Spring Break
Mayor Cory Booker achieves wonders for city of Newark
by David Litvak
Forum | 5/19/09
Posted online at 6:09 PM EST on 5/18/09
When Cory Booker came into office as mayor of Newark, N.J. in July 2006, his job could not have been considered an easy one. A host of problems had long been eating away at the core of the city, with rampant crime and government corruption the two most visible and distressing among a host of related issues. Of course, Booker was only one man, and these problems wouldn't disappear the night he assumed office. The previous mayor, Sharpe James, was mayor for a full two decades, and Booker has only been mayor for slightly less than three years. His achievements are particularly noteworthy in light of the comparatively short tenure of his mayorship and the considerable operational and historical obstacles to his goals.
Newark's tragedy has always been one of potential: It is the largest municipality in New Jersey and only 15 minutes from Manhattan. It should be viewed as a lower-cost suburban alternative to New York's crowded and expensive urban character; it should be awash in economic enterprise and, one would hope, civic pride. But its unemployment and poverty are twice the national average, and its median family income is half the national average. Newark was labeled "the Most Dangerous City in the Nation" by Time magazine in 1996; its murder rate is significantly higher than nearby (and much maligned) New York City's. Five of its past seven mayors have been indicted on criminal charges of corruption, including all three mayors preceding Booker. James' chief of staff and police director were both jailed on corruption or corruption-related charges.
Enter Cory Booker. Booker was educated at the University of Oxford in England and at Yale University; while at Oxford, he became president of the L'Chaim Society, a group founded by now-celebrity Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, as a testament to his commitment to ending tensions between Jews and African Americans. He was elected to Newark's City Council in 1998 and immediately set about his own particular brand of visible activism for the sake of his constituency. He went on a 10-day hunger strike in 1999, living on the street in areas known for blatantly public drug dealing. Many of his reformist proposals were shot down by the city's council by votes of 8 to 1.
Newark's tragedy has always been one of potential: It is the largest municipality in New Jersey and only 15 minutes from Manhattan. It should be viewed as a lower-cost suburban alternative to New York's crowded and expensive urban character; it should be awash in economic enterprise and, one would hope, civic pride. But its unemployment and poverty are twice the national average, and its median family income is half the national average. Newark was labeled "the Most Dangerous City in the Nation" by Time magazine in 1996; its murder rate is significantly higher than nearby (and much maligned) New York City's. Five of its past seven mayors have been indicted on criminal charges of corruption, including all three mayors preceding Booker. James' chief of staff and police director were both jailed on corruption or corruption-related charges.
Enter Cory Booker. Booker was educated at the University of Oxford in England and at Yale University; while at Oxford, he became president of the L'Chaim Society, a group founded by now-celebrity Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, as a testament to his commitment to ending tensions between Jews and African Americans. He was elected to Newark's City Council in 1998 and immediately set about his own particular brand of visible activism for the sake of his constituency. He went on a 10-day hunger strike in 1999, living on the street in areas known for blatantly public drug dealing. Many of his reformist proposals were shot down by the city's council by votes of 8 to 1.
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