O, Camden
CAMDEN, NEW JERSEY - It's where Walt Whitman went to die, and it won't surprise any reader of his poems that he took 19 years to do it.
Contemporary residents of the city tend to die much more quickly, which is why Morgan Quitno Press has named Camden the most dangerous city in America in its annual City Crime Rankings report.
Camden was a 19th century industrial powerhouse and the vibrant sister city to Philadelphia, but 20th century suburban migration took its working and middle classes - everyone who could leave, did. In 2000, just in time for the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia, the State of New Jersey leveled the mile of strip clubs that lined Route 30 just east of the Ben Franklin Bridge, largely eliminating one of the only two industries for which Camden was still famous. (The other being soup-making.) The state didn't develop all that land - it made a park.
When Christie Whitman was governor she sent in the N.J. State Police to "take charge" of the city, but they wound up taking flight when the bodycount started to climb. (Any State Trooper will gladly put his life on the line for New Jersey, but Camden is a tougher sell.) After that, the State of New Jersey seemed to give up on rebuilding the city, and has focused instead on removing it. Camden should be prime real estate, after all, but the tax base of the city is incredibly low - it's Pyongyang to Philadelphia's Seoul. Each new state or federal project built in Camden takes up an inordinate amount of space. The land is cheap, and if you keep building new colleges, aquariums, ballparks, courthouse complexes and parks, eventually you'll take it all. It's too clear a trend to be anything but intentional. The State of New Jersey wants Camden to go away; to cease its Camden-ing; to end its intrinsic Camden-ness.
So let's all salute Camden, which in its last years of existence as an incorporated municipality has exceeded all expectations of brutality and thuggishness. And let's all say a prayer for Camden's next-door-neighbor Cherry Hill, once the jewel of Philadelphia's suburbs, and the place where everyone from Camden will move when they have nowhere else to go.
Contemporary residents of the city tend to die much more quickly, which is why Morgan Quitno Press has named Camden the most dangerous city in America in its annual City Crime Rankings report.
Camden was a 19th century industrial powerhouse and the vibrant sister city to Philadelphia, but 20th century suburban migration took its working and middle classes - everyone who could leave, did. In 2000, just in time for the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia, the State of New Jersey leveled the mile of strip clubs that lined Route 30 just east of the Ben Franklin Bridge, largely eliminating one of the only two industries for which Camden was still famous. (The other being soup-making.) The state didn't develop all that land - it made a park.
When Christie Whitman was governor she sent in the N.J. State Police to "take charge" of the city, but they wound up taking flight when the bodycount started to climb. (Any State Trooper will gladly put his life on the line for New Jersey, but Camden is a tougher sell.) After that, the State of New Jersey seemed to give up on rebuilding the city, and has focused instead on removing it. Camden should be prime real estate, after all, but the tax base of the city is incredibly low - it's Pyongyang to Philadelphia's Seoul. Each new state or federal project built in Camden takes up an inordinate amount of space. The land is cheap, and if you keep building new colleges, aquariums, ballparks, courthouse complexes and parks, eventually you'll take it all. It's too clear a trend to be anything but intentional. The State of New Jersey wants Camden to go away; to cease its Camden-ing; to end its intrinsic Camden-ness.
So let's all salute Camden, which in its last years of existence as an incorporated municipality has exceeded all expectations of brutality and thuggishness. And let's all say a prayer for Camden's next-door-neighbor Cherry Hill, once the jewel of Philadelphia's suburbs, and the place where everyone from Camden will move when they have nowhere else to go.
posted by Sterling at 11:28 AM
Comments:
Some Hollywood types should step up and get HBO to film a series there. Sterling, spec out a treatment.
What I want is for Sean Penn to make a documentary there with Michael Moore. There's a good chance neither of them would ever be seen again.
I posted on R804 about the Morgan Quito rankings, which place Richmond at number five. The Times-Dispatch and local bloggers are doing a tapdance to try to explain away the ranking. Problem is, it's accurate.
That's funny, especially if you think about what they would call that movie: "Rescue Me?" Moore's unshaven moon-like face in an endless slow motion howl as Sean pulls him into a Chinese Junk boat.
Had a conversation over Thanksgiving weekend with a recently retired high-ranking NJ State Trooper of my acquaintance. He contests my assertion that the state government has given up on Camden: "I wish they would. But they haven't."
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