One of my favorite local reporters is Kevin Riordan. He’s a veteran of the Camden beat, and I’ve found his work steady and reasoned. Frankly, I depend on it for a level-headedness about new development that I find rarely comes from the political discourse. He also occasionally speaks at my classes. One of my favorite Riordanisms is about the need for talk about everyday life in Camden. He tells my students that narratives surrounding the city oscillate from the bad (what a terrible place it is) to the puff piece (how great that something good is happening in such a terrible place). Instead, Riordan argues we need more discussion of how real people live in a real place.
I find this to be profoundly helpful in the way I think and write about the city. Commentary on Camden creeps into discussions at all levels. As a resident, it is profoundly tiring, even though understandable, to have to defend your choice to live somewhere each time you’re asked where you live. I can only imagine what that’s like for those who have the issue compounded by racial stigma, or roots in the city.
This week, as I was looking over reviews to share with you (and also doing my research for our next Supper Club), I ran into this in a Yelp review for San Lucas:
This place is definitely hands down my favorite place for Mexican food! It’s authentic, it’s fresh and oh so yummy!
I highly recommend San Lucas. The waitress and staffs are superb. Definitely stop in here if ever in the area!!!!
Pros:
* Food is great and fresh
* Resturant is clean
* Prices are reasonable
* Staff is super friendly
* Portions are huge!
Cons:
* English is limited (well you are in a Mexican Resturant) but they work with you to get everything correct. My orders are hardly ever wrong and if it was it was still delicious!
* In the heart of Camden, NJ (definitely not the best area) so park near the resturant if possible
Or the end of another review:
There is always parking on 26th (off Federal) and I hear that on the weekends they have a taco truck outback although I haven’t seen it. The neighborhood is sketchy so get in and get out. Arrive during the daylight and leave your fancy car at home.
Notice how, in the middle of this glowing review, there includes an almost cursory mention of how Camden is “not the best area.” Or a comment about the sketchiness of the neighborhood.
While it’s understandable to include commentary on location in a review, it also points to a deeper struggle, that of Camden residents and entrepreneur to overcome regional stigma. For a Camden restaurant, it’s not enough to be the best Mexican around. Or to have super friendly staff. Or to be reasonably priced. A restaurant also has to deal with reviews that potentially scare away customers based on the vague sense that the neighborhood is bad. All of this despite the fact that the reviewer didn’t appear to have any negative experiences with Camden while going to the restaurant.
In Camden, a negative review doesn’t need come from a negative experience. The reputation of the city is enough to merit mention. And that’s a problem.
So let’s talk about everyday life. Let’s highlight restaurants for what they are, the food they serve, and the experience we have while we’re there. Let’s not pre-judge a neighborhood, a block, or yes, the people there.
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I definitely feel the need to do this all the time when talking about things I do in Camden: talk about it like a real place and not something where you do good things *despite* of it being the place it is. The crappy thing about saying things like “Arrive during the daylight and leave your fancy car at home.” is that it’s just plain bias and *wrong*. Of all the times I’ve been in Camden, walking, biking, taking trains or busses, I’ve never seen or had problems. People’s ideas about the city are only based on the news, and the news is in the business of selling violence to suburbanites. That hurts all cities; it hurt Philadelphia for decades. But it’s acutely painful in Camden, because of all the extraneous things that helped doom Camden that they don’t mention in the articles about, say, the people killed in drug turf wars when the drug buyers are white suburbanites.