by Ken Walker
City Hall quiet about the NTU billboards lately
April 28, 2007
City Hall has been pretty quiet since the “hoopla last month”:http://dailynewarker.com/2007/03/26/infuriating-2/ over the Newark Teachers Union billboards, and one wonders if it’s because of articles like this brilliant piece from ??Joan Whitlow?? at the ??Star Ledger??: “Newark ought to fight crime, not battle over signs”:http://www.nj.com/starledger/stories/index.ssf?/base/columns-0/1175232671107850.xml&coll=1
In the meantime, Arthur Stern, a developer, said tenants in his newly renovated 1180 Raymond Boulevard apartments — great-looking apartments that offer a workout gym, valet parking, a partial basketball court and bowling alley — were annoyed by the NTU sign nearby at Broad and West Park. He said he will buy the space and cover up the “godawful” thing.
How many times did I pass that billboard without noticing it? But once you see it, you cannot help but notice the old, abandoned office building next to it — which is owned by the city. Not far away are two other old, empty buildings owned by Stern’s realty company. One of Stern’s buildings has fairly new windows, and both are slated for redevelopment — they have been for years. For now, they are just two more “godawful” empty downtown derelicts that don’t do much more for the landscape, or Newark’s image, than the NTU’s billboard.
I drove along Route 1 looking for the NTU billboards that were supposed to be on the highway. Maybe I was paying too much attention to the trucks and cars, but I never saw the NTU signs. I did see a “Crimestoppers” billboard put up by the city: Give Newark police an anonymous tip about crime, and they will give you a re ward. Yet another Newark billboard offered to buy back guns, to help stop the shootings and crime the mayor doesn’t want other people to allude to on their billboards. I wonder if the city’s billboards made the runaway bride-to-be feel secure?
I recently found a Flickr photo set entitled “Stop the Killings”:http://www.flickr.com/photos/tampics/sets/72157594559952568/ which paints a picture of how city some residents are responding to the violence through protests.
I know I had previously taken issue with the NTU over the signs, and I stand behind that position — the signs are unproductive and unhelpful. If, as Del Grasso asserts in is conversation with Joan, these signs are part of a larger anti-violence campaign that includes conducting community forums, then it’s a botched marketing message. If they made this clearer from the start, the NTU probably would have received less criticism.
But City Hall’s noise does seem unfortunate given the larger struggle those signs represent. The city still has a long way to go to become the safe, cosmopolitan and family-friendly city that Mayor Booker envisions. Even if the billboards are dreadfully unhelpful, fighting them is an exercise in futility which just wastes time and attention.
Joan’s closing words put this issue into perspective.
Let me tell you about the signs I don’t want to see anymore. They are made of T-shirts or a piece of cardboard. They go up on fences and walls to mark the spot were someone was killed in Newark. People leave candles and write: “The good die young” or “We’ll miss you,” followed by some childhood nickname. I hate those signs.
Stop the killings.
No Comments