City of Ruins: Camden, New Jersey, stands as a warning....

http://www.thenation.com/article/155801/city-ruins# ^ | November 4, 2010 | Chris Hedges

[WhiskeyX]

Camden, New Jersey, with a population of 70,390, is per capita the poorest city in the nation. It is also the most dangerous. The city's real unemployment—hard to estimate, since many residents have been severed from the formal economy for generations—is probably 30–40 percent. The median household income is $24,600. There is a 70 percent high school dropout rate, with only 13 percent of students managing to pass the state's proficiency exams in math. The city is planning $28 million in draconian budget cuts, with officials talking about cutting 25 percent from every department, including layoffs of nearly half the police force. The proposed slashing of the public library budget by almost two-thirds has left the viability of the library system in doubt.

[JeanLM]

As a NJ resident if we could remove Newark, Trenton and Camden from the rest of the state,it truly would be the “Garden State”.

Camden is roughly the same as East St. Louis for all the reasons listed here.

The river, if fully developed, could be draw, but that isn’t going to happen. Philly, on the other side, has pockets of prosperity but is headed in the same direction for the same reasons. It’ll just take longer.

[PGalt]

Here’s another socialist/criminal induces paradise…

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-06-07/death-and-decay-detroit-real-time-seen-streets

For anyone familiar with Detroit, I got off I-75 southbound into Detroit @ 8-mile (just entering the northern border of the city) 2 days ago because of a traffic jam on the freeway. From 8-mile I went to John R and took it south into the city until it stopped at Ferris (then I went right on Ferris to Woodward and proceeded south downtown). The side streets (looking left and right) going down Ferris were as bad or worse than the pics, above. Some livable homes but many that were burnt out, boarded up or grass and weeds so tall you could barely see the front of the house. There were lots of homes close together and I did not notice many vacant lots. It was raining Tuesday and somehow that seemed to fit the scene. It was also bad enough to bring a tear to my eyes as I remember growing up in and around Detroit in the 50’s 60’s 70’s.

[driftless2]

"the race card"

Give me a break. Philadelphia has many universities. It's also a crime-ridden city.

[Stentor]

...what was it about Camden, Detroit and elsewhere that required or at least justified the Great Society programs?

That "what was it about" killed Trenton too.

[aumrl]

I did give you a break.
You can’t compare Philly to Camden.
I thot the KKK was democrats

[Stentor]

it was more like a museum of how the gibsmedats used to live.

You just gave me an idea for a Plymouth Plantation kind of tourist attraction where tourists experience simulated carjackings. rapes and murders while the actors speak in the original dialect. Probably appeal to the GTA generation.

[Stentor]

Indeed - It is just a coincidence that the population is largely black.

It is a party thing. If the parties end in gunfire on a Saturday night, the city has problems.

[Cementjungle]

a warning to the politicians of both parties who have spent beyond means what is to come because they have refused to spend less and balance budgets.

But they (and all liberals) are convinced that all problems are due to NOT ENOUGH spending.

[Gritty]

... you can’t fix what you can’t correctly identify.

OK. I'll stop with the word games. There is a direct correlation with ethnicity. Large concentrations of blacks almost always means larger concentrations of crime.

Here are the census statistics by racial makeup...

http://projects.nytimes.com/census/2010/map?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=thab1

[Ken H]

Burlington, VT has been run by Democrats since then, and it's very pleasant.

Are you sure it's a party thing?

Bingo! I was hoping someone would make that point. Inconvenient truths are inconvenient.

[Jay Redhawk]

It is not blacks it is black urban culture as created by the welfare state. Any people trapped in the welfare state gradually lose their pride, ambition, and moral sense of decency. These crumbling cities are indeed a creation of government.

[aumrl]

Yes Jay Redhawk, I would not dispute your assertion.

[sport]

Amen to that!

[tanknetter]

Keep in mind that there’s massive Black resistance to gentrification, which is seen as pushing Blacks down and out for the benefit of whites. And there are many black leaders who get into elective office by stoking this resistance. DC gentrification would be nowhere near where it is if DC’d had a series of Barry/Gray type mayors instead of Williams and Fenty.

And related to this, did you read Courtland Milloy’s biking piece in the ComPost yesterday? He called white millenials (actually explicitly used that term) terrorists for gentrifying DC and driving the new emphasis on urban biking. He even, very strongly, suggested that white millenial bicyclists derserved to get intentionally hit by cars ...

[sphinx]

Barry ran DC into bankruptcy, which set the stage for Williams and reform. We have been on the upswing since, although we have a throwback machine pol in Vince Gray.

I am cautiously optimistic that we have reached critical mass and that gentrification cannot be thrown into reverse. For one thing, the suburban commute situation is beyond belief and getting worse each year. Reviving, close-in neighborhoods start to look pretty attractive when you are spending four hours a day in your car.

I will have to look up Courtland Milloy's anti-biking piece. It sounds like it is good for a laugh. We don't have bitterly cold winters or much snow, so biking is a year-round option. The suburbs aren't bike-friendly, but the compact core city is. It's a fine way to get around.

[sphinx]

By the way, there was massive black resistance to gentrification in DC as well. Barry used to talk about “the plan” to turn DC majority white. This was scary talk for Barry voters. But the fact is, politicians can’t really stop gentrification if the market demands it. The question is, who is moving into the city, and do they stay when the kids reach school age? People vote with their wallets, and their feet.

[tanknetter]

The market will only demand it if the right conditions are in place.

Barry could have, indeed did, stymie gentrification with a good degree of success. Gray would have if he was in power, and indeed has been trying to, but with limited success. The snowball is already rolling.

DC was lucky to have Williams and Fenty in the Mayors office.

[sphinx]

I agree entirely about Williams and Fenty.

DC also has an asset that most cities don't, and that is a robust, (almost) recession proof local economy, thanks to all the peasants in the hinterland sending tribute. It is nice to live in Oz.

But gentrification is happening in a lot of places, especially in older cities that still have a compact core that can be reclaimed for walkable neighborhoods. A lot of people are fed up with spending too much time in their cars. That's not going to change.

We are on our way to a billion people by the end of the century (unless we control our borders), and the congestion is only going to get worse. Walkable, bikeable neighborhoods are likeable places to live. Done right, they give you a small town quality of life in the middle of a big city.

I work a mile from my house, and were it not for my daughter having gotten herself into a name high school across town, and playing travel soccer, I could live very easily without a car. I am within walking distance of just about everything else, including church, decent elementary schools, dozens of restaurants, a baseball stadium, a soccer stadium, and light shopping. I would have to hop onto metro to go to a movie or buy a suit, but that's about it. I envy the square footage of my suburban friends' houses, but I don't envy sitting in the Shirley Highway car show every day.

Over time, gentrification prices the gangbangers out of the neighborhood. Reclaiming the political system from the crooks is more difficult, but worth the effort. YMMV.

[tanknetter]

I’m intimately familiar with the Herndon to downtown commute. I was surprised by the Dr Gridlock column in the Post where Metro acknowledged that the Silver Line would make commuting worse for a lot of people. Then again, with the thing almost finished (Phase 1 anyways) it’s probably safe for them to finally admit it.

[sphinx]

I like Herndon, mainly because my daughters' soccer teams have generally had good luck when they've played out there.

My consistent advice to young people looking for their first house in the DC area is to live close to work. There are good neighborhoods all over, but there is no good way to get across the river in rush hour, and life is too short to spend it on 66, 95, or 270.

Ten years ago, I would never have believed I would know people in Trinidad. It is now becoming Capitol Hill North, and I know several. Ivy CIty (!) is flipping. Anacostia (!!!) has some nice neighborhoods, and several more on the upswing. Voucher the schools and things would move so fast your head would spin.

But back to Camden. I don't know the local potential, but I would think a depressed waterfront in the middle of a major metro area would be salvageable. Maybe it needs to be discovered by the young gay men. God put them on the earth for a reason, or two or three, and trailblazing into tough neighborhoods is one of them.