Kramer Manor Urban Renewal Project-Story shared by Anna B. Jones-Townsend-Hendricks

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During the 1960s, our Kramer Manor neighborhood in Scotch Plains, New Jersey was being described as blighted by the Scotch Plains Township Committee. A Master Plan for an Urban Renewal Project was being discussed to condemn our residential neighborhood and to make it into an industrial zone. Just the thought of some of our families being displaced and relocated to some unknown location left us with major concerns. We cared about our neighborhood and continued to make personal investments in our homes and properties. We didn’t want to be driven away from our homes, and we were fighting so our homes would not be demolished during the Urban Renewal Project. In addition, the Shady Rest area which was the largest Negro neighborhood in the Scotch Plains Township in the 1960s, known as Jersey Land was also fighting to keep their neighborhood zoned as residential rather than what was being proposed in the Master Plan as an Industrial zone. Our Kramer Manor neighborhood and the Shady Rest neighborhood may not have had perfect families, but we were the perfect examples of people who were willing to come together and fight for our communities.