Newark prepares for Whitney Houston’s funeral

The neighbourhood’s decline has continued since the Houstons followed the lead
of many black middle class Newark residents by moving to the suburbs.

While not exactly a ghetto, the area around the church is clearly not well
off; a boarded up warehouse sits opposite and there are telltale signs of
prostitution in the empty lots which surround it: tangles of used condoms
and miniature whiskey bottles litter the ground.

But just around the corner lies the campus of the NJIT – a science and
technology college – and the prestigious Rutgers University is incongruously
sited just a 10 minute walk away.

The church, however, is easily the most vibrant and successful-looking
building in the immediate vicinity, a large, century-old red brick building
which has been sympathetically expanded with new wings made to look like the
old.

On Friday it was the scene of frenzied activity; the world’s media staking out
their positions as electrical equipment was unloaded at a side door, and
some of Houston’s biggest hits – including I Will Always Love You and I’m
Every Women – played on a loud speaker set up by a neighbour.

One street over, the flag on the City of Newark Department of Engineering flew
at half mast, as they were on government buildings across the city – at the
insistence of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.

All the while, fans arrived at the front of the church to lay flowers and
place candles, balloons and written tributes to the girl known as “Nippy”
to her friends and family in Newark.

The nickname was bestowed on her by her father, John Russell Houston Jr, when
she was a baby after a cartoon character who was always getting into trouble.

Houston’s body will be laid to rest beside his at the Fairview Cemetery in
Westfield on Sunday – the cemetery is around half an hour’s drive from
Newark and an hour from East Orange, the suburb where the family moved in
1968.

At the time, they would have considered that they were going up in the world.
Newark had struggled to recover from the trauma brought about by the riots
of the previous year.

Twenty-six people died and 1,500 were injured. In addition, a generation of
young men had been criminalised – there were 1,600 arrests – and many of the
thousands of businesses which were torched or looted would never reopen.

East Orange represented a fresh start – a well-heeled area with four and five
bedroom houses, large back yards and all the amenities desired by a young
family: swimming pools, shops, restaurants.

The two-story house the Houstons bought here was modest but comfortable, worth
around $200,000 (£125,000) in today’s money, and best of all it had a pool,
which soon became an attraction for local children.

Cissy Houston and her niece, the singer Dionne Warrick, were by now well-known
in the music industry, and young Whitney was encouraged to come along to
watch and soon join in as they played in nightclubs in New York City and
beyond.

Her friends at Franklin Elementary School, which Houston attended between 1969
and 1974, describe her as sporty and shy rather than boastful – they were
eager to hear her stories of the famous people she had met, and marvelled at
the gold records on the walls of her family home.

Following a change of name in 1997, the school is now called the Whitney E
Houston Academy of Creative and Performing Arts. Houston reportedly took
pride in the school which bore her name, frequently going back to visit and
encourage new generations of children.

The principle, Henry Hamilton, was in his job when Houston attended and has
fond memories of her: “She was a beautiful little girl. She was well
respected,” he said.

On the large, well-kept lawn in front of the attractive school building, a
mini shrine had grown up on Friday, featuring pink and red balloons, many in
the shape of hearts.

But while Houston’s former home and school still appear in good condition, the
same cannot be said for those in the streets around them.

Like Newark and Houston herself, drugs have plagued East Orange too, dragging
this once attractive suburb down into the gutter.

Wander two minutes away from the school, and it is like walking into another
world. Turn down the side streets away from the main road, and young men in
black hooded jackets can be seen openly dealing drugs.

Houses are boarded up and many show signs of trouble – fire damage and police
tape.

No one had bothered to lower the flag on federal buildings here, and the only
hint of Houston’s influence was a tatty home-printed T-shirt bearing her
image displayed in the window of a grocery store.

Residents say that the decay began in the recession of the 1980s, and
spiralled rapidly down hill in the 1990s – around the time Houston began her
ill-fated relationship with rap star Bobby Brown.

In the end, with all the natural gifts she had been given, the good fortune
and blessings bestowed, Whitney Houston could not escape the perils of drug
addiction.

Perhaps it is no wonder that her home town has suffered the same fate.

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