When Cory Booker came into office as mayor of Newark, N.J. in July 2006, his job could not have been considered an easy one. A host of problems had long been eating away at the core of the city, with rampant crime and government corruption the two most visible and distressing among a host of related issues. Of course, Booker was only one man, and these problems wouldn't disappear the night he assumed office. The previous mayor, Sharpe James, was mayor for a full two decades, and Booker has only been mayor for slightly less than three years. His achievements are particularly noteworthy in light of the comparatively short tenure of his mayorship and the considerable operational and historical obstacles to his goals.Newark's tragedy has always been one of potential: It is the largest municipality in New Jersey and only 15 minutes from Manhattan. It should be viewed as a lower-cost suburban alternative to New York's crowded and expensive urban character; it should be awash in economic enterprise and, one would hope, civic pride. But its unemployment and poverty are twice the national average, and its median family income is half the national average. Newark was labeled "the Most Dangerous City in the Nation" by Time magazine in 1996; its murder rate is significantly higher than nearby (and much maligned) New York City's. Five of its past seven mayors have been indicted on criminal charges of corruption, including all three mayors preceding Booker. James' chief of staff and police director were both jailed on corruption or corruption-related charges.

Enter Cory Booker. Booker was educated at the University of Oxford in England and at Yale University; while at Oxford, he became president of the L'Chaim Society, a group founded by now-celebrity Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, as a testament to his commitment to ending tensions between Jews and African Americans. He was elected to Newark's City Council in 1998 and immediately set about his own particular brand of visible activism for the sake of his constituency. He went on a 10-day hunger strike in 1999, living on the street in areas known for blatantly public drug dealing. Many of his reformist proposals were shot down by the city's council by votes of 8 to 1.

Booker was nothing if not persistent. He ran for mayor in 2002, losing to James after a campaign challenging his faith (on the evidence of his involvement in L'Chaim while at Oxford), his suburban background and his African-American identity (des-pite James himself being African-American), but the margin was close enough that James opted to run for the New Jersey Senate in 2006. Booker subsequently won 70 percent of the vote and got to work fast.

Newark's police department didn't even include a narcotics department until Booker took office, and he brought in a top New York Police Department officer, Garry McCarthy, to restructure and lead the new department in Newark. Crime is really the sine qua non of Newark's problems, and Booker has instituted a zero-tolerance policy to help combat it. In light of endemic ineptitude or historical corruption within various sectors of the city government, Booker has sought outside reformers to aid in reviving the city regardless of their racial background. He has otherwise simply fired city employees, for example, in the Newark Housing Authority, which had become notorious for political cronyism and nepotism.

Booker has sought to reform Newark's education system as well, although he has had less control there given the state government's intervention in Newark's schools following the state Education Department's 1994 report. But here, too, he has gone against the grain, challenging entrenched (if well-intentioned) groups like teachers' unions and seeking to close or restructure failing schools. In the past, Booker has supported bipartisan efforts to expand school choice, which, even if untested, were generally shunned outright without being given an opportunity to succeed.

The importance of Booker's work is not lost on others. President Barack Obama proposed an Office of Urban Policy during his candidacy that would have helped to target federal aid to cities effectively and aimed to improve job creation and economic development. Obama created a similar Office of Urban Affairs in February to achieve nearly the same purpose. It is not unreasonable to think that Obama, Booker's friend, has taken note of the mayor's progress and continuing efforts. His push to renew the urban pride of Newark's past and bring his city back to its feet are laudable, and Newark's success may depend on his ability to deliver. His commitment bodes well for his city's future.