Tank Throwback Thursday Meet the Mayor

This is from 1998. The project was to do a three-minute interview off-campus and to edit it. I was a Montclair State Broadcast student and chose to interview James Norton, the mayor of Bloomfield. At the time, Bloomfield had several construction projects turning old factories into retail locations. Home Depot was opening at the old Eskimo Pie plant. A mall with a CVS and KFC was opening near the rail station, and plans were being made for the old Macy's Wearhouse, and a Rite Aid and Straus Auto was set to be built at the old Erie Rail station, which had sat abandoned for nearly 20 years. 

The Home Depot opened just in time for Bloomfield, as the Rickles that was mentioned was gone within a few months of this interview, as the chain declared Chapter 11. The Rickles is now a Staples. The CVS and KFC are still there. The KFC that opened is a pick-up location only with no tables and no drive-thru. I have been there many times. The Rite Aid and Strauss opened a year later, and both have since changed as the companies have both gone through their struggles. The Strauss is now a Mavis Discount Tires, and the Rite Aid has become a Walgreens. The Macy warehouse is now a small shopping center featuring a Stop & Shop, a Marshall's and. McDonald's. James Norton, who served as mayor since 1992, would lose his reelection bid a few months later, beaten by John Buckowski