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While many residents of Lakewood are unhappy with the amount of houses going up, local construction is the bread & butter for much of the local economy.
Brokers, builders, contractors, plumbers, electricians, lawyers, title companies, surveyors, advertising agencies, roofers, landscapers, pavers, mortgage companies, architects, stairs& rails, carpenters, cabinetry, alarm & security, painters, fence builders, space planners, decorators, insurance agencies, etc.
Thousands of yidden have Parnassa from the frenetic building going on here. We need to think of alternative industries to be developed if we want to slow down the out of control building. Right now , nearly every job in Lakewood depends on the construction of dense housing.There’s nothing you need to worry about. There’s no serious action being taken by the zoning authorities in Lakewood to slow down construction anytime soon. As things stand the rate of construction and population growth is set to continue expanding by at least the same leaps and bounds as it has until now.
You cant have uncontrolled building, You need roads, Sewers and other services to be able to take the population. What good is it if 1 Million yidden live in lakewood and all the roads are a giant parking lot and nobody can get anywhere
The construction going on in Lakewood has destroyed the beautiful town and quality of life that used to be in Lakewood this making it a big DESTRUCTION of the town in many ways (from the traffic to the crazy driving and ruined quality of life etc….) AND changed Lakewood into the new city of Brooklyn NJ
a Lakewood resident for many decades and watched the destruction of yiddishkeit and beautiful town life get ruined and still watching it get worse.
People would move to Lakewood to devote their lives to Torah and raise a Torah family. That’s all ruined sadly with the fanciest restaurants and exquisite clothing stores that don’t belong in a Torah community devoted to Hashem and Torah.
If you want to devote your life to Torah and raise a Torah family then you should move to the new Torah community of today in Cleveland Ohio. A town of Simplicity and devotion to Torah with Telz Yeshiva also there and many Kollel etc….
More importantly what will happen when the aquifer can no longer support the population?
“[Lakewood has been] ruined sadly with the fanciest restaurants and exquisite clothing stores that don’t belong in a Torah community devoted to Hashem and Torah”
Sammy….you are so right. Any yungerleit shteiging at BMG should not C’V be tempted away from his shtender by a restaurant serving anything other than boiled chicken, starchy kugel and a special Thursday night chulent buffet with grey “mystery meats”, all washed down with the finest Concord Malaga wines. Nor should they have to deal with temptations from clothing stores selling well-fitted suits that don’t look like oversized PJs,, shirts in any color other than White and a stylish Borselino. Yes, Lakewood should look like a feel like a shteitel from the 19th century alte heim.
P.S. as to Cleveland, were you aware that it were just named to the 5 top new “foodie” destinations by the James Beard foundation and that the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is only a 7 minute uber ride from Telse.
Haimy, that thinking is very short term, if not harmful. Yes, some of the jobs you listed are being done by fellow yidden. But what happens when there’s no more room? The contractors/ builders/ utilities people start losing their jobs. The schools become extremely overcrowded, and children suffer from larger classes. Water supplies run low because the aquifer can’t support the thousands of new people that will either move in or be born in the next few generations. Cars are at a standstill, roadways are breaking down, and emergency personnel can’t handle the growth. On top of the water supplies, how else is the environment affected by the growth? Trees are gone, birds are gone, mosquitoes are running amok. Pollution is harming the air and water.
The only solution is to find a way to lower the cost of living without allowing such high density housing to continue unchecked. Unfortunately that will never happen in NJ. But BMG and Lakewood’s history was started by 15 students and grew to thousands of people. If there is a similar community in cheaper Penn, close enough to visit, quiet enough for growth, then many more could get a start.
Since we have those saying that Lakewood’s already been irretrievably ruined by overgrowth, perhaps they should propose that half of Lakewood’s population be expelled (which half to be determined by lottery) and the town then raze those homes and make it into parkland.
I’m laughing at the hypocrisy. Neighboring towns view what’s been going on in Lakewood and are desperate to keep their quality of life . So, when they use zoning and other regulations to prevent incoming Jews from bringing in Lakewood density problems, they are accused of antisemitism .
On the original topic: when construction tradesmen are busy doing business in one neighborhood, once that area becomes maxed out (whether Jewish or not) they can hopefully use their expertise elsewhere as long as the economy/construction in general is still on the rise. Just as many Yidden are busy with the Brooklyn/LIC construction boom regardless of who the eventual residents are.
Slightly off topic, the Frum Yidden in Airmont just ousted the old Mayor that was behind the literal harassment Frum Jews had to put up with. It’ll be interesting to see how the neighborhood will manage to balance expansion with the quality of life Yidden moved for. (Unlike Monsey where many moved for cheap housing, I don’t think that was the main driver of the Airmont Jewish expansion.)
It’s weird that so many billionaires and other extremely wealthy people choose to live in high density New York City.
You’d think they’d rather live in a suburb based on the arguments here against high density housing.
Brookyln is not Monsey or Lakewood, It can handle higher density housing
The issue with the other population is why people move to the Suburbs and what they want there. Non-Frum people want lower density housing, they want yards, they want driveways, they want backyards, they want good public schools , good libraries and nice parks. They also want a seperation between housing and non-housing edifices (Like Schools and shuls) on streets. meaning they dont want places of worship on residential streets, they want them on main streets.
Frum people want higher density housing (but less dense than Brooklyn) they dont care about public schools or libraries and dont want to pay for them. Frum people want parks with playgrounds rather than parks with ballfields (Ballfield parks take up more space), so you can see where there is conflict, there really isnt a middle ground
@haimy- now I understand you. I agree about being over reliant.
@zahavasdad- Brooklyn has a much better mass transit system and better growth planning.
The problem, as you stated, is parks. Builders care about the housing profit and they ignore the need for parks. Howell, Jackson, Toms River, and Brick have beautiful parks with multiple playgrounds. But they try hard to keep Lakewood out. Howell banned grilling. Mantoloking bridge/ windward in Brick banned vans carrying over 7 people. I believed it was antisemitism until I saw the way some families behave. When even a few families have children that drop wrappers on the ground or run on the ballfield when a sign says “permit only”, everyone becomes a target. I’ve heard people say “we pay taxes to have these parks, go ruin your own town”.
But there is no one making money leaving space for parks when you can get thousands more putting a house in that space. Our kids suffer.
Brooklyn was originally designed for denser housing, Lakewood was not and the things that might help are not being done?
For example why is there not buses that circle around Lakewood that might alleviate the traffic problem
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