The Nerk Informer (9/26/16)

Here are the minutes for last week's Council Meeting and the agenda for this week's scheduled Finance Committee meeting. On the council meeting from last week, I have a few thoughts:

For starters, I want to thank the 7 members of council who voted against Ordinance 16-20 (which would have rezoned a property on Myrtle Avenue to be "General Commercial" without a buffer for the neighborhood). A special thanks goes to Councilman Fraizer. While none of this should be partisan, the reality is that we still have political parties and that tends to make a difference in the decision making by those we elect. At least in this case, Mr. Fraizer voted with the neighborhood's citizens who seemed unanimous in their opposition to this action as opposed to voting party line.

Secondly, I have to make a remark on Councilman Marmie's comments pertaining to the zoning debate and the future of 21st street. I realize that the area is a "business corridor" and that this is likely to result in fewer (or no) homes along this street as the years unfold, but the tone he took in portraying this as something that can not be resisted by the citizens affected thereby is beneath the office he serves. As an official elected by the people it is your duty to serve them, not to tell them to accept some inevitable fate. Nothing in a representative democracy is inevitable, I don't care what some study about the future says. If the people of Newark want to maintain neighborhoods scattered in or around so-called "business corridors" then so be it; it is our right to reject the tide and to preserve some semblance of serenity in our community.

That is all for now. Thanks for reading.