Defying Expectations, Mayor Ras Baraka Is Praised in All Corners of Newark

NEWARK — Mayor Ras J. Baraka came into office last summer practically taunting his doubters.

“Yeah,” he said in his inaugural address, “we need a mayor that’s radical.”  They had predicted that he would be anti-business and anti-police, that Mr. Baraka, the son of Newark’s most famous black radical, would return a city dogged by a history of riots and white flight to division and disarray. A year later, Mr. Baraka is showering attention on black and Latino neighborhoods, as he promised he…READ MORE