I did a Dateline interview roundtable discussion today with one of my favorite Newark principals, Marni McCoy from Link School in Newark, as well as Reverend Eugene Rivers, Tiki Barber, our City’s great partner in park building, and Melissa Harris-Lacewell, a fantastic professor at Princeton. It was moderated by Al Roker of the Today Show.

12 years ago, Dateline did a show that featured 12 children being born at University Hospital in Newark. Presently, they are working on a follow-up to that as they followed a number of them into present day. They showed us interview clips of 4 of the 12 year-olds, their families and particularly interviews with the fathers – all of them now absent from the home. The footage spoke powerfully to the resiliency of the children and the strength of the women in their lives. It also left a lot to be discussed about the journey of the men in the lives of the kids -– two of whom were incarcerated.

The conversation was, at times, very personal (Tiki, for example, had a father who left he and his brother) and, at times, contentious. Lots of issues came to the head — I continuously tried to push the group to focus on specific things that we all could do to empower our community rather than repeating the same conversation over and over which highlights the problems and does not motivate problem solving. In the end, I was grateful for what all the panelists shared on and off the camera –- such thoughtful and committed people.

I was grateful that we discussed a lot of the innovative things Newark is doing to meet some of the challenges revealed (i.e., re-entry programs and the Newark Comprehensive Center for Fathers) and some of the programs we have and are developing for at-risk youth (i.e., community courts, the Youth Education Employment Success Center, rapid attachment to work programs, and grassroots organizations like Stop Shootin’ and Prodigal Sons and Daughters which are expanding their influence and activities).

I am always concerned about how the media looks at our City –- they often focus on the problems that exist in America without focusing on the solutions that Newark is bringing to the table and particularly the great progress we are making with our efforts and innovations. Right now, in Newark, there is so much activity going on. We are innovating, building on ideas and producing measurable results in everything from crime reduction to empowering men coming home from prison.

All in all, this conversation was excellent and honest and, I believe that, coupled with the video segment, it will be to our nation’s overall efforts to meet our collective challenges and responsibilities. I hope it can inspire people (especially fathers) to step up and take more responsibility for themselves, their families and the community. At the end of the day, we are all in it together –- each one of us must do our part, always realizing that we all have a role to play in the solution to any problem that afflicts our nation.

I am delivering the Toni Morrison lectures at Princeton at the end of this week and am in the midst of lots of research. I find myself rereading some of my favorite chapters of history and thanks to a tremendous new friend (thank you, Gary Ross), I am find myself pouring through some new books, particularly about reconstruction. I am not one for mythologizing our history or glossing over the stories of history’s actors with simplistic palliative brushes. If you dig in your study and see the messy, painful, difficult truths of American history, it becomes all the more amazing and inspiring. In short, under the most critical raw examination, I am all the more overwhelmed by those who came before, true patriots who endured through the most awful challenges, who volunteered for the most heinous hardships, all for the idea of America –- even when the America they experienced was so contrary to ideals of justice.

I look at the challenges of today –- and even the current (pick your) crisis and take heart in our history. With the American attitude of our ancestors, we can thrive during any crisis and meet any challenge. Our inspiration lies in our ancestors’ relentless labors.

Americans

In the center of the storm
Up the rough side of the mountain
Our way is not the easy street

Raise the bar
Increase the load
We will go higher, further, stronger

We were not bred for comfort
Nor designed for lavish shelter
We are called to give our measure of sacrifice for an audacious dream

Generations before began this perilous path
Through terrible tempests and savage storms
Heroic hope and daring deeds prevailed

They did not hesitate to pay an exacting price
Nor equivocate in the face of grueling toil
They met their challenges square

And now we, who are called by their names
Who wave the banner of their glory
With work undone and destiny unfulfilled

Americans must stand again

In the center of the storm
Up the rough side of the mountain
Our way is not the easy street.

1.  I continue to be a Bill Bradley fan –  he was one of my earliest mentors in the political world and  continues to be there for me.  Right now he is helping us with an economic development problem (or opportunity depending on how you look at it).  Go Dollar Bill!

2. If I could make a crazy wish come true,  it would be to be able to be in more than one place at a time.  There  simply are not enough hours in the day so I often find myself doing “fly bys” (as affectionately named by my staff) instead of being able to stay at an event.  This can be frustrating — this past Sunday is a great example.  It was such a busy day and I had host of events, the biggest of which was the Puerto Rican parade, but it was also Pastor Blash’s 9th anniversary at St. Paul’s Sounds of Praise on 18th Avenue.  Anyone who knows that area knows that Pastor Blash has been an incredible force for change in that neighborhood.  So, on Sunday morning, I had the parade, a meeting with Governor Corzine and others and a personal commitment.  This meant that while I wanted to, and needed to (need that prayer), stay at St. Paul’s, I flew in at the beginning of service, was graciously put up on the microphone and talked about the power and difference that a man can make.  I embraced the understanding Pastor Blash, gave him a modest contribution and rushed off to meet the Governor and a number of other leaders in the Democratic Party at Tops Dinner.

3. My friends don’t answer my calls around the holidays.  I call everyone I can think of to raise money for warm clothes and toys for kids and to help some great non-profits in Newark.  Folks are usually very generous after I chase them down (although one friend threatened to seek a temporary restraining order).  The current financial crisis will affect us all in many ways –- tax revenues will be way down, middle and working class folks will be shaken as their investments suffer, the foreclosure crisis will continue and worsen,there will be less money in the economy to loan to businesses thus constricting our economy and undermining growth,  and so on and so on. I also know some of my usual targets for end of the year help will have less to share.  Non-profits who rely on end of the year generosity will indeed face a colder winter. 

4. In the time of crisis, one should cling more tightly to his fundamental values not abandon them.  In the face of terrorist attacks, you don’t surrender your civil liberties or those things that make us American.  In a financial crisis, you don’t just turn over billions of dollars in taxpayer money with little or no oversight –- lax oversight and abusive judgment helped fuel the problem to begin with.

5. I am really looking forward to Friday night’s Presidential debate.  I have enjoyed the debates I’ve had in my political career — I have  had three elections and  three true debates (on Cablevision) in the style/format we will see on Friday.   On other occasions when I have met with candidates in a “debate”,  they  have not been the most productive forums — I believe that some were even insulting to people who came to honestly hear from the candidates.  At the Cablevision debates, the parties play by the rules, they are orderly, auditoriums aren’t packed with earnestly vocal supporters and I think they are ultimately very informative.  The few times I have met with my past opponents outside of the Cablevision debates – George Branch, Sharpe James and Ron Rice Sr. - the debates were mostly disappointing (with some exceptions).  As much as I complained about Sharpe James seeming refusal to have face to face debates, I understood some wisdom he may have had after our meeting at 1060 Broad Street — it was captured by Street Fight and literally became a street fight.   I think community groups that want to host meetings with candidates should invite them at different times/days and have an orderly, intimate exchange with a candidate where people can really discuss the issues and get into the details – and they should not tolerate behavior that doesn’t reflect the standards of their community.  This is why, during the 2006 campaign, we set up dozens and dozens of coffee klatches for people to be able to really get into details with me and my team about our plans for Newark.  These were Newarkers who loved their City and just wanted to hear from us and others about what we would do if elected.  When forums aren’t like this, it becomes what I witnessed with both Sharpe James and Ron Rice at the Vailsburg forums — lots of shouting and yelling and residents not getting an opportunity to hear substantive detailed visions for our City (leaders from Vailsburg sent me a kind letter of regret after the 2002 debate).    You don’t govern by sound bites and I’m proud of our Municipal Council, legislature in Trenton, County Executive Joe Divincenzo and other leaders who now serve Newark – they are people of great substance and ideas.  Our elections should be about the public getting a chance to vet, review performance and listen to the future plans of their incumbents and substantively listen to and evaluate the vision, ideas and plans of challengers.  Debates shouldn’t be spectacles more reminiscent of boxing matches (who is one upping or putting down who,  with supporters cheering and booing and drowning out the ability for those on the fence to even hear) – such behavior turns more people off from politics than encouraging them to be a part of the process.  I have witnessed people walk out of past “debates” and I usually feel that an hour or two going door to door and having conversations with residents would have been much more valuable. 

The days when I have open office hour days are often long but SO great.  My day on Tuesday was particularly long — I started at a 7:30 a.m. breakfast at which  I was honored by The Young Womens’ Leadership Academy, an all girls’ school in Harlem, with their “Man We Love” award.   This incredble public school and the organization that founded it have now launched schools all around the country with phenomenal results.  The young women from the school who spoke blew me and the rest of the  audience away — there were not a lot of dry eyes in the house. I am a supporter of single-sex education and would love to see such a school open in Newark — and will encourage the leaders of the school to do so!   The Young Women’s Leadership Academy has a host of powerful women supporters from around the region — ranging from CEOs to people in entertainment.  I believe they are starting a small movement and I want Newark to be part of it.

Speaking of great schools, I held Tuesday’s office hours at Arts High School.  The staff there is fantastic and I am really proud of the work they are doing with our kids.   

I arrived at the school around 2:30 p.m. and left at almost 10:00 p.m.  I spoke to approximately 75 constituents — and many of those who came, came to offer help.  It was a bit challenging because there were some people (probably 6-8) who came who weren’t Newark residents – this is a service for our residents - but almost all of them came to offer some type of support. 

I was so encouraged by many of our residents who came with great ideas.  One woman from the South Ward, the owner of a construction/home rehabilitiation business, had me most excited.  She came  with a small team of others because they want to start a program for ex-offenders –  here was a local small business, female headed, who has a vision for helping ex-offenders and at risk youth.  What could be more inspiring –  these are the kind of people who keep me charged up in my work.

Other folks came to help too — from a resident in senior housing who who wants to help with the Obama campaign and any other initiatives that will empower our City to two Arts High graduates, now working in the entertainment industry who wrote a great book for high schoolers (I bought 10 copies). 

A lot of people came for help too — the majority of them looking for work.  We had our Newark Works team there with lots of information about jobs — it seems like most of the people who came may be placed in a training program or directly into an interview for a job. 

All in all it was a great night. 

As you may know, in 2007, Newark showed a reduction in violent crime — a reduction that had Newark recognized as one of the top cities in America for violent crime reduction. But for me, it wasn’t enough — I was not happy with our progress and, after 5 years of violent crime increases, I was not satisfied (nor should any Newarker have ben satisfied) with a one-year incremental reduction. So, this past winter (in December 2007 - January 2008), I wanted to give the Newark Police Department a little shock treatment.

Beginning in December, I rolled around and got in the face of as many police personnel as possible — at all hours of the night. By January, I had really gotten into a groove and, with a host of volunteer police officers, we were in the streets often until 4:00 a.m. Police Director Garry McCarthy was often with me, as well as the Police Chief and others. As crime happens most frequently at night, the highest-ranking officials in our City and Police Department were out there too (often with clergy patrols).

I point to a number of things as the turning points in violent crime reduction. The tragic triple homicide in August 2007 resulted in incredible unity in our community – people from all sectors pulling together and working in a more coordinated fashion. There have been massive investments in technology and cameras for our community – the result of new public/private partnerships. Week after week and month after month, Director McCarthy has made, and continues to make, incredible changes in his department — these finely attuned strategies have culminated in a continued downward slope of crime. There have been significant strides in community leadership — people pulling together on blocks and in neighborhoods in phenomenal cooperation with NPD. And there have been a host of critical grassroots non-profits such as Stop Shootin’, Street Warriors, Prodigal Sons and Daughters and so many others, who have stepped up even more, along with some very active clergy groups.

I also believe that our street efforts in the early part of this year – our staying on the streets during those hours that used to belong to high levels of violence — made a huge difference. Police officers (not to mention community members) aren’t used to seeing their Mayor, Police Director and Police Chief engage them during those hours. Productivity increased and the enthusiasm and determination of our officers all seemed to ratchet up particularly as we began to push records and set a pace for a record -setting year.

We pushed and pushed and pushed during January and February of this year — I was excited to see the productivity increases in NPD and the results that the front line officers and the City as a whole were accomplishing. The results were incredible in that first quarter of 2007 – we had the longest period without a homicide since the 1960s and a 70% reduction in homicides. Today, Newark leads the nation in reductions in shootings and murders with an over 40% reduction in both categories.

On a personal note, I was very run down by the end of March. I had gotten sick several times – flu and strep throat twice as I was sleeping barely at all for long stretches. As Director McCarthy pushed for his Mayor to leave the police work to the police, I pulled back on my night patrols. I still head out but with far less frequency.

I believe in managing by walking around – as much as you can, be where and when the problems are, especially in your areas of priority. When there is a crisis, dig deep into the weeds and the details, trust your team, give them authority, hold them accountable for results but always understand that you are ultimately responsible for performance.

I was elected with a clear mandate to focus on crime reduction. We are doing that in every category. So much of the City’s other goals depend upon our City being safe and strong (child and family well-being, economic development, prisoner re-entry and others all have critical links to crime reduction). We are achieving what many are saying is remarkable success and, while I am still not satisfied, I am so proud that our whole City team continues to work for the true success we seek and that our residents deserve.

One quick note: we had to get our statistics right. While murders and shootings cannot be hidden or fudged and are thus good statistics to focus on, our concern is overall crime reduction. After a number of audits, it became clear that the City had been falsely lowering rates of burglaries and other crimes for some time. We corrected that this year which gave the false appearance of a rise in certain crimes. We determimed it was the right thing to do and we would accept the hit in perception – for example, people thinking that burglaries are on the rise. We are all glad now that we have a clear and honest benchmark year — the stage is set for 2009. As much as this year can be a record setting year (possibly setting the all time record for murder low), I believe we are set to continue to push crime down in 2009 – constant and continued improvement. Newark will set the national standard for crime reduction.

Thanks to all of you who are reading my blog. I wanted to take some time to answer some of the questions that people have posted. Sorry if I missed anyone in this round.

To Jarret, who asked about mentoring.

Jarret,

I am all about mentoring and have been mentoring since I was a teenager. I believe it is one of the greatest ways you can make an impact in the lives of others and in a community. Plus, it doesn’t take that much time — even if you just have four hours a month (one hour per week!) to give, you can be a mentor. And now, with such a wide variety of programs you can invest your time in a host of different ways. There are even online mentoring relationships now.

In Newark, I helped start the Newark Mentoring Coalition which is a collaborative effort to bring together all the organizations that provide mentoring and coordinate those efforts. We have a mentoring hot line for people who are interested in being a mentor or finding a mentor and we have done a lot of community outreach including PSAs.

Still we do not have enough mentors. . . . there are hundreds of Newark young people who are unmatched with a caring adult mentor. This is very unfortunate and I am hopeful that we can continue to expand the number of mentors in Newark. If we could get just a few hundred more mentors it could have rapid transformative effect on our community. We all have had a mentor or mentors in our lives — we should all give back in a similar fashion.

To Neil, who had a lot of ideas in a short note.

Neil,

Your short paragraph of questions was chock full of issues. I’ll do my best to address what I can.

First, what am I going to do about “skyrocketing” unemployment in Newark.
Unemployment is unacceptably high in our City – but the level of unemployment is not skyrocketing. We have numerous strategies to lower unemployment and have been seeing solid success in finding, creating and expanding job opportunities for our residents. A few examples:

A. We started a program to work with local companies to look to Newark for more of their employment base. Through this program, companies have hired thousands of more Newarkers in the last two years. For example, Continental Airlines went from hiring only 7 to 8% of their employees from Newark to now hiring more than 25% of their employees from our City — this added hundreds of jobs.

B. We started a program through which we tailored our job training dollars directly to the needs of our employers to great success. For example, our Newark Works teams started a call center training program. Those graduates have been having great success with compainies ranging from CableVision to local banks. With so many call centers located in Newark, this has been very valuable. We must use our job training dollars to train workers for those jobs that actually exist . . . . NewarkWorks (our job training/job placement center at 990 Broad Street) is doing a great job here.

C. We have put strong “first source” requirements on companies and developers who seek and obtain City incentives (city land, tax abatements, etc).

D. We are drawing numerous new employers to the City of Newark. For example: AMB warehouse came to Newark bringing hundreds of jobs with Mimeo (a printing firm taking up space in the new warehouse we built). There is so much energy and investment pouring into our City from a new hotel coming to our downtown (and creating hundreds of jobs) to tech companies like Audible.com and All Hip Hop.com who have taken up residence in Newark – this generates jobs and further economic dynamism.

E. We just launched a Port One Stop job center to open up hundreds of jobs for people at Newark’s Port,

F. We have a host of programs for ex-offenders – one great example (that you hit on) is a program that hires people coming home from prison directly in our parks and grounds department to clean and green lots around the City. This is considered a transitional job program and we work with these folks to develop their job skills for better job opportunities while they get on their feet.

G. We have a host of job development opportunities for young people. The best one I believe is the Youth Education Employment Success Center or the YEES Center. This works with disaffected or at risk youth to find employment, careers (with unions and others) and helps to empower them for life success.

H. One final example is the new businesses we are launching through our minority/small business/female headed business loan fund. Small businesses are the true engine of job creation in America and we have a strong strategy in that sector as well.

2. You asked about trolley or light rail on Bloomfield Ave. I think improving mass transit is key to Newark’s success. There are no plans for this type of expansion right now and my explorations to this end have been limited by tightening budgets. Additionally, we just recently had light rail expansion that is still building out its ridership in our downtown but we are working with NJ Transit on creating rapid bus lanes that would significantly speed bus traffic along key routes in Newark.

Please keep the ideas coming Neil Lori. . . I do think that they are helpful and constructive.

To Marilyn and her special needs son.

Marilyn,

On Thursday evening during my radio show on WBGO, I had a direct conversation with Dr. Janey, the new NPS Superintendent, about special needs children in our school system. I was so pleased to hear that, even though he was only in his first month on the job, this seemed to be one of his highest priorities for making needed changes. During the radio show he discussed this with the public and offered up his office number for calls regarding issues with special needs children. I strongly suggest you reach out to his office with any concerns you have. Also, my team in City Hall will continue to work with him as he focuses on the challenges our special needs program faces and on ensuring that the resources are there and used properly.

Finally, you can reach out to me any time on any issue. As a resident, you should feel free to call my office and speak with my Constituent Services staff or come to my open office hours to discuss this issue further or anything else you like with me directly. My next open office hours are this Tuesday, September 23 at 4:00 p.m. at Arts High School on Martin Luther King Blvd. The Mayor’s Office’s general number is 973.733.6400 — feel free to call if you have other questions.

For Kay, who had some thoughts on our non-emergency call line.

Kay,

I am so happy you used the service and that you found our operators caring and helpful — particularly back during the pilot phase when we were still working the kinks out of the service. I hope you will call back and I believe you will find the service even better.

We sent teams to check out other city’s call centers. Every city, including New York City, took some time to ramp their programs up and build up their efficiency. These lines grow organically, the longer we have them the better the knowledge base on the lines and the more the services grow.

Further, the lines are a powerful management tool for my team. We know that right now it may take a short while (longer than I’d like) to address some conditions — this line now gives us another good objective tool to measure the productivity of departments and hold them accountable for the speed with which they address the concerns of our residents. With this tool, I can make sure that we improve –- that each month departments get smarter, swifter and more successful.

Finally, the hours are indeed curtailed (Monday through Friday, 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.). I visited the call center on Friday after 5:00 p.m. and there was very little call volume. Right now, the volume of calls we get after business hours is small and, at this time, I do not believe weekend service is a good investment. However, I hope that, as more residents discover the service and begin to rely on it, we can expand the hours of service as is appropriate.

To Fawn, a dedicated Newarker.

Fawn,

Thank you, thank you for such a candid note (and for your support). Fawn, please come to my office hours this Tuesday. I have been known (much to my staff’s frustration) to spend much more than 5 minutes with people. Lets start the conversation on Tuesday and, if we don’t have enough time to cover what you want and it seems to both of us that more time is warranted, I will definitely schedule some time with you as I often do with many other residents.

Truth be told we get dozens (maybe even hundreds) of requests for meetings every week – as you said, people just want to have direct contact with their Mayor. If we scheduled every request from one week’s worth of request, it would take more than one month to do the meetings. I have a phenomenal team in City Hall and usually most of the meetings are taken by the appropriate person on our team (from a Newark Police Department captain to the head of Economic Development). I would so like to meet with every person in the City directly but it would be incredibly challenging. . . . with 280,000 residents in Newark, if 1 in 10 wanted to meet directly with me for 10 minutes, it would take me 194 days (working 24 hour days with no breaks) to meet with all of them all. Even when I have campaigned in the past and knocked on doors in Newark for months, I still am only able to meet a fraction of the total registered voters in our great City — and, in 2006. I took off from work and put my efforts into campaigning full-time.

But I don’t think Newarkers want me, as their Mayor, operating in this way. Folks want me to be fighting for Newark, managing City departments, pushing our proactive goals, raising money for parks, re-entry programs and other important projects, lobbying Trenton and Washington D.C. for our issues, dealing with crises as they arise, etc.

I do agree with you — on top of this, I believe it is critical for me to be in my community. So I pull very long days. I have tried in this blog to give people a feeling of what my typical days are like. They often start early in the morning and go until late at night. And I am all over our City – from birthday parties of friends and constituents, too many funerals and wakes, hanging out in restaurants and barbershops, going to churches, block parties, tenant meetings, having meetings with community leaders . . . . well you get the point and hopefully you have been seeing this in my blogs.

This job is the greatest privilege I have ever had.

Some members of my family and friends complain to me that I am not living a balanced life (and my mother is starting to talk a lot more these days about me getting married and having kids) –- but truth is, I just love what I do and I just don’t want to let up on the pace I’m keeping. There are too many urgencies in our City right now.

What I love most about this wonderful job is our community – Newark residents are my lifeline and I particularly love being in the neighborhoods and talking to folks who love Newark and want to see their community get better. Some of my best ideas for my job come from residents who take their time to reach out to me or my City Hall team and give us their thoughts — just yesterday we broke ground on a park that was redesigned after we received input from residents after our plans were unveiled during a community meeting.

Fawn, I will do my best to continue to meet with residents and to improve in my serving them.

I believe I am one of the few mayors in our tri-state area that has open office hours – this is one of my chances in a long 4 to 6 hour period to meet directly with residents. I hope you will use this time and this blog to communicate with me. And, again Fawn, I make this offer to you — if we feel we don’t have enough time on Tuesday then lets schedule some more time to meet – maybe at Kings on Clinton Avenue – they make great black eyed peas. I will buy.

This was a different kind of marathon — a Saturday with 12 events from 8:30 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. Here goes:

1 and 2 Obama Rallies–- Local 472 in Newark and Passaic County Democrats.
3 Walk to Support Sickle Cell Anemiain Weequahic Park –- amazing people  assembled for a profound purpose.
4 Health Fair at Galilee Baptist Church on Lyons Avenue.
5 Fire House reopening– my Administration fulfilled a promise to completely renovate and reopen the firehouse on Bergen and Lehigh (it is beautiful — please go by and see it!).
6 Parade – NCC Community parade – I didn’t march but I had a lot of fun and bought apple bread and a sweet potato pie.
7 Elwood Park Groundbreaking at Summer and Elwood Avenues – another great park going up in Newark.  This is truly a community partnership – residents helped design the park which is funded by a public/private partnership.
8 Unity Youth Movement -– our kids (and a phenomenal team from Technology High School) stood with others on Broad and Market Streets to talk about youth empowerment.
9 Café Opcao Grand Opening– Such a great great place!  I encourage everyone to visit Café Opcao at Lafayette and Wilson Avenues.
10 Community party – a phenomenal block party in the East Ward.
11 Mentoring event in the North Ward where people gathered to sign up mentors for our City-wide mentoring initiative (visit www.newarkmentors.org if you are interested in becoming a mentor!).
12 Speech on community unity at the Jewish Center in Teaneck –- I am so grateful for the help of some of the folks in that community and their focus on uniting to fight for social justice.

Home by midnight to shower and sleep . . . .

Commercials . . . like you, I spent a lot of my life seeing commercials and many have stuck with me.

“Where’s the Beef?”My parents took pleasure in turning off the television, reading to me, getting me out of the house, taking me to church and cultural events, fueling my love of sports but

“You deserve a break today!”

I often found a way to sneak my favorite shows,

“Plop Plop, Fizz Fizz . . .”

and so I became a bit familiar with commercials

“The germs that cause gingivitis.”

and now I spend a handful of hours every month or so filming commercials for Newark.

“I’m not only the Hair Club President, I am also a client.”

Of course Newark isn’t selling anything.

“An Educated Consumer is Our Best Customer.”

Ours are called PSAs – Public Service Announcements.

“Fly the Friendly Skies.”

On Friday, we tripled up on filming commercials . . .

“Special orders don’t upset us.”

first, a  commercial about our non-emergency call center – 973.733.4311;

“M’m! M’m! Good!”

second, a commercial about the Mayor’s Achievement Challenge and  the incentives that I am offering (together with Prudential Foundation and other partners) to NPS high school juniors for academic achievement, public service and attendance;

“Where performance is Job #1.”

and third,  a call out to the community for Newarkers to join the Newark Police Department –- my goal is to get another 150 to 200 police on our streets over the next year to 18 months.

“Be all that you can be.”

And so my life comes full circle –- from watching to being in commercials  — I mean PSAs . . .

“I don’t want to grow up I’m a . . .”

Every few weeks, my staff and I plan a day that is almost exclusively focused on bringing opportunity to Newark — Thursday was such a day.

It started early morning in a meeting in New York City with representatives of about 20 different foundations — it was a great opportunity as only a handful of them have been involved in Newark before but all of them had a keen interest in what we are doing in the City and, I believe, a desire to be part of our progress.

The foundations ranged from corporate foundations to private family foundations. I shared our three key priorities (public safety, youth and family empowerment and massively expanding economic opportunities for our residents) and talked about our efforts to reform government from customer service (our non-emergency response line) to reforming corruption (including the creation of the Office of Inspector General). I was so encouraged by the response and believe that we will build new partnerships and embolden those that exist. I was also impressed with the dedication of the individuals representing the foundations - incredibly knowledgeable and very passionate.

After that meeting, things really took off –

I met with a number of editorial boards from The Financial Times to Bloomberg News (Wall Street Journal canceled because of the financial crisis) – and gave some interviews as well. Our goal here is to work with those financial outlets that speak to businesses leaders, real estate brokers and others who make decisions on corporate locations (and relocations).

Newark has so many competitive advantages – they are magnified now in this economy. Our biggest advantages are cost and location — we are the lowest cost location in the region, and so accessible. A company leasing 100,000 square feet of class A space in Newark can save $40 to $70 million over a 10-year period. Further, with the greatest transportation infrastructure on the East coast, the ability to move goods and people is superior to any other location. We talked very bluntly about this and the many other things that were happening in Newark – dramatic and record-breaking violent crime reduction, the strength of our workforce, and examples of other companies that are beginning to flow to Newark bringing significant investment and hundreds of jobs (Standard Chartered Bank, law firms like Genova Burns, AMB Warehousing , audible.com, Mimeo, All Hip Hop.com and many others).

During the day, Stefan Pryor, my Deputy Mayor of Economic Development, Joe Richie, Director of Brick City Development Corporation (Newark’s new economic development corporation) and I would jump on the phone and call companies with which we are negotiating to relocate to Newark. I’m pretty excited about a number of the deals that are getting closer to the finish line.

All in all, our business attraction strategies are vast and involve everything from proactively calling businesses whose leases are expiring in expensive markets to advertising in business publications. But days like this are incredibly valuable – speaking directly to companies and to the key business publications they read.

My night ended with my radio show with Dr. Cliff Janey and a speech at an event held at the NJPAC by All Hip Hop.com, one of the new exciting companies coming to Newark. You can download any of my monthly radio shows from WBGO’s website. And, please visit All Hip Hop.com — they are truly an exciting company soon to be joining Newark’s success story.

Parks

Today we had another groundbreaking for our parks initiative – I am so proud of how we are transforming the City with all the new parks but this one is a point of significant pride. We were at Boys’ Park (yes, I am wondering how it got that name — and, as a young girl who was visiting my office asked me when she saw the plans, “Where is the Girls’ Park?”). This park is a point of pride because like Skull Park (another name I don’t quite understand) on Highway 21, Boys’ Park marks one of the entrances to our City. As people come off Route 280 onto First Street, they are immediately greeted by what is officially designated a City park — but all that the park has been (for decades) is a dumping ground, or even a parking lot, for vehicles or worse. By the end of December, it will be a new state-of-the-art park with some very impressive features. I am excited about this one and the two others we broke ground on today. . . . really a fantastic transformation going on in Newark (we may have to work on the names of some of our parks — I have to do the research to figure out how we got a Boys’ Park and not a Girls’ Park!).

City Budget

We are already at work on the City’s 2009 budget and had a directors’ meeting at 9:00 a.m. to begin the discussion. After my 8:00 a.m. police meeting, I was in a good mood (great progress) but the Directors’ meeting provided a sobering reality — yet again, I had to ask our City directors, a group of the most dedicated public servants I know, to do even more with even less.

The team assembled in that room this morning has already accomplished singular results in our State. They have reduced the cost of government in Newark approximately 10% to 15% in the last two years and have increased revenue into the City in the same percentage (by doing everything from increasing our percentage of special tax collection –- parking taxes, etc. — to more aggressively pursuing absentee landlords with fines).

In addition to those achievements, our directors have been phenomenal in working with me to get millions of more dollars for our City in grants and philanthropic support. The above-mentioned parks are just one example of how our public/private partnerships are transforming our City — we also have received millions of dollarts in grants and donations for our prisoner re-entry programs, millions of dollars in grants and donations for our education initatives and millions of dollars in grants for public safety initiatives for everything from cameras to cash for anonymous tip lines. We also have a thriving program in City Hall in which we have executives on loan and staff members paid for by foundations (Chelsea Albucher, our Sustainability Officer, and Jeremy Johnson, our philanthropic liaison, are two of these privately funded staffers and they are now helping us get a lot of additional funding).

Despite these successes, we are still facing daunting realities and challenges. The cost of pension contributions and healthcare costs are skyrocketing — 10% to 30% increases per year during the last two years. Energy costs have almost doubled — making everything from street lights to heating recreation centers so much more costly. The biggest challenge is that, for over a decade, our City has been relying on non-recurring revenue to balance its budget -– one time revenue that just isn’t there anymore. This year we had to obtain special municipal aid from the State to balance our budget.

So this morning, I had to ask a group of professionals who have been meeting every goal I have set for them –- goals in efficiency (i.e., the Fire Department cutting millions in overtime with better personnel management), goals in innovation (i.e., the launch of 11 family success centers throughout our City), goals in performance (i.e., the Police Department’s record setting violent crime reductions), even goals in improving customer service (i.e., the launch of the our non-emergency customer service hot line — (973) 733-4311) — to cut more, cut deeper and cut everywhere. Everything is on the table.

In 2006, upon taking office, then Business Administrator, Bo Kemp, and I sat down and looked at the realities of the City’s budget crisis — we felt if we all pulled together and were herculean in our efforts, then we could achieve long-term budget stability in Newark by the end of 2011. We put together a 5-year plan to financial strength that wouldn’t unduly burden the taxpayer in Newark. We didn’t (and couldn’t) anticipate the energy crisis, an American economy in the tank and a number of the other budget disasters that were left for us (horrible losing lawsuits from the past being one example).

Now it is on Business Administrator, Michelle Thomas, my department directors and other key staff to be the leaders that our City urgently needs. This is what I said to my directors this morning: We didn’t make this crisis, but we have to be the ones to resolve it. I told them that before them is one of their greatest professional challenges that they must rise to meet. They must become masters of minutia. I understand the hardships they are facing, I understand that I am asking them to pull rabbits from hats, and I know that theirs is a labor hidden from most, their heroic labors now will not earn them TV appearances or their names in the newspaper. But I told them that I know this is not what they work for. I told them that I can’t reward them with pay bonuses, their reward will be the pride that comes from knowing that they faced one of the City’s worst financial challenges and met it with courage and genius –- that they were the group that cleaned up our City, after years and years of financial mistakes, that they were the group that brought the City to where it must be, to what our citizens deserve.

I gave props to Michelle Thomas who is leading this charge. She and this team have no choice but to succeed on the 2009 budget. I will accept nothing less. I have confidence in them and this process. After years and years of doing it the wrong way, it is time to put up or shut down. Newark will persevere, Newark will thrive, I know my team will get it right.