Paper Example on Newark and Post-Racial America
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1. Discuss the predominant economic, social, political forces defining The rise of Newark according to Brad R. Tuttle.
The founding of Newark was largely due to political reasons. The city was established in the year 1666 by Connecticut Puritans led by Robert Treat from the colony of New Haven to avoid the loss of political influence and power to other people that were not of a Puritan Christian church right after the union of the Connecticut and New Haven colonies. Newark was the third settlement that was established in New Jersey after Bergen, Elizabethtown, and New Netherland.
When it comes to matters economy, Newark, having been started in 1966, expanded greatly as a result of the industrial revolution. It became the cultural and commercial hub of the New Jersey region. The economic prosperity of this city made its population to grow because a lot of people migrated to it, with the population at its peak in the year 1950. Even though Newark suffered a great deal in the epoch of urban decline and subordination way into the late 20th Century, it has benefited a great deal since the millennium; from interest and re-investment in the cities of (America Moore, Satter, Stewart-Winter, & Strub, 2014).
When it comes to social matters that helped found Newark, the Puritan population that dominated that area of New Jersey looked to make an establishment of a colony with very austere church rules; the same ones they had founded in Milford, Connecticut. The name Newark was coined from the words new and the ark as a representation of a community that reflected a new task at hand. References to the name New Ark are found in preserved letters written by key historical figures such as James McHenry dated as late as 1787.
2. Discuss the likely social, economic, political, cultural causes of the Newark riots of 1967. Also discuss the leadership of City, States and Federal officials o and through the riots.
The Newark Riot which took place in the year 1967 Newark, NJ from 12th July up to 17th July 1967, was caused by a show of brutality from law enforcement officers. John Smith, an African-American taxi driver, was apprehended on the Wednesday of 12th July when he rode in his cab around a vehicle of a law enforcement officer and double-parked on the 15th Avenue. With respect to a report later brought to the hands of the media, law enforcement officers later claimed that John was charged because of driving and tailgating in an incorrect way on a street that was one-way. John was also accused of making use of abusive language and roughing up a police officer. A bystander who had seen Smiths arrest summoned members of the Congress of Racial Equality, the Newark Community Union Project, and the United Freedom Party. The affiliates of these parties demanded to see John in his holding cell. After taking a note of the injuries the police had inflicted on him, the activists made a request that he be admitted to a health care facility. Their wants were granted, and John Smith was moved to Beth Israel Hospital in Newark (Isoke, 2013).
Later on that evening, African American taxi drivers in Newark started to pass on the news of John Smiths arrest on live broadcast. The news circulated down Seventeenth Street, west of the precinct police station where John Smith had been held. The residents in this largely African American city remembered a long record of similar the same events with the Newark law enforcement officers. A lot of them heatedly converged on the streets facing the police station in the city.
An hour before midnight, one of the civil rights leaders told the law enforcement officers that a peaceful demonstration would be arranged across the street from the precinct. A law enforcement officer gave the person in charge a bullhorn to talk to the gathering. Bob Curvin, an affiliate of CORE, was at the scene with Timothy Still, the leader of a poverty initiative, and Oliver Lofton who happened to be the Secretary of the NLSP (Newark Legal Services Project). Even though the speakers mentioned above solicited for a demonstration that is nonviolent, an unidentified resident took the bullhorn and called for violence. The youthful men from the area started to take glass items and stones and hurled them at the precinct windows. Right after 12.00.a.m. two Molotov cocktails were again hurled at the police station. Then right after stores were looted and the riots became more violent. The main reason for that strike is that African Americans felt they were taken advantage of and marginalized on basis of their color. Besides, police brutality that defined the whole arrest and protest did not paint America well; a lot of innocent lives were lost.
3. Discuss the demonstrable leadership styles of Newark Mayors from the mid-20th century through now.
The incumbent mayor of the city of Newark is Ras Baraka. Ras is a man whose leadership style revolves around honor; something that he says and practices in his leadership. Other mayors that have gotten to rule the city of Newark include Louis A. Quintana, Cory Booker, Sharpe James, Kenneth A. Gibson, Hugh Joseph Addonizio, Leo P. Carlin, Ralph A. Villani, Vincent J. Murphy, Meyer C. Ellenstein. What the city of Newark expects from all its leaders is transformational leadership. With every mayor voted in, the members of the public have always questioned leaders on what they would do for them. With such a disposition, all the Newark mayors from the mid-20th century through now have always had the pressure to deliver and to make a difference in the lives of their people. Delivery revolves around ensuring all the residents have access to the most important public amenities. Besides, all the mayors have always been expected to deliver on matters revolving around education and health(Watt, 2016).
4. Define and discuss "eminent domain" and its application within urban and suburban communities within New Jersey. Your discussion should articulate the legal basis of eminent domain and its economic/social impact.
Eminent domain refers to the right of a government or its agent to expropriate private property for public use, with payment of compensation. After American banks had realized that they were going through a recession, they prey in areas that were low income and gave loans to individuals who had little ability to pay them back. This led to a lot of foreclosures, about 6810 because the individuals involved had limited ability to pay the mortgage back. What the foreclosures did was that it damaged the value of neighboring homes.
The situation in Newark and New Jersey at large got so bad that it made politicians and activists desperate. This desperation made them come up with a controversial idea i.e. to make use of eminent domain to get a hold of mortgages from the lenders and renegotiate them at the then market rate. Eminent domain laws enabled state, municipal, and even federal governments to take up homes for the sake of the public; in this case, the public purpose would be the prevention of foreclosure and the lessening of potential blight.
5. Define and Describe Mt. Laurel (as it relates to Newark)
Mt. Laurel refers to a doctrine, a contentious judicial explanation of the New Jersey State Constitution. The doctrine stipulates that all municipalities make use of their zoning powers in an affirmative way to offer a practical chance for the production of housing units that are affordable to moderate and low-income households.The Mount Laurel doctrine looked to realize habitable shelter for the inhabitants that would have been rented (or bought with mortgage financing) at a periodic cost that does not go beyond a specific percentage of the household income. The periodic costs in question could not have included the rent or monthly mortgage payment but also all the utilities or in the event of a buyout, costs for taxes related to real estate, homeowners association charges, and casualty and mortgage insurance. The main aim of this legal provision was to help the citizens of Mt. Laurel to realize affordable housing units. Affordability was supposed to be dependent on the amount of income per household and in the context of the legislation the household of the income must have been deemed as moderate or law. In a nutshell, the New Jersey Supreme Court in Mt. Laurel II (1983) and Mt. Laurel I (1975), made a declaration that all county land use laws that limited affordable housing opportunities for the poor are not constitutional and ordered all New Jersey municipalities (Newark included), to come up with a plan, zone for, and take meaningful steps to offer realistic opportunities for their fair share of the regions need for affordable housing opportunities for all people.
6. Discuss the legacy of political corruption throughout the history of Newark and its impact upon the City.
There have been many political scandals in Newark ever since the city was founded. The most prominent ones are highlighted below:
The Abscam scandal came about when Harrison Williams, a United States senator served his people well until he was indicted due to taking a bribe and conspiracy for agreeing to give help to a fake Arab sheik, who was taking part in an FBI undercover operation, in exchange for money. Williams later quit his job in 1982 (Gillespie, 2012).
Governor Jim McGreevey resigned as the states chief executive in August 2004 following an expose that he was found to take part in an extramarital relationship with a gentleman he had committed to the state payroll irrespective of spotty qualifications. McGreevey, who was married to a woman at around the same time, came out as a gay gentleman at a press conference.
In the year 2009, federal prosecutors in Newark indicted 44 individuals, on charges of taking bribes to clear the way for building permits, with one individual even making an offer to sell the kidney of man. This case is famously known as the Bid Rig III, and it caught three mayors, two lawmakers, and more than 20 candidates for public office, who were charged with taking money bribes to help green-light questionable development projects.
The products as mentioned above are just one among many of the corruption cases that have defined the city of Newark. Political corruption put the city of Newark at an awkward position with respect to the accordance of opportunities in an equal manner. In addition to that, the matters revolving around the proper use of funds for development projects were maimed by corruption. At that point in time, the issue of corruption also affected the manner in which African Americans were given jobs; most public positions were given to the whites, and the African Americans were denied jobs.
References
Gillespie, A. (2012). The new black politician: Cory booker, Newark, and post-racial America. NYU Press.
Isoke, Z. (2013). (Re) Imagining Home: Black Women and the Cultural Production of Blackness in Newark. In Urban Black Women and the Politics of Resistance (pp. 59-75). Palgrave Macmillan US.
Moore, D. L., Satter, B., Stewart-Winter, T., & Strub, W. (2014). A Community's Response to the Problem of Invisibility: The Queer Newark Oral History Project. QED: A Journal in GLBTQ Worldmaking, 1(2), 1-14.
Newark, C. (2016). Borrowed Forms: The Music and Ethics of Transnational Fiction. By Kathryn Lachman. Music and Letters, 97(1), 188-190.
Watt, D. F. (2016). Leonard F. Koziol & Deborah Ely Budding: Subcortical Structures and Cognition: Implications for Neuropsychological Assessment. Newark, NJ: Springer, 2009. ISBN 978-0-387-84866-2 (hbk.), 381 pp., $125.
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