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NNU has state and federal lobby days in May with focus on passing legislation to further restrict the fossil fuel industry, empower communities to limit industrial waste, and improse access to to information and resources to fight against pollution.

Newark school's reported that their almost half of buildings have lead in their water.  This is creating immense vulnerability in Essex County, and the issue in Newark dates back to about four years ago.  This problem also stems from the history of lead-based paint, which was outlawed in 1978, but still can be found in many homes, and poisons children.

Professionals can use this data to place an emphasis on the need to solve blood lead issues in children.  This study concluded that a higher proportion of black students had higher blood lead levels; professionals can use this information to decrease the experience gap by working on solving blood lead issues.

The author of this article obviously toured the facility to see the structure of the switch station, the author states that most switch stations are ugly, but when you combine art to the walls it can be quite pleasing to the eye.  The author also spoke with the Mayor of the City of Newark to get his take on the development and the purpose.  

 "The Secret Sauce" "Mayor Ras Baraka jokingly called the art/collaboration joked about Newark’s seemingly forever-ongoing revitalization. Alluding to the process that created the building he stood in front of, Baraka called art and collaboration—between public and private, between community and architect—the “secret sauce” of successful neighborhood revitalization".

stated by David Adjaye  “What I’ve learned in architecture and design is that, when the opportunity seems complicated, that’s when your creativity has to rise to that opportunity,” firm principal David Adjaye told the crowd. 

The article points out how in need the city was of the switch station, after Super Storm Sandy, many over half of the residents were out of power, this due in large to the poor infrastructure and the way it handled overloads when a diasester hit.  The switch station would elimnate all of those issue by upgrading the infrastructure to handle issues in extreme weather conditions.  

The switch station will help in the future if another storm occurs.  This will reassure the reisdences of the city that power will be restore quickly or they will not loose power all together. Along with that the switch station is not an eye sore, the residence of Newark made it very clear that was on of the requirements that the facility not be ugly.  

Many precautions that were taken to reduce blood lead poisoning in New Jersey over the years. In 1978, lead paint was banned in America, and in 1996 New Jersey required children to be screened for blood lead levels.  However, Chris Christie vetoed legislation to remove lead paint from old housing in 2016.