In the mid 90s, my wife and I were living halfway between Camden and Newark, and my wife was trying to determine which campus of Rutgers Law School to attend.
I was down Camden way on business, so I stopped by to tour the Camden Campus. I drove around for half an hour, and I just could not believe the devastation. I walked around the campus, and all around were burned out neighborhoods. Total disaster area.
I got back on the Turnpike and stopped at a rest stop to call my wife I said that Newark could not possibly be that bad, and she was going to Newark.
From time to time over the next three years she would complain about Newark, and I would tell her she had no idea what bad was.
Twenty years later, I work in Newark and it is getting to be a pretty good town. Camden, however, remains bad.
Camden and Trenton are very, very sad. It hurts my heart to see and Trenton is the state capital. No pride from either Repubs or Dems.