Za’Niya Mims says that living in a small Bromley rowhome with her family of seven, things can get stressful.
As the oldest sibling in the house, it’s typically the 11-year old’s job to babysit when her parents are out working. Mims rarely sees her mother, who’s busy working two jobs—including one at AlliedBarton Security—while her father works at a retirement home. Her parents work hard to provide for their children. Yet, despite multiple incomes, the family finds it difficult to make due.
It has sought help from the food pantry at the Bromley Civic Center for necessities from time to time, and even dined at the center for Thanksgiving dinner.
This is reality for many Bromley residents. According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Factfinder, 25 percent of Bromley residents lived below the poverty line in 2014. Just 7 percent of residents in Hamilton Township as a whole did. (The Bromley estimate had a rather large 11 percent margin of error.)
In its 2007 Bromley Report, the nonprofit Isles Foundation noted that Hamilton Township faces issues of blight, high vacancy rates, white flight and a weakened local economy. The report says Bromley in particular has showed signs of disinvestment including, “vacant commercial properties and boarded up residential units, both of which detract from the pedestrian experience and residents’ quality of life.”
Yet, the work of organizations like the Catholic Youth Organization (which operates the Bromley Civic Center) and Isles Foundation has residents in Bromley hopeful positive steps are being made to restore the neighborhood to its former glory.
While the Bromley section of Hamilton Township is often overlooked, the neighborhood’s historic roots span back to the later 18th century. Bromley was a reflection of America’s expanding industry, as many factories and warehouses along Whitehead Road and East State Street drove people to live and work in the area.
The neighborhood became a well-developed suburb of Trenton, but when the factories began closing in the mid-20th century, there was nothing driving Bromley forward. The abandoned buildings and economic loss caused property values to plummet and homeowners began renting out properties and paid little attention to the upkeep.
Bromley Civic Association president Daraka Saunders says that she’s noticed a decline in the neighborhood since she relocated there from Somerset in 2004.
“When I first moved to Bromley, it was a very quiet street where I live,” Saunders said. “When the street lights came on, the children went inside. It was just hard-working parents, there was still homeownership… And then about two years into being here all the landlords came and it just changed. It changed a lot.”
Saunders says that when she first came to Bromley, the housing market was on the rise. A movie studio was set to open in Trenton, offering around 800 new jobs. This drove many people to the area, but the studio never materialized. The new residents were left without jobs and home values went down again.
The majority of properties in Bromley have stayed the same since the mid-20th century. Residents have been drawn to new homes—and businesses to new shopping plazas—throughout Hamilton Township, leaving Bromley with few willing to invest or rejuvenate the area.
And that’s where the CYO and the Isles Foundation come in.
Ex-Hamilton Police Officer Tom Valyo has always been interested in helping Hamilton’s youth, as guidance helped him while growing up in Trenton.
“I was always getting into trouble,” he said. “But I always got caught. That’s probably the best thing that could’ve happened to me.”
Today, he works to offer a recreational program for teens and pre-teens at the Bromley Civic Center, located at the intersection of East State Street and Whitehead Road. With an average of over 215 kids per month at the Teen Center, Valyo and the rest of the team have so far been able to look after much of Hamilton’s youth.
“The mission’s always been safety,” Valyo said, “just keep the kids safe for a few hours a night and give them some more structure in their lives. Kids need it. And this area needs it a little more.”
“That’s really what [the center] is- it’s a safe haven,” said CYO Executive Director Thomas Mladenetz. “It gives the kids an option, a place to come to engage in some positive activities and stay out of trouble.”
Based in the banquet hall, the Bromley Teen Center provides a recreational space for kids to go on week nights. The program is free to residents and also arranges various field trips throughout the year for members to experience things like Universoul Circus in Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park, the historic Morven Mansion and Basketball games at Rider University. Between 15 to 25 kids attend the Teen Center on average each day, creating a tight-knit, yet accepting community.
Valyo says that since he began the program, he’s seen a significant difference in many of the kids who attend regularly. Most of them go on to continue their studies in college and are ambitious about their future careers.
“I see a lot of the older kids that have gone through the program,” Valyo said, “and a lot of them are in college and working. I don’t see them on the police blotter.”
Among the first group of Teen Center participants, 93 percent went on to attend at least one year of college.
“National studies say that kids, especially teenagers, enrolled in some kind of regularly structured recreation program are more likely to succeed in school and less likely to get involved with the law,” Mladenetz said. “There’s just been a good positive effect.”
And it all wouldn’t be possible without the space at the Civic Center.
Thirteen years ago, the township decided to open the Civic Center to serve the Bromley community and in 2013, the CYO took over operations of the building. Since then, many children and families have been able to find help at the Bromley Center. They include Za’Niya Mims and her cousin, Isaiah Barnes.
As members of the 131 Hamilton families registered with the food pantry, Mims and Barnes have been able to benefit from many of the Center’s programs. Both 6th graders at Crocket Middle School, Mims and Barnes are a few of the many children who rely on the school lunch program as a main source of nutrition during the year. Come first day of summer, however, the kids were left to themselves, with little or nothing to eat.
Things changed last summer when Mims and Barnes were able to take advantage of the Bromley Civic Center’s new Summer Lunch Program, sponsored by Mercer County CYO, the township and Mercer Street Friends, which offers lunch for registered children free of charge during summer break. The program welcomes any children registered with the local food pantry to sign up.
According to Bromley Center Assistant Director Donna Marie Clancy, one of the center’s biggest accomplishments has been working to establish a connection between Bromley and the rest of the township. Clancy said this was especially important when a six-alarm fire June 8 displaced many residents, at least temporarily, and completely destroyed a handful of homes.
“I see a difference from when I first started coming,” she said, “It’s more of a family base here now. I think the biggest breakthrough in my being here was when we had the fire in the summer. It became the hub for everything- and the donations and the fire victims and just making sure they were safe and taking care of them.”
“The neighborhood is coming along,” Valyo said. “Each year it’s getting a little better. I think it’s come along since I’ve started working here. It’s a slow transformation.”
While residents are in agreement that the Bromley neighborhood is in need of restoration, the area remains an important part of Hamilton Township and the county’s art scene.
“There’s a unique aspect of Bromley and it’s the presence of Grounds for Sculpture and the focus on arts culture,” Isles Foundation president Marty Johnson said.
Johnson said the Isles Foundation is making the effort to restore part of Bromley’s history and redevelop the area through its Mill One project which was started in 2006.
That year, Isles set their sights on an old mill and vacant factory building in Bromley dating back to 1895. The building was previously home to the Atlantic Products Corporation luggage company, but had been left abandoned for nearly 20 years. In 2006, Isles purchased the 240,000 square foot building which was in danger of being demolished.
After stabilizing the mill, the organization developed a plan to transform the space into “a sustainable urban village” containing their new headquarters, offices, start-up businesses and loft style housing.
Though the building was purchased 10 years ago, Isles decided to delay the multi-million dollar investment during the recession. Johnson says that the organization worked to raise additional funding until the market for the higher-end space was restored.
Isles is now working to make major improvements to the structure and reports that the project will cost an estimated $20-million. The organization is currently in the process of installing new windows throughout Mill One and plans to open up office space in the next 18 months. Johnson is hopeful that the project will have a large impact on rejuvenating the Bromley area.
“We knew that it would be a benefit to the region as a whole, boosting the economic activity to a community that had been seeing disinvestment for a number of decades,” Johnson said.
Johnson says that finding innovative uses for Bromley’s historic buildings is a key component to raising property values and revitalizing the neighborhood.
Whether organizations like the Isles Foundation and the CYO’s Civic Center achieve their goal of improving residential life and revitalizing the area, more people seem to be showing an interest in Bromley.
Those who live there hope it’s a sign of what’s in store for the future.
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