Clement Price has been appointed by the Office of President-Elect Obama to chair the transtion team for the National Endowment for the Humanities.

In addition to Price’s outstanding public service record inside and out of Rutgers University, is also the unofficial Newark historian, frequently providing insight for local and national meda.

I can’t express how exciting it is for another Newarker to have this kind of influence in the new Presidential administration.

Clement Alexander Price, Board of Governors Distinguished Service Professor of History at Rutgers University in Newark, has been appointed to a key role on President-Elect Barack Obama’s transition team. Price, who has earned national distinction for his many leadership roles in higher education, the arts and humanities, will chair the Obama transition team for the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).  ”The NEH is a public trust that is committed to a broad and deep investment in public knowledge,” Price commented. “I expect President Obama, despite the financial crisis now facing the nation, will want to continue its mission and its service to the principles of the American Republic.”

Weequahic may appear suburban, but if you know where to look, Weequahic has just as many layers of history as the Ironbound, the North Ward, and every other part of Newark.

The tour is free if you have already been on one of my tours before, $10 if it’s your first time adults, $5 for first timers under 18.

We will be meeting at 12:15 at Divident Hill (the intersection of Lyons and Elizabeth Avenues).

More information is available at my website.

Check out the invite, which provides some details on the presentation and a sketch of how the Barter Economy works: 15 Nov 2008 - Barter Up Update.

A barter-based alternate economy demonstration in Newark personifies socio-economic feasibility of a Green Collar society.

Newark, NJ - November 14, 2008 - An old tradition becomes a modern philosophy on Saturday, November 15th from 11AM-3PM at NJIT when Newarkers engage in Let’s Barter Up, Brickerati Green’s demonstration of economic sustainability. As the recession continues to hit home and the holidays expediently approach, Newarkers are looking at ways to cut costs, stay local, and have fun. At NJIT’s “The Gallery” participants in the first Let’s Barter Up will join students, administrators, residents, and businesses, in welcoming a sustainable solution to a financial, consumer, and waste issue.

Let’s Barter Up is an initial step towards a Green lifestyle that is immediately relevant. As Newarkers bring in their like-new and gently-used items in exchange for stocking-stuffers, office favorites, and dorm must-haves, they will begin to participate in a major Green concept: recycling.

Brickerati Green’s Ninapilar Daniels is the concept designer behind Let’s Barter Up. Her vision was to create an event where all live-work-play Newarkers participate in a tangibly relevant Green initiative that relates to their immediate worries and needs, and acts as a starting point towards a sustainable mindset.

Ms. Daniels says, “The Green concept is so massive and sometimes results are not always immediately apparent to Newarkers. As the holidays approach pockets are tight; Newarkers are more concerned about how they are going to buy more stuff for their families. The Green opportunity here is to show how we can cut back on consumable spending, which inevitably will cut back on consumer waste, and reuse stuff that is still functionally new.”

In addition to goods, Let’s Barter Up encourages service swaps including tutoring, music lessons, and consultations. In order to keep all swaps equal, there are six trade “levels.” The value determined for the product received equates the number of “Green Bricks” the individual receives and then trades with. An individual’s investment in the barter economy determines the strength of the economy itself, thus contributing to the anticipation of this demonstration.

This event is free to attend. All participants, visitors, and media are strongly encouraged to bring an item to barter; seed the economy! No money will be accepted in exchange for a bartered item.

For media opportunities please contact Pamela Daniels at 862.220.2601.

This benefit wine-tasting will take place at the Dryden Mansion in Lincoln Park next week on Nov 20.  Proceeds will go to benefit the Boys & Girls Club, a youth development Newark non-profit which this year is celebrating its 70-year anniversary.

The Boys & Girls Clubs of Newark (BGCN) will host its 22nd Annual Wine Tasting Benefit on Thursday, November 20 from 6:00pm to 9:00pm at the Dryden Mansion - Newark, NJ’s hottest, most stylish event space. The Dryden Mansion is located at 59 Lincoln Park, between Broad and Washington (closer to Wash) in the Lincoln Park Arts District.

Guests attending this festive event will be treated to a night of fine eclectic wines, complemented by exquisite hors d’oeuvres, live entertainment, and an exciting silent auction of rare items and unique experiences. Non-alcoholic beverages will also be available. All proceeds raised from this event will benefit the after-school and summer enrichment programs at BGCN’s three club sites and two school satellite extensions.

DATE: Thursday, November 20, 2008
TIME: 6:00pm - 9:00pm (updated from invite)
LOCATION: The Dryden Mansion, 59 Lincoln Park
Newark’s hottest new event space
DONATION: $85 pp, incl wine, hors d’oeuvres and valet parking
PURCHASE TICKETS: Call 973.242.1200 or order online

NYU Press has published a new book about Newark that explores the racial dynamics of Newark from its founding right up through the 1967 riots that tore the city apart. Check out the full introduction the book here (PDF).

Newark’s volatile past is infamous. The city has become synonymous with the Black Power movement and urban crisis. Its history reveals a vibrant and contentious political culture punctuated by traditional civic pride and an understudied tradition of protest in the black community.

Newark charts this important city’s place in the nation, from its founding in 1666 by a dissident Puritan as a refuge from intolerance, through the days of Jim Crow and World War II civil rights activism, to the height of postwar integration and the election of its first black mayor.

 

Much as I can’t stand Bill Maher, he was particularly flattering to the Mayor in his appearance on Real Time last Friday. Maher even suggested Booker could be in the running for President himself in coming elections.

Update: ugh, the video was pulled from YouTube. Here’s an interview Maher conducted with Booker back at the DNC:

Max Pizarro covers the Central Ward election, the effect of an Obama presidency on cities like Newark, and whether Mayor Booker will stick around for another four years after his first term (short answer: he will).

Booker says he’s stuck “like a Texas tick in Newark,” and to a person, his Newark and Essex County colleagues say he’s committed to running for a second term as mayor – now with the added boost of a personal relationship with Obama.

“An Obama presidency means that Newark becomes the laboratory for urban renewal,” said state Sen. Kevin O’Toole (R-Essex).

Coutinho agreed.

“I believe Cory Booker is committed to being mayor and will probably run for governor in 2013,” the assemblyman said. “If vacancies open up in the U.S. Senate, that could change his plans. But short of a vacancy, he’ll run for another term.”

Matthew Hersh at Rooflines (the National Housing Institute blog) points out a Washington Post blog entry that suggest President-Elect Obama will establish a Department of Urban Policy. 

Despite the many national problems confronting the new administration, she continued, Obama remains committed to earlier pledges to establish such an office. “Because he began as a community organizer on the South Side of Chicago, he understands at the local level is really where you can impact change and that local government can play a vital role as we try to jump start our economy,” she said. “So having somebody in the White House, because there are so many different agencies that really can impact urban America and to have one person whose job it is to really pull all of that together, is really a critical position. And there are plenty of terrific candidates for that spot.”

To turn the shallow commuter experience into an intellectually and socially more stimulating education, Chancellor Steve Diner, since the beginning of his tenure in 2002, has declared the university’s transformative effort for an urban residential college. However, a cultural revolution, that is, demands some deeply rooted structural changes. Despite a new 650-bed dormitory building, the “drive-through” college is still mostly quiet for at least three days a week, far from a 24-7 culture. Obviously, students’ financial constraint is not solely to be blamed for the commuter culture. Most college students have to pay for their own room and board some where anyway, in addition to expensive automobile commuting costs. A simple survey of where the university’s leaders live might provide some insight. Among a total of 36 top administrators, with titles of chancellor, vice chancellors, deans, and associate and assistant deans (from Nursing, Criminal Justice, Law, Public Administration, Graduate School), only one new vice chancellor might have a permanent Newark address. The rest are busy driving in and out of Newark, in some cases, for over 80 miles one-way. Campus parking has been a headache to almost all universities. However, Rutgers Newark might be among a very few in the nation where the planning priority of creating parking has been through destroying its own historic neighborhood. Students readily accept the inferior drive-through experience created by the very university leaders and professors who have paid only lip-service to a residential college and urban revitalization.

Interestingly, in his own dissertation three decades ago, Dr. Diner studied an urban residential college with its cosmopolitan faculty devoted to the home city’s progressive future. University of Chicago, Dr, Diner’s alma mater, has a proud tradition of an urban residential community. President William Harper and President Robert Hutchins dedicated many years of their lives living on the sometimes not-so-peaceful campus and fighting for the university and its place in the city and the world. Its professors are known for their loyalty toward their intellectual home, their students, and their city. I remembered the occasion of admiring Professor Edward Shils’ huge home library near the campus. The old scholar cut a distinctive figure on the streets of Hyde Park with his walking stick, his suit jacket, and hat. I am sure that Dr. Diner’s own experience in Chicago must have influenced his determination for a residential culture in Newark.

Under the leadership of Judith Rodin, within ten years, the University of Pennsylvania changed its campus, as well as the surrounding crime-ridden urban environment. Dr. Rodin not only lived on campus as the president, but also grew up in the neighborhood with her life-long affection toward the area. Buildings were developed, or renovated, to turn outward to the streets and the city, leading to collaboration with the community revitalization in University City and West Philadelphia. The university even established the Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander University of Pennsylvania Partnership School and other partnership schools for children of local residents and university staff. Rodin convinced the university community that a viable residential college cannot survive without a residential faculty in a viable neighborhood and its city.

One might point out that the two elite universities have a different student population and a far superior financial strength, which a poor urban college lacks. Rutgers Newark’s own history, however, argues differently. From 1963 to 1974, Malcolm Talbott, Rutgers’ Vice President in charge of the Newark Campus, was in the forefront of the city’s revitalization and the modern campus’ creation. During his long distinguished service to the university, he always lived in Newark. Many active participants of the black student protest movement in 1969 vividly remember their insightful discussions in Mr. Talbott’s home on Mt. Prospect Avenue. Some of them, such as Vicki Donaldson, the spokesperson for the Black Organization of Students, maintained their friendship with Talbot to the last moment of his life, long after his ouster by New Brunswick for his out-spoken promotion of Newark’s interests. Many of Talbott’s colleagues lived around the campus, forming an intellectual home for many underprivileged students.

When becoming the President of NJIT in 2002, Dr. Robert Altenkirch was told to live away from the battled city. Soon, he realized that “the easy thing to do would have been to sit back in Maplewood,” knowing nothing about the lay of the land, focusing only on the campus, and ignoring the neighborhood. He said, “I have never pursued the easy over the right.” He happily moved to Newark and took responsibility as the chair of the Downtown Core Development, which includes the Prudential Arena. Following UPenn’s model, but with very limited recourses, NJIT developed a creative vision for the community around the campus and a seamless transition between “town and gown.” Starting his day on campus at 6:30 every morning, often including Saturdays, Dr. Altenkirch knows not only all university staff, but also many students by their first names and their future career pursuits. The sole purpose of the NJIT Gateway Project is to enhance the students’ residential life through creating viable mixed-use streets for the community and the city. Along the tradition of John Cotton Dana and Malcolm Talbott, Dr. Altenkirch has argued forcefully that only a hometown university, not a satellite drive-through campus, can be the engine and pillar of our city. As simple as that!

If the Twittersphere is any meaningful representation, Booker’s appearances in national media have the world falling in love with him.  But, they might have to get used to the occasional Booker verbosity were getting used to here in Newark.

Newark mayor Corey Booker on MSNBC: “I want to luxuriate in the racial deliciousness of our country.” Yum! Also: Ew! – Slate (via Twitter)

Booker said Wednesday his work with the city is not complete. “I am not leaving here at all,” the 39-year-old mayor said. “I’ve been hearing rumors all over the place. I will remain in the city of Newark for this first term. I made a commitment to the city of Newark.”

Booker also said he plans to run for re-election in 2010.

“If Barack Obama said to me, he’s having problems with his vice president-elect or a cabinet position, I would do anything I can to help, but I believe where I am best is Newark, New Jersey,” said Booker.

Mark Alexander, a top policy adviser to Obama during the campaign, said he has no information on whether Booker has been talking to Obama’s campaign about a job in Washington.

“Cory was a great supporter from an early point in the campaign,” Alexander said. “Obviously he’s a great mayor and he’s a great leader for our country and I hope he does something to help out. How that comes out is his decision.”

Speaking with some fellow Newarkers last night, I was asked if Booker would be sticking around.  His lack of success in the recent local elections in the city seemed to spell a troubling trend that the mayor is disengaging from city business.

I don’t think he would leave (The Wire-savvy readers might call that “pulling a Carcetti”).  Booker has not only staked his reputation on the city’s ability to lead the nation in substantial improvement, but he’s brought in a number of key players that might get burned if the mayor were suddenly to back out of  his commitment.

Cory Booker is a politician that still suffers from the ailments of optimisim and sincerity.  He’s too deeply invested in the people here to suddenly walk away.  While he might well be offered some tempting opportunities to take a position in the Obama administration and define urban policy, it strikes me that he wants to see the policies he’s set forth in Newark bear fruit before he takes on a more wide-ranging position.

The mayor is a talented and intelligent policymaker and still very young in his political career.  Completing his first and even serving a second term in office will let him follow through on the city’s resurgence and only add to his credentials as an effective leader.  No one else in the nation could claim to be the catalyst of change to turn around what many consider the worst city in America to one of its most vibrant and exciting assets.  

If Booker succeeds in driving change in Newark, his future prospects will be truly limitless.

The outcome of the race had special meaning for many residents of the predominantly black city, which has never fully recovered from the racially charged riots that shook it in the late 1960s. Mayor Cory Booker said the election of Obama — the first African-American to be elected president — is a signal the U.S. is ready to heal the racial divisions of the past.

“This is a time when it still seems exceptional that people are going to vote for someone that is not of their race, and Obama is beginning to melt that reality away,” Booker said. “Everything’s not going to be perfect just because we elected Barack Obama, but this is a sign that the healing has begun.”

Shortly after the election results rolled in, City Hall released a statement indicating great expectations for our President-Elect:

 Newark, NJ – November 4, 2008 – The election of Barack Obama as President is a clear mandate for change in America – and, in particular, it presents a historic moment of opportunity for American cities.

For too long, there has been a limited vision of the capacity if our American cities and the potential role they can and must play in America’s long-term prosperity. In the recent past, federal partnerships to strengthen metropolitan areas have been insufficient but we now have renewed hope and a strong vision for change.

Obama’s vision and stated plans speak to future policies that will invest in our cities and work to develop the economic, social and cultural potential of our metropolitan areas. Obama is committed to safer cities, educational excellence for all our children and our cities becoming engines for our economic recovery and advancement. American cities can, and will, help generate American economic strength and help secure America’s global competitiveness.

We look forward to a partnership with the federal government that supports job creation, enhanced workforce training and increased access to capital for underserved businesses. Federal support of regional centers of innovation and next-generation industries such as clean technologies can help create new business and jobs. And, with Obama, we have a bolder opportunity to secure our short and long-term future through Obama’s plans to increase investment in early childhood education, as well as his commitment to making college more affordable for all Americans.

Today marks tremendous new hope for American cities. Working with Obama, we can create an America that nurtures all of her people’s dreams — a truly united country committed to strength, prosperity and justice for all. With the election over, it is now time that we, as a nation come together, work together, and strive together for our greatest collective aspirations.

TVJersey provides some man-on-the-street interviews from St. James AME Church.

Another local election loss for Booker, whose political strategy has been seen by many as faltering in recent months. I’ve heard grumbling that another loss for Booker in the Central Ward could spell disaster for Booker in his mayoral race for 2010. I’ll believe it when I see a real candidate that could oppose him.

I’ve also yet to see a story about how political opponents have been able to make an impact on the mayor’s agenda. As long as the Booker administration can execute on restoring the city’s infrastructure, measurably increasing quality of life, bringing jobs to citizens by the thousands, and reducing overall crime, the mayor shouldn’t have trouble with a re-election bid.

While an Obama presidential administration is likely to benefit small cities in general and Newark in particular, 2009 will likely prove to be the hardest test for Booker as the faltering economy will dry up federal funding, being more private sector layoffs and squeeze budgets of the non-profits with which the city partners for its programs.

Bell, who raised, a little more than $33,000 but loaned his campaign more than $11,000, had the backing of groups like the Superior Officers Association and the Newark Teachers Union, both groups that have clashed with Booker. Jailed former Mayor Sharpe James also donated to Bell’s campaign. Bell said that Osborne, like Booker, was just another outsider trying to put city residents “back on the plantation.”

“In my 40 years of politics this was the dirtiest campaign that I’ve been involved with,” said Bell. “When you have broad-based community support the money doesn’t matter.”

I received this note from the NJ-ACLU based out of Newark by way of a tipster.  Check out ways you can ensure that your vote is counted in the election by learning about your rights and using the ACLU as a resource.

Dear friends,

We’ve seen more interest in this election than any we can remember in New Jersey. That means that in four days the polls will be swamped, and voting rights may be affected.

There are some important things you should know for Tuesday.

• The most important is the phone number for the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey and League of Women Voter of New Jersey’s Voter Protection Vote Line: 1-800-792-VOTE (8683). It will be staffed from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. - as long as the polls are open, we’ll be there.
• You’re entitled to a provisional ballot if you’re not listed on the voter rolls, haven’t registered at a new address in your county, forgot an ID if you didn’t show it when you registered, or didn’t receive an absentee ballot in time. If you’re ultimately eligible to vote, your vote will count.
• You’re entitled to an emergency ballot if the machines malfunction.
• All voters are free to vote without anyone trying to influence their decision - which means campaign t-shirts, hats, buttons, stickers or any other paraphernalia will not be allowed at your polling place. You will have to take it off or turn clothing inside out if you do wear it.
• If you experience any problems with voting, either listed here or ones that are entirely different (we’ve seen all kinds over the years), call our Vote Line: 1-800-792-VOTE (8683).

We hope you have a positive experience voting, but just in case you don’t, we’ll be here to help. Happy Election Day!

Jeremiah
American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey
P.O. Box 32159, Newark, NJ 07102
973 642 2084
info@aclu-nj.org
www.aclu-nj.org