There was an annual Kwanzaa celebration yesterday, and I’d planned to attend and take pictures. But I missed it, just as I’ll miss everything else between now and early 2015. I’ll be spending some much needed time away in frigid Montreal this holiday season, just as I did in August. Sometimes we need a break from our…

Through nearly six months, I really enjoy working in the city. I enjoy concerts, protests, writer’s groups, and language meet-ups after work. I love catching up with friends during lunch, or going for a long stroll. The feeling of relative loneliness I had working beside a highway in Somerset County has dissipated. If being in Manhattan doesn’t…

Plainfield anti-violence group KYSS has announced a peaceful march to begin at Library Park at 3pm on Tuesday, December 23. The protest will join an eruption of similar displays of solidarity nationwide addressing police violence towards people of color. Plainfield High School has a half day on Tuesday, and KYSS organizers hope to draw students for this demonstration, which will congregate…

More on Saturday’s protest against police violence. The NYPD estimates that there were 50,000 – 60,000 demonstrators in all, which seems like a reasonable guess. Below is a time lapse video taken from atop a building looking down 6th Avenue near 29th Street. I’m not positive that the entire crowd was still on hand at that point in…

At Netherwood Station just before noon, I was one of three people on the platform headed to Washington Square Park, the planned starting point of the Saturday’s Millions March against police violence. Hours later, over 50,000 people had participated in a four mile demonstration that ended at One Police Plaza in Lower Manhattan – all…

Plainfield Mayor Adrian Mapp will join Reverend Dr. Gerald Lamont Thomas of Shiloh Baptist Church in hosting a forum tonight entitled “Next Steps to Justice and Peace”. The panel discussion begins at 7pm at Shiloh, located at 515-521 West Fourth Street. In the wake of the high profile Ferguson and Staten Island grand jury decisions…

I wound up missing Councilman Reid’s final performance, regrettably. It’s a long story involving glass, RAM, and Versace. Either way, I nearly came close to witnessing another train wreck yesterday night, the Brooklyn Nets. When the Nets played in New Jersey, no wanted wanted tickets. They were in such low demand that close seats on the secondary market…

Tonight the era of Bill Reid as City Councilman comes to an end, and I have a confession to make. I’ll miss Chairman Reid a bit. No, this is nothing political, or ideological. It has nothing to do with the future of the city. Nothing to do with a desire to see people work together…

Bernice recently wrote about Yvonne, a pro-Green commenter who is making the rounds in the Plainfield blogosphere. Just about all commenters on my blog give their email address so they can be notified when another reader replies to them. Yvonne gave hers as yvonnebaker123@yahoo.com. I went on Yahoo and signed up for that address, so clearly, that email address was a…

There was an “emergency” on the train in Newark yesterday, so I didn’t arrive to the City Council meeting until around 8:15pm – right in the middle of the audit discussion but just in time for one of Councilman Bill Reid’s last performances. In this video Councilors Williams and Storch and Finance Director Ron West…