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Lisa's AMBIT Blog: Renaissance Newark

15th March 2010

I really, really like Newark. This is not something you hear a lot of people saying. But frankly I don't care. There is something in the air in this small New Jersey city that's hard to define at first. I think it's a sense of potential and change and expectation. I feel it in Belfast too and that excites me. But let's start at the beginning. Newark is a city with many, many challenges. Poverty, poor housing and urban blight on a scale that is hard to appreciate until you see it. The streets around the spruced up downtown area are filled with second hand shops, dollar stores and pawn shops. Newark has it tough. And everyone knows it. Like Belfast Newark struggles with a reputation as a no go area. A place that you go to if you have to and leave as soon as you can. The wonderful Becky Doggett from the Institute for Social Justice explained that Newarks' decline began soon after the war when the factories moved to the cheaper labour in the non-unionised South and GI's returning home from the war used their GI Bill funds to move to newer, larger houses in the suburbs. Simmering tensions and out and out discrimination resulted in the race riots of 1967 that sealed Newarks' fate as a place apart. The city rumbled on unaffected by the post war boom years with their problems compounded by allegations of favouritism and corruption at City Hall. During this time the community and voluntary sector stepped up to fill in the blanks and serve people in the way government wouldn't or couldn't. You know, just like at home. One of leading organisations at this time was the New Community Foundation lead by the formidable Monsenior Linder. New Community bought up swaths of inner city Newark and built safe affordable housing. They built homes for older people and started a credit union. They opened a shop selling healthy affordable food and provided information on social services. Lately they have added job preparation training to their growing portfolio. This is old fashioned community development on a huge scale and their footprint spreads across an impressive array of Newarks' five electoral wards.

It was over to the dynamic Deputy Mayor Margarita Muniz to tell us about the next chapter in Newark's story. In 2006 Cory A Booker became Mayor of Newark and brought with him a new, young, diverse staff who infused the jaded corridors of City Hall with a focused, no nonsense approach to redevelopment. Any slight inclining of corruption was dealt with openly and swiftly. You get the feeling that even the paper clips and post-it notes don't make it into employees' pockets in this building! Mayor Booker's administration focuses its work on community safety, children, youth and families and economic development. Underpinning all this work is the belief that Newark's greatest assets is its people and that collaboration is the only show in town. These two basic facets ran through all of the projects we met. Covenant House provides a safe haven for homeless young people and helps them get back on their feet and find a job.

For them this is the ultimate expression of their faith in action and as we learned more about the damaged lives these young people have lead it's impossible to be cynical about this place and what it does. At Fathers Now we heard from four fathers who have turned their lives around with the help of LaVar Young and his amazing staff. Newark Now, which was established by Mayor Booker before he was elected, is a network which oversees the development of seven different community based organisations - one of which is Fathers Now.

The YESS Centre was the perfect manifestation of the city's commitment to collaboration. Based in a local college it is a one stop shop for education, job readiness and empowerment for young people. All of the key players are involved and the project is one of the very few organisations I have seen where the voices of the young people it aims to help are central to the planning and direction of the organisation.

When we asked Becky what she thought was behind the positive changes in Newark she listed three things. One was geography - Newark is an important air, sea and land transportation hub for the entire region and so it could never really be totally ignored. The second reason was the location of the New Jersey Centre for Performing Arts in the city. It consolidated the message that Newark was open for business and acted as a magnet for other major investments. The third was the election of Cory Booker. The Mayors dynamism and charisma are undeniable and it's no secret that those qualities help in any political career. But Booker also gets policy. He understands how to cut to the heart of the problem and maximise resources to actually do something about it. As a policy nerd myself I really look for these qualities in leaders. They are few and far between.

Mayor Booker is not without his critics, his high profile courting of celebrities like Oprah and Jon Bon Jovi have earned him the moniker Mayor Hollywood and some people question if the Newark Renaissance is really improving the lives of the most hard to reach people. This is an election year and, like in all election years, each side is lining up and preparing its criticisms of the other guy. I have no doubt that the criticism of Booker will get louder and nastier in the coming weeks but at the moment if the biggest criticism is that fact that people like him too much and the cities profile is too high I reckon the Renaissance Man will live to fight another day.

Next we head to DC and Maryland. I'm looking forward to learning more about the transformation of Baltimore and catching up with the fabulous Mary Brown in LifePieces to Masterpieces.