My cousin, Donald Garrett, is the owner of the New American Hardware & Salvage Company off Clinton and 18th avenues in Newark. Donald has never lived in this city, but he grew up in the store and took it over from his father and uncle four years ago.
The store is orderly but dusty. The shelves are full of plumbing, cleaning, insulation, electrical and other supplies needed to patch up the old but well-built homes in the neighborhood. He knows almost everyone who comes in by name, yet business is the slowest it has been since he can remember. "Everyone is struggling now, especially the Mom and Pops," he laments. The rest of the crew concurs and passes the time by watching BET on the television, hanging out, and philosophizing on life and politics in Newark's South Ward. A mayoral election is coming.
"I play for bread and meat. I don't win, I don't eat," shouts David Bryant, a former employee and friend of the family, as he polishes an old set of dominoes. Born and raised right down the block, he is home from Oklahoma for a working visit. Time away from urban life and having a family has put Newark into a new perspective for him.
"When I was a kid, during the summers the park would take care of us, look after us, feed us, until our parents came home. Now, where do the kids in Newark have to go? I'll never raise my kids here. Cory Booker is smart. I like him. I think he's going to do something for the kids."
Joy Lee walks in looking for rat poison. "They're tearing down those old houses for the new flats, and the rats have nowhere to go except for my house. And my landlord ain't doing a damn thing about it." Donald suggests glue traps, but she says she saw a rat help another out of such a trap and opts for the strongest poison he can offer. "I'm on the first floor and my landlord is on the second, so the rats aren't bothering her as much."
Rats and other symptoms of blight are common on these streets. So are residents who clearly take pride in their property and maintain it to the best of their ability. Here, completely dilapidated buildings stand beside renovated houses with fresh paint and manicured lawns. Care for the home seems to translate into care for the community: the well-kept houses often display campaign posters.
When asked about the 2002 mayoral election, Joy says she liked Cory Booker but voted based on party affiliation (though the mayoral election is non-partisan). "I had no choice but to vote for Sharpe James in the last election. I'm a Democrat, and Booker is a Republican.” (For the record, Booker is and was a Democrat.) She continues, “But I think Cory Booker has fresh ideas that will be good for the community." I encouraged her to see the documentary "Street Fight" about the contest between James and Booker. She'd never heard of it. Still, she cheerfully thanked me for the advice and left to conquer the rats.
I'm trying to understand the other reasons why the community supported Sharpe James, despite their frustration with lack of change and his record of corruption. They agree that the streets are a bit cleaner and safer than they were in the Nineties but still have a long way to go.
David explained, "You'd be at the club, dancing right next to him. If you needed a job, just holla at Sharpe. He'd tell you to go see some dude, and you'd get a job. A good one, with the government. He was real down like that." He makes it clear, though, that he was not a James supporter. "Who is he really looking out for? Ain't nobody else around here with a yacht. But the street pharmacists are doing fine - they'll always do fine in this neighborhood"
One wonders if anyone is looking out for the South Ward at all. There are homeboys hanging out and hustling on every corner. There is only one police precinct and one mini-precinct in the South Ward - not even a full station. The East Ward, which includes the Ironbound District, is less crime-ridden yet privileged to have three full police stations.
Car thefts in Newark far outstrip the national average; they are a major concern for the people I spoke with in the South Ward. Based on the complaints of stolen cars speeding down the avenues, it seems that many of them are inevitably taken from or end up somewhere in this casually policed neighborhood.
While paying for his plumbing supplies, Ray Robinson, another Newark native who just moved back into the city limits, chimes in with his frustration. "You can't have a car in Newark, between them stealing cars, crashing them into yours, and the potholes." I ask him if the mayoral election might create some change in crime and the economy, and
he is doubtful. "I'm hoping people stick to their word and do what they say they're gonna do. Too much business is behind closed doors and undercover."
Cousin Donald and I walk down the street to grab a snack. Every block is heavily sprinkled with empty lots, deteriorating buildings, and litter everywhere. A crooked house with overgrown grass and weeds offers rooms for rent. We pass three bodegas, a liquor store, a dollar store, and a fried chicken shack. The hustlers don't recognize me, overhear me asking questions and see me snapping some pictures on my cell phone. Donald introduces me to the bodega owner so that they know that I am family and not "5-0," meaning a police officer.
I am fascinated by a bare dirt patch in the middle of the sidewalk, covered with garbage, where the hustlers squat. The bodega owner had placed a box there to collect the trash, but when the James regime came through to do their sporadic cleaning of the neighborhood, they took the entire box. Though the hustlers claim the spot daily as their own, they believe that "somebody should come and clean that shit up."
The peeling, faded and fragile building on the corner behind the sidewalk trash pit has faded paintings of curtains on the wooden boards covering the window. I find it quaint, but back at the store the crew says that building has been like that for at least 15 years.
Across the street to the left, an old white wooden house stands proudly next to a
boarded up house occupied by benign junkie squatters. To the immediate right of the store is another empty lot, the result of a pizza shack that burned down 13 years ago. Directly across from the store is a newly-paved church parking lot. The church is by far the nicest building in at least a five-block radius. It has an immaculate lawn, solid brick structure, a chain link fence around the perimeter, and a sign in front that reads "Effective Alarm Systems."
It's almost closing time, and most of the guys lounge outside the front door, enjoying the breeze and greeting people as they go by. Kyle Thomas greets his brother, Bryan. Kyle is an ex-con who works at the store, and Bryan works for Fed-Ex. Both grew up right down the block, and share similar frustrations but different perspectives on the mayoral
election. "People died so I can have the right to vote, so I've gotta vote," Bryan says.
Kyle bounces a rubber ball against the wall and snickers. "They say every voice counts - bullshit! I don't care. It is what it is and it's gonna be what it's gonna be."
Bryan laughs at his brother, but agrees. "Newark is coming around. But no matter who the mayor is, it's still going to be the same thing, the same story." He points to the white house across the street. "It's probably worth $150,000. You put one of those brand new houses half that size right next to it, and that's $350,000. But the rooms are real tiny and
shabby. And in four or five years, it'll be all falling apart. It's not about the new houses. You've got to teach a whole lot of people in Newark how to do better, no matter who the mayor is. Take pride in your community. Go back to school, go get a better job. You can't work at PathMark or White Castle your whole life."
Mike Coaxum another native Newarker, steps outside and joins the conversation. To him, the changes might cause more harm than good. "Booker is talking about the police getting dudes off the corner. But they gotta have some way to eat. If a dude can't get a job, what is he gonna do? The crime rate might go up if he gets into office. And ain't no guarantee he's gonna win. Sharpe James' son is running, ain't he?"
Bryan nods his head, also mistrustful of Booker, whom the community feels they do not know. In the last election he voted for James, but as a vote against Booker. "I was gonna vote for Cory Booker. But something wasn't right about Booker and something still isn't right about him. I can see it in his eyes. I think maybe it's just the politician's stare." Just then, a Sharpe James black campaign SUV quietly goes by and turns down Clinton Avenue.
Donald locks up the shop. Everyone is outside, ready to head home. Their consensus is that it was another increasingly slow day, that the community needs a change but they only trust who they know, and that it doesn't really matter if new houses and arenas are being built if the daily quality of life doesn't change from within as well as from without the community.
Before walking home, Kyle gives his final take on any mayor's effectiveness in the South Ward: "Some people are scared to death to walk to a corner store because of these fools out here on the corner. Scared to death that they might get shot or hit by a stolen car. Why should someone who goes to work everyday, pays their taxes, does everything they're supposed to do have to go through that?"
Epilogue: Corey Booker was elected mayor of Newark by an overwhelming margin. In the South Ward, the council race was tight; Oscar S. James II, the candidate supported by Booker, was forced into a runoff with J. Sharpe James, son of outgoing Mayor Sharpe James. Oscar S. James II prevailed in the runoff.
Robin Laverne Wilson is an Honors College interdisciplinary major senior
at Rutgers-Newark. Posted July 2006.
