Welcome to this special issue of The Positive Community!

This issue of the magazine is dedicated to the City of Newark . Our city is in the midst of powerful change, exciting new opportunities and indeed a spiritual resurgence. More than ever we are a community that is coming together to claim a divine destiny.

Without vision, the people will indeed perish. Our new administration along with community leaders throughout the city are determined to make Newark the national leader in urban transformation, specifically in the areas of public safety, economic development, and child and family success. With renewed commitment, new energy, bold ideas and a constant infusion of our shared community values, I believe the coming years will be the most exciting in Newark 's history.

In the area of public safety, we are radically transforming our police department. Over 100 religious leaders have now joined our police clergy alliance to help protect our neighborhoods and significantly improve police community relations. Our department has been able to move hundreds of more police officers to the streets and start numerous programs to better reduce crime and violence in our city. We have doubled the size of special task forces like those focused on gangs, narcotics and internal affairs and have begun the process of introducing cutting-edge technology into our department, including a 4 million dollar camera program for our streets. While we have much more work to do, our efforts have already produced a 27% reduction in shootings – meaning there have been over 100 less people shot in Newark this year than last. We stand firmly in faith that we can bring peace to our streets and success to our city.

We know that success, however, will only come if we also empower our community economically. We have launched a number of programs to ensure that Newark residents have better access to quality business opportunities and jobs. In support of local minority businesses, we have created a multimillion dollar loan fund, changed our land disposition policy so that local minority developers can benefit from abundant development opportunities, and are holding numerous business information and training sessions to ensure our minority and women-owned businesses are prepared and have access to contracting opportunities with city hall and other large development projects. Companies like Cablevision, Verizon and port businesses have been partnering with us to hire more local residents. One shining example is Continental Airlines, which has moved from hiring 7% of their employees from Newark to over 33%. Our new arena, The Prudential Center, has also proven to be an engine for job and business growth in our city. 

Our commitment to economic opportunity for Newark residents goes beyond just creating new jobs; we are also focused on the quality of those jobs. We are proud that our city is the first in New Jersey to pass prevailing wage legislation that ensures that any worker on a city contract will get paid a living wage. We also strongly believe that we can no longer turn our backs on our men and women returning from prison. Their success is our success and their failure is inevitably felt by us all. Accordingly, many of our City’s programs now focus on ensuring that more job opportunities and training is available for all of our residents.

We are pushing forward for our children and families as well. We have embarked on the biggest park expansion and recreation center construction and rehab project our city has seen in decades. We are expanding youth job opportunities, alternative training programs for at-risk youth, and our support for public education in Newark . We are soon kicking off more than 10 family success centers - community based programs where families can go for everything from health care to information about jobs and youth programs. We are stepping up for our seniors by rehabilitating many senior centers, improving our senior transportation program with new busses, and expanding health care assistance. 

All around Newark the signs of change, hope and progress can be seen. Newark is New Jersey’s great city- from arts and culture to industry and transportation- here in this city we are tirelessly working to manifest the glory of God’s children. As a man thinketh so shall he be” – in Newark , with bold thoughts and an expansive vision, we are bringing about a glorious transformation.