Everything Newark

New York Times: For 75 Years, It Was a Sight to Steer By in Newark. Jonathan Miller describes the end of an icon as the Pabst brewery bottle is torn down from the Newark skyline.

It was the 60-foot-tall Pabst beer bottle, which had loomed 185 feet above Newark for 75 years, serving as a guidepost for countless weary drivers.

But on Monday, after a lengthy struggle, the rusted bottle — which was actually a 55,000-gallon water tank — came down piece by piece over seven hours. For now it is five enormous pieces of steel and copper plate three-eighths of an inch thick, and its fate is far from settled.

Ted Fiore, whose company has been demolishing the 10-acre site of the former Pabst brewery for two years, said he planned to restore the bottle at his warehouse in Newark and then give it a new home.

The New York Sun: Newark Takes a Hard Lesson In the Pro Stadium Game.

It seems Newark Mayor-elect Cory Booker never did make it to those sports business management classes during his days as a Rhodes scholar or at Yale’s law school. It might have saved him some aggravation in dealing with major league sports owners.

Booker, who takes office on Saturday, is thinking about backing out of the agreement that outgoing Mayor Sharpe James cut with New Jersey Devils owner Jeffrey Vanderbeek to build a Newark arena for the hockey team. Why not welcome the Devils to Newark with open arms? Because James bought the city a major league franchise that won’t have the word Newark in its name or on its arena, and he did it for a questionable price.

Newark Star Ledger: Newark official stripped of license. If you’ve been thinking of buying up property in Newark on the verge of its resurgence, this article from the Star Ledger will likely give you pause, particularly the bit about how this official failed to inspect some essential facilities for new development in Newark. His lack of effectiveness allowed developers to put up housing using substandard lumber and construction techniques.

State officials have revoked the license of a former Newark construction official, charging that he profited from his position by getting a discounted price on a home he was inspecting.

law.com: Could McCarter & English Be Moving out of Newark?. McCarter & English is a major law firm that, as was announced back in September, was planned to be a major tenant in a new riverfront development project planned at McCarter Highway and Raymond Boulevard. Delays in the project, though, have put M&E [...]

Opinion Journal from the Wall Street Journal: A New Arc. On the relationship between Cory Booker and city visionary, Jane Jacobs.

Like Mr. Florida, Cory Booker grew up in a North Jersey suburb. The son of a middle-class African-American couple who broke the color barrier, the tall, athletic Mr. Booker played football at Stanford and later studied at Oxford as a Rhodes scholar. And like Richard Florida, he is a disciple of Jane Jacobs.

“She had a very strong belief in creating strong neighborhoods and communities,” Mr. Booker told me a couple of days before Tuesday’s election for mayor of Newark, which he won in a landslide.

The Star-Ledger: Cash crisis puts arena on thin ice in Newark. The Devil’s arena promises a boon for the area, bringing jobs and visitors to the city of Newark. Its failure, of course, would leave a massive crater in the heart of downtown the city deeply in debt. This was a huge bet for Mayor James. Let’s hope he pulls this off.

Update: Glad to see they worked it out.