Can Teachers Revive Downtown Newark?

The $150 million Teachers Village project being built by developer Ron Beit on three square blocks in downtown Newark, "will include affordable housing for teachers, three charter schools in which some of them will teach, a day care center, and retail that will feed off of this badly needed influx of permanent residents and all those families who will have to now travel in and out of the neighborhood every day," writes Emily Badger

"The city expects the concept--part educational development, part economic development--to be a win for everyone: Teachers who can't afford to live well in Newark finally will be able to (and hopefully will want to), local schools will benefit from the greater investment of those teachers in the community (currently, just 17 % of teachers in the Newark school district live in Newark), and the downtown will start to come alive again."

"In an era of stingy budgets, a surprising number of parties have all rallied behind Teachers Village. The project's funding will come in part from New Market Tax Credits and private investments by Goldman Sachs and Berggruen Holdings. Richard Meier, a Pritzker Prize-winning architect who is better known for international luxury developments and museum projects like the Getty Center in Los Angeles, is also returning to his hometown to work on Teachers Village. It's the first project his firm has ever done in Newark."