The Suze wants to know: "Why is Newark, New Jersey called the Renaissance City?"

Don't we all, the Suze. 

Renaissance is a fancy-pantsed way of saying revival.  So, Newark is the Revival City.  Let's start by considering what Newark is reviving from.  

Well, here's something: for 6 days in July of 1967, riots ripped through the city, leaving 26 people dead, 725 injured, and causing millions of dollars in property damage.  

Newark was not alone in the summer of '67.  The Newark riots were joined in July of '67 by civil unrest in Plainfield, NJ; Memphis, Tennessee; Durham, North Carolina; Cairo, Illinois; Cambridge, Maryland; Detroit, Michigan; and Milwaukee, Wisconsin.   Boy, it was must have been tits-hot in 1967.

Of course, LA burned for a month in the early 90s, and it seems to be doing just fine these days.  So, it wasn't just the riots.  In the early part of the century, Newark had a huge manufacturing base -Newark was once the "patent leather capital of the world".  Iron, plastics, and all sorts of industrial goods were made there.  Westinghouse and Edison both had operations there.  So what happened?

Well, good news for you, the Suze: you can blame whitey.  As urban centers grew through the 20th century, upper and middle class whites began moving out in a phenomenon historians call "white flight."  No, I'm not making it up.  Look it up, the Suze - just click here.  Okay? It's real.  Let's move on.

White flight resulted in a collapse of Newark's industrial base, which in turn left a poor population and an extremely high crime rate.  This same pattern was seen in many former industrial cities; in addition to Newark, the cities of Boston, Philadelphia, Detroit, Baltimore, Atlanta, and Cleveland all lost over half their white population at one point.  It is not exaggeration to say that Newark was at one point, the worst city in America.

So, we've covered why Newark went in the toilet, but Renaissance also means that it is coming back.  Where's the evidence of this?

Well... they built the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in 1997.  And, uh, there's a baseball stadium.  And some light rail.  Whatever, Newark is still a shithole.  But, hey, they went 47 days without a murder to begin this year.  So let's all give Newark a clap on the back for that.