Talk to Camden residents about development and you hear common complaints. Can residents get jobs? Will gentrification push rents up? But one of the most interesting complaints is about the exclusion of space.
Mayoral Candidate Ray Lamboy hit this theme hard in a recent NJTV forum. The clip starts at 1:10:00 (and yes, sorry that the NJTV video and audio are off — but it’s still worth the listen):
He talks about the 10 foot wall that meets residents who go to see the new 76ers facility. Or the lack of parking for residents on the waterfront. Or how the cost of retail space is so high that local businesses cannot move in, so outside business benefits from development. He then goes to criticize the idea of a “city within a city” being built around Campbell’s Soup — highlighting that there will be millions spent on a train stop so that employees won’t have to walk three blocks through Camden. It is the epitome of an economy that excludes Camden residents through architecture.
Freeholder Jonathan Young Jr. has a chance to respond (at 1:16:00) and says that they’re trying to build parks, but he doesn’t understand the walls. He wraps it up by saying “probably the first time in my life, I don’t have an answer for that.”
It was an emperor has no clothes moment, in which it became clear that the architecture of these policies (and of these buildings) have prioritized investment over people.
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