One of the things I hear all the time in Camden is that the city suffers because of the plethora of cheap towns with high quality of life immediately surrounding it. This post by frequent reader and commenter @thegreengrass (Joseph Russell) lays out the case for “What South Jersey’s Doing Right,” which helps show why Camden struggles to take advantage of its prime location near Philadelphia:
Let’s take on the most damning indictment first. South Jersey is often perceived as a car-dependent hellhole, fraught with nightmarish traffic stretching for miles through a never-ending landscape of shopping plazas and cul-de-sac housing developments. And in some places, this is true. But leaving it at that would be a huge oversight. The area actually has some of the most walkable, charming communities in the region, both celebrated and hidden from common view. Everyone’s heard about how quaint Haddonfield is, with its tony shops and expensive restaurants.
But there are many more towns that fit the bill of walkability. There’s Haddon Avenue in Collingswood and Westmont, towns that have gotten a lot of attention over the past decade due to their youthful vibe and BYOB restaurants. There’s Merchant Street in Audubon, an easily missable strip just off the busy White Horse Pike. Main Streets in both Moorestown and Merchantville feature an array of shops and restaurants, as does Farnsworth Avenue in Bordentown.
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