WHEN Ras Baraka was elected Newark’s mayor in 2014, the business world was worried. He had brokered peace between the Crips and the Bloods, two fierce rival gangs, and is Newark royalty—his father, Amir Baraka, was a famous activist poet. But he was no fan of corporate America. Mr Baraka once compared the business community’s relationship to Newarkers to that of a master and slave. In office he has proved more pragmatic than expected, and his rhetoric might nowadays be mistaken for a management consultant’s. “We can’t get to where we want to be unless everyone takes accountability and is at the table,” says the former school principal.
Large swathes of the 26-square-mile city were wrecked during the 1967 unrest sparked by the police beating of a black cab driver. For years, Newark was one of the country’s most dangerous cities and one of its poorest. The former industrial powerhouse has endured decades of disinvestment, but this is...Continue reading
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