are also deeper so harder to see if you toss in there, and much harder to pick that sort of thing out.

I've had unknown dog owners drop poop bags in my yard waste bins before they were picked up.

workers there this morning - looked to be dismantling roof- but…

Here is a picture from about 5:30 pm today