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Health & Fitness

Newark's Student Broadband Challenge Needs to Be Met, Now

For Newark's Renaissance to continue, affordable universal broadband access for every resident must be the goal.

In all of my time teaching in Newark, studying the city and spending most of my childhood living on the Newark-Irvington line in the 1970’s, I’ve come to a not-so-surprising conclusion. There are two kinds of people in Newark. It’s a total oversimplification, I know, but I’ll stand by it. These categories are regardless of age, race or level of education, but to be in one or the other makes all the difference, and always has. In Newark, you are either connected or disconnected. You are either inside the network or you’re on the outside looking in.

Parents, you need to be especially aware of this issue, because you’re in a position (most of the time) to meet this challenge head on; but more on that later.

 

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When Puritans first settled the city in the 1600’s, there were insiders and outsiders. There were people who knew people, who knew what was going on, and where the opportunity was. If you were involved in the Puritan church, and living and working along with the rest of the parishioners, good things came your way, or at least, tended to. If you were anyone else, a person the Puritans considered a “stranger” or “outsider” – even if you were English, life was a lot harder. It was harder to find work, buy property, vote and do just about anything.

 

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During the Revolutionary War, you chose your side and it determined past, present and future. If you were a Patriot, you fared well. New Jersey was at the crossroads of the Revolution, and Newark was at its exact center. Patriots had, early on, succeeded in deposing the hated Royal Governor William Franklin (yes, the son of Ben Franklin was his father’s avowed enemy). The British were largely interested in staying in Manhattan and rarely voyaged into the Garden State except during major campaigns, and even then rarely after 1778. If you stayed with the King, you picked the wrong side. When the war ended, even though our peace treaty with Britain stated otherwise, you lost your property and left for London or Canada or found some other way to reinvent yourself. But you were out of luck. You were on the outside looking in.

As the decades went on, the quality of life in the Brick City became married to access to technology and information. Anyone who lived in the city in the three decades after the Second World War either knew this or were victims of this…especially as the city began to grow geographically.

Before and during World War II, Newark was the state’s transportation hub. Every major rail line passed through the city, but more importantly, trolley lines stretched along all of the city’s grand boulevards and transversed many of its smaller avenues too. No part of the city was isolated. Any person could hop on one of the city’s trolleys and take the line downtown, to the center of the city, the “Four Corners.” All roads led to Broad and Market. Trolleys took Newark’s citizens to school, to shop, to civic events, to grander transportation links out of Penn Station.

 

But by 1960, with very few exceptions, the trolleys were gone. In perhaps what amounted to one of the greatest public administration blunders of all time, Newark gave up its decades-old, dependable and affordable public transportation system for the automobile. And not just Newark…Jersey City, Paterson, Atlantic City and Camden all followed. Overnight, dependable, frequent and open trolleys were replaced by slow, limited, enclosed busses that did not have the right-of-way and crawled along with the rest of vehicular traffic. By 1960, if you didn’t have a working automobile in Newark, you were on the outside looking in. You were one of the have-nots, one of those people for who public travel meant long waits, exposure to the elements, and vulnerability to crime. Anyone would have told you back in 1979 that to take a bus in Newark after 9 p.m. was a risky venture; it was something you would do only if it was absolutely necessary. And in some parts of the city, public transit ended altogether, especially in the South Ward.

 

With a nod to New Jersey transit, public transportation did improve in the 1990’s and the early 21st century. The Newark Subway was restored to its former glory. More bus lines were added and busses were linked up to law enforcement. And, after an investment of several million dollars, NJ Transit built one, yes one trolley/light rail line between downtown and Newark’s Broad Street station. But there are still parts of the city that clearly do not get enough service, and that’s a problem.

 

Today, transportation isn’t so much an issue. The present-day divide for Newark’s citizens, the factor that makes for really two types of people in the Brick City is…digital. In Newark, you either have ready broadband access…or you don’t. And if you don’t, you’re out. It’s that simple. You can’t read the paper. You can’t learn of local events. You can’t contact your student’s teacher. You can’t get politicized. You can’t apply for a job. You can’t apply for any government benefits like Social Security (at least, not in an efficient way). You can’t apply to college. You can’t get information on bus routes or delays or transit changes. You can’t work from home. You can’t…you can’t…you can’t…

 

If you don’t have ready, broadband access, you really can’t do anything, especially anything related to the possibility of getting an education, getting around town or making money.

 

This digital divide is a real problem, right now. It affects everyone in the city and I see its influence in the lives of my students. Web access has improved my instruction and communications with my students in so many ways I can’t begin to describe it. In class, we Skype (teleconference) with educators and activists all over the globe. We access the latest documentaries and live news. I use the web to mass email my students their assignments and answer their questions on and off campus. I send students a 10 to 20 minute podcast after every lesson to help them retain information. I email parents constantly to keep them updated about the progress (or lack of) of their children.

 

Arts High, where I teach, is one of the city’s most prestigious magnet schools and our kids are, with a few exceptions, fully wired and online. But in the city’s other public and private schools, this isn’t nearly the case. Off-line kids are on the outside looking in, and in a big way. This online trend will only intensify and continue into the future. You can read all of the articles you want about the Internet’s dangers and how kids find all sorts of trouble on it…but it won’t change the immense economic and political forces that are making us a broadband, online nation. No way. Not a chance.

 

So to Newark’s parents and generous, loving guardians, I say this: just as you value clean water and good education for your children, you need to add a new priority: broadband. Kids over the age of 10 need, they have to have, ready broadband access to the Internet at home and smartphones while away. They simply will not be able to interact with the world productively without broadband. If you can find some other method, I’d like to hear it, but I doubt I will.

 

Newark’s parents, by and large, are not wealthy. So how can you “wire” your kids? First, be aggressive. Call your local cable company and find out if they have an “Internet Basics” plan or something like it. Many cable companies provide monthly broadband internet for less than $11 a month, as long as one child in the family qualifies for reduced or free lunch at school. Secondly, Newark is a wireless city in more ways than one. Take advantage of this by inquiring about the latest pay-as-you-go deals with local telecoms like MetroPCS, Walmart’s SmartTalk or BoostMobile.

 

Now what about hardware? It’s expensive when new, but quality, used electronics are now readily available. You just need to know where to look for them, and the biggest website is Craigslist.org. Craigslist is today’s cyber-flea market, but with better stuff. Finding an affordable laptop computer or a used cell phone is easy enough on that site.

 

If you’re one of the city’s politicians, I say this: make city broadband access a priority. Work with our local communications companies to open their systems and wireless clouds to our citizens for an affordable price. You’ll see immediate results in greater calls to law enforcement and a more civically active, informed and work-ready population.

 

Newark’s power is in its people, and the city needs to be on the “inside track” of the global information economy to continue its Renaissance. When the day comes that the city’s leaders realize they’re on the “outside looking in,” it may be too late.

 

 

 

 

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