#newarkdowntowndistrict

[fietadoc]

“Performing arts buildings are complex. The acoustics, the sight lines and all that have to just be perfect. So you begin with just making these things sublime as musical instruments. And if you fail there, you have failed it all.” Moshe Safdie- @njpac @newarkdowntowndistrict #iphonex #cambpics #doctoc #njpac #newarkdowntowndistrict (at New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC)) https://www.instagram.com/doctoc/p/BvOx2nvBY-duSrKCWr-OdwYsOwSZGJCaSNF2lQ0/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=yspxxm08khlr

[themarrero]

Downtown Newark back in 2014, the much maligned largest city in the state of New Jersey has struggled for decades, mired in a malaise that stemmed from the destructive and divisive Riots of 1967 and the city has never quite been the same. Other cities mired with urban blight have been able to reinvent themselves, Newark has struggled to do the same. There is much improvement when I last walked the streets this past June for a specialist appointment at University Hospital, but even that neighborhood doesn’t feel quite secure. I attended Rutgers University in Newark for the majority of my undergraduate studies in the 1980’s, walked the downtown area to eat when the food at Robeson Hall didn’t quite cut it, used public transportation during heavy snowfall. I shopped at L. Bamberger & Co Flagship store which was rebranded as were all Bamberger store as Macys which had been the parent company for years and Hanes Department Store on Broad Street. Newark has a very active and positive mayor and administration that is taking leaps and bounds to improve the image and situation of the city, it has been impressive, but much work still remains. These are a few of Newark’s tallest skyscrapers in this image, vestiges of an era when Newark was a mecca for insurance companies long gone. Only Prudential remains today as a large player in the area, actually sponsoring the sports arena. - [ ] #developportdev @gothamtomato @developphotoweek @omsystem.cameras #excellent_america #omsystem @bheventspace - [ ] #developportdev @gothamtomato @developphotonewsletter @omsystem.cameras #omsystem @bhphoto @adorama @tamracphoto @tiffencompany #usaprimeshot @newarkdowntowndistrict @newjerseyisntboring @newjerseyisbeautiful (at Newark, New Jersey) https://www.instagram.com/p/CkeiVIipcgB/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[jankathleenart]

I am beyond proud to be a part of a big movement in my city! This is truly such an experience and I will never forget it! The City of Newark has launched a social justice public art initiative beginning with two street murals (on Halsey Street and Dr. MLK Jr. Boulevard) in response to the Black Lives Matter movement protests that have sparked around the globe. The project is organized and supported by the City of Newark, artists, designers, and leaders in Newark’s creative community, Rutgers University-Newark, the RU-N ACM Graphic Design Program, the New Arts Justice program at Express Newark, the Newark Downtown District (NDD), Newark Arts, Project for Empty Space and the Sherwin Williams Paint Company. Special shoutout to my Graphic Design Professors who continues to show us what being a Graphic Designer truly means and for teaching us the skills that we can use for a good cause! @neddrew @rjampol @citimedina @jennifer_bernstein @chantista #MuralsforJustice #MuralsforJusticeNewark #NewarkStrong #AllBlackLivesMatter #AbolishWhiteSupremacy Core Partners: @CityofNewarkNJ @RUNewark @ACM_GD @NewArtsJustice Leaders + Supporters: @fayemi_ @Yendor_llc @LayqaNunaYawar @LandCollective.nwk @Expressnewark @ProjectforEmptySpace @NewarkDowntownDistrict @NewarkArts @Sherwin-Williams (at Newark, New Jersey) https://www.instagram.com/p/CCFQplbHea6/?igshid=1mcxuultxedl1

[karevheritagehiphop]

Part 3 of our #BlerdHop conversation with @pbsoldier @freckleddan of @kidmonstercreations and @paperbacksandsoundtracks where we answer the question what is the future of our voices when it cones to #print #media and #animation This is a good one here. Check out all the parts of this interview on Heritage Hip-Hop youtube and HeritageHipHop.com Thank you @fortress_prime for the shoot as they are the premiere #comicbookshop in Newark NJ. @newark.nj @newarkdowntowndistrict @newarknjblog (at Newark, New Jersey) https://www.instagram.com/p/B8MzFpknxSv/?igshid=1aovfrfsvbn9

[thenomadinjc]

Every child deserves their mother. Collage painting phase 1 out of 2. 💥 ➡Every man who's been murdered has a mother missing her child. ➡Every man in the system has a mother waiting for her baby to come home. ➡Every child taken from their mother by ICE risks never seeing their mom again. ➡Every mother who risks her life to bring her children to this country risks death, rape, extortion, & invisibility. 🔥 Every child deserves their mother, and every mother deserves their child. 💛👑 To rebuild America we must heal these wounds. Separation, mental poverty, a system that takes children from loving parents because of poverty, a system that takes children because they wanted a better life. 💥 IT'S TIME TO EMPOWER OUR MINDS AGAINST A SYSTEM THAT BREAKS FAMILIES. 💛all families that love in love deserve to be together 💛 @paulrobesongalleries @expressnewark @projectforemptyspace @arthouseproductions @gallery_aferro @newarkprintshop @newarkartsalliance @newarkhappening @newarkblack @newarkdowntowndistrict @newark.fm @newarkmuseum @NJSTARHIPHOP @thedeancollection @notheretoapologize @voltaart @themuseumofmodernart @guggenheim @jerseycityartscouncil @njcugalleries @montclairmagazine @papermagazine @projectforemptyspace #nomadinjc #notheretoapologize #fineart #collage_art #collageartist #collagepainting #nwk #artist #contemporaryart #installationartist#conceptualart #conceptualartist #latinxartist#lgbtartist #brownlivesmatter #blacklivesmatter#indigenouslivesmatter #immigrantlivesmatter#existentialism #familypictures #politicalart #contemporarypainting #jerseycityartist#newarkartists #volta#newarkarts https://www.instagram.com/p/BwcZmyYFsnW/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=gmzj693k93il

[themoodofthepeople]

Great times @newarkdowntowndistrict on Market St! @olala_empanadas hosting an epic poetry reading curated and conceived of by Newark Arts Collective. Grateful to share the mic with off these superstars. Tag whoever I miss yo!!! @dimitri__reyes @lejax0976 #newark https://www.instagram.com/p/BuABExhHBbV6pE-crXl0l4ek21THUvjIfnPxl80/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=12kzvc1zsv1o5

[ineverthoughtaboutitlikethat]

Krewr is all about community and making connections! We appreciate Newark’s community leaders, entrepreneurs, business neighbors, and organizations. At this week’s Happy Hour we celebrate influencer and force of nature Kevin E. Taylor! @krewrapp @noodleshopandbar @newarkgaypride @newarkcentriccity @hawk.newsome @newark.nj @cityofnewarknj @newarkblack @newarkhappening @newarkshapers @newarkarts @newarkdowntowndistrict @expressnewark @newarkmuseum (at Noodle Shop) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bn15TmnHGDv/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=12g6r4r80wu4k

[faddysplace]

THE JUICE PUSHERS JUICE CHALLENGE @thejuicepushers #CHALLENGE Your Coworkers Friends Family Love Ones Students Children Seniors Challenge Everyone To Drink Our Juice And Start Live A Healthier Lifestyle. Stop Drinking Sodas Artificial juices Milk. Remove Or Reduce The Fried Fatty Unhealthy Foods Especially Junk & Fast Foods. Drink health Fruit & Vegetable Juices @thejuicepushers Snack on fresh fruits and vegetables plenty salads, Drink Alkaline water, Stretch your body everyday. Exercise every day be it a little or a lot. Walk or run at home or the Gym alone or with friends. 3 Minute or a full workout daily. Meditation will be very important in this process. Negative vibes must be tuned out. Try turn off and unplugging all electronic devices. Don't llet negative people drain your energy. Constant bad news is also draining. Thos is just a sample of how we retake our lives back. #tonetini #redpassion #healthyaddiction #allnatural #100%juice #juiceoftheday #thejuicepushers #eastorangenj #newarknj #teameo #Gym #Fitness #workouts #healthykids #lifestyle #newarkdowntowndistrict #fruits #vegetables #njfarmersmarket #famersmarket #njfresh #newjersey #firefighter #police #healthyfood #healthylifestyle #Family #juicechallenge

[itsbodygarbage]

First time vending @newarkdowntowndistrict annual Farmer's Market and I had an amazing time...S/O to all those that helped make this day possible and to those that showed some love and support today! Ready to do it all again next Thursday and I'll see you THIS Sunday @warinancopark in their sports center for their Farmer's Market 😘 #newark #newarkbusiness #newarkfarmersmarket #downtownnewark #downtowndistrict #handmade #supporthandmade #supportblackbusiness #blackowned #buyblack #shoplocal #yourneighborhoodsoappusha #soapstress #bathandbody #bodygarbagegotyoucovered #getbodied (at Union, New Jersey)

[deeworks]

Nothing like being commissioned to do #graffiti legally thank you @sustainableNwk for the opportunity. Remember people #cleanstreetcleanwater #catchbasin #DeeSpencer #DeeWorks #deeworksfacepaintstoo @paintmegreen @sillyfarm @faba_tv @officialefpu #efpupaints #efpu #theworkinglady #eonjfacepainter @eocityhall @eastorangemacfest @newarkarts @newarkblack @news12nj @newarkdowntowndistrict Let’s Go Ya’ll!!!!!™

[fietadoc]

“The world is a complicated place, and there's a lot of division between people. The performing arts tend to unify people in a way nothing else does. -David Rubenstein- @njpac @newarkdowntowndistrict #njpac #newarkdowntowndistrict #iphonex #cambpics #doctoc (at New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC)) https://www.instagram.com/doctoc/p/BvOwmlqhB_0Iz3z77uGVTblbbnYnBNJ-RjAbws0/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1pq64oan5xkp4

[patsnaps]

#downtownNewark #IrishInAmerica @newarkdowntowndistrict #thank you @edisonalehouse for the cheer @hahneandco @newarkmuseum thank you @clarewave for great day (at Newark, New Jersey)

[geralozano]

Thank you for sweet crop of "PortAll Flow" mural from Newark, NJ. @johndomineoriginal ・・・ Simply stunning work by @w3rc and @geraluz for the #gatewaystonewark walls curated by @layqanunayawar and @rjampol for @newarkdowntowndistrict . (at Newark Pennsylvania station)

[karevheritagehiphop]

Shout out to the city that raised me and taught me about life on so many levels. Rested me head here, went to school hear and got schooled here. Land of the university....Rutgers and University Hospital now Rutgers. Newark is a beast of its' own and I will respect the #BrickCity until there isn't one. @cityofnewarknj @newarkhappening @newarkblack @newarkdowntowndistrict @runewark @newarkprek (at Newark, New Jersey) https://www.instagram.com/p/BwNiev3lQzc/?igshid=dnd4l6scrsdx

[thebrickerati]

We're excited! Downtown Newark is getting an upgrade...as if a revamped #HahneCo wasn't awesome enough! We'll see you at the @wholefoodsessexnj #Newark store opening! #NewarkOnTheRise @newarkdowntowndistrict

[thebardcce]

Community Action Award Winner: Josh Gachette

My name is Josh Gachette; I study environmental and urban studies. I am working with the Newark Downtown District, a special improvement district in New Jersey. This firm handles quality-of-life concerns in and works to attract private investment to its namesake. Newark is a large place; NDD operates within a relatively small jurisdiction. (It’s worth noting that the downtown area was industrial, not residential. So the politics of displacement haven’t produced a gentrified caste yet.) It is funded by tax revenues and donations from local businesses. It straddles the line between public utility and private non-profit, which puts it in a unique position to approach community development. Newark, New Jersey is having a tough go at the moment. Unfortunately its incompetent governance and building vacancies more often than not overshadow its beautiful architecture. In many ways it shows the signs of a city left to wither. The Gateway Center is a series of tubes in the sky, from the pedestrian’s vantage point. These glass-encased walkways connect the train station to three office buildings; vendors sell food and tchotchkes there. The Gateway Center was built to assuage White commuters, who were unsettled by the prospect of walking city streets to get to work. Their anxieties were not unwarranted.

Newark’s Black population grew precipitously after the Second World War, as millions fled the south for the cities of the north and midwest. (This epoch is called the Great Migration.) Meanwhile, highway construction around Newark “opened up” scores of acres of scantily-populated land, and turned them into motorist suburbs. Some were working-class and based off the Levittown template; others were more exclusive, catering to upper-middle class residents. African Americans, of course, were barred from living and working in either. Discontent begot rage, as evidenced by the 1967 riots. Four days of tumult were the product of racial tensions inflamed by Blacks’ frustration. Newark has since been a blighted and predominantly Black city.       The NDD maintains a special improvement district; it frames community development in the context of economic growth. But the economy is currently based on a constant increase in production, backed by fractional reserve banking. As a student of environmental studies, I see both these paradigms as incompatible with environmental stewardship. Considering the racial disparities in who gets exposed to climate degradation (when and to what degree), economic revitalization shows itself to be a viable short-term solution, but impossible in the long term. Undoubtedly, NDD is well-intentioned and does right by the community. It is a second-chance hirer, which means it is one of the few employment options in town for the formerly incarcerated. That’s a big deal. And one would be hard pressed to argue that the area would be better off without NDD -- state, local, and federal governance have done absolutely nothing to help Newark. (Gerrymandering, redlining and other forms of institutionalized marginalization show dubious intent.)       But as praiseworthy as the organization is, I remain dubious of the paradigm it works within. So part of my intent in taking this internship was to see how urgencies are framed by the people behind a special improvement district. I’ve been disheartened and encouraged. I must admit there aren’t as many conversations around long-term sustainability as I think are necessary, but the office has been open to my annotations and critique. Ultimately, there’s only so much the NDD can do. Perhaps Newark must become commercially relevant before it catches the government’s eye, at which point it can move towards sustainable planning. But that strikes me as a precarious race against time… I’m en route to being a “super” senior on account of transferring from the University of Vermont, in Burlington. (I lost some credits during the transfer.) To date I have navigated the discipline with emphasis on the environmental. I was concerned, being a disaffected psychology student, with how inherited pathologies shape contemporary legacies. I saw “environmentalism” as a figment of the community’s imagination -- namely as the projected landscape divorced from the polis and its political will. As I understand it,  the “environment” is the word that people use to describe a virginal state of affairs. “How does the land look when entropy takes it course?” And how citizens see that unaffected place is a function of how their society reads the terrain which they inhabit. (Maps are political. Google maps establishes a different visual referent than a Mercator projection, than a Peters projection -- even when they all render the same longitudinal parcel.) And this referent has implications for how power gets articulated among certain patrons; power delineates the boundaries that separate domains, and vice versa. The boundaries that define which domains begin and end where, are a construct that delineate claims to power. The question of who has power where is one rooted in the colonial mode. This was my entrance into Bard EUS, by way of UVM’s psychology program.       En route to a Bachelor’s I’ve spent time with urban studies. EUS prerequisites and electives gave me the opportunity to re-contextualize the urban landscape. In the place of existential calculations around who wields residual imperial power: how do thoroughfares of commerce and transport shape “the environment?” Despite being a singular noun, it is worth noting that it refers to innumerable, fractured spaces of varying sizes. In this context, the “environment” is twofold:   1. “Natural” spaces that are not micromanaged by human societies 2. How the public conceives of those spaces Deleuze, Foucault, and Paul Virilio were particularly helpful for me. The colonized-colonist dichotomy was a useful beginning, but too bound up in its own metanarrative to account for quantifiable, material stocks and flows. My summer internship is giving me a run at practical application of these stated, heady lessons. I cannot thank the CCE enough for its Community Action Award. Without this grant, I would have been unable to absorb the cost of commuting, which amounts to $12 a day at the very least! (It can be as high as $20, based on the route I take.) Not to mention the homelessness situation I have encountered in this city far outpaces New York’s quotidian depravity, which leads me to give as much as I can when I can, multiple times a week. And seeing as to how those folks congregate around transportation hubs, commuting can cost more than $12 a day. I’ve learned more at this internship than I can address in one fell swoop, so I’ll save that for the next blog post. Hopefully, I can translate those lessons into my place in the Bard community – especially involving conversations around placemaking. Thanks again for this opportunity, and for indulging my spiel!