Save the Bottle!

An article in today's Star-Ledger reports that no decision has been made about what to do with the giant Bottle-shaped water tower at the former Hoffman soda, then Pabst beer bottling plant on South Orange Avenue in western Newark. That plant is now being demolished and the Bottle is supposed to come down, intact or in pieces. Built in 1930 by Hoffman, it served as a 55,000-gallon water tower, 17½ feet in diameter.

A year after demolition began on the former Pabst Brewery in Newark, one question still remains: Can a 60-foot-tall Bottle really be recycled? * * *

A decision has not been made about what will happen to the Bottle when it finally comes off its shelf, which stands 185 feet above street level, atop the brewery's main building.

The property's owner — New West Developers LLC — and city officials will have to decide whether to break the Bottle or preserve it. * * *

However, before the Bottle's fate can be decided, it must be brought down in one piece, though it is still unclear it that is possible. * * * [My councilwoman Mamie] Bridgeforth said if the city acquired the Bottle, officials would have to figure out where its next home would be.

[The developer has previously said] it wanted to incorporate the Bottle into a local park to preserve the area's heritage, but the cost of saving it might be prohibitive. * * * Plans for the brewery property include 100,000 square feet of commercial space and 179 housing units.

Every time I pass by that plant and see the Bottle still standing, I feel a sense of triumph. Maybe it can be saved!
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It seems to me that when you have a prominent landmark by which people far and wide can guide themselves to your establishment, any commercial developer would want it to remain high and prominent. Wouldn't commercial establishments and residential properties need a water tower? If the tower can be reactivated for that use, why not use it?
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Moreover, there are wonderful things one can do with big structures today. Look at the new buildings in Times Square that have enormous electronic displays that wrap around the structures and constantly change images like gigantic TV screens. Couldn't something like that be done to the Bottle?
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If international businesses locate in the commercial development, how about a painted world map around its circular form, with lites outlining the countries represented, and a flashing beacon with changing colors hiliting Newark's geographic location?
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Even if the Bottle is taken down, it would presumably be best to have it painted to briten its appearance more than just preserve it. We could hold an international art contest to decide what to paint it, and maybe get a major paint or art-supply company to sponsor it. Sherwin-Williams has a major facility in Newark, on the Passaic. Maybe they'd like their paint to briten the Bottle and would be willing to supply the paint for free, as a public-relations coup.
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In fact, we could hold an international contest for architects and architecture schools, artists and art schools, advertising and public-relations firms to submit ideas for use of the Bottle. Now. Hurry!
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The Bottle is a giant, three-dimensional billboard that could be used in many different ways, and truly savvy marketing people would see its potential. The only thing that stands in the way of saving and making great use of the Bottle is a lack of imagination. I hope Newarkers aren't that unimaginative but will find a way to prevent the Bottle from vanishing into history.

Arena Model

This past Wednesday, I attended the opening in the Vailsburg Branch, Newark Public Library, of the traveling exhibit of a model of the Newark Arena that is now being built Downtown by the City of Newark and New Jersey Devils hockey team of (Canada's) National Hockey League.

Former Devils player Rob Skrlac (pronounced SKRAH-lik, or something like that) made a presentation about hockey to a group of some 30 kids and grownups. He dressed a little black boy from the neighborhood in a full Devils uniform, and explained each item of the layered protective gear as it went on.
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Skrlac and a woman nearby (a librarian? library volunteer?) discussed the origins of the name "New Jersey Devils". I had known that it was the winning entry of a contest, and have always been offended by the name. I am certain there is no such thing as one devil, much less a bunch of devils.
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The claim, however, is that the hockey team is named for the "Jersey Devil", a legendary supernatural beast of the Pine Barrens. I'm certain there is no such thing as the Jersey Devil either, tho I am equally sure that there is such a thing as a Devils jersey. I suppose the name is politic, in that the team's geographic base is in North Jersey but the name derives from South Jersey.
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Skrlac also answered questions about the game of hockey which, however, didn't seem to interest the group much. Hockey is reaching out to inner-city kids who now show no interest in the game, probably because there isn't a single black player of note anywhere in the league.
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Mind you, the Devils is a pretty diverse group (of white guys). Its current roster of 24 players includes 10 Americans (none from New Jersey, however), 3 Russians, 1 Czech, 1 Finn, and only 9 Canadians. Skrlac, no longer an active player, is Canadian himself, born on Vancouver Island somewhere north of Victoria, the provincial capital, but he lives somewhere in New Jersey now. (Some websites say he was born in Port McNeill, near the north end of the island; others, Campbell River, near the middle.) I have been to Victoria, a very pleasant little city with a distinguished capitol building and a picturesque inner harbor the size of a big marina. I did not, however, get to any other part of that enormous island.
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Here's a picture of Skrlac before the group. The kid to his left is the one who had been in uniform, and all that stuff on the table at his back had been on that little kid!

The mascot was also present.

I later saw him with his Devil head off, but will not say what he looks like!
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Skrlac graciously autographed free copies of his player card, and some of the Devils teeshirts that the team had given to the kids as they arrived.

I discuss the Arena project and show closeup pictures of the model itself on the main Resurgence City site. For purposes of this blog entry, suffice it to say that the Vailsburg Branch reception was a pleasant little event that was probably a great success in community outreach for the Devils.

More Negative Media Attention

We made the big-time again, a major mention on cable channel Comedy Central's hip political satire program, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Unfortunately, the piece was very negative, and ignorant. Jon Stewart is from New Jersey, so you'd think he'd know better than to promote negative preconceptions of the state. But he's from Lawrenceville, a rich suburb, and New Jersey's own suburbs have long cherished negative stereotypes about the state's largest city.
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In any case, I was sufficiently irritated to write the following message to The Daily Show by feedback form at www.comedycentral.com.

I don't appreciate the poisonous misrepresentation of Newark in Samantha Bee's piece about "Good News", the publication that the City Council contracted to publish in order to promote a positive view of the city. Newark overall is in a lot better condition than New York City overall, and if you want to talk about urban decay and violence, there are better places to target than Newark. Frankly, Newarkers are getting very tired of gratuitous and, frankly, ignorant derision from people in media who have spent little or no time here, and don't know what they're talking about. I lived 35 years in Manhattan, and am relieved to have escaped to leafy western Newark.
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If your quarrel is with the concept of a publication that focuses only on good news, attack that concept. Don't disparage Newark by playing into antique misperceptions that bear no resemblance to the city today. Samantha Bee's opening scene was almost certainly contrived rather than real, and contrived to play to prejudices. Whether it be David Letterman's contemptible "worst place in the world" remark or Samantha Bee's implication that Newark is such a mess that all its media should focus solely on the negative (as tho constantly harping on anyone's bad points has ever improved anything), Newark is gratuitously harmed in its efforts to revive by a public (mis)perception of it as an urban hellhole characterized by omnipresent violence and crime. What did Newark ever do to Samantha Bee or the Daily Show that it should be dismissed to the realm of outdated prejudice, in which a wink and a nod suffice to dispatch a given subject to negative preconceptions as tho 'we all know about Newark', when in fact almost nobody outside Newark knows much of anything about the Newark of today.
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If Howard Scott (hilited in that bit) is selectively positive about Newark, Samantha Bee is selectively negative (Newark is "known for murder, arson and car theft" -- and, by the way, those problems are way down in recent years). Ignore the thousands of new townhouses and other structures going up all over the city; ignore NJPAC and the Newark Museum; ignore massive expansions to Rutgers, UMDNJ, and other educational institutions. Focus on the negative, no matter how much gratuitous harm it may do.
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It really is not necessary to be endlessly negative to be funny.

If you also saw that show and were indignant about it, maybe you too should tell the good folks at The Daily Show.