Everything Newark

This weekend on June 3rd will see an arts exhibit and fashion show in Newark titled theEvent. I wish I could tell you what it is, exactly.

The Newark Star Ledger has a quick blurb about the final chapter of the story of government mishandling of public funds that destroyed a neighborhood: Emptied Newark homes to be demolished.

Empty, boarded buildings which have stood for more than a year in two Newark neighborhoods that were bought up and emptied to make way for school projects the state can no longer afford to build will be demolished this summer, lawmakers were told today.

…

Dozens of longtime residents were displaced in the Dewey and Ridge Street neighborhoods over the past three years, as the SCC assembled land for a proposed high school and elementary school. Last summer, those projects were among 97 where work was suspended, after SCC officials realized they could not afford to construct them with the $6 billion lawmakers had authorized for a school construction program in 31 of the state’s neediest communities.

Associated Press: AP Study: Sioux Falls is safest driving city. This study pretty much confirms what we already knew about driving a car in Newark.

Motorists in Newark, N.J., were most at risk, according to the study, averaging an accident once every five years. Washington, D.C., was second-to-last at 5.1 years.

Five months after we moved here, my wife and I bought a new 2005 Mazda 3. Four weeks after we got it, we found that the entire passenger side of the vehicle was mashed in from an apparent hit and run by, at best guess, a large (garbage?) truck. Does this count as my accident for the next four years?

Wonkette notes that we just edged out D.C. for the title of American City Most Resembling a Demoliton Derby.

An Associated Press story is making the rounds in the wake of the shooting of several teenagers over the past couple of weeks. Home News Tribune Online: Crime likely to be top issue for incoming Newark mayor.

As Cory Booker prepares to become mayor of New Jersey’s largest city in July, many say the top priority for his incoming administration is obvious: fighting crime.

Polls that Booker’s own campaign took during his campaign showed more than 80 percent of Newark residents said crime was the top issue in a city that by last week already had 40 murders this year, 11 more than the same period in 2005.

The New York Times covers the need for greater safety and crime prevention in their piece, A Bleeding City, Seeking More Than a Band-Aid.

Tom Moran: A serious accusation, made cheap in Newark. Moran takes a skeptical look at the “race card” that he says is played too often in Newark.

On Wednesday, the job fell to Councilman Ras Baraka, who sat directly across a large conference table from Corzine and his senior aides. The proposal had been modified by then, but its odor remained.

So Baraka played the race card.

“You’re looking at it from a racially and economically privileged position,” he told them. “I don’t have that privilege. I live in Newark where kids are getting shot in the streets and parents are coming to me saying, ‘My child needs a job.’”

• Battle for Newark: League of Women Voters letter. In brief, it went something like, “Ahem, NO we didn’t sponsor that.”
• WBGO: Sen. Rice wants the Newark mayor’s race monitored for fraud. Isn’t that we have state election boards?
• Newark06: Rice Goes on the Attack. Rice mimics James’ 2002 tactic of flinging hateful accusations at Booker in order to undermine his reputation. It seems that where the Booker team has matured, the current administration has descended to grade school warfare. What’s next? Will Rice shout boldly to Booker at the debate that “you’re not the boss of me,” or will he use the “I’m rubber, you’re glue” attack instead?
• Battle for Newark: Where to catch the candidates. Katie shares a quick reference for next week’s appearances for the mayoral candidates.
• Rutgers-Newark: Newark Riots – 1967.