NEWARK
BLUES
need for government, that the less government the better… that government
is destructive, that government hurts
communities and hurts people,” Booker
says. “And that’s patently not true.”
Booker took office in 2006, inheriting a city written off by many in New
Jersey and the country at large as a
near-hopeless case, crippled by endemic violence, economic decay and
political corruption. Now in his second term, he points to numerous indicators that Newark is experiencing a
long-overdue revival. Development is
returning to downtown, with the construction of the first new hotels and
office buildings in decades. The population is rising for the first time since
a massive exodus began in the 1950s.
Businesses are coming back, including
major corporations lured by generous
tax incentives. And the city now hosts
a major league sports franchise, the
New Jersey Devils hockey club.
Newark has much going for it,
starting with its close proximity to
New York City — Manhattan is just
eight miles away — and a transportation network that includes a major
port, a confluence of highways and
one of the country’s largest international airports. As Booker has said
often since taking office, the fight to
pull the city back from the brink will
“live and die” on whether people can
HUFFINGTON
08.05.12
feel safe in Newark again.
To makes this happen means bringing peace to the epicenter of the city’s
crime problem, a patchwork of deeply
impoverished neighborhoods, about
7.5 square miles in size, that surrounds the far safer and more prosperous downtown core. About 80 percent
of the city’s shootings take place here,
in a decayed landscape of crumbling
and burnt-out buildings, boarded-up
homes, empty lots, liquor stores and
fast food restaurants. This job is made
infinitely more difficult by the city’s
current financial predicament and the
loss of nearly a quarter of its cops. The
work continues nevertheless.
TURNING IT AROUND
On a blindingly bright morning in
mid-July, the mayor gathers with
other city leaders to kick off a public safety academy for several dozen Newark pre-teens. Over several
weeks, they will see first-hand how
the city’s police, firefighters and
county prosecutors do their jobs. It’s
one of an array of programs designed
not just to stamp out crime but also
to steer young people away from
trouble in the first place.
DeMaio is the first official to address the kids, who sit fidgeting in
folding chairs in a cavernous, hangarlike building that serves as the fire