First Weequahic Tour Foto

I arrived about 15 minutes late for the start of yesterday's walking tour. I work evenings so don't usually get up before about 1pm, and the tour started at 11:15am. I realized as I approached the start point that I had forgotten to ask Jeffrey Bennett, our guide, which way the group would be walking so I might catch up if late. I hadn't seen any group as I approached from the south, nor up ahead on Elizabeth, so figured they must have headed up Custer, which bends off to the left out of sight within a couple of hundred feet. So I started up the hill. I turned around when I heard Jeffrey calling to me. I had neglected to look to the right, into the park, for not thinking a park would have a historical feature to attract a walking tour.
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It turns out that the tour's starting point, the intersection of Elizabeth and Custer Avenues, is the nearest approach to the statue of Franklin Murphy, perhaps 200 feet inside Weequahic Park, that is the only trace of a Newark tycoon and one-term Governor of New Jersey who was, in the late 19th Century, one of the bigwigs in the Republican Progressive movement.
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Here we see our little group of Weequahic-history buffs, with our guide on the right. I am of course not in the foto, since I'm taking it.

The statue is in the background. You can't see at this distance, but can in the closeup below, that the statue appears to have been vandalized with white paint. And various of the bronze letters on the base have fallen off or been deliberately removed. (The relatively low lite level around the statue, alternated with a brite sunny sky between breaks in the trees, challenged my new camera. This was my first extensive experience with my Olympus 810. It did a bangup job in most situations but failed in a few. A couple of the other tour participants had very expensive cameras, but I don't know if they had any better luck with this statue.)

I suspect this was done quite some time ago, in the Bad Old Days when Newark seemed to be out of control. Now, the neighborhood is looking pretty good, as you will see here in future days. Stay tuned.

Weequahic Tour — and Liberian festival

Busy day today. I took Newarkology's walking tour of the Weequahic district, then went to fotograf Washington's Tree, then went to look for lettuce plantlets at a nursery in Belleville, then went further into Belleville to Kmart to replace my recently nonworking toaster oven, then drove back to Newark for grocery shopping at the Bergen Street Pathmark, and then home to put away (some of the) groceries, review my pix, and catch up with the computer work I would ordinarily do during the day. As you might guess, I needed a nap. And took it.
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I'll talk about the walking tour over the next few days (I need to clarify with our guide the identification of some of the sights) and display some of the more striking fotos this week, then portion out the rest over the next few months, interspersed with pix of other parts of the city and environs. (I have about 125 usable fotos from the tour. 4 or 5 were too fuzzy, so I deleted them.)
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The most unusual part of the day was something I wandered into in going to Military Park in Downtown Newark to take pix of Washington's Tree (which I will show later this week). After I parked (near the NJ Historical Society building) and walked into Military Park, I heard music and saw a bunch of colorfully garbed people at the southern end of the park, in the area of the JFK statue. I didn't want to intrude, but was curious as to who they were and what the occasion was. I spotted the Liberian flag and the top of a banner, both partly upside down, draped over the fence surrounding the JFK statue. (The flag is very easy for an American to recognize, in that it emulates the U.S. flag in having red and white stripes and a blue canton, but there is only one star in the canton.) The banner read "L.C.A.N.J.", which I assumed meant Liberian Something — Citizens? — of New Jersey. That piqued my interest for a couple of reasons. First, I have casually followed Liberian history ever since I learned in high school that Liberia was founded by freed American slaves. I've always thought that after slavery was abolished, Liberia should have been offered statehood. Second, the family that bought the house across the street from me, formerly owned by the Fiores but sold after the husband's death, is Liberian. James and I have chatted, and he introduced me to his wife (Staci? I'm so bad with names!) and his little boy, James. (I managed to remember the names of both father and son. Give me that much.)
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So I walked closer to the singing and dancing, and looked for someone who might tell me what was going on. The group wasn't hostile, but wasn't outgoing either. I spotted a tall gentleman in a handsome loose-fitting African suit (see below), and asked. I managed, albeit with considerable difficulty due to his accent, to discern that this was the end of an extended celebration of Liberia's independence day, which falls on the 26th of July, sponsored by the Liberian Community Association of North Jersey, which is headquartered on Bergen Street. Just then, the woman president of the organization (Menseh M. Jones) wandered close enuf for my informant to introduce us, and I mentioned that my new neighbor is from Liberia, and speaks Loma. She said, "Loma — that's his tribe", indicating the gentleman I had been talking to, who then asked if I spoke Loma. I said no, but the family across the street from me speak Loma.
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Ms. Jones asked what my neighbors' last name is, and I was struck that I knew only first names. She apparently did not know a James with a son James on Smith Street in the Vailsburg section of Newark.
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I asked if it would be alrite if I took a picture of their gathering and the two said that would be fine.

I then went to find and fotograf Washington's Tree. After I'd done that, I headed back in the direction of the Liberian group (because there is no exit from the park directly toward my parking space because of the garage entrance). They were all starting to leave, and as the president approached, I asked if she had a card I might pass to my neighbor. She was glad to hand me one, which is how I know her name.
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As the group dispersed, I took this second foto, past the retaining wall at the underpark garage entrance, of a portion of the group as it paused on its way home. Only in reviewing the foto tonite did I note what appears to be either a dead tree or a very large birch, with white bark, off to the left. I shall have to return to the park at some point to see which it is. I never noticed a birch in Military Park before, but I have seen enormous birches in British Columbia or somewhere else out West, in Canada or the U.S.

This closer view shows more of the traditional Liberian clothing sported by some members of the throng.

Another thread in the tapestry of life in Newark.

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This being Sunday, "Church Day" here at the Newark USA blog, I am happy to report that I took pix of about 15 churches in the Weequahic area on the tour today. I had been running very low on pictures of churches.
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Today's foto is of a literal storefront church that I might not have noticed to be a church had there not been a service going on as we walked by. The amplified speech of the minister attracted my attention.

One man's weed is another man's flower.

I had my landline phone repaired today. Severe fraying to the wire just outside my house had produced, especially during rain, static so loud that no conversation could be held. My first call to Verizon apparently produced no action, since no one called, as I had requested they do before coming by, and my phones remained out of order. So I called back, and was told that someone had been out to my house (but apparently didn't trouble to call) and claimed that the line was fine. I didn't believe it, so insisted that someone come by when I could be present at the testing.
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On my first call, I found that the repair service menu asks you to troubleshoot by checking your NID (Network Interface Device) to see if the problem is outside ("our network", which they will repair at no charge) or inside your house (and thus your own damn problem that they will, however, repair for $90 for the first half hour, an additional $90 for the next half hour!). But my house is old and I didn't have an NID. So when the guy came by today, I asked him to put in an NID so I could isolate any future problem. First, however, I showed him the severely frayed part of the wire from the telephone pole. He twisted it a bit and tugged, and it came apart! So much for the line being fine. He replaced my old wire with a new, higher-capacity wire that can carry six lines, and estimated that the old wire dated back to perhaps 1944 or 1946. It was as old as I am!
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While he set about fixing the problem, I started weeding that little side yard, in case he needed to communicate anything to me. Among the many tall weeds that were growing there were some that might more properly be called "wildflowers". They have unattrative foliage on semi-woody stems that grow over three feet tall. But in late summer, they throw bunches and bunches of little daisy-shaped flowers, white or pale blue.

I pulled out only such of those plants as intruded upon my neighbors' driveway and left the others to bloom for us all to see. A "weed" is any unwanted plant. I heard somewhere that a rose bush in a wheat field is a weed. That made quite an impression upon me, so much so that I've remembered it for decades.
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My neighbor came by while I was working, and the three of us chatted a bit. It turns out that the telephone repairman lives in the Weequahic section. So I remarked that I was going on a walking tour there tomorrow, and asked if he knew where the intersection of Elizabeth and Custer Avenues is. He said it's perhaps five blocks (actually six blocks, according to Mapquest) north of Lyons Avenue. I can make a pretty straight run from my house right there. (Lyons Avenue's northern end is at Springfield Avenue only about 500 feet from the southern end of Sanford Avenue, and Sanford is only one block from me.) He thinks it shouldn't take more than ten minutes or so, unless I run into church traffic. He also says that a lot of drivers seem to speed to church, so I should be careful. I guess they're not much better at getting up early on a Sunday than I am.
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After the NID was installed and I tested it, I told the repairman that Verizon had assured me that someone had been out and tested the line, but I didn't see how that could be, since I saw noplace to connect a tester. He said they could have tested the junction on the telephone pole, but agreed that that wouldn't show anything about the line all the way to my house. He pointed out that repair people carry an alligator clip that can pierce the line in cases like mine, but the obvious frayed area should have been the tipoff that a repair really was necessary. He said aloud what I have been thinking of Verizon's supposed earlier 'repair' visit: "Some people just don't want to do their job."
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He, fortunately, was not one of those people but a thoroughly competent and diligent professional. Before he left, I handed him my Resurgence City/Newark USA business card, and said that if he knows anyone who might like to take the Weequahic walking tour, the details appear at my blog at the URL on the card. Maybe I'll see him tomorrow. How about you?

"Newark Train", Coming and Going (Part 2).

Today I present a nitetime view of the "World Trade Center" PATH station from street level. You might not notice the lettering in the picture below unless it is pointed out to you, so let me do that. It says "WORLD TRADE CENTER PATH STATION". See it?

Going home, I encountered so many hassles with missed connections from the 33rd Street train that I have shifted to taking the Newark Train direct from Downtown Manhattan — no transfers necessary. If there are no delays in getting a car from the car service the firm provides, I can enter the street-level portal shown above. If there are delays in getting a car, however, I just take the E Train to the end of its line, which is the WTC stop, and exit the PATH station underground at the Upper Concourse level. There is then a 5-minute walk thru great big barren areas in the temporary station that has been built at the site of the former World Trade Center. The "World Trade Center" name for that station was left in use, even tho there is no World Trade Center there anymore, and what is being built to replace it will not bear that name.
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The new station has five tracks, two for the Hoboken Line and two for the Newark Line. I don't know what the fifth is for. The platforms are wide and barren, with very few benches, as seems the rule in the wretched mass transit systems of this region. People sit on the stairs of the various stairways when trains are few and far between, at nite. This is extremely offensive to me. The new station has plenty of room for benches, but the PATH won't put anywhere near enuf benches for the ridership level. It's a disgrace.
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Also disgraceful is the insistence of the arrogant Port Authority that people are not to leave any trash in the system but to take all their trash with them. So adamant is the Port Authority on this point that the PATH System has no trash receptables, not on trains, not in stations. It also has no lavatories. And even this great big new "WTC" station has no elevators to the actual platforms, even tho signs announce an elevator to platforms. That elevator actually takes you only to the turnstile level. You still have to walk down stairs to get to the actual train platforms (unless there is a carefully concealed elevator I have not found, and I have paced the entire length of the platform while waiting for a train). Surely that defies the Americans with Disabilities Act, and should be punished.
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Tho the PATH's fares are a little lower than the New York City subway's, the flagrant unconcern with the way human beings actually function is inexcusable.
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If you do take the PATH direct to Newark from the WTC station, be sure to ride on the left side so you can see the great big worksite for the buildings that are to replace the Twin Towers. The site is so britely lited at nite, that the glare may have prevented me from discerning any work being done. Perhaps it's a visual treat, a beehive of activity, during the day.
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T minus two, and counting: Newarkology's walking tour of the Weequahic section of Newark starts at 11:15am this Sunday. I must Mapquest the route to Elizabeth and Custer Avenues to figure how much in advance I must leave my house, then add 15 minutes for traffic delays and finding a space to park.

"Newark Train", Coming and Going (Part 1)

This is a view of the PATH train coming into the Harrison Station, with a portion of the Newark skyline beyond the Passaic River.

I have nailed down my commute to and from Midtown Manhattan to what I think is the fastest and cheapest route from my area of western Newark. I drive to the Harrison station, since there's no parking near Newark Penn Station that doesn't cost a fortune, and take the WTC train to Journal Square (Jersey City), transfér across the platform to the 33rd Street train, take that to the end of the line, then exit the PATH system and walk 2 minutes to the V Train, then walk from the Lexington Avenue stop to the office. The whole trip, absent a problem, takes an hour and a half and costs $3.20 going in (with a 20-trip PATH ticket; $3.50 if I have to use my MetroCard), plus whatever I have to put into a parking meter (usually 75 cents, but sometimes only 50).
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Alas, there usually is some kind of problem: A traffic jam on 280 that wasn't announced on 1010 WINS or News 12 New Jersey; so I might have to get off the Interstate and zigzag thru Downtown. A power failure on the PATH — once, for 20 minutes. A power failure in Queens that knocked out the V train entirely for one day, then produced limited service for a week. Unexplained stops between stations on both the PATH and the subway. A nonworking escalator at Lexington Avenue. Even before boarding any train, I might find no parking space on the street, so have to park in the Amaral lot immediately alongside the station, at $8 for the day. That might happen only once in three weeks, but aside from the expense, there's also a delay in dealing with their office across the street and returning to the car to put the ticket in the windshield before being able to head into the station. That could make me miss a train. (On the other hand, sometimes I find that the space on the street that I do find has time enuf left on the meter that I don't have to pay a cent (well, quarter). And at least one space very close in has a meter that gives a half hour for a quarter, rather than the expected 15 minutes! That is very exciting — which should give you some idea of the drabness of much of my treadmill existence at present. Other times, the only available parking space on the street might be a 6-minute walk from the station that makes me miss the best train for a comfortable commute.
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Three out of four times something goes wrong. And tho driving to Harrison saves bus hassles, it also sometimes means there's no seat available, so I have to stand to Journal Square. When it comes to commuting to the East Side of Manhattan, there is, in short, just no really easy way to get from here to there. With a train under the Hudson, however, one thing you never have to worry about is traffic jams at the tunnel.
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The place I work is very pleasant, but the commute is draining. It occurred to me that one way to stay this side of the Hudson is to finish the process of getting my real-estate salesperson's license, then work in real estate in Newark. So I have made the reservation for the state exam for August 14th, which should give me time enuf to review the entire book and pass the test on my first try. I did well on the school test, so anticipate that toward the end of next month I will be able to affiliate with some real-estate broker this side of the Hudson. Then, my days of commuting to Manhattan will be numbered.
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Tomorrow, a view of the station in Manhattan from which I now catch the Newark Train Going (home).

New camera

In preparation for this coming Sunday's walking tour of the Weequahic district, I bought a new camera, since both of my older digital cameras have, after several years, stopped working, and I didn't have time to have them repaired. I do have one other digicam, but I have misplaced the power cord to recharge the battery, and that battery charges only within the camera. In any event, it was time to move up. Technology has changed enormously in the three or more years since I bought my Olympus Stylus 300.
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I would have been content to buy another Stylus 300, figuring that any that were still on offer would be cheap. But they're all gone except for used and refurbished specimens, and I'm not risking that. The Stylus line is up to number 810 now. So that's what I bought, in the expectation that it will be ahead of the curve, or at least right with it, for another three years.
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It is hugely different, and much easier to use. For instance, it includes a one-button delete function for pix you know you don't want (tho you get a prompt that defaults to Keep rather than Delete). It has a 2.5-inch monitor, which is terrific, and an almost equally terrific built-in user guide, with descriptions of the camera's 20 shooting modes, from landscape to portrait to nite scene to indoor to candlelite to sports, and on, and on. I got the camera last nite at Best Buy on Route 22 (boy, is that a dangerous road! but I didn't have time to go to East Rutherford, on Route 10, which I'd much rather patronize), and haven't even looked at all the modes.
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I did, however, install the 1GB removable storage card I bought to go with it. The salesman thought it should give me about 250 pix. The online description I saw when I was doing Internet research said it should give me 500 pix. When I inserted it and looked at the monitor, it said I had 1,305 pix available! Golly. And — yes AND — it has a built-in memory of another 18MB or so, which is enuf for 37 pix at the highest resolution (tho since most of what I use my cameras for is the Internet, I don't need the highest mode), so even if I somehow were to run out of room on my various cards (my Stylus 300 cards work in the 810), I'd still have an emergency overflow area to store to.
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On the way home, I drove to Downtown Newark by simply taking Route 22 east until it merged into Route 21 (McCarter Highway), which takes you right Downtown. (Going the other direction is less clear, oddly.) I wanted to see how the new camera handles nite scenes. Setting nite mode is much simpler on this new model. But the problems of long shutter speeds and trying to hold a camera still long enuf not to produce fuzzed fotos remains. This is the best I could manage.

The view is of the Prudential Center and National Newark Building on opposite sides of Broad Street as seen from Washington Street just south of William. Alas, there is a brite street lite in the middle of the view that I could not block out, and it produced a big intrusion upon the picture and, below, a stray artifact, what appears to be a faint moon but is just one of those things that cameras see in odd liting but people either don't perceive at all or tune out.

The first foto is more indicative of the actual brilliance of the liting, except that a human observer can tune out the foreground glare. The second foto tones down the foreground lite at the expense of dimming the brilliance of the view.
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As I have said, one reason I show nite views in this blog and on my Resurgence City website is to induce people to infer that you can actually be out in much of Newark after dark and not get killed, maimed, raped, robbed, or even bothered by anybody. I wouldn't dare take pix like this in Detroit or the South Bronx.
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I did, however, recently have to advise someone who asked me if I thought that taking an apartment in 1180 Raymond Boulevard would be wise for 'a small Asian woman walking home at nite from Penn Station'. I said that it certainly would be safe now, but one cannot know if, once 'yuppies' settle in, a criminal element that now sees no reason to be Downtown at nite, now largely empty, would move in. I suggested that Mayor Booker would probably concentrate more police in that area once it became a 24-hour, residential neighborhood, but I didn't want to be responsible for anyone's making an unwise move. I told her that I personally would have no hesitancy whatsoever in walking that neighborhood any time, day or nite, and I am a 61-year-old man who has had three knee surgeries so cannot run. But I could not make a choice for her. She and her husband independently decided that it is too soon to opt for Downtown Newark. Once 1180 opens and other residential developments (e.g., the Hahne and Griffith Buildings) bring lots of people Downtown, we will know better what to expect.
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Always remember, however, when you see nitetime views of Newark, that a marginally-elderly white man wanders around the City of Newark at all hours of the day and nite to take these pix, and I haven't been killed even once.

Elegance, crumbling

Today's foto is of the facade of an old townhouse on Lincoln Park. Tho it appears to be white, you can see on the right some damage that suggests that the white is mere paint, and the building is brownstone. Once Newark's resurgence is well underway, all such elegant old buildings might find owners rich enuf to give them the restoration they deserve.

Weequahic Tour: Remember that Newarkology's walking tour of the Weequahic district is scheduled for next Sunday, the 30th.

Rogue car alarms

New Mayor Booker needs to pass an ordinance punishing people who refuse to fix car alarms that go off for no reason and blast the entire neighborhood repeatedly at all hours of the day and nite. There is some fool across the street from me whose car alarm goes off without warrant at least once a day and sometimes many more times. I have started to keep a partial log of these offenses to present to the authorities, either police or, if need be, a court of some kind. I'm not sure how to proceed to get this stopped, but stop it must. On one occasion the alarm went off something like 15 times in the quarter hour between 3:15 and 3:30 a.m.! Now that my windows are open in warm weather, this has become intolerable. The City needs to force morons — who won't do the right thing unless forced — to repair their car alarm or disconnect it, on pain of escalating fines for each repeated false alarm.
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Of what conceivable value is an "alarm" that no one pays attention to? I keep hoping somebody will steal that car and save the neighborhood from this endless assault. However, Newark's car-theft statistics are way down in recent years, so I guess I'll have to go to court or the cops to end this offense. When I lived in Manhattan we had similar problems, with some car alarms staying on for ten minutes and more. At least the one across the street stops after about a minute, longest (so far).
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Today's foto is of the interior of NJPAC's Prudential Hall during the intermission of a performance by London's Royal Philharmonic Orchestra a couple of years ago. I don't know how often that ensemble touches base in Newark, but we get orchestras from all over the place, even New York's Philharmonic, which now and then ventures across the Hudson in the off-season.

Weequahic Tour: Don't forget that Newarkology's walking tour of the Weequahic district is scheduled for next Sunday, the 30th.

Episcopalians and their cathedral

My friend Gaetano in the Ironbound alerted me to a June 29th story in the Star-Ledger about the nomination of an openly gay Episcopal priest now in San Francisco to serve as the next bishop of the Diocese of Newark, which takes in most of North Jersey. He is one of four candidates to be voted on in September.
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Episcopalians are among the most liberal of denominations, just having elected a woman to head the entire U.S. church. Moreover, the Star-Ledger article points out that:

Newark is among the most liberal Episcopal dioceses in the country. Bishop Croneberger, who supported Robinson's election and another measure authorizing blessings of same-sex unions, became the diocese's ninth bishop in 1998, replacing liberal icon John Shelby Spong.

Wikipedia says "Spong is the bestselling liberal theologian of recent times." He's still alive and kicking, but in Morris Plains, not Newark.
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This "Church Day", I offer a wider view of the Episcopalians' Trinity & St. Philip's Cathedral than I have shown heretofore. The statue in front is of Frederick T. Frelinghuysen, a Newarker who was U.S. Secretary of State from 1881 to 1885.

The Newarkology website's tour of the Weequahic section is exactly one week from today. I have started to do my Internet research on a new digital camera to make sure I have one for the tour even if I can't get my current cameras to work. See you then?

Subway-PATH connections

Trying to get from some parts of Manhattan to the PATH system can be difficult late at nite, and especially if you rely upon the V train, which stops running at unpredictable times. It's supposed to run until midnite, but seems not to. Does 'midnite' mean the last train leaves the terminals at either end of the route at midnite? or that no station on that line will be served past midnite, so the actual last train leaves much before midnite? And does the MTA even respect its own schedule? I have watched downtown E train after E train run thru the Lexington Avenue station from about 11:10pm to almost midnite, with nary a V. I finally boarded the E to follow the directions given for "late nite": take the E to Seventh Avenue and transfér to the D. But the D runs only once a half hour, and if you just missed it, you've got a long wait. Tho the PATH runs all nite, it too runs only once a half hour after 11pm, so if you just miss that too, you are in for a very long and very unpleasant commute, especially since the stations are not air-conditioned and there is pretty much no place to sit.
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Worse, late at nite you can never know which track to transfer to, or even which station to transfer at, within the PATH system, from the 33rd Street train to the World Trade Center train to get to Newark. The train that ordinarily stops across the platform at Journal Square might still stop there. Then again, you might have to go up the stairs and across to Track 4, and make haste or you can miss the train and have to wait a half hour for the next one. Even worse than that, the transfer point might be arbitrarily reset to the Grove Street station, not Journal Square, and the public-address system in many cars thru which an announcement to that effect is made does not work. Last nite I couldn't hear some announcement on the car I was on, so asked people near me if they heard. They didn't hear clearly either because the PA system in that car was definitely not working, which I confirmed with them. When I then told them that PATH assured me that the PA system is checked every day, they laffed! But it's really not at all funny that the PATH system's executives send out dozens of cars with nonworking PA systems.
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The PATH is abusively and stupidly run, so you have to be very wary when taking it late at nite if you need to make a connection to get to Newark (or Harrison, just short of Newark).
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I have found solutions for the MTA-PATH connection problem, but only this past week, after struggling with the various connections I need to make, in all their permutations, during about 12 weeks of commuting. I've tried bus to train to subway; bus to bus to Port Authority to subway; bus to PATH to subway; and the reverse trip of all those, different buses, different trains. Tho it's very good that living in Newark presents one with so many alternatives, finding the best for your particular situation can be very complicated and time-consuming. The New York City subway interconnections with NJ Transit, the Port Authority Bus Terminal, and PATH alone take considerable analysis. I lived in Manhattan for 35 years, but the last 25 of them I walked to work, so forgot a lot about the NYC subway system. I'm gradually remembering.
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The V goes from Queens thru the East Side and then down Avenue of the Americas ("Sixth Avenue"), west of Fifth. It connects with the PATH at several points, so one's first inclination is thus to take the V. But if the V doesn't come, then what? Do NOT take the E to the D unless you are sure of making an expeditious connection. Take the E (1) to 34th Street and walk to the PATH 33rd Street station from Eighth Avenue; or (2) to West 4th Street and walk to the 9th Street PATH station a few blocks away; or (3) all the way to the World Trade Center station in Downtown Manhattan and take the WTC PATH train direct to Newark without having to transfer within the PATH system at all. (If you prefer, once you're on the E and headed for Eighth Avenue anyway, you can just get off at 34th Street and take an NJ Transit train to Newark instead, tho it will cost more, and the trains are much less frequent.)
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Perhaps long-time commuters knew all this, but I sure didn't, so hope it helps others, especially people who don't travel into Manhattan often.
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Today's foto is of the roof of Newark Penn Station and the big, heavy, ugly railroad bridge that carries NJ Transit, PATH, and Amtrak trains across the Passaic toward New York, which you can see in the background. The bridge would look much better if somebody painted the darn thing some striking color, like the Golden Gate Bridge's rust-red. Or gold. Royal blue. Something.
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The highrise office complex to the right is Penn Plaza, two interconnected towers of differing heights. NJ Transit and Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield are both headquartered in Penn Plaza.

Sad Note: Jack Warden, a widely known character actor born in Newark, died Wenesday. I hadn't known he was born in Newark. Had you?
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Weequahic Tour: The Newarkology website's walking tour of the Weequahic district is scheduled for next Sunday, the 30th. Jeffrey Bennett, our guide, tells me that the tour will be listed in the Star-Ledger before then. I'll be interested to see how many people want to walk the historic streets of Newark with us. But I've got to get at least one digital camera working in a hurry.

Tree service (2)

Yesterday's entry showed a picture of my trees being thinned in late winter a couple of years ago. Today I show two pix of how the smaller and larger branches were differently treated. Here, the smaller-diameter branches are fed thru a chipper to create mulch.

The larger-diameter pieces were cut to fireplace length. Both mulch and fireplace logs were then sold, not wasted. Good. I suppose that lowers the price the tree service has to charge customers to remove from their yard the wood they cut.

Tree service (1)

At the beginning of this week, the people across the street from me put out at the curb a branched tree trunk of perhaps 12 feet in length and at least two subtrunks of perhaps 8 inches in diameter. Two days later, the City came by with an open truck and heavy moving equipment to take it away. Perhaps there's some office one calls for such special pickups. I had a similar pickup that I did not know to call for when I had the accident that has permanently disabled me. I was cutting down a tree in my front yard when I fell off the ladder. I was then unable to cut up the resulting fallen tree and take it into my backyard. I heard some neighbor the next day using a chain saw to chop it up, and some days later the City picked up all that debris and carted it away. The City of Newark also periodically trims the trees at the curb to remove dead branches and cut healthy branches back from power lines.
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I separately hired a tree service a couple of years ago to trim various of my trees and remove the debris at my expense. Here's a picture of one guy high in one of my oaks, and another below taking away to the chipper the branches the guy aloft cut off to give me more lite for flowers and veggies in my back yard.

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Tomorrow I'll show what happened to the wood removed from my property.
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(This is an entry for Thursday, uploaded on Friday due to work demands.)

Honest bus driver

When I got on the bus last nite (my car has a soft tire at the moment and I didn't have time to fix it before I had to rush to work), I handed the driver what I hoped was one ticket. To avoid having to carry exact change, I buy several 2-zone tickets from the NJTransit vending machine in Newark Penn Station and keep them in my wallet. The ticket seemed a little thick, so I tried to separate any extra ticket but none came off, so I figured it must be just one. Four miles later, when I got out the back door and walked forward to my street, the front door was still open. The driver had his hand extended, with a ticket in it, and said I had given him two, so gave back one. That's the way people are in Newark.
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About the rear-door thing, I always exit by the back door except at the last stop on a line, in order not to block people boarding. Unfortunately, an awful lot of people exit by the front door, blocking people coming on and slowing everything down for everybody. A few weeks ago, I saw a new version of the "Stop Requested" sign that asked people to exit via the back door, but it was roundly ignored. Good idea, tho, and I hope all new buses will have such a notice. The message might eventually get thru to even the rudest dimwit.
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Today's foto shows another reason for people to think about moving to Newark: 3% sales tax in a large part of the city, including at the Home Depot. If you buy a big-ticket item, this can make a significant difference to your budget.

C-Town is an inexpensive supermarket, as are most around here. Newark is lite on upscale grocery stores. In due course.

Flagpole

Here's a different angle from what I've shown, of the ornate sculptural base of a great flagpole in Lincoln Park called "Raising the Standard of Democracy".

Uruguayan statue

One of the more unusual monuments in Newark is a statue dedicated to José G. Artigas, "National Hero of the Republic of Uruguay", in Washington Park, Downtown.

Uruguay is a very small country very far away from Newark. One would not expect there to be a Uruguayan community of size here, ever. But apparently there was, at one time.

Recycled church

Today I offer a side view of what was originally St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church on MLK Boulevard, and was the subject of the second "Church Day" on this blog, in February. (The tower of St. Mary's also appears, in the background.)

The banner refers to registration for a preschool program in the "Friendly Fuld Head Start" at the same address as the church, which made me wonder if it was still a church, or if the building had been abandoned by the Greek Orthodox and taken over by a Head Start facility.

I didn't know. There is still a listing at Switchboard.com for "St. Nicholas Greek Church" at that address. But within minutes of my uploading a query about that in the earlier version of today's blog, Jeffrey Bennett, webmaster of the Newarkology website, advised me by email that it is no longer a Greek church, the congregation having moved to Roseland. He discusses the church and shows two pictures (one a reflection in a window of Arts High) at Part 1 of his web tour of MLK Boulevard.
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So now I know. And you do too. Thank you, Jeffrey.
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(Newarkology's walking tour of the Weequahic area is exactly two weeks from today. Note your calendar and let the webmaster of that site know, if you plan to attend.)

A hawk in Vailsburg

Something a little different today, a nature foto of a bird I didn't expect to see when I walked thru Vailsburg Park. I have been surprised before by the odd distribution of species in this city. On the one hand, we have tens of thousands of great trees in Vailsburg but almost no songbirds. Now and then I see a cardinal or bluejay, and my first couple of years here (2000, 2001) there were some noisy crows in the tall evergreen outside my window, but birds in general are notable mainly for their absence from this area.
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Some pigeons and sparrows* beg for bits of bread or pizza crust from noontime lunchers sitting on the benches outside Penn Station, Downtown, and there are some ducks, geese, and even a few swans in the lakes of Weequahic and Branch Brook Parks. You can even spot the occasional seagull wandering in from the Port. But Vailsburg mornings are, when you realize it, astonishingly quiet, devoid of the racket of birds waking to the rising sun. As verdant as Vailsburg is, we should have lots more birds. Perhaps we have very athletic stray cats, whose raids up into the trees to eat chicks keep bird numbers in check.

Birds are not the only absentee wildlife that one might expect to see in an area as overgrown as Vailsburg. We have no rabbits (again due to large numbers of stray cats?) but enormous numbers of squirrels to reap the bounty of huge numbers of acorns and black walnuts; no chipmunks but lots of rats to feed the stray cats; and, on my block, a pair of raccoons (both of which have come into my house to eat cat food!), but almost no pigeons nor any other kind of bird.
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Given the paucity of pigeons — a favorite food of hawks — in this vicinity, it is a bit surprising that we have hawks in Vailsburg Park. Perhaps these hawks, unlike peregrine falcons whose main meal is the delectable pigeon, prefer rats and mice.
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I see rats and/or mice almost every day. Some rats even dare to invade my house — which is full of cats! They don't last long, tho I did recently witness a fierce counterattack by one trapped rat that squealed in chattering panic and jumped, almost a foot off the floor, at four surrounding cats, forcing them back, until I stepped in to capture him and dump him out the window to safety. I have no desire to kill nature's creatures if I can instead put them out of my house. I usually don't know of rodent invasions until I find a decapitated rat corpse — or half-corpse — on the floor. Yum! (By the way, if you'd like a cat, or kitten that will become a cat, I have extras. Send me an email of inquiry at ResurgenceCity@aol.com and maybe I'll let you have (free) one of my wonderful, beautiful, highly efficient ratcatchers.)
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In waiting for PATH trains and the NYC subway, passengers who look down at the tracks can often see rats and the occasional mouse scurrying about trying to make a living. They know to avoid the third rail — perhaps it makes their fur stand on end as they get close — which cats, moving much faster with each step, might not be as alert to. So no natural check has arisen, of stray cats (or snakes) establishing hunting grounds in the subways to keep the rodent population down. Instead, human authorities have had to place rat poison hither and yon, but it is so useless that David Letterman maintains a running gag about the number and size of New York City rats.
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Given the lack of birds in this area, I was a bit surprised to see so large a bird of prey as a hawk in Vailsburg Park. But there s/he is. There must be something for a bird of prey to eat around here.
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* The sparrow that most of us are familiar with is the "English sparrow". It was deliberately brought to the New World to control insect pests, but, ironically, it eats mainly grain. It does eat some insects. The net effect, however, is that the sparrow is an agricultural pest and is generally found only in areas inhabited by (perhaps we should say "prepared by") people.
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(Don't forget the Sunday, July 30th walking tour of the Weequahic section to be guided by Jeffrey Bennett, webmaster of the Newarkology website. I plan to be there — heck, I'll be there unless I'm struck by lightning. See you then?)

Winter/Spring

Today I present two fotos of the same scene taken from slitely different angles in radically different seasons and weather to show what a difference good weather and some greenery can make. The target is the Colleoni statue in Clinton Park, opposite Lincoln Park. I took this first picture on a cloudy day in January.

It's still heroic, but the dreary weather detracts enormously.
I took this second picture on a cloudless day in May.

This morning, Regis (Philbin, of course — what other "Regis" does anybody know?) commented on how depressing winter gets, albeit with some hyperbole: 'when it gets dark at a quarter after 2:00'. At least winter days can be brilliantly brite and clear. But there's little more depressing to me and many other weather-sensitive people than a dreary gray day in the dead of winter. Still, weather affects everyplace, not just Newark. Manhattan is pretty dreary on such a day too. But the weather now is glorious, a perfect time to visit Newark's parks and monuments, take in a show at NJPAC, check out the latest exhibit at the Newark Museum or Aljira, and have a great meal in the Ironbound.

View from condos

Today's picture shows the view of Gateway Center from the front courtyard of the upscale condo building on Mulberry Street shown here in January. Note that even in the heart of Downtown, there are trees and grass to give a green, natural touch to urban living.

Newark Screens

Today's foto shows the Newark Screens on Springfield Avenue multiplex cinema at Fairmount Avenue, opposite the Home Depot.



I haven't been inside that complex, since I essentially never go to the movies, there being pretty much nothing I want to see desperately enuf to pay money for. As far as I'm concerned, almost all films released today (with only the possible exception of children's films) are inexcusably vile: obscene, vulgar, violent, or a combination of all three. So I wait for the few films I might want to see to appear on TV — and if I am offended, I simply change the channel without wasting my hard-earned cash.
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For people who do go to the theater to see the big picture and hear the wraparound sound (almost always too loud for me), the Newark Screens complex seems about as nice as a multiplex can get. The outside is spotless, and the parking lot is dotted with trees.

(Weed-)Whacky Neighbor

I met some new neighbors this past weekend (my workweek runs Tuesday thru Friday, so Monday is always part of my weekend). The house nextdoor sold a couple of months ago, but the new owners haven't moved in yet. They've been doing some work, and I haven't been clear on who is a workman and who the owner. Yesterday I met one of the two dauters, Amber, and saw the rest of the family in passing.
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But I spoke at length with a different neighbor, the son of an elderly couple two doors down, both of whom died within the past several months. Robert, the son, is about my age, and walks with a cane sometimes. He came up while I was trimming vegetation — apparently the City government thinks things are so good in Newark now that I was served with a notice that the overgrown vegetation in my front yard (lots of rain in recent months) must be trimmed or I'll be fined! — and said he has a weedwhacker if I need it, but it was at his home in the Poconos (Pennsylvania; he is just tending to the Newark house, which is up for sale, during the day, and returns to nearby Pennsylvania at nite). I pointed out that I also have a weedwhacker, leaning against a railing nearby, but the line was too short, and admitted that I did not remember how to get more line to come out. He demonstrated that when the machine is running you just tap it on the ground and a button at the bottom releases more line.
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Alas, when I plugged the machine in and tried that, I discovered that I happenstantially ran out of line just at that point, so had to cut the crabgrass and such at the curb with hand shears. The next day, when I was sweeping the sidewalk at the end of my two-evening project, Robert came by with his weedwhacker, fired it up (his is gas-powered; mine electric) and whacked the heck out of those suckers. I had to get my rake and wheelbarrow to remove the clippings, and sweep all over again, but I defy the City to say my grass it too long now!
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Sunday, Ellsworth, a friend of the nextdoor neighbors, also asked if I needed help, when I was raking. I said thanks, but this is my recreation. And indeed it is. Gardening is one of the main reasons I bought a house rather than condo. I've got several different kinds of perennial flowers blooming at different times, spring thru fall; 70-foot trees, deciduous and evergreen; and tomatoes, broccoli, red cabbage, eggplant, grapes, basil, parsley, and strawberries all growing in the yard.
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This is the New Newark, relatively spacious housing (for the price) with room to grow flowers, veggies, and herbs; and friendly neighbors who don't intrude on your privacy but are glad to say hello and maybe offer a helping hand if you're pleasant. Whether you are a jammed-crammed Manhattanite in search of more space and room for a garden, or an empty-nester looking to scale down the house you have to clean and yard to tend, think about Newark for your next house.
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Today's foto show the ornate roofline of an old house on MLK Boulevard in the Central Ward. These old houses have lots of charm, but you'd better have lots of money to put them and keep them in good shape. My house was built in 1930 and in the six years I've lived here I've already put on a new roof and installed new double-glazed windows. But since the purchase price was low and taxes are half those of a comparable property in the suburbs, it made very good economic sense to buy, especially since I had to leave my Manhattan apartment, and rents even in the same relatively inexpensive neighborhood (Hell's Kitchen) had gone thru the roof in the 25 years I'd lived there. I pay only 2/3, for a house and yard with driveway, what a friend pays for a tiny one-bedroom apartment in Manhattan.

"Set as Background"

A woman I used to work with, who lives in my section of Newark, Vailsburg, showed me something about Windows that I have used to create a Newark background for my computer. Alma knew that if you are online and come across a foto you think might look good as the backdrop to your desktop, you can right-click on it, then select "Set as Background", and Windows will put that foto as the backdrop that comes up when you first turn on your machine or right-click on the taskbar (at the bottom of your screen) and choose "Show the Desktop" or "Minimize all Windows" (depending on your version of Windows).
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Since the screen is wider than it is tall, you need to select a foto that is comparable in dimensions, or it will be distorted, since Windows will fill the entire screen with that foto and adjust its aspect ratio to fit the screen. You might also note that the foto is not nearly as clear as it was at its original size. If the result of Microsoft's alteration of the foto is unacceptable, you have to choose another foto.
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This is a wonderful feature of Windows, and I take my hat off to Microsoft for giving its users that capability. If in the course of surfing the Internet, you come across a picture that just entrances you, be it of the Himalayas, Machu Picchu, the Manhattan skyline, or Newark Penn Station, you need only right-click on it and choose "Set as background" and it's yours to enjoy every time you go to your desktop.
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This can be quite a heady experience, but so many of the fotos you might choose will end up fuzzed by Microsoft's adjusting it to fit the screen that the process of choosing a backdrop to your specific tastes can also be a little frustrating, even irritating.
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You can try to improve the focus by saving the foto to your hard drive, using a graphics program to sharpen the focus as much as you can, then storing the foto as sharpened. Then, using Windows Explorer (not Internet Explorer), find the foto on your hard drive, right-click on it, and choose the option "Set as Desktop Background" — different wording, same function. Alas, on my machine, that is entirely unreliable. Sometimes it works. Most times it does not. But finding a picture outside your machine and using "Save as background" seems to work every time. I have no idea why Microsoft can't make this function work reliably with a picture that is already on your hard drive, but in Windows XP, it does not function properly. Preposterous but true.
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At present, I have as my own (desktop) machine's background a picture of the wide view of the top of the central tower of Arts High, taken from this blog's entry of May 19th. I experimented with a bunch of different fotos before settling on that one, and of course one can instantly change the background simply by finding a different foto and setting that one as background. However, Control-Z will not undo any selection, so be sure you know where you got the picture you used to have as background before you choose another, because to restore the first, you will have to go to that location and right-click on it again.
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I have in the past used others of my fotos as background, taken from my Resurgence City website and its various foto galleries. And if I want a different background in a few weeks, I'll find another of my fotos to put there.
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Today's blog foto is of the building at St. Benedict's Prep that bears its emblem, the text of which is "Collegium Sancti Benedicti A.D. 1868", as seen past the plantings on the grounds at South Orange Avenue and MLK Boulevard.

Grace Episcopal Church

It's "Church Day" again here at Newark USA. I took three pix of a very grand church on Broad Street, but the sun was in an inopportune position at the time, so the picture of the main building did not turn out well. Some other time. I do, however, have two pix that give you a sense of the "grac"iousness of the place and tell you something about the church's program.

Here a sign tells of its schedule of services and its choir.

The church is so large that I will have to take a picture from the opposite side of Broad Street to do justice to the building overall.

Fire engine

As part of the Newark Museum's celebration of Mayor Booker's inauguration, a classic fire engine was brought to the back of the Museum's garden. I didn't have time before the Mayor's speech to do more than take this picture from a distance, and forgot to take a closer look after the speech ended. Silly me.

Speaking of classics (meaning old but classy) reminds me to mention the upcoming Weequahic district walking tour that Jeffrey Bennett, the history-oriented webmaster of the Newarkology website, will be conducting Sunday, July 30th. Mark your calendar!
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I went on his first walking tour, from the Four Corners to Lincoln Park (which he graciously extended to High Street (now MLK Boulevard) all the way to Springfield Avenue). Those of you who are regular visitors to this site will have seen lots of fotos I took along the way, and read some of the information Jeffrey imparted to us at each stop.
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Tho I would be happier if the tour started at 1:00 p.m. rather than 11:15 a.m. (since I work evenings, so avoid getting up early, even on days I'm not working, in order not to have a jumbled sleep cycle), I plan to be there with bells on. (That's just an expression, meaning "alert" and ready to go. No actual bells.) See you then?
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I will mention this again, but please take a moment now to look at the description of the tour as planned. The fee is a piddling $5 per person. Wear walking (or running) shoes, because Jeff expects it to 'run' 2 1/2 hours. I slowed things down the first tour in stepping aside to find congenial angles for pix, but will do my best to keep up this time (tho I have had three knee surgeries, so cannot sprint to make up for lost time). Of course, if other shutterbugs come along and also want to slow the pace to get the best angles, you'll make me feel a lot better for not being the sole drag on the proceedings.

Urban jumble

Today's picture shows a portion of the view from Mulberry Street looking west, a mix of buildings of differing architectural styles and economic uses, residential and commercial. Note also the steel structure atop one of the buildings, which presumably once supported a billboard but no longer does. The owner should remove that visual clutter, which detracts from the appeal of the building.

Then and (right) now

Yesterday I said I thought I had a picture of a plaque showing George Washington's line of march thru Newark during the Revolution but did not have time to look for it. I found it.

Tho it's impossible to read at this resolution, the fourth dot from the top right is labeled "NEWARK". The leaf shape near the Delaware on the left is an actual oak leaf resting on the plaque, not part of the plaque's design. If you want to see more detail, you need merely drop by Washington Park some sunny afternoon to see it in person.
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You don't have to leave your house at all to see a picture of the construction site of the Newark Arena now going up elsewhere in Downtown. My friend Joe from Belleville alerted me to a webcam that The City of Newark has placed to display progress. The foto is updated regularly (apparently at least every quarter hour, tho I don't know the exact interval). If you would like to check once every couple of weeks, the URL to bookmark is http://www.earthcam.net/users/interface.php?id=1033&projectid=593&clientid=400.

An old patriot town

In this independence week, it is appropriate to remember that Newark played a role in the American Revolution. Newarkers fought the British and hosted patriots.
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Near the PSE&G Plaza shown in the past two days appears this kiosk for directions to local attractions.

Here's a closeup of the bottom plaque, which speaks of Elisha Boudinot, a Newark patriot, who in 1824 hosted the Marquis de La Fayette on a return visit to the country he helped to found.

Lafayette may not have been to Newark before then, but a plaque on Trinity and St. Philip's Episcopal Cathedral, which appears at the third foto gallery of my Resurgence City site, records that Washington led his troops right past it thru Downtown Newark. There is also a plaque in Washington Park about the line of march. I may have a picture of it on disk somewhere but don't have time to look right now.

Classic Twilight Zone

The Sci Fi Channel is showing a marathon of the original Twilight Zone TV series, and I chanced across my favorite episode, "To Serve Man". What I did not remember is that Newark is mentioned prominently in that show. One website gives a plot summary that includes this point:

on a normal April day, with the world facing all its usual problems, a spaceship landed outside Newark, NJ, bearing creatures from outer space.

Golly. Every now and then I see other mentions of Newark in old movies and such. If you see something, let me know and I'll pass it along.
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Today's foto shows yesterday's waterwall in its setting.

I took this picture on a Saturday afternoon, which helps explain why the plaza is empty of people. It is to remedy the absence of people to enjoy Downtown parks and other facilities that developers are now building lots of apartments in the neighborhood. Perhaps five years from now, a similar picture on a beautiful summer Saturday will be filled with people, vendors, and movement — kids with balloons and hot dogs, couples sitting by the waterfall. I'm looking forward to taking pix of that Downtown.

Waterwall

OK. Here's the question. There is a water feature at the plaza in front of the PSE&G Building, a wide low waterfall, the only thing like a fountain there seems to be in Newark.

Is this a fountain, or not a fountain? If you have a strong view one way or the other, let me know at ResurgenceCity@aol.com (also let me know if I may quote you and if you want your name and location noted here).
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Tomorrow I'll show a view of this waterfall in context.

Shiloh

This "Church Day", I present a picture of Shiloh Full Gospel Church, which, as you can see, is just across the street from Saint Rocco's in the Central Ward.

Bookerfest (4 pix)

Today I attended the Inauguration Day Family Festival at the Newark Museum, which featured an appearance by the new Mayor (I almost said "mayor-elect", but he is now actually Mayor), Cory Booker. While there, I re-joined the Museum, to which I used to belong (but I had to let my membership lapse when I was unfairly fired by a Downtown Newark law firm, supposedly because they didn't like my politics as expressed on the Internet — tho that may have been a pretext for an illegal firing). Happily, there was a 10%-off special running today as part of the celebration of the new mayor's installation. The Museum probably assumed — rightly, I think — that hundreds of Newarkers who had never actually been inside the Museum would be there today, and wanted to capture some as members. One good way to do so, tho it wasn't shown prominently (if at all) in the lobby where membership could be taken, was to offer a discount on regular membership. In any case, I lucked out, and the annual individual membership of $50 cost me only $45 today.
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Considering that the requested donation for an adult is $7.00 per visit, this is a great deal, and I encourage others of you who have it in mind to join to do so even if you don't get the 10% discount you could have gotten had you visited today, because once you have a membership, you can drop by anytime you're near without having to pony up seven bucks each time. If you have an hour to fill (note I did not use the despicable idiom "kill" (time)) and you're right there, you just pop in, see the adorable little critters in the mini-zoo, some beautiful objects in a gallery you haven't visited in a while, or the special show of the moment without worrying about paying each time.
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In any case, Booker was running late on his first day, what with the dizzying array of appearances he was scheduled for, from his inauguration in front of a crowd in NJPAC's Prudential Hall, to the Newark Museum appearance, to perhaps an appearance at a free concert at Essex County College, to who-knows-what. I got to the Museum later than I might have liked (that's what happens when you work nites; you don't get up early), but well in time to see him — and his brother, who looks enuf like him (shaved head and all) to make you wonder at first if that could possibly be Cory. But the brother is fat. (Unkind word for an unwise state.) The brother was arriving by limo as I first approached the garden where Cory was to speak inside a magnificent white tent (see below). A number of onlookers were puzzled by the similarity of appearance and the arrival of an obvious VIP in a black limousine. I decided it wasn't Cory, so didn't take a picture.
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I thought I might have time to free my hands of the membership packet I picked up in the lobby, so walked back to my car less than a block away. You may like this: when I first went to park, I found a close-in spot on Washington Street and started to put quarters into the meter, when a nice (black) woman in the car ahead of me went to the trouble of opening her door and telling me it was free today! That is Newark. I just love it here. (I mention race sometimes because every reader is inclined to think his or her own race when s/he sees "woman", and I want to make plain that no matter the race, Newarkers are generally very, very nice — to everybody, not just "their own kind". It is a joy to live among such considerate, mannerly people.)
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After dropping the membership packet on my (car's) front seat, I walked back to the garden, and before I could even pass thru the entryway between brick walls (apt, for "Brick City"), the Great Man Himself appeared. His limo dropped him near the main entrance, and he walked past that entryway, presumably so anyone there could see to follow him to the garden. I asked a cop nearby if it would be OK to take a picture. He asked if I was with a media organization or just an interested citizen, and I showed him my Resurgence City/Newark USA card. He said it should be alrite. So as Booker approached, I got this pic.

I suspect the little girls beside him are his nieces, but do not know that for a fact. He seems devoted to them.
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The Mayor paused at the entrance to the garden to pose for pictures with the Museum's director, Mary Sue Sweeney Price (whose house on Lincoln Park I pictured May 30th), and I got this picture before the formal pose solidified. I also should have gotten a picture of the posed group — but my camera failed. (You can see visual evidence of my camera's mental breakdown in the foto for June 7th.) Darn. I did, however, get this picture of the scene before everyone took their place in a staged foto-op. It shows some media people on-scene.

Booker and such of his Team as came to the Museum (muzeam? to rhyme with Team?) then proceeded to the enormous, wonderful white tent that stands in the garden, and addressed the crowd. The tent seats were less than filled, which disappointed me — except that I got a seat, in the second-last row. Seats toward the front were "Reserved Seating Only". But you wouldn't want to sit there anyway, because the "Millennium Marching Band", made up of kids from at least three public schools, played later, and you'd have been knocked over by the sound waves!
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Booker introduced Ms. Price, praising the Newark Museum as the greatest museum in the entire State of New Jersey (which, plainly, it is; I'm a member. Nyaa nyaa nya nyaa nyaa.), then introduced some 5 or 6 of his Team of councilmembers, starting with Donald Payne, Jr. I applauded politely for all but Ronald Rice, Jr., who ran against his father. I have no use for ungrateful and disloyal sons.
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Then Cory gave us a little peptalk about his hopes for this terrific city.
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I must say that he came across, close up, as more normal and sane than he did on TV. Perhaps there's something about the liting used for TV that makes him look a little crazy-eyed. He does have "lazy eye" (strabismus), meaning his two eyes do not point in quite the same direction. Of course, it is impossible to tell which eye is correct and which is a little off (as with Peter Falk and his glass eye). Apparently his brain has learned how to navigate despite the conflicting signals of two eyes each of which gives slitely different information. But he doesn't have crazed eyes in person.
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I have now been 3 times near the Mayor of Newark, twice with (now-)former Mayor James (see pix toward the end of the second picture gallery on my Resurgence City site for one occasion) and once with Booker. This is one of the advantages of living in a smaller city. I have never seen New York's Mayor Bloomberg (tho I must admit I did see Ed Koch when he was mayor, marching down Ninth Avenue behind a brass band for one International Food Festival).
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Newark's Millennium Public School Marching Band played a couple of numbers, mostly terrific percussives (the drums had two different heads, one clear and one white, which had different sounds). Alas, as it marched out (covering Booker's move into the Museum's buildings), I was sad to note that altho it was drawn from different public schools, it was also drawn from only one race, black. Newark is much more diverse than that, and the organizers of the band should be ashamed of themselves for settling for an all-black band.**
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After the Mayor withdrew to the interior of the Museum, up the stairs from the wonderful garden area, a salsa band, Wil Vega and Friends, started to play. The Vega band is racially much more representative of Newark than the Millennium Band, and very good. Unfortunately, I don't care for salsa, so I went on my way, walking briefly thru the garden, which has been denuded of its artworks, tho the plaques remain. Perhaps they are being repaired or weatherized, to prepare them for year-round exposure to the elements in a sculpture garden. I saw some rust on the concrete platform of one removed work, whose plaque said it was stone and steel. I guess the steel part rusted so the stone part also had to be removed until the entire work could be protected from the elements by some coating or other.
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Here's a picture of the tent — which is perhaps 50 feet deep by 125 feet wide (just a guesstimate) — in its setting.

I have been to the Museum a number of times, and even posed alongside a yak (hmm; where is that picture? — not that I'm as heavy now as I was then) in an area near it, but had never been in the garden before today. There's a lot to see at the museum. As its slogan says, "80 galleries of inspiration & exploration". I think they should add "And a sculpture garden" once the works are returned to their intended locations.
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As I left the garden, I headed first into the Museum by the same stairs Booker used minutes earlier, and saw various activities in the area where members' events are held. (I've been to at least one, where wine and cheese, and veggies and dip, were served in that open court area.)
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There was a two-man band playing in the left-near corner of the inner court (Englehard?); a man making a chalk drawing of a visitor in the left far-corner; a man displaying newly created clay pots, vases and such in the right far-corner; and a table for kids to draw their own visions for Newark up the stairs. It was already 4:15, and the Museum hadn't kicked anyone out, tho the initial announcement said plainly that the inauguration-day event would last only till 4pm. People just didn't want to leave, and a museum's got to be grateful for that.
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I then walked to my car and went off to check out the plaza in front of the PSE&G Building. Jeffrey Bennett, webmaster of the Newarkology website, had sent me two contradictory emails about there being or not being a fountain there, and I needed to see for myself. I knew there was a pool with an overflow waterfall. Does a waterfall count as a fountain? Check the pix Monday and Tuesday (tomorrow is Church Day) and vote.
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I got a couple of pix before my camera failed again. I also tried to take a picture of the immense sword-shaped concrete form in Military Park in front of Gutzon Borglum's Wars of America that Jeff Bennett thinks was once a fountain, but my camera had gone haywire again and the picture did not store. As I was walking away, an Oriental couple asked if I could take a picture of them with their camera. They weren't clear as to what should be in the background, the S. Klein building, the JFK statue and cannons to the left, the Borglum statue on the right. I suggested the Borglum statue and asked if they knew about it. They did not. So I told them that what they saw before them, a couple of hundred feet distant, was the largest bronze statue ever made by the sculptor of Mount Rushmore. Then I took their picture, handed back their camera, and went on my way after asking where they are from. Hawaii. Great! That's about as far as one can get from Newark geographically (and ethnically) and still be in the United States. I don't know why they were walking around and taking pix in Newark, but it's great having tourists in this wonderful city that so many people misunderstand.
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I started for my car. They walked toward the statue. I then decided to ask if they'd like me to take another picture, this one with the statue close by in the background. They gladly assented. I then told them that my sister lived in Hawaii for a while, in one of those communities with a long Hawaiian name that nobody can remember, and handed them my Resurgence City/Newark USA card, saying that if on returning home they told people Newark was nice but their friends thought they were full of crap, they could refer them to two places on the Internet that has pictures galore to prove it.
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Then I headed home, but decided to stop for Chinese food on South Orange Avenue about 3/4 of a mile from my house.
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There was no place to park right out front, but a couple of hundred feet on, I saw a spot. I pulled in and was about to pull up toward the front of a two-car spot when, simultaneously, the driver ahead started to pull out and a (black) woman started to back up into the spot behind me, which she might have had to crowd into had the guy ahead of us both not pulled out. We both waited for the car ahead to leave, then had plenty of room for both our cars. As I exited, we smiled at each other and I said that that worked out fine!
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I had called ahead on my cellphone, but not all my food was ready. While waiting, I chatted with the young Chinese woman behind the counter (and some heavy plexiglas, alas). Someone, years ago, remarked to me that Chinese restaurants in various places adapt to local tastes — which might explain why the Chinese food I had in London, Ontario (or was it Toronto?) perhaps 30 years ago seemed, to me, dreadful. That person also said that it is not customary in China to eat soup with the noodles standardly supplied in Chinese restaurants here. I asked this very nice girl, who is always super-pleasant to me, if she were from China (yes, she said: "Peking" — not "Beijing"; I guess she felt "Peking" would be more familiar to Americans) and then asked if in her area people ate noodles with their soup. She said yes. So there.
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My food was still not ready, which suited me, since I wanted to go a couple of doors down the block to "Hope Basket", a new farmer's market run by Orientals that has milk for $2.49 a gallon and all kinds of fresh produce, including bok choy ("Chinese cabbage"). So when she turned to me and said my food would be ready soon, I told her I'm just going nextdoor and will be right back. When I returned, I remarked that I had bought some bok choy and peppers so I could make my own stir-fry. I had ulterior motives. You see, in some parts of this country, chow mein is made with celery rather than bok choy because bok choy is not locally available. I wanted to make sure that she understood that bok choy is available three doors down (so I don't want to find celery in my chow mein).
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By then, my food was ready, and I headed home after a very pleasant day, one of many pleasant days Newarkers now have in the New Newark. Before we go, let's see one more picture of the magnificent tent in the leafy, restful garden of the Newark Museum, this one showing Newarkers of all ages pouring in to see our new Mayor Booker address his constituents.

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* Something is wrong with both of my Olympus cameras, and I have not yet received a reply from customer support as to what the problem might be. You'd think that having two digital still cameras would be insurance enuf, but it's not. I have one digital camera left (a Canon, I think), which is mainly for videos but has a still-foto capacity as well. Alas, I was in such a rush to get to the post office and then Museum that I completely forgot to take that camera with me. Besides, I haven't used it in months, and the battery might have discharged.

** There was one little girl who might have been white or of mixed race. All the others were plainly black. Tho the adult leader of the band said that the members were drawn from Weequahic, Barringer, and Shabazz High Schools, there were some little kids there who sure did not look like high-schoolers to me.