Cleanup more boondoggle than game changer
Another day in Trenton — another boondoggle.
First, a definition for a wonderful noun.
boondoggle (n.) 1935, American English, of uncertain origin popularized during the New Deal as a contemptuous word for make-work projects for the unemployed. Said to have been a pioneer word for “gadget;” it also was by 1932 a Boy Scout term for a kind of woven braid.
Readers fascinated by bondage would have been fit to be tied after a Saturday morning visit to the city-supported cleanup of the Roebling II tract of land slated for redevelopment.
Welcome to another boondoggle by Mayor Reed Gusciora, one larger than his July 2018 street sweeper affair hatched with South Ward Councilman George Muschal.
Other big ticketed clean up items on the mayor’s list include The Cooke School — an abandoned property scheduled for redevelopment as apartments; the closed Mercer Medical Center — a privately-owned property cleaned last year by volunteers and city employees at no cost to the owner who watched joyfully as the mission unfolded; and the Sanford St. mess, a block that included numerous abandoned homes with porches, breezeways and houses covered by tons of trash.
City officials did not move until North Ward Councilwoman Marge Caldwell-Wilson begged repeatedly and The Trentonian highlighted tragic street conditions that looked fourth worldly.
Workers wore masks for protection from a sickening stench that escaped from the bowels of basements. Trenton Stinks! offered a literal observation.
Trenton has a people problem as residents trash this city with all items, including the toss outs of kitchen sinks. Until Mayor Gusciora or other city leaders can convince residents to clean up after themselves, Trenton will suffer the consequences as blight and garbage attracts crime.
The Roebling II cleanup added significant boon to doggle as the ballyhooed event wasted city money and manpower. Silver lining? Sure, as volunteers displayed a willingness to work together toward something although this Roebling cleanup effort produced a deep-scalp head scratch.
The purchaser of this incredible property that features amazing architecture should pay for the cost of cleanup.