Downtown Lakewood

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In a surprise twist, the Township Committee has dropped the idea of creating a downtown muster zone and instead may designate the downtown a "no-stopping zone" to make it illegal for contractors to pick up per-diem workers...
Cunliffe said the ordinance would be discussed sometime next month."If we cannot work on the situation with the muster zone, we work on the situation with the people who are attracting the people to the area," Cunliffe said...
In Lakewood, merchants have complained that men waiting for day-labor work can impede pedestrian traffic, intimidate customers and give the downtown a poor public image.
Cunliffe's answer to that had been to turn a parking lot between Clifton Avenue and Route 9 into a publicly funded muster zone by New Year's Day.
The township was to work with Charles Anthony, who runs the nonprofit Under His Wing Inc., to convert a portion of the parking lot just east of Taylor's Pharmacy at Second Street and Route 9 into a sanctioned gathering place for day laborers.
Anthony's plan would have security at the parking lot from 6 a.m. to 11 a.m., two portable bathrooms and at least two employees to run the site's daily registration and traffic flow. The price tag is about $80,000.
That plan seems to have little support now.
Cunliffe's opinion changed after recent downtown shopping trips when he spoke with merchants who said they oppose any downtown muster zone. The zone, the merchants told Cunliffe, would take away needed parking spaces...
The township attorney will now draft an ordinance that makes the downtown area — Cunliffe wasn't specific, but that usually refers to the box of Route 9 to Lexington Avenue and First to Fourth streets — a "no-stopping zone."
The ordinance also would likely ban standing, cruising, double-parking or picking people up, Cunliffe said, adding that he wants a legal ruling on whether his idea can be implemented...