McClellan Street *Photos by Paul W. Wang

According to the 2010 United States Census, there were 50,814 people in Perth Amboy, including 15,419 households, and 11,456 families residing in the city. Even if you factor only one car per household (being conservative), that’s over 15,000 vehicles that need parking in a 4.702 sq mi land area. That’s 10,806.8 people per sq mi – and more people

Madison Avenue

Gutter on Madison Avenue and Market Street

coming in. Enough already! Where are these people going to park? As it is now, we don’t have sufficient parking for our residents, including all the residents which are living in illegal housing. Even if these vehicles are garaged, there are a large amount of cars on the street and people driving in town. It’s getting more and more difficult to navigate while driving in the City. Perth Amboy is bursting at the seams. Any additional housing will put a strain on the City. What will be the straw that breaks the camel’s back?

Winter has taken its toll on Perth Amboy’s roads, as it has been doing so for many years, and it doesn’t help our sewer system either. The last snowstorm added to the ever increasing pothole problem. Look around the City and count how many potholes and cracks you see. The roads are continuing to deteriorate and are getting worse and worse each day. The appearance of some roads as they are now is deplorable. Besides being unsightly, they are an accident waiting to happen to both pedestrians and drivers. Some of the roads going through Perth Amboy are state or county roads and are the state’s and county’s responsibility respectively. Perth Amboy should request that these roads be paved.

While patching helps put a Band-Aid by fixing the problem temporarily, many of Perth Amboy’s roads are beyond patching. These roads need to be paved. Paving Perth Amboy’s roads will improve the overall appearance of the town giving it a much needed face-lift. At the same time, it will give the City the opportunity to take the time to improve the infrastructure of the sewers (which may collapse one day and cause major sinkholes). It’s a job long overdue. The new Director of Public Works has his work cut out for him. K.M.