Mayor Ras J. Baraka delivered his first State of the City Address last night, in the City Hall Municipal Council Chamber, discussing his administration’s achievements since taking office on July 1, 2014. In attendance were the Newark Municipal Council, numerous elected officials, local dignitaries, and Newark residents. At the annual event, there were performances by the Voices of Newark, the Arts High School Advanced Choir, and a video presentation entitled “We Are Newark.” Students from Central High School sang the National Anthem.
The Mayor was introduced by Taj Atkinson, an Ambassador for the “My Brother’s Keeper Newark” program, who has spoken at the White House on the initiative. “Above the naysayers and circling inclinations of political rhetoric, a City is in our reach, now more than ever, a City that attracts high-tech industry, offers high-paying jobs to its workforce, an education system that prepares people for these jobs, and promises of higher education. That offers a school system which works for all families and creates a pipeline of Newark students where every year, we work to increase the number of Newark students that go to Newark universities. Where we create stable neighborhoods in every part of our City from Mulberry Street to Chadwick Avenue. With a real neighborhood in the downtown, where tens of thousands of college students walk through and live in that downtown. A city where you can travel to any place in the world or take in world-class theater, a musical act, a hockey game, or a famed international exhibit, and the best food you ever had from over a dozen different nationalities. A manufacturing and tech hub that attracts new businesses and new ideas where things are made. This is Newark 3.0, where we all are learning to believe again. I can smell it when I wake up each morning. I can see it in the eyes of our children and in the passion of the work so many of you do every day. This vision is for real, and with your help, this will be our vision, our Newark,” Mayor Baraka said.
He also noted that while the City has had a contentious relationship with Governor Christie, noting state cuts in money for education and refusal to increase taxes on high-income brackets, saying, “Middle class families have to bear the burden and the poor are suffocated in the blanket of despair and neglect. As their political policies leave Newark on the island of distress, we have to be creative in how we provide basic services. I want to say today that we have no sword up in Newark. We are too busy fighting for our 40 percent of our children in poverty, high unemployment, dying children, poor access to health, crumbling infrastructure, and a Superintendent of Schools that you yourself know is not working. We don’t want to fight. We need your help. I’m standing here, representing 300,000 people in the City of Newark, who are asking you, Governor, for some help. We need help here in the City of Newark. We ask for nothing that is not right.”
Mayor Baraka called for the power to establish separate municipal taxes to support municipal agencies, and the power to place a $1 tax on every item sold in Newark Liberty International Airport, from “candy to international airline flights,” and to tax containers moving through the seaport, as additional sources of municipal revenue. “If that happened, we would never have our hand out again. We would never seek help, stand on ask you for help again. We would never come down for municipal aid. We won’t send people down, you won’t hear me talking about the Governor in the press. I might even tolerate the Superintendent a few more weeks. We just need the right to take care of ourselves, the right to govern ourselves. We want to stand up on our own two feet. We want to feed our own families. We want to pay for our own Police Department. We want to pay for our own Fire Department. Just give us the right and the ability to do so.”
The mayor also called for greater levels of support from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, corporate, business, and educational partners, saying that the Port Authority has managed the airport and seaport “horrendously. Either we get some serious relationships counseling or we have to seek a divorce. We need the airport and seaport to not just be in Newark, but part of Newark.” To do so, Mayor Baraka is drafting an Executive Order that would create an office of Port Oversight to police compliance with agreements, and work to increase revenues from the Port Authority. The office would also address environmental cleanup and mitigation on Port Authority sites. The Mayor said that if the Port Authority does not become more supportive of the City’s needs, he was prepared to issue Requests for Proposals to sell the seaport to interested parties, to provide the City with more revenue. Addressing the Port Authority’s steps to modernize and expand the seaport and airport to accommodate larger ships and greater air traffic, Mayor Baraka said: “You cannot be in our home and cook on our stove, even if you did bring the food, and eat, while we sit in the living room and starve. We want to eat, too.” The Mayor also discussed efforts to support small business in Newark, saying “They are the backbone of our City. We must keep them supported. We will change the City overnight by spending money on them. We must move past rhetoric and photo-opportunities. Investing in small businesses and families is investing in ourselves.”
He also addressed the importance of providing residents with jobs and career opportunities, noting that the City has added 2,000 jobs under his administration. Mayor Baraka also called for more student housing communities in the downtown area, for greater university support of the City, and efforts to provide Newark youth with scholarships to institutions of higher learning based in the City.
The speech also reviewed the administration’s achievements in its first months in office, which included:
° Efforts to reduce the City’s $30 million structural deficit, which included cutbacks in expenses, greater operational efficiency, increased water rates, enforcement of parking fines, payroll taxes, anti-dumping ordinances, and aggressive pursuit of fines and unpaid taxes. A $90 million budget gap was eliminated without layoffs or property tax increases. The Council will receive the budget this month.
° Crime reduction and police transparency, such as Neighborhood Walks and Roll Calls to connect residents with the administration, and the establishment of a Civilian Complaint Review Board to hear and investigate complaints against police behavior.
° Strengthening public safety with new police technology, new police and fire recruit classes, and the re-opening of a Fire Company, and a 20 percent increase in code enforcement inspections.
° Public health has been improved with more lead inspections, senior screenings, senior transportation, and the establishment of overnight warming centers for homeless persons, as well as more Department of Child and Well-Being clinics for city residents.
° Launch of the “Model Neighborhoods Initiative,” focused on the South Ward’s Clinton Hill neighborhood and the West Ward’s Lower West Ward neighborhood, to provide intense public service, development, and support of these two neighborhoods as models for other areas in the City.
° “My Brother’s Keeper Newark,” which is the City’s response to President Obama’s call for outreach to young men of color across the nation. In Newark, the City has held summit conferences to connect youth with law enforcement agencies and leadership opportunities, and to engage them in positive activities, including work in community gardens.
Photo credit: City of Newark Press Office
