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Resident feels town center plan presents vision and legacy
A vision and a legacy for Middletown. That is an apt and honest description of the marvel that is the town center.
It is a concept that surpasses in charm and attractiveness and accessibility anything that has so far been conceived for this township.
Its appropriateness is both magnified and validated by the fact that Middletown is now a 42-mile sprawl of separate and disparate villages.
The vision of community — the commonality we all long to share — has already been planned and offered to us with all the attention and care the town center visionaries can give to Middletown, the place the Azzolina and Scaduto families call home.
Yet, the Middletown Planning Board performed another disturbing about-face, so characteristic of it, in egregious defiance of the vast numbers of Middletown’s citizenry all sharing the dream of a town center.
The board recently presented to an unprepared citizenry a new portrayal of the township.
This one has a watered-down, but still discomforting, Madison Avenue-type slant on sincerity.
It depicts Middletown as a collection of "Historic Villages going into the 21st Century." What does that hoo-haa mean?
Middletowners have always appreciated the historic charm of each section of their township.
To many, however, it’s the board’s emphasis on separate villages that provokes disquiet as it gives off a hint of a subliminal intent of imposed apartheid.
We Middletowners are very aware this is the 21st century.
That makes it more difficult for anyone to attempt to play us with words.
And that trend toward "word play" is contained in the legacy of truths left to us by David Brinkley, a journalist of the old-fashioned honor school.
So, is all of the hoo-haa supposed to mean we are to be partitioned like "Dilbert’s" disgruntled and forlorn workers, who must pop up from their cubicles from time to time when they detect excitement in the air?
The town center will provide the focus for the real meaning of community living — a place where people from all over Middletown can meet in open space and experience an enjoyment of one another and of nature in park settings.
Middletowners can meet at outdoor cafes, the health facilities, restaurants, shops, the ice rink, and places of entertainment.
The beauty of its planning is apparent in the large-scale model of the town center on display at the office of Middletown Travel.
The landmark Food Circus clown will point you in the right direction.
How that clown stirs memories for me of Middletown long ago. The year was 1960, and I was a new member of the Middletown Village School PTA.
Joe Azzolina had opened Food Circus just a few years before, close to the date I settled in Middletown.
As a new member, I immediately became the envy of the other PTA mothers because my list of businesses to call on for various event contributions included Joe Azzolina at Food Circus.
I fully realized the reason why when I asked Joe for a contribution.
He not only gave what I asked for, but also added more.
I then learned his generosity was well-known to all of Middletown residents and organizations.
Joe’s attitude of giving started long ago when he wasn’t that well-known. I’ve sometimes heard the word "rich" played in a way to diminish a person’s achievements, as though riches suddenly can appear in one’s knapsack and not by virtue of the old-fashioned way — working hard and earning it.
Through that old-fashioned way Joe became rich in spirit, in giving, in serving, in honoring his responsibilities to his community, and expanding that, to the state of New Jersey and to his country.
This is the man who can be trusted to guide Middletown into the 21st century.
I’ve been told it’s high time for a strong outburst from both the old-timers and the younger folks who together support this opinion letter.
There is a multitude of us who shout, "Go, Joe, go!"
Bernice Roberts
Middletown
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