The Greening of Newark

The next commitment is an important one for the United States. I'd like to ask Mayor Cory Booker from Newark. The Newark Green Future Summit will bring together the nation's leading experts on green energy and sustainability to create a roadmap for sustainable development, and I predict to you it will be the most effective part of his economic development strategy.

"I live every day thinking about a larger vision of my city, that is really a green vision. It's about looking at everything from the ports—a large one we have here in the city of Newark—to recreation, to jobs, from a green perspective, and suddenly it expands expands our imagination." -Cory Booker, Mayor of Newark

"Newark is well positioned to become a model sustainable city for the 21st century. This region is expected to grow by over 18 million people in the next 20 years, and Newark is so well-positioned to capture that. It has amazing transportation access. It's on the Passaic river front. We're a dense, compact city. And right now, one of the things we're doing is creating a citywide master plan to ensure that growth's captured in a sustainable way. " -Toni Griffin, City Planner of Newark

Green Jobs

"The common theme is really green jobs that are career track jobs in green industries." -Kate Gordon, Apollo Alliance

"Most of these jobs build upon existing job skills in construction, maintenance, manufacturing, and landscaping, that are already present in the Newark workforce." -Cory Booker

"What the green economy is promising is that these are going to be jobs where there are career pathways." -Elizabeth Reynoso, New Jersey Institute for Social Justice

Lincoln Park Coast Cultural District

LPCCD is transforming a low-income neighborhood from blighted lots into an urban eco-village. Building 300 LEED certified houses with local labor.

"We want to build green buildings and build them sustainably, but we also want to employ people in long-held professional trades that give them opportunities on this project, but for future employment." -Baye Adofo-Wilson, Lincoln Park Coast Cultural District

Green Space

"It's amazing what a powerful impact a safe, green space can have on children, on families, on a whole neighborhood�by reclaiming our city parks." -Cory Booker

"Revitalizing the city parks has also been shown to bring increased job capacity for the city of Newark, and training the youth, as well as the adult community." -Collen Graven, Trust for Public Land

Green Ports

"We believe that we can reclaim Newark land�park land along the river, but also brown fields�and make them part of a viable port economy that cuts down some on the global logistics chains, that saves money for companies, that creates jobs for our workers, and business opportunities for people in the city of Newark" -Cory Booker

"I feel as though, if Newark is going to grow, the economic viability of this community needs to depend on the port. But in order for the port to grow, we need to ensure that the health of our community is also protected." -Kim Thomson-Gaddy, Environmental Justice Organizer

Green Future

"The future is going to be green, and this is a chance for kids in Newark to be part of that, to make a choice to really build their own healthier, more sustainable future." -Kate Gordon

"Every element of our city, urban life, from our health, to economy, to recreation, to education. All of these elements touch upon this idea that a greener Newark, a greener America, is a larger, richer definition of a prosperous Newark and a prosperous America. This is what we seek." - Cory Booker