Word: bookers
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Moving Beyond Murder A small but passionate band of Booker critics is standing on the steps of Newark's city hall early one evening, rallying against a city plan to create a municipal water authority. Among the agitators is Amiri Baraka, a prominent, controversial African-American poet and activist. Baraka, 74, has won a trunkful of literary prizes but was essentially stripped of his New Jersey poet-laureate title after penning a post-9/11 poem that was denounced as anti-Semitic. The writer, who was reared in Newark and still lives in the city, is a voice from...
Baraka is asked to evaluate Booker. "I give him credit. The homicide rate has gone down," says the poet. "But I don't know if you can judge the quality of life in a city by just the homicide rate. Where is the employment? Where is the education? What is in it for the residents...
Fair questions. Booker's team can rattle off a list of accomplishments beyond murder reduction. For example, his administration has doubled the number of affordable housing units currently under construction and quadrupled the affordable stock in predevelopment. Almost a dozen parks have been refurbished. Booker's national profile and endless advocacy for Newark have attracted more than $100 million in private philanthropy - money that is even more crucial for Newark in a recession...
...Booker well knows, philanthropy and social programming, no matter how creative, won't solve Newark's most pressing problems. Unemployment in the city rose to 13.5% in May, the city's highest level in nearly six years. Foreclosures have tripled, and boarded-up homes taint many blocks...
...mayor remains upbeat. "I don't say this in an exaggerated way, but in five years, we're going to shock the nation," Booker says. "In a way that you're kind of resuscitating people's belief in democracy and belief in the American ideals." If you're a politician who could possibly face Booker down the road, clip that quote. The city is burdened with the same drug, crime and urban-decay issues it had four, 10, 20 years ago. Booker talks a big game, and three years into his term, he has certainly impressed. But despite Booker...