Camden

OK let's face it, Camden really is hell on earth and everyone knows it. The town makes West Philly look quaint. In fact it's the only place I've been glared at as much for so clearly not belonging there, and it's the only place I've been offered crack at. Check out the optimistic description of "progress" from a local resident:

“I haven’t heard that many gunshots,” said Gracy Muniz, 22, a mother of three who lives in North Camden.

you know you've got a wee bit of a problem! The problem of course stems in part from increased suburbanization a number of decades ago when no one really cared enough to stop the relentless decay of the inner cities. This trend is more endemic in the mid-Atlantic it seems than on the west coast: go to west philly, Baltimore, Camden, heck even Scranton and you see pretty much the same thing:


lifeless streets and


abandoned buildings.

And this is across the river from Philadelphia, a place where one could imagine that at least a few people might be interested in living: nice views and cheap properties. Contrast what's happening here to the Portland area where residents were shocked by what they saw happening 'back east' and worked hard for almost 30 years to avoid becoming like this. What now? Gentryfication would be grand, but it just isn't going to happen as long as conditions are as bad as they are. It'll probably take a regional effort to straighten things out, including toughening Pennsylvania's gun laws so that those don't cross the bridge in quite as plentiful a supply as they have been; and also some tough policing in the area. Long-term it'll also take effort to bring businesses back into town. Looking at it now, though, it's hard to imagine that it'll ever get back to its glory days when RCA was still the biggest show in town.