NAACP General Council and Interim President Speaks on Zoning, Suburbs and Segregation on C-Span

National Association of Attorneys General talk about the 150th anniversary of Dred Scott decision and its impact. Move time slider to 1 hour, 25 minutes. Next 3 minutes of speech covers zoning, suburbs and segregation.

C-Span: American Perspectives

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Time running out for CNU members to weigh in on Campbell's Soup Business Park in Camden, NJ.

6/30/07 Integration vs. Disintegration. Martin Luther King vs. Corporate America. Will Camden Sell Out? Can Corzines Office Be Bought?

Campbell's Soup Project
Site Plan:

http://www.cnu.org/node/1180

is a component of the larger "Gateway Neighborhood" Planned Redevelopment *(Who in the world ever heard of a 110 acre Class A business park as part of a "neighborhood" plan? Only in Camden!) (Official City Plan, .pdf)

http://www.ci.camden.nj.us/departments/GATEWAYRED%20PLAN.pdf

(Like most things the Plan looks good on paper,) but the Campbell's project as proposed has little chance of being a catalyst for area neighborhoods, as indicated by the only developed area in Camden, the Waterfront. Walt Whitman's House sits on the middle of Mickle Blvd., the main thoroughfare to the redeveloped waterfront. There is no neighborhood better positioned to receive the ancillary benefits of redevelopment. Whitman's House is exactly three blocks from the RAND Transportation Center and three blocks from the main attractions on the waterfront. Yet Whitman's neighborhood has continued to reach an unconscionable level of decay and blight, the nearby development having no effect whatsoever on residential area's at all. Here is the proof:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/camdenpics

The only way Campbell's development will have any effect on residential areas and small businesses in Camden, is to mix in and build residencies and small business shops within the new Campbell's complex simultaneously. If one thinks that office buildings, residences and shops cannot be mixed together successfully, then one has probably never been to downtown Philadelphia, Manhattan, Boston, Chicago, Baltimore, Washington D.C, San Fran.... The Camden Planning Board should take a look at Martin Luther Kings play book for integration, rather than Campbell's book for segregation. Segregation of downtown Camden district's functions not only destroys urban form, but segregates people into "types." The "types" of people Campbell's wants is non-city resident commuters who will work in the complex Mon.-Fri, 9-5. The Campbells Complex will be a lifeless "dead zone" from 5:00 PM until 9:00 AM the next day, completely dead on the weekends and holidays.
Is that a "neighborhood?" And how adbsurd that the designated "Gateway to the City" will be closed after 5:00 PM Mon-Fri., and completely on weekends and holidays!
As Edmund N. Bacon would put it: (The Gateway is the beginning of)"...a controlled sequential experience, provided by the movement-design structure...("Gateway" term
indicates "enter (movement)into the city,) " the individual design impacts build up into a powerful force and the connecting framework dominates the visual image of...(Camden.)
Imagine any city considering a Class A business campus as the gateway to a city!

The new Campbells Soup complex will have no effect beyond the edges of its own composition. It is a design project turned totally inward, away from the city and its transportation assets. All and everything in the design is for Campbell's corporate functions, suburban employees and shareholder's. Camden has an urban form, not a suburban form. The urban form cannot reach its full potential when single use zoning triumphs over mixed use zoning. It boils down to a question of integration or dis-integration for the city.

Since the Campbell's Soup complex will be the first new multi-building development in the city, and not in a "star" setting like the waterfront but an area analogous to other parts of Camden, and consume so much land, it is imperative that it's design either sets or relates to the organizing design principle that will guide and connect subsequent developments throughout the city, a principle yet to be articulated.
If Campbell's Soup sticks to its plan to leave Camden, the United States most impoverished city, if it doesn't get its suburban style business campus approved by July 16, there will be a national consumer backlash amongst progressive minded individuals against Campbell's Soup ( As indicated in a recent Sunday New York Times Editorial: NY TIMES, SUNDAY, JUNE 17: "We would urge Campbell's to think again before risking its reputation for good citizenship... ") Campbell's Soup stock may take a hit. ( Campbell's Soup's "gun to the head of the city approach" is already being discussed in the media.)

It boils down to whether the Camden Planning Board, City Council and Gov. Corzines office, can be bought by Campbell's meager offering of $1.4 miliion annually ( in lieu of property taxes) in exchange for shredding the urban form, or if Corzine, his appointee's and the City of Camden can show some integrity and ingenuity, by retaining both Campbell's Soup and the integrity of Camden's priceless urban form. Corzine can insist that Campbell's and the city sit down for a presentation of alternative approaches. The Congress for the New Urbanism should be consulted. Campbell's has a chance to create a bit of architecturally stunning urban design that when associated with its brand can only enhance it, and enhance the national reputation of the city, or stay the course with its anti-urban, cold shoulder to the city, inward design and lack of creativity.

To quote NAACP Interim president Dennis Courtland Hayes, "Some compromises are just too costly."

Gov. Corzines office phone is 609-292-6000 Fax: 609-292-3454

Campbell Soup Company
1 Campbell Place
Camden, NJ 08103-1799
NJ Tel. 856-342-4800
Toll Free 800-257-8443
Fax 856-342-3878 CONTACT:
Anthony Sanzio (Campbell's Media)
(856) 968-4390

Leonard F. Griehs ( Cammpbells.Investor Relations/ Analysts)
(856) 342-6428

Michael McAteer
www.CamdenNewJersey.org
For CNU Activists Everywhere; Little man vs.Big Machine:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7Mf9j8co70&NR=1

Campbell's Soup
Type: Public
On the web: http://www.campbellsoup.com
Employees: 24,000
Employee growth: 0.0%

Soup means M'm! M'm! Money! for the Campbell Soup Company. The company is the world's biggest soup maker; its almost 70% share in the US is led by Campbell's chicken noodle, tomato, and cream of mushroom soups. The company also makes meal kits, Franco-American sauces and canned pasta, Godiva chocolates, Pace picante sauce, Pepperidge Farm baked goods (yes, the goldfish crackers you sneak at midnight), and V8 beverages. Its Australian division produces snack food and its popular "down-under" Arnott's biscuit brand. Descendants of John Dorrance, who invented condensed soup, own approximately 43% of Campbell.

Key numbers for fiscal year ending July, 2006:
Sale: $7,343.0M
One year growth: (2.7%)
Net income: $766.0M
Income growth: 8.3%

Officers:
Chairman: Harvey Golub
President, CEO, and Director: Douglas R. Conant
SVP and CFO: Robert A. Schiffner

Competitors:
General Mills
Heinz
Kraft Foods