Downtowns decay and storefronts along Main Streets are boarded up as the county continues to be ''malled to death,'' as David Moore, head of the New Jersey Conservation Foundation, puts it. Parks and recreation areas become filthy from neglect, or are sold to private developers to raise public funds. Neighbors are less neighborly and instead stay inside their homes, ''wrapped up in our own cocoons,'' says Jeff Zupan, a consultant with the Regional Plan Association. You're going to become somewhat of a slum county,'' says Lester Wolff, a representative of the New Jersey Association of Railroad Passengers. Public debt continues to grow, as the state continues to rely on property taxes for public funding.
Property taxes rise, and rank among the nation's highest.
There is no regionalization and home rule continues to prevail in an atmosphere where politicians are reactive, not proactive. The economy neither improves nor declines, but the gap between the rich and poor grows wider. Racial, gender, and ethnic conflicts worsen. We're tinkering around the edges'' of making improvements, says James Gilbert, former head of the state Planning Commission. Seniors leave for more affordable states.