Revitalization: Newark's Tale of Two Cities

By Navdeep Mathur

The New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) was built beside state highway Route 21, known as McCarter Highway in Newark. It faces the side of the Robert Treat Hotel, and flanks the medium height Fireman's Insurance building on one side. Except from the windows of office buildings close by, and from the waterfront, there is no vantage point from which the NJPAC can be seen in the city. Because it can be seen from the Passaic River close by, travelers on any train to and from Newark's Penn Station may catch a brief glimpse of the NJPAC framed by the rusted iron railway/waterway bridges‹vestiges of a past industrial age. There are no shops or street vendors around the NJPAC. It stands by itself, flanked by traffic-bearing roadways. In a word, it is an island, disconnected from the downtown because of its location, unseen in the skyline, and walled off from the casual city pedestrian since it stands alone, away from the shopping areas.

While NJPAC was built in large part through public subsidies in conjunction with private funds, it serves the rich suburbanites of New Jersey and New York. The underground parking lot at Military Park protects the NJPAC-goers from the city, as they can take an escalator into the NJPAC's coffee shop and briefly step outdoors to cross the street, amidst a heavy police presence on show days. Four prohibitively expensive restaurants are placed within a block's walk from the NJPAC. They price out most of the city's residents, and are aimed exclusively at the more affluent NJPAC attendees.

The NJPAC is touted as the newest best venue of its kind in the country, serving a role as an entertainment center, where world-class music and dance performances are in competition with those at New York's Lincoln Center, giving Newark the status of a "world class city" since great art and culture may be consumed at the NJPAC. At the same time, there is little evidence that it has revitalized Newark's downtown, or connected to the city's residents in terms of providing jobs, benefiting local businesses, or spurring activity in the area.

On non-show dates, the NJPAC is desolate, and quiet, a prettier and newer building than others in the downtown, but eerily silent and "abandoned" until the next show when the suburbanites again flood its impressive concert halls, and police presence adds color to the flow of traffic outside.

The NJPAC has instituted an educational outreach program (New Jersey All-Stars) to its credit. It is funded by private fund-raising efforts and provides scholarships to talented youth to further their artistic goals. However, any observer would be hard put to justify the trade-off between the costs in public expenditure versus the contribution of the NJPAC through this one program alone. In addition, NJPAC claims to provide all of 10 to 12 jobs for Newark residents.

This is just the most recent example of Newark's historical tendency towards expensive investments for the city's image at the expense of outlying residents, who in this case might have benefited from multiple, smaller and multi-purpose entertainment-community halls in a central location in their neighborhoods.

The same arguments that work for the advantages the NJPAC brings to downtown Newark would work in the neighborhoods. Placing smaller venues in the heart of the neighborhoods would bring advantages to Newark's residents, like safety, cleanliness, rejuvenation of local businesses and the building community. All of these are a high priority for residents, including residents of the Central Ward, whose perception of safety in their neighborhood has not changed in spite of the existence of the NJPAC there.

How much does it matter to a majority of Newark's population whether the New Jersey Symphony plays Respighi's "Pines of Rome" or Queen Latifah‹an assuredly black superstar‹ sings the night away at the NJPAC? Either way, the average resident is not in a position to spend his scant income on the comparatively expensive tickets required by the prices at the NJPAC.

The Bears Stadium is also cut off from the downtown and stands alone, close to the Broad Street station. It, too, is an island in Newark, flanked by McCarter Highway, and close to the train station to cater to the suburbanites. It involves minimal employment of city residents while having token programs for the city's schools on occasion. It was built for $34 million solely out of municipal funds, about 50 percent more than planned, making it one of the most expensive minor league stadiums built in recent times. It is also asserted that the economics of this stadium are unsound and will leave it vulnerable to quick transformations in the minor league baseball market. Another concern has been parking, and several thousand spots are needed to be provided at cheap rates, a matter still under resolution.

Such investments are not a priority for the city's residents, despite being touted as symbols of Newark's renaissance. These symbols are used as the most powerful metaphors for development, social change and global competitiveness, while crowding out the democratic dissent voiced by Newark's supposed beneficiaries, its residents.

Newark politics are currently capturing the limelight for two major reasons. One is the upcoming municipal election, where a relative newcomer and member of the city council, Cory Booker, is attempting to unseat Sharpe James who has been Mayor of Newark for sixteen years, and who has never lost an election. The second reason is the dependence of the future of the Devils/Nets Arena, on the winner of the Newark Mayoral Race.

Both these aspects are reflective of larger historical, political and economic processes that have played a significant role in shaping Newark as it exists today. The central question that many observers inside and outside Newark ask is whether the much-touted "Renaissance" really is capable of bringing increased social and economic opportunity to the residents of the city.

It is this population that is characterized by (a) high rates of poverty, unemployment, lack of access to high quality education, and a high proportion of homelessness, and (b) political exclusion from the decision-making processes through which citizens in a democracy can attempt to shape their own future.

Recently there has been a surge in building permits in Newark that is unparalleled in the post-1967 period. The city is still a high-density traffic port for container ships, a major transportation hub, and includes corporate headquarters of large firms like Prudential, Verizon, IDT, PSEG, New Jersey Transit and Horizon Blue Cross/Blue Shield. The city also houses higher education institutions with over 45,000 students and over 3,000 employees. These universities conduct nearly $100 million dollars a year worth of research and add to the development and revitalization infrastructure.

In the culture and sports entertainment sector, the addition of the NJPAC at a cost of $180 million (out of which $127 million comprised public funds from the state and federal government), and the Riverfront Stadium for the Newark Bears are other significant additions to Newark's economic landscape.

A plan for the construction of the $10 million dollar Joseph G. Minish Riverfront Park/ Esplanade that would extend from I-280 in the North, past the NJPAC and beyond Penn Station is supposedly underway. Part of this "Downtown Arts District" also includes older cultural establishments like the Newark Museum, Newark Public Library as well as the New Jersey Historical Society.

Near this plethora of "what's new and exciting in Newark", is the predominantly Portuguese neighborhood in the East called the Ironbound that has accumulated a growing mass of newer Hispanic immigrants, and stores, shopping areas, bars, restaurants and night-clubs.

There is much speculation in the media about the proposed $350 million dollar arena for the Nets and the Devils, which is billed as the focal point for other allied commercial establishments like restaurants, shops and parking lots. There has also been talk about a monorail that would connect these downtown venues, running between Broad Street station and Penn Station. These and other developments in the offing are together "reinventing Newark" and leading it to a new and brighter future.

In conjunction with other entities like the venerable Renaissance Newark, Inc. and the more recent Newark Alliance, with a central role being played by philanthropist Raymond Chambers, Newark's depressed recent past is portrayed as being over-written by a brighter future.

By most popular accounts Newark has never had such a visible symbol of its global location as that provided by the NJPAC. The sheer glamour attached to the idea of the best shows in the world coming to Newark through the NJPAC is by itself cited as evidence of the success of Newark's renaissance. Civic boosters like Mayor Sharpe James and Deputy Mayor Alfred Faiella find any counter-claim or criticism shortsighted and needlessly pessimistic.

The final Newark in the 21st Century Task Force report, prepared by the Roper Group was sharply attacked by the Mayor as an attempt to dilute the potential for Newark's reinvigoration and the successes that have been achieved recently.

The Task Force's careful research and investigation about the city's needs illustrated, in fact, that while much new ground may have been gained in Newark, a renewal may not be occurring. It made specific recommendations related to Newark's image, Newark's role in the regional economy, the importance of assessing and identifying its assets and its school system. It stated that unless the underlying sources of Newark's condition like neighborhood decay, school improvement, active citizen participation, networking of different stake-holders, development of occupational skills focused on the regional economy does not take place, any so-called renaissance will be disconnected from Newark's neighborhoods.

The mayor responded critically to this assessment, pointing to new development in the neighborhoods, particularly housing development, and 18 new mini-shopping malls throughout the city including a multiplex theater. These neighborhood improvements are listed in the mayor's current campaign literature as achievements of his administration under his sixteen year rule. However, it bears noting that much of this development has been conceptualized and executed outside City Hall‹in the offices of neighborhood-based community development corporations (CDCs) like La Casa De Don Pedro, New Community Corporation, Ironbound Community Corporation, and St. James CDC. Prior to any city intervention in Newark's social economy, it was these non-profit neighborhood based institutions that primarily provided the services that the state had been withdrawing over a period of many decades.

Whatever new housing, retail infrastructure, development of entrepreneurial opportunities and basic social services continued to be made available were basically a function of the large number of non-profits in Newark. These entities can trace their roots to the community organizing efforts of the 1960s, and to the response to the devastation caused by the period of social unrest in 1967 and 1968, seeking to redress the lack of opportunity and discrimination of the majority of Newark residents by the local political and state law-and-order machinery.

A multitude of such non-profit community organizations currently support the civic structure of Newark's neighborhoods, and can be credited with taking the initiative to provide new opportunities for residents. While increasingly bridges have been built with city hall, these organizations worked independently of municipal forces.

Members of prominent CDCs have often claimed that they have sustained Newark's human resources and have been the primary factor in its rebuilding in spite of, rather than through, the support of the municipal government. Although the city administration has always treated CDCs as partners publicly, this position has been undermined when city officials have expressed deep-rooted resentment against these very same organizations. Top city officials have alleged that these organizations attempt to play the role of a "parallel government" and diminish the importance of the municipal political structure.

It is not abnormal for the political elite to feel threatened by the constituency resources that are actually held by these CDCs, due to their outreach capacity and activities in the neighborhoods, and therefore their formidable political bargaining power.

The major point here is that the city administration in Newark has attempted to take credit for every development that occurs in the city, regardless of its actual involvement. In talking about Newark's renaissance, the boosters have grossly underplayed the significant achievements that have primarily occurred in the neighborhoods, led by non-profits.

Most of these organizations have played a vital role in rejuvenating and revitalizing decaying neighborhoods through provision of basic services and building new affordable housing. These institutions have sought to capitalize on the existing skills of the residents and organize neighborhoods around their social needs.

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