The Coast, Newark, New Jersey

The Coast or Lincoln Park is a neighborhood of Newark, New Jersey, bounded by the Springfield/Belmont, South Broad Valley, South Ironbound and Downtown neighborhoods. It is bounded by Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. (High Street) to the west, Kinney St. to the north, the McCarter Highway to the east and South St., Pennsylvania Ave., Lincoln Place and Clinton Ave. to the south. In the early 20th century, the Lincoln Park area was a neighborhood of nightclubs known as "The Coast". It was a center of jazz and a red-light district or "tenderloin" formally called the Barbary Coast, like San Francisco's neighborhood. The area is now home to the City Without Walls gallery (cWOW), Symphony Hall and the Theater Cafe (which has performances by the African Globe Theatre Works).

Today, with Newark's redevelopment plans the district is being revitalized as The Lincoln Park/Coast Cultural District (LPCCD). LPCCD has just launched GreenCAP, a new green collar job training program for Newark residents, specifically targeted at at-risk youth, parolees, and veterans. GreenCAP is a certification program that trains 100 workers annually in green collar trades like LEED construction, home insulation, and solar panel installation. GreenCAP is a collaboration between LPCCD, Mayor Cory Booker's office, and Van Jones' Green for All.

The center of development for the LPCCD area is the Museum of African American Music (MoAAM), just as NJPAC was considered the center or the start of Downtown's redevelopment. The museum and much of the surrounding development is being designed by RMJM Hillier Architects, who are also designing the renovations and addition to the Newark Public Library. [ [http://www.hillier.com/about/template1.asp?section=news&storyId=57 Partners in Urban Renewal] ]

Newark in the past has been a large producer of gospel music and continues to produce well-known black artists. The Coast is being redeveloped to pay homage and recreate on a small scale an area with deep roots in African American music. The museum will be a collection of archives of "blues, spirituals, hip-hop, rock 'n'roll, gospel, house music, and rhythm and blues". Help for the construction of the museum and the surrounding redevelopment is coming from the Smithsonian Institution, which has been working with the city. An "Arts Park" is also in the planning stages in addition to new housing, stores, a restaurant, nightclub, music studio and dance studio. [ [http://www.urbannetworkmags.com/NEWS/blackmuseum.htm Black Music Museum Planned for Newark, NJ.] ] In early plans for a third Newark Light Rail segment (connecting Penn Station and Newark Liberty), a stop was proposed for Lincoln Park/Symphony Hall on Mulberry Street and Camp Street.

References

External links

* [http://www.hillier.com/about/template1.asp?section=news&storyId=57 Partners in Urban Renewal]
* [http://www.lpccd.org/ Information and newsletters about the neighborhood]