Mayor Cory Booker Talks About His City

He's appeared on Oprah Winfrey. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg offered him $100 million to fix Newark's ailing schools. His picture has been splashed all over Esquire Magazine. But when he's out of the celebrity spotlight, Cory Booker is just a mayor with a job to do in Newark.

The 42-year-old mayor of New Jersey's largest city has faced plenty of hardships during his five years in office, including the recent spike in murders coming on the heels of laying off 167 police officers last November.

With the appointment of Acting Police Director Samuel DeMaio, following the departure of Garry McCarthy to Chicago, and the selection of new Schools Superintendent Cami Anderson, Booker knows the city is in transition. But he says it is also in the midst of transformation.

"This is a time in Newark where you're seeing things that have never happened before on the economic development front," Booker told Patch earlier this week.

Last weekend, hundreds gathered at the $375 million Prudential Center, which opened in 2007, for the Newark Peace Education Summit, a three-day event featuring the and a slew of other peace activists. The summit stands as a symbol that times are changing in the city, according to Booker.

"We've just come off having the NCAA, and the peace conference -- a lot of things that are showing the energy of our city," said Booker.

He touted Newark's biggest economic development in over a decade as a reason there's hope yet in a once-blighted city. Japanese electronic giant Panasonic recently announced plans to move its 800-employee North American headquarters from Secaucus to Newark, deemed as a major coup in Booker's tenure.

Meanwhile, ground has been broken on a $53 million Courtyard by Marriott hotel near Penn Station and Brad Pitt's Make It Right Foundation has partnered with the city to build a four-story affordable housing complex for veterans in the South Ward.

"Newark is still showing signs of hope and promise and quite frankly doing some things other cities don't do," Booker said.

As the summer months approach, the mayor said targeting crime is at the forefront of his agenda. He vowed the city will not endure a summer like the last, the deadliest since 1990 with 35 homicides in a three-month period.

"The only thing that prevents crime is not (just) police," he said. "It also has to be about having an almost aggressive engagement with the community and doing things in partnership."

Booker said a summer anti-crime initiative calling for community involvement, in conjunction with police, fire and city officials, will be unveiled early June.

"The city is getting warmer and we'll make sure it doesn't get hot," he said. "This summer, crime will go down. We will get it done."

The success of quashing crime this summer will likely correspond with the public's opinion of the mayor, who has in the past been criticized for being a celebrity mayor disconnected from some residents.

"We get more disrespect and disregard from Cory Booker and the Booker Team that sits on this council and all of their department heads and directors than we should be able to bear," said resident Lamont Vaughn who spoke during the public comment session of Wednesday's council meeting.

Though he has his critics, Booker also enjoys support from other elected leaders.

"The mayor I know is one of those guys who's uniquely dedicated to his community," said Bloomfield Mayor Raymond McCarthy. "He's uniquely qualified to be the mayor of Newark. I think his task at hand is doubly hard than what most of us deal with."

It has been speculated Booker will run for a third consecutive mayoral term in 2013 and his name has also been bandied about as a potential candidate for New Jersey governor or U.S. Senate. The mayor, however, appears focused not on his re-election, but on his commitment to the city of Newark.

"We went through a lull, quite frankly, during the time of the police layoffs and there's was a lot of uncertainty," said Booker. "… But for a city like Newark to see all this action, dynamism, all this opportunity, despite the challenging times, it creates a high hope for what the future's going to bring."