How did Newark, New Jersey become a poor city in a wealthy region?

"An island of poverty in a vast ocean of material prosperity"
Homeownership and the Racial Wealth Gap in Newark, NJ

LEARN MORE: https://www.myleszhang.org/2024/03/05...

This is a Newark History Society program, co-sponsored by NJPAC and the Newark Public Library.

The world’s largest concentration of wealth is in the New York City metropolitan area, yet the region contains many under-resourced cities, including Newark. What historical factors created this division between low-income Newark and its wealthy neighbors along lines of race, housing, income and social class?

The agents of change are more complex and nuanced than a simple narrative of redlining and white flight following the 1967 uprising. From discriminatory actions by the Federal Housing Administration and highways that carved through the urban fabric, to suburbs that pulled middle-class families away from Newark and factories that relocated outside of the city, contemporary poverty in Newark was more than a century in the making.

Drawing from the archives of the Newark Public Library, this presentation examines the range of challenges Newark faces and how the city overcomes.

The presenter is Myles Zhang, urban historian and doctoral candidate in architecture at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

Chapters:
0:00 - Intro from Newark Public Library
0:47 - Intro from NJPAC
2:09 - Intro from Newark History Society
2:50 - About speaker Myles Zhang
4:47 - Myles Zhang Intro to PhD Dissertation on Race and Homeownership
9:28 - Three Guiding Questions
11:08 - Question 1: What was Newark’s 19th-c. Urban geography before homeownership?
15:18 - Question 2: How did America become a nation of homeowners?
23:50 - Question 3: How did increasing homeownership in the suburbs affect Newark?
25:00 - Redlining
31:42 - Great Migration
35:00 - Population Changes
43:15 - Population Loss Since 1967 Rebellion
45:15 - Impact of Highway Construction
48:54 - Conclusion
53:32 - History is not inevitable.
55:18 - Audience Q&A, What was impact of “urban renewal?”
58:12 - What policies do we need to promote homeownership downtown?
1:03:58 - What was the impact of “urban renewal” on homeownership?
1:06:05 - Can you talk about intergenerational wealth?
1:08:29 - What role does gentrification have on urban renewal?
1:09:53 - How did land and changes in technology influence population flight?
1:13:31 - What is the most important thing we can demand from city and state government to close the racial wealth gap?
1:15:00 - Newark Public Schools
1:17:48 - Tax Subsidies for Corporations
1:18:40 - What will be the future of Hispanic immigrants?
1:21:22 - How can we boost locals’ access to job opportunities?
1:23:56 - How can we combat corporations from buying out homeowners?
1:25:22 - How can we protect Newark residents from gentrification?
1:29:06 - Newark resident testimony from James Hollaway
1:40:45 - Concluding comment