Arena News

[myhomenewark]

http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/jersey...5116423330.xml

I cannot understand why NJSEA are allowed to use my tax dollars to compete with a new Newark arena. Where's Schundler when you need him? The Meadowlands development is a culmination of years of favorable, and bad, tax policies favoring undeveloped land over land in need of redevelopment. And real estate development cannot help but have a large, built-in racial component to it as well (what's "desirable" as opposed to "undesirable"). New Jersey elected officials need to do the right thing and advocate for NJSEA's closing of the outdated Continental Airlines arena so that the new Newark arena can rise unimpeded. Wasn't the Xanadu project supposed to be the quid pro quo?

Act like one state New Jersey.... Let OUR CITY, Newark, rise again on an even playing field.

[J. Sharpe James, J.D.]

Non-Newarkers never want Newark to succeed!

[5Reasons]

I don’t care if the arena doesn’t make a dime and loses MILLIONS. I don’t care if the ONLY tenant is Shabazz’s girls team. That’s how angry I am with burbarians over this deal. Sharpe was pitching this plan over 6 years ago. If the burbarians didn’t want Newarkers to have it then, they should have had the courage to squash the rhetoric at the beginning, instead of their racist/mobile logic that they used since 1998.

But again, everyone wants to talk about the unfair terms that Newark has to deal with BUT NOONE has talked about how Newark was boxed into a corner by the burbarians in the first place. Newark had a better deal when the economy was much better and the burbarians stopped that.

But what really blows me up is that I NEVER heard the burbarians raise a peep when Newark has to take on all this unwanted crap. As long as it’s another jail, another garbage facility, another half-way house, drug treatment center, high-rise project, homeless shelter et al, the burbarians NEVER say a word. Two years ago, Candace “I’m not” Straight was running for County Exec and she was campaigning on “stopping the Sharpe James arena” at the same time she wanted to “open up a hospital for the mentally ill” in Newark. That’s the stereotypical burbarian mentality. If there’s something you don’t want, or you don’t need, give it to Newark. Of course, Newark officials are so hard up for cash, they’ll take it (Modern day step and fetch it.)

John is correct – the last offense for all Newarkers should have been that 1.2 BILLION dollar boondoggle in the swamp. They are willing to keep an arcane arena and put 200 MILLION dollars to “remodel” it and it WON’T have one team. (Just wait until Sharpe jacks SHU basketball from that dump). Then they put ANOTHER mall (like we need that) and my absolute favorite – INDOOR SKIIING. Please tell me what market researcher told them that indoor skiing would be popular in the swamp? These guys also pitched a 200 MILLION dollar swamp rail line that had more loops, twists and turns than Six Flag’s Batman rollercoaster. And, these guys had the hubris to pitch ANOTHER 50 million in highway construction.

Newarkers SHOULD NEVER think they are true residents of New Jersey. We are not. If burbarians could bomb Newark, they would. It’s just that simple.

[Doofus1]

This is what Newark is up against. People continue to rail against an arena in Newark because the money could be better spent, but no one truly complains about Xanadudu. It is disheartening.

http://www.nj.com/columns/ledger/mcl...5114218890.xml

[myhomenewark]

Since when has there been a public outcry about providing for Newark's poor? I get so sick of this sanctimonius, hypocritcal hue and cry becuase Newark has a chance to use a little seed money to make things better. It's almost like saying I win $10,000 in the lottery and I quit my job. That $10,000 is not going to last anytime. What will I do when it's gone?

Honestly, I'm not quite sure that an arena is the best way to spend this money in Newark. However, "programs for the poor" should not be what Newark does with its money. McLaughlin needs to advocate for federal- or state-level spending for programs for the poor. Doesn't Camden have poor? St. Louis? Washington, D.C.? What about the Meadowlands district? Are there no poor there? Or have those who would be their poor been forced through our wonderful American "level playing field" to mainly reside in Newark? What's Teterboro, NJ, doing with its airport revenue? The poor are part of relationship between capitalism, immigration, racism and neglect. Why does Newark have to take its investment income to momentarily make milder this thing which is much larger than this city? Aren't all the jobs for the poor mainly out of Newark anyway? Wasn't that the whole idea behind Mt. Laurel?

It's all about power relationships and expectations of what one thinks is appropriate which oftentimes people understand better when those folks look just like them. Mr. McLaughlin needs to examine his conclusions with an understanding that he may be unintentionally biased. In other words, Newark does not need McLaughlin as its Great White Father in this instance. If he wants to father something, then do better at articulating the structural relationships that allow the urban poor to be concentrated in one area and extrapolate how we're all going to deal with this as individuals and a nation. Then maybe next time Newark gets the opportunity to build something great, a team, philanthropists, etc., won't fall away as it gets stalled when someone's wrong-headed idea of what they think they contribute to Newark and what Newark owes them. They owe us.

I'd rather see a new arena anyday than to kowtow to his paternalistic, less than objective viewpoint.

[5Reasons]

That's all the burbarians want in Newark. More jails, more drug treatment centers, more half-way houses, more, more, more of all the crap that noone else wants and would cry like girlie-men if they had to house have the sh!t that Newark takes in.

Look, I want to do my fair share for the poor. In fact, I want to do MORE than my fair share; however, what I DON'T want to do, is EVERYONES share.

It's time for Newark to get out of the business of being the sole refuge "for the poor."

[Doofus1]

Talk about the tail wagging the dog, the Ledger is clearly on a mission here. Here is an article complaining about the fact that no one has agreed to fund the expense of upgrading the old CNJ bridge for pedestrian traffic. NJT is apparently willing to pay for stairs, elevators and platform extensions to connect it to Penn Station, so all we are talking about is the bridge itself.

HELLO! THIS IS NOT A REAL ISSUE! Anyone recall the steel box with plywood floors that crossed Rt 120 for 15 years at the Meadowlands? That didn't stop fans from coming to the games. All that is needed is a 2-block paved walkway that is safe. There is no magic to this.

http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/index....3917320890.xml

[Houseguest]

Couldn't agree with you more Doofus. I can't believe the SL is wasting ink and man hours writing anti-arena (aka anti Sharpe) articles such as that one. Perhaps the "footbridge" money, which isn't really needed, can come from the pot of gold that the STATE is using to help SUBSIDIZE Xanadudu.

By the way, the State IS virtually force-feeding this Meadowlands project down peoples throats. MANY ARE NOT thrilled about the idea of Xanadu. Here's an article the Ledger seemed to miss:


http://nj.com/news/jjournal/secaucus...1233371150.xml

[bqribs]

Can someone tell me why Newark needs an Arena? How will it benifit Newark residents, Essex County, or New Jersey?

[ProSouth]

Why did we need an Arena in the Meadowlands??????