re: #165 Feline Fearless Leader

Camden has all the problems that Newark did, and then some. Yet Newark has rebounded in a way that Camden has so far not been able to.

Newark has benefited from the fact that companies have taken advantage of its proximity to NYC to set up headquarters and build in the comparatively cheap downtown area. It’s got proximity to EWR and Amtrak, so it’s conducive to economic development, and its current mayor Cory Booker is a huge booster of the city and has worked on improving education and reducing crime.

It’s still got a ways to go and there are areas of abject poverty, but other parts of the city are on a remarkable comeback, including the Ironbound and downtown. It hasn’t happened overnight, but there is a turnaround in that people are willing to come into the city to go to cultural and sports events - and that money is being spent and circulated in town.

Camden should have seen something similar, but it lacks an effective political structure. Corruption has been a huge problem, and the tax base has been shredded, leaving few avenues to improve basic services without massive infusions of state aid (which have come in fits and starts). There are a few bright spots - namely Rutgers at Camden, Cooper hospital, and the Adventure Aquarium, but people aren’t clamoring to go to Camden to spend money, let alone settle down, when there are thriving communities next door, and Philly across the river is preferable. A takeover of the police department may help improve public safety, and create a new and improved environment in which people will feel safer settling in, but that’s a long term endeavor that only began within the last year.

Changing the political culture in Camden is necessary too (though not all that different than the corruption up the road in Trenton where its mayor is currently under indictment on corruption).