Downtown Merchants Commission Meeting-Part 1

were sent to these stores so I mean I I you know it's not just a suspicion on my part it's something that you know people come up to me they say I got a box with a shoe box a shoe box and a bag of white powder and got scared and I wanted to do the DPS truck but the person downstairs told me he that come our store um you know that's that's more than just a suspicion that it sounds like you know we know what we're talking about what do they do with the deliveries once they get them are they turning them over to the police department who no guy told a guy came up to me and he said I just want you to know I got a i well this is this is anecdotal information no no I know I this definitely not permissible um I don't know even if it's true I mean I know he's telling you that but I I won't believe it till I see it I'm not saying it's not possible it certainly is but unless he brings it to us which he certainly should you know I don't really give too much weight to it okay I I mean I also spoke to some people that you know said to me when when you see uh 12 money transfer places in one downtown area I have never seen a line of people waiting to do money transfers somebody deliver drugs to your business would you actually find out who it belong to or would you bring it to the police department i' bring it to just there's another point in there which is about Laing and I'm getting uh right the other issue is a lot of these businesses since they're they're we don't know exactly what they're doing but they have loers standing in front of them the businesses obviously don't care if they have lers um now so I know that enforce a lawyering law as far as you can arrest somebody for lawyering but in many communities I'll give you an example on Drive in bever Hills in Fr of store you don't see loers there because the community different states or different laws generally cannot have any kind of and and you can ask Mr Waters the legal opinion on it it's unconstitutional to enforce any kind of loitering laws people can stand where they want to stand unless they are obstructing the passageway then we can do something about it or they're committing a violation of a disordered person's offense or or some kind of Municipal ordinance then we can take action other than that our hands are ti there's essentially no so I I called the police uh last week there was a crowd of people they it was nice they actually had a performance on the sidewalk and they blocked the entire sidewalk from getting B and I said and they had no permit I when I call the police the police told me uh when you people have your to movements you don't get permits so why and that type of attitude is something that I've been experiencing the whole time since we started this downtown commission anytime I call and I say you know we would like to see something being done because they're ruing Commerce in downtown and I'm not just calling for the Jewish Community I'm calling for the entire Community I don't care who it is it's we're talking about turning the downtown into a into a place the business and comp that to a saor is just absurd more than one off if that happens you call me direct so don't don't give me two or two weeks or a months later that that happen me immediate and I will take care of it okay I I informed a few people General is there a policy that the officers downtown walking officers follow I know I've heard just again it's anecdotal but a number of people how especially women sh the D District feel intimidated when they come to a corner maybe with a child and toe or just by themselves and there are clusters sometimes 8 10 12 people that are just standing they're not Crossing they're not they're stand is there a policy that the department has or or is it just general each officer just kind of makes his Judgment of when he wants to an officer will move things General um we will enforce violations uh occasionally we will do like like mini blitzes where we'll have half a dozen officers scheduled do quality of life enforcement we try to do that on a weekly basis and we've actually made literally hundreds of arrests over the period of this year for uh littering um uh urinating um violating other Township ordinances um you know drinking in public um sometimes blocking the passageway um so we do that um whenever we have the manpower to do it but usually at least once a week we try to do that we combine that with doing taxi cab illegal taxi cabs things so you know it's when we have the manpower to do I in front of my store there are people leaning against my building am I allowed to tell them please am I allowed to call the police and say I do not want this person leaning on my business yes okay so would it be illegal if we passed an ordinance into downtown saying that every sing bu is required to call police I don't think so but you can ask not no why if I can't if I can tell a business that you can't hang a banner from the front of your sign can I tell a business that you can't have a guy drinking beer out of a paper bag front front well there is an ordinance there there's a brown bag ordinance they can't consume alcohol so that's covered the say that they have to call if somebody's leaving building I don't think so okay um [Music] well I I don't understand I i' I've never I've seen towns where no you have I mean let me I have not not no the concept about loitering and being unconstitutional is Nationwide if you want to come up with Rodeo Drive examples or the anonymous Town examples Rodeo Drive they use private guards you want to hire a private guard you can do that and they can remove people from in front of your street but you can't ask a public entity to do that which is unconstitutional what you can do though is you can change some of your regulations those people congregated downtown for a reason and if you try to remove the reason for they congregating you can solve part of the problem and you can do that a number of ways you can adopt a no window solicitation rule where a car cannot solicit business through a car window um that's enforceable in New Jersey you can have no double parking that's enforceable you can restrict parking where the the people comeing to pick up the the the business you can relocate a mustard Zone to an area behind parking areas there's a lot that can be done to remove them from the downtown area I a lot of that's their front yard because they live upstairs so they come out that's their front yard I just want to tell you I'm not talking about day laborers I personally am not bothered by day laborers I I think they come into the town they stay here they get their jobs and they leave I I don't think it's a wonderful beautiful thing to have in the downtown but I wouldn't make a I wouldn't go making a big stink out of that what I'm talking about is people that are standing all day um harassing people that walk by well that's illegal there's harassment going on so I called I called police offic I saw there was an individual um there was an individual who I actually called the police myself who I witnessed uh cursing at famili walking by families with little children the guy was standing in the middle of Second Street and cursing at them well you sign the complaint I signed the complaint he in front of the office we don't Witnesses disorderly person's violation we cannot sign it he did it in front of the officer he he cursed at me in front of the officer cursed that people on the street in front of the officer the officer did nothing other than file complaint he didn't arrest him he didn't do anything so now I have to go to court with this guy but the guy is a homeless person I don't know he lives on the street I don't know where he Liv uh we could even find an address to send it to he said next door to Pine Li that was his address probably is right um okay let's talk about something it's a little bit easier to deal with uh okay number five establishing bicycle rack parking only post warnings on bicycles chain with trees and lamp poost I'm sure people have realized that when they walk by almost every single lamp poost and tree in downtown there's a bicycle on it many of these bicycles have been there for uh so long that they they were probably made before they had gear bicycles that kind of us walking like the 188 um so we have to establish some sort of maybe can put some sort of a sticker since they don't have a license that you can call up the owners I guess we'd have to stick a sticker on the bicycle saying this bicycle will be removed in x amount of days and um get somebody with a chain cutter and cut off the bicycle them and then the other question is where to put the bicycle racks uh to uh help the people that arrive here by bicycle um many of the bicycles are also here because the day come and they Park their bicycles they go to get their jobs and they come back at the end of the day to pick up the bik so we want to prevent that I've seen them sometimes five feet on the sidewalk um is there anybody that's anti is there an ordinance about that don't know but I'll check but that that is the proper subject of an ordinance you can restrict icicles being chained to trees L posts in or or left on a street and be subject to removal short actually now the only question is where to put the bicycle racks um I guess the U would deal with placement of bicycle RS we would work with the police department for some some input think each Municipal lot should probably be lot yeah something wouldn't take up hopefully not taking up a parking space Maybe in some uh corner just put in a a bicyc record uh okay