- [Narrator] Funding for this edition of Think Tank with Steve Adubato has been provided by Kean University.

Where Cougars climb higher.

PSEG Foundation.

Newark Board of Education.

The North Ward Center.

The Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey.

Choose New Jersey.

The Turrell Fund, supporting Reimagine Childcare.

RWJBarnabas Health.

Let'’s be healthy together.

And by PSE&G, committed to providing safe, reliable energy now and in the future.

Promotional support provided by NJ.Com.

Keeping communities informed and connected.

And by New Jersey Globe.

[MOTIVATIONAL MUSIC] - Hi, everyone.

I'm Steve Abubato.

We kick off the program, and we are honored that he's with us again, the honorable mayor of the great city of Newark, Brick City, Ras Baraka.

Mr. Mayor, thank you so much for joining us.

- Thank you.

Glad to be here with you.

- Always.

Mayor, let's jump right into this.

The issue of crime, particularly violent crime, we're doing a lot of programming around that.

The statistics in Newark, as it relates to violent crime, are down.

First of all, what are those numbers, particularly around homicides, and why are those numbers what they are, please?

- Well, just in context, the numbers in Newark are probably, now I'm finding wood to knock on here, (knuckles thumping) are probably as low as they were since John F. Kennedy was the President of the United States.

So in actual numbers, when I took office, we were over 100.

In fact, crime had increased four years straight in a row, and we were over 100.

Last year we had 50- - 100 homicides?

- 100 homicides last year.

- Right.

- Last year.

We ended the year with 50.

We, at this present moment, are just one up from where we were last year.

So, God willing, and things continuing the way they continue, we'll probably hold strong, you know, with a lot of work and a lot of prayer.

You know, it's not- - So, Mayor, I'm sorry to interrupt, but in so many urban communities, that isn't the fact.

The numbers, forget about the numbers, in terms of people's lives, there is more violent crime, or at least there's a perception of more violent crime.

Well, right across the river in New York City, other places, Chicago.

What is different in Newark?

- Well, I think the collaboration between police and the kind of ecosystem we created that involves the police of like, kind of, CVI organizations that they calling it nationally, that the White House has called it, and other national organizations, Community Violence Intervention groups that are more than just guys going to talk to people to stop them from shooting each other.

And I think at one level, that's what people think it is.

And it's much more than that.

It's hospital-based intervention that involves hospital professionals.

It's social workers, and job developers, and counseling, and outreach workers, and high-risk intervention teams that are out there.

They have to be funded to do this kind of work.

Art and art therapy, and all kind of stuff that we do engage.

And we work alongside of the police department.

Not in spite of the police department, but with the police department.

And the police themselves have changed the way they police.

And I think the constitutional-based policing, the consent decree and all of that has focused us on more intelligence-based policing, more focused deterrent.

So we actually focus on areas and people who are committing crimes and not just throwing a wide net out there hoping we catch somebody, which was the broken windows thing before which I think led to a broken strategy that forced us into this consent decree.

- Real quick, the consent decree the mayor is talking about is the federal government stepping in after a disproportionate number of incidents between the police and the community of Newark disproportionately affecting African-Americans and Hispanics in the city.

The numbers were off because something was off.

The federal government stepped in.

That's where the decree came from, the consent decree.

But also in New York City, way back when Mayor Giuliani was the mayor, the broken-windows theory was you stop every minor crime, if you will, before it gets worse.

That being said, Mayor, shift gears, if you could with us.

The mayor of New York City, Mayor Adams, not Mayor Giuliani, the mayor now, is saying that the Biden administration is really giving a shaft to the city and urban communities across this country by their failure, according to Mayor Adams in New York City, to deal with the immigration crisis.

And so many immigrants are coming to New York, they can't handle it.

Where does Newark fit into that, only across the river from New York City?

- So we thought we were gonna get some of those buses.

By God's grace, it didn't happen.

We prepared ourselves for it.

But we do get a byproduct of folks who migrate from New York into Newark.

I mean, once they come into the city, you know, into the proximity, they're free to go where, people can go wherever they want to go.

And so we get families here in the city, so our social service infrastructure has to take care of it.

And because you have to be a citizen for a certain amount of time, they can't get county welfare, county services.

They can't get any of those things.

So, you know, we basically have to provide for them with the best that we can.

You know, even helping people find jobs, and all kinds of other things.

Housing, and opportunity.

We have to do that.

And so yeah, I would would agree with Mayor Adams in a sense that there needs to be a federal strategy to this.

This can't be left to municipalities to deal with on their own.

It's not fair.

It's not sustainable, and it's certainly not tenable.

You know what I mean?

It's untenable, right?

So at the end of the day, without help, you're gonna drown at some point.

I mean, the normal, the right thing to do is to help people who come into your community, but you need assistance with that.

- Mayor, it's interesting how you speak about the the housing situation, homelessness, connected to that question.

With all the redevelopment going on, urban revitalization, some might call it gentrification, a lot of economic development activity in Newark, for those of us born and raised in the city who can appreciate when downtown wasn't the downtown it is today, question, to what degree, with all this economic development and money coming into Newark, is it making Newark less affordable for those who do not have the means to stay in the city they love?

- Yeah.

It will.

I mean at, you know, just scientifically, based on how capitalism works, and supply and demand, the prices are gonna go up as the cost of living increases, as the value of property increases, your taxes increase.

And so that's trickled down to renters, people who have priced outta New York City can come into Newark and pay a lesser rent, which is more than what everybody else is paying.

It's natural progression of the way things happen.

So what you have to do as a local mayor local elected official, you have to mitigate these things by putting in opportunities for affordability, affordable housing, sustaining the housing that you have, putting things to keep rent stabilized in the community, and create more home ownership at the same time, which takes a lot of work.

And you can do that, and we have been doing that, and are doing that.

But you are competing with the rate, the speed, of the way these things are happening.

You have to build these things at a commensurate speed, right?

Or else you're gonna fall behind.

- There are market forces, I'm sorry, Mr. Mayor.

There are market forces that are driving up those costs.

- Absolutely.

And so you have to mitigate those market forces by creating other kinds of opportunity for people as quick as that's happening.

And the thing that this allows that often is the amount of investment that you have and affordability versus the amount of investment you have in market rate kind of stuff, which means you need state and federal subsidy, and support around this affordability piece that's not always all the times there as fast as you need it to be.

- Mr. Mayor, let's talk a little bit about, it's not just energy because there's more to it than the simple question of energy.

You are opposed to a new power plant.

What power plant are we talking about, and why is this power plant, as you see it, so detrimental to the citizens of Newark?

What power plant are we talking about?

- Well, you know, this is not the first, there's been many.

The problem is Newark is a overburdened community, right?

We are one of the Justice40 communities that the federal government talks about that have been unduly affected by environmental injustice over years.

- That's right.

- Partly because we're an industrial city.

And so we have all the industrialization, and everything that comes with that.

The air, the pollution of the air, the pollution of water.

So when people talk about, "Oh, Newark has made the list of one of the dirtiest cities.

", they think they're just talking about garbage.

But that's not what people are talking about.

They also talk, they're talking about air pollution, They're talking about the pollution in the Passaic, which has been done by these corporations that come here and dispose of waste in our waterways, who, our air, while our kids have more higher asthma rates than anybody else in the state, or comparable to other people in the country.

Or why the heat index in Newark is 10 degrees higher than other municipalities around the country.

And so all of those things we have to weigh in, which is why we have a Cumulative Impact Ordinance in Newark, why the state also has a Cumulative Impact Ordinance, meaning all of the cumulative things that have taken place in the city to add something onto that, increases the burden.

That's really what we talking about, that we don't want to further increase the burden, the health burden, of our residents without having any kind of help or mitigation.

- Question, there is a lot of banning of books going on, at least debating about that.

Some of your dad, who we were honored to remember in our series, "Remember Them", Amiri Baraka, an extraordinarily important figure in American history as a poet, as a writer, as a social activist.

There are efforts to ban some of his books.

As it relates to book banning, what's your greatest concern?

- Well, you take away young people, and everybody's opportunity, to learn not just about history, but to take in ideas, right?

And figure out what these ideas are, and compare them to one another, and make decisions about what you believe, and what you don't believe.

You can't just erase history, or erase ideas because you disagree with them, right?

You have to allow all of these things to blossom, and then you contend with the ideas.

And that's what intelligent people do, and that's what academia is for, to contend with ideas and to debate because at the center of democracy is debate.

If you can't have debate, then you can't have democracy.

- Civil, meaningful, substantive debate and discussion.

Mayor Ras Baraka from the great city of Newark, Brick City.

I wanna thank you for joining us, Mayor.

Thank you so much.

- Thank you.

- You got it.

Stay with us.

We'll be right back.

To watch more Think Tank with Steve Adubato, find us online and follow us on social media.

- We're now joined by State Senator Michael Testa, the 1st Legislative District Senator, and thanks for joining us.

- Thank you for having me again, Steve.

Appreciate it.

- You got it.

Senator, we had a conversation recently where we talked about a whole range of issues, and you said you had a real concern about governor, we're taping this in the middle of April, the budget legally, constitutionally, has to be established by the last day of June or there's no money to spend, apparently.

I do remember that as a former state legislator, a long time ago, the government shuts down.

Question: What is the biggest concern you have about the governor's proposed state budget?

- Honestly, it's the size of the budget itself.

We're at over $53 billion now proposed.

That's 50% larger than Governor Murphy's first budget.

And we have to keep in mind that Governor Christie's last budget was $36 billion.

We're now at $53 billion.

That's larger than most countries, most developed countries across the globe.

We, at some point, the State of New Jersey is going to have to tighten its belt on some of the superfluous spending that we engage in.

- And the federal funding and COVID-related challenges don't influence your thinking on this at all, in terms of this increase in the budget?

- No, in fact, look, I was the lead attorney in suing the governor regarding the proposed $9.8 billion borrowing that turned into $4.3 billion of borrowing that we deemed was unnecessary, because unfortunately, the state's treasurer, their projections were totally off as to what revenues would be realized by the State of New Jersey.

And that's a real problem.

And right now we're operating at a $10 billion surplus as well, so, which- - I'm sorry for interrupting, Senator.

Do you have one cut, one piece of fat in the budget that you'd say, "You know what, let's not spend that"?

- I mean, one specific piece that I could use is the $12 million French Museum in Jersey City.

I'm just perplexed by that, when, you know, certain schools in my district are begging for, you know, $500,000, and it's really affecting their ability to operate and offer extracurricular activities.

But somehow we have enough money in the budget for a $12 million French Museum in Jersey City?

And I certainly have nothing against the French.

They're a wonderful culture.

(Steve laughs) But I just don't understand the need for that at this point in time, when we should really be making sure our children, especially, as they're coming, still coming out of that COVID-19 cloud, with learning loss and socialization loss, we should be making sure that our schools are at least fully-funded to the best of our ability.

- Quick follow-up on this, Senator.

In the previous conversation we had, you talked about real concerns you had about sex education programming.

You mentioned an interview, excuse me, we actually did an interview with your colleague, Senator Holly Schepisi, in which she talked about some of that curriculum as well.

Please look at our website, find the interview with Senator Schepisi.

But I want to be clear, (clears throat) you have said publicly and you told our producers you are not in favor of banning any books.

- I am not in favor of book-banning.

That's, I find that to be wholly un-American.

Maybe it's because, you know, I read too many books as a youngster, and I remember the book "Fahrenheit 451", which was all about, you know, burning of books.

And I think some of the books that have controversies on you know, on both sides of the aisle.

Look, there are some some great books, you know, "Tom Sawyer", you think of, and there are certainly some, you know, horrific language contained in those books.

That's part of our American history.

It's a dark part of our American history, where words were used much more often than they should have been, or if at all.

But that is part of our history.

And those books should not be banned by any stretch of the imagination, when they are appropriate and age-appropriate.

- Quick follow-up on this.

Curriculum having to do with race and race relations.

Biggest concern you have about it as it relates to public school education?

Because I believe you have expressed some concerns.

- I have expressed concerns about critical race theory.

I don't think that that is, you know, valid science.

I don't believe that, you know, it's helping race relations in any way.

Look, where I went to public school in Vineland, you know, which is a very diverse town, I went to junior high school and high school at a public high school, Vineland Senior High School is where I graduated from in 1994.

You know, we knew as a population how to get along.

I wasn't feeling guilty because of my background.

And you know, I also think critical race theory doesn't take into account even people like myself.

You know, my mother is a first-generation Polish Jew whose parents survived the Holocaust.

My grandfather, who ultimately became the mayor of the city of Vineland, didn't speak English until first grade, you know.

- You came from Italy?

- Well, his family did.

He was actually born here, but they didn't speak English in his house, (chuckles) you know, because they spoke Italian.

And you know, I don't think that critical race theory really takes that into account, and I just have a real issue with that.

I think there are many better ways to get along, between all of the races.

Look, Cumberland County, where I'm from, is one of the most diverse counties in the State of New Jersey.

And I can tell you that we get along very well here, across populations.

And I think that critical race theory is there to make children, you know, feel guilty for being one race, and feeling like they've been behind an eight-ball or starting behind the starting line if they are another race.

And I don't think that's fair.

- Real quickly, and I'll get off this, Senator, but there's a whole range of folks who believe that not teaching in this fashion denies a critically important and negative part of our American history, as it relates to how African Americans have been treated.

You say what to that?

- I think that we should teach actual history as to what has happened.

And there has been an awful lot of history that we should highlight that is a black eye on American history.

There is no doubt about it that we have a lot of warts as Americans.

Our American history is riddled with them.

But, guess what?

We have to be able to recognize those horrific mistakes, which certainly existed, my family's, you know coming here by a century or more.

And I think we have to recognize those mistakes and do better, that's what we have to do.

But we shouldn't be demonizing anybody.

- Real quick on this.

We have a series called, "Reimagine Childcare", looks at the need for affordable, accessible, quality childcare.

Many believe that it's a partisan issue.

Many others believe it has nothing to do with partisanship.

We've had many of your colleagues come on and talk about this, including Senator Schepisi, who you mentioned.

Your view of the importance of the government playing a key role in helping to provide affordable, accessible quality childcare is?

- Look, I mean, especially when you deal with single mothers, they need to be able to have access to child care, otherwise they are going to be jailed, you know, by their home life and taking care of a very small child.

There is no doubt about that.

So I think of the multitude of single mothers that exist in my district.

They need access to healthcare so that they can better themselves via employment, and better themselves via further education to be able to obtain better employment, which will only better their lifestyle and give their child, or children, a better chance and a start in life.

- I cannot thank you enough, and we look forward to having you back on to have not just a civil conversation, but an important and substantive one as well.

Thank you, Senator Michael Testa from the 1st Legislative District.

Thank you, Senator.

- Thank you for having me, I really appreciate it.

- You got it.

Stay with us, we'll be right back.

To watch more Think Tank with Steve Adubato, find us online and follow us on social media.

- We're now joined by SanDonna Jones, Executive Director of a great organization, Unified Vailsburg Services Organization.

SanDonna, good to see you.

- Great to see you, Steve.

Thanks so much for having me on.

- Our pleasure.

We'll put up the website for Unified Vailsburg as you talk about what the organization does and the impact you have.

- Great.

First Steve, I do have to tell you that it's a bit fortuitous that we're even talking about early childhood education this morning because my sister was one of the inaugural Adubato scholars when the Ready program was in existence.

And I have to tell you that overall experience was just transformative for her in her longer term educational journey.

So my family knows all too well how important those formative years are and how it kind of acts as a building block to everything else.

So I wanna thank you and your family for that, first of all.

- Let me just put that in perspective, for those who don't know.

My late grandmother Mildred Adubato, there was a scholarship fund that was set up and dollars came from philanthropist Ray Chambers through the Boys and Girls Clubs of Newark, where I was raised in.

And my grandfather, my late grandfather, was the first executive director of the Newark Boys Club at the time.

So I appreciate your reference to the Adubato Scholars and thank you for that.

Pick it up, talk about Unified Vailsburg.

- Sure.

First of all, I'm relatively new.

I've been there for four years in leadrship.

It's a 50 year old organization.

We just celebrated 50 years.

It started out with a group of residents and faith leaders who were really responding a few years after the Newark Rebellion.

It was established to really stabilize the community.

So primarily right now, the bulk of our programming is early childhood education.

We have two daycare centers, two preschools, but you know over the years we've done affordable housing development.

There's neighborhood planning, community organizing.

We've helped small business in their development.

There's afterschool programming.

So a host of a number of services that we provide.

And more recently, just before the pandemic hit, we partnered with an agency.

So now a good portion of what we do is food distribution.

So it's a collection of services that we provide.

- Let's talk about early childhood/childcare.

Our initiative, Reimagine Childcare, the website will come up.

What would you say Ms. Jones, the most significant negative impact of the pandemic has been as it relates to early childhood education/childcare?

- Now, we know that there were multiple negative impacts, you know, across the board.

But I will tell you with regard to the preschool age and daycare age, it was definitely pretty dramatic.

Obviously there's been learning loss, the social, the lack of social interaction and that was evident in so many different areas.

Even when we did hybrid programming and there was a virtual option, for example, and that allowed, you know, families to get back to work and so forth.

But if you had a grandparent there trying to assist the student and their, you know, English was very limited or non-existent, there was no way they could support that student even with a virtual option being made available to them.

So the impact on our youngest learners was pretty profound.

- Do you sense, Ms. Jones, are there any closer to acknowledging, recognizing and respecting the role of childcare professionals and paying them accordingly?

- Respectfully, I would say not yet.

There's a coalition of us who continue to advocate on an ongoing basis.

And those of us who are preschool providers- I mean, yeah, preschool age providers, we're getting closer to parity with regard to those who are in the local school district.

However, when it comes to infant toddler programming, those dollars are not yet sufficient to provide what I believe would be more meaningful compensation.

And obviously compensation is a huge part of why they do the job.

They're passionate about the children, but they have families as well to- And need the livelihood.

And the compensation where it is now definitely impacts staff morale for sure.

So it is an ongoing effort as far as the leadership of my agency and and across all providers, to do a whole host of things to try to, you know, enhance staff morale.

Because we know right now as far as the dollars are concerned, we can't put them where they should be, where we think they should be on the pay scale.

- Help people understand what that means when you don't pay childcare professionals enough.

Staff morale is where it's at, not where it needs to be.

Help folks understand what that really means in terms of childcare for our children that's affordable, accessible, and quality childcare.

- So we are now in March of a school year.

- We're taping this in the end of March, 2023.

Go ahead, I'm sorry.

- Right.

So my thing is in both the preschool area and the infant toddler area, we still have staff vacancies.

I know across the board labor is in flux, but as far as education is concerned, there has been a profound impact.

So we're relying on one side, substitutes, and on the other side, we're relying on temp agencies until we're actually able to secure the educators that we need.

And the fact is what we're offering as far as the hourly compensation is difficult for people to even say yes.

Even if they have the desire to work for us, it's kind of challenging to accept the pay scale that we currently have.

Even though they might enjoy the agency and so forth.

- Before I let you go, why did you get into this work?

- My family has always been involved in neighborhood revitalization so this is kind of in my blood.

- Where'd you grow up?

- In Newark, West Ward.

- West Ward.

- Yes.

- The late great Senator Ron Rice, who we'll be honoring and recognizing on our series 'Remember Them'- - Yes.

- Who has served the West Ward well.

Not just in the Senate, but in the city council representing the West Ward community as a South Ward Councilman.

You just brought that to mind when you mentioned- - Absolutely, and we just named our building after him.

Yeah.

- You named it after- Is that right?

- Yeah, we named our administrative building.

That's where he had his senate office for a number of decades.

So we last month named it after him.

So trust me, we are deeply indebted to him.

- SanDonna Jones, I want to thank you so much.

Vailsburg is better off, the community's better off through the work, because of the work of you and your colleagues at Unite- Excuse me, Unified Vailsburg Services Organization.

Thank you so much Ms. Jones, we appreciate it.

- Thank you.

All right, bye-bye.

- You got it, see you next time everyone.

- [Narrator] Think Tank with Steve Adubato has been a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Funding has been provided by Kean University.

PSEG Foundation.

Newark Board of Education.

The North Ward Center.

The Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey.

Choose New Jersey.

The Turrell Fund, supporting Reimagine Childcare.

RWJBarnabas Health.

Let'’s be healthy together.

PSE&G, And by these public spirited organizations, individuals and associations committed to informing New Jersey citizens about the important issues facing the Garden State.

And by Employers Association of New Jersey.

Promotional support provided by NJ.Com.

And by New Jersey Globe.

Here at Kean University, everyone gets their chance to climb higher.

Michael came to Kean and found his passion for health care, and now he's a doctor.

After Tricia graduated, her graphic design work was featured in The New York Times.

Samantha is studying athletic training and finding her path to an internship with the New York Giants.

Real Students.

Real Stories.

Real Success.

Cougars Climb Higher.

Kean University.