They will definitely be able to do that: A place called Mesa Restaurante opened up on Edison Place, right across the alley from Prudential Center about a couple of months ago. It’s a smart move on the part of the owners — right next to a parking lot and virtually up against the new complex.

Check out the Web site at: http://www.mesarestaurante.com/

Maybe you all should get together at Mesa and work this out over some whiskey, not lattes.

How many years would you try and turn around Newark by hoping the current residents improve their own lives? Another 10? Another 25? Another 40? The residents of the ghettos will have more opportunities to improve themselves if a Newark renaissance that focuses on new residents moving in happens.

Everyone here has probably read the stats. New Jersey spends $13K per student on education, 2nd highest in the country. Newark gets $20K per student, and the schools never improve. Let’s just face facts, the Newark renaissance will not be driven by internal improvement. It would be a wonderful story if it happened, but come on.

If Booker manages to turn Newark around, no matter how he does it, he could be one of the most important men of the 21st century.

Newark needs to encourage development of the area around the new Prudential Center. People should be able to get off a train and stop at a couple restaurants and bars before a game or a concert. Get people used to spending a little time and money in Newark and they might just get into the habit of it.

If more people own where they live things would not be as bad because they would have a vested interest.

And yes Newark does need NJPAC, and all the other things that have been place downtown. Those place creates jobs that could the first rung up the ladder to something better.

When people rent they have no vested interest. That’s the point I’m trying to make. You can always improve yourself. In fact if your not striving to do better, you will be lelf behind.

Yuppies will bring money to Newark and if an environment can be created there where yuppies and ‘thugs’ can co-exist, learn from each other, partake in each other’s culture, then it could mean tremendously positive things for urban areas in America as a whole.

I think this is possible future, but we have to try to improve the stakes of those “ghetto” people in Newark who many would like to write off. Newark NJ has always been at the forefront of trends in American cities. Writing off the ‘ghetto-born’ is not a trend I’d like to advocate. If you want to confront someone or go after someone, pick Anderson Cooper, who chose to use Cam’ron as a representative of the hip hop culture to present to white America on 60 Minutes. Cam’ron makes tons of dough and if he had any balls he wouldn’t be so scared to snitch. Cooper went to Yale and should know better than to speak about things he knows nothing about.

I’ve never lived in Newark. I grew up in a different lower-class urban area in north Jersey and live in Brooklyn today. I campaigned for Booker in the East Ward and traveled there this weekend to do some consulting work with a group of artists on what might be a watershed event in anti-crime efforts for North American cities. Things will get better in Newark. Crime and murder will be reduced and it won’t be by the same oppressive methods by which as Guilliani accomplished it in New York.

I think those in Newark who complain that nothing will be done and poke fun at artists or those who sip lattes should actually try to make some effort to improve things in Newark rather than just criticizing. These claims that “nothing will be done” made by those who live in Newark or 15 minutes away seem foolish to me. I live about an hour away and I can say with confidence that something is being done to reduce crime in Newark and I’m actually very happy to travel an hour to get there and to lend a hand. Though, I haven’t bought a t-shirt yet.

I don’t really care if you think I’m a racist, although I know I’m not the only one you’re addressing.

I’m white, but I take no pleasure in seeing Newark be a dump just because it’s majority black. I live 15 minutes from Newark and wish it was a place I could bring my family. That doesn’t mean it has to get whiter, and it doesn’t even necessarily mean it has to get richer, but it does have to become less scary, and if you think I’m racist for thinking Newark is scary, I still don’t care.

It’s been 40 years since the riots, and Newark has accomplished remarkably little positive in that time, even as we’ve had 25 straight years of a great national economy. So yes, if I was going to bet on a Newark turnaround, it would not be because the ghettos improved themselves.

Cory Booker is the best thing to happen to Newark in who-knows-how-long and Newark residents are wary of him because he attended good schools that had white people? That just about says it all.

I’ll admit that I find most of the comments on this thread openly racist and completely out of touch with the real world.

Now that i’ve got your attention (and your hate), the commentors’ talk about how it’ll be ok because residents will be priced out and have to move out of the city, the talk about how those who didn’t have the foresight to invest in Newark are going to be pushed out, etc. That’s code word for Let’s get the poor black people out of the city, and make it “better”.

Other comment sentiments — There’s business to be made in Newark, and why should we care about the people who actually reside there. It’s their responsibility to find a way to make things work, and they haven’t (the personal responsibility argument) so, well, there’s good land there and it’s our turn to “develop” it.

good going, guys. ameer washington and bob braun talk about the issues and what really needs to be done, and these are the replies they get?

On a related note, thanks ameer washington and bob braun. we need more people talking about how a latte, a dance troupe, and a stadium will not make real change for the people of newark.

Whatever you think of Giuliani, don’t downplay what he did for the city. Your example doesn’t even make sense. Let’s assume that Dinkins did attract major corporations. That doesn’t mean he had anything to do with the crime drop.

Giuliani cleaned up Times Square of all the slime through the force of his will more or less. If you think Times Square was going to be as nice as it is whether or not he did that you’re quite wrong.

If you think that anyone’s going to remember or care that he supposedly trampled artists’ rights, you’re even more mistaken. Nobody cares about artists. What rights are you talking about anyway?