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tensions in the classroom are high.
Less than half of the adult black
population of Newark has at least an
eighth-grade education.
Added to all these social ills
is the growing danger of pollution.
The city rises like a spectre out of
the smoke and haze palling the vast
expanse of f!at New Jersey marsh–
lands, upon which the city was built.
Bounded on the east by the murky
gray waters of the heavily polluted
Passaic River, and shrouded in a yel–
low cloud of industrial smoke, New–
ark stands at the heart of the
polluted Northeast. The river carries
sludge and industrial wastes siphoned
into Newark Bay from nearby chem–
ícal plants and oil refi.neries. The
air pollution, arisíng from industries
in the New York Metropolitan arca,
stings the cyes of businessman and
ghetto-dweller alike. Technology's
dirty spinoff is just another
ill
that
Newark has added to its growing
list of urban maladies.
Housing is a special disaster. Of
the total number of dwellings in
Newark, about one third are substan–
dard. Sorne officials candidly state
that every house in the city is
substandard.
Abandoned buildings prcsent an
ever-increasing eyesore.
Property
owners, confronted by mounting
taxes, are abandoning them by the
score. The city ends up takíng over
most of these structures. The cíty is
rapidly becomíng the "biggest land–
lord" around.
Rent in Newark is outrageous.
Slum landlords charge high rcntals
for broken-down or dcteriorating
dwellíngs. One social worker in the
Central Ward cited the case of sorne
landlords asking
$150· L60
per month
for "apartments" that could hardly
qualify as inhabitable premíses.
The effects of the
1967
riot still
stand as a mute testimony of destruc–
tion. Hundreds of destroyed dwellings
still litter the inner core. In the heart
of the riot arca, along Springfield
Avenue, the same sights are repeated
with persistent monotony - hollow
shells of blackened structures - all
in ruin.
Attempts to dear up the destruc–
tion, in the form of urban renewal,
have made líttle progress. Although
Newark boasts the highest per capita
spending on urban renewal of any
American city ($277 per person
annually) only a few of the gutted
buildings have been demolished and
rebuilt.