SOUTH ORANGE – Sheena Collum, the Village President, recalls when a stretch of Taylor Place was occupied by a Blockbuster store. Those were the days.

But as time moved on, Blockbuster closed and downtown was left with an empty building.

Today, that site has been transformed into Taylor Vose, a five-story, 110-unit luxury apartment building with lots of bells and whistles, including a workout area with an assortment of weights and a game room featuring pool, ping pong and table shuffleboard.

It was here Thursday morning where Jersey City Mayor and gubernatorial candidate Steven Fulop decamped to talk about, not billiards, but housing.

The key point is that the building includes 11 affordable housing units. What’s more, the town used a developer’s contribution to establish affordable units elsewhere in South Orange.

Fulop says bluntly that if elected governor in 2025, his goal will be to “double the (state’s) affordable housing production of previous years.”

He says in a prepared housing presentation that the state now builds “only about 2,700 units of affordable housing annually, a small dent in the massive 225,000 unit shortage.”

It’s the lack of affordable homes that keep minorities and the young from “building wealth through homeownership,” Fulop says. For instance, he said the annual household income needed to afford a two bedroom rental is almost $70,000 a year, far beyond the capabilities of low income workers.

There is much history here.

The state’s initial Mount Laurel court decision requiring towns to zone for affordable housing is almost 50 years old.

How to construct such homes has been a political minefield ever since. Many municipal officials simply don’t want to do it – especially in the suburbs.

Some oppose state mandates under the banner of “home rule.”

Others fear an influx of new residents and still others want to preserve open space.

Collum, who is a planner by profession – and also a Fulop supporter – said a regional planning approach can chip away at home rule. Fulop said he wants to offer towns financial incentives. That, he said, can show reluctant town leaders that regional thinking is not only good planning, but financially beneficial.

Fulop takes pride in saying that Jersey City has been a statewide leader in creating affordable housing.

His presentation proclaimed:

“Since 2013, Jersey City has led the state every year in housing starts and has been the economic engine for New Jersey.”

Fair point, but most of the state’s more than 500 municipalities have less than 25,000 people. They’re not like Jersey City.

Looking ahead, he said he hopes to create more affordable housing across New Jersey by encouraging development around train stations  – New Jersey has 244 of them -, and through the use of tax abatements and tax credits.

He also wants to re-establish the Office of the Public Advocate to help tenants in need.

More broadly, Fulop’s event today was one in a series of pronouncements on pressing public issues.

As the mayor says, unlike candidates who offer “mere platitudes,” he wants to present “substantive and detail oriented” positions. He seems to be accomplishing that. His housing plan runs 16 pages.

Things change over time, but “public or affordable housing” may still have a negative image to many. It’s easy to think of the towering – and not very pretty – housing structures of the 1960’s and 1970’s.

That’s why Fulop was at Taylor Vose.

This is a luxury building, but one that also includes affordable units, one of which the mayor took a look at.

“This building literally embodies a lot of what we’re trying to accomplish,” Fulop said.