Newark

Newark is New Jersey's largest city, and sometimes New Jersey's largest pain. It's a city known for it's crime, poverty and corrupt government. A sign of how bad the city can be is this public service billboard posted at a bus terminal, urging kids to graduate from high school. However, Cory Booker was recently elected as a new mayor, and he seems to have a great plan for the city.

The streets of Bloomfield Ave. are lined with trash here, and within two minutes of my trek I see an ambulence hurtling around a corner. Some guy at a gas station actually opens his car door, leans out, and tries to hit on me.

A lot of the signs on the businesses are in Spanish, which shows how much this new flood of immigrants has effected the area. One supermarket has flags from six different South and Central American countries plastered on its awning.

The Branch Brook Company, #223, is one-stop shopping: they've got everything from toys to model trains to pools and jacuzzis. I remember going here often as a child to buy Darkwing Duck toys. Here, as in all Newark stores, the sales tax is half of what it normally is (actually 3.5% because the state sales tax was just raised). This is because the government wants you to shop in urban areas and put your money into their economies.

Branch Brook park is well known for its half in Belleville, where the spring cherry blossoms draw people from around the world. However, the Newark half is still a nice place.

The Wash and Lube sign, for a business on a sid street, is so magnificently tacky and old-fashioned that I just had to take a picture.

I always liked this building, because it looks like a turret from a mideval castle. It's called the Salvatore Bontempo complex, and it's a memorial for Newark civil servant.


Most Wanted Cuts, #404, is apparently the "fade specialist". I think it sounds vaguely illegal. I think "Funky Nails", #569, gets a strange name award too. Also slightly absurd was this stupid arming-waving blowup man parked outside a Domino's pizza, at 551.

Mount Zion hot dogs is a small blue truck that seems to be parked on the street at all hours of the day. It looked interesting, but since I don't like hot dogs, I didn't stop to check it out.