The five one-hour episodes of Brick City depict the struggle for change in Newark, long a symbol of urban neglect, from very different perspectives - Mayor Cory Booker and Police Director Garry McCarthy in the halls of power, and inactive gang members Dashaun "Jiwe" Morris and Jayda "Ru" Jacques on the street.
"Everybody talks about reform, but nobody wants to change," a frustrated McCarthy laments to his wife in the fourth episode, during a dispute with the union representing sergeants, lieutenants, and captains.
Oscar-winning actor Forest Whitaker served as executive producer of Brick City, which is set to run on the Sundance Channel on five consecutive nights beginning Sept. 21. The series is noteworthy because many urban leaders are looking to Booker, a Rhodes scholar and Yale Law School graduate, to craft a plan to restore cities like Newark to their former grandeur.
Filmmakers Marc Levin and Mark Benjamin had unparalleled access to city officials, the Bloods street gang, and community activists in a city that never fully recovered from the racially tinged riots of 1967. The six days of rioting left 23 dead, 725 injured, and close to 1,500 people arrested.
By 1990, Newark had lost nearly half its population and become a regional hub for the illegal drug trade.
"Brick City is not about Newark, it's about America - because there are 50 cities like Newark," Benjamin said.
Booker has built his reform effort around McCarthy's law-enforcement strategy, which includes restoring the rule of law to neglected neighborhoods, moving police from desk jobs back to street patrol, and enforcing "quality-of-life" infractions for things like traffic violations and public urination.
Booker, 40, has also instituted programs that teach children manners, support reformed felons, and teach residents to manage their finances. He has had some notable successes.
The city is estimated to have regained about 1,500 residents in his administration's first two years, from July 2006 to July 2008. Homicides have declined 36 percent, and shootings have fallen 7 percent since 2005, when former Mayor Sharpe James was still in office.
Nevertheless, the city is still periodically convulsed by shocking violence, including the slayings of three college-bound students in summer 2007. The Newark Teachers Union began erecting billboards in response to the violence that year that read: "HELP WANTED: Stop the Killings in Newark Now!"
The recession is slowing Booker's effort. It helped push the city's unemployment rate to 14.3 percent in June, the highest level in nearly 15 years.
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