2023 – Rudy’s Rentals
(ignore April 30, 2017 publish date – this was published on March 10, 2023)
And while you’re ignoring the old publish date, you can pretty much ignore the title too. There’s no one named Rudy in this story who is renting anything to anybody.
Aside from its alliterative value, it’s a title that I pulled outta my………um, hat, that represents something in both the beginning and the end of this tale.
As for the opening image, it’s just something that caught my eye along the way and was part of the process. I’ll try to explain that later.
We begin with an aerial shot of the business section of Anderson St in Hackensack, NJ, about 3-4 blocks from where I live – specifically, the outlined area where it says “SITE”:
Within the SITE are several buildings, including the offices of the Hackensack Building Department, a Hackensack Police substation, a restaurant and others that are all gone now,
In the bottom right corner of the SITE, you can see a building with two green things: one running along the Anderson St side and one smaller one protruding from its side. This building was a revered local restaurant called “Rudy’s”, whose entrance featured a green awning on the parking lot side.
When Rudy’s was ready to be torn down, the local history guy thought it was important to document it. The awning was gone, the entrance was boarded up and the first bite out of it was ready to be taken, as you can see in this PANO shot:
(NOTE: when you see a shot labeled “PANO”, click it once or twice to fully-enlarge it. Use your back button to return.)
But there was a problem. No one put up “No Parking” signs on Anderson St (10 feet away) and any cars parked there could get hit with demo debris. And wouldn’t you know it – someone had parked a nice shiny Escalade right in front:
I was ready to rock at the appointed time, but the crew couldn’t roll with that car there, so there was a long delay. Gee – I wonder who could have put that car with the customized plate there……………..
Anyway, I wasn’t there when they finally started tearing the place down.
By the time I got back there, this is all that was left (PANO):
So over the next couple of months, the lot was slowly cleared and flattened.
While passing the site on Valentine’s Day this year, I noticed what appeared to be drilling going on where Rudy’s stood (PANO):
You can see one of the workers walking toward me in the above pic. Trying to sound like I knew what I was talking about, I asked him if soil core samples were being taken.
“Oh, no! That’s where Rudy’s basement was and the ground isn’t super-solid under the surface.”
“See that pile of rocks next to it?”
“They’re loaded into the receptacle and get deposited in many injections in that area to provide more solid footing”.
A couple of weeks went by. One day – from my KITCHEN, no less – I noticed a yellow cement pumper and 4 days after that, I saw another tall, skinny rock-pumping apparatus:
Time to head on over there and shoot what’s new.
First, I went on a Sunday (no one around). Here’s the PANO view from Anderson St, looking south:
PANO looking east (Anderson St is on the left):
In this PANO – still facing east – I came across a yellow sign with no message on it. I thought that looked pretty stupid, so I wrote something even stupider on it:
(Yeah – I know they’re Port-O-Johns and not urinals, but I could only fit “URINALS” on the sign.)
Somewhere between the above image and the next one, I came across the muddy boots that started this post. I have no idea what the story was with them……….let them dry and hope no one steals them? I hope the owner’s back in them right now.
This is a small PANO of the rock pumper (and a ton of rocks), looking north toward Anderson St. This was shot from the back fence of the Hackensack Market on Passaic St:
Three days later, it was time for some live action.
As I headed west on Anderson St, I could see the sidewalk up ahead was blocked off, so I stopped where the fence started and got this shot of the rock pumper:
I thought that was it until I noticed a load of rocks heading toward the pumper…………..and in they went:
I walked over to the middle of the blocked-off sidewalk, held the camera high over the no-peeking-allowed fence covering and got these shots of the pumper and its next delivery of rocks:
Now looking back east from whence I came – you can see a tiny corner of my building between the prominent building behind the rock pumper and the evergreen tree (the First Presbyterian Church’s steeple is in the same plane) – I finally got a shot of some workers……………something I may not get much of as this building rises:
Moving a bit to my right, I found the open driveway for all the equipment. This northeast-facing PANO shot that shows the Holy Trinity Church steeple to the immediate right of the rock pumper sets up the next image pair of another rock load being dumped into the pumper:
And once again, we finish up with a north-facing PANO from behind the Hackensack Market:
So……….would you like to see how this is all supposed to end up?
I don’t understand the 3-1-2 end-product-current site-proposal sequence………….I guess that’s why I’m not an architect:
BTW – it’s not a PANO, but it’s large, so treat it like one.
Perhaps you noticed that I added the number 29 to the second and third above images. Perhaps you also noticed a black building on the right in the same images that says “RITEAID” on it (it’s been a Walgreens for the last couple of years).
95 Anderson will be 6 stories tall. As I understand it, that ENTIRE RITEAID block – better-known as 123 Anderson – will also be 6 stories. I inserted the “29” on 29 Linden, an already-built 6-story building.
Here’s how the whole thing looks straightened out:
I’m not sure, but it appears that 29 Linden may lose its view of Manhattan and only be able to see 123 Anderson.
Before it opened, I took this picture from the 6th floor of 29 Linden, closest to Anderson St in 2010:
It would be a shame to lose that view.
But the thing I’m most curious about is who at 123 Anderson would want to pay thousands of dollars every month to live RIGHT next to an active commuter railroad line? And 95 Anderson would be almost as close.
29 Linden, however, might now be shielded from some of the sound by 123 Anderson.
I think I’ll keep my old apartment. I’m better shielded than all of them AND I have a better Manhattan view.
A message to you, Rudy: You can keep your rentals…………..
…………..and I’ll keep these:
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