Residents Identify Strengths and Weaknesses of Newark in Community Forum
Newark community participates in the first of a series of meetings that aim to update the city's General Plan.
In its first meeting with Newark residents, a team headed with updating the city's General Plan learned that residents take pride in its small-town feel.
As attendees broke up into groups, they discussed Newark’s strengths, weaknesses and what they believe would make Newark better.
The strengths included the city's small population, open space, parks and outdoor activities.
Newark is populated by approximately 42,573 residents, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, has 15 parks and sport play facilities and approximately 153 acres of park and median landscape areas, according to the City of Newark website.
But others thought that Newark lacked modern shopping centers, an adequate library and a central downtown area.
Officials with the City of Newark along with graduate students from the California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo encouraged Newark residents to come and participate in the first in a series of meetings that will be held as part of the Newark General Plan Enhancement Project.
The project's objective is to update the 20-year-old Newark General Plan.
A General Plan is a policy document that acts as a guideline for county and city leaders when it comes to decision-making for future development. The city’s General Plan was last approved in 1992, after eight years of developing the plan.
The community room at the Newark Silliman Center was filled to capacity during the forum, which was held on Saturday, as concerned residents voiced concerns, asked questions and expressed their willingness and interest to be involved in the planning process.
“We want to know and be informed when the subsequent meetings are going to take place,” one resident said.
The city and planning department told residents they plan on revving up promotion and publicity for the upcoming meetings. The dates of the upcoming meetings have yet to be announced.
Community Development Director Terrence Grindall said at the next meeting, the discussion will focus on the highlights of possible changes to the General Plan.
Newark contracted Cal Poly San Luis Obispo’s City and Regional Planning Department to come up with an update or “enhancement,” as the team coined Newark’s plan, for significantly less than contracting a consulting firm.
Grindall said contracting the team, which consists of 15 graduate students and one professor, costs $20,000 while hiring a contractor could cost anywhere between $2 and $3 million.
For more information about the Newark General Plan Enhancement Project, visit www.mynewarkplan.weebly.com.
Nick Hexum
1:09 pm on Monday, November 21, 2011
The city inspector is the worst thing about the city of Newark's inspection process. John Herschel, the city inspector, is the most incompetent city inspector I have dealt with. He likes to destroy small town homeowners who want to improve this properties & the city, but plays the permit card issue and red tags perfectly good properties and keeps them from being sold. He prefers to have properties sit empty and let them deteriorate instead. He should be replaced. Any one of the good ole boys. He selectively does his job. He doesn't even live in Newark. There should be a rule about these people controlling the city. If they don't live in Newark, they shouldn't work here. It's just taking a job away from the common everyday Newark citizen. He's a joke.
Rick Bensco
1:56 pm on Monday, November 21, 2011
What would you like to see in Newark in the next 20 years or so? Get involved it is your town. I was surprised to see only about 30 or so people at the meeting that were not already in the town government in one way or another. There were also people from Fremont at the meeting taking more of an interest then many people who live in town. This is the time to voice your concerns about Newark's future. This is a big deal. Do you want your future decided by so few? Be a part of it now and earn your right to applaud or criticize what will be our town later. Do you think we should plan for a new $30 million city hall? Should we plan to have a town full of six story high rise low income buildings? Should we plan for a new golf course? Should we plan for a new school or should we plan to tear down a school? Should we plan to enlarge Newark Blvd to 6 lanes? How about the construction of a Triple A ball field? How about should we plan for a world class soccer stadium? This is your town what do you want it to look like? How should we plan for sea level rise? How should we plan for business parks? Get involved now is your chance.
Brian Edwards
3:47 pm on Monday, November 21, 2011
Good comments Rick. Citizens need to attend these meetings to make sure that their voices are heard. The direction of your city is going to be determined at these meetings so it is important that everyone gets involved; especially the future leaders of Newark.
Mona Taplin
10:28 am on Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Yes Rick, good comments. I hope I also will be well enough to attend some future meetings, but if I'm not there it isn't because I don't care.
Nick Hexum, I agree that every one controlling the city of Newark should be a resident of Newark.
I don't see a need to increase Newark Blvd to 6 lanes, and 4 stories would be the highest building I would approve of. I think we should take a look at the experiences other cities have had with these low income buildings. One I remember so well in NY state was a beautiful high rise brick building. I had a relative who was granted one of the first apartments there,- an apartment far nicer than anything my husband and I could afford , not being qualified for low income. Within a year that building was a complete shambles. Garbage all over the place inside and out. Windows broken. Carpeting and appliances (stoves, refrigerators, etc) disappeared with folks moving out after sunset. Violence every day in the week. If such housing is built here I would certainly demand that good screening of tenants was tops on the list. Take a look at some of the yards full of garbage residents have been complaining about that we can't seem to control now and think again about that high rise low income building
I could be wrong about this ( Me wrong?) but if I remember correctly there was a lot of opposition to the City Hall being built the way it is so private money was raised to do it. It's not that old. Why replace it? Lots to think about.
Albert Rubio
10:47 pm on Tuesday, November 22, 2011
There is a tremendous fallacy to the concept of Central Planning which is a deep seated unspoken assumption and premise (is anyone conscious of this?). It creates plans and planners that society frankly does not need. One can never be pleased by a grand nationwide mis-allocation of resources.
"Central economic planning, or simply central planning, is the method of social or economic organization wherein key decisions are made or greatly influenced by a panel, committee, or individual members of a government entity.
Central planning is the antithesis of free market and one of the hallmarks of a socialism, fascism, or mercantilism. Central planning can take any number of forms, and includes various levels of economic interventionism, ranging from central bank operations to manipulate interest rates, to certain tax incentives meant to encourage (or discourage) certain behavior.
Friedrich Hayek wrote The Road to Serfdom largely as a repudiation of central planning; arguing that such a system eventually leads a society into rule by the total state."
"Beyond the pragmatic issues concerning central planning are the moral issues raised when one group attempts to engineer society into behaving a certain way. In Central Planning and Neomercantilism, David Elton Trueblood demonstrated that “in human life there are many valid principles, rather than one” and when central planners attempt to enforce their will on others, conflict will arise"
Margaret Lewis
9:01 am on Thursday, December 8, 2011
Between 2001 and 2008 the city has spent $2 million on something called community promotions. What's that all about? And $100,000 on a golf-course-sized lawn mower that can't be used on most of our city parks and certainly not on the street medians the city considers part of the park system. Instead the city gives Cal Poly $20K to come up with a general plan "enhancement" that is supposed to guide the city for the next couple of decades?
Did the city do a request for consultants to work on an updated general plan or are the numbers just floating out of city hall with no basis? The first Cal Poly meeting in Newark was poorly planned and little notice was given. The city council hopes to vote on a general plan update in early March. This is no way to plan for the future. No wonder Newark is such a mess.
Mona Taplin
11:26 am on Thursday, December 8, 2011
What I don't understand is why those of you with so many complaints aren't running for office.
Margaret Lewis
12:20 pm on Thursday, December 8, 2011
The old "I don't understand why you don't run for office" is just a Good Old Boys statement. Residents are also told if they don't like the way Newark is run they should move out of town and go somewhere else.
There are other ways to serve a community besides being on a city council. Besides, that is only 5 people anyway. What about the rest of the residents? Where is their voice? Look at the voting numbers. People are disengaged from the community. Where was the community notification of a general plan update? No one even knew about the update because it was hidden in the city council agenda consent calender. Was the city embarrassed about sending the general plan off to students in San Luis Obispo? No one at city hall wanted us to know?
By the way, these aren't just complaints; these are valid points about the weaknesses in Newark. The Good Old Boy system has not treated us well.