We Need Something New

by: Jhamar Youngblood A river, an airport, trains, highways, parks. Pride, passion, intelligence, love. Newark has everything, but only a few people are making the key decisions about how our city is run. In the 2022 mayoral election, only 17,784 people voted in a city with about 162,000 registered voters. That means only about 9 percent of registered voters chose who controls billions in public spending, who negotiates development deals, who hires police leadership, and who creates the culture in City Hall. When that few people participate, power collapses into a small circle. The rest of us live with the consequences. That is the starting point for The Newark Star. Newark is one of the oldest cities in the country, a port, a rail hub, a college town, and a cultural center wrapped into twenty four square miles. We have the history, infrastructure, talent, pride, intellect and passion needed to become one of the biggest cities in the world. What we’re missing is a shared vision for Newark. We don’t have one place where everyone can learn, talk, and help build what our city should become. So we are building one. The Newark Star is a resident owned civic media co-op. Newarkers can join by contributing time, money, or content, and every member gets one vote. An editorial council will set the standards and protect the platform’s integrity. All financial records, editorial policies, and membership rules will be public. The goal is straightforward. Newarkers should control their own media, understand how their government works, and be able to hold the people in power accountable. What partly inspired The Newark Star was a September 8, 2025 investigation by Dr. Yusef Ismail on Patch titled “Entrenched Corruption: How Newark’s City Hall Fails Its People.” His reporting traced corruption from Mayor Hugh Addonizio’s kickback schemes in the 1960s, through the convictions of Kenneth Gibson and Sharpe James, and into the Newark Watershed scandal, where the mayor’s allies mismanaged millions in public funds while oversight collapsed. Then he turned to the present. Under our current administration, which came in promising justice and transparency, the article showed there is serious dysfunction inside City Hall. It detailed criminal activity involving city employees, misuse of public money, bribery connected to development, and internal misconduct that raised real ethical concerns. It also showed how important reforms were promised but never fully carried out, and how weak oversight allowed major mistakes and public embarrassments to happen. The result was a government making big decisions without clear explanations, leaving residents unsure about what was going on, why it was happening, and who was benefiting. Overall, Dr. Ismail’s article argued that Newark’s problem is not a few bad actors. It is a culture where corruption, negligence and intimidation are allowed to repeat from mayor to mayor, contract to contract and department to department. That culture survives because public scrutiny is weak, information is fragmented and civic engagement is low. The Newark Star is meant to confront that problem directly. The co-op has a clear educational mission. First, to teach residents how to elect the right leaders. That means explainers that break down what the city leadership actually controls. Information that explains a candidate’s and our officials' real records. Guides that show who funds them, how they vote, and who gains from their decisions. Second, to inform residents about what improves quality of life. Articles and videos will track policies that touch daily life in Newark, from housing and trash collection to policing, parks and schools. When the city signs a contract for millions of dollars, people should not have to guess what the money is paying for. When a new program is announced, residents should know who is eligible, where the money comes from and how to measure if it works. Third, to show residents how to oversee leaders. That means sustained investigative reporting, not one day of outrage. It means covering town halls and council meetings so people see and hear their representatives. It means publishing data and documents so Newarkers can study them themselves. It means naming misconduct precisely and also highlighting examples of integrity when they appear, so people know what good governance looks like. We are not in a rush. We will build this naturally. We will launch with live shows on YouTube where Newark residents talk about politics, art, housing, safety, sports, business, and everyday life. We will also publish articles with ideas to improve Newark and share clear information about city updates residents need to know. Right now, the project is being pushed forward by three Newarkers who chose to act and fill an information gap in our city. But the vision does not belong to three people. The structure is built so any resident can join, write, fact-check, make content, investigate, and vote on what comes next. The more residents who join, the stronger and more legitimate the platform becomes. Newark sits at the center of a region that moves the world’s trade, educates students from across the globe and shapes culture far beyond New Jersey. If residents learn to oversee their own government and control their own media, Newark can do more than fix local problems. Newark can show what a major Black and Brown city looks like when the people who live here are the ones in control. Newark has the history, the transportation and port infrastructure, the density, the universities, the art, the churches, the mosques, the small businesses, and the raw human talent to become one of the most important cities on the planet. What we’ve been missing is alignment and clear, honest information. These problems can be solved and The Newark Star is one attempt to solve them. The future of Newark will be decided by the people who show up, vote, read, write, question, and organize. If we keep leaving those decisions to a few thousand voters and a small circle inside City Hall, we know what kind of future we will get. But if tens of thousands of residents begin paying attention, participating, and holding elected officials accountable, our city could improve for more residents. Our first live stream is tonight, Wednesday, from eight to nine thirty on YouTube on the Newark Star channel. Tune in, ask questions, and hang out with us.