Camden, New Jersey is on the CNU XV Program

Thank you for the tip. There are so many issues here relevant to Camden.
AFFORDABLE HOUSING: That Camden has absorbed virtually all the Mt. Laurel RCA's in the region is a ongoing controversy. Camden has relieved the area suburban communities of their mandated obligations through COAH loopholes. Can an area have too much affordable housing concentrated in it? ( As in Section 8 etc., ownership subsidies etc.) that a small city takes on a irreversible "institutional" character with all the accompanying support services that is repelling to potential self-sufficient newcomers? (Camden has no tax base to speak of, and is almost completely dependent for financing on the state.)

DESIGN FOR ALL: If any city needs to be redesigned, it's Camden. ( Since a program for this session has not yet been created, please consider Camden's Mickle Blvd. It is anchored at one end by Campbell Soups $100 million new world HQ (announced last week) and the scenic Delaware River waterfront. Walt Whitman's house A National Landmark and the PATCO HI-SPEED LINE commuter rail station is smack in the middle. Many large gaps everywhere else. I think this street has the greatest potential for revitalizing downtown, but has not seemed to received any credible consideration in the Master Plan. The 2nd tallest building in Camden, the depressingly forboding county jail looms over the Blvd. at its center. Ironically it is directly across the street from the house of Walt Whitman, probably the freest man America ever produced. Whitmans house is completely surrounded by vacant lots, if anyone is interested. Whitman wrote:

I DREAM’D in a dream, I saw a city invincible to the attacks of the whole of the rest of the earth;

I dream’d that was the new City of Friends;

Nothing was greater there than the quality of robust love—it led the rest;

It was seen every hour in the actions of the men of that city,

And in all their looks and words.

The Blvd. is the widest street in the city. It can be greatly narrowed and made to be a bit winding from Federal St. to the River. The narrowing and close cropping will allow the jail to be hidden from view at sidewalk / street level by much shorter buildngs. There would be little to - no demolition necessary, since it is bordered mostly by parking lots and vacant lots. A little twisting and winding can bypass and remove the need for demolishing any existing structures along the route. The end points would connect the two main development sites in the city, the waterfront and Campbell Soups new gateway project, about 1.5 miles apart . Also on this blvd. is the expanding NJ University of Medicine and Denistry

MANAGING WALKABLE URBANITY:Camden does not have even one walkable block of "Urbanity."

NEW URBANISM AND THE OLD CITY: I'm not sure if this means great enduring old neighborhoods like Society Hill or Queens Village in Philly or "Old" as in worn out, like Camden.

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN RETAIL: Camden has no retail that attracts anyone from outside the city.

SPINNING STRAW INTO GOLD: NEW URBAN REDEVELOPMENT IN HISTORIC NEW JERSEY DOWNTOWNS: Camden, the virtually hollow 8.8 sq. mile core of the Phila. / SJ Region and logical sprawl anti-dote considering its commuter rail line and proximity to Center City Philadelphia has bbeen completely overlooked in implementation of the NJ State Smart growth Plan.

THE ARCHITECTURE OF NEW URBAN INFILL: YES! YES!! YES!!! The most mind boggling part of the recently failed Camden Renewal 1.0 was the constant swinging for the homerun fence by renewal officials with new multi-thousand's homes residential projects ( none ever happened) while not developing one single vacant lot or converting a single existing building. Those "singles" add up to lots of RBI's over time. The Camden ERB 1.0 never once hit it's homerun. Camden is the Infil Opportunity of America. Now that Renewal 2.0 is about to get underway with new leadership, the timing could not be better for the advisory and illuminating CNU to be in town.

THE MYTHICAL PARKING SHORTAGE: A pet peeve of mine. Camden's entire downtown is "walkable;" that is, it's two subway stations,are so well placed, there is no place downtown that is more than a 10 minute walk or 2 minute cab ride from them. Camden's high speed rail line connects to Philly's and SJ's best neighborhoods, AMTRAK, every other rail line in the region and Philadelphia International Airport and Atlantic City. There is no reason to drive a car into the city. Yet every new business demands parking space from the city as an incentive to relocate there. Consequently Camden's downtown has more holes than a hunk of swiss cheese in the form of parking lots, which ruins walkabale and architectural cohesion with cold dead space.

TOD IN DISTRESSED CITIES: Camden has two HI-SPEED LINE stops downtown and one on its eastern fringe,( Ferry Ave.) which borders Collingswood, a charming and brilliant New Urbanist renewal success story. The County Government is about to ruin Ferry Ave''s TOD potential by placing new govt. administrative buildings around the stop, which will certainly create dead space after 5:00 PM, holidays and weekends and basically render the area unlivable. The saddest part, it is the area of Camden with the most residential potential, since it is fairly removed from the city's housing blight and social problems. But that is the Camden County government for you. This destruction of a potential and vital residential TOD is for the convenience of a hundred or so county employees.

There is much the Congress has to offer, I do hope the attendees are intrepid and put their talents and vision to the ultimate test in Camden.

Michael McAteer

That website is a facsinating and rich resouce.I think there are about 400 time elapsed photographs of properties on the site.
I am familiar with Howard Gilette. He wrote the definitive book on Camden's social, economic and political history:
"Camden After the Fall" by Rutgers Prof. Howard Gillette, published by University of Penn.
Rutgers-Camden should be the flagship of leadership for the city, but lacks resorces and enough caring prof's like Gillette. Rutgers-Camden Prof Jon Van Till is another great font of wisdom regarding Camden. Also, since it is a commuter school, the area around Rutgers is a dead zone after 5, weekends and summers. It is a shame because that neighborhood is within walking distance of Philadelphia's Society Hill, Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell and Northern Liberties. (The Ben Franklin Bridge has a sidewalk connecting Camden and Philly. Walkers, joggers and bicyclists use it regularly, but usually U Turn as soon as they get to the Camden side and jog back to Philly.

I agree with virtually everything you say. You have encompassed much of why I believe Camden is the toughest challenge New Urbanism will ever face. You could have given many more reasons. Probably the only thing I disagree with is that the Delaware River makes for a longer commute to Philadelphia's most desirable locations. Camden's downtown is aprox 5-8 minutes from Philadelphia's Old City and Northern Liberties sections and Center City by car or train. Add 5-10 more minutes if you are going to walk from the 8th and Market St. station to Old City. I would suggest a 5 minute cab ride to Northern Liberties or Queens Village. (The travel time may shorten with faster trains but it will never be longer than 8-10 minutes from Camden!)

In fact, The Loews Hotel, where XV is taking place, is right on top of the 12th St. PATCO stop, less than ten minutes from the downtown Camden PATCO stop!)

"Camden is competing not just with its NJ suburbs, but with other neighborhoods that can attract people priced out of Center City- Northern Liberties to Center City's north, South Philadelphia to the south, University City to the west. As long as there is a limited supply of would-be gentrifiers, Camden simply can't compete with those neighborhoods;" ( I think what we now call gentrifiers are going to eventually be the normal majority, a population back to its senses thinking economically, tribally,(staying conveniently connected to family and friends for a lifetime) and environmentally. As the smaller population of gentrifers grows into the "normal majority" I think the supply of walkable TOD will shrink porportionately, creating greater demand for previously overlooked areas.

Another thing; there are many people in NJ who would love to live in a walkable TOD community but would never want to live in Philadelphia or anywhere but New Jersey. South Jersey's NU+TOD supply and potential is limited. Camden is the logical place to fill the gap for those who want to stay in South Jersey but be near big city life and good transportation.

All things being equal, I would agree with you. But as people are being priced out of Center-City etc. how far away from those areas do you really want to move? And with Camden real estate 1/4 - 1/5th the price of Philadelphia that surely would come into play in some minds. ( Also there is no city wage tax, which is a irritatingly large chunk out of everyone's paycheck who works or lives in Philly. Also, new property owners in Camden PAY NO PROPERTY TAXES FOR FIVE YEARS!!! Also, Camden is both in an Enterprise Zone, Empowerment Zone and has other special incentives created only for Camden. Taking into account the initial very low cost of real estate to begin with, then discounted down further with a multitude of giveaways, all this 5 minutes from downtown Philadelphia, Philly or any SJ suburb cannot compete on a purely economic basis.

With brainstorming and other "out-of-the box" thinking Camden can create more competitive advantages. Those optional places you mention "just exist." In that I mean they are just further out and lesser extensions of where people would prefer to be, politically and institutionally interconnected. With the new legislation, Camden is starting from zero basically. It can reinvent itself. (Remember, Camden is the only city in NJ without a government. Although the first round of this legislation flopped badly due to leaving embedded the people who screwed the city up in the first place, major changes and safeguards have been put in place. Right now the city is in an interim phase politically. In two-three months Governor Corzine (Ex-Goldman Sachs CEO, no stranger to opportunity) will announce a new COO and Board to run the city.

However, at this point, from a quality of life standpoint, Camden cannot compete with any other location in the Delaware Valley. ( Or country for that matter.)But I believe with the right plan, effort and committment anything can be improved significantly.

At this point I believe only downtown Camden, Ferry Ave. Station, and a sliver of South Camden can be made attractive reflections of New Urbanism within 5 years. But this is a pretty good sized area, especially if maximized with proper high-density buildout. These areas could create a gravity that good things attach to.

The city's problems are massive; until the problems that NU cannot effect are resolved, there is still room for NU to evolve.

We are speaking of a movement here (NU!) And "movement" is just another way of saying "transformation." And Transformation for the better is what we are all about! I agree with your premise. I would just like you to know that there is a cornucopia of incentives that may be enough to offset Camden's negatives for many potential business owners and residents. I do think they will have to be the daring pioneer types. But you know what they say- "Fortune Favors the Bold!"

To digress from NU for a bit, and give you an example of the type of "out-of-the-box" thinking I mean for a competitive Camden (and other distressed cities) you can read a proposal I put up on my website on an idea to attract a population to Camden. The proposal led to an invitation to a conference at Princeton University where I got to discuss it with national academic and political leaders. You can read it below or view it on Princetons Webcast.
Read:
http://www.camdennewjersey.org/h1b1_visa_holders_to_revive_camden.htm

Webcast: Movement of Global Talent: The Impact of High Skill Labor Flows from India and China
December 7-8, 2006

http://region.princeton.edu/conference_40.html
Scroll down to:
Day Two: Economic Impacts on the Region, Click on Webcast, move slider to 1hr and 25 minutes position and then I get my 2 cents in shortly afterward. (You can't see me, only hear me make a statement and ask a question, squeezing in a NU reference at the end.)

Michael McAteer