FROM THE HERALD NEWS (North Jersey Media Group)
Friday, January 26, 2007
By MEREDITH MANDELL
HERALD NEWS
Elizabeth Robinson will never forget watching her beauty shop on Main Avenue burn to the ground 26 years ago.
It was a double whammy of hurt -- not only because an arsonist chose Christmas Day, 1981, to set her dreams aflame -- but also because it was one of the coldest days of the century, according to news reports at the time.
"I watched it all day," Robinson said, recalling Thursday over a cup of coffee how firefighters struggled to put the fire out because the water from their hoses froze. She can still picture how four families that lived upstairs streamed out of the building and onto the street, shivering in nothing more but nightgowns and slippers.
Robinson owned the building at 943-945 Main Ave. and Betty's House of Beauty for 15 years. Her daughter, Charlyn Robinson,48, of East Orange, recalled how the shop was a bustling center of chitchat among Passaic's black women. She remembers her mother would work 12 hours on Saturdays doing perms, cuts and color on "every walk of life."
After the shop burned, it never reopened. Elizabeth Robinson eventually moved to Panama City, Florida.
But now Robinson and her two children, Charlyn and Charles Robinson, 43, have come back to Passaic to reconstruct the building that had, for them, so much sentimental value. Although they don't intend to reopen the beauty parlor, the renewed building will contain stores on the first floor and apartments above. They hope to complete the work this week.
The Robinson family's attachment to the property and the city propelled them to believe that they could be pioneers in the city's downtown redevelopment.
They have spent $60,000 in personal funds and taken out a sizeable loan for the project, according to Charles Robinson, of Bloomfield, who formed the development company, 7 Properties LLC,to undertake the project. He is also the general contractor.
Investment in an urban area, like Passaic, is somewhat of a risk, says Charles.
As he watched the crane work on Thursday, he stood on a street of buildings long overdue for a fresh coat of paint. Debris is scattered on the sidewalks, and there are few neighboring businesses -- just a small beauty shop, a rundown furniture store across the street and a small Dominican restaurant on the next block. But he believes his project may motivate others to invest in local buildings.
"Urban American can't be forgotten," he said. "People live here and people are going to continue here. We need to revitalize our town."
Giving them hope that others are interested in rebuilding the blighted area, Wyatt Washington, owner of Wyatt's Meat and Deli, recently completed a new three-story building on the same block.
The project is one of 11 properties around the city that are part of the Scattered Site Redevelopment Plan. Thus far, four of the projects have been completed, according to the city's Redevelopment Agency.