Get your caption contest toolbelt and strap on the thought bubbles. This is Mayor Cory Booker at the new corporate offices of The Manischewitz Co., yes the sticky Kosher wine people. Newark's gain is Secaucus' loss; New Jersey's biggest city got Manischewitz without tax incentives, for it's "business-friendly climate". So there's that.
For the happy occasion, there was a blessing by the chief rabbi of Israel and Manischewitz baked a monster matzo. That's 25 feet of unleavened yummy loveliness. And as Chris Pedota, Record photog, snapped this picture, Mayor Cory Booker, in a fetching paper hairnet, had just broken off a big chunk.
In police departments, as in biology, a culture can decide the difference between something that saves your life and something that poisons you.
The culture of a police department determines the extent of misconduct, and this certainly applies to Newark, NJ. After decades of efforts to bring accountability to the long-troubled Newark Police Department, the ACLU of New Jersey last year documented widespread reports of police misconduct, including hundreds of allegations of false arrests, sexual assaults, excessive force and deaths in custody. That thick record of abuse helped bring in the U.S. Department of Justice, which announced in May that it would investigate the Newark Police.
Yet just tallying up the number of incidents fails to illustrate how significantly the attitudes of police brass can reinforce unethical behavior behind the precinct doors. The only way to see the corrosive effects of a dysfunctional culture is firsthand, in the day-to-day operations - such as the ones carried out in this confidential tape recording the ACLU-NJ received.
In this 30-minute recording, a former police officer calls the police department to report that his wife, a current police officer, was sexually assaulted by another member of the force. As we hear the officer who took the complaint report the incident to supervisors, the tone of the conversations range from callous to cruel, but never concerned.
As reported here and elsewhere, the ACLU has convinced the U.S. Justice Department to launch a formal investigation into the Newark Police Department over allegations of civil rights violations.
The Star-Ledger reports that when the charges were first raised eight months ago, Mayor Cory Booker was quoted as saying that those alleging the violations were "casting unnecessary aspersions on the police department through the distortion of facts." Translated, that would seem to mean that Booker does not think his cops ever cross the line. According to the ACLU the systemic problems in the department run deep - maybe Booker truly doesn't know what's going on in his own police department? After all, Newark appears to be particularly unresponsive when fielding complaints about such pleasantries as excessive force or unlawful search. Check out this bit from the Star-Ledger:
...out of 261 complaints in 2008 and 2009 involving excessive force; differential treatment; or improper arrest, entry or search, only one was sustained... records showed the outcome of one of every 10 internal affairs complaints filed against Newark police officers from 2000 to 2008 was not reported to the Attorney General's Office as required by state guidelines.
Background: Henry Velandia and Josh Vandiver were married in Connecticut and now live in New Jersey. Vandiver has filed a petition seeking a marriage-based green card for Henry, who is originally from Venezuela. However, current U.S. law, which permits citizens to sponsor their opposite-sex spouses, does not afford same-sex couples that same right.
So, Henry faces deportation - essentially for being gay.
But, following an 11th-hour signal from Attorney General Eric Holder late yesterday, there was cause for hope going into today's rally and deportation hearing. Specifically, and in furtherance of the Obama Administration's shift against the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), Holder vacated a Board of Immigration Appeals decision in another case involving a same-sex couple.
Today, a boisterous crowd gathered outside the Federal Building in Newark, to send a message that it's time to start treating same-sex couples as equals, and to end the discrimination against same-sex couples like Josh and Henry. And, shortly thereafter, the Immigration Judge in Newark "agreed to adjourn the case" til December of this year.
Happy ending?: So Henry gets to stay. For now. It's great personal news for this one couple. But, the idea that a lawfully married couple is still forced to endure the agony of wondering whether, and for how long, they will be allowed to remain together is hideous.
It's situations like this that I'm reminded of when people throw phrases around like "one-issue candidate" or "big picture" or "moderate republican." The continued discrimination against same-sex couples in America should no longer be acceptable. It's not okay. Case closed.
After a life of hardcore politics, a rise to the top of the heap in New Jersey politics, and a harsh comedown in which political scandal was overshadowed by a very public coming out, Jim McGreevey settled into a life in a beautiful house in Plainfield, a relationship with a man employed by his biggest contributor, jailbird Charles Kushner, and a very different life. After he resigned on Nov. 15, 2004, McGreevey's image and life underwent a radical shift. He was seen, relaxed, at ease and besweatered, in the documentary Outrage, speaking as a battle-scarred proponent of gay politicians living openly so their political lives don't make lies of their personal lives. That change, especially, is welcome. He left the Catholic Church he was brought up in after leaving office, and earned a Master's degree in divinity from the General Theological Seminary in NYC a year ago. He began helping former inmates recover their own lives at Integrity House, a mental health and drug addiction center in Newark. McGreevey was steering his life toward becoming an Episcopal priest. The Episcopal Church calls for full civil equality of gay people, and most dioceses ordain openly gay men and women; being gay is not a stumbling block to leadership in that church.
But today, we learn from the New York Post McGreevey's dream of becoming a priest has been dashed by church leaders uncomfortable with McGreevey's behavior during his likewise very public, and very traumatic divorce. This quote is particularly rough:
"It was not being gay but for being a jackass -- [McGreevey] didn't come out of the whole divorce looking good," said a source with the Episcopal Diocese of Newark.
Dina Matos McGreevey was the dazed-looking wife standing by her husband's side during his "gay American" resignation speech. In a tell-all book, Silent Partner, Matos painted a picture of McGreevey as self-important, demanding and insulting, directing her that day to pull herself together for his speech and "act like Jackie Kennedy" and ordered her to move out of the Drumthwacket "so she wouldn't look like white trash". The McGreeveys argued very publicly about whether she knew he was gay, over custody of their daughter, and over alimony. And both of them accused the other of bad parenting. Dina Matos' appearance on Oprah was an hour of revelation designed to sell books (which it did) and maintain some control over the picture McGreevey, consummate politician, painted of himself. She said, among other things, that McGreevey told her "his truth" in "cowardly installments".
Frankly, I have trouble forgiving Jim McGreevey for the political corruption. But I'm glad to see him live more openly. As to the rehabilitation post-politics, I'm for redemption, whether it comes in paths to the priesthood or any other way. I'm glad to see McGreevey work with people rebuilding their lives. McGreevey may yet become a priest, there is a suggestion that further study may yet have that chance. I hope he does. He'd make an interesting priest.
US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is in Newark right now, at a "Town Hall" open only to teachers and other "education stakeholders". He is joined there by Congressman Donald Payne, and Newark's mayor, Cory Booker.
Duncan will be discussing the federal TEACH Campaign to recruit teachers to "high-need" urban and rural school districts. But it's likely other issues, like privatizing New Jersey schools and the role Acting NJ Ed Commissioner Chris Cerf has played in the direction Newark's public schools may take.
I read today that people were writing names in chalk on the street below 23-29 Washington Place in Manhattan, the names of women and girls who died 101 years ago today in the fire that launched a women's movement of empowerment and a labor movement toward the working conditions most of us here gladly still thank unions for. I wrote this post a year ago. But it's still important to remember this day. 101 years ago tonight they were lining up in rows burned and broken women for their families to identify ... did you also know about the fire in Newark? - Rosi
One hundred years ago - at 4:45p.m - the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire lit up. Within 30 minutes, there were dozens of bodies of women and girls dead on the pavement below and a horrible vision of death up on top of what was a modern American sweatshop. We remember these who died that day, and those that died before them in another sweatshop in Newark. The labor movement which followed their deaths is being undermined all over the country - in NJ, in WI, in Michigan, everywhere. Blue Jersey, we know which side we are on.
Do you know that a deadly factory fire presaged the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory? Exactly 4 months to the day before. On November 25th, 1910 at the corner of Orange & High Street (now Martin Luther King Blvd) a factory, the Wolf Muslin Undergarment Company, burst into flames, after gasoline was spilled in a lamp factory one floor below. The factory building had a mix of different industries, including an explosives company. Nineteen people lept to their deaths, some impaled on a spiky metal fence. At least six burned to death. The youngest worker was just 16. In a city-wide expression of grief, more than 100,000 people came to bear witness in the days after. New York City's fire chief warned that that kind of tragedy could happen in any of the sweatshops of Manhattan, unless something was done to improve the working conditions. And so, the memory of the Newark fire was fresh in workers' minds when 146 people, most immigrant women and girls, died at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory.
One hundred years ago, high up in a building a block from Washington Square Park, most of the girls and women were getting ready to leave for the day. It was 4:45pm, and they were working on a Saturday. Packing up their things, getting ready to walk down the long stairs. Fire broke out on the eighth floor, and the women rushed to get out. The fire escape twisted with their weight, and women in long dresses plunged to the street below as men rushing from the park held out their arms to try and catch them. On the ninth floor, the exit was locked. Fire ladders only went as high as the sixth floor. New York City police were weeping as women sailed to the pavement; many of them had beaten back some of those same women as they marched for better working conditions in the weeks before.
Our changing world of media places particular challenges on reporting local news. One turning point was reached with the NYTimes' announcement that on March 28 it is implementing an online subscription pay plan for visitors who read more than 20 articles a month. Also in February AOL announced it had entered an agreement to purchase the Huffington Post bringing together local reporting through AOL's Patch and Huffington Post's national reporting on politics, business and culture. While a prestigious newspaper like the NYTimes is more likely to succeed digitally than other newspapers, it still will face competition from online enterprises like AOL/Huffington Post/Patch, and while the NYTimes will continue local coverage, other newspapers and other regions will not be so fortunate.
Howard Fineman, newly appointed Editorial Director, Huffington Post Media Group, says, "As of today there are some 800 Patches in 18 states and DC, with plans to open two or three times that many more within two years, each staffed with a full-time journalist." Patch launched its first three sites in 2009 in NJ and currently lists about 80 sites in our state. Article subjects include art, business, government, police, school and sports. They are often short, but generally provide the reporter's name and e-mail address. Patch lets you leave a comment and enter your own email address if you want a follow-up to the article. As an example, today's Teaneck Patch presents an attractive, uncluttered Home Page that headlines Saturday night's killing of a former Teaneck High School quarterback, commuter problems, a weekend forum on redistricting and events including an art exhibit at FDU and Irish dancing at the library.
Beyond just growing pains, some of the challenges for the hyperlocals include acquiring/training/retaining good reporters/contributors, not overemphasizing the costs savings potential, steering clear of local political influence, and gaining readership and ads. The quality of writing and insight from one Patch site to another certainly varies, and some articles are short and lack depth. As with national radio chains that achieve cost savings by providing the same news reports to a number of stations, at Patch there are editors assigned to more than one site and the same article sometimes appears in different town reports. In Patch's recent announcement that it will create two Newark sites, it stated, "We are very excited to work closely with Mayor Booker," to which AdWeek responded, "The idea of a news organization partnering with politicians it's supposed to cover is bizarre." Patch later indicated that Mayor Booker will not have editorial input. Finally monetizing their effort will not be easy.
The challenges of Patch and similar ventures are formidable, but what happens in our towns is important. Taxes, council meetings, elections, board of education minutes, zoning, crime, arts, and sports matter to us. In order to stay informed we hope that hyperlocals will matter to us also.
Nothing like a dose of the truth to shine the light on the fact that the Emperor really wears no clothes.
1. New Jersey Loses Jobs: 13,000 of them according to the state DOL. So much for all those tax cuts to make NJ welcoming to business. So much for the Governor's veto of the Legislature's job creation bills.
2. Property Taxes Increase: A 2010 increase averaging about 4.1% vs. an average increase of about 3.5% in the years 2007 thru 2009. So let's see - the "tough budget" Governor Christie has increased property taxes more than that "wimpy budget" Governor Corzine. mmmmm?
3. The Straight Talking Governor: apparently doesn't always talk so "straight and honest" - read the New York Times article unmasking Governor Blunt Speaking who seems to embellish the truth just a little.
Sen. Rice, whose district includes Newark, has for some time questioned the truth about Chris Cerf's statements regarding his involvement in the controversial, secretive plan for school education in Newark. Initially Rice used the senatorial prerogative of blocking Cerf's appearance before a Judiciary Committee meeting that would vote on whether or not to recommend the appointment to the full senate. Rice now says he is invoking his senatorial privilege no matter what Cerf does because Cerf misled him. Rice's action makes sense for Newark and for New Jersey as a whole. Governor Christie should seek a new nominee for Commissioner of Education.
Furthermore GEA's Newark consultancy gig was funded by the Broad Foundation with a grant of $500,000 to Newark. Cerf had not mentioned publicly his close ties with this foundation. While Cerf was Deputy Chancellor of NY City Schools the Broad Foundation awarded $2.5 million in grants to expand charter schools in the city. Cerf's then boss Chancellor Joel Klein serves as Chair of the Board of Directors of the Broad Center, an educational arm of the foundation. In effect, secretively and behind the scene, Chris Cerf played a role in obtaining a grant for Newark to fund GEA, and he placed a colleague of his as the head of GEA. Not surprisingly such actions resulted in the type of report he might then approve later as Commissioner of Education - actions which raise questions of forthrightness, judgment and conflict of interest.
Such actions are not what one should accept from a person nominated to be a commissioner. Cerf's approach did not benefit Newark and would not benefit the State of New Jersey. Congratulations to Ron Rice for his principled stand. More sadly our governor's mismanagement of New Jersey education continues unabated.
To me, one of the kickers of this request, from Newark's West Ward councilman, is the last line directed at Gov. Chris Christie: "In this instance, please be pro-business." - promoted by Rosi
The recommendations of the Governor's task force to eliminate the Urban Enterprise Zone program (UEZ) is ill-timed at best and potentially disastrous to small business survival, stabilization and growth in urban areas like Newark at the worst. When President Obama is providing small businesses with help via tax credits to spur hiring and other incentives for technology and investments in our national economy, the state of New Jersey could potentially strike a blow against small businesses for short term budget in urban areas that are barely holding on.
Urban areas, like Newark, have a hard enough time encouraging, supporting, and working collaboratively to develop small businesses in robust economic times for many reasons: access to capital, technical training, staying afloat during that critical first two years, and the fighting the negative ( and some would say racially prejudicial/inaccurate) perceptions of crime and safety. In harsh economic times, the UEZ is not only helping to sustain small businesses, but also the jobs they provide. The UEZ program has created real opportunities in places like Newark, Jersey City, Bayonne, Trenton, Rahway, etc. and an understanding of its history and real results will clarify these facts separate and apart from short term and myopic opinions that do not take into account the total impact and provisions of the program.
The UEZ program was enacted in 1983 with a duration of 20 years. The program has worked so well that....
A look at the benefits to businesses, after the jump.
Certain bloggers and governors could benefit from the kind of public commitment to lose weight, eat healthier and get fit that Mayor Cory Booker is conducting since he hit his all-time high weight of 295 lbs. on Christmas Day, a month after Michelle Obama came to Newark to talk farmer's markets, dance classes and low-fat school lunches at the city's Maple Avenue School.
Booker's getting a lot of attention with this hashtag: #letsmove, which has turned into a kind of national daily pep-talk for thousands of people. Let's Move is the name of FLOTUS' campaign for healthy eating & fitness; Booker is her overweight national co-Chair.
Here's Booker getting weighed in - publicly - this week, and how much he's planning to lose (that comes in at about the 1:00 mark):
Chris Christie can star in all the "YouTube moments" - as his staff calls those taxpayer-funded propaganda video clips - he wants. But he's got nowhere near the power to attract cameras that the mayor of Newark has.
Season 2 of Sundance Channel's Peabody-Award winning documentary series Brick City finds Booker caved under Newark's financial problems and violent crime. The first episode, premiering Sunday, picks up Booker's story just before the Christie era, the mayor firing up police academy recruits.
We remember that day - October 13, 2009. Former sheriff Kim Guadagno had just said she was afraid on the streets of Newark. And in a show of solidarity, Jon Corzine ran through those streets with the mayor, and those recruits. I never liked the optics. If the message was that Newark's streets were safe, leave the recruits home. But there's another reason we remember that day; Jon Corzine ran wearing a Blue Jersey tee shirt, the workout wear of the Blue Jersey Road Runners Club. (Get a glimpse of that at the 2:48 mark).
There's no ease in Newark for Cory Booker. Nothing's simple. Facebook and Oprah money just are a Band-aid. And as Brick City 2 documents, his city's populated by as many who revile him as see him as savior. But no other city, no other mayor, has the spotlight and the cameras this guy does. And New Jersey cannot rise without Newark rising.
This is Brick City's season opener, running time: 45 minutes.
Mention Camden and what comes to mind? People immediately think of a crime-ridden city in dire poverty with no hope of rebounding.
The city is at a crossroads. Camden has had to lay off nearly half its cops, a third of its firefighters and scores of other workers. Once a mecca for high-tech jobs in South Jersey, Camden has been impacted by crime, the Bush recession, and a shrinking tax base. Forty percent of Camden residents eke out their existence from below the poverty line, and homicides and other serious crimes are rampant. Those residents who are lucky enough to be employed are hit by Governor Christie's cutbacks in public transportation, education, and other areas. The library system is closing.
After seven years of state control, $175 million of special state aid, and one year after home rule has been returned to the city, there's a lot of hand-wringing and finger-pointing in the local and national press on this issue. Mayor Dana Redd is playing a game of chicken with the unions, and the unions are reluctant to work out a compromise set of concessions.
So given this scenario, what is the future of Camden? Certainly, there are challenges - but these challenges are being met head on by businesses, residents, and community organizations.
In August 2010 Seton Hall Law School released a report entitled Ironbound Underground which documented that in Newark's East Ward 96% of local immigrant day laborers have been victims of wage theft, 27% assaulted by an employer, 80% not given safety equipment, and 20% hurt on the job. Then in January 2011 the Law School issued All Work and No Pay in which it expanded its research to Elizabeth, Freehold, Morristown, Orange, Flemington, Bridgeton, and Palisades Park. There it documented among day laborers 48% not paid, 54% underpaid, 26% injured, 35% abandoned and 26% assaulted.
Ironbound Underground concluded, "Our findings demonstrate a staggering degree of workplace violations and exploitation of day laborers by local employers in violation of federal and state law, resulting in a loss of dignity for the day laborer population and a loss of revenue to the public. Yet the day laborers in Newark have found few effective avenues to address the violations of their rights." The more extensive All Work No Pay concludes: "Community organizations, municipal courts, prosecutors, and state and local officials all have essential parts to play in enforcing labor standards and further safeguarding the rights of workers."
With the current tough economy the number of day laborers is increasing, and they are not only immigrants. Local officials should establish hiring halls for day laborers, as they decrease worker abuse. State legislators, in particular the Labor Committee chairs Sen. Fred Madden and Assemblyman Joseph Egan, and Judiciary Committee Chairs Sen. Nicholas Scutari and Assemblyman Peter Barnes, should draft new legislation. Bill S1588, which seeks to set up a division to investigate and address disparities and civil rights violations suffered by immigrants, could be a start. The All Work No Pay report recommends that New Jersey's Wage Theft statute be updated and include standardization of the procedure which allows workers to file complaints directly with municipal courts, criminal sanctions against employers who retaliate against employees who file complaints, and sufficient fines and damages to deter wage theft.
NJ Raymond Lesniak wants to reduce prison recidivism rates by offering a small fraction of now risk, non-violent drug offenders early release in exchange for entering a rigorous drug/alcohol treatment program.
Learn about how it'll pay for itself (+ an intriguing connection between former Gov. McGreevey & First Lady Mary Pat Christie) in this 2min. clip.
Not unlike other cities in NJ and throughout the U.S., Newark today has its share of woes, but more importantly a feeling of despair. The most recent issue is the dismissal of 167 police officers, but the hope that was engendered by the election of Mayor Cory Booker five years ago seems to be rapidly disappearing. The national and state economic crisis of unemployment and housing plays a key role, but nowhere is there much confidence that Newark is on the mend.
Police officers don't like their director and feel they were mistreated by the mayor in the failed union negotiations. A retired police union official says the result is that higher paid but more experienced officers were the ones let go. He points to crime as once again on the upswing and blames the mayor and the courts.
Some Newarkers speak of the "good old days" of Sharpe James and point to the PAC, Prudential Center, and other achievements, some of which James did not even support until the last minute.
Everyone knows the story of the Wizard of Oz and Dorothy's quest to help her three new found friends. With the trouble New Jersey is in, we need our own wizard who can help our leaders with the attributes that L. Frank Baum told us about so many decades ago.
The most obvious need is to find Governor Chris Christie a heart. He needs it more than Baum's Tin Man ever did. Christie is the leader of the new "compassionless conservatives" who value the wealth of millionaires and the welfare of corporations more than the well-being of public servants and the disadvantaged.
I authored and mailed a letter to Thomas E. Perez, Esq., the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights supporting the recent petition by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of NJ for a federal investigation into the Newark Police Department (NPD). I was pleased to be supported in that action by five of my colleagues on the Newark City Council, a majority.
I did so in full knowledge that the overwhelming majority of the men and women that serve in the NPD do so in an honorable and distinguished manner. They put their lives on the line every day for me and the other 280,000 residents in our great city. They are homeowners, coaches, and leaders of philanthropy in our metropolis. My colleagues and I are humbled by their service and their sacrifice.
But, as a councilman, I also receive too many complaints about citizen abuse at the hands of the police, which our city cannot afford or tolerate. I feel that the expertise and authority of an outside monitor to reform our department where needed will help to end the problems of police-community relations in Newark, which affects public safety and the quality of life on many levels. In short, we will never be able to continue to drive crime down beyond the admittedly record level of reductions over the last three years unless average citizens get more involved in reporting crime and joining the NPD as active eyes and ears to those that commit them. And they will not until they are assured that bad cops that abuse their authority are appropriately punished and/or drummed out of the ranks of the NPD when deserved and warranted.
This is not a new phenomenon in the city of Newark. Indeed, I supported the re-nomination of Police Director Garry McCarthy due to his historic lowering of violent crime statistics in the last three years, but also due to his proposed courageous community relations/community engagement reforms that he has taken a year and a half to develop. He is the first Director to acknowledge the problems in the department AND to propose solutions. But this is an endemic problem that has lasted unabated, unchallenged and unaddressed for over 40 years through several mayors, city councils and police directors. And the city council that has oversight of the Administration does not have the power under our enabling statute, the Faulkner Act, to create what it would take to have effective oversight over these problems (a point I will address with our state legislative representatives before the year is out).
Until such time that the state empowers the city council in Newark to create systems of accountability such as an Independent Monitor with a Citizen Review Board empowered with real subpoena and investigatory powers, I think a federal investigation that will propose institutional changes and correct old bad policies with real oversight is the way to go.
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Mention Camden and what comes to mind? People immediately think of a crime-ridden city in dire poverty with no hope of rebounding.
