PBurg's Got the Blues--What's Their Story?

The town is having its 150th day parade today on S. Main Street at 2pm. Hopefully some Eastonians will walk over after the farmers market and give PBurg some love!

Posted by: Noël Jones

Phillipsburg, NJ is a "Neighbor of Easton" if there ever was one. The only thing separating our towns, and our states, is the Delaware River and a two-minute stroll over the "free bridge" from Easton. On Heritage Day in July, hundreds of residents from Easton and PBurg flow onto the bridge and meet in the middle to watch the fireworks over the river. Like Easton, PBurg has a lot of historic character. Cool old Victorian houses perch along a cliffside with sweeping views of the rivers and of Easton's downtown. Sometimes I like to get breakfast at Cafe Verde across the river, because aside from the food being really good, the view of Easton across the water on a sunny day reminds me that I live in a very special place. I also like stopping in at the chocolate shop across the street. I still have never taken the steam train, but I want to try to do the winery tour this year.

But like Easton, PBurg has suffered economically over the years, and has some of the same evidence in
its walkable downtown, in the occasional blighted building or empty storefront. I haven't met a lot of people from PBurg, but when I have, it is usually disaffected 20 and 30-somethings, who have come across the bridge to hang out in Easton. I have met young poets and musicians and their friends, and they all say the same thing when I ask them where the good places to go in PBurg are--they say, "Easton." And I say, no really, I want to hang out in PBurg sometime, where's a cool place to hang out, get a beer, hear some music? And they say, "Easton." And that makes me sad, because every town should have its own cool places to go have fun. And I can't imagine why anyone hasn't opened any.

In this Express-Times article by Sarah Wojcik, the mayor seems to be predict a big turnaround for PBurg, but he doesn't seem to have any concrete reasons for why he thinks it's going to happen, and the people aren't buying it. Apparently the community is told every few years that they are going to get a new high school, but it hasn't happened yet. And they keep getting told that the old Ingersoll-Rand property is going to get developed by outside investors (which sounds kind of like our old Simon Silk Mill in Easton) but they never come. There seems to be a general lament of insufficient marketing of the steam train, which should be a great tourist attraction for the town, and accusations expressed in the comments to the article that the city government is in the poverty business, something we hear residents grumbling about here in Easton regularly. Considering that our neighbor shares the Delaware with us, is just a stone's-throw away and will get a passenger train stop before we do (if we ever do), why is PBurg suffering so much that it's young people don't even have any place to go have fun and be creative at night? I can only imagine that they must be experiencing a massive hemorrhaging of its youth. If Easton is lucky, maybe they'll just bleed across the bridge hang out with us in Easton, instead of running away to Philly and New York to get a taste of vitality. But then Easton has it's own challenges with retaining youth.

I'm interested to hear from residents on this--what do you think happened to PBurg, and what keeps it so? In the comments to the ET article, the "mafia" is mentioned twice in five comments. There are accusations that the mayor himself profits from renting out Section 8 properties, and the article gives a general sense that the city isn't doing enough to incentivize outside investors. I have always heard that Urban Renewal in the late 70s and early 80s is what destroyed Easton's thriving downtown--did the same happen to PBurg?  I'm especially interested to hear from PBurg residents on this...and please also post a comment also if you've seen any cool new fun places open up!

The town is having its 150th day parade today on S. Main Street at 2pm, and a lot of parking downtown will be closed off, so if you are close enough to walk to the parade, that sounds like the best bet. Hopefully some Eastonians will walk over after the farmers market and give PBurg some love!