Newark today
I felt compelled to write this letter after reading “Booker’s record” by Cheryl Bass (Letters, Sept. 26).
I took my car for inspection in Newark two weeks ago and decided to take a tour of where my family business was on Prince Street. I noticed that there were no longer the high-rise projects of my youth and that almost every block had either townhouses or one-story apartments. The streets were clean and property well maintained. I did see one large block that will be developed in the future, but that too was clean.
Then I drove over toward the inspection station and aside from the nearby factories, there also has been building going on. All looked to me to be relatively new, in good condition, and rather pleasing to the eye.
A few months back I needed to take some photographs of graves on 20th Street for family research. I was very happy to see that new three-family houses had been built and that I could walk to the cemetery on my own and take the necessary pictures without feeling unsafe.
I wonder when critics of Newark last stepped foot in or drove through the city? And why would the Jewish population, which moved out of Newark to the suburbs, want to return? The Italians and Irish left and I don’t think since they have become suburbanites they would also have a desire to return.
For myself, when I die I will be buried in Newark, the city in which I was born.
Ava Reinfeld
Livingston
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