Greenway Path!

I didn't realize the town and district boundaries weren't identical

The population of Maplewood is quite a bit larger than South Orange, but the two middle schools have similar capacities. Hence quite a few Maplewood residents attend SOMS. Notably, all of the Clinton zone, which straddles the two towns is zoned for SOMS although some families apply to transfer their students to MMS and those transfers are usually granted if space permits. I'm sure that there are other areas of Maplewood that border South Orange and are zoned for SOMS also.

Similarly, the South Mountain zone, although I'm not sure all their kids go to SOMS. There are some High School districts in New Jersey that are a combination of independent Middle School districts (not sure of the technical legal term in N.J. law), but SOMA is a "unified" district.

We are one school district, with schools that have zone lines drawn based on population. It just so happens that the two middle schools are named for the towns where they are located, but the zone lines have not coincided with town lines any time in recent history.

The problem with the golf course may be more than simply private property. It might make a difference if the direction of play calls for hitting balls across the river -- water hazards and all that.

A few years ago here in St. Louis, the upgrading of Forest Park included removing three holes of the municipal golf course off of "Art Hill," in front of the SL Art Museum. The hill is the most prominent winter sledding area, equivalent to Flood's Hill, and now people are able to use it in all seasons.

marylago said:

cali6buff2 said:

Great news!!

I wonder how the plans intend to get across South Orange Ave. To Me, that has always been the biggest hurdle to making it a true destination bike path.

I was at a BOT meeting where they were presenting this a couple of years ago. IIRC, that question was asked. The answer was that you'd have to walk your bike across South Orange Avenue.

And it seems the official pathway would need to snake down to Sloan St, and then catch back up with the river by the gaslight commons.

Could be a huge boom to foot traffic in town.

chopin said:

A few years ago here in St. Louis, the upgrading of Forest Park included removing three holes of the municipal golf course off of "Art Hill," in front of the SL Art Museum. The hill is the most prominent winter sledding area, equivalent to Flood's Hill, and now people are able to use it in all seasons.

I was in St Louis recently and went to the museum. I saw that hill and thought what a great sledding spot it must be. My (WashU student) daughter confirmed that it was popular among the students for sledding since it is within walking distance of campus.

I hope you enjoyed the museum, including the relatively new addition. Did you see some temporary exhibitions in addition to the permanent collection? Did you see the room full of Max Beckmanns?

cali6buff2 said:

marylago said:

cali6buff2 said:

Great news!!

I wonder how the plans intend to get across South Orange Ave. To Me, that has always been the biggest hurdle to making it a true destination bike path.

I was at a BOT meeting where they were presenting this a couple of years ago. IIRC, that question was asked. The answer was that you'd have to walk your bike across South Orange Avenue.

And it seems the official pathway would need to snake down to Sloan St, and then catch back up with the river by the gaslight commons.

Could be a huge boom to foot traffic in town.

I didn't think so but that might have changed. I thought they were talking about going on the between the condos and the river or Third and the river (I don't remember which). This map (from http://southorange.org/notices.asp?guid=add435cc), although a little hard to decipher, seems to back that up.

I believe the path current ends at South Orange Ave, staring at the Mobile station. Wouldn't it have to follow the BLUE path? Unless the path went right by the mobile station, and into the SOPAC parking lot.

Red is current.

The purple line makes no sense. Why run it up heavily trafficked and very confusing Sloan Street when you could run it a shorter distance up lightly traveled Church Street?

Between the condos and river would be tough, because there's a big wall at the edge of the SOPAC lot.

Yes, I think they intend it to make the path go right by the Exxon station, and into the SOPAC parking lot.

tom said:

The purple line makes no sense. Why run it up heavily trafficked and very confusing Sloan Street when you could run it a shorter distance up lightly traveled Church Street?

Between the condos and river would be tough, because there's a big wall at the edge of the SOPAC lot.

It makes a lot of sense. It would be great to have hundreds of people riding bikes through town, buying ice cream, stopping for a bite to eat.

Walk the highline in NYC, every 10 blocks or so is a more commercial zone where you can get water, or a hot dog or some ice cream. How cool would a series of food trucks/stands under the train trestle be.

Think big.

When they built the Highline, the landscape plan took advantage of the kinds of plants which were growing naturally on the tracks. Varieties of these kinds of plants were then chosen to insure they could endure the hostile conditions of that urban environment, and minimize maintenance. My impression of the river walk landscaping is that the landscape plan worked at cross purposes to the natural plantings, and so, without regular maintenance, the grounds have reverted to a hodgepodge of natural growth and specimen plantings. I encourage those who make the decisions on these things to find a landscaper who understands how to follow the model of the Highline, or after the first year or two, the landscaping will not be what was planned, as maintenance is not a South Orange core competency.

marylago said:

Yes, I think they intend it to make the path go right by the Exxon station, and into the SOPAC parking lot.

That's right. Several years ago, the Village bought the house on 3rd street across from the Community Garden (colored in yellow below) precisely for this reason and to roughly have the path follow the white lines below.

I believe it is still an open question if the path with then turn on 3rd street and continue on the driveway to Waterlands or to go straight through the Community Garden (literally).

Is the landscaping going to be complimentary to the floodplain that it's being planted in? Pretty planting and landscaping are nice but if every time the river overtops its banks they're going to be damaged.

michaelgoldberg said:

marylago said:

Yes, I think they intend it to make the path go right by the Exxon station, and into the SOPAC parking lot.

That's right. Several years ago, the Village bought the house on 3rd street across from the Community Garden (colored in yellow below) precisely for this reason and to roughly have the path follow the white lines below.

I believe it is still an open question if the path with then turn on 3rd street and continue on the driveway to Waterlands or to go straight through the Community Garden (literally).

The question is how do you get from where your lines start (in the sopac parking lot), and south orange ave.

chopin said:

I hope you enjoyed the museum, including the relatively new addition. Did you see some temporary exhibitions in addition to the permanent collection? Did you see the room full of Max Beckmanns?

@chopin - I did enjoy the museum. My daughter has studied Art History, while I am mostly clueless (though appreciative) on the subject, so going to museums with her is always a treat. We didn't visit any temporary exhibits (with admission fees) because it was my first visit and we didn't have a lot of time. I think we missed the Beckmann room. I'll have to put that on my list for next time.

(Sorry for thread drift)

Very interesting. No way it gets done in a year

I'm a little confused. Which side of the river is the bike path going on? The Community Garden side or the Gaslight Commons side? I live on Church Street and my back yard opens into the park with the community garden so I'd like to know what's going on.

Pixipwr25 said:

I'm a little confused. Which side of the river is the bike path going on? The Community Garden side or the Gaslight Commons side? I live on Church Street and my back yard opens into the park with the community garden so I'd like to know what's going on.

The Alternative Press has good coverage of the bikeway, including a map. It looks like the path will be on the west side of the river, near the community garden.

https://tapinto.net/towns/south-orange-slash-maplewood/articles/construction-to-start-next-spring-on-1m-riverway

The current plan has the bicycle path entering from Third Street along the access road to and through New Waterlands (East side) then cross the river over the new bridge to the west side and then continue through Chyzowych Field to Parker in Maplewood.

I wish a bigger and more detailed map could be provided. It's hard to read.

levisonh said:

The current plan has the bicycle path entering from Third Street along the access road to and through New Waterlands (East side) then cross the river over the new bridge to the west side and then continue through Chyzowych Field to Parker in Maplewood.

This sounds like there will be no real connection between the 2 paths.

Hugh bummer.

So they are planning to get rid of the community garden? Also are they planning on remediating the brown field back there?

Is it to be bike only or hike and bike?

Any chance this can go further north past South Orange?

I'll bet @rcarter31 might like to see it make it to his secret garden!

) Any thing that might slow the traffic on Harrison and Centre!