Newark Train Ticket

Last Thursday was our final Newark class and it seemed to go by so fast. We had three group presentations today and my group went first. Everything went smoothly and I am proud of the progress that we have made since the beginning of the semester. Newark is definately a city that is transition. It is like a puzzle, and we are all attempting to put the pieces together. In this economy where city, state, and national budgets are busting at the seams…where does this leave rustbelt junctions like Newark? Only time will tell…

Diagrams are to architects as to lawyers to evidence. They help support your case. Or in terms of an architect, your design problem. They are self-explanatory and straight forward. This is what I discovered when I started to create retail diagrams for Newark. Although it is the largest city in New Jersey, its development as been stunted so badly that it is almost overwhelming where to start. And with policy, there are no correct solutions. I think the key to policy it to look at what did not work in the past and do the opposite.

Retail diagram of Newark

At our group meeting on Tuesday, we were able to trim down our paper and presentation to the basics. Just because retail is not viable right now, does not mean that it always will be…and although the “big box” stores come with its own set of issues, Newark needs something.Towards the end of our meeting, we had a discussion about the past policy initiatives, I was explained why Newark is having  500 million leakage (from an urban planing perspective), or what I like to call

“Top 5 Fantastic Failures of Newark”:

1.Failing to provide current residents with basic retail. Such as supermarkets and drug stores.

2.NJPAC as a “cultural center”. It is so isolated and does not provide any street life that Newark desperately  needs.

3. A sports stadium as incentive…it has currently filed for bankruptcy.

4. Lack of waterfront development.Not taking advantage of its strategic position on the Passaic River.

5.Underutilization of the student population and 9-5 workforce.

Development is a tricky thing. Our client Tucker, is making a large investment in a city that has not had any in a while. Kudos to them. But is appears to me all future development is in a holding pattern until Newark becomes a place to be and the middle-class families and young professionals start to flock to the city. Honestly, this is about 5-15 years away. But all is not lost. The untapped retail constituency is already present. Hence my thesis  has been created.

Newark has a great base in terms of transportation, universities, a business center but does not utilize the potential of the spending power of students. But there is one organization that is attempting to brige the gap between its university community and Newark residents. The Rutgers Small Business Development Center (RNSBDC) to help entrepreneurs and business owners start and grow sustainable, successful small business through the delivery of appropriate training and technical assistance services and programs. The RNSBDC, less than a year old, has been successful by providing assistance to entrepreneurs.

I would want to design an urban strategy for Newark that expands this idea of accessibility to resources for residents. Unlike my initial thesis for Harlem, this does not feel forced at all and there is less struggle. It is good to be out of your element, which has been true for my policy class. Sometimes architects get so caught up in form making that the design is theoretical based, failing to serve the client. Form follows function.

A student presenting at NJIT

A little over a week ago, my class along traveled to NJIT to discuss the policy and urban planning issues that face Newark. Milano focused on policy, Pratt researched the waterfront, NJIT focused on infrastructure, and Harvard students paid attention to the environmental damage that Newark has suffered.

This program was moderated by Toni Griffin, the current city planner of Newark. After the end of the corrupt Sharpe James administration, Cory Booker was forced to pick up the pieces of what was the planning department. Currently the master plan has not been updated in 60 years! Zoning enforcement was nearly non-existent with  heavy manufacturing in adjacent to residential areas. Along with spatial planning, there are many brownfields that exist and  lack of green space with the exception of a few parks.But not all is lost.

There seems to be many groups that want Newark to get better, but do not know how. There needs to be a steamling of public and non-profit groups in order to work together and get things done.

As for the retail group, the lack of retail in is not about numbers. Through my mapping exercises, it seems to be the distribution of retail. It is uneven and is basically situated on Broad and Market Street, while underserving the rest of the city. That is why I am also mapping Jersey City and Patterson to see if Newark can learning some succesful strategies from their NJ couterparts.

My parents, along with thousands in Ohio’s urban centers, stood in the rain for 4-8 hours in an attempt to cast their vote.Approximately 126,000 became discouraged and did not vote. Bush won Ohio by a slim margin, which helped him the presidency.

Apollo Theatre Marquee in Harlem

On Tueday Nov 4th, I felt truly vindicated when Barack won Ohio with a sizable margin. No republican has ever won without Ohio. And so it remains. This week I volunteered and called voters in Florida to make sure that are southern cousins also went blue.

“Generation Y” is young. But we still have memories. Born in 1982, the Reganomics were in full effect. I remember wearing a bright green “Just Say No” T-shirt. Bush senior was claming that there would be no new taxes and the first Iraq War began. Prosperity flourished when I was a teenager during the Clinton years. Panic struck when I was a freshman in college and we all saw the World Trade Center collapse and I had just enrolled in the AirForce ROTC program while anti-war demostrations raged on.

The media said that young people would not show up, but we did in big numbers. I could not sleep. I went to the polls at 5am and by 6am the line was around the block. It felt like Christmas Eve. I felt like I was giving a gift to my children that I will have in the future. History was rewritten that day.

I hope that architectural profession will do the same. I did not grow up knowing any architects of color until my junior year of college. I know architecutral history well, but in order to find out MY Black architectural history, I had to do that on my own. The contributions of Norma Sharlek and Paul Williams make me going on despite the racism and bigotry that I face in architecture. Because if they made it, then so can I. Yes we can.

I lost my Nannie three weeks into the start of my master’s program. For the first time, my concentration was broken and the last thing I wanted to is sit in studio all day. But somehow through all the stuggles I had been through during grad school made me think of her. And although she only formally had a sixth grade education, she was the smartest woman I knew. Thank you Nannie.

Rutgers University Atrium

About a month ago, I switched my thesis from Harlem to Newark, because my Harlem thesis, even with its good intentions it felt a little bit forced.Thesis prep was really frustrating as a tried to make sense of a market/health clinic.I love Harlem like a second home because I use to live in around 123rd and Broadway, so at the time it made sense to pick a site in my backyard…

But after sitting in my policy class and Newark seemed so more natural to me. The more I learned about Newark the more it reminded me of my hometown, Cleveland. Newark has been though a lot like many cities in post-industrial transition. It has rebounded from corruption, the 1967 riots, and flight to NJ’s surrounding suburbs.

So my working thesis title is “Rustbelt Junction”. “Rustbelt” meaning a post-industrial city, a place whose population exploded with industrial revolution. And “Junction” meaning an interruption, specifically a riot, (for example, the Newark 1967 riots) with segregated, decentralized, and ultimately depleted the city’s urban core. My goal is implement master plans that focus on retail, green affordable housing typologies, and use Newark’s strong educational and medical facilitates as a catalyst for growth.

There is so much research to do, I think that I will be living in Newark by the time graduation comes around…