It goes on to say: “Newark is the hard-knock contender that for six decades has watched its population slide and its commercial corridors clear out. Analysts dismiss the city’s chances at landing the project, called HQ2. Bookies will give you 50-1 odds.”
Why is that? Newark is one of the great transportation hubs in the country. It is an 18 minute train ride to mid-town Manhattan and a 20 minute ride to some of the most attractive and diverse townships anywhere. It is the center of the Amtrak line from Washington, DC to Boston. The talent pool, with highly skilled and experienced tech workers and software engineers, is the richest in the country. Many of the most sought after employees are willing to work in Newark for less than they are paid in New York because the cost of living is less, and they are closer to where residential areas are more conducive to raising families. Downtown Newark is only ten minutes from Newark International Airport, very close to the third largest seaport in the nation, and the list goes on.
The article goes on to further say that: “And there is broad agreement that things are on the upswing in Newark, which is now adding people every year, luring workers who have been priced out of Manhattan and its close-in suburbs. One of the most extensive fiber-optic networks in the country runs beneath its streets.”
“Spend a day in downtown Newark, and evidence of a comeback, supported already in part by Amazon’s tentacles, is on display. In renovated Military Park, people play kickball and table tennis until dusk. A 22-story apartment tower is advertised as “the first new ground-up residential construction in the city in several decades.”
“Audible, a Newark-based audiobook subsidiary of Amazon, employs more than 1,000 people here, and its chief executive is leading a pack of others championing the city. The company is renovating a long-vacant 108-year-old church as a technology center. It has also offered to pay a year's worth of rent to entice workers to relocate. Whole Foods (newly acquired by Amazon) recently opened in a renovated department store.”
“Prudential Insurance and Panasonic have large and growing offices here, and the infrastructure that made Newark a hub of American industry in the 1950s remains, including the nation’s third-busiest port and 14th-busiest airport.”
In contrasting depiction, the article fairly states “But outside downtown, many of the neighborhoods that burned during widespread racial protests in 1967 remain destitute. More than 23,000 of the city’s children, about 37 percent, live in poverty, although that number has fallen in recent years”
Newark is the most diverse of Amazon’s twenty finalist cities with a population that is 50 percent African-American and one-third Latino. If Amazon were to select Newark, the company and supporting industries are expected to bring 130,000 to 150,000 new jobs to the city and the area. With a population of 280,000, Newark is the only city among the finalists that could completely be transformed by Amazon’s decision.
The Washington Post article further states that “In the 200-page proposal Newark officials sent the company, they included a hypothetical Wired magazine article from the year 2027. The fictional story has Bezos selecting Newark for the project and crediting the city for 'creating a new sense of purpose for Amazon.'” Nothing improves employee morale like banding together as a team for a common purpose that could improve the lot in life for others.
While there will be a large demand for highly-skilled and trained technical employees, the collateral businesses can employ tens of thousands of residents without those skills. Moreover, other businesses and universities (like Rutgers, NJ Institute of Technology and Princeton University) are prepared to train Newark students and residents to have the necessary tools to fulfill the job requirements if Amazon were to land there.
The article also addresses certain incentives that the State of New Jersey and the City of Newark have offered Amazon to locate in the city. Those incentives have been creatively structured so that Amazon does not receive one dollar other than from a portion of state and city revenues to be entirely generated by Amazon. Therefore, no other social programs will in any way be decreased because of the incentives. Moreover, it is expected that Amazon and the companies that would follow it to Newark, would create tens of millions of additional consumer expenditures in the state annually.
I am a native of Newark. I grew up and was educated there. For more than 30 years I have been philanthropically supporting education initiatives for thousands of children, financially backing hundreds of local social organizations, enabling the training of residents for jobs and entrepreneurial opportunities and leading the development of several anchor institutions in Newark. I have witnessed first-hand the wonderful transformation of “down and out” folks who have been given the chance of fulfilling employment and starting their own businesses. It has been a struggle and clearly an uphill battle. The wonderful people of Newark don’t want hand-outs and guaranteed income. They only want a chance to work hard and provide for their families – just like the rest of Americans.
I am a proud member of the Board of the U.S. Impact Investing Alliance. We, and many others, believe that it is no longer adequate to make investments just focused on the bottom line and on “return on investment.” There must and should be a positive social impact to be considered when deciding on an investment. I have never seen an opportunity for a decision to have greater social impact than the potential Amazon has to take a chance on the people of the city of Newark. I can guarantee that they will not let you down.
One of the brightest stars in Newark is Jordan Thomas. Like me, Jordan was born in Newark and went through the public school system. Unlike me, he was admitted to Princeton University and graduated with Highest Honors two weeks ago. He entered the Rhodes Scholarship competition and won a coveted slot to become a Rhodes Scholar. He will spend two years at Oxford University in the United Kingdom and then return to Yale Law School (He was accepted at all the law schools to which he applied, including Harvard and Stanford). Most importantly, he intends to return to Newark and help other young people like he was helped. You will be truly moved by his very short video.
