Business View Magazine | September 2019

263 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER 2019 Environmental Commission. So, there is not just the notion of sustainability, but efficiency, and that members of the Commission will be sensitive to the hidden blind spots of the environment we cannot forego – the sounds, the noise, the smells, are shades that will be cast by developers.” The Englewood Green Team is working to promote environmental awareness in schools and the community at large – especially as it applies to recycling. For example, Styrofoam and plastic bags can no longer be put in curbside recycling bins, but they want people to know that they can bring them to the city’s Recycling Center where they will be recycled separately. There are also educating business owners about the use of Styrofoam food containers and offering them alternatives. Along with the Englewood Health Center and related businesses, another major economic driver is the Bergen Performing Arts Center, as well as a rich, robust legacy of people in the arts, film, and entertainment industries, with the likes of Dizzy Gillespie, John Travolta, and other luminaries, such as the Sugar Hill Gang and talent that has grown up and evolved around the city’s streets. The downtown area is loaded with opportunity but, over the years, there have been many battles over development projects that offended local residents. Wildes admits, “The Central Business District is a common denominator that needs to move with the times. The vision we had years ago was to create a pedestrian, downtown experience with affordable stores where people would meet and, by happenstance, get to know one other. Then Amazon came and the retail community changed – you literally have tumbleweeds blowing through major projects in our Central Business District that are now dormant. We need to redevelop and plan accordingly. But there is no plan that the residents won’t have an opportunity to opine on.” The vision is to create disposable wealth in the Central Business District with residences going up and experiential developments – the new normal, such as spas, and service businesses with a café attached where people can relax in comfort with a healthy meal. A community center is the next major endeavor to bring people together, so ENGLEWOOD , NEWJERSEY