by Ken Walker
$28.8M plan makes recreation a priority in Newark
July 28, 2008 in Uncategorized by Ken Walker
“$28.8M plan makes recreation a priority in Newark”:http://www.nj.com/newark/index.ssf/2008/07/post_18.html
The Ledger details the parks plan “previously announced by City Hall”:http://dailynewarker.com/2008/07/22/new-parks-coming-to-newark/. The excitement about new and rehabilitated parks was palpable among those present when Booker noted this in his “State of the City address”:http://dailynewarker.com/2008/02/08/state-of-the-city-spindown-its-all-about-momentum/ earlier this year.
We live in walking distance of Independence Park, which has had two soccer fields rebuilt in the time that we’ve been here. Without a backyard for our daughter, we’re there several times a week meeting up with other families or just letting her run around on the playground, and we frequently walk the dog through here. It’s a huge asset to our neighborhood, and the Ironbound would be a completely different place without it — so I’m psyched that Newarkers throughout the city will be able to enjoy new green space in their own neighborhoods.
Nearly 45 percent of the money is being raised through private philanthropy, a symbol of Booker’s national celebrity that has made him a frequent campaigner for presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama. The Trust for Public Lands, alone, is providing $5.4 million for these projects.
“Any connection I have, I’m trying to get a park out of a person,” Booker said.
Unlike some of Booker’s more intangible initiatives undertaken in his first two years in office – such as updating the city’s technology, bolstering ethics laws and fixing the city’s broke budget process – the parks project is something that residents can see and touch.
It’s a tried-and-true way for politicians to leave a legacy.
