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Home > Government > Mayor's Office > 2008 State of the City Address

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2008 State of the City Address

Mayor Cory A. Booker’s State of the City Address 2008
Children and Families
As Delivered.

NEWARK, NEW JERSEY!

I am so proud tonight. I am proud of our passion, our persistence and our progress. 2007 was a year in which we faced great challenges but we never faltered in our mission to distinguish our City as the most dynamic, the most exciting city on the move in America.

In 2007 we kept our focus, kept our momentum and continued to march towards what I believe to be Newark’s certain destiny: to be America’s leading city in urban transformation.

This year we didn’t just point out to the world what Newark will be, but we had a great year in demonstrating who we are.

We are a city of pride and accomplishment, fierce faith and flawless fortitude. We are New Jersey’s oldest city, largest city, her greatest city. We are Newark - Brick City. Tough, resilient, strong, enduring and when we come together, there is nothing we can not create or overcome.

This past year we did come together. Brick to brick, we came together in crisis and in jubilation, more often choosing unity over division - choosing the steep challenging road to a higher love over the seductive low road backwards to dangerous divisiveness.

We came together in 2007 to celebrate victories all over our City, to build, organize and withstand trials and tragic tests.

The new year has begun with a pride of accomplishment and a redoubling of our efforts to make our City even stronger. In these efforts, the most fundamental building block is the family. If we strengthen, nurture and invest in Newark's families and address their critical issues and needs, we will secure a glorious future for our City.
Seniors
Deep within the tradition of every family in our City, from every faith and every ethnic group, is one of our nation’s most profound traditions: to honor our elders.

Our seniors have brought us along a challenging road and gifted us, through their labors, a City of limitless hope and infinite possibility.

And our elders still labor in our common cause. Every day, all across our City, seniors continue to work and volunteer for their families, community and City. From the Mayor’s Office to child care centers around the City, you will see seniors at work -- proudly declaring that they love Newark and remain dedicated in her cause.

We must respect our seniors with more than mere words – we must provide substantive support. My Administration will implement the following initiatives to accord our seniors the honor they deserve:

•This year my Administration will sponsor City-wide financial planning, pre-retirement, and healthy living seminars for our seniors, as well as recreational, cultural and educational programs, including our first ever Senior Olympics.

•We must make our City and these programs more accessible for our seniors. My Administration has purchased 4 new buses that will be used for seniors and physically challenged Newarkers, enhancing their quality-of-life as they are able to shop, make doctor visits and partake of all our City has to offer.

•In partnership with the Newark Housing Authority we have launched a massive rehabilitation of every Housing Authority senior complex in the City. Each rehab will include new common areas, transformation of community kitchens, remodeling of entry ways and most importantly massive security upgrades including the installation of dozens of cameras and other state-of-the-art security features. Thanks to Keith Kinard, Diane Johnson, Mo Butler.

•More than 10% of our City’s children are being raised by their grandparents and many of these families are living below the poverty line – but for the love of their grandparents, many more of our children would be lost to lives of untold hardship. These families need our help. I am proud to announce a new program, Grandparents Parenting Grandchildren Pilot Program, to assist low-income custodial grandparents, who are raising grandchildren. The program will provide direct financial assistance, key referrals and other services including housing, clothing, nutrition and utility assistance.
•To most efficiently coordinate all of my Administration's efforts on behalf of seniors, I am establishing a new Senior Life Council which will advise me and the Division of Senior Life on all issues affecting seniors.
I want to thank Maria Vizcarrando for her leadership on all family issues, particularly those impacting our seniors.

Public Safety
I know that one of the issues that the newly formed Senior Life Council will be discussing with me is public safety. Our seniors abhor the violence in our community and anguish over the threat to our City’s children and grandchildren, who they raise, provide for and protect.

Here we have the Greatest Generation, the generation that fought and preserved democracy in World War II -- a generation which saw us through a depression and countless economic hard times, which fought poverty and claimed for us expanded civil rights, voting rights, and women's rights. How do we now provide these pioneers with neighborhoods in which they do not feel safe?

This is not the America our seniors built. This is not the Newark they fought for.

Our senior community is vigilant -- they don’t just point to the violence or agonize over it -- they’ve done something about it. When I challenged the City to stand with me in the fight against violent crime, hundreds of our elders came forward.

In fact, in 2007, dozens of seniors graduated from the Senior Citizen Police Academy. I think they enjoyed the day at the firing range the most.

I stand here in humble gratitude to the countless heroes at every level of government who stood with us in our fight to keep our City and its streets safe, particularly the brave men and women of the Newark Police Department. So many people stepped up all over Newark.

But it is still not enough.

Yes, there were successes last year.

By mid-2007, Newark was ranked by the Police Executives Research Forum as having the greatest reduction in violent crime of the 168 major cities surveyed nationwide.

But for our residents, it isn’t enough.

We lowered the murder rate for the first time since 2002.

But for our seniors and children, it isn’t enough.

We worked more efficiently and effectively, decreasing sick time by 35%, increasing enforcement actions by over 76,000 instances, all the while dropping citizen complaints by 7%.

But for our neighbors, it isn’t enough.

We had 109 fewer people shot in 2007 than in 2006, a 22% reduction in shootings.

But for the mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, sons and daughters of these victims, it is not enough.

For much of the past two months, I, along with my security detail and police leadership, have hit the streets from late evenings through early mornings, heading into our neighborhoods most challenged by crime. We observe. We engage residents. Our police leadership rallies officers and holds to account those very few who do not match our passion and commitment. This strategy, along with the numerous other brilliant efforts led by Director McCarthy, is revitalizing the Newark Police Department and has resulted in our best public safety month yet. Last year, at this time, we had 12 murders, this year, we only have 2.

But this is not enough.

I will not be content with simple incremental changes in public safety when we can have massive transformation.

I will not settle for a City that is doing good in crime reduction when great is possible and I will not accept greatness when we can be the best.

This is our destiny to claim. We will set the national standard for urban violent crime reduction. But it won’t just happen - we must make it happen.

How can we have anonymous tip lines that offer thousands of dollars for information that leads to taking criminals and guns off our streets – yet good citizens, with knowledge of crimes do not come forward. This brand of callous inaction must stop. The true threat to our City is not the small group of violent criminals, but the apathy and indifference of countless good citizens who refuse to stand up for their neighborhood and their City.

In the first quarter of this year, we will open the doors to two new police facilities in the West Side Park neighborhood and Upper Vailsburg. This year we will break ground on two new state-of-the-art police precincts. We will graduate over 100 new police officers, finish installation of over 100 public safety cameras and put up a seven square mile gunshot detection system. The Director and I are going to continue to move this police department’s technology and accountability systems from the age of the Flintstones to the era of the Jetsons.

More than this I will continue to pour all my passion and spirit into this fight. Demand it from me as your Mayor, but know that I am demanding it from you as well.

If we stand together, this can be a historic year in public safety and move Newark closer to its destiny.

YOUTH
Our progress in crime fighting and other areas always comes back to our families and our children, the critical group that will most determine our City’s destiny. In 2007, our City made incredible strides in serving our youth and empowering them in pursuit of their dreams. But we have only begun.

In last year's State of the City address, I announced my intention to radically transform the City’s recreational facilities and parks. In 2007, we delivered on that commitment.

As you saw, every recreation center in the City went through a massive rehabilitation process. We reclaimed under-utilized space, restored crumbling buildings and installed new equipment.

In addition, we partnered with the Newark Housing Authority to open the Clubhouse, our first new recreation center in years, on Irvine Turner Blvd. Again, my thanks to Keith Kinard and his tremendous team.

But we won’t stop there. I am elated to announce that over $40 million has been committed for our City’s parks. These funds will include a significant contribution to our great county executive’s park efforts here in Newark. Thank you, Joe DiVincenzo, for your work.

This parks initiative is one of the largest in the history of Newark. It is a public private partnership that includes over $19 million from our City capital budget reflecting the priority placed on health and recreation of my Administration and our Municipal Council.

The fund also includes approximately $8 million raised by the Trust For Public Land. I want to thank TPL’s leader, Rose Harvey, and the entire TPL team for the work they are doing in the City of Newark. The fund will also include over $13 million to be raised by GreenSpaces, a partnership between my Administration and area philanthropists. We have received significant leadership from Leon Cooperman and the Cooperman Family, which has made a tremendous gift of $5 million and a generous gift from Ravenel and Beth Curry who have made a $1 million contribution to GreenSpaces, as well as others such as the US Soccer Foundation and some of our friends at Goldman Sachs. This broad-based partnership will allow us to achieve the largest parks expansion and rehabilitation our City has ever seen.

Eleven parks all over our City will be reclaimed for the community with state-of-the-art amenities – turf soccer fields, football fields, baseball diamonds, recreation and fitness equipment for children and adults. Our new parks and fields will reflect the profound dignity and glory of our City and its people.

In addition, I am happy to announce we will break ground on the new recreation center adjacent to the planned new 2nd precinct on Grafton Avenue in partnership with NHA.

This spring, in partnership with Newark Public Schools, we will break ground on a $24 million renovation of School Stadium in the North Ward. This project will restore the glory of one of Newark’s past treasures – boasting new baseball, soccer, football and track and field amenities for our public school students and residents all around the City.

We are also working to reclaim the greatness of the Newark Museum and the Newark Public Library. Our state's greatest museum and largest library have both embarked on critical expansion plans. I recently appointed new members to the library board to take on the difficult task of raising the resources necessary to protect and embolden our State's historic collections and make our public library the flagship of New Jersey.

I want to thank Trish Yamba for her incredible leadership as the President of the Board of Trustees for the Newark Public Library. Since 1994, her stewardship and vision set the library on a new exciting course and now I welcome the next board president, Jeff Vanderbeek, whose leadership will be critical in seeing that the Newark Public Library accomplishes its essential and ambitions plans.

Further, the Newark Museum, long renowned as one of New Jersey’s finest cultural institutions, is literally being choked by its physical constraints and being outpaced by museums in other states that are expanding and updating their facilities. This Administration is in full support of the leadership and board of the Newark Museum as they set about to pursue their ambitious and essential renovation plans.

As we work to preserve and empower our anchor cultural institutions in Newark, I am thrilled to officially announce that the board of New Jersey’s nascent Childrens’ Museum has decided that its home will be Newark, New Jersey.
This museum will be a critical and even transformative catalyst in the continued redevelopment of our downtown and will help to continue to make Newark a destination city in New Jersey. The 60,000 square foot museum will be an interactive museum where children and their families can explore, play, and learn. In addition to all of this, the museum will be a green building based on the principles of sustainable design. I want to thank Al Telsey, the Chair of the Board of the Childrens’ Museum and the entire team for their choosing Newark and becoming part of our City’s great success story.
Newark will be bustling with parks, recreations and cultural centers. Critical to our childrens’ success will be the key relationships they have with caring adults.

Last month, we launched a City-wide mentoring initiative. I am a mentor. My staff mentors at 18th Avenue School in the South Ward. I challenge every caring adult to be a mentor.
All of our children are critically important to our success. Our City and State waste too much money arresting, adjudicating and incarcerating young people. Let’s refocus our resources and efforts toward helping those most vulnerable among us chart a new course.

Education
But still, the most important place outside of the home to foster our childrens’ potential is our schools.
While my Administration currently has no formal governing role in our school system, we stand united in our commitment to ensure that every child -- regardless of whether he or she attends a traditional public school, public charter school or even a private school --receives the best possible education.
We now stand at a historic time in the transformation of public education in Newark. After 7 years of steady and foundational stewardship under our superintendent, Marion Bolden, the Governor, working with our community, will select a new superintendent to lead our public schools.
This is a time our City must unite in pursuit of excellence, in an uncompromising insistence that we get the best leader for our schools and then do all that is necessary to support that person. Let us be clear, this leader, whoever she or he is, will have to make difficult and unpopular decisions.
Without community support and without a significant increase in parental participation, this new leader will fail and so will more of our children.
But with a City united in support, with involved parents and a new spirit of educational activism in Newark, all our schools can be transformed into cathedrals of learning. The choice now is ours.

My Administration will continue to labor in support of improved educational outcomes for our children. Through in-school mentoring programs, increased school to work efforts, our new Brick City College Scholarship fund, the Mayor’s Academic Challenge which provides thousands of high school students with performance incentives (some of whose highest performers are here tonight) and the recent launch of the YES Center (the Youth Education and Employment Success Center) -- the first of its kind in New Jersey for at-risk and disaffected youth, my Administration is stepping up to support our children.
All over our City we are seeing educational excellence in public and private schools - beacons of light, illuminating the way forward. From the Blue Ribbon Award winning Harriet Tubman School to the newly-opened Cristo Rey School to the Marian P. Thomas Charter School, I remain committed to expanding the menu of excellent school options in our City. Until the day comes when every child, in every neighborhood, has a broad range of quality schools to choose, we will not rest.
Family Success and Fathers’ Initiative
Everything we are doing in this Administration involves deepening partnerships and bringing people together to work on our common goals and mission.

The great strides in law enforcement, our enhanced youth programming and other achievements are possible because people are putting aside individual interests and finite differences to rally around our common spirit and infinite interdependency.

Nowhere is this better seen than with the launch this year of 11 neighborhood-based Family Success Centers developed by a broad coalition. These centers provide convenient and coordinated access to information and governmental and non-governmental support that helps families achieve well-being and self-sufficiency. From general assistance, the Earned Income Tax Credit, career readiness activities, Abbot Pre-School, parenting workshops, anti-violence workshops, health insurance and nutrition information and support, these centers have quickly become one-stop spots throughout our City for – as the name states - family success.

I am pleased to announce an addition to this effort borne from a committed coalition which will launch the Newark Comprehensive Center for Fathers in the next several months. There are too many Newark fathers who are unemployed and/or disconnected from their children, childrens’ mothers and the community – they need our assistance.

The Newark Comprehensive Center for Fathers will offer a structured environment designed to enhance a father’s education and marketability in the workforce, while further equipping the men as responsible fathers and productive residents of the City.

Economic Development
One of the best ways to empower families is by expanding economic opportunity for adults. Our Administration has taken numerous steps to this end, from being the first city in New Jersey to adopt a prevailing wage law to the Municipal Council’s making us the first city to pass legislation to prevent large scale firing of workers when new contracts are awarded. We also aggressively stepped up our work with the earned income tax credit, even establishing a free tax center in City Hall, leading to savings of hundreds of thousands of dollars in filing fees and assisting in putting millions of previously unclaimed dollars into the pockets of residents. And now with the Governor’s expansion of eligibility for the state EITC, hundreds, if not thousands, more Newarkers can claim additional benefits.

We have a changed attitude in Newark. And we are translating that attitude into concrete policy. No longer are we just going to give away valuable City resources. Our new land disposition and abatement policies link discounted land and tax incentives to hiring locally, including minorities, building with green standards, and building affordable and workforce housing.

We are opening up the doors and inviting development that truly boosts our communities and reflects our values. Despite this slowing economy, our efforts are paying off with development emerging in every ward of our City.

Our West Ward Initiative consists of revitalizing 102 empty lots and abandoned structures in partnership with developers from our City, including 11 minority-owned firms. Newark native, Tate George, is leading the group of local developers and I want to thank him and recognize his tremendous work.

All over the City we are emphasizing affordable and workforce housing, building hundreds of new units. For too long, Newark residents have been faced with a severe housing shortage. Apartments that have been too expensive or their dreams of homeownership too far out of reach as developers built homes that cost more than the average Newark resident could afford. We are now attacking these problems.

In the East and South Wards, we are partnering with YouthBuild. YouthBuild, working with Newark young people getting their GED and learning the construction trade, will be developing up to twenty single-family, workforce townhouses. In the Central Ward, the City is working with Integrity House which is creating a transitional housing facility for women and their children. In the South Ward, we are strengthening our partnership with Covenant House, which is building two and three family homes for homeless youth. And we are proud to be working with The AIDS Resource Foundation for Children, which is constructing 10 new units for very low income individuals providing support services to a special needs population.
Development of all kinds is occurring across our City. In the South Ward, Apollo Real Estate is renovating hundreds of units, turning old decaying housing stock into quality apartments at prices Newarkers can afford. Better yet, they are giving a 10% discount for police, firefighters, and teachers, helping our City workers make their homes in the community they are committed to serve. Baye Wilson, a minority developer, is fast moving on his project in the Lincoln Park area, a mixed-use development including 200 residential units.
With all of the building and with the increased economic activity, we must ensure that Newarkers are positioned to benefit from our City’s new found blessings. Brick City Development Corp. and NewarkWorks are doing just that.

Brick City’s program for growing economic opportunity includes a National Development Council-sponsored fund for small and minority business which is a $6 million loan pool created by leveraging a significant City investment.

I am proud tonight to announce one of the first such deals that BCDC has made possible. BCDC has partnered with City National Bank to provide a loan to the great coach of the state championship Weequahic High School football team, Altariq White, to help him open a Subway franchise right here in Newark.

So much was said when our City, in the midst of a $180 million budget crisis, moved to take aggressive corrective action. After cutting spending by $60 million and increasing revenue in a like amount, our City still faced a budget crisis of monumental proportions with mounting personnel costs. We refused to tax our way out of this problem and did the unheard of thing. In 2007, thanks to Municipal Council support, we cut our municipal tax rate in order to absorb tax increases by the County and for the school district so that we could sustain the same overall tax rate for our citizens that was established in 2006. In this environment we made the difficult decision to eliminate hundreds of job vacancies from the budget, offer buy outs for employees to voluntarily separate and ultimately lay off 65 employees. I am pleased that we were able to work with many of those workers to find other employment, but we must realize that with federal and state cutbacks, local government cannot be about employment, it must be about efficiency, effectiveness, about delivering the best of services to residents and dedicated to creating business and employment opportunity for residents outside of government.

This is what NewarkWorks has done. Since elected, we have worked with major employers to connect their hiring efforts to Newark residents. We impressed upon them that Newarkers are ready to work, that they are talented and dedicated and would provide exemplary service to their companies.

Continental Airlines is a great example. When I came into office, only 8% of Continental’s local employees were from Newark. Today, Continental is hiring over 25% of its local employees from Newark. Thank you, Continental, for hiring 565 Newarkers.

I also want to thank Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield which has hired 465 Newarkers and Verizon which has hired 78 Newarkers. And thanks to Cable Vision for hiring over 100 Newarkers.

All told, through the considerable work of our team, over 3,000 Newarkers have been hired. This is a significant accomplishment. And though we had to separate with 65 City Hall employees, we have opened up thousands of private sector job opportunities for residents throughout our City.

But we didn’t stop there. We have said from the beginning that we not only have to stimulate a robust economy that creates more employment but we have to also create strong pathways whereby many people who are coming out of incarceration can move to meaningful employment. This is a difficult if not monumental challenge.

In order to address this challenge, we joined with a strong coalition to form Opportunity Reconnect and Reentry Legal Services to help ex-offenders deal with their transition.

NewarkWorks has successfully developed a network of over 50 Newark companies that have signed on to hire ex-offenders referred and placed by NewarkWorks.

And I’m pleased to report that we’re starting another pilot reentry project as an extension of Opportunity Reconnect. We’ve joined forces with the Nicholson Foundation, County Probation, and the North Ward Center to create a program for 100 probationers that, as a part of sentencing and probation, links individuals directly with job readiness and placement. And, importantly, the service provider, America Works, will be paid entirely based upon performance – that is, ex-offenders getting and keeping jobs.

Not only are we getting Newark corporations to hire more locally, not only are we focusing on those people often left out of the workforce, but we are also succeeding in drawing new development to our City – which means hundreds and hundreds of brand new jobs.

Well-known leaders and business people are coming to be a part of Newark’s rejuvenation. For example, Tiki Barber, a superstar from the New JERSEY Giants, has teamed with other developers to work here in Newark. We have also welcomed a number of new corporate tenants to our City over the past year – corporate tenants such as Ioma Business Management, the Genova Burns law firm, HealthFirst, UNITE HERE, the International Longshoremens’ Union, and others, taking hundreds of thousands of square feet of office space.

As we continue this trend, I am happy to announce plans for a new commercial office building – the Digital Century Center at University Science Park, which will provide 100,000 square feet of space for technology companies that have gone beyond the incubation stage. Thank you Governor Corzine, Caren Franzini and Jeannette Brumell for your leadership and support for this project, which is in the final approval stages at the Economic Development Authority. The Digital Century Center will bring new businesses and jobs, generating tremendous economic energy for Newark.

As we focus on the areas that provide the greatest potential for economic vitality, we look to three additional important places: the seaport/airport zone, the Broad Street Station area, and the arena district. New developments at the port ensure the future of industrial employment in Newark, and I am happy to announce that Summit Associates and Blackrock are partnering to finally remediate the former Arts Metal site in the East Ward. They plan to build two distribution centers right here in Newark that will bring hundreds of new jobs and new businesses to our City.

Also at the port, the AMB Property Corporation is finalizing construction of a 191,000 square foot distribution center that will provide space for a future industrial tenant, bringing again hundreds of jobs to our South Ward. We will cut the ribbon on that new facility next month.

The area surrounding Broad Street Station is another key node of activity. Over 3,000 riders pass through this station every day, which means lots of foot traffic and lots of potential. Eyesores such as the Lincoln Motel and the Westinghouse building are finally being torn down to prepare the way for new construction. The City and the Newark Housing Authority own 23 acres of land in the immediate area of the station, which presents a phenomenal opportunity, and in the coming weeks, we will be working together to invite new development on that site.

Another area of growth is the district around the Prudential Center. The Arena’s tremendously successful opening has created momentum that will be carried forward by two important projects.

Down the street from the Rock, an old industrial building is being transformed into the Richardson Lofts, a residential project with 20% of its units set aside for affordable housing. NewWork, the developer, will build Richardson to exceptional environmental standards, bringing new activity to the neighborhood while embracing our City’s highest values.

I am also so happy to report that near the Arena, Edison Properties and the Lam Group will bring the first full-service, first-class hotel to our downtown in decades. The 350 room hotel will have a conference center and 10,000 square feet of retail space, bringing jobs to Newark, increasing visitors to our City, and adding to the vibrancy of our downtown. And I am even more excited to announce that the hotel will be built and operated with union labor. UNITE HERE will represent the hotel’s workers, ensuring that Newark residents will have jobs that pay a living wage and provide the security of benefits.

FUTURE PROSPECTS/ CONCLUSION
There’s so much promise here in our city. Newark is literally the fastest-growing city in the Northeast. In the coming weeks and months, the City along with its two key partners, BCDC and the Newark Housing Authority, will be announcing major developments coming to Newark, more businesses moving to our city, more opportunity for our residents. This year alone we will be announcing more employers and construction coming to Newark with hundreds and hundreds of additional jobs and units of housing.
Tonight, we have already announced thousands of new jobs, hundreds of more affordable and workforce housing units, new construction all over our City, green buildings, a new technology center, a new hotel with hundreds of union jobs, millions of dollars of potential capital available for local women and minority entrepreneurs, a new childrens’ museum, new state-of-the-art parks and recreation centers all over the City, new police precincts and more police officers. Just 19 months in office and we have this kind of momentous progress – but we have only just begun! We pledge to expand these opportunities month after month, year after year, brick by brick, business by business, block by block. That’s our commitment.

All of what was done was done by a team. I thank my partners, the Municipal Council, each one of them matches my commitment, shares my sacrifice and lifts my leadership.
Every one of the leaders throughout my Administration, from my former Business Administrator, Bo Kemp, and former Corporation Counsel, Aney Chandy, to my Deputy Mayor Margarita Muniz, and my Chief of Staff, Pablo Fonseca, and so many other city workers, from sanitation workers to engineers to police officers to clerks, they sacrifice every day on behalf of our City because . . .
they believe.

All across this City, young people in our high schools, crossing guards with watchful eyes on our intersections, building maintenance personnel doing the humble yet critical work of repairing our buildings, firefighters ready to leap into action, teachers putting in extra hours after school with their students. . . all of these people in their own way are saying “I believe.”
They believe in their City.
They believe that for it to be great we all must sacrifice.
They believe that the cynics, the naysayers and nonbelievers will not triumph.
These noble men and women behind me, here with me tonight in the audience and around our City are heeding the call of our ancestors, they are continuing a hallowed Newark tradition.

342 years ago, Puritans with powerful pride, came ashore onto the banks of the Passaic River, searching for freedom and the promised land, they looked at the wild woods and uncultivated lands here and said, “I believe in the infinite strength of God’s children, I believe in Newark.”
When waves of immigrants poured into our City from across the globe, tired and hungry yearning to be free, with worn hands that would build this City, they said in countless foreign languages, “I believe this is the city of opportunity, I believe in Newark.”

In sweatshops and factories, laboring under unimaginable conditions, men and women with the courage to organize into unions, the courage to band together and fight against ruthless retaliation -- for their rights, for their families, for their prosperity -- they stood up in our City and said, “I believe this is the city of our dreams, I believe in Newark.”
When most of our country’s blacks lived in the South, people from Alabama, North and South Carolina, Georgia and Virginia hopped on trains and climbed in cars headed to a great Northern city. They packed food into shoe boxes and slept on sides of roads because restaurants and hotels wouldn’t accommodate them. These giants of dignity moved their families, their belongings and their dreams to this City and proclaimed, “I am here, I am here, I am here, because I believe in the indomitable human spirit, I believe in Newark.”

Through world war and depression, they believed.
Through the savages of segregation, they believed.
Amidst the ashes of the riots, when others cut and ran -- they remained, they believed.
And now this generation -- our generation -- we stand upon a foundation of righteousness in a City that the believers built.
Yet obstinate critics – without and within - still malign.
Cynicism and doubt still hang low and heavy on the ground like the murky mist after a long frigid night.
But like cold morning mist, such cynics can not withstand the sunlight and warmth that is fast illuminating our City. A new day is gloriously dawning in Newark, a day of unparalleled hope, of abundant opportunity a day that the believers have made.
This generation of Newarkers must now not yield. We must honor those who came before us by continuing with their passion -- continuing with their courage -- unceasingly, unyieldingly, stubbornly believing in our City.
We will do what others believe is impossible. But we must lift every voice and sing –
A chorus of community, commitment and courage.
You see there is a boy in Newark who went to school today, he needs to hear all of us say, “I believe in your dreams.”
There is a World War II veteran at home right now in Newark, he needs to hear us say “I believe in your legacy.”
There is a grandmother on her knees tonight lifting words to God’s ears; she must hear us say “I believe in your prayers.”
There is a man in a prison cell about to come home; he needs to hear us say, “I believe in your potential.”
There is a victim of crime frustrated and angry in our City right now, she needs to hear us say, “I believe in your cries for justice.”
There is a city in New Jersey, larger than them all, with the eyes of the nation now upon them. We must let the world know that we, as a City, believe.
We believe, like Stokeley Carmichael, that we are the leaders we have been waiting for.
We believe like Gandhi, that we can be the change we wish to see in the world.
We believe, like our founding fathers infused into the spirit of our Nation, that a people united can never be defeated.
We are Newark, New Jersey, Brick City, Believers in Life, Love, and Liberty.
We believe in ourselves.
We believe that we will create miracles in our sacred city.
Let the world watch us rise. . . . 2008 will be our year.
I believe, I believe, I believe in you. Thank you Newark!