Santiago Giraldo Anduaga, Sara Bissen, and Luis Macias explored Newark, New Jersey in the Fall 2013 Studio I course through the lens of its history of growth and development. Often times, the true stories of how cities evolve and the effects these changes can have on a city’s residents, are blinded by the dominant and incomplete stories created by people in power, city officials, private developers, and profit-driven interest groups. These stories are the ones presented for the public to see, masked by benefits that ultimately negatively affect marginalized low-income communities and people of color the most.

The stories of Route 75, Rutgers University/New Jersey Institute of Technology, and the Hess Power Plant are very different stories with different outcomes, and the similarities do not arise from the stories told today. The similarities between the stories are only seen when they are understood through the tales of the people and communities most affected by the hidden costs of these projects. Told here are the stories of communities, families, and residents. These are the stories of neighborhoods that have paid the price as a result of these development projects. These are the stories that bring to light the unseen struggles for equitability, the coming together of communities in triumph, and the heartbreaking defeats faced by residents. The stories in this book are the stories of the people.