Dr. Mayida Zaal Comments on South Paterson’s Newly Updated Main Street

Main Street in the southern section of the city was left in disrepair for decades after the middle class fled to greener urban pastures. They left behind empty storefronts and neglected buildings.

That’s no longer the case.

South Paterson’s once-moribund buildings and storefronts have been replaced or refurbished. New restaurants serving up a dazzling array of international cuisines line the main thoroughfare, along with new shops and jewelry stores with display windows bright with 21-karat gold.

The turnaround comes decades after the “white flight” of the 1960s when the city and other urban areas suffered from a loss of middle-class families and jobs, which also relocated to suburbia.

City residents know and others are fast learning that Main Street, from Mary Street, near St. Joseph’s University Medical Center, all the way to Crooks Avenue at the Clifton border, has undergone quite a change.

South Paterson is looking fabulous, many are saying.

“Absolutely,” agreed Dr. Mayida Zaal, a professor in the Teaching and Learning department with Palestinian and Colombian roots who grew up in South Paterson. Those who have made a difference and turned the neighborhood around are people from Middle Eastern countries who “migrated in the 1970s,” came to the area and “worked and saved.”

“They’ve come back to build the financial infrastructure of their own community,” Dr. Zaal said.

It was a slow burn that started with small businesses like butcher shops and other storefronts. They added up a bit at a time, and now people are taking notice and are astonished by all the changes that have happened in the last decade. The last five years have been especially dramatic, locals and others said.