By Dan Aubrey
Christian Martin says he was idealistic when he assumed his position as executive director of the Trenton Downtown Association in April 2012.
Problems for the former city administration were waxing, the police force was waning and city stability was in the balance. Two years later, that tested idealism is now providing some insight and some fruit, including the presence of young talent that can see the stage for the city’s next act.
Martin, 34, has been a resident of Trenton for a better part of the last 10 years. He had a Mill Hill residence, and says downtown was his home and where he hung out.
He’d seen the Trenton Downtown Association workers doing yeoman’s work keeping streets clean and presentable, and he admired the organization from a resident’s point of view. When he heard the position was available, he looked at the requirements and his experience and thought it was a good match. He applied and was hired by the TDA board.
Going into the job, Martin says, “I knew Trenton and knew that we had a big problems, and I didn’t know where to begin. So I looked around and saw a mess, and the first thing we worked on was cleaning up and going beyond what TDA maintained.”
The organization, founded in 1986, is charged with providing a variety of business related services and “maintenance of a clean and safe commercial district, support for the arts and cultural heritage, and public policy planning and advocacy, the TDA is leading the revitalization of the City of Trenton,” according to the TDA website.
“Downtown” generally translates into the area from Calhoun Street to the Trenton train station and from Perry Street to the river.
The organization’s $750,000 budget provides materials, services, rentals, and salaries for four full-time office staff, five street ambassadors and two part-time staff members at the Visitors Center. Funds are raised mainly through a 4.5 percent property tax assessment on downtown property.
Martin says to improve the downtown area, he started looking at back alleys, side streets, and gateways where a lot of the trash and mess was originating.
“We looked to address the source of a lot of the garbage, litter and, some of the structural barriers that prevent a clean and safe environment. That means asking: Are there enough trash cans? Is our manpower being allocated properly? Can we assist a city that is understaffed and undermanned in any way, including public parks and right away and things of that nature?” he says.
Martin says once they achieved a basic level of maintenance and sanitation, they were able to tackle bigger beautification and design projects, creative place making, and things of that nature.
Recent efforts include a partnership with the S.A.G.E. Coalition, a group of young Trenton artists, who operate in a TDA owned gallery and studio spaces on Hanover Street and have launched a series of arts projects — including the Gandhi Garden — that have generated positive response from both in and out of the city.
While Martin is now a downtown Trenton presence, he is a transplant. He was born in the Bronx, to lawyer parents. His mother deals with wills and general practice, his father is a former New York Supreme Court justice.
When Martin was 10, he moved with his mother to Savannah, Ga., and then to Washington, where he attended Virginia Episcopal High School. In 1998 he was recruited to play basketball for Princeton University.
Although knee and heart problems curtailed his sporting career, he graduated with political science degree in 2002, and cites professor Patricia Fernandez-Kelly as a key influence.
“She had done research on inner cities from Baltimore to Miami, and some the readings and lectures analyzed the culture of dysfunction and the pathology of poverty and crime were extremely impactful,” Martin says.
He originally came to Trenton to work. His first job out of college was working for New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency. From there, he went to the state house, working for State Sen. Sandra Cunningham in Jersey City, who selected him as her chief of staff because her former chief was moving out.
Martin says that’s when he decided to invest in Trenton and took advantage of the HMFA’s first time urban home buy program.
“I am an advocate of living where you work. And on my way to my apartment in Hamilton, to the (HMFA) office at the Roebling Market I would regularly pass these stately Victorian homes on Hamilton Avenue. I saw one was for sale and inquired about and one thing led to another. And here I am 10 years later,” he says.
He was later joined in Trenton by his mother, who has a neurological disorder and moved to the area after her only son graduated from Princeton.
“I encouraged her to move (here) so we could help each other out,” says Martin. He is also encouraging another woman — with whom he is in a serious relationship and calls the love of his life.
After saying “I have a vested interest in seeing the city rebound and be the place that we know it can be,” Martin notes an addition downtown: The College of New Jersey’s Bonnard Center presence at 5 S. Broad St., at the corner of West State Street.
Martin says that assistant provost Patrick Donohue expressed an interest in doing some programming downtown. So he went about finding an appropriate space for them to work out of. One of the facade grant recipients had available space on the second and third floor, which used to be the Army-Navy recruitment office.
“It needed a ton of work, but the owner invested in renovating the place and we signed the lease, and brought in the college. It is a partnership because it brings their bodies and resources,” he says.
They host workshops for entrepreneurs and planners. They also conduct classes from time to time and run an interactive multimedia laboratory, where tech-savvy students develop applications and websites and innovative technology for TDA and its our downtown partners.
Martin says one group of students is working on ways of using technology to assist the African-American Pride Festival. Another is exploring ways to create a city-beautification project that uses technology to create light displays that illuminate abandoned buildings.
“The main objective for us was to bring anchor institutions to the district, and colleges and university are the best anchors there are. They’re economic engines all in themselves. They employ people and provide thought, leadership, energy, and vitality to an area. Downtown Trenton is defiantly in need of those things,” says Martin, adding that he would like to build on that and bring in Rider and Princeton and reestablish Trenton as a center of higher learning and innovation.
While there are successes, Martin is aware of the ongoing problems related to the negative publicity, lingering problems, poor leadership, lack of funding, and planning that has hindered a “community feel.”
However, he says, “There are positives, and I think going forward, policy makers understand that new development needs to have a proper mix of housing, retail, parking, and open space in order to preserve and promote economic growth and vitality. Right now,(TDA) has representation from the state and county and city along with private business owners and property owners, beyond that we stared a parking committee that has someone from the city state county parking authority and the private sector as well to help make progress on our some of our persistent problems.” That includes addressing issues related handicap accessibility and outdated or unproductive parking codes.
With the recent ouster of Mayor Tony Mack, convicted for corruption, the City of Trenton has passed through one of its most difficult periods. But that also brings opportunity.
“There’s a lot of pain here and a lot of stress, but out of that comes strength and pride and art and a really unique culture that you can’t find in the townships that you can’t find in the suburbs,” he says. “We don’t have any big boxes and chains. We still have some of the best food and hidden gems in the region, and coupled with historic fabric and heritage, it is really a city with really great bones that, with the right leadership and investment, could will once again will be a great American small city. And for me, it affords an opportunity to be a part of advancing that dream of a better Trenton. I wouldn’t have that opportunity in a large city or other market. That’s why I’m here. It’s a great opportunity. Where can you turn a whole block into an art gallery and where can you make creative spaces?”
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