Forest Whitaker's Sundance Channel Series About Newark Reform Efforts Premiers Today

The first screening of "Brick City," chronicling reform efforts in Newark, will be held at Newark's Symphony Hall at 5pm today. The series' five, one-hour episodes tell Newark's story from the perspectives of Mayor Cory Booker, the city's police director, and former Newark gang members. Executive produced by Oscar-winning actor Forest Whitaker, the series is scheduled to air on the Sundance Channel beginning next Monday. For more details, including a video about the series from MSNBC, see the full story on NJ.com.

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Comments

[chappel]

Mayor Booker’s political strategy is to put all controversial issues on the back burner until after his reelection. The prevailing political wisdom is that he must prove himself politically before he seeks higher office.

I’m a member of the Newark Water Group. We are fighting Booker’s proposal to place or water department and our 38,000 acre water shed under the control of an out side water authority. We have had great support from the public at the City Council meetings. Therefore Booker has parked the issue with a hand picked “study group” at Rutgers. After the election we expect to see all controversial the issues back on the table. He refuses to meet with our group with members from all wards. I call him the ‘Wizard of Oz” hiding behind the curtain pulling the levers out of sight.

However his reelection is not assured he is very unpopular in Newark. His very rich out of town supporters (Oprah Winfrey) are his main source of strength. He is a skillful self promoter but a lousy manager.