These days, 1701 Calhoun Street in Trenton looks like an abandoned warehouse, with its pink facade crumbling, surrounded by weeds and ignored by people walking by. But every now and then, Erik Simonsen tells me, he’ll drive by it on his way to work at the New Jersey Statehouse and pay his respects. The long-vacant site was once home to City Gardens, one of Jersey’s most storied live music venues. Simonsen now spends a lot of time just 1.7 miles away, as a member of the state Assembly, tasked with crafting and casting votes on new laws. “Every time I go there, I have to turn on Calhoun Street,”…