Former Booker Property an Eyesore, Neighbors Say

An unoccupied Court Street home owned until recently by Mayor Cory Booker has become a magnet for squatters and an eyesore, according to neighbors quoted by The Record of Woodland Park.

Booker purchased the property in 2009 for $175,000 and sold it just a few months ago for $1 to Newark Now, the city-based nonprofit founded by Booker.

"He bought it and promised to be a good neighbor, but that hasn't occurred," Robert El, who owns the row house attached to Booker's, told The Record. "Shortly after he bought it, the squatters started moving in."

A Booker spokesman said the mayor gave the property to Newark Now hoping that it would benefit the city.

Booker was planning on renovating and moving into the home until he found another house on Longworth Avenue, his campaign told The Record. Booker has recently lived in a Hawthorne Avenue apartment and, early in his political career, in Brick Towers, a housing project notorious for crime that has since been torn down.