In addition to lowering crime, Booker has both doubled the amount of affordable housing under development, and quadrupled the amount under predevelopment. Booker has slashed the city budget deficit from $180 million to $73 million.
Despite criticisms, Booker has also raised the salaries of many city workers.[28] Most recently, however, the Booker Administration and the City of Newark imposed one-day-a-month furloughs for all non-uniformed employees from July through December 2010, as well as two-percent pay cuts for managers and directors currently earning more than $100,000 a year. Citing the reason for the pay cuts, Booker noted, “In 2006, we took over a city in financial crisis. We have made significant steps to address our financial future and decided that we would not balance the budget on the backs of our residents.” Booker has reduced his own salary twice since taking office, voluntarily reducing his salary by 8% early in his first year as mayor. None of Booker’s senior managers have received pay increases since taking office.[31]
Mayor Booker’s leadership has attracted approximately $100 million in private philanthropy to the City of Newark and a variety of nonprofits and public/private partnerships have been created and used to better the lives of Newark residents. In April of 2008, the Newark Charter School Fund was established to provide grants in support of Newark’s charter schools to support a successful public school system in Newark.[32]The City of Newark also works with GreenSpaces, which has committed $40 million toward the largest park expansion initiative in over a century with a total of twenty one park construction and rehabilitation projects scheduled for completion in every ward by the end of 2010.[33]To support the Newark Police Department, the Newark Police Foundation was established in 2006 and provides funding and other services to the Police Department which has had a significant impact on the NPD’s ability to pay for necessary resources that would otherwise not be readily funded through the department’s budget.[34]
In 2009, after President Barack Obama became president of the United States, Booker was offered the chance to head the new White House Office of Urban Affairs Policy; Booker turned the offer down citing a commitment to Newark.[28]
In an effort to make government more accessible, Booker's administration has held regular open office hours during which city residents can meet personally with the Mayor to discuss their concerns.[35]
Booker was honored in October 2009 by the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence with the Sarah Brady Visionary Award for his work in reducing gun violence. [36]
Booker made news when on December 31, 2009, a constituent used Twitter to ask the mayor to send someone to her father's house to shovel his driveway because her father, who was 65 years old, was going to attempt to do it himself. Booker responded by tweeting; "I will do it myself where does he live?" Other people volunteered, including one person who offered his help on Twitter and 20 minutes later the mayor and some volunteers showed up and shoveled the man's driveway. [1]
Booker is a member of the Mayors Against Illegal Guns Coalition,[37] a bi-partisan group with a stated goal of "making the public safer by getting illegal guns off the streets." The Coalition is co-chaired by Boston mayor Thomas Menino and New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Cory Booker - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
