National exposure for Newark (but a little negative)

The "P.O.V." (Point Of View) series on PBS broadcast a documentary this past Tuesday about Newark's 2002 election contest between Mayor Sharpe James and challenger Cory Booker. Titled Street Fight, it runs a tad less than an hour and a half, and documents a pretty ugly contest.
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Mayor James had no reason to run such a dirty campaign, and I'm ashamed for him. He would almost certainly have won re-election anyway, because he's doing a good job. I'd like to be Mayor of Newark myself (especially now that I know James had the salary raised to $200,000!) but I'll probably wait to run until James retires. In 2002, he said aloud, whether he formally pledged it or not, that this would be his last term in office. Now that the next contest (2006) is in view, however, he is not saying aloud what he said in 2002.
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I'm content to wait. Mayor James is a pretty good man, despite his infantile lashing out at Cory Booker as a "Republican" and "faggot white boy". (Hey, I really am a "faggot white boy" (well, a 60-year-old boy, but all men are just big boys). That won't make me rule myself out for mayor.)
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Mayor James's character flaws don't amount to much in New Jersey, a state rightly notorious for municipal corruption. Altho people close to him, especially in his early years, have been tainted by scandal, he has not. I hope he stays that way, and not just for the sake of the people, who are ill-served by corrupt officials but also for his honor and place in Newark history.
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He has made a lot of difference, and I'd hate to think what this city would be like without his past efforts. But it's time for Newark to move on, away from machine politics and dirty rhetoric into more high-minded and consistently positive behavior, calling forth the best in us.
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I think Newark has grown beyond racial politics, and a white candidate who loves this city and has ambitions to make it the prime destination in our region outside Manhattan for capital and settlement by talented people of all races can be elected. At least I hope so.
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Newark is human scale, and we want to keep that, even as we grow larger and more sophisticated. Twice I have, by mere chance, been within six feet of the mayor, on the street, something you can't expect in New York, L.A., or Chicago. And he wasn't surrounded by bodyguards or police escort. (See, e.g., two pictures of him about 95% of the way down the second photo gallery at my Resurgence City website.) I like that.
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I also like the myriad trees all over the city and the sky you can see in all its glory — billowing, puffy clouds on a brite summer day, stratus and cirrus clouds catching the red and purple of a sunset — things you can't see well in Manhattan.
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But Newark is not well-balanced. There's not enuf to do at nite. There aren't enuf types of people or restaurant in much of the city — not, for instance, so much as one Indian restaurant within city limits, despite thousands of Indians and Pakistanis working here every day. And those South Asians and the Chinese who run other businesses tend not to live here.
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Still, you can get around easily by car; nearby Home Depots and suburban malls are open late; crime in most of the city is low; and people are polite and considerate. They'll let you pull out from a sidestreet rather than willfully block an intersection to save themselves one and a half seconds when traffic starts moving again.
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Outsiders are constantly amazed when I tell them how safe my neighborhood is. I parked my car in front of my house one Wednesday nite after real-estate class and didn't go out to it again until Sunday afternoon — 3 1/2 days later. Only then did I notice that I had left the front right door unlocked. I opened my glove compartment and was gratified, but not surprised, to see that my old digital camera (which cost $300 new) was still there. Nothing had been disturbed. That's Vailsburg, Newark! Who outside this city would believe it? You leave a car door open for 3 1/2 days in New York and you'll be lucky to find a floormat left.
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Newark needs nitelife, but can't get it until the perception that the streets are deadly dangerous changes, because people who might move here to make this a more vibrant, 24-hour urban center are afraid of Newark. Their fears are exaggerated, even absurdly exaggerated, but not entirely baseless.
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I have walked the streets of various parts of this fair city at all hours of the day and nite, but confess there are places I'm wary to go at nite. Not as wary as I'd be of a great many places in New York, but wary.
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Still, that's no reason niteclubs, dance bars, and reasonably priced sidewalk cafes and such should not be sprouting up all over the safe areas of Newark.
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So, to the real-estate wisdom that it's all about "Location, location, location", we must add "Perception, perception, perception".
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A changed reality does not necessarily produce a changed perception. A new perception, however, can produce a new reality.
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Newark is a lot better than people outside this city think. It's time to change their perceptions.
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A few of the glimpses of the new Newark in Marshall Curry's documentary Street Fight show a different Newark than outsiders expect. Even he expressed aloud some surprise at how much better Newark is than its reputation.
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A mayor can't change perceptions all by himself, and one documentary about one contentious campaign isn't going to do much to improve the city's image. That will take a lot of work, including a lot of word of mouth, from a lot of people.
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So, if you live in Newark and are proud of how much the city has come up in recent years, speak up at work or anywhere else you may be and hear negatives. Tell your suburban co-workers that they should get out of the Gateway complex or the Prudential shuttle bus, walk the streets, and just be in Newark, not just work in Newark.
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Take them on a tour of your favorite spots. Point out what's happening at NJPAC, the Newark Museum, Symphony Hall, or the Aljira Center for Contemporary Art.
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And make the point — expressly; implicitly isn't good enuf — that if Newark is as dangerous as they have been led to believe, why are you still alive?
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I'm not suggesting you tell them to throw caution to the winds and barge blindly into the worst neighborhoods at nite. I'm just suggesting that Newark's greatest obstacle to becoming a great and prestigious city is stupid, excessive fear. Fear of Newark comes from ignorance of Newark. Enlighten outsiders, dissipate the fear, and Newark will be seen as the new city it is.