Saturday, 10 June 2006 ·
Posted by Ken
??Newsday?? is one of many papers running the ??Associated Press?? story, “Gooooooooaaaaaaaaaal! NJ immigrants readying for World Cup action”:http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newjersey/ny-bc-nj–worldcupwatching0608jun08,0,5023487.story?coll=ny-region-apnewjersey. The piece covers the Ironbound in Newark and just how exciting the World Cup is for this neighborhood — even citing a priest who has managed his schedule around futbol games. I heard that when Brazil won the “2002 World Cup”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_FIFA_World_Cup that the neighborhood just went crazy — parades, fireworks, you name it. Brazil is, again, this year’s favorite to win. If they do, maybe we’ll roll some video!
In Newark, home to tens of thousands Portuguese and Brazilian immigrants and their descendants, fans say the impending 2006 World Cup is good for the soul.
It’s also good for business.
At Pegasus Sporting Goods on Ferry Street, sales have been up 75 percent in the past two months as enthusiasts snap up their national teams’ jerseys almost as fast as staffer Michael Marques can put them on hangers.
“People are going crazy,” said Marques, standing amid still-unpacked boxes of merchandise as shoppers swarmed the store Thursday, to purchase the Portuguese team’s sleek black Nike-designed jerseys, retail price $70. “World Cup fever is in full effect.”
Friday, 9 June 2006 ·
Posted by Ken
It’s that time again! The Portugal Day celebration is going on in the Ironbound this weekend. The Newark Star Ledger “reports”:http://www.nj.com/search/index.ssf?/base/entertainment-0/1149833375170600.xml?starledger?ent&coll=1&thispage=2:
The Portugal Day Festival continues this weekend with a street festival that runs from noon to midnight Saturday along 17 city blocks in the Ironbound. Visitors can enjoy Portuguese food, drink, music, dance and arts and crafts at the street fair, which runs from Newark Penn Station to Fillmore Street along Ferry Street.
On Sunday, a two-hour parade begins at 3 p.m. along Ferry Street, featuring musicians and dancers from Portugal as well as local pipe and drum corps. The festival continues until to 10 p.m.
The week-long festival has been hampered by all the rainy weather, but revelers will get their chance to party as the weekend promises drier weather. The excited chatter of the crowd, the vendors hawking cheap t-shirts and jewelry, and chowing down on arepas while sipping sangria from a plastic cup–I can’t wait. 
Friday, 9 June 2006 ·
Posted by Ken
Today’s Flickr Friday photo comes from Flickr user “Gene O’Neil”:http://www.flickr.com/photos/geneoneill. The Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart is a massive and ornate Catholic church that dominates the northern Newark skyline. It’s viewable from Route 280 coming into the city and always catches visitors by surprise.
The brooding gothic structure, which began construction in 1899 and was completed in 1954, sits among the Newark’s Branch Brook Park and modernist buildings such as the “Pavilion and Colonnade Apartments”:http://blog.newarker.info/2006/03/15/colonnade/. ??Pope John Paul II?? himself visited the church in 1995, and he had this to say about it:
This magnificent building stands in the heart of Newark as a powerful reminder of God’s steadfast love for his People and as a sign of faith in Christ, our ‘hope of glory.’
More information about the Basilica can be found in its “Wikipedia page”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathedral_of_the_Sacred_Heart_Basilica,_Newark and on the church’s “website”:http://www.cathedralbasilica.org/. Here’s a “satellite view”:http://maps.google.com/maps?f=l&hl=en&q=category:+Churches+Catholic&near=newark+nj&cid=40735556,-74172778,13219692908346962335&li=lmd&om=0&t=h&ll=40.754738,-74.17862&spn=0.001861,0.003659 on Google Maps, as well.
Thursday, 8 June 2006 ·
Posted by Ken
??Newark Star Ledger??: “Booker, neighboring mayors to join forces”:http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/essex/index.ssf?/base/news-2/1149744696241310.xml&coll=1 (”via Newark Speaks”:http://www.newarkspeaks.com/forum/showthread.php?p=24035#post24035). It seems that Booker is further playing on his strengths to build coalitions for the safety of Newark. Given that a lot of our crime comes into Newark through Irvington, Elizabeth and East Orange, pooling some resources together could be a real help for our city.
Newark Mayor-elect Cory Booker got together yesterday with the mayors of Irvington, Orange and East Orange to talk about common issues, opportunities for regionalization and legislative programs that could benefit their urban cities.
“We do have a commonality of purpose and vision,” Booker said. “You have these invisible lines that separate towns but in reality, the residents of these neighborhoods aren’t separate.”
Chief among the issues was public safety and ways the cities could work together through their police departments and in sharing information to prevent drug deal ing and combat gangs, Booker said.
Wednesday, 7 June 2006 ·
Posted by Ken
??Newark Star Ledger??: “City council no-shows delay Newark budget hearing”:http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/essex/index.ssf?/base/news-2/1149569508109730.xml&coll=1. The politically charged city budget had a public hearing yesterday — did you know? Well, apparently nobody else did because there were only a couple city residents and one council member. Apparently, everyone’s so focused on next week’s “runoff election”:http://blog.newarker.info/2006/05/09/trounced/ that the budget is just not a priority this week.
Which leads to an interesting question: if the “Home(less) Team” loses next week and their council members are essentially lame ducks for three weeks, are we going to see a big last-minute push to get this budget passed before the Booker Team is installed?
This year’s budget has been the subject of much debate because it contains $50 million in spending on special capital improvement projects, such as $17 million for museum and library expansion projects and $4 million for a Passaic River waterfront park.
The council attempted to spend the money, part of a lease payment lawsuit settlement with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, by creating two nonprofit companies. Mayor Sharpe James was on the board of trustees of both corporations and the state stepped in to stop the city from transferring any money to the corporations.
Tuesday, 6 June 2006 ·
Posted by Ken
Apparently, Mayor Sharpe James has been feeling a bit of the criticism levied at him in recent months, questioning his governance over Newark these past 20 years. In a hastily worded and rambling letter sent to the press, clergy and business leaders in Newark, he blows off some steam. ??NorthJersey.com??: ” Professor in need of an editor”:http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjczN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXkyNjMmZmdiZWw3Zjd2cWVlRUV5eTY5NDIzODEmeXJpcnk3ZjcxN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk5 (”via NewarkSpeaks”:http://www.newarkspeaks.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2449).
“I read your personal, jealous and hate the Newark Arena and hate Sharpe James May 16, 2006 article in ‘The Record’ encompassing a twenty-year tenured exemplary professor returning to a teaching/administrative position he held prior to becoming Mayor.”
Huh?
Trust me, an actual verb is buried among that jumble of words, grammatical malfunctions and rambling adjectives that collide without punctuation like cars piling into each other on a foggy road.
But should anyone who expresses himself like that be paid $150,000 a year to teach anyone?
Monday, 5 June 2006 ·
Posted by Ken
??Newsday??: “City to provide mayor-elect security after gang threat”:http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newjersey/ny-bc-nj–newarkmayor0605jun05,0,1883508.story?coll=ny-region-apnewjersey. Still a month away from the start of his term, Cory Booker receives a credible threat from a Newark gang.
City police were providing around-the clock security for Mayor-elect Cory Booker after authorities said a gang made threats against him.
Essex County Sheriff Armando Fontoura said a gang-related threat came from an informant at the county jail.
“It came from the Bloods. They’re relatively young punks who like to boast and talk out loud,” he said. “They’re not to be taken lightly.”
The ??Battle for Newark?? blog has more on the story: “Newark police take over Booker’s security”:http://www.nj.com/newslogs/mayorsrace/index.ssf?/mtlogs/njo_mayorrace/archives/2006_06.html#148166.
Booker, meanwhile, used the alleged threats today to stress his crime-fighting agenda. During an appearance to mark the start of Pride Week for gays and lesbians, Booker promised a crackdown on gangs and asked for help from the courts, clergy and social service agencies for programs that will keep kids from joining gangs in the first place.
“The mission here is not to protect the mayor, but to protect every resident,” Booker said on the steps of the Essex County Courthouse. “I’ll make security the number one issue in the city of Newark. It’s not just law enforcement’s job. We need resources to offer opportunity and hope.”
Update: The ??New York Times?? has also picked up the story: “Threat to Newark’s Mayor-Elect Leads to 24-Hour Police Guard”:http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/06/nyregion/06booker.html?_r=1&oref=slogin.
While such threats are hardly novel, the authorities said that the information that they received from an informant in the county jail here about a gang plot to kill Mr. Booker was so specific that they were compelled to act on them.
“There is some credibility to this,” said Armando B. Fontoura, the Essex County sheriff, whose office worked with the prosecutor’s office and the state police to assign shifts of officers to protect Mr. Booker. “Whether it’s maximum credibility or minimum credibility, it was prudent to take the action we took.”
Saturday, 3 June 2006 ·
Posted by Ken
??Newark Star Ledger??: “Newark light rail gains steam”:http://www.nj.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news-3/1149139954306060.xml?starledger?nnj&coll=1. The Newark light rail extension will branch off the current Newark City Subway and run up through the heart of downtown, connecting Newark Penn Station and Newark Broad Street Staion. The train will stop at major city attractions such as:
* The Newark Bears Baseball Stadium
* The Newark Museum
* NJPAC
It looks like this project is actually set to launch on time! Kudos to the developers.
Newark’s light-rail city subway extension is almost ready to roll.
With equipment testing and crew training under way, the first passengers should be riding along the one-mile light-rail line from Newark Penn Station to NJ Transit’s Broad Street Station by early summer, said Dan Stessel, a spokesman for NJ Transit, which will operate the line. He could not pinpoint the start of service any more precisely.
Friday, 2 June 2006 ·
Posted by Ken
We’re starting up a new feature here at Everything Newark entitled Flickr Friday. You may have noticed that there are little thumbnails of our fair city in the sidebar at right (you may have to scroll a bit to see them). These aren’t photos that we’re taking — rather, they’re photos that are being pulled in automatically from community photo-sharing site “Flickr”:http://flickr.com/. When somebody “tags” a photo with the word “Newark”, we display it here in the sidebar.^*^
On a weekly basis, we’ll be choosing a photo to feature city from Flickr and, if possible, provide a bit of context as to where it was shot. Some things may surprise you! If you’ve got a photo you’d like to see featured here, post it on Flickr with the tag “newark”, or “give us a shout”:/contact.
Today’s photo comes from Flickr user “t3h_sw3d3″:http://www.flickr.com/photos/t3h_sw3d3/, who takes some colorful industrial shots. Below, is a shot of a sunset over the city of Newark. The bridge in the photo is the “Pulaski Skyway”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulaski_Skyway, which was built over the Hackensack River in 1932 and links Newark and Jersey City.
^*^This system isn’t perfect: we occiasionally get a photo from “Newark, Ohio”:http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=1+E+Main+St,+Newark,+OH+43055&ll=40.313043,-82.397461&spn=7.638509,22.148438&om=1, “Newark, Deleware”:http://maps.google.com/maps?q=1+E+Main+St,+Newark,+DE+19711&hl=en&ll=39.690281,-75.761719&spn=8.535091,22.148438&om=1, and “Newark on Trent”:http://maps.google.com/maps?q=newark+on+trent&ll=53.120405,-0.878906&spn=54.241688,177.1875&om=1!
Thursday, 1 June 2006 ·
Posted by Ken
??WCBS-TV??: “Devils Newark Arena Might Be In Doubt”:http://wcbstv.com/sports/local_story_146222431.html. More discussion on “Newark Speaks”:http://www.newarkspeaks.com/forum/showthread.php?p=23103#post23103. This article is either late to the news, or just reactionary: Booker had mentioned in the run up to the election that he might put a stop to the arena if it’s a losing proposition for the city. Given that the arena is “being built _right now_”:http://www.newjerseydevils.com/2005/html/fanzone/video/newarkarena/camindex.php, I hope the new mayor can come to an amicable deal with the Devils.
Booker, who will be sworn in on July 1, said he is reconsidering the deal and is conducting a cost-benefit analysis because he is concerned the city will spend more than the $210 million it has already committed.
“If the project will hemorrhage money for decades, we’re gonna stop it,” he said in an interview Friday with The Associated Press.
Booker said he questions whether spending millions for a new hockey arena is the best use of money in Newark, which also faces problems of crime, gang violence and poverty. The city and the Devils broke ground in October on the 18,000-seat arena. The team is paying $100 million.
“I’m not wedded to a deal that over the next decade could cause more damage to the city if we don’t stop the bleeding right now,” he said. “Obviously my hope would be to make the project successful.”
Wednesday, 31 May 2006 ·
Posted by Ken
??Opinion Journal?? from the ??Wall Street Journal??: “A New Arc”:http://www.opinionjournal.com/cc/?id=110008360. 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.
As he talked about his plans for the city, we drove past empty lots and abandoned housing. Mr. Booker was imagining filling those dead blocks with some of the most conveniently located housing in the New York area. “It’s quicker to get to the former World Trade Center site on the PATH train than for people on the Upper West Side or Upper East Side to get there.” And it’s not just Manhattan that’s easily accessible. Amtrak will get you to Washington in 2 1/2 hours. Newark also has an airport, a seaport and access to every major highway on the Northeast Corridor.
Tuesday, 30 May 2006 ·
Posted by Ken
??Live from the Ledger??: “Two teens killed in Essex County”:http://www.nj.com/newslogs/starledger/index.ssf?/mtlogs/njo_ledgerupdate/archives/2006_05.html#145579. Two more teenage boys are killed this weekend due to gunfire: one in Irvington, and another on “Sunset Avenue”:http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=Sunset+Ave,+Newark,+NJ+07106&ll=40.748818,-74.227753&spn=0.11132,0.346069&om=1 in Newark.
A 15-year-old died and two others were injured in a drive-by shooting outside a party in Irvington, while in Newark a 19-year-old was shot several times after an argument, police said today.
The 15-year-old, identified by his mother as Shafe Boyd Cruz of Irvington, was pronounced dead at the scene, Irvington Police Chief Michael Chase said.
…
In Newark, Kevin Hennix, a city resident, was shot several times in the upper torso about 2:45 p.m. Saturday on Sunset Street in the aftermath of an argument, said Newark Police Detective Herbert Henderson, a police spokesman.
He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Monday, 29 May 2006 ·
Posted by Ken
This weekend on June 3^rd^ will see an arts exhibit and fashion show in Newark titled theEvent. I wish I could tell you what it is, exactly, but the promotional copy on their website is, well, a bit opaque.
h5. What is theEvent?
‘theEvent’ merges fashion, music, art, and multimedia as an integrated movement within the Arts. Part festival, fashion show, musical performance and part art exhibition, ‘theEvent’ brings together business leaders with forward-looking consumers to celebrate the future of art and culture in northern New Jersey. taking place in up and coming Newark, ‘the Event’s diverse mix is guaranteed to be a high-powered explosion of talent and culture.
h5. What is ‘theEvent’ going to accomplish?
CMYK is looking to make a bold introduction statement to the Northern New Jersey art community. We believe that a launch event geared towards combining the art culture of Northern New Jersey and the public into an all-out festival will help recognize the movement of a cultural nexus.
More information is available at theEvent “promo website”:http://www.cmyknj.com/index.html. If you can figure out what it is, please leave a comment. 
Sunday, 28 May 2006 ·
Posted by Ken
The ??Newark Star Ledger?? has a quick blurb about the final chapter of the story of government mishandling of public funds that destroyed a neighborhood: “Emptied Newark homes to be demolished”:http://www.nj.com/newslogs/starledger/index.ssf?/mtlogs/njo_ledgerupdate/archives/2006_05.html#144792.
Empty, boarded buildings which have stood for more than a year in two Newark neighborhoods that were bought up and emptied to make way for school projects the state can no longer afford to build will be demolished this summer, lawmakers were told today.
…
Dozens of longtime residents were displaced in the Dewey and Ridge Street neighborhoods over the past three years, as the SCC assembled land for a proposed high school and elementary school. Last summer, those projects were among 97 where work was suspended, after SCC officials realized they could not afford to construct them with the $6 billion lawmakers had authorized for a school construction program in 31 of the state’s neediest communities.
??Student Voices?? has a reprint of a Star Ledger article that provides some background on this story: “Legislators attack school-building agency”:http://student-voices.org/news/index.php?NewsID=21613.
Saturday, 27 May 2006 ·
Posted by Ken
??Associated Press??: ” AP Study: Sioux Falls is safest driving city”:http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060524/ap_on_re_us/safe_driving_city. This study pretty much confirms what we already knew about driving a car in Newark.
Motorists in Newark, N.J., were most at risk, according to the study, averaging an accident once every five years. Washington, D.C., was second-to-last at 5.1 years.
Five months after we moved here, my wife and I bought a new 2005 Mazda 3. Four weeks after we got it, we found that the entire passenger side of the vehicle was mashed in from an apparent hit and run by, at best guess, a large (garbage?) truck. Does this count as my accident for the next four years?
Wonkette notes that we just “edged out D.C.”:http://www.wonkette.com/politics/metro/metro-section-it-doesnt-work-unless-you-put-a-rag-in-the-tailpipe-176157.php for the title of American City Most Resembling a Demoliton Derby.
