Cesar Melgar—“Razing history to make surface lots is a famous Newark administration pastime.”

 

by Sara Bissen

 

NEWARK WITHHELD

Newark Withheld is a series by Sara Bissen about Newark, New Jersey today, as seen through the eyes of its long-standing artists.

Opened by Kevin Blythe Sampson, Newark Withheld initiates a discussion by local artists in relation to the transformation of their city. This series extends from the photographic work of Cesar Melgar in Newark,[1] featured in the rural issue of the Journal of Biourbanism.[2]

 

ARTISTS

Kevin Blythe Sampson—“Newark is in danger because of its realness, power, and history.”

Gladys Barker Grauer—“Newark sensed it.”

Cesar Melgar—“Razing history to make surface lots is a famous Newark administration pastime.”

James Wilson—Newark, “when it’s your hood then you’ve never felt more at home.”

Manuel Acevedo—“In Newark, I can imagine a new building but in decay. The way I see it, the completion is relative.”

German Pitre—“Newark has always been known for that edginess.”

—a closing with Lauren Sampson

 

Interview with Cesar Melgar by Sara Bissen

When I met Cesar Melgar, I had a 35mm film camera that I had gotten in Turkey in my hands.

I had just returned from Istanbul after experiencing the overt urban uprisings of Gezi. But at the moment I met Cesar, I was looking for more subtle and hidden forms of resistance in relation to land and dispossession, during a time of urban decay.

It was October 2013 in Newark. Considering the high vacancy of this city, despite being located 20 minutes by train from downtown Manhattan, I was curious about life in the absence of dominant control.

I photographed the front of a shuttered, abandoned house that looked almost like a barn. Click, turn the film. With no introduction, Cesar asked me, “Are you a photographer?” In front of this house, I felt he could see something I could not. Such a feeling is something that would later tell me how much more he knows his city than those who talk about it, or make its future plans.

I answered yes. He asked, “What do you photograph?” Abandoned buildings. Cesar then inquired if I wanted to join him and his friends at a site of demolition—the Multiplex Cinema in industrial Ironbound.[3] Open for just 15 years, the Cinema was being torn down, and Cesar told me we could enter before it was gone.

The house sat in front of us with a cemetery behind. To the right, a chain link fence faced traffic from a main road. To the left, another house. This house doubled as an auto body shop, complete with a sign advertising its repair service. Parked vehicles were outside the front door, but the house had no lights on—all was quiet. A U.S. flag waved in the cool night air. The front door creaked open and voices followed. A Latino couple emerged and explained that the house was dark because there had been no electricity since March 2013. The City had closed off traffic to their street. Their repair shop dwindled since there were less cars to service. Infrastructure decisions, such as these made from above, often cut such vital sources to home—and at the root.[4][5] Unable to pay rent and electricity, the couple stayed, suggesting they kept arms in order to protect themselves, their home, and the land they inhabited. A lone city light shone above their house, presumably kept lit in monthly payment to the City—it was unclear if or how far the City intended to extend the energy grid to their house. Certain was that they had no heat, and the couple was prepared to stay despite the coming, cold winter.

From the Multiplex onwards—each abandoned historic building or closed factory that Cesar, his friends, and I entered in Newark was filled with soil. But seen from this house, and now heard from Melgar, the City’s practice of starving people at their root is not uncommon. Like many places today, Newark has chosen a “redevelopment strategy” per its most recent Master Plan (2012) titled Our City Our Future—to keep the system going full speed ahead. The concept and concentration of finance has created one face of Newark’s recent decay, while then turning to, and tightening, the redevelopment strategy dictated by “the other side.”[6] Until now, in this series, the reification of social relations has emerged with Kevin Blythe Sampson—“Newark is in danger because of its realness, power, and history.” Then, the pre-industrial, non-geographical Souths of the world has taken form with Gladys Barker Grauer—“Newark sensed it.” With Cesar Melgar, we see Newark as reality.

At times, Newark had appeared naked of capitalism—even though capitalism was eager to clothe it again.

Despite the huge cultural and geographical distance, Newark seems to have been undertaking the same polarized process I had just witnessed in Istanbul. The Housing Development Administration of Turkey (TOKİ), in fact, has been aggressively transforming Istanbul by renewing housing stock and making land values rise—one face of this being “destruction at the hands of the policy”—while the other, simultaneously implements a new urban model.[7] The logic that designs Istanbul is the same logic that designs Newark.[8] Although the result may look different, both change who we are—according to an abstract, financial value that has little to do with either cities’ character or sociality. Today, chances are that I would not have met Cesar in Newark in the ways I did three years ago. We had met through the cracks because we met in the ruins instead of a Starbucks—a time spent without money, consumption, or structural interface.

The symbolic character of contemporary capitalism seems in line with Newark’s current Master Plan and exposes the rhetoric of the City’s participatory planning process. It is true that people may be a relevant part of this process, but if money is still the most important base, then the results will speak rather about the structural truth. We prefer the image to the reality. For example, Kevin Blythe Sampson tells us, “now what we have is an “art scene” here in Newark. It’s more about the social aspects of the art world than actual good art making.”[9] The role of center stage played by finance creates such an effect, shaping the city into the concrete inversion of life. From Cesar, we hear about such transformation through his work—“Investors and big money are deciding Newark’s future” and “Now that outsiders are interested in Newark, gentrification is finally coming to accommodate them.” The City of Newark has written a plan, but Melgar will write the history:  “I want to record its spaces and its people before everyone is priced out and history repeats itself once again.”[10] Newark’s social relations are in ways incompatible with the system. Yet unlike the past, where the City could, in an obvious way, take land from citizens using eminent domain to build highways, the City can now take by giving—absorbing social relations into retail venues, transport hubs as human-circulated consumption, and disintegration. Time in Newark is both fast and slow, but irreversible. “Drastic changes occurring on Halsey Street, 2015” reads one of Melgar’s photographs—completely still.

In March 2014, I had once found a large pile of soil at the corner of Halsey and New Street. I stopped to collect a little of it, but unlike the soil I found in Newark’s abandoned buildings, this soil was unearthed for the latest development of the Prudential Financial Center—one in a chain of panoptical structures with a constant gaze throughout Newark’s core. In November 2016, Cesar was with his Father at the Prudential Arena. Melgar recalls, “the plot of land the arena sits on used to be a cemetery before they started constructing the never completed Renaissance Mall.”[11] The cemetery, initially moved because the City was building a train station, became a predecessor of the unfinished Renaissance Mall. Today, development still looks upon Halsey Street.[12]

“The neighborhood as we’ve known it is gone,” Melgar tells us.[13] In Newark, the razed homes cannot search for their owners. These are unlike the abandoned Finnish barnhouses of Casagrande & Rintala’s Land(e)scape that might have the possibility, with legs, to walk to the city where the farmers who inhabited them now live after abandoning the soil.[14] We may not know what happens when Newark’s people, soil, and neighborhoods are gone, but we do know what is said beyond the opening pages of Newark’s Master Plan. Newark’s redevelopment project as marketing strategy becomes clear: “Underpinning  all  of  the  challenges  facing  Newark  is  a lingering perception by individuals and businesses alike that Newark is not  an attractive  place  to establish  a  business,  raise  a  family,  or have a meal. In spite of the city’s many assets, they are too often overshadowed by past perceptions. Efforts to enhance Newark’s image in the public eye must be continued. Newark should strive to  become  visible  for  all  that  it  is  achieving  today and  in  the future,  ensuring  that  investors,  corporate  decision  makers,  and developers are aware of and understand the impact of Newark’s transformation.”[15]

Melgar discusses areas of Newark that are part of this 2012 Master Plan. According to the Plan, Newark Penn Station and the Central and East Wards highlight “a number of assets that the City can leverage to foster an environment of economic growth” such as “the downtown core, where there are more than 20 acres of developable land within a half-mile of Penn Station.”[16] One key, overarching goal of the Plan is to “transform the downtown into a 24/7 regional destination to live, work, shop, and play.”[17] One key real estate developer that is “recognized as an institution in Newark’s revitalization,” the Newark-based Berger Organization, shares the same “strategic foresight” as the City—in that it will “benefit the future” of a Newark “poised for continued urban repositioning”—and is therefore in the process of “targeting residential and transit-oriented mixed-use development projects to further elevate its status as a true 24/7 destination city.”[18]

Downtown Halsey Street, known as a haven for artists, “has begun to attract some high-quality retail tenants that in the past may not have considered it a viable market.”[19] Of this market, “the City will identify retail strengths in similar urban college towns, such as Providence, Rhode Island.”[20] The City has stated, “while there is already comparatively dense retail along Halsey Street, the quality of this retail is generally substandard” yet, it is “more challenging to transform existing retail character when a set of tenants are already embedded in the area.”[21]

The former Seth Boyden Housing Project[22] is now meant to emphasize new transportation links. The PATH (Port Authority Trans-Hudson) “transit village” will replace the housing complex with Port Authority Board approved funding for PATH rail connection from Newark Penn Station—“providing a one seat connection” from lower Manhattan to Newark Liberty International Airport in Newark’s South Ward.[23]

There is desire to close the Terrell Homes, the historical social housing complex[24] near an overarching Newark Riverfront Revival from the Riverfront Public Access and Redevelopment Plan.[25] In 2012, while Phase 1 of the $8.6 million Newark Riverfront Park (3.0 acres) was being completed,[26] the City claimed Newark was “alienated from the water in almost every way. Along the downtown shore, as visions of large-scale private development have remained unrealized, public lands have gone unimproved…”.[27] On the other hand, some of the 240 families that live there recounted their memories in a “short walk to and from Riverfront Park,” a backyard where residents are now “saddened that they’re not going to be around to enjoy it.”[28] The Newark Housing Authority cites it would cost $60 million to get the Terrell Homes up to code, and that residents can no longer live under such conditions. But long-standing inhabitants speak of “a time when residents didn’t have to lock their doors” and say it “wouldn’t feel right going someplace else.”[29] Meanwhile, annually estimated maintenance costs for new riverfront parks are $80,000 per acre.[30] Knowingly and openly, the City says in its exploration of using “real estate value recapture mechanisms” that “parks can increase the value of proximate real estate—residential or  commercial—because  they  provide  tangible  benefits  to local residents and other users. Higher real estate values result in  increased  local  tax  revenues,  which  can  be  used  for  park maintenance or any other municipal service.”[31] It is interesting that the City has chosen to revive the Riverfront and restore historic buildings such as the Hahne and the Griffith, but finds it necessary to remove the Terrell Homes because it would cost too much to repair—while otherwise becoming a potential “eye-sore.”

The Hahne, previously an upscale retail center, is now restored after being closed since 1987. The building re-opened in January 2017, financed at $174 million with support from Goldman Sachs, Prudential Financial (roughly $50 million), and Citi Community Capital.[32] The Griffith, home to the former Griffith Piano Company, will soon be a hotel property.[33] A once productive place within Newark shows signs that fabrication attracts a desired reproduction, coming from outside.

The photographic work of Cesar Melgar foresees how Newark might look without its people. Places photographed by Melgar are really less about the past—even though they are steeped in what is now gone. Rather, Melgar’s work is from Newark’s buildings to its streets, and more about Newark’s neighborhoods and its people. It questions what lies around the corner for Newark—facing a Plan that in an attempt to make everything visible shows the viciously hidden parts of itself. Melgar’s work is an act of denunciation. The unearthed soil I collected in 2014 was void of life. It seems that the subject of Melgar’s photographs is emptiness—but in reality, it is full because Melgar’s soul comes through the lens. Generations later, he holds what Gladys Barker Grauer said of Newark artists in 1971—“There was a void and we filled that void.”[34]

Melgar’s work is not flat nor fragmented—he holds a way through. I may have met Cesar in my own search for a reality in the urban—something I feel as rural and pushes against such dominant powers. The mechanisms of scale and speed may overshadow life in Newark, but soil moves in and around the structures that obstruct it. In an attempt to make Newark useless, financial powers prove that Newark is exactly what they need.

On some level, the search for reality means there is something increasingly uncomfortable that we feel in cities that are not in decay. There now seems to be hope that consumption will bring the realness. For Melgar, people coming to Newark are “on a quest for authenticity.”[35] The search for what is real becomes a search for consumption—a consumption of reality.

SB: Can you talk more about the changes you’ve seen in Newark? What kind of transformation is happening on Halsey Street? What is the process that you see between decay and development?

CM: As a result of soaring housing costs in the NYC area, redevelopment is underway in Newark—particularly the area around Newark Penn Station, which is the Central and East Wards. There are also projects going on in the other Wards, but the main focus is near the transit hub. Halsey Street, which is historically home to many artists is gentrifying at a rapid pace. Basically, if it is near the train, it’s going to get developed. Landmark buildings like the Hahne and the Griffith are coming back to their former glory, before white flight. Recently, the City and Port Authority approved extending the Path Train line into the South Ward, near the airport, which is a very big deal. One of the stations will be built where the Seth Boyden housing projects used to sit.

SB: In your experience, is there a point where decay opens a door for life to emerge? Or, does it tend to lead to a fall, a collapse of life? While living in Newark, I was once told the city is in a kind of “purgatory.” I interpret this as something that is held in suspension—tethered to never-ending cycles of development. What do you think?

CM: Decay opens a door for life to emerge only and if only you are able to turn a profit. Vacant buildings that have sat for decades are becoming luxury homes. I don’t think the people are in purgatory, some yes. There is an energy here. I think Newark is only in purgatory from a developer’s point of view… it is out of stasis now because gentrification is the new global phenomenon. They aren’t developing the city out of the goodness of their hearts.

SB: Tell me more about the buildings and spaces you photograph. What’s their story? In entering these places, some of which are abandoned, what voice emerges from the Wards (especially the Central and East, which you have documented)?

CM: When I first started photographing, I was simply exploring my neighborhood with my friends as eminent domain was forcing neighbors to pack up and leave so the area could be razed and turned into a surface parking lot. Razing history to make surface lots is a famous Newark administration pastime. A lot of the spaces I entered—I’d remember the faces of the people that used to live there. People from so many different ethnicities lived in my neighborhood. Homeowners, tenants, good people who kept their neighborhood vibrant and looked out for one another. One of these buildings was actually an art center. It was my first real art experience—very formative years. Artists from all over the world would come visit. Some of the buildings downtown were places that had been abandoned before I was born. Some of these spaces have been closed since the Newark uprising, a result of skyrocketing insurance rates. I even had a chance to explore the Renaissance Mall before that was leveled. That one had me thinking of “what could have been.”

SB: In The Gulag Archipelago, Solzhenitsyn writes a note about a suitcase:  “(I still have that suitcase, and even now when I chance to come upon it, I run my fingers around the hole torn in it. It is a wound which cannot heal as wounds heal on bodies or on hearts. Things have longer memories than people).”[36] What about memory—and decay vs. demolition?

CM: When something is in a state of decay it’s there but not really. You see it every day, and you might have experiences tied to that, positive, or negative. When something is truly gone, all you have is a memory, a photo, or a knick knack. Some people have told me there was nothing here before all this development. That’s so far from the truth. There were a lot of things here in my youth, it’s that it was all leveled to make space for parked vehicles.

SB: Why is Newark important to you? Why do you stay?

CM: Newark helped shape who I am today 100%. I wouldn’t take anything back. I stay here because I still love it here, I am proud. This city inspires me. I love my friends who have become my family. I’m lucky to be friends and learn from incredibly talented artists. I have access to go anywhere from here. Access is what makes Newark very desirable now. It’s what they sell to anyone looking to move here:  “20 minutes to NYC.”

SB: Are there ways in which political power doesn’t reproduce itself in Newark? Or, if the urban is filled with more urban, are there bound to be cracks?

CM: Where there is man, there will be a crack or two.

SB: You’re an interdisciplinary artist. Can you talk more about your work beyond photography, and how it relates to Newark?

CM: Drawing and painting have been my foundation before I started photographing. At this point in my life, my non-photography work is very much still life, and studies. I’m still trying to figure out what I’d like to do with it, and wish to start making a body of work this year. I have made drawings that touch on issues that go beyond Newark such as immigration. There is a particular piece I did years ago that got positive reaction out of people and I think it has taken on a new meaning with the recent election.

SB: Can you tell me about some of the people you’ve photographed?

CM: Some of the people I have photographed were a result of a random exchange on the street—either they are curious about the camera and what I’m pointing it at, or I am curious about them. However, for the majority of the people I’ve shot, it is without an exchange. At this moment, I much prefer shooting scenes that have people in them than just straight portraiture. The photos speak more for them than what I can tell you about them.

SB: How do you support the freedom of your art? How do you make a living?

CM: Currently, I hold a job fixing security equipment. It’s not taxing on my mind and body and the schedule is flexible enough to allow me to live and make art. I love to fix things so it’s like play to me. I’m obsessed with computers—I’ve been building, breaking, and fixing them since my youth. I also do commercial art (posters, product packaging, and handmade signage).

SB: In what ways is Newark becoming more exclusive? As an artist, how are you sensitive to this?

CM: Gentrification is class exclusive in its very nature. People gentrifying a neighborhood are not going to tolerate or patronize the types of businesses that the indigenous residents are used to. They’re not going to send their children to public schools. They’re not going to appreciate the Mr. Softee jingle or the House music blasting downtown. You need to curtail culture and sort of “wash” everything. Safety finally needs to be addressed so there is a more aggressive police presence. The infrastructure is being built, Whole Foods, the bike lanes, etc. You’re not going to get the dramatic change you want unless the infrastructure newcomers demand is there. There used to be a Starbucks downtown but it did not survive then—another one reopened recently and this time around, it will thrive.

I really feel for people who were here when the things were rough, holding down the fort, who might one day not be able to live here anymore. Don’t get me wrong, Newark needs new life, but there must be policies in place to protect small businesses and housing for people who remain here so they too can reap the benefits of redevelopment. There are residual benefits for everyone but at what cost? You can’t just replace people and say that—“The city is doing well now. Look at all this progress.” I’m not only an artist, but a resident experiencing this, my friends and family are experiencing this.

They’re trying to close down the Terrell Homes because it’s close to the newly developed Passaic Riverfront. There’s money to be made on that land and you’re in the damn way. So they’ll starve you, they’ll starve you of resources, they’ll make it unbearable to live there. This is all carefully calculated.

SB: You have mentioned people, especially creative types, are flooding Newark because of lower rents. Newark is cheaper than NYC. It seems that besides being less expensive, there’s another interest in narratives—a desire for outsiders to collect narratives—but does this actually touch reality? It seems that this too, gives space to newcomers. Who benefits? How does your work realize Newark and touch reality?

CM: Newark has a very deep and rich history. People are curious about that and many galleries curate shows around the history of Newark. I think it depends on your perspective whether it touches reality or not. Newark has a reputation. That’s exciting to some people.

I remember one day while painting a mural on the side of an old building some guy popped out of an abandoned neighbor’s home. He was an artist who recently moved to the city, ruffling through the remnants of my neighbor’s house, collecting material to build sculptures. What could he possibly say through his sculptures while appropriating the remnants of people that are victims of eminent domain? Sculptors like Kevin Sampson, when traveling to new places, do their research, get to know the community, pay their respect—before acquiring the objects to create their pieces.

 

Photography by Cesar Melgar is at Supapoupon in “original photographs of life in Newark, NJ, USA.”[37]

Melgar’s work is featured in “The 5 Wards”—a group exhibition curated by Akintola Hanif, first opened at City Without Walls, and now on view at the Seton Hall University of Law through April 30, 2017—both in Newark.

More on Cesar Melgar can be found in the Design Observer, “Stalking Brick City” by John Foster.

Footnotes:

[1] Melgar, C. (2016). Newark. Journal of Biourbanism, IV(1&2/2015), 13−15.

[2] Melgar, C. (2016). Newark [All Issue Photography]. Journal of Biourbanism, IV(1&2/2015).

[3] The Multiplex Cinema in Ironbound was located at 104 Foundry Street.

[4] Neuwirth, R. (2017). Housing as a Verb—A Critique of Habitat III’s New Urban Agenda. (Interview by S. Bissen). Journal of Biourbanism, V(1&2/2016). [In print]

[5] Casagrande, M. (2016). From Urban Acupuncture to the Third Generation City. Journal of Biourbanism, IV(1&2/2015), 29−42.

[6] Serafini, S. (2016). Walked From the Other Side. Journal of Biourbanism, IV(1&2/2015), 103−104.

[7] Logie, S. & Morvan, Y. (2014, December 4). (Un)-building the Metropolis:  Istanbul at the Age of “Urban Transformation”. Noria. Retrieved from http://www.noria-research.com/un-building-the-metropolis-istanbul-in-the-age-of-urban-transformation/#_ftn1 See also Morvan, Y. & Logie, S. (2014). Istanbul 2023. Paris:  Les Éditions B2.

[8] Bissen, S. (2016). Editor’s Note. Journal of Biourbanism, IV(1&2/2015), 8.

[9] Sampson, K. B. (2017, January 15). Kevin Blythe Sampson—“Newark is in danger because of its realness, power, and history.” (Interview by S. Bissen). International Society of Biourbanism. Retrieved from https://www.biourbanism.org/kevin-blythe-sampson-newark-danger-realness-power-history/

[10] Melgar, C. (2016). Newark. Journal of Biourbanism, IV(1&2/2015), 13.

[11] Melgar, in conversation with his Father. For more information on the cemetery that existed prior to the train station and never completed Renaissance Mall, see Geisheimer, G. G. (2017). Newark cemeteries: Old Newark. Retrieved from http://newarkcemeteries.com/oldburying.php

[12] Kofsky, J. (2016, September 19). Development projects sprout up along Halsey Street in Newark. Jersey Digs. Retrieved from https://jerseydigs.com/development-projects-along-halsey-street-newark/

[13] Melgar, C. (2016). Newark. Journal of Biourbanism, IV(1&2/2015), 13.

[14] See the work of M. Casagrande & S. Rintala in Slessor, C. (1999 December). Burning Passion. The Architectural Review, 12. Retrieved November 2016 from http://www.casagrandelaboratory.com/portfolio/landescape/

[15] See 03 Business & Industry from Overview:  “Lack of Awareness of Newark’s Assets.” The Newark Central Planning Board. (2012, September 24). Newark’s master plan:  Our city our future (Vol. 1, p. 38). City of Newark:  Office of Planning, Zoning & Sustainability. Retrieved from https://ndex.ci.newark.nj.us/dsweb/Get/Document-515469/econ_MstrPlan_2012_vol2.pdf

[16] Ibidem, pp. 36−37.

[17] See 03 Business & Industry from Strategies and Actions:  “02. Downtown.” Ibidem, p. 50.

[18] Further, the Berger Organization states it “has been instrumental in [Newark’s] renaissance during the past 32 years and was among the first to anticipate its revitalization as a destination of choice for business, shopping, dining, entertainment, sports and culture.” Berger Organization, LLC. (2016). Retrieved from http://www.bergerorg.com/aboutus.htm New York City-based Cogswell Realty has also been influential through joint ventures in Newark aimed to “fill a void for much-needed quality housing in downtown Newark” through “aggressive and successful marketing and leasing” such as Eleven80 in 2006. Cogswell Reality, LLC. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://cogswellrealty.com/

[19] See “Appendix A:  Newark’s Downtown Retail Development Strategy.” Ibidem, p. 61.

[20] See “Priority Actions:  Strategy 1” for “Retailer Attraction and Tenant Recruitment:  1.1. Proactively target retailers that are active in comparable downtown markets and sub-markets, and demonstrate Newark’s market similarities and reasoning that a similar strategy would be successful in Newark.” Ibidem, p. 63.

[21] See “Target Markets” for “Halsey Street:  Opportunities and Constraints.” Ibidem, p. 62.

[22] For Seth Boyden (on Frelinghuysen Avenue at Haynes) in Newark’s master plan:  Our city our future (Vol. 1) see 04 Housing in Strategies and Actions:  “03. Rehabilitation” for “Strategy 3.2: Continue to rehabilitate substandard public housing,” which states “in 2007, when NHA undertook a comprehensive physical needs assessment of its housing stock, it identified more than $500 million dollars in deferred maintenance costs. Issues range from serious (e.g., leaky roofs, HVAC repairs, elevator service) to longer term (e.g., exterior “spruce ups” and facilities planning). While the agency developed a 20-year capital plan to address these issues, over one third of NHA’s housing stock consists of old low-rise units with undersized rooms, poor layouts, and design issues that cannot immediately be rectified with capital improvement funds. Many of these buildings, including those constructed in the 1940s, are in need of total replacement, including Bradley Court, Stephen Crane Villas, Seth Boyden, and others. NHA [Newark Housing Authority] intends to demolish and redevelop these properties as funds become available.” Ibidem, p. 87.

[23] RLS Media. (2017, January 5). Former Newark Seth Boyden housing project complex to become PATH station village. Retrieved from https://www.rlsmedia.com/article/former-newark-seth-boyden-housing-projects-become-path-station-village

[24] Built in 1946, the Millard E. Terrell Homes are located near the Passaic River on Riverview Court. See also Newark Housing Authority. Retrieved from http://www.newarkha.org/NHA_DidYouKnow.php

[25] In Newark’s master plan:  Our city our future (Vol. 1) see 06 Parks & Natural Resources from Strategies and Actions:  “01. Neighborhood Parks” for “Strategy 1.5:  Employ incentive zoning in target areas (where greater density is encouraged) to involve the private sector in creating public open space” and “02. Regional Parks and Greenways.” Ibidem, pp. 141−143.

[26] See Figure 6.4 “Priority Capital Projects for City-Owned Parks Newark, NJ, 2012−2025.” Ibidem, p. 138. Newark Riverfront Park Phase 2 is estimated at $5 million for 4.0 acres.

[27] See 04 Housing from Strategies and Actions for “Strategy 1.3:  Redevelop properties downtown in support of a residential, mixed-income, mixed-use, regional urban center” at “1.3.2 Promote new housing along lands adjacent to McCarter Highway and the Passaic riverfront in the downtown.” Ibidem, p. 77.

[28] Carter, B. (2016, September 27). Homes may not be so sweet anymore at Newark’s Terrell Homes. NJ.com. Retrieved from
http://www.nj.com/essex/index.ssf/2016/09/home_may_not_be_so_sweet_anymore_at_newarks_terrel.html

[29] Ibidem.

[30] See 06 Parks & Natural Resources from Strategies and Actions:  “03. Stewardship” for “Strategy 3.2:  Ensure sufficient, dedicated funding and resources to maintain parks and recreational facilities,” citing the Regional Plan Association’s (2009 August) Practices for Newark’s Riverfront:  “In 2009, one study estimated that annual maintenance and operations for Newark’s new riverfront parks (one phase of which is currently under construction) could be expected to cost as much as $80,000 per acre.” Ibidem, p. 146.

[31] See “3.2.2 Explore the use of real estate value recapture mechanisms to create dedicated revenue streams.” Ibidem, p. 147.

[32] Hahne & Co. is located at 50 Halsey Street. Strunsky, S. (2017, January 24). Hahne’s building opening celebrated as a sign of Newark’s rebirth. NJ.com. Retrieved from http://www.nj.com/essex/index.ssf/2017/01/hahnes_ribbon_cutting_in_newark_1.html The building was redeveloped by L+M Development Partners, Prudential, and Goldman Sachs. See also Hahne & Co. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://54.83.26.143/staging.hahne.e2logy/ and Hahne & Co.:  Newark, New Jersey. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.hahnesnewark.com/

[33] The Griffith Building, built in 1927, is located at 605–607 Broad Street. Berger Organization, LLC. (2016). Retrieved from http://www.bergerorg.com/griffithbuilding.htm

[34] Grauer, G. B. (2017, February 1). Gladys Barker Grauer—“Newark sensed it.” (Interview by S. Bissen). International Society of Biourbanism. Retrieved from https://www.biourbanism.org/gladys-barker-grauer-newark-sensed/

[35] Melgar, C. (2016). Newark. Journal of Biourbanism, IV(1&2/2015), 13.

[36] Solzhenitsyn, A. I. (1973). The Gulag archipelago 1918–1956:  An experiment in literary
investigation I–II. (T. P. Whitney, Trans.). (p. 524). New York: Harper & Row.

[37] C Melgar. (2017). Supapoupon:  Original photographs of life in Newark, NJ, USA. Retrieved from http://supapoupon.tumblr.com/

For further study, see: Newark—on Heterogenesis of Urban Decay