Ewing Nj Mayor -

Rather than wait for a white knight, Steinmann did something unusual: he lobbied the state for “brownfield” tax credits, pieced together $12 million in federal infrastructure money, and began demolishing the plant himself —by which he means, he put the township in the driver’s seat.

“People yell at me at the grocery store about their tax bill,” he says. “I tell them the truth: the only way to lower taxes is to grow our commercial tax base. And that starts with the riverfront.” ewing nj mayor

For decades, this 170-acre stretch along the Delaware River was a symbol of Ewing’s industrial might. After the plant closed in 1998, it became a symbol of rust-belt decay—a fenced-off, contaminated ghost town in the heart of Mercer County. For nearly 25 years, every mayor promised to fix it. But it is Steinmann, a low-key Democrat first elected in 2020, who finally has a wrecking ball on site. Rather than wait for a white knight, Steinmann

“He doesn’t have the charisma of a Christie or the fire of a Fulop,” says Micah Rasmussen, director of the Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics. “But in a small town like Ewing, charisma fades. Competence doesn’t. He’s turning Ewing from a pass-through town into a destination.” Steinmann is running for a full third term next year (Ewing operates under a non-partisan municipal election system, though he is affiliated with Democrats). His likely opponent? A Republican small-business owner who claims Steinmann is “soft on crime” following a string of car thefts. And that starts with the riverfront

By 9 p.m., there’s no resolution, but the room has calmed down.

Steinmann’s challenge is to serve both.

As the sun sets over the Delaware, Steinmann walks the perimeter of the GM site. In the distance, you can see the lights of TCNJ’s stadium and, further out, the gold dome of the Statehouse in Trenton.