Red Bank pedestrian Broadwalk inches closer to return, but here's why some aren't happy

RED BANK - Broadwalk could return for its fourth year, if the council hammers out the final details to its plan.

The months-long pedestrian plaza was implemented in 2020 at the height of the pandemic to help keep restaurant businesses alive. The plaza on Broad Street would completely close the area from White Street to Front Street to vehicular traffic. 

Councilwoman Kate Triggiano and Mayor Billy Portman pushed for action during Wednesday’s council meeting. Instead, the governing body took a straw vote — but not a final vote — for a Monday, May 15 start date. Members of the council and council candidates expressed worries about Broadwalk's 24/7 nature, its cleanliness and business fee structure.

“We’re looking forward to it and we know that it will be a nice addition to the area,” said Louis Maschi, owner of Patrizia’s of Red Bank. 

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He added that the pedestrian plaza would make Red Bank a destination that could compete with Shore towns like Long Branch and Asbury Park. 

Last year’s Broadwalk was hampered by a late start due to construction and thus ran from late July to early October. This year’s tentative end date is proposed for Sunday, Oct. 1, with a possible extension. 

“Having it open earlier certainly makes a big difference for us,” Maschi said. “It’s something that we’re gearing up for.” 

Promises from RiverCenter

In a March 8 presentation to the council, Bob Zuckerman, executive director of Red Bank RiverCenter, a nonprofit that promotes the downtown business community, said that his agency was willing to address certain complaints, including issues with weekday traffic, the traffic bollards, the loading zones and excessive trash.

He said the RiverCenter proposes to add a community tent that would be equipped with a QR code that would list all the restaurants not on Broad Street that could deliver food to people who want to eat on the Broadwalk. It would increase its weekday programing and purchase attractive bollard covers. 

Zuckerman proposes that the RiverCenter would be stricter with enforcement when dealing with delivery trucks parking in places where they shouldn't, since they can no longer drive right up to the restaurants in the Broadwalk area. He said the agency could create a large “no loading and unloading” sign and would advocate that restaurateurs communicate the logistics to their vendors.

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He said the RiverCenter is looking to hire additional maintenance workers to keep the Broadwalk area clean. He also advocated for a return to 2021 streetery fees for certain restaurants who wish to set up tables outside the Broadwalk area in places such as parking stalls. 

Members of the council’s majority bloc, including Councilmen Michael Ballard, Edward Zipprich and John Jackson, demurred on voting for the pedestrian plaza Wednesday night, citing a need to examine the finer details of this year’s proposal. 

Jackson said he doesn’t support the seven-days-a-week Broadwalk of previous years. 

Tim McLoone, who owns Robinson Ale House on Broad Street, told the council seven days a week is necessary because the furniture is rented. “If it closed on Monday and Tuesday, we have no place to put that furniture,” McLoone said. 

Jackson said he wanted to review the fees for participating restaurants, citing that the fees were set during the pandemic. “Fortunately, we’re not in the same economic situation.” 

In 2022, participating restaurants on the Broadwalk were charged $2.25 per square foot of space used on the pedestrian plaza, double the fees from 2021.

Streetery fees were hiked to $20 per parking stall per day in 2022, which resulted in zero restaurants willing to participate.

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Although the council agreed — but did not formally vote — to keep fees for participating Broadwalk restaurants the same as last year, the council did not agree on this year’s streetery fees.

“There are a number of issues as to the logistics and how (Broadwalk would be) set up. Who’s responsible for setting them up and the cost associated therewith on the borough’s behalf,” Zipprich said. “COVID has ended. I know in speaking with other municipalities up and down in the Shore area, that they have all eliminated (streeteries). And there are a number of diplomatic discussions that I think should be had before we pull the trigger on it.” 

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'We really need the major streets to be functioning'

Council candidate Erin Fleming said she was against 24/7 closure of Broad Street to traffic and believed a prior proposal of May 5 to October was “much more time than the town can handle.”  

“We really need the major streets to be functioning,” Fleming said. “Because what is happening now, is streets like Wallace, Harrison, Prospect, many of the streets on the west side, are becoming burdened.”

She expressed dismay at the garbage produced by diners. “The residents are walking into town in the morning and there’s cigars, broken glass and we need that taken care of.” 

She advocated for more enforcement of cleanliness and spoke against a community tent on Broadwalk, saying it would make Broadwalk a more permanent fixture in town. 

Fleming is running on the same Red Bank Together slate as Ballard and Jackson in the upcoming May 9 election. 

Also running on that same slate is council candidate Sean Murphy, who said he supports Broadwalk, but he was concerned about the trash and “the fairness to the businesses on the side streets.”

He noted the difficulty of getting to Cardner’s Barber Shop on Mechanic Street, a road that would be partially blocked off if Broad Street were closed to vehicular traffic.  

'It's bringing people into town'

On the opposite side, Barbara Boas characterized Broadwalk as joyful. She disagreed with shorting the number of days Broadwalk could operate. 

“The concept of having a tent there and having people be able to have their own lunch there is lovely, it’s lovely. It’s community building. It’s friendship building. It’s bringing people into town,” Boas said.

She disagreed with assessment of the streets being excessively crowded and favors a May-to-October run time. 

“I think that it has made Red Bank a point of interest to people,” Boas said. “We had kind of lost our spark and this puts it back.”  

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Council candidate Laura Jannone, who is running on the Red Bank’s Ready slate with Mayor Portman and Councilwoman Triggiano, said she supports Broadwalk as it is. 

“My husband and I are thrilled to stay out there and watch people come together. COVID has left its mark on everybody,” said Jannone, who has a background in nursing. “The mental health issues that have come out of it. … I think it’s very important for people to socialize.” 

McLoone, owner of Robinson Ale House, said when comparing 2021 to 2022, which had a late start, “We dropped $320,000 in revenue from the prior year in May and June and most of July, so it’s pretty tough.” 

He said, “It was a lifesaver for us, coming out of the pandemic.”

According to Mayor Portman, the vote to approve the fourth annual Broadwalk could take place on the Wednesday, April 12 council meeting. 

Olivia Liu is a reporter covering transportation, Red Bank and western Monmouth County. She can be reached at oliu@gannett.com.