NY Times reports: Cory Booker is just an image. And other reasons to dislike the guy.

Some of the reasons to dislike Cory Booker:

Booker was handsomely paid to go into Newark and blow it up from the inside so property values would fall and residents would be eager to sell to developers and gentrifiers for a fraction of what their properties were worth. That’s what gentrification is all about.

While Mayor Booker went around collecting over a million dollars for speeches, he managed to also push a Newark firefighter to the ground in front of a burning building … to fire a huge number of police officers and to cripple the city’s Department of Public Works so snow removal could not be performed. Interestingly enough, he concurrently waged a misleading PR campaign based around his promises to personally shovel out residents who were snowed in. The number of Newark residents Cory helped were just a handful of those needing professional snow removal.

He tried for years to sell off the Newark Watershed, which by the way is among the most beautiful sites in New Jersey, truly a state treasure … to developers, naturally.

He announced his intention to take over Sen. Lautenberg’s seat before the elderly politician was even dead.

Booker’s education support record is dismal. He accepted money from Facebook’s founder, Mark Zuckerberg, but did not use it to improve public education in Newark. Booker has a long history of supporting charter schools, which are used as a wedge to destroy public education. In 2011, Booker colluded to close 10 public schools in Newark and intended to close 12 more the following year.

Bob Braun explains Booker and Zuckerberg’s connection to Foundation for Newark’s Future (FNF) and to Christie:

Foundation for Newark’s Future (FNF), that mysterious concoction of money and politics put together by former Mayor – now US Senator – Cory Booker, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, and Governor – and presidential wannabe – Chris Christie.

Newark paid Booker’s former employer (a law firm) millions of dollars in fees while Booker was mayor. During those same years, Booker received payments from that firm.

The single reason Booker did not completely destroy Newark despite all his attempts to do so, is that some of the brightest minds and most well informed residents live in Greater Newark and they fought tooth and nail to prevent Mr. Sellout from accomplishing his evil dreams.

Booker got elected US Senator with Christie’s help. In 2013, Christie spent $12 million of NJ voter’s money on a special election just for Booker … in order to make sure that Christie’s own election which took place just 20 days later didn’t draw enough voters to the polls that Christie himself might not getting re-elected.

I’m not the only person Booker has failed to charm. The NY Times says Booker’s a better marketer than mayor and reports:

When snow blanketed this city two Christmases ago, Mayor Cory A. Booker was celebrated around the nation for personally shoveling out residents who had appealed for help on Twitter. But here, his administration was scorned as streets remained impassable for days because the city had no contract for snow removal.

Last spring, Ellen DeGeneres presented Mr. Booker with a superhero costume after he rushed into a burning building to save a neighbor. But Newark had eliminated three fire companies after the mayor’s plan to plug a budget hole failed…

criticism has come even from those he won over: people working on the education projects he supports, council members who ran on his reform slate, business leaders and families who believed in his promise to bring “a renaissance for the rest of us” to a city plagued by self-dealing and mismanagement.

They say Mr. Booker’s frequent Twitter posts to his 1.3 million followers, his appearances on television and at gatherings of moguls and celebrities — he was out of town nearly a quarter of the time between January 2011 and June 2012, according to The Star-Ledger — have distracted him from the local trench work needed to push his agenda. Business leaders say he dazzles at news conferences, but flags on the follow-through. Residents have wearied of the outside fascination for the mayor whom Oprah Winfrey called “a rock star” and Jon Stewart on Wednesday referred to as “the superhero mayor of Newark.”