My town

Bound Brook
When I was eight I moved to a small town called Bound Brook. It is one of the smallest towns in New Jersey. Length wise it’s only a mile long and it only has three major streets: Union, Mountain Ave, and Main Street.
Union Avenue is where everything important is. Whether it’s Chinese, Italian, Mexican, subs, sweets, hotdogs, burgers, or a grocery run, you’ll end up on Union Ave. Union Ave. has two Chinese restaurants, an Italian restaurant and bakery, a Subway, a Dunkin Donuts, a Quick Check, Burger King, a Weiner Heaven, Tony’s Pizzeria, Jose’s and a Shop-Rite; you cannot go hungry on this street if you have a couple of dollars. Besides food though, you can also fill your tank, and get all your sporting good needs at the Gulf and Efinger’s. There are also two pediatricians, a dentist, the high school, and some houses littering this street.
Vertically from Union Ave is Mountain Ave. This street, old-timers call Amen Ave. Mountain Ave has 3 churches, one Roman Catholic, one Methodist, one Protestant; it has a temple, a funeral parlor, and a cemetery. It is the most depressing or uplifting street you can be on, depending on who you ask.
The last street, parallel to Union Ave, is Main Street. You could call Main Street the ‘bad part’ of Bound Brook. Main Street is where the train station and the Bound Brook community housing is, or the projects to people who live there. It is a big Hispanic community and a lot of people living there are illegal immigrants or may have family who has illegal immigrants. In 2001, Hurricane Floyd ripped through our area leaving Main Street and many other parts of Bound Brook underwater, literally. Because of this hurricane, a lot of businesses and homes on Main Street were unlivable due to mold and water damage. Unfortunately, because of the status of some of the occupants downtown they were thrown out of their houses and businesses and downtown was left destroyed.
The next year, Bound Brook was hit again by Hurricane Katrina. The brook overflowed this time and most of town had to be rebuilt. The water had come so high that it hit the traffic lights and many had to be re-wired. Again, Main Street got ignored and many people had to leave their homes.
It was only until a couple of months later when Hurricane Rita came that our mayor decided it was time to do something. Lately they have been putting up walls to block the water from coming on the main streets. Main Street is an on-going project. Many houses and businesses had to be knocked down because of the condition and neglect, and many are sitting there empty. Only time will tell if it will go back to its original state.