It is Wednesday December 10, 2008. The temperature is unseasonably warm and rain falls steadily. No sunshine is in sight. I browse the news stand inside Pennsylvania station, a hub for transportation in, out and through Newark, NJ, all while avoiding the stare of an Arabic attendant standing behing the small steel cash register. Headlines about an infamous Chicago governor, Governor Blagojevich's, indictment for sale of the now vacant senate seat Barack Obama once held catch my attention and I begin to think about the scandals that once ravished Newark' government and wonder if the poverty and social problem of Newark today is a result of this.
According to newspaper headlines and the attitudes of local citizens, Newark has done an about-face and is trying to turn its problems, from embezzlement by its previous mayor to disconcerting crime and murders to business and citizen's migrating away from it altogether, into solutions. First of all ex-mayor, ex-senator Sharpe James, though convicted for embezzlement, is said to be responsible for many of the positive things that has happened to Newark. The New York Times' Damien Cave explains that his record is mixed, consisting of progressive efforts for the city's renewal to unfortunate monetary criminal activity. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/28/nyregion/28sharpe.html?pagewanted=print . Many supporters of James feel that though he and his office was convicted of embezzlement of funds totalling around $190,000, he had the no-how required to run the city and create jobs through development, in effect "clipping the wings of poverty" and crime which many feel cause each other. http://www.blackstarnews.com/print.php?a=3583 . So, poverty and crime have persisted in the city before and after the riots in 1967 and making it better has been slow but steady, it seems.
Projects started by the former mayor are finished, like the New Jersey Performing Arts Center to the Prudential Center, housing the Devil's hockey team. The hope is that because of these developments businesses and populations will invest more in the area creating more jobs and economic stability. The Black Star Editorial stated that 28%of Newark's black population lives in poverty compared to about 9% in other parts of the state. Therefore there are a lot of improvements to be made and a lot of catching up to do but there has been some effort with or without scandal.
According to newspaper headlines and the attitudes of local citizens, Newark has done an about-face and is trying to turn its problems, from embezzlement by its previous mayor to disconcerting crime and murders to business and citizen's migrating away from it altogether, into solutions. First of all ex-mayor, ex-senator Sharpe James, though convicted for embezzlement, is said to be responsible for many of the positive things that has happened to Newark. The New York Times' Damien Cave explains that his record is mixed, consisting of progressive efforts for the city's renewal to unfortunate monetary criminal activity. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/28/nyregion/28sharpe.html?pagewanted=print . Many supporters of James feel that though he and his office was convicted of embezzlement of funds totalling around $190,000, he had the no-how required to run the city and create jobs through development, in effect "clipping the wings of poverty" and crime which many feel cause each other. http://www.blackstarnews.com/print.php?a=3583 . So, poverty and crime have persisted in the city before and after the riots in 1967 and making it better has been slow but steady, it seems.
Projects started by the former mayor are finished, like the New Jersey Performing Arts Center to the Prudential Center, housing the Devil's hockey team. The hope is that because of these developments businesses and populations will invest more in the area creating more jobs and economic stability. The Black Star Editorial stated that 28%of Newark's black population lives in poverty compared to about 9% in other parts of the state. Therefore there are a lot of improvements to be made and a lot of catching up to do but there has been some effort with or without scandal.
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