“The key to a healthy community is people,” Driver says-and people need places to live. New, centrally located housing is the other ingredient in the town’s recovery. Now other towns are looking to Somerville as an example. The pedestrian corridor demonstrated an important principle: prioritizing people over traffic can be good for business and economic growth.
The storefronts and top-level apartments are now nearly 100 percent occupied. Vacancy rates plummeted, while foot traffic and the absence of speeding cars made it a more attractive street to live and do business. Driver said it was a “no-man’s land.” The town proposed the pedestrianization project as an experiment, but eventually closed the street to traffic permanently. Back when it was open to auto traffic, the cross-street suffered high commercial and residential vacancy rates, looked dark, and felt unsafe. What happened? Colin Driver, Somerville’s director of economic development, who helped oversee the transformation, says the story begins with the Division Street pedestrian mall. Parking is available at modest prices kids, families, singles, and older residents can find plenty to do. Downtown boasts trendy restaurants (French-Thai fusion), mainstays (an Irish pub), and upscale spots (Wolfgang’s Steakhouse, the only one of the small chain’s locations located outside a major city). You can indulge in ice cream, bubble tea, and all-you-can-eat sushi you can play games at a retro video arcade. Outdoor seating lines the fully pedestrianized Division Street corridor. Today the central Jersey borough is lively, popular, cool. The opening of the nearby Bridgewater Commons mall in 1988 hit the old downtown hard. A half-empty, low-slung brutalist strip mall occupied two full downtown blocks. A Zenith television repair sign hung out behind a parking lot. One of the most prominent businesses was an all-you-can-eat buffet. Half of Main Street’s storefronts seemed to be dusty antique shops in old walk-up buildings. Somerville, New Jersey, used to be dreary.
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