newarking

Until I read a recent Univeristy of Delaware Review article, Student group brings hope, water to Africa, I wasn’t aware of the existence of a group known as Engineers without Borders.

The Engineers Without Borders - Delaware Chapter are committed to “designing and implementing sustainable solutions to problems in international developing communities and bridging cultural, economical, and political divides.” Their summer time excursion to Cameroon is detailed in their blog, which is filled with pictures of the chapter in action.

I’ve heard of Reporters Without Borders before, as well as Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres. Given the University’s very strong engineering program, I’m happy to hear that there are students actively engaged in the international developing community like this.

The Greater Newark Network is holding a forum open to the public on Thursday night, October 25, 2007. The focus of the forum is on ways that the local area can become more attractive to new and growing businesses.

The group is a partnership between the New Castle County Chamber of Commerce and local business and government leaders, and was founded earlier this year.

Part of its mission was to identify and plan for problems, such as the closing of the local Chrysler plant in 2009 and the Avon distribution center. Another part was to plan for opportunities, such as the addition of many new high-tech jobs arriving at the Aberdeen Proving Ground, about 25 miles away, because of the federal Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) plan.

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Saw this label graffiti featuring “Fire Breathing Frank” on a walk down Delaware Avenue this afternoon:

Not too much after snapping that picture, I turned on Academy Street past the Aetna firehouse just as the fire truck was making its way out of the building:

Hopefully they won’t have a run in with Frank.

The Aetna Hose, Hook, and Ladder Company has a blog of sorts, where they provide some information in the form of incident reports on the front page of their site.

The Delaware Kenya Association is a non-profit group located in Newark, Delaware, who have worked to assist Kenyan immigrants living in Delaware, and to make a positive difference in the lives of people living in Kenya.

The group was founded in 2001, and their efforts are aimed at reflecting the tradition of “harambee,” Swahili for “pulling together.”

The News Journal is reporting on their latest efforts in a story titled Local group to create children’s center in Kenya

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A thoughtful thread at the Something Awful forum from a couple of days ago, is this happening to any other college towns?, discusses the condominiums that are being build where the old Stone Balloon was located, as well as similar development in other college towns. It also points to a post here that I wrote on the closing of the Stone Balloon.

The thread spans a couple of pages, and there are posts from past and present Newarkers on the Condos, and on living in Newark. The conversation covers a number of other campuses, and similar development happening on many of those.

I’m going to have to take some photos of the construction at the site tomorrow and add them to this post. (Have done that now.)

This is the new condo building, on the former grounds of the Stone Balloon, in Newark, Delaware.

Even partially built (It is going to get taller), the building dominates the space around it on Main Street. It’s also the only building on the street that stretches from Main Street to Delaware Avenue, which runs parallel to Main Street. As far as buildings on Main Street go, it may be the largest.

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There’s a lot of hope accompanying an ad running in today’s News Journal that new University of Delaware president Patrick Harker (fresh from being a Dean of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania), can bring some vitality to Delaware’s business community by “Creating Knowledge Based Partnerships” with businesses.

I’m encouraged by this announcement. Some of that hope that I mention above is mine, but I think that there’s a chance for the University to be the center point of some innovation in business and technological development for the State.

The focus of the advertisment is a day long conference featuring:

• Chad Holliday of DuPont
• Abbey Joseph Cohen of Goldman Sachs & Co.
• Delaware Governor Ruth Ann Minner, and
• UD President Patrick Harker

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Like most of Newark, we at Newarking have settled in to summer mode.  We can travel down Main Street at 5 PM again, the shops and restaurants are not as crowded or noisy and people watching has dwindled.

We will post as news demands and time permits over the summer.  Until the new school year begins, we wish you a happy summer.