Once a beautiful green park space connecting Trenton residents to the Delaware River, former Stacy Park became a six-lane highway during the 1960’s period of “urban renewal” even over the stark and loud objections of both White and Black Trenton communities. However, their outcries were drowned out by the sounds of trucks, state worker traffic, and potential industry these highways would bring. Failed urban planning, ignoring communities, and let’s call a spade a spade, racism and classism, is what created the end of Stacy Park as we know it. But is there a new future? Despite this project concentrating poverty, alienating the mostly Black population (now both Black and Latinx) from the affluence that White flight provided, and left the city with some of the worst health outcomes in the state, there is hope that Stacy Park can reclaim its former glory! Currently, there are plans to redevelop the Route 29 and Route 1 sections cutting through the park into an urban boulevard, freeing up space to recreate this park space into what it once was, a shining example of how great Trenton and Trentonians are! Still, even with this “redevelopment”, there remains the potential to exclude the majority-minority population from the planning, execution, and benefits of the new Stacy Park. Follow me as I interview politicians, architects, historians, and especially everyday folk to follow this saga of the new Stacy Park and what it means to the Trentonians that this will affect the most.
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