NEWARK: JOAN WHITLOW

A blog about Newark, NJ by Joan Whitlow

Newark arena is looking like a frozen asset

by Joan Whitlow/The Star-Ledger

Friday November 14, 2008, 11:26 AM

Joan Whitlow

What could be better on a gray, rainy day than some indoor skating? So I headed for the year-old Prudential Center Arena. The Rock.

I think of the downtown arena as mine because I live in Newark and the city put up $220 million to build the place for the New Jersey Devils to play hockey and host concerts and circuses. Other public agencies have added at least $85 million for roads and arenascaping. The city has spent $3.6 million extra for police officers and fire folks to make the arena district super safe.

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Newark: Where the crisis first struck, who will help?

by Joan Whitlow/The Star-Ledger

Friday October 24, 2008, 7:12 AM

Joan Whitlow

What about Norwood Street or Lehigh Avenue in Newark, and similar places where the mortgage crisis was causing financial pneumonia before the rest of the country started to sniffle?

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A fireside chat about hooks and ladders

by Joan Whitlow/The Star-Ledger

Friday September 26, 2008, 7:30 AM

Joan Whitlow

I missed the speeches because on the way to the fire station, I stopped at a fire on Avon Avenue near Peshine.

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Rone's ouster is the drama's opening scene

by Joan Whitlow/The Star-Ledger

Friday August 08, 2008, 7:21 AM

Joan Whitlow

Well, whatever happened on the front end, the backside of this story is politically hot and is going to get hotter.

The drama started when Rone's nephew was pulled over by Rutgers University-Newark police in 2006. The nephew called Rone, she showed up, tried to throw her political weight around and got arrested and convicted on a disorderly person's charge. Essex County Prosecutor Paula Dow's office asked Superior Court Judge Patricia Costello to invoke a law that says a public official convicted of a crime involving his office shall lose that office and never hold one again.

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Corruption isn't a victimless crime

by Joan Whitlow/The Star-Ledger

Friday August 01, 2008, 7:29 AM

Joan Whitlow

I won't argue about the sentence you gave to former Newark mayor Sharpe James -- a scant 27 months -- or the mere 15 months his co-defendant, Tamika Riley, got. A lot of people, I think, wanted James punished for everything they think he did wrong over the years. It was not your job to do that.

There is an unfortunately long line of local and state public officials who have been sentenced on corruption charges, and none of them got long prison sentences, now did they? Of course, maybe that's why the convicted serving short sentences are so quickly replaced by others scratching in the same dirt.

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Ex-city official should give all of it back

by Joan Whitlow/The Star-Ledger

Friday June 13, 2008, 5:43 AM

Joan Whitlow

I have found myself having unkind thoughts about him but only because he took off with about $30 million in city assets and no one has ever offered an accounting of exactly how he got'em and what he's been doing with them -- not that anyone has ever charged him with doing anything illegal.

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About the Author

by NJ.com Staff

Monday May 26, 2008, 7:03 PM

Joan Whitlow toiled in The Star-Ledger's vineyard for more than 20 years as the paper's medical writer before joining the paper's Editorial Board.

She writes editorials and a column about Newark City Hall: The good, the bad and the hard to believe.

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