The Modern Ghost Town

This weekend we received some sad news that was not all that surprising. Our local Borders Book Store is closing. Not like the closing of Linens and Things (Which forced me to look elsewhere for "things" - who really buys all that much linen?), or the closing of the Rag Shop, where I would buy all of my fabric for building puppets, this is not a chain-wide closing. It is just the one on Rte. 10 in Livingston that is closing. The landlord raised the rent. Could you imagine this, the same landlord who lost a VERY busy Old Navy Store, and a Big Electronics store, was now going to be putting up another vacancy to match the dozens of ones that line Rt. 10 in Livingston and East Hanover, NJ?

Once upon a time, some 25+ years ago, Rt. 10 was not the busy shopping center it was built to become. There were farms, swamps and forests. A store was not as common as a cow. Today, there are more storefronts than trees on Rt. 10, and most of those stores have Vacancy signs.

About 6 months ago I was trying to figure out what project I could do with the awesome Flip Camera I received from my ladies for Fathers Day. At that time, I was helping my wife and her business partner put together their Kettlebell Gym, about 6 miles down the road from my office. I spent an inordinate amount of time driving to their place on Bloomfield Ave., as well as going to the Home Depot on Rt. 10. As I sat at the light where the now CLOSED Gibbs College stood, I could see building after building of empty windows. No life at all. A fan of the western movies, it brought the picture of a ghost town. I was waiting for some tumbleweeds of paperclips to blow across the road from the abandoned Office Max, or some outdated auto stickers from one of the handful of barren auto dealerships to ominously slap into my windshield. The same could be said for the stretch of Bloomfield Ave. from Fairfield to Verona.

At this time (not unlike today), everyone was still talking about unemployment, the economy, the so-called stimulus package that bailed out the rich bankers, who screwed up the first time, but did not encourage them to help the little guy struggling at all. I do not usually write songs that are political at all, although I have MANY political opinions, views, and plans. I produce wholesome family entertainment; however, this scene inspired me differently, and became the first project I would do with my Flip Camera. I wrote and produced a music video titled Ghost Town.

I didn't really do anything with it. I posted it on YouTube for fun, and forgot about it, until this past weekend. After leaving Borders, for probably the last time, the family and I drove down Rt. 10 to see that no progress at all had been made. As a matter of fact, there seemed to be more vacancies than ever. So I decided that I would mourn the death of yet another storefront in our area by sharing the music video with you. The lyrics are below the video in this blog.

I am still seeing new construction going up all over Livingtson and the surrounding towns. What makes people think that these stores are going to be rented, while the others stay vacant?

I once I thought, maybe if the politicians see this, they will figure out how to bring life back to our towns. Well. . . they will if it gets them re-elected. =)

The old saying goes, it is the insane person who continues to do the same thing, the same way, and expects a different outcome. As Susan Powter, the crazy spiky-haired fitness advocate from the late 90s put it - STOP THE INSANITY! I say we knock them all down and bring farming back to our area. I'll take a plot!

ENJOY THE VIDEO

Ghost Town

Words and Music by Randy Rossilli, Jr.

©2009

When you live outside your means

And stretch yourself beyond your reach

You’re setting yourself up to take a mighty fall.

You put your faith in Wall Street

That fake money marketplace.

Where in the blink of an eye you might just lose it all.

Another neighbor just put up a sign they can’t seem to make ends meet.

There but for the grace of God, this could happen to me.

CHORUS:

Now this whole place is ghost town

The bank foreclosed and has shut it down

Empty parking lots and vacancy sign are all I can see.

This whole place is ghost town,

The big box stores have all moved out

All thats left are skeletons and monuments of progress and greed

In this concrete Ghost town

I remember when this town

was full of open fields

Seemed like the grass went on forever.

Now the land is empty again

But cracking concrete all I see

Surrounded by barren black top fields

Who decided we needed another new mini mall.

They want to build it next to the vacant one they had to close last fall.

CHORUS:

Bridge:

So they gave out some stimulus, but to where I can’t tell

The rich keep getting richer and the rest seem bound for. . . Well . . . .

CHORUS

In this concrete, black top, empty shop, dilapidated, ruin filled, overgrown, weeded covered, litter trashed, eco-killin, oil spillin, money bleeding, pollution feedin’ Ghost Town.