Essential Elements
Any potential plan to aid Camden must have a broad regional scope, long-term focus, comprehensive approach and the capacity to look beyond the symptoms to address root causes.
This report examines the current state of Camden, New Jersey at the time of this report (dismal) and the story of its downfall (starring a loss of middle-income residents and manufacturing jobs). Readers will learn about the past, present and future of Camden in three comprehensive chapters. Chapter one describes the city’s current condition and challenges. Chapter two revisits the reasons for Camden’s downfall. And chapter three looks ahead to tell what the city’s challenging, but doable, turnaround might look like. In its final pages, the publication spells out must-have components of the city’s turnaround plan and identifies next steps for jumpstarting the recovery process. Camden was one of 22 sites that participated in the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Making Connections initiative during the 1990's.
Welcome to Camden, New Jersey, where the land is contaminated, the neighborhoods fading and the schools failing. A place where residents have disengaged, the illegal drug trade is flourishing and crime rates are high. It is a shell of its former self — and the epitome of a modern-day American city in crisis.