Newark Mayor Cory Booker helps save neighbor from fire

[chaya]

Newark Mayor Cory Booker suffered second-degree burns and smoke inhalation as he helped rescue one of his next-door neighbors from a burning building Thursday, according to reports

Comments

[bettalaylow]

Just read any comments section in the star ledger (the local paper) has there been an actual opinion no probably not of local residents so I guess you got me there. Newark has been a mess since the riots in the late 60s plagued with corruption the last mayor was in prison. So of course I'm not blaming all the problems in Newark on the Booker administration but what I absolutely resent is how is bs media hype that he's created. He has time to fly all over the country giving speeches (for $20,000 a pop) while the unemployment rate is at 15% if we counted the individuals who have just given up that number would be astronomical. Than there is the crime statistics which went up 21% in a year after he laid off 167 police officers oh but not to worry because the mayor did manage to retain the 9 police officers that serve as his security detail at all times. He doesn't even feel safe in his city what does that tell you. The drop-out rate is 55% which is career death for most of these kids in Newark.

Unlike his twitter followers, Gayle King show watchers, I've been to every inch of this city, and through my previous work I dealt with social workers, child welfare workers, parole officers, teachers, and mostly I worked with residents. Most see Booker as ambitious politician with his eyes towards his next job. The rest of NJ just views Newark as a dumping ground cesspool. The only people who are seeing steady positive change are the corporations that are giving millions in tax breaks, or the billionaire hedge fund manager who decides who wants to privatize public education by building Charter Schools. But for the unemployed, underemployed, homeless, it's just business as usual in Newark.

[illusivevenstar]

lol...the comments section of a website? That is what you use as a measure of opinion?

dying right now.

[fightingwords]

Right?! If you went by the comments section of the San Francisco Chronicle online, you'd think San Francisco was entirely populated by right-wing crackpots. Try again.

[fishphile]

lmao. Yes. I don't even know if the poster is right. Maybe things are bad, but website comments are surely not going to prove this kind of argument.

[jwaneeta]

ikr :D

[fightingwords]

Got any sources?

[thepuddingcook]

What are you even talking about? Newark has been known as being a great place to live for a few years now--I have friends who have wanted to move there. My mom actually moved to Newark because the place she lived in (which was a good area when I was growing up) was becoming crime infested and the mayor REALLY wasn't doing anything up there. She loves her neighborhood and she works for the city. She would have never done that before Booker became mayor. Moreover, there is great education innovation happening in Newark with charters and organizations working with "urban" youth.

Maybe the truth is something in between...but it's not as extreme as you are making it out to be.

[bettalaylow]

There are good neighborhood most cities have a few good neighborhoods. By Branch Brook Park, Ironbound, even some of neighborhoods in University Heights. But you are seriously misinformed if you think people are flocking to move to this city. By Rutgers, NJIT, they are doing a lot gentrification but still there are many parts that you probably wouldn't even want to get out of the car let alone walk around or move to. Not to mention the property taxes are high for shitty city services.

[thepuddingcook]

also if you read the letters to the editor of say, the NY Daily News or Post, then I guess we are all anti immigrant right wing conservatives. O ok.

[bettalaylow]

I was giving a source where you can actually read opinions from people grew up and were raised in Newark. But hey I welcome any of you anytime to visit this city and I mean really visit. Not for basketball game or concert, but visit the South Ward, West Ward, and see how many of the residents live.

[lickety_split]

Gurrrl, the comments section?? You cannot be serious.

this whole thread

[chaya]

[jwaneeta]

I know I'm enjoying the hell out of it. :D

[bettalaylow]

Point is you have actual Newarkites posting as opposed to most people who don't know jackshit about Newark.

[fishphile]

Yeah. No. I read the comments to my local news and newspaper websites. You wouldn't be able to understand the sentiment of most residents from those comments. It's mostly the very fringe of people posting. Most people read the article and move on, not bothering to comment at all.

I have no clue if your claims are correct, but this argument is so very weak that it's making your other arguments suspect.

[fightingwords]

As I wrote elsewhere, if you read the comment section of the San Francisco Chronicle online, you'd believe the city was full of right-wing cranks who hate gays and think black people should go back to Africa.

Seriously, if you have a leg to stand on, you'd be able to support your position. In the meantime, I just googled education, crime, and unemployment, and came up with a mixed bag--education across the state of NJ is a fucking mess, though there look to be plans in place to make things better in Newark; crime jumped last year, but according to the director of the police department, a better response by cops and more technology brought it back down to the same level as 2010; and unemployment is DOWN by 2% this year.

No one's saying Booker walks on water, but most mayors don't, and if you're going come in boo-hooing about how he sucks, support your argument, or you just look like a crank.