I live in St. Cloud near the zoo, and we frequently find ourselves driving up and down Northfield Ave. It’s the gateway to Livingston and points further west, and every time we drive through the traffic light at Pleasant Valley Way I think about how the two areas are effectively cut off from one another.
There are a couple of problematic areas along Northfield, but that hill west of Pleasant Valley Way is the worst of it. As a result, a whole neighborhood in West Orange is cut off from the rest of the town. When we first moved to town, we were excited to live just a mile down the street from my cousin. We had kids the same age. But we quickly realized they couldn’t safely meet up with each other on foot or on bikes.
I have run up this way several times while on my mission to run every street in town, and in its current state it is very unfriendly towards pedestrians. Yet that doesn’t stop people from walking up and down all the time. It’s an area desperately in need of improvement by the County.
Areas of Concern Along the Route
Recently, I ran this route to document some of the issues I noticed along the way. I started near the intersection of Northfield Ave and Walker Road and continued west up to the Livingston Diner. I highlighted the major areas of concern on the map below.
Near the beginning of where I started, there are two issues.
There are sidewalks on Walker Road and there’s a crosswalk connecting to the northern side of Northfield Ave. But this crosswalk doesn’t connect to anything. There’s just a grassy area west towards the water company and east towards the apartments.
Further west, on the other side of Rock Spring Ave, there are no sidewalks on the northern side of Northfield until you get to the old Essex House. There’s no conveniently safe way to cross to the southern side of Northfield, either. There is a walking path further up along Rock Spring Ave, but it’s out of the way and only really makes sense for people coming from deeper in St. Cloud.
Both of these areas are manageable, especially if the brush on the side of the road is well maintained. But they’re certainly not ADA-compliant, and they should have sidewalks to connect the lower part of Northfield Ave safely to the zoo complex.
The bigger issue is further west. The intersection of Northfield Ave and Pleasant Valley Way offers no controls for pedestrians attempting to go west up Northfield and there are no sidewalks. The south / west side of Northfield narrows towards the top of the hill, and it’s very unsafe to go that way. The north / east side is less dangerous, but the ground is uneven and the grass is overgrown in the summer.
So while it’s possible to go that way – I wouldn’t recommend it. Especially for young children or older people with mobility issues. Yet the north / east side of the road has plenty of width to add a sidewalk.
The final issue is at the top of the hill. There aren’t any sidewalks until you get further down, but you can clearly see a desire path where the grass is worn down from people walking.
There are also matching bus stops here. Depending on which side of Northfield you live on, you can get to one of them fairly easily. But assuming you go one direction in the morning and return from the opposite direction in the evening, you’ll eventually end up on the opposite side of the street. There’s no crosswalk here, unless you walk way much further down Northfield.
Why This Matters to West Orange
If this just meant that West Orange was cut off from Livingston, it wouldn’t be a big deal. But as it is, we have a whole neighborhood cut off from the rest of town. And while I may not have many reasons to head west up Northfield towards them, the residents at the top of the hill have plenty of reasons to want to come down the hill.
Chief among them: the zoo complex. It’s a half mile from those neighborhoods at the top of the hill down to the zoo. It’s easily within walking distance for people that want to go to the loop at the Reservoir. It would also be a great place for teens looking for a summer job that they can walk to. It’s not much further on to Stagg Field – a common meeting point for kids.
Adding a sidewalk to this portion of Northfield was a feature of the 2015 Complete Streets concept plan, but it hasn’t happened. The County is in the midst of a large project to repave Northfield, fix sidewalks, and improve crosswalks. But this project does nothing to address the intersection with PVW or the section to the west of it.
This is not a “build it and they will come” situation. People actively travel along this corridor despite it being unsafe. And that’s all the more reason that this should be high on the list of areas to improve. And as Mayor, lobbying the County to pay attention to these issues would be a key priority for me.
If you have thoughts on this topic or want to stay up to date on the campaign, you can get in touch with me here.