Cory A. Booker

Cory A. Booker, 43, is the Mayor of Newark, New Jersey, the largest city in the State of New Jersey. Booker is presently serving in his second term.

Elected with a clear mandate for change, Booker began work on realizing a bold vision for the City. Newark’s mission is to set a national standard for urban transformation by marshalling its resources to achieve security, economic abundance, and an environment that is nurturing and empowering for individuals and families.

Booker and his Administration, together with the City’s residents, have made meaningful strides towards achieving the City’s mission by tackling significant challenges with innovation, new coalitions, creative public-private partnerships, and building on the already existing great foundation in New Jersey’s most historic city.

Booker and his team have more than doubled the rate of affordable housing production; created the City’s largest expansion of parks and recreation spaces in over a century with nearly 50 acres of new or refurbished parks; these included the first new park in the City of Newark in decades, Nat Turner Park in the City’s Central Ward.

He brought more than $1 billion of new economic development into the City (including the first new hotels in the City’s downtown in 40 years and the first new office tower under construction in 20 years). By the fourth quarter of 2012, Newark became the hottest market for construction in the State of New Jersey, hosting 30 percent of the state’s commercial and multi-family development. In 2013 and 2014, the City has more than $1.5 billion of additional projects moving forward in the pipeline.

Business attraction has also been a focus for Booker and his team—they have attracted new large businesses (including Panasonic, Manischewitz, Biotrial, and audible.com) to relocate their national and international headquarters to Newark and, through the City’s economic development corporation, created a small and midsize business loan fund that has helped more than 500 businesses start or expand, lending more than $14.6 million to Newark small businesses through community loan programs. In February 2012, the City and its partners broke ground on Teachers’ Village, a mixed-use development in downtown Newark that will create three new schools, a daycare center, more than 200 moderately-priced rental apartments for Newark teachers, covering more than 200,000 square feet, and more than 20 on-street retail establishments, designed by nationally renowned and Newark native architect Richard Meier.

Booker has also attracted national attention for his education reform efforts—already succeeding in significantly expanding high quality public education options for families and leading in the creation of new strong educational and career development opportunities for Newark’s disaffected youth. These have included gaining a $100 million matching grant for Newark’s public schools from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

Booker’s efforts to strengthen Newark’s economy have resulted in great achievements: increases in tax collection from $52 million in 2006 to $75 million in 2012. The City’s population is growing for the first time in 60 years and businesses are moving in. In 2013, the Newark Municipal Budget will not have to apply for emergency state aid, distressed city state aid, or transitional state aid.

During Booker’s term, the Prudential Center was opened, bringing world-class entertainment to Newark’s downtown. Since its 2007 gala opening, the Prudential Center has been home to the National Hockey League’s New Jersey Devils, Seton Hall basketball, the WNBA Liberty, and the NBA’s New Jersey Nets. The Center has also hosted such major events as the NCAA Regional Semi-Finals, the NBA Draft, concerts by the Rolling Stones and Bruce Springsteen, and welcomed the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus back to Newark after a 50-year absence. Booker and his team have worked diligently to help bring these major events to Newark, and to support the development of restaurants and taverns to cater to the thousands of visitors who attend the Prudential Center’s events.

Recognizing the dignity, worth, and limitless potential of all people, Booker has led in the creation of an innovative network of resources and programs for men and women coming home from incarceration, dramatically driving down recidivism rates for those involved. The recidivism rate for Re-Entry Program participants is only 40 percent. Booker and his team have led with other innovations for youth and families including New Jersey’s first youth and community courts and the creation of a network of grassroots financial and family empowerment centers in 14 neighborhoods throughout the City.

Booker has also made government reform and transparency a major focus of his efforts, enacting groundbreaking ethics ordinances and policies, reducing municipal expenses, and creating the City’s first-ever Inspector General’s office, to ensure the highest level of professionalism and ethical behavior by the City’s employees, vendors, and contractors. These efforts have created greater municipal efficiencies, reducing overtime and workmen’s compensation costs.

He also created a Non-Emergency Call Center to enable residents to connect with municipal services, policies, and programs for non-life threatening situations.

Booker has also gained wide attention for his implementation and usage of new technologies ranging from creating the State’s largest wireless network of crime fighting technology (including cameras and gunshot detection) to raising the bar on customer service using social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook.

His efforts to enhance Newark’s public safety has resulted in a 27 percent decline in shooting incidents since 2006, a 26 percent cut in auto theft since 2006, and a 17 percent reduction in murders. Both the Police and Fire Departments received infusions of new vehicles, technology, equipment, and facilities—including the new Police Headquarters and Emergency Operations Center at 480 Clinton Avenue, a state-of-the-art facility.

For all his efforts and those of countless Newark residents and activists, Newark is fast becoming recognized as one of America’s rising cities of hope and promise. Booker’s leadership in these significant civic strides has been recognized by numerous magazines and other media outlets, including being named to the 2011 TIME 100, the magazine’s annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world. He has received worldwide media attention for his dynamic speeches—including a major address at the 2012 Democratic National Convention—for living a week on a “Food Stamps” diet, personally responding to residents’ requests to shovel snow out of driveways, and even for rescuing two neighbors from a burning house next to his South Ward home.

Booker received his B. A. and M. A. from Stanford University, a B. A. in Modern History at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, and completed his law degree at Yale University. And he has often been known to say, he got his B.A. from Stanford, but thanks to a great city, he received his best education from the people of Newark, New Jersey.