Sharpe James, revitalization of the mayor of Newark convicted for corruption, dies on 89

Sharpe James, the charismatic and combative mayor of Newark for 20 years who provided a revival of the city center and insisted on upgrading his destroyed neighborhoods, but who was later convicted in a corruption scandal that came from his time in the office, died on Sunday in West Orange, he was 89.

His death, in an older care institution, was confirmed by his son John Sharpe James, a former city councilor of Newark.

In public, Sharpe James was a colorful, friendly cheerleader for his city during his record of five terms as mayor, from 1986 to 2006. Behind the scenes he was a political chief of cold eyes in punishing rivals and beloved supporters to maintain power.

The suspicions of corruption started in the 1990s with well-published federal investigations into accusations that he had used his office to finance an extravagant lifestyle that included a Rolls-Royce and a 54-feet-long hunt. However, he was not accused of crimes, until 2007, A year after he decided not to run for a sixth term, and was found guilty by a federal jury in 2008 From conspiracy while mayor to sell the ownership of city ownership to a former companion with a fraction of their value.

Mr James won his fifth term in 2002 after his only serious re -election battle. He defeated Cory Booker, a colleague Democrat and a municipal councilor at the time, with 53 percent of the votes in a non -party -bound competition. It was by far the smallest victory margin in the four re -election matches of Mr James.

Mr. Booker prepared for taking against Mr. James in 2006 then Mr. James decided to have a new run. Mr. Booker won the elections and then a second term, before he was elected in the Senate of the United States in 2013.

When Mr James announced that he would not look for a sixth term, he could look at a revitalized city center: a shimmering new performing arts center was built; Construction was underway for an arena for the New Jersey Devils Hockey Team (the Open in 2007After leaving the town hall) and new office buildings had risen.

In the city, new houses were built for thousands of families, and many deteriorating high -rise builders for social housing, where thousands of families had lived in the midst of unbridled crime, had been demolished. The population of Newark, who had steadily fallen from almost 400,000 in 1970 – three years after deadly and destructive riots – settled at around 275,000 during the government of Mr James.

But the problems of the city were still serious. The new companies had no effect on the high poverty rate of Newark, which kept around 25 percent during the mayor of Mr James.

Terwijl de heer James diende wat zijn laatste termijn zou zijn als burgemeester, schreef Mara S. Sidney, een politieke wetenschapper op de Newark -campus van de Rutgers University, dat “ondanks enthousiasme over de revival van de stad, en de nieuwe gebouwen zowel voltooid als voor ogen hebben, een diepe stedelijke stad”, in de buurt van de downtown, zijn gevestigde wijken, zijn afgebroken wijken, zijn afgebroken wijken van de Downs, who have been broken down or left behind or left behind or left behind or left behind or left behind or drop out or remain behind the neighborhoods. “

One Ballyhooed project, a Minor League -Honkball Stadium completed in 1999 for a new team named after the Newark Bears of an earlier era, turned out to be a bust, which attracted fewer and fewer spectators until the team folded in 2013.

Nevertheless, Clement A. Price, a history professor of Rutgers-Newark, praised Mr James because he had not only brought important redevelopment projects to Newark, but also hoped in his overwhelming black and Spanish population. He was, Mr. Price said, “fighting for the city when so many potential hunters had hung their gloves.”

Mr. James has awarded himself high marks for his term of office.

“Under my leadership,” he said when he announced that he would no longer run, “Newark climbed the rough side of the mountain and has become a Renaissance city with pride, prosperity and progress.” Or, as he brought it on another occasion, with the catchy Pittiness he was known for, he had sent Newark from “Urban Blight to Urban Bright.”

There was no dispute that Mr James had given the city of entertainment. He was susceptible to antics such as cycling to the town hall in sportswear and a straw hat to deliver his petitions for an election run.

Sharpe James was born on February 20, 1936 in Jacksonville, FLA. His father, Louis James, died of pneumonia before Sharpe was born. His unusual first name was the family name of his mother, who, after getting married to her second husband, became known as Beulah James Fluker.

Sharpe grew up in Newark, where his mother had moved. She worked in the restaurant company in the city, first as a manager and later as the owner, and she struggled to raise Sharpe and his brother, Joseph, about her limited income. The family lived for a while in an apartment with cold water with an outbuilding in the back garden.

Mr. James played on BainTeams at the South Side High School (now Malcolm X Shabazz High School) and at Montclair State College (now Montclair State University), where he graduated in 1958. After in the US Army, he obtained a master’s degree in Springfield’s school administration in Massachusetts.

Mr James taught Public Schools in the 1960s and then taught physical education at Essex County College for almost 20 years, while at the same time representing the South Ward of Newark in the city council.

He was chosen for the first time to expel the established fourth place in 1986, Kenneth A. Gibsonwho had become the first black mayor of a large northeastern city when he was elected in 1970. Mr James had generally been an ally of the mayor while he was in the city council, but in the 1980s, like many others in Newark, he claimed that Mr. Gibson’s efforts to become Newark had become Newark and that it was time for new blood in the town hall. Mr James won with a considerable majority.

Sixteen years later Mr. Booker made the same argument against Mr James in challenging him in 2002. Before Mr James’ claim that Newark was in a Renaissance, Mr. Booker replied that the progress was largely limited to the city center of the city and stated: “It is time for a Renaissance for the rest of us.”

It was a nasty collision, one that was recorded in the 2005 Oscar-nominated Documentary “Street fight. “Mr James, an upper poverty, 66-year-old political veteran, focused on Mr. Booker, a challenger bred in the suburbs half his age, through ruthless personal attacks.

Mr. James won the elections With 53 percent of the votes to the 47 percent of Mr. Booker.

When Mr James withdrew from another run in 2006, he said he thought he could beat Mr. Booker, but chose to resign as “an opponent of the double office retaining.” At the same time he was a state senator since 1999 and, he said, he wanted to concentrate on state issues.

Skeptics rejected this statement and claimed that Mr James had just believed that he could not win or that he was too tired at the age of 70 for another term or a rematch against Mr. Booker. In 2007 he said he would also no longer run For the Senate.

Weeks after that announcement, a federal indictment of Mr James charged two diagrams of his last years: using city credit cards to pay for nearly $ 60,000 in personal expenditures, and conspiracy to sell nine city ownership ownership of a former companion, Tamika Riley, for a total of $ 46,000, which she delivered to $ 46,000.

Although public prosecutors have not shown that Mr James had personally benefited from the residence, A jury convicted him And Mrs. Riley of fraud and Mr James served 18 months in prison.

The charges involving the credit cards had to be tried later, but the prosecutors did not remove them because, they said, a conviction was unlikely that a prison was.

Mr. James flirt with a return to politics In 2022, but he left plans to run for a large seat of the city council after a judge ruled that his 2008 fraud distribution forbade him to have office.

Mr James is survived by his wife, Mary (Mattison) James, and his sons, Elliot, John and Kevin. John Sharpe James Served in the municipal council from 2013 to 2022.

In 2007, after he announced that he would not re -election from the Senate, Mr. James told the New York Times That he has assigned his lifespan in politics to his ebullion, and the fact that he grew up in Newark, like so many of his voters.

Contribators paid tribute and gave generously, on his birthday bash every year. But, Mr James said, he gave them a show in return, arrival on skis on a bed of fake snow for a year and in a rented Rolls-Royce another.

“I know that some of them greet the uniform and not the person,” he said. “But they all knew they would have fun. It would be a party.”

Ash Wu contributed reporting.