Getting Benched: Will downtown shoppers be unseated?

New downtown benches are an irksome innovation that merchants plan to protest Monday, city activist Cheryl Arana said.

Merchants fear the benches will attract loiterers, panhandlers and even persons who may be plotting robberies or burglaries, business owner Kenny Thakker said.

Arana, a Beautification Committee member who works with the downtown group MOPUP (Merchants of Plainfield United for Progress), said merchants signed a petition against the benches that will be presented Monday (Aug. 15, 2005) at the City Council meeting, 8 p.m. at Municipal Court, 325 Watchung Ave.

"Every single merchant signed it," Arana said.

The benches, with black metal frames and wood slat seats, were installed as part of a downtown streetscape project that has already ticked off residents who objected to the removal of mature trees on Financial Plaza.

The corner of Park Avenue and Front Street had chess tables and a canopy of trees until the streetscape project did away with all the trees.

Various reasons were given for the tree removal, including heaving of sidewalks and the need to meet federal accessibility requirements.

Thakker said one regular customer told him flat out she would not come back if she had to run a gamut of panhandlers on the benches.

Having suffered a break-in just last week at his store that features gifts, cell phones and newspapers, Thakker said he feels the benches give people with bad intentions a vantage point to watch the movements of merchants.

At Park Gentry, a men's clothing store on the same block, owner Thomas G. Aljian said he has had to spend extra time each morning cleaning debris off the benches. He said he could see having benches at bus stops, but not all through the downtown.

Thakker called installation of the benches "the dumbest thing they ever did" and said, "The city has to be safe, more than beautiful."


Several people were seated on the benches Saturday morning, some smoking or chatting or just resting.

Zoeann Harris, life-long city resident, said she was just sitting while waiting to go to work. It was free, she said, but if she went into a restaurant, she would have to buy something.

She said the problem of panhandlers had existed for many years and she didn't see how the benches made any difference.

Harris' view of the downtown Saturday was that it was "peaceful" with "people just walking up and down, minding their business."

--Bernice Paglia

--Photos by Barbara Todd Kerr

KEYWORDS: streetscape project