In Newark, it can seem like a long way from the West Ward to City Hall. The Fleetwood Neighborhood Tenant Association (FNTA) tries to shorten that distance and make the neighborhood a better place.
The FNTA represents a small section of Newark’s West Ward—Fleetwood Place, Ellery Place and Sanford Place—in the 07106 ZIP code.
The FNTA was established in 2001 by Dave Jones, a longtime resident. Jones described the FNTA motto as “Residents coming together to maintain and improve the quality of life for our neighborhood.”
Fleetwood, Sanford and Ellery are very similar streets of short blocks with small houses. The homes are so close to one another that they almost touch. The streets are very green, with trees along the sidewalks and up against many of the houses. Most of the houses also have flower boxes with red and yellow flowers for decoration. Signs supporting mayoral candidates Cory Booker and Ronald Rice could be found on the majority of the properties in the area before the Newark election.
Running adjacent to Fleetwood Place is Sanford Street, which is a busy road with many businesses and residences. The direct area of FNTA holds a fire station, an elementary school, at least three churches, a bank and a Laundromat. Small homes can be found on both sides of Sanford, but while walking southbound, the homes on the east side of the street are much closer together than the ones on the west side. More churches and businesses are found on the west side of the street, and overcrowded homes are found on the east side.
According to Debbie Hall-Dean, the association’s president, the major thing that she wants to see changed in her area is “efficiency in city hall.” She said the most important thing is having residents’ feelings heard where it counts in order to get things changed.
Although the association was founded for residents to improve their neighborhood themselves, they still need guidance from the city government. Bureaucracy is one of the major problems they face. It took them four years to get city hall to allow them to establish a traffic signal at a very dangerous intersection.
According to Dean there was an accident every month, and the association documented every accident and presented the information to city hall. “It took for someone to die,” said Dean, for city hall to erect that signal. After that safety signs were put up as well, along with speed bumps.
While Dean said that the association does not back particular candidates, she did note that “we are definitely all for term limits. It’s time to give someone else a chance.” She said that people in office, after a while, become complacent.
One of the biggest problems that the association faces, says Dean, is lack of accountability. “Dual office holding” is a huge problem, she said. “If you have three or four full-time jobs, how can you fight against the full-time problems?”
She noted that one of the full-time problems affecting the West Ward is homeowner accountability. Homeowners, according to Dean, should be responsible for maintaining their own property.
There is an overwhelming sense of overcrowding in the area, as well as new residents living in old houses. Housing is limited in the West Ward, especially in the 07106 area.
Dean says that residents should still be able to afford to take care of their homes. She said that the FNTA has been working hard trying to get the city government to pay attention to its needs. She said that one of its biggest accomplishments over the years has been the removal of trees that were destroying the sidewalks in the neighborhood. The association had a hard time removing these trees, again, because of red tape.
Although the association has accomplished the removal of trees in the neighborhood, trees still take up a large amount of space near the sidewalks. The association also accomplished the addition of the traffic signal, yet help from city government is still needed.
Meghan Shapiro is a journalism major and plays softball at Rutgers-Newark. Posted July 2006.
