Four years ago, I was pissed off and dejected. I’d been working on the Web site of Cory Booker, a candidate for the Mayor of Newark, NJ.
He endured a nasty campaign against then incumbent, Sharpe James. The whole thing was chronicled in the Academy Ward nominated documentary, Street Fight. In that race, Cory lost by a whisker to James, who had been in office since 1986.
Flash forward to this past Tuesday – Cory Booker won by a landslide (he got 72% of the vote) against state Sen. Ronald L. Rice, a loyalist of Sharpe James. Cory takes over the Mayor’s office on July 1.
So what? How does that have anything to do with Silicon Alley you ask?
Well, Cory is a young, super smart visionary. After decades of corruption and decay, he’s anxious to fix the biggest city in NJ.
He’s got a lot of fans in the business community that will undoubtedly have interest in working with him to bring back Newark.
In the recent past, many big companies have migrated from NYC to Jersey City, because it was a quick hop across the Hudson River, very accessible to NYC, but with much cheaper rents.
Well, I think Newark is now poised to be the hotspot for folks looking to do business in the NYC metro area.
- In – a pro business environment and comparably low rents
- Out – the Newark you see on the Sopranos
It’s a great time for start-ups to move in and grow. And you never know – maybe it will be the location of Affiliate Summit East in 2007.