Jared Hunter’s latest:

Recently, Rutgers Board of Distinguished Governors voted to approve a $1.5 million development project that would relocate the methadone clinic at 424 Market (directly across the street from City Hall) to a currently vacant lot at 6^th and Atlantic in the Bergen Square community.  The move would take place in order to make room for a new business building for Rutgers in the developing areas flanking city hall – a nursing building is being erected behind the Walter Rand Transportation Center on Broadway and the foundation for a joint health sciences center is being prepared near MLK Boulevard along Broadway as well.  The work has already begun for Rutgers to successfully secure the building from the owners of Camden Recovery Holdings – the entity that owns the clinic.  The CEO of the Board of Governors, Kris Kolluri gave a statement to Philly.com back in February about the move:

“The board, which has been tasked with overseeing health sciences projects and recommending new programs in Camden, would take ownership of the land by the end of 2018…The patients can’t be abandoned; they need continuity of care…The opiate crisis is real, and the board believes it’s in our absolute interest to make sure there is a successful relocation” (Steele 2017).

While there are essentially two sides to be taken with this issue arising – supporting the move or not supporting the move – I have recently come to encounter many splintering views.  I will structure the arguments first giving the overarching claim, then supporting the argument with qualifying evidence and/or data, and finally playing devil’s advocate with rebuttal questions/arguments (I won’t answer these for the sake of time but to also make sure that I keep you on your toes).

            When looking at those who would support the move of the methadone clinic, here are the essential arguments:

• The move is good for the revitalization of downtown
  • The Board of Governors is looking at installing retail space on the ground floor and office space on higher floors of the new business building, attracting more students and jobs to the downtown area and growing the city’s tax base
    • Rutgers is a public university and therefore this site would be tax-exempt, so wouldn’t the tax base still be decreasing.
• The clinic only serves about 250 Camden residents of the 1,000 patients that use the facility daily
  • Since the clinic is only servicing 25% of the city’s residents, there is not as much benefit that Camden sees from building out sustainable capacity for a majority of people recovering from a drug addiction that don’t live in Camden
    • Would a methadone clinic at 6^th and Atlantic still be accessible for Camden residents? Or should the methadone clinic even be in the city?
• The clinic has caused a lot of complaints among residents and workers in the downtown area
  • Many of the patients waiting to receive treatment usually loiter on the sidewalks outside of the clinic, attracting crime, unwanted panhandlers, and cigarette smokers in an area facing city hall designed for employees to enjoy and relax during the day
    • Wouldn’t having a methadone clinic in downtown Camden provide the most ease of accessibility to other resources for a person recovering from drug addiction?

When looking at those who do not support the move of the methadone clinic, here are the essential arguments:

• Bergen Square is already home to an active drug set (where drugs are easily obtained in “open air market”) threating the safety of the community and especially its children
  • The presence of a methadone clinic could increase the activity of this open air drug market
• There are three schools in the Bergen Square community (Wiggins, Hope, and Sacred Heart) with a new KIPP school under construction that would be in the same area as the new methadone clinic, possibly putting the safety of the community’s children at risk
  • Would putting a methadone clinic in the middle of an active drug set increase the likelihood of someone looking for help/recovery?
• Bergen Square is not zoned for a methadone clinic
  • The city’s zoning board has scheduled a meeting for Monday, April 3^rd in the city council chambers (second floor) starting at 5:30 pm to approve the zoning of a methadone clinic at 6^th and Atlantic
    • Zoning boards are independent/non-partisan and must consider the well-being and development of the entire city, not just downtown
    • The introduction of a new methadone clinic could present an opportunity to increase development and revitalization to the Bergen Square community
• New Visions homeless shelter is located across the street from the proposed methadone clinic site
  • 6^th and Atlantic has a very heavy traffic flow during the day as it is connected to the I-676 highway system where hundreds of cars pass everyday – the concern then is with an increase of people at a new methadone clinic, there is an increased chance of many more car accidents and traffic back ups
    • The methadone clinic would already be close to other services people recovering from a drug addiction might need

At the Neighborhood Center on Kaighn Avenue, a community meeting was held last Thursday (3/30/2017) to discuss the possible move of the methadone clinic to their community and the tone of the community was “we don’t want it here.”  While there were many strong opinions at last night’s meeting, the major concern was that Bergen Square has already been suffering from a lack of investment – the majority of the community is scattered with debris, abandoned lots, and a looming shadow of the city’s industrial market – as well as open air drug markets, so why bring another “problem” to their community? 

Hands were flying up into the air left and right as Vedra Chandler, Associate Director of the Neighborhood Center and Bergen Square resident, answered questions and concerns around the possible clinic’s move.  A point made by Chandler was that the views and opinions of the community were not “NIMBY-ism” (which stands for “not in my back yard”) rather that their community is already suffering so much and there are very few opportunities right now for Bergen Square to join in the rhetoric of city officials shouting “Camden is on the rise!” 

Personally, I feel that the methadone clinic is exactly where it needs to be.  I agree that Bergen Square needs attention, which is why I have availed myself to a supervisory intern role with the newly forming Bergen Square Community Development Center (CDC), but there is a greater issue that I haven’t heard many people acknowledge in the white noise of this situation: Camden has a drug problem.  This couldn’t be more clear by the fact that a methadone clinic literally sits in front of city hall’s face.  In my opinion, now is not the time to sweep this issue under the rug and tuck it into another marginalized corner of the city to make room for yet another tax-free building.  I’ve spoken with a lot of my fellow Rutgers students and many of them are actually ashamed that the Board of Governors would make such a move as this.  I think that revitalizing the city is important and desperately needed, and the work being done so far to achieve those goals has overall been a good thing, but picking out the parts of the city that you like and throwing away the parts you don’t is disrespectful and irresponsible.  The city and its anchor institutions, rather, should accept this problem as its own and revitalize the methadone clinic to showcase it as a beacon both for the community and the city’s leadership in saying that we don’t shy away from the tough problems when they arise and we lift up our own when they’ve been knocked down. 

Jared Hunter is a current student at Rutgers-Camden pursuing his Masters in Public Administration in the community development track. His research focus includes disparities between marginalized communities and local governments as well as community development centers and anchor institutions.

 

References:

Steele, A. (2017, February 14). Camden methadone clinic leaving downtown location. Retrieved March 31, 2017, from https://www.philly.com/philly/news/new_jersey/Camden-drug-clinic-downtown-Rutgers.html