This is too funny!
Trapped in an elevator with Booker
5:02 p.m. - Whenever he talks about troubles at his home, Brick Towers, candidate Cory Booker often mentions the lack of heat and hot water at the housing project.
He forgot to mention the elevators.
Today, during a ride up the to his 16th floor, the elevator got stuck -- on the second floor. Trapped inside the elevator was Booker, Jermaine James, spokeswoman Sakina Spruell-Cole, two aides, this reporter and Star-Ledger photographer Jennifer Brown.
Booker continually pressed a number of buttons and the elevator budged upward.
And then stopped again, this time around the 8th floor. More buttons were pressed and the doors slid open. Booker barked for James and his aide, Lena, to leave the elevator to lighten the load.
The two looked like they just won the lottery. They bolted.
Onward. The rest of the ride was a torturous, bumpy trip up to the 16th floor. The elevator moved up half a floor and then stopped abruptly, jolting the remaining passengers. Did we mention the stink of urine?
Finally, the elevator stopped at the 15th floor and offered no signs of life. Booker and his driver Jimmy tried to pry the door open. The doors finally creaked open, in that horror movie kind of way, and everyone got out to walk the remaining flight.
Getting back down was no trip either. Waiting in the dimly lit hallway, Cole pressed the elevator button repeatedly for a good 20 minutes, while the rest of us tried to figure out which set of stairs had less fecal matter to walk by.
Suddenly there was a noise - the sound of pounding steps coming up the stairs. And then emerged a breathless Damien Cave, the New York Times reporter. Cave, if you recall visited Booker the previous night, interrupting his dinner.
He was back again, having scaled six floors (the elevator got stuck in the 10th floor) to see Booker.
Instead of getting an apartment tour (Booker also denied The Star-Ledger access to his apartment), Cave and the rest of the group walked down 16 flights of stairs, past the garbage, mounds of feces and an unidentified resident, dressed in a denim jacket and sunglasses, hanging out in the 8th floor landing.
Contributed by Katie Wang
Buildings require electrical service, heat/air conditioning, cleaning and elevator service. Are those impossible goals? Talk about poor people being made to feel no sense of entitlement! This is internecine racism of low expectations being perpetrated on poor people. Let them eat turkey sammiches...
The buildings are bad because the people who run the building have allowed them to become bad. No more. They are far more sturdy than the townhouses proposed to replace them. Fix Brick Towers, screen the tenants and encourage families of all income groups to live there. (Perhaps sell some units as condominiums.) This would be far better than blowing them up. Further, the proposed townhouses won't have as many units available as those buildings contain. This reduction in affordable housing is whose responsibility?
The buildings need to be saved and converted to mix-income projects like those in New York City. Provide screening, security and services instead of creating false choices.
What was the name of the NHA developer who had ties with Rice, Sr. Gomez-he had no experience what so ever, but somehow was able to build on NHA land. Its a sham-wake up people.
Back to the displacing of low income people- they have been trying to move the poor out of Nwk for sometime. Tucker was always telling us how we were destroying more low-income housing units than rebuilding.
Now you have peopel tripling up in one unit-its sad.
meteror ? - what is this??? I was good up until this!!! What are you trying to say???
back to topic - The people are living there because they are afraid of change!!! It is not on Cory to write citations because the buildings are unsanitary - it is the city. Who maintains the buildings NHA - not Cory. How is it EVERYONE blames Cory for things that fall under SHARPE JAMES!!! Okay if Cory made promises who the hel! cares our mayor (sorry, your mayor) runs the show!!! HE IS THE ONE WITH THE POWER TO TRANSFORM BRICK TOWERS INTO A GEM IN NEWARK!!! Not someone without any power (at this time). AKA, stuff it... I am so tired of the Booker bashing when you openly support the mayor and you never say a word about him and his blatant disservice to the people of Newark... Talk with any tenant of NHA and hear there horror stories and then get back to me about Sharpe... not Booker!
Wow, I had two cups of coffee already... I am buzzing :D
That's not funny at all. It's horrible. You know what? The administration is probably right: Those buildings should be evacuated ASAP. Hey, if that happens, then Cory might hold the distinction of being the first EVER homeless person elected mayor. Can someone fact check that for me?
Brick Towers should have been blown up years ago.
Welcome back Lucy Lou keep standing Tall.
Now let's look at the time of her post to clarify once again that I am not Lucy Lou she posted at 11:30 or some time around then, you can look and see when she posted yourself.
Now on the other hand at around the time she posted I was a a Funeral at Wighams for Rahjahn Johnson Thomas, the 6 year old who died in the fire on Ridgewood, I am the Family worker for his family, he attended Young people's Institute for Learning graduated last year and this year he started Clinton Ave Elementary.
His brother Amir attend young people's now, he is in our 4th grade class and I know the family personally, seen them everyday before the fire, and Rahjahn attended our Black History Month Program along with other family members to watch Amir sing Lift Every Voice and sing with his classmates, you seen it on Channel 12:D
I also have been working daily with Tiarrah the Mother getting them clothes, finances , and have spoken with the Hotel where they are staying to get them more time, they was supposed to be out today, but we now have more time.
Not to mention that I also presented the Mother with a Resoultion at the funeral today and gave words of encouragement and remarks.
This is not about me so don't get it Twisted I just want Pro to know that It could not have been me posting under Lucy Lou, Because I was-------- Taken Care of Bussiness.
So please don't try to get others to think I am Lucy Lou:D :D
If you don't believe me then somebody on this site was their, hundreds attended funeral ask them!
Have a Nice Day
That's my story, and I'm sticking to It
d
I really wish for a day in this city where the right thing will be done simply because it's right.
And you're right about how people get permanently displaced although they were promised first dibs on a new townhouse, etc.
A lot of those particleboard, two-family homes have sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars in worst locations. The problem is not the towers in and of themselves.
There are scant affordable choices left in the close-in metropolitan area. That's why Newark will be rebuilt regardless. There must be some feasible way to use those structures instead of building cheek-to-jowl flimsy townhouses that will quickly end up in a similar state of disrepair.
What is so great about tearing down 16-story towers with views that could be redone and remarketed?
I really wish for a day in this city where the right thing will be done simply because it's right.
And you're right about how people get permanently displaced although they were promised first dibs on a new townhouse, etc.
IT'S OBVIOUS THAT THE ADMINISTRATION DON'T CARE ABOUT THESE PEOPLE, IF THEY DID THEY WOULD HAVE RECTIFIED THE SITUATION ALONG TIME AGO. THE POOR BECOMES POORER AND ARE ALWAYS OVERLOOKED!
SOMEONE MENTION EARLIER, THE CONDITIONS IN SOME OF THE PRECINCTS....IM SURE YOU SMELL AND BECOME ANNOYED WITH THE STINGE AROUND YOU. THE RESTROOMS ARE ATROCIOUS. WHY WEREN'T THOSE BUILDINGS RENOVATED......
They were talking demolition years ago and the residents fought hard against it... just like other NHA properties. what they do is squander the budget for projoect and never do any maintenance and subsequently the houses wear down... conditions become deplorable and then NHA petitions to HUD to knowck them down... happens all the time. Look at the townhouses on Quitman St :mad:
A lot of those particleboard, two-family homes have sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars in worst locations. The problem is not the towers in and of themselves.
There are scant affordable choices left in the close-in metropolitan area. That's why Newark will be rebuilt regardless. There must be some feasible way to use those structures instead of building cheek-to-jowl flimsy townhouses that will quickly end up in a similar state of disrepair.
What is so great about tearing down 16-story towers with views that could be redone and remarketed?
They always say the tenants will be relocated and placed back in when things are upgraded... how many tenants that were moved out of Prince are now back on Prince in the new townhouse... same for 17th avenue... same for hill manor site.. same for grafton and so forth and so on...
The money it will take to redo the building is and has been in the budget.. wasting away! Think about it.. the money allotted for cleaning, maintenance and security has not been used for YEARS!!! where is the money and why is it not building over time to REPAIR the building...
Prince Street Projects were “structurally sound,” but they produced a modern dystopia. Stacking hundreds of low-income, undereducated families and children on top of each other feeds the culture of poverty (COP). And at the end of the day, MNC, the issue isn’t about housing; it’s about finding a balance that can support Newarkers. Simply put, there just aren’t enough local jobs to integrate these people into the workforce. Why would you continue to house people where there are no jobs? These high rise projects function to uphold the long-standing history of segregation, except today, they produce social and economic isolation. Monetary poverty breeds the culture of poverty – especially when you don’t have strong leadership.
The federal Department of Labor has labeled Newark a “LABOR SURPLUS AREA.” Do you understand what that means, bro? It means that EVEN IF every Newarker wanted to get a job, they couldn’t. It also means that, theoretically, Newarkers – by being stacked next to each other in this fashion – function to suppress each others’ wages. Newark has been a labor surplus area for as long as I can remember.
So you see, MNC, the problem isn’t just affordable housing; the problem is that affordable housing is a byproduct of an economic system of having a workforce spatially displaced from the market. There are jobs in NJ that go begging; they’re located about 35 to 45 minutes South & West of Newark. By Newark continuing to take these segregation fee payments, we are participating in maintaining this displaced labor system.
The next time someone raises the issue of affordable housing, you should make sure they also address the subject of jobs. The reason they need the “affordable housing” in the first place is because of low-income, low education attainment, and frankly, a subculture energized by poverty that functions to make things worse. You see all the elements of COP on a daily basis from the clothes these people wear, to their dialect – that is English they’re still speaking, right?
Until we acknowledge and learn to fear the Culture of Poverty, and until we garner the political will to significantly restructure our population, as well as fight the COP in a disciplined way, we will continue to be overrun by these issues.
Serving the poor is something that should be done by the State of New Jersey and the United States’ federal government. It is NOT the responsibility of a municipal government. Municipal governments don’t have the resources, expertise, and in many cases, the legal jurisdiction to combat the multiple problems of poverty in a meaningful way.
Now should Newark do its fair share for the poor? He11 yes! Should Newark be doing 5 TIMES its fair share? He11 friggin no! It’s not Newark’s responsibility to save the world; and frankly, Newark needs to stop being this State’s toilet tissue. We’ve been this State’s dumping ground for far too long. It’s about time we give those clowns in Trenton the finger.
You could apply this to Newark.
http://www.brookings.edu/metro/pubs/20050214_jobsprawl.htm
Correct me if I'm wrong, but weren't the Brick Towers built under the same program that the Colonnades and Pavilion apartments were built? Weren't they meant to be mixed-income buildings? There's no reason today why they still couldn't be. They are good, solid buildings much better than those cheap townhouses. And couldn't the same be said about them in terms of the poor living cheek to jowl horizontally as opposed to up in the air?
Anyway, I supported to the demolition of the old-style projects even though, again, perhaps some sort of adaptive re-use was never properly considered for them.
Any mayor who wants to improve Newark will have to displace poor people. The city needs more higher income residents. That's just calling it what it is. And that's what is better for Newark as a municipal entity with immutable boundaries. As we have discussed earlier, over the years, both here and on NJ Online, Newark has become a sink for the poor. Now, the politican cannot say he's got to move out poor black folks, but he must.
The greatest story almost never told is the dire conditions of many black people in this country, especially black men. I was surprised that the NY Times recently gave this subject front-page treatment. This story should be on the news everyday.
I'll answer more later... got to get back to work
:)
It just seems that tearing down sound buildings is a waste of money. Especially, Brick Towers, which are not the same as the old project buildings. They can be made nice if they are maintained, secured and people who care are encouraged to live there.
Are those buildings so far gone that they must be dynamited? Those pictures show that there is definitely work needed.
How is blowing up buildings and building cheek-to-jowl townhouses with the same lack-of-income "mix" going to make things better? It won't even result in reducing the number of poor people because Brick Towers is already mostly emptied.
With murder and near-murder on the way up in the city, apparently the townhouses have not had any desired effect on criminality.
Much of Newark is going to have to be revamped for upper income because you cannot annex towns easily in New Jersey. There needs to be a mix of people within these 23.5 square miles. And, true, the jobs aren't here to support the amount of poor in the city and logically that would have a depressing effect on the salaries. Heck, too much immigration has a depressing effect on salaries even, to be fair, many immigrants reinvograte cities like Newark.
5, I know that in the past you stated that your ideal Newark would be one of single-family homes in gated communities--sort of a suburbanization of the city. I think that Newark could use a few non-gated communities of mixed and moderate to upper incomes.
Brick Towers has beautiful views and the buildings are solid. Granted, the neighborhood is still dangerous, but you got to start somewhere. Those buildings should be donated to any entity that can bring them up to snuff and encourage working people to live there while setting aside if necessary some of the units for the intractably poor.
What was it, I think back in 1988, when they were building some of those townhouses in the central ward and a gale blew down all the construction. Anybody remember that?
It just seems that tearing down sound buildings is a waste of money. Especially, Brick Towers, which are not the same as the old project buildings. They can be made nice if they are maintained, secured and people who care are encouraged to live there.
Are those buildings so far gone that they must be dynamited? Those pictures show that there is definitely work needed.
How is blowing up buildings and building cheek-to-jowl townhouses with the same lack-of-income "mix" going to make things better? It won't even result in reducing the number of poor people because Brick Towers is already mostly emptied.
With murder and near-murder on the way up in the city, apparently the townhouses have not had any desired effect on criminality.
Much of Newark is going to have to be revamped for upper income because you cannot annex towns easily in New Jersey. There needs to be a mix of people within these 23.5 square miles. And, true, the jobs aren't here to support the amount of poor in the city and logically that would have a depressing effect on the salaries. Heck, too much immigration has a depressing effect on salaries even, to be fair, many immigrants reinvograte cities like Newark.
5, I know that in the past you stated that your ideal Newark would be one of single-family homes in gated communities--sort of a suburbanization of the city. I think that Newark could use a few non-gated communities of mixed and moderate to upper incomes.
Brick Towers has beautiful views and the buildings are solid. Granted, the neighborhood is still dangerous, but you got to start somewhere. Those buildings should be donated to any entity that can bring them up to snuff and encourage working people to live there while setting aside if necessary some of the units for the intractably poor.
What was it, I think back in 1988, when they were building some of those townhouses in the central ward and a gale blew down all the construction. Anybody remember that?
The reason for tearing them down is quite clear. Maybe they are getting ready for a "whiter" Newark, so the building would not fit into the decor.. so to speak. As for the conditions...... DISGUSTING.. to say the least! It is a disgrace having people especially seniors and the disable.....who probably were Sharpe supporters live under those conditions. Those families should have be displaced long before BOOKER moved in!! As for revitalizing it.....Why?? Unless you can clean up the neigborhood first.......drug dealers, gang bangers, etc etc.......I seriously doubt someone who works hard would even consider it.
Lucy: I agree with your solution!......My question is, how do you know that Booker lied? Were you there? Perhaps he tried to seek a developer and just maybe it wasn't approved by the mayor. However, the mere fact that he would live there does say something about his character and concern for those people........
I remember that... The debris was flying all through the streets... those townhouses were very "pretty" but wasn't worth a darn :p I wonder who was the contractor on those...
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