Cory Booker: Revitalizing Newark Around Transit

Downtown Newark and University Heights (my old law school stomping grounds) have excellent access to transit facilities. Cory Booker, Newark's reformer Mayor, is working to expand growth in Newark around these terrific assets.

Growing dorm populations for Rutgers and NJIT should help to provide a critical mass on some of the blocks which were, as of 2005 anyway, still desolate at night. Of course, since then, the light rail connection to Broadway was completed and dorms have been springing up. I've got to make a pilgrimage back to see how progress is moving.

Image borrowed from the Tri-State Transportation Campaign blog linked above.

Redevelopment in Harrison, NJ: A Step In The Right Direction

Via Curbed, a terrific redevelopment project has finally broken ground in Harrison, NJ. One of the earliest industrial suburbs, Harrison suffered from years of blight and large swaths of desolate, weeded brownfields.

But Harrison has tremendous assets: an underutilized PATH station, a two minute ride to Newark's Penn Station, and convenient access to both NYC and the educational/cultural institutions of Newark (don't laugh . . . Newark has a lot to offer).

While the project also contains a large parking component, it is a boon to transit friendly development. New Jersey (my birthplace) needs more of this.

Visit Curbed for the details.

Former Newark Mayor Sharpe James Indicted

I went to school in Newark for three years, and this is truly heartening news from the Star Ledger:

The 86-page indictment said James, 71, arranged for the city to sell municipal real estate at a steep discount to a Newark businesswoman, Tamika Riley, then secretly shared in the profits when Riley sold the parcels to developers.

Prosecutors also accused James of using city-issued credit cards to pay for lavish trips he took with eight women, including Riley, to places including Martha's Vineyard, Rio de Janeiro, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. The credit card charges - hundreds between 2001 and 2006 totaling more than $58,000 - covered hotel rooms and luxury suites, meals and fine dining, airfare, car rentals, tickets to sporting events and other expenses, prosecutors said.

Check out the picture of the young entrepreneur that James was funneling cash to, and taking purely professional trips with.