Arena steel rises

I was heartened to see, near the start of Saturday's walking tour, that steelwork has indeed started to rise on the Newark Arena. By the time Cory Booker takes office July 1st, the outline framing of the entire structure should be in place, and only an idiot would even try to cancel the project at that point. Booker is supposed to be brite, but he said as recently as two weeks before last week's election that he would review the contracts carefully and if there is any way to cancel the project, he would do so. Let's hope he was just grandstanding.
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This is the way the project looked last Saturday, from two slitely different viewing spots on Broad Street. This first picture centers on the construction crane and contains an illusion whereby it looks like the crane is lifting the microwave-antenna mast atop One Gateway Center. The original foto shows that there is actually a considerable gap between the bottom of the crane's hoist and the top of the mast, but the mind's eye draws a line between the two.

This second picture shows the wider Downtown context.

I'm very pleased that the project is proceeding. If I weren't so cool and sophisticated, I'd say I was "excited".