Newark 30 Full Plan

Written By Jhamar .

Vision Statement

Over the next four years, we will lay the foundation for a stronger, more self-sufficient Newark that can withstand economic shifts, federal funding cuts, and national political changes. Through transparency, economic independence, and strategic planning, Newark will be in a position to thrive regardless of who is in power in Washington, D.C.

At the core of this transformation is a commitment to reducing barriers to essential needs. Participating Newark residents will have low barriers to accessing housing, clothing, food, and medicine, ensuring they can fully engage in the economy and build stable, secure lives without being left behind by the free market. By providing a public alternative to corporate price-gouging and economic exclusion, we create a city where every resident has the foundation to work, grow, and prosper without fear of being left behind. This approach will not only make our city safer by reducing economic desperation, but it will also strengthen Newark’s reputation as a forward-thinking leader in urban renewal and social innovation.

Newark30 is not just about survival. It is about creating a new social and economic model where residents have real choices, real opportunities, and real security, a model that proves self-sufficiency and prosperity can exist outside of traditional capitalism. We believe this approach will improve the quality of life for all residents, as greater access to essential needs and economic opportunities will lead to a safer, more stable, and more engaged community. When people are supported with the resources they need to thrive, the entire city benefits.

The 3 Pillars of Newark’s Transformation

Building Culture: Newark has always been a leader in innovation, industry, and social justice. Building culture means protecting what makes Newark special, from its music and art to, most importantly, its people. It’s about honoring the city’s diversity, creative energy, and legacy while moving forward with bold and inclusive ideas. When people feel proud of where they live, they take care of it and work to make it better. We need to make Newarkers proud to be from Newark again.

Building Competency: This is about giving Newark residents the tools and knowledge they need to succeed. Whether it is learning new skills, understanding technology, or knowing how to start a business, this pillar focuses on making sure everyone feels confident and prepared to shape their future. A proud city needs people who are ready and able to lead it forward.

Demanding Excellence: Once we have built culture and given people the right tools, we raise the bar for everyone, including our leaders, businesses, and ourselves. We set high standards for how the city is run, how services are delivered, and how we grow Newark’s economy. This keeps the city strong, safe, and successful for the long term.

We start with culture because it is the heart of the city. When people feel connected to where they live, they are more motivated to make it a better place. Next, we focus on building skills and knowledge so our community is not only proud, but also capable of learning, growing, and shaping its future. Finally, we push for excellence to ensure Newark does not just survive but thrives. The goal is to set high standards and never settle for less than what we expect from ourselves and our city.

Understanding Newark’s Constituents

Newark is a city of rich diversity, not only in culture and history but also in the lived experiences of its residents. To create effective policies and initiatives, it is essential to understand the varying needs and desires of its residents. This framework categorizes Newark’s residents into four groups:

  • Emergency - Struggling with basic necessities such as food, shelter, and safety

  • Surviving - Barely meeting basic needs but not secure

  • Doing OK - Able to meet basic needs but with little to no savings or investments

  • Doing Well - Financially stable, with disposable income and savings 

This grouping is based on each resident’s current level of stability and access to resources. From those facing urgent needs to those pursuing long-term prosperity, every group carries unique challenges and aspirations. Understanding these differences is the first step toward building a city that uplifts everyone. By addressing the immediate struggles of residents in the Emergency and Surviving groups, while supporting the growth of those who are in the Doing OK and Doing Well groups, Newark can foster equity, opportunity, and lasting progress. The strength of our city comes from its people. By creating inclusive policies, making smart investments, and focusing on solutions shaped by the community, we can make sure that everyone moves forward together toward a brighter and more prosperous future. 

Phase 1: Laying the Foundation (2025-2030)

During this period, we will implement key reforms to ensure Newark is ready for 2030. This includes adopting best practices from progressive municipalities, such as Checkbook NYC, a user-friendly platform that enables residents to track government spending in real time, ensuring transparency and accountability. By providing clear and accessible financial data, residents will have direct insight into how public funds are allocated, strengthening trust in local government. Additionally, Participatory Budgeting will empower residents to have a direct say in city spending, ensuring that investments align with community needs. We will introduce these accountability measures in City Hall to make Newark’s governance more efficient, honest, and free from corruption.

Most importantly, we will create Newark’s economic independence plan to reduce our reliance on unstable federal funding and shifting political priorities. This will prepare us for potential federal cuts to essential programs like education, housing, and food assistance, especially under any administration that favors austerity over investing in cities like ours.

As part of laying the foundation, we will redirect funds to improve senior quality of life and invest in Newark’s youth. A city’s strength is measured by how it treats its most vulnerable and its commitment to future generations. We will set the standard for how Newark values its residents by ensuring seniors can live comfortably, contribute their wisdom, and remain engaged in shaping the city they helped build. At the same time, we will create opportunities for youth to grow, lead, and thrive, making Newark a place where young people see a future for themselves.

We will also improve Newark’s technology infrastructure to make it easier, cheaper, and safer for residents to find information, access services, and do business with the government. By modernizing our tech stack, we will streamline processes, reduce costs, and enhance security, ensuring that Newark’s government operates efficiently and effectively for all residents.

By prioritizing seniors and youth while modernizing city services, we build a Newark that is both rooted in experience and prepared for the future. We are also building a civic culture that values transparency, participation, and shared responsibility. This is how we define what it means to be from Newark, a city that takes care of its own and thrives from within.

Phase 2: Creating Public Economic Power (2025-2030)

By 2030, Newark’s government will be in a position to compete with private companies in essential industries, ensuring that residents always have access to fundamental goods and services. This includes municipal operations in:

  • Housing: Expanding publicly owned low-income housing to prevent displacement

  • Food: Creating municipal grocery stores to combat food deserts

  • Clothing: Establishing Newark-owned retail outlets for essential goods

  • Pharmaceuticals: Opening public pharmacies to provide low-cost medications

These initiatives will reduce our dependence on federal assistance and protect our community from corporate price gouging, putting Newark on a path toward a stronger and more self-sufficient economy.

Newark Bucks: A Local Economic System for Stability

Inspired by Modern Monetary Theory (MMT), a trending economic framework that challenges the traditional constraints of neoliberalism and unlimited growth, Newark Bucks will be a city-backed currency designed to make Newark’s economy more self-sufficient by directly funding essential services. MMT argues that governments that control their own currency can create money to fund public needs as long as inflation is managed, shifting the focus from scarcity thinking to meeting real community needs. Applied locally, Newark Bucks will allow the city to redirect existing investments in food, housing, and medicine into a closed-loop system that serves residents directly. Rather than relying on unpredictable federal aid or external economic forces, Newark will ensure these critical resources are available in a structured, transparent, and accessible way that prioritizes stability over profit.

This is not about government control. It is about government responsibility. Newark must act because the so-called free market is exploiting our residents at their most basic needs. Outside businesses are not lining up to open affordable grocery stores, pharmacies, or clothing shops in our neighborhoods. The city must build the first version. Not to remain in control forever, but to prove what is possible. To show what happens when public goods are treated as necessities, not as business opportunities.

Once the foundation is in place, the plan is to transition Newark Bucks and Newark Stores into resident-owned cooperatives. Newarkers will have the opportunity to manage, operate, and ultimately own these businesses. This is not a permanent government-run system. It is a launchpad. Much like credit unions and worker-owned companies, and like the thriving community marketplaces of our history, this is economic justice rooted in local ownership and shared prosperity.

We also want Newarkers who are not struggling day to day to understand what this means for them. A successful rollout of Newark Bucks and Newark Stores will reduce crime, stabilize prices, improve Newark’s national reputation, and make our city more attractive. It also increases property values. If we succeed with Newark Stores, we may even be able to offer tax vouchers for shopping at Newark Stores. But there is much work to do before we reach that point. The goal is to design a financial ecosystem where we all benefit by working together. 

During this period, we will run pilot programs to test and refine the Newark Bucks system before full implementation. These pilots will focus on:

  • Food Security – Partnering with municipal grocery stores and food distribution programs to assess the impact on affordability and accessibility

  • Housing Assistance – Using Newark Bucks in select housing initiatives to evaluate how well it helps residents secure stable housing

  • Healthcare Access – Implementing a small-scale public pharmacy program to determine the effectiveness of Newark Bucks in reducing barriers to essential medicine

  • Clothing Support – Launching city-operated clothing stores that accept Newark Bucks to ensure residents have access to affordable, essential apparel

By running these pilots, we will gather data, address challenges, and ensure that Newark Bucks is efficient, scalable, and impactful before expanding citywide. This approach will allow us to refine the system and build a strong foundation for economic stability and self-sufficiency.

Newark Bucks will function as a practical tool for improving resource distribution, ensuring that every participating resident benefits from a system designed to meet their basic needs while making Newark’s economy more resilient and independent.

Transparency & Governance Reform

Newark’s current budgeting system lacks real-time tracking, accessibility, and accountability. To modernize governance, we will:

  • Implement a Checkbook Newark system for real-time financial transparency

  • Automate public records requests (OPRA) to improve government accountability

  • Expose lobbying influence by making campaign finance data easily accessible

  • Live-stream all public meetings and create an indexed archive for residents

  • Establish a public data dashboard with crime stats, school performance, and city projects

These measures will build trust in the government while preventing waste and corruption.

Emergency Preparedness: Strengthening Our Resilience

Newark will invest in climate resilience, disaster response, and public safety to ensure the city is prepared for any crisis. This includes:

  • Creating a Citywide Emergency Preparedness Plan for climate disasters, power outages, and economic shocks

  • Strengthening public health infrastructure to handle pandemics and medical crises

  • Expanding community-led safety initiatives to reduce reliance on traditional policing

  • Investing in renewable energy projects to make Newark less dependent on unstable national grids

This phase marks a turning point in Newark’s journey toward self-reliance and long-term stability. By investing in our own capacity to provide essential goods, services, and economic tools, we are shifting from dependency to empowerment. Building competency at every level, from how our government operates to how our residents access resources, ensures that Newark is prepared for the challenges of tomorrow. Through innovation, transparency, and a deep commitment to equity, we will create a city that not only survives external shocks but thrives because of its internal strength.

Phase 3: Investing in People, Work, and Community Power (2025–2030)

To truly achieve self-sufficiency, Newark must invest in its people by creating a pipeline that prepares residents for jobs in emerging industries while ensuring essential services remain Newark-run. This phase focuses on skills training, education reform, and sustainable job creation.

1. Building Workforce and Ownership Opportunities

Newark Works Initiative - A program that guarantees participating Newark resident access to free vocational training in high-demand fields such as:

  • Renewable energy (solar, wind, battery tech)

  • Construction & skilled trades (electricians, plumbers, welders)

  • Healthcare (nursing, home health aides, medical technicians)

  • Tech & AI (coding, cybersecurity, UX/UI)

  • Transportation & logistics (EV mechanics, drone pilots, CDL training)

Public Apprenticeship Program – City-backed apprenticeships that allow residents to work in municipal projects while gaining certifications.

Pathway to Public Ownership – A transformative initiative helping Newark residents own the assets that shape their city. This includes:

  • Housing – Affordable homeownership programs that allow renters to transition into owners through lease-to-own models, cooperative housing developments, and city-backed down payment assistance.

  • Worker-Owned Businesses – Encouraging Newarkers to start worker-owned cooperatives in essential industries, supported by city grants and technical assistance. 

  • Land Trusts & Publicly-Owned Real Estate – Expanding Newark’s land trust model to allow residents to collectively own and control community spaces.

This approach ensures Newarkers don’t just work in the city but also own the businesses, housing, and land that define its future.

2. Education Reform: Building Competency for 2030

To ensure the next generation is ready for Newark’s transformation, education must align with workforce needs.

  • Teacher Development & Retention – Investment in ongoing professional development, competitive salaries, and support programs to attract and retain top educators.

  • Budget Evaluations for Schools – A full review of education spending to ensure funds are allocated efficiently, prioritizing student outcomes, teacher development, and classroom resources.

  • High School-to-Career Pipeline – Expansion of vocational high schools to train students in healthcare, construction, and tech fields, ensuring job placements upon graduation.

  • Debt-Free College & Trade School – A city-funded scholarship program to cover tuition for Newark residents attending local universities or trade schools.

  • Newark Leadership Academy – A civic engagement program that trains high school and college students in governance, urban planning, and community organizing.

  • Universal Literacy & AI Tutoring – Newark will deploy AI-powered literacy and tutoring programs in public schools to eliminate achievement gaps.

By prioritizing teacher investment, career readiness, and literacy, Newark will build a workforce prepared for the city’s economic transformation.

​​3. Community-First Business Agreements

To ensure that Newark’s growth benefits its residents first, we will introduce Community-First Business Agreements. These are voluntary but strongly encouraged understandings between the city, Newark residents, and private businesses operating in our city. These agreements will serve as a mutual pledge of respect and integration, not as top-down mandates, but as a framework co-created with the community.

Businesses participating in these agreements will commit to:

  • Hiring locally and investing in workforce development for Newarkers

  • Supporting local events, youth programs, and community initiatives

  • Keeping prices fair and avoiding practices that exploit Newark residents

  • Engaging with Newark residents regularly to stay responsive to community needs

These agreements will not be drafted in isolation by City Hall. Instead, we will host public forums and workshops with Newark residents, local leaders, and small business owners to collaboratively define what it means to be a responsible member of the Newark economy. The goal is not to punish businesses, but to set clear, community-driven expectations about what it looks like to be part of our city’s success.

While these agreements are non binding, they will be publicly acknowledged and promoted by the city as a mark of good citizenship. Participating businesses will benefit from being recognized as trusted community partners, which can improve customer loyalty, increase public support, and build stronger ties with Newark’s residents and institutions.

Ultimately, the message is clear: Newark is not for sale. We welcome businesses, but we expect them to be part of the community, not simply profit from it. By creating these Community-First Business Agreements, we make it known that Newarkers are not just consumers. We are co-creators of our local economy.

End Goal: A Self-Sufficient and Transparent Newark

Newark30 is a proposal to secure Newark’s future economically, politically, and structurally. The goal is to build a city capable of functioning independently of unpredictable federal priorities, so that no administration in Washington, D.C. can undermine our progress.

The path forward requires residents to have a genuine stake in the city’s future. Expanding affordable homeownership, supporting worker cooperatives, and making public investments in essential industries will give Newarkers direct influence over their own economic lives.

Preparing our workforce, improving infrastructure, and investing in technology will build the essential systems Newark needs to support long-term growth. More importantly, Newark30 is a commitment to transparency and accountability. Open budgeting, full reporting of city funds and spending, and participatory decision-making will ensure public trust and hold leadership accountable.

To create long-term stability, Newark must attract more residents who choose to build their lives here. Growing our population with long-term residents will strengthen our tax base, giving us the resources to fund city services and maintain critical infrastructure. By 2030, Newark will be positioned not only to welcome new residents but to retain them, ensuring that those who come here see Newark as a permanent home and not a temporary stop.

Newark30 is not a promise of quick solutions. It is a commitment to building a city that belongs to its residents, where progress is shared and prosperity is created through collective effort.

The end. 

Jhamar .