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I tok the riverline to Camden today for jury duty and I can def tell ya by the courthouse and Rutgers, Camden is very nice. No problems,. the streets were clean and security everywhere. It was cleaner then CC Philly there
Wtf??? Stop saying bad things about this palce and u know eles camden is not the poorest city there are pleanlty more cities that are poorer than ours and guess what the people of camden are doing thier best
Last edited by bmwguydc; 03-30-2013 at 06:48 PM..
Reason: Inappropriate language
Wtf??? Stop saying bad things about this palce and u know eles camden is not the poorest city there are pleanlty more cities that are poorer than ours and guess what the people of camden are doing thier best
Are you from Camden? Just curious.
Last edited by bmwguydc; 03-30-2013 at 06:49 PM..
Reason: Edited quoted text
Took a wrong turn once and found myself in what seemed to be a particularly intimidating section of Camden. Looked straight out of the Wire, only worse. A lot of young men milling about and staring at us. Wife was in the car with me so I ended up driving right through two red lights...
Not sure if it's the poorest city in America, but it was way scarier than anything I've ever seen in Trenton or Newark.
Camden is the poorest city in the country. Its like that for many reasons because of its history, location, politics, locals, the state, and federal govt.
Before WWI the city was a industrial giant. That was based on the overall industrial nature of the US and Camden's excellent port location. Back then South Jersey was mainly rural with lots of railroads all leading into Camden. Raw goods came in from the rest of the region and the finished goods came out of the city to be distributed throughout the region and country by rail and ferry. Almost anything that went from SJ to Philly went via Camden including people. The city was almost entirely row homes. There were no really upscale parts of the city with grand estates or single family detached homes. This was partically due to the NJ's incorporation laws which made it very easy for new towns to be formed (like Merchantville). Camden could not grow into the surrounding country side like so many other cities, limiting future growth.
After WWI the region began to abandon the railroad in favor of cars. In 1926 the Delware River Bridge (later Ben Franklin) was built as well as a series of highways (Route 130, 70, 73, 42, 38) that killed the railroads. lines were abandoned (link between Haddonfield, Marlton, Medford) and the the railroads had to merge to save money (didnt help). The trolleys in Camden were converted to buses and the city grew poorer as middle class people moved to buy larger homes on the open land outside the city (ex. erlton in Cherry Hill).
By the end of the 1940's the city was in a death spiral and what ever was done to arrest the problem only made it worse. Urban renewal destroyed many blocks downtown and replaced them with parking lots. Freeways were built, the Cherry Hill Mall opened up, the ferries and passenger railroad disappeared (except for a little bit that became PATCO), and the rest was history. Riots in the late 60's early 70's was probably the last nail in the coffin, along with the building of 676 that divided the city.
Since the 1970's the city has been petering along the bottom of all cities despite the gifts the state gives it, most of which are little more than things for suburbanites to drive to. The state tried in the 2000's to revive the city with a big surplus of money but most of it went to the well connected in South Jersey and not to make the city better (bigger hospital, Cambell's Soup, Law School.
Camden is a giant sinkhole on the county, region, and states finances. Little planning has been done. Just good money thrown after bad.
My mother works at Camden Rutgers since the 1980s and i have visited the city many times. I have a masters in Urban Planning and I would like to think i know what im talking about. Camden could come back but it would take a comprehensive approach that involves all stakeholders including the residents that so many people outside the city seem to despise.
I tok the riverline to Camden today for jury duty and I can def tell ya by the courthouse and Rutgers, Camden is very nice. No problems,. the streets were clean and security everywhere. It was cleaner then CC Philly there
...just don't wander more then a couple of blocks north or south of the Transportation Center and its associated "Green Zone", lol. I got stuck in ridiculous traffic the other morning and was forced off 295 into Westville and then an accident at the Brooklawn Circle forced me up onto Broadway in Gloucester City. I was going to go to Essex Ave. and then cut over to Collings...but there was construction that closed Essex. At that point, I was basically rolling up Broadway through South Camden to downtown to pick up Admiral Wilson. That's the "real" Camden and it's not pretty.
Quote:
Originally Posted by nowell49
Wtf??? Stop saying bad things about this palce and u know eles camden is not the poorest city there are pleanlty more cities that are poorer than ours and guess what the people of camden are doing thier best
My dad and my mother-in-law both grew up in Camden. My aunt still lives in Camden on Viola Street. I grew up next door in Collingswood and spent a decent amount of time driving through or going to my aunts house. I spent a summer working at the Red Cross on Cooper Street and another at the E-Center on the waterfront. My cousin is a fireman in Camden. What I'm saying is from personal connections and experience and not intended to denegrate anyone. There are still a lot of decent people in Camden who actually give a "f***", but there are less and less of them every year because anyone who can move out, does.
As for it being the "poorest city", you are right that there are "poorer" places then Camden. However, the statistics and rankings for things like "poorest" and "most dangerous" have a population cut-off, so places with less then 50k residents aren't considered in the rankings. Camden with its 75k or so residents makes the cut-off and its high crime rate and low income relative to population is what earns it those distinctions. There is one place off the top of my head that is "worse" then Camden and that's East St. Louis which is far poorer and more dangerous, but it has only 27k residents, so it doesn't make the "city" lists.
Quote:
Originally Posted by stuckinsj
My mother works at Camden Rutgers since the 1980s and i have visited the city many times. I have a masters in Urban Planning and I would like to think i know what im talking about. Camden could come back but it would take a comprehensive approach that involves all stakeholders including the residents that so many people outside the city seem to despise.
I agree with a lot of what you are saying. The primary issue is the lack of some sort of comprehensive plan to revitalize Camdens economy and put people there back to work in jobs with which it is possible for them to sustain themselves and a family. The "solution" to a place like Camden isn't really about urban planning and revitalization (aka making Camden pretty and attracting 'urban pioneers'), but more a societal question of how to address systemic poverty. There are plenty of ideas for doing it including some I have posted regarding public-private partnerships to bring back manufacturing and create modern "workers villages". The problem is, no one really wants to deal with poverty in an engaged way that will actually "cure" it, choosing instead to provide artificial support and band aids.
Considering the state has been paying for the schools in Camden for decades now, why not let them run the schools and make sure that money is working for the kids and not lining administrator pockets.
I live in Philadelphia and I've been to camden quite a few times. The only nice part of Camden is the water front. The rest of it in my opinion is even more dilapidated than north Philly. I think both cities are poor, but Camden is definitely worse off.
I live in Philadelphia and I've been to camden quite a few times. The only nice part of Camden is the water front. The rest of it in my opinion is even more dilapidated than north Philly. I think both cities are poor, but Camden is definitely worse off.
At least Philly has nice Center City , South ,University City ,Northwest and Northeast Philly to counter its bad blighted North and West Philly.... Most cities have decent areas or are 50/50 , Camden only has a tiny area....
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