Newark New Jersey Mayor Corey Booker certainly has one of America's toughest jobs. His city has for decades been plagued with all the stereotypical inner city blues: high crime, population decline, urban blight. One would think that Booker, a rising star in the Democratic party, would be lobbying the Obama administration for cash in the form of some sort of new age urban renewal plan. In fact, the liberal Mayor has decided to get in touch with his more conservative side and call on the private sector-non other than the under taxed rich-which even include some of the much maligned "fat cats" from Wall Street. Booker, mining his vast network honed from his days and Stanford and Yale, has attracted more than $250 million to his poverty stricken city from hedge fund managers, entrepreneurs and Hollywood moguls.. Most famously, Facebook Chief Mark Zuckerberg pledged $100 million to help the city's dismal school system which sadly sports a 61% high school graduation rate. Hedge fund legend Leon Cooperman donated more than $5 million to refurbish parks, swimming pools, basketball courts and soccer fields.
Nicholas Berggruen, known as the "homeless billionaire" (he doesn't own a home or an apartment instead choosing to take up residence in hotels) invested $150 million in Teachers Village, a complex of charter schools, apartments, stores and restaurants. Maybe Nick should take one of those pads for himself. What have we learned from this: In spite of liberals rants against the rich or Wall Street, deep in their down in their bleeding hearts they know what we conservatives have long known: The private sector does it better than the government.
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