Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Weequahic
Last week, my friend Gina drove me up to Newark. I gave her wrong directions & we went up commercial Newark Ave. rather than residential North Broad St., just made the drive a little longer. A miserable low rise brick apartment complex caught my eye. "That's ugly, " I said. It was Seth Boydon Homes, public housing over 50 years old, now hopelessly gang & drug-infested despite efforts of good residents. Bill Cosby spoke there a couple of years ago.
I don't know the history of the place, but my guess is that it was originally built for white Newarkers, located on the far side of large Weequahic Park, & back then convenient to some big manufacturing plants. On the other of the park was a suburban, middle class, Jewish neighborhood around Beth Israel Hospital, an area already in white flight before the '67 riots. Interstate Route 78 was run through the northern part of the neighborhood, an insane decision, destroying a large portion & cutting it off from the rest of Newark. It's been theorized that Route 78 sped up Newark's economic collapse.
We returned by the correct route, through the old Weequahic neighborhood, still pleasant streets of neat single family homes. But even this area is loaded with gangs & drugs now, the curse of homeowners.
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." Thomas Jefferson
I don't know the history of the place, but my guess is that it was originally built for white Newarkers, located on the far side of large Weequahic Park, & back then convenient to some big manufacturing plants. On the other of the park was a suburban, middle class, Jewish neighborhood around Beth Israel Hospital, an area already in white flight before the '67 riots. Interstate Route 78 was run through the northern part of the neighborhood, an insane decision, destroying a large portion & cutting it off from the rest of Newark. It's been theorized that Route 78 sped up Newark's economic collapse.
We returned by the correct route, through the old Weequahic neighborhood, still pleasant streets of neat single family homes. But even this area is loaded with gangs & drugs now, the curse of homeowners.
Labels: New Jersey
