Ras Baraka addressed the city's issues, plus Donald Trump, Chris Christie and the media. Watch video
NEWARK -- Newark Mayor Ras Baraka's second "State of the City" address on Tuesday night took aim at the presidential race and the media, while emphasizing what he said were numerous positive strides Newark has made, despite a legacy of poverty.
3 takeaways from Newark's first state of the city speech
The event took place March 15 at 6 p.m. at the the New Jersey Performing Arts Center's Victoria Theatre.
While Baraka touched on many topics, here are six key aspects of the speech:
- Newark is adding counseling to policing, among other efforts to help troubled youth, and not alienate the community. While Baraka acknowledged a rash of killings, carjacking and shootings starting around March 2015, he said that "80 percent" of Newark's blocks did not experience a violent crime in a year, and most of the homicides in 2015 happened in the south and west wards. Because robberies, an "entry-level" crime, were generally carried out by 16-24 year olds, he said that for every 25 police officers hired, the city will hire a trained social worker to the robbery task force. He said he secured $1 million in grant funding for a crime reduction plan.
- Unemployment is a priority. According to Baraka, of 40 or more anchor stores in the city, Newarkers have only 18 percent of their jobs. He also said that Newark's 50,000 college students include a "woefully insufficient number" of Newarkers. He touted movements like the Newark City of Learning Collaborative, which he said has a goal to increase the number of residents with degrees from 17 to 25 percent by 2025. He said he is authoring legislation that will give payroll tax abatements to businesses with more than 50 percent Newarker employees. Also, he said he had given a $1 billion "comprehensive jobs plan" to create 17,000 jobs to the president and presidential candidates.
- He is pledging to improve services for residents. "We have to respond to every resident even if we can't help them," the mayor said. "Tonight I pledge to make a very visible improvement in that area." He also referred to a snow-plowing disaster this winter saying "I can't complain that we don't have (snow) trucks. I have to find a way to get some." He pledged to improve the response time of police and fire officials by revamping the entire communications department.
- His pet-peeves: namely Gov. Chris Christie, the Republican presidential race, and the media. He took aim at Donald Trump ("there is no king!") and Christie's Bridgegate scandal ("This is Newark, not Fort Lee, and you can't just stop traffic here without repercussions"). He also blamed the media for allegedly creating a false perception of Newark. Baraka said that a Newark's public magnate school's PARCC success was overlooked by "journalists trying to drive traffic to their sites." Murder coverage by The Star-Ledger and News 12 New Jersey was also a point of contention, since Baraka claimed the media chased Newark's violence but not its poverty.
- He thinks Newark should get back control of its schools, now. "Newark had more children in 'beating the odds' schools than many cities around the nation," Baraka claimed, both district and charter. "Though we are constantly forced to shoulder the blame for the performance of the district, it has not been under our control for 20 years." He said the governor gave Newark $27 million for its schools to offset the expansion of charters, and that Newark is creating "street academies" to for 16- to 24-year-olds who are not in school and unemployed.
- He wants Newark's downtown to be developed into a "24-hour community." He noted that the city broke ground on a development with a Whole Foods, and close to 1,000 units of residential space are under construction downtown.
Laura Herzog may be reached at lherzog@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @LauraHerzogL. Find NJ.com on Facebook