Dispatches from the Garden State

In the months following the September 2013 George Washington Bridge lane closures, which became known universally as “Bridgegate,” New Jersey Governor Chris Christie denied any knowledge of the planned “traffic study” that snarled traffic in Fort Lee. Several top aides resigned or were fired in the wake of the scandal. The media reaction to Bridgegate was full of righteous outrage, but as Dennis Gale makes clear in Greater New Jersey: Living in the Shadow of Gotham, the Bridgegate controversy was no surprise: political corruption and fraught relations with its neighbor to the east have long been native to New Jersey.

Gale, a professor of political science and public administration at New Jersey’s flagship Rutgers University, relies on methods of contemporary urban studies to investigate New Jersey’s identity, natural resources, political history, and urban/suburban development. In doing so, Gale uncovers how northern New Jersey’s reputation was forged by its proximity and economic interdependence with New York City but also how the state developed its own, separate cosmopolitan identity.

In the prologue, Gale narrows his gaze to what he terms the “Manhattan-North Jersey Axis” of Greater New York. Retracing a commuter’s steps, Gale describes, in rich detail, the path of a New Jersey Transit train as it travels from the suburbs of the affluent Morristown, through Newark’s struggling cityscape, to Penn Station:

If this were morning rush hour, jackets, suits, ties and briefcases would abound as hundreds of commuters made their way to the canyons of Wall Street, Madison Avenue, and Midtown . . . Gazing through the window, I see patch after path of oaks, maples, sycamores, and beeches . . . The landscape here is a comfortable accordance between the seeming randomness of nature and the unmistakable purposefulness of landscapers and weekend gardeners. (pp. 1-2)

In Gale’s description, New Jersey’s suburbs are bucolic and beckoning and stand in stark contrast to the region’s urban “mean streets” (p. 5).

When the train pulls into Newark, Gale comments that the city’s coarse urban landscape is a somewhat trite description of an impoverished inner city:

Now, only African Americans climb aboard and virtually no whites deboard. These communities make up another zone, one composed of too much poverty, crime and disrepair. The gentle hand of nature, only a few miles behind us, has succumbed to the harsh tyranny of asphalt, concrete and aging brick. (pp. 4-5)

For Gale, New Jersey’s dense city centers are depressing examples of the current era of post-industrialization, providing few economic opportunities and failing to deliver high-quality public services.

Gale’s prologue is a close approximation of the larger work; he is intent on contrasting New Jersey’s many seemingly unresolved contradictions. Northern New Jersey is simultaneously thriving and struggling against all odds: suburban and urban, diverse and segregated, and rich and poor. In flowery, almost romantic prose, Gale describes for both an academic and general audience how these dimensions of New Jersey’s identity have developed and how they have endured despite waves of reforms.

For Gale, New Jersey is forging new territory as a predominantly suburban state that is heavily influenced by its proximity to a large metropolis and the challenges and benefits that presents. New Jersey is the most “densely populated state in the nation” and as such, “demands a unusual degree of societal cooperation” (pp. 35-36). Residents of Greater New York encounter many challenges of living in the state, including jammed highways and parking lots, long lines at supermarkets, and crowded residential neighborhoods with small plots and yards, as well as an unprecedented level of ethnic and linguistic diversity.

Gale catalogues this diversity of North Jersey, using the history of Montclair as an example of the way that a small community has responded to its multiracial constituency. Montclair represents the suburban holy grail, as “one of the most sought after addresses” because of the city’s “varied housing stock, environmental access, and school system” (p. 45). Gale describes Montclair’s school system and positive academic outcomes that have been achieved despite racial and economic diversity, unlike in other segregated suburban towns. Yet, in his description of Montclair’s highly rated public school system, Gale misses an opportunity to recount Montclair’s 1970s history of contested school integration, when the district created a magnet school system that widely averted white flight and created a citywide bussing system.

However, Gale’s discussion of the controversy surrounding the development of an arena in downtown Newark is expertly detailed. Gale captures the ambitions of Sharpe James, mayor of Newark for 20 years, to subvert the city’s negative public image by the construction of an arena that would “stimulate development, create jobs and increase tax revenues” (p. 99). The public debate surrounding the possible construction of a large-scale sports arena encapsulated many of Newark’s political, social, and economic travails: Mayor James was an entrenched political operative and “obsessed with leaving Newark the legacy of an arena,” persevering even without the support of public opinion (p. 101). Whites as well as minorities, when polled, responded overwhelmingly negatively to polls about the project: it turned out that the public preferred the Meadowlands arena, and neither the National Basketball Association’s Nets nor the National Hockey League’s Devils represented that much of a thrill for New Jersey residents.

In addition, it became harder and harder in the early 2000s to justify the $200 million sports arena, a product of public and private financing, when the state still subsidized the bulk of city’s education and social welfare costs. Mayor James was ultimately indicted in federal court in 2008 on five counts of fraud and sent to prison, as one in a dispiritingly long line of Newark political leaders indicted on corruption and conspiracy charges. Needless to say, the plan for a Newark arena died in 2004 when it was announced that the Nets had been sold and would move to a new home in Brooklyn.

Although Gale avoids a thorough discussion of Newark’s educational history and recent dynamics, the history of the city’s schools is as compelling as it perhaps disheartening. As brilliantly laid out by Dale Russakoff in a recent article for The New Yorker, Newark’s district schools suffer from terrible performance and were seized by the state in 1995. According to Russakoff, the district had existed for decades as a source of cushy administrative jobs, and its bureaucracy was entrenched. As Russakoff wrote, in Newark,

The ratio of administrators to students—one to six—was almost twice the state average. Clerks made up thirty per cent of the central bureaucracy—about four times the ratio in comparable cities. Even some clerks had clerks, yet payroll checks and student data were habitually late and inaccurate. ¹

Jean Anyon, a professor of urban education until her death in 2013, also wrote passionately about Newark’s system of public education in Ghetto Schooling: A Political Economy of Urban Education Reform. Anyon recounts the history of the district as well as her own efforts as an education reformer. For Anyon, the challenges of Newark’s schools were inextricably tied to the local economy and reflected the city’s economic decline and were not endemic to the schools themselves. ²

Gale reflects on Newark’s struggles as well as its political economy, noting that “it is one of the most severely challenged American cities, with among the highest rates of unemployment, poverty, school dropouts, and other measures of social distress in New Jersey.” He ties the city’s current challenges to “one of the nation’s most tragic civil disturbances in the late 1960s [that] contributed to the city’s struggles to overcome tremendous losses in housing, retail shops, employment and tax revenues” (p. 32). Unlike Russakoff and Anyon, however, Gale’s analysis fails to provide much more than an overview of the contemporary pressures facing Newark. Albeit, Newark makes up only a portion of his broader perspective on Greater New York, but Gale does not make the connection between Newark’s issues and its proximity to New York, the leveling of some of Newark’s historic neighborhoods in the late 1960s and early 1970s, or the strengths and weaknesses of the city’s rich history of the black arts and black power movements.

In Gale’s final two chapters, he explores New Jersey’s public image and identity. Negative media portrayals of New Jersey abound, ranging from the Home Box Office series The Sopranos that chronicles the life and times of a bloodthirsty, organized crime kingpin and his family to MTV’s Jersey Shore, which follows dissolute partiers in Seaside Heights, a working-class central New Jersey resort town. Gale centers on New Jersey’s storied history of corrupt politicians and mafiosos and the resultant public perception of New Jersey as awash in crime and racketeering as a fundamental paradox:

It has bountiful historical sites, major corporate employers, many attractive communities, one of the best commuter rail systems in the nation, the scenic Highlands region, popular Atlantic beaches, and a level of cultural diversity in its population matched by few . . . and yet . . . the issue of image has troubled some North Jerseyans for a very long time. (p. 138)

Despite the author’s detailed accounting of the destructive legacy of political corruption and organized crime, his conclusions are somewhat pat. For Gale, North Jerseyans display merely “perverse amusement [or] weary resignation. For others, perhaps, there is: Damn other states, for it is more interesting to be noted for oily officials and menacing mobsters than for corn production, cheese tonnage or longhorn cattle” (p. 138). My guess is that the majority of North Jerseyans would much prefer political integrity and less organized crime to a notorious public reputation.

However, Gale aptly identifies a central tenet of life in Northern New Jersey: Greater New York is a sub-region that has been shaped by internal and external factors. Residents of North Jersey are “dual citizens,” and the Garden State and Gotham are inextricably bound, even as New Jersey fights to dodge New York City’s significant shadow (p. 142). Indeed, even Gale’s Greater New Jersey dedication to the victims and survivors of the World Trade Center tragedy of September 11, 2001 reflects this enduring bifurcation. The events of September 11th are most often associated with a tragedy that occurred in New York City; far too often do we forget that New Jersey experienced the event just as catastrophically and heartbreakingly.

Professor Emerita of sociology at Ramapo College, Yolanda Prieto undertakes an ethnographic study in her recent book, The Cubans of Union City: Immigrants and Exiles in a New Jersey Community. She catalogues the emergence of the city’s Cuban immigrant community and its political orientation, culture, and ultimate dispersal. Unlike Gale, who does not use any interviews in his account of Northern New Jersey, Prieto relies heavily on Union City’s Cuban residents’ reports of their experiences with gender roles, religion, and politics. Prieto, herself, is a product of Union City’s Cuban community, and her book is written from the perspective of a participant observer. Although Gale’s account may have been strengthened by insider, firsthand narratives, Prieto’s interviews can be so extensive as to distract from her argument. Her proximity to her subject makes her especially qualified to reflect on the development of the Cuban community in Union City but also too thoroughly informs her inquiry, sometimes at the risk of explanation. At times, it is difficult to discern her argument; in other words, for a general audience, what makes Union City socially, economically, or politically unique from other cities with a large Cuban community?

Prieto, instead of focusing on these questions, dives into a thorough and nuanced description of the history of Cuban immigration to the United States and the wide variation of political, economic, and social factors that brought them here. In the introduction, Prieto describes five distinct waves of Cuban immigration, beginning with the first surge of immigrants that flooded off the island after the Revolution of 1959. Union City was an appealing destination because of its reputation as the “needlework capital of the world” (p. 2) that offered economic opportunities for new migrants. This 1960s era wave of Cuban immigrants were “overwhelming white, had relatively high levels of education. . . . Their mainly middle class positions or aspirations in Cuban society shaped their values, which brought them closer to mainstream America than to the majority of their Latino counterparts” (p. 2). Prieto also maintains that these waves of Cuban immigrants served as a model for other Latino immigrant communities in their steadfast commitment to working hard and their respect for American ideals. Although Prieto’s conclusions about Cuban self-image are certainly insightful and probing, she also raises questions here about her reliability as a narrator. This inference is not cited or tied to evidence, it merely exists as a floating observation based on Prieto’s overall sense of Cuban self-regard.

The “Peter Pan” program, designed by the Miami Catholic diocese, also operated during this era and brought more than fourteen thousand unaccompanied minors to the United States, propelled by panicking Cuban parents who feared that their parental rights would be terminated by the communist Cuban state. This was a traumatic plan for Cuban parents and children who were dispersed in refugee camps, orphanages, and with foster families. Although Prieto alludes to the ordeal and suffering that the Peter Pan policy wrought, she strangely fails to provide evidence from interviews that would provide insight into the experiences of the large numbers of “Peter Pan children.” Of course, the children of Peter Pan immigration policies summon up the most recent breaking news of the humanitarian crisis of thousands of children who are showing up alone in American border towns. In 2013 fiscal year alone, close to forty thousand unaccompanied minors had been apprehended by the Border Patrol.

Prieto’s investigation of the third wave of Cuban immigrants is perhaps the most intriguing and well-documented. The “marielitos” arrived in the United States as a result of Castro’s sudden opening of the port of Mariel in 1980, and they experienced prejudice and discrimination on their arrival. The event was widely publicized as an effort by Castro to export Cuba’s less socially desirable population of criminals and the mentally ill because it was believed to be Cuba’s unofficial position that the United States deserved to shoulder this burden. According to this narrative, the United States had encouraged the migration of Cuban professionals and therefore, they should receive less appealing immigrants as well. For Prieto, this wave marked an enormous contrast from earlier immigration patterns, and she does an excellent job of describing this succeeding wave. Unfortunately, the marielitos were characterized as delinquents and were widely discriminated against, even by earlier waves of Cuban immigrants. The Union City Cuban community, however, was very supportive of the Mariel refugees. Relying on documentary evidence, Prieto uncovers how the “marielitos” were encouraged to leave Miami by the New Jersey Cubans who were eager to contribute to their well-being and smooth transition to the United States. They were eventually abandoned by the Union City local government, who refused them services, shelter, and aid.

The bulk of Prieto’s book discusses Cuban and Cuban immigrant attitudes toward gender, work, and religion and how traditions in both Cuba and New Jersey influenced each other. Although she provides an expert analysis of the sociological literature and a detailed portrayal of Cuban women’s role in the family and workplace and the a-political stance of Union City’s Catholic Church, Prieto breezes over New Jersey’s distinctive regional contribution to the development of Union City’s Cuban community. For example, how did Union City’s proximity to New York shape its development (a question that Gale is particularly attuned to)?

In Prieto’s final chapters, she discusses issues of Cuban identity, including Cuban political engagement and immigrant assimilation or integration. Prieto asserts that “perhaps no other ethnic group in this country is as politically active as Cubans are” as their very presence in the United States is predicated on a reaction to Castro’s policies (p. 113). Cubans in Union City maintained high levels of political activity, organizing anti-Castro political leagues in opposition to Castro in the 1960s and several decades after. Prieto ends her book by discussing their enduring legacy in Union City as a special and protected class of Latino immigrants. Historically, Cubans have benefitted from politically generous American immigration policies that helped them adjust and possibly represent an ideal model for immigrant policy and culture.

Although Prieto does not address the most recent trends, Union City’s Latino immigrant populations are thriving. David Kirp, a professor of public policy at University of California, Berkeley highlights the success of Union City’s public educational institutions in his most recent book Improbable Scholars ³ and offers the success of the city’s schools as a shining example for education reformers. As a city with high unemployment and where three quarters of the schoolchildren speak Spanish at home, Union City has defied all the stereotypes. In 2011, Union City had a high school graduation rate of 89.5 percent—far above the national average. And, in 2012, 75 percent of Union City graduates enrolled in college, with many top students attending the Ivy League on full scholarships, winning scholarships to the Ivies. ⁴ Union City’s public schools offer a high-quality Pre-K for three- and four-year-olds and have not latched onto any of the school reform trends. For Kirp,

What makes Union City remarkable is, paradoxically, the absence of pizazz. It hasn’t followed the herd by closing “underperforming” schools or giving the boot to hordes of teachers. No Teach for America recruits toil in its classrooms, and there are no charter schools. ⁵

Prieto might agree with Kirp’s assessment of Union City’s stamina and resilience in the face of economic challenges. For Prieto, Union City was a vibrant Cuban community that has an enduring legacy despite the community’s dispersal. Indeed, by the 1990s and 2000s, Union City’s Cuban population had begun to gradually decline as Cubans left to settle in New Jersey’s more affluent suburbs or retire to Florida. Its success and hard-working immigrant attitude, however, has obviously remained.