November 20, 2005

Newark Arena

The Newark Arena is going up on a full city block Downtown, bounded on the north by Edison Place, south by Lafayette Street, east by Mulberry Street, and west by Broad Street. There will be a small parking structure on that block, and other places to park to the east. The Devils have provided a photo gallery of closeups of the model without the plexiglass enclosure that protects it as displayed to the public (and which interfered with my own photos of the model), but there are no captions to the photos at that site. My pictures below are all captioned, so you can know what it is you're seeing.

Ground has been broken on one of Mayor Sharpe James's key development projects, a large indoor arena for hockey, and other things, in the Downtown area just a few minutes' walk from the Newark Penn Station nexus of Amtrak and NJTransit trains, regional buses, and the Newark City Subway. There are as well many local buses that pass within a few blocks of the site, including one (the No. 1, as a matter of fact) that runs from my corner right down Market Street to within one block of the Arena, then on to Jersey City (the state's second-largest city, and quite impressive in its own way; I'd like to see the two merge into a Greater Newark, a consolidation of the most urbanized areas of Essex and Hudson Counties).

The proposal, years ago, to build an arena Downtown, largely with public funds, ran afoul of powerful forces, including resentment from suburbs and even Jersey City, which despite its rich infusion of outside money, from New York City and international investors, resented any public moneys going to build up Newark. You see, Newark is only a little larger in population but has long held the title of New Jersey's largest city, despite a massive buildup of Jersey City, which bears a short form of the state's name, so may feel it should be the state's largest city. Bret Schundler, the former Republican Mayor of J.C., very publicly agitated against a Newark Arena. Schundler has, however, been rejected by the voters in two bids to become Governor of New Jersey — perhaps for that very dog-in-the-manger attitude.

Not content to build Jersey City up, Schundler and others have worked to pull Newark down. Not nice, not necessary, and not wise. Any slander of Newark taints Jersey City too, because the cities are a lot more alike than different, which is why they'd be great together, as a two-boro Greater Newark, like the five-boro Greater New York that the New York State Legislature created into a single city in governmental form in 1898 and New Yorkers created into a single city emotionally over the ensuing decades.

So contentious was the issue of a Newark Arena — to build or not to build, at private or public expense, those were the questions — that even usually savvy observers bet it would never happen. Steve Adubato, who is a big shot in North Jersey public television, wrote an opinion piece in July 2002, still online at http://politicsnj.com/adubato071802.htm, that says in part:

Even though I was born and raised in Newark and still am actively involved in a variety of Newark related activities, my thinking is this Newark arena deal is just about dead. I really wanted the Devils and the Nets to come to Newark. I thought it would be a great thing for the city. I thought it would be great for Newark to be the place in New Jersey with two great sports franchises playing there. I wanted to believe building the arena would attract all sorts of people who either used to live in a city or had never even visited a city. I wanted to believe that building a Newark sports arena would help breakdown longstanding barriers between urban and suburban residents as well as whites and minorities. What was I thinking?

Adubato saw Bergen County, which contains the Continental Airlines Arena that the Newark Arena will largely replace, suburbanites, and South Jersey as so adamant in their opposition that the project could not proceed. Moreover, he saw a racial divide working against the creation of the Arena.

The final piece of this has to do with race. According to the Public Mind Survey, the Newark sports arena is divided this way: 60% of whites say it's a bad idea to move the Devils and Nets into Newark, while 60% of blacks say it is a good idea. 74% of whites say the government should not help pay for the arena, while 50% of blacks say the government should help. Once this issue gets looked at in terms of race, the arena loses. There are simply a lot more white voters than black voters. This sickens me to even think this way, but it is a fact. New Jersey's Legislature is largely dominated by white suburbanites.

He made a great case for why the Arena could not be built, even tho he thought it should be built. He concluded that piece thus:

If the Newark sports arena doesn't happen, it is going to be a shame. It will be a tremendous opportunity missed. And if and when the Devils and Nets wind up somewhere in Connecticut five years from now, lots of people are going to be wondering what happened, but then it will be too late. Just another case of politics and public opinion in NJ getting in the way of progress.

What Mr. Adubato and other naysayers didn't adequately appreciate is the will of Mayor James and the people of Newark to build this city into a great urban center everyone in the state, urban and suburban, Democrat and Republican, white and black, can look upon with pride, no longer shame. Under everything, New Jerseyans want to believe that Newark can come back, because Newark used to be terrific — their parents told them so — and they'd like it to be terrific again, a place that does them proud. New Jerseyans know that Newark has almost everything it takes to make a world-class city, and they want New Jersey to be seen as a world-class place, a destination not just for business and beach tourism but also for glamorous jet-setters and adventurous twenty-somethings who crave the excitement of a great city.

This is a view of the Broad Street side of the Arena. The three odd-shaped white forms against the red backdrop represent the Devils' three Stanley Cup wins. Yes, the Stanley Cup really is that ugly. But the Devils like it.

Note the church and cornice-topped office building to its left. In case you don't recognize the two existing buildings from their gray form in the model, here's a picture of what they look like in reality.

The narrow, yellow-fronted facade with the three arches in the model is the Broad Street entrance to the Arena. To the right of that, in gray, is the "community" space that the Devils organization will be building to accommodate citizen groups devoted to public purposes.

So Mayor James, with his will of iron and New Jerseyans' sub-rosa will to make Newark great again, rammed thru this project and used Newarkers' insistent optimism in the future of their city to give 210 million taxpayer dollars to the project. He won greater rights for our city than most NHL teams have given the municipal partners in their arenas, and wrung more funding for additional development — a hotel, for instance — than other cities have won.

Now, construction has begun. The failed Renaissance Mall is no longer a standing rebuke to the claim that Newark is a city in revival. It has been demolished, removed from the city's consciousness, in the first phase of site clearing.

The Devils organization has created an architectural model of the Arena that is now traveling among the branch libraries of the Newark Public Library. I caught up with it at the Vailsburg Branch, the day it arrived. The Devils organization sent a former player (to make a presentation on hockey), the team mascot, and a public-relations woman, Hope Gamble, of whom I asked some questions. See my Newark blog entry of November 19th for a description of the reception with some pictures. This page will deal with the lasting aspects of the Arena project.

This is the Lafayette Street side of the complex.

When I took this photo I had not yet talked to Ms. Gamble, so did not really know what, specifically, was to be built on that frontage. Consequently, the key feature of that side of the project is partially obscured by the gray building in front. The full-color structure behind the gray warehouse in this view, and lower than the main Arena structure, is a second sheet of ice, for team practice. When it is not in use for team practice, however, it will be available to the public for skating clinics, after-school hockey programs for kids, practice by college groups — in short, Ms. Gamble says, "a lot of people will be able to use it, [it's] very multi-use". I observed that "You don't want it empty when it's not in use for the team", and Ms. Gamble said categorically, "Certainly not".

I have been wary of using public moneys to benefit millionaire sports stars, but I'm feeling a lot better about our $210 million public investment since I spoke with Hope Gamble, whose memory-device for her name holds for this project as well: "Take a gamble, hope for the best."

Originally, the Arena was to serve two major-league sports teams, the New Jersey Nets of the National Basketball Association and the New Jersey Devils of (Canada's) National Hockey League. But the Nets were sold to a man from Brooklyn who is moving the team back to New York, to a new arena to be built in Brooklyn thru abuse of "eminent domain" whereby a private developer will be permitted to force owners of private property to sell to another private owner, against their will. This kind of outrageous misuse of eminent domain was approved in 2005 by the U.S. Supreme Court, but so violently opposed by the public in general that many states and localities have passed laws against use of eminent domain for anything but public use by public entities. Be that as it may, the Nets have crossed the Hudson River twice so far,and seem bound to cross it a third time.

After the ABA's first year (1967-68), the troubled New Jersey Americans franchise moved to Long Island and became the New York Nets. The "Nets" nickname was picked because it rhymed with "Mets" and "Jets."

The New Jersey Americans played their first season in the magnificent and historic Teaneck Armory. (I was born in Teaneck's Holy Name Hospital, tho my family lived in Palisades Park at the time.)

Then the team moved to Long Island.

Then they moved back to New Jersey, playing at a Rutgers arena in Piscataway until the Brendan Byrne Arena in the Meadowlands was completed.

Now they are supposed to move to Brooklyn when Bruce Ratner's new arena is completed. But in any case, they are (apparently) not moving to the Newark Arena.

Here is the Mulberry Street side, which shows a clearer view, on the left, of the low structure that will house the second sheet of ice that is to be open to the public when not in use for Devils practice.

Still, the Arena as designed lends itself to a number of other sports, prime among which is basketball.

Seton Hall University's men's basketball team has played in the Byrne Arena, so it would be natural for Seton Hall to play its big games in that arena's successor. After all, Seton Hall's main campus is only a tad over 4 miles from the Arena; the Seton Hall Law School is located at One Newark Center, less than five blocks from the new venue; and the name of the new facility is the "Newark Arena", not the "Devils Arena", so it is appropriate for Seton Hall, Rutgers/Newark, and other Newark-metro teams to play their biggest games in the Newark Arena.

Arena football is another sport the Newark Arena could accommodate, tho there are not presently any commitments from anyone to do that.

There is, however, an understanding with the Major Indoor Soccer League. Indeed, Ms. Gamble said that MISL would be headquartered in the Arena. Of course, soccer is not a great favorite of native-born Americans, but is hugely popular in many foreign-born communities, such as the Ironbound's burgeoning Portuguese and Brazilian community. The Ironbound starts a mere four blocks from the Arena site.

Another possibility is indoor lacrosse, an old Indian game that does not have a wide following but is played by many colleges.

Another possibility is roller hockey, which has been played in the Continental Arena.

Aside from sports, music provides another great opportunity for a Newark Arena. Bruce Springsteen has had a number of enormously successful runs at the Byrne/Continental Arena. He would presumably be very happy to perform in a Newark Arena, especially given his political sympathies (which this week caused the Republican-dominated Congress to refuse recognition for his music). Hiphop artists, including Newark's own Queen Latifah, would be instantly drawn to Newark, and performers of many other musical genres would recognize that the Newark Arena is the great venue of North Jersey, which is in turn one of the most populous markets in the Nation. (If North Jersey were considered a single metropolitan area, its 5 million population would put it near the top of the list of the Nation's great cities.)

Oddly, if fortuitously, once the Newark Arena is completed, the existing Continental Airlines Arena is set to "downscale" itself from the current capacity of 19,040 for hockey and 20,000 for concerts to a "Theater at Continental Airlines Arena" that can accommodate only 4,000, so it will not compete with the Newark Arena for major concerts. Also oddly, the Newark facility is planned to hold only 17,800 spectators for hockey, fewer than the Continental Arena. I don't know why.

Other kinds of events are also possible, whether presently envisioned or not. For instance, some types of meetings and conventions might gather in the Arena and in the hotel to be built nearby as part of the deal. Meetings and conventions are an important segment of the economy, and give host cities the chance to strut their stuff to outsiders.

What else?

How about an annual or twice-yearly art show? (See my discussion of a Newark Newart Expo within the October 3, 2004 entry to my Newark USA blog.)

How about bringing PBS television's hit program, the Antiques Roadshow, to the Newark Arena? That would bring a lot of upper middle class white people into Downtown Newark, and once they see how safe, handsome, and convenient Newark is, many might return regularly. Newark is certainly easy to get to.

One reason the Devils wanted to move out of the Meadowlands is the dearth of public transportation to the Continental Arena. NJTransit has built a new station in the southern portion of the Meadowlands to remedy that in some measure, but it is not really convenient to the Sports Complex, and one train station cannot even begin to compare with the thick complex of buses, trains, subway, and even ships and airplanes that converge in Newark.

Moreover, Newark has two major interstate highways north-south and two east-west, with relatively little traffic at nite when many games would be played. It also has a large resident population close by. The only living creatures close to the Continental Arena are muskrats and seagulls — and no, those are not the names of local sports teams. Tho much of Newark's inner-city population might not be particularly interested in hockey, they might be interested in arena football, indoor soccer, college basketball, and concerts.

The urban population of Essex and Hudson Counties that can easily visit the Newark Arena by public transportation is on the order of 750,000. The suburban population that can visit easily by public transportation is perhaps another 2 million. Even a few thousand New Yorkers might brave the 13-mile trip from Midtown for, say, a Rangers-Devils matchup or NCAA championship series. Moreover, a lot of suburbanites for whom public transit is either not convenient or not cost-effective (it is often cheaper for a family or group of four or five friends to drive and park than to take a train or bus) will find parking structures and/or parking lots aplenty — even, at nite, some on-street parking — to accommodate them. The Arena is to occupy a wonderful site, absolutely perfect in terms of bringing in a maximal potential audience.

That's the key to Newark's future. Get people into Newark and they will discover that it is nothing like what they thought it was. Get out of the enclosed Gateway office complex. Get onto the streets. Meet Newarkers, and learn from that interaction how very nice the overwhelming preponderance of them (us) are. Have a good time at a hockey game or concert in the Arena, or ballet or opera at NJPAC. Enjoy a great meal at one of Newark's magnificent restaurants (Forno's, Iberia, Spain, Maize, you-name-it). And see that nobody robs you, nobody panhandles you, nobody bothers you. Downtown Newark and the Ironbound after dark are about as safe as any major city in this country. You go, you enjoy, you come out alive. And hopefully you then go back and tell your neighbors and friends that this horrendous fear they have of Newark is bunk, utter nonsense that they have got to get over.

This is the Edison Place frontage, which looks to be the main entrance to the complex.

Newark needs nitelife, and I hope the Arena will provide the nucleus of a sparkling, multifaceted nite scene — coffee houses, comedy clubs, jazz clubs, and dance clubs; restaurants and bars that stay open late (and let's move our bar-closing time back to at least 4 a.m., like Manhattan, or even permit 24-hour booze if establishments choose, which could bring late-niters to Newark from Manhattan!); 24-hour convenience stores; open-air tables and benches where small groups can linger with friends safe in the middle of the nite, enjoying the sociability of the city as against the isolation of the suburbs.

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Urban revival often spreads from keystone projects. In Midtown Manhattan, it was the Time-Life Building extension to Rockefeller Center. In Downtown Manhattan, it was the Chase Manhattan tower, then World Trade Center. Baltimore built its magnificent Inner Harbor esplanade — which is wonderful; if you haven't been there, go. Long Beach, California bought the Queen Mary ocean liner and made it the focus of an oceanfront development. San Antonio built its Riverwalk.

These developments took little of the city's total area, but they made a huge difference. Maybe the Newark Arena can do for Newark what those projects did for those cities. It's certainly worth a try.