In early September, the New Jersey Economic Development Authority announced a grant program for Camden small business. For those of us who have been actively pointing out the ways the 2013 Economic Opportunity Act — which opened the door for so many businesses to come to the city — actively ignored small businesses, we took a small breath of relief. Maybe the light was coming on at the state and local level. Maybe the pending change in gubernatorial administrations means the status quo is recognizing the importance of small business. Maybe… and before I could take a second deep sigh of relief, I started seeing pushback. Are we really sure this program is good news?
First of all, let’s note the size of the program. $1.65 billion has been invested in corporate subsidies and now the EDA is investing $3 million in small businesses. This is a reflection of politics, of ideology, but most of all, of power.
Equally as troubling is the neighborhoods that the grants are limited too. The map includes just the Cooper-Grant Neighborhood and East Camden. While it’s wonderful that East Camden is included, it does little to assuage the suspicion of so many of the ineligible businesses in the city that this is primarily another mechanism for give-aways to politically connected businesses looking to locate in politically-connected communities.
It’s one of the hardest things about being in Camden. The systemic factors that plague the city (from the history of racial discrimination and segregation in the suburbs, to the financial debt which makes the city dependent on the state, to the current political control of the city which strips residents of voting rights) mean always asking “is that really good news?”
It means when a hotel moves back into the city after decades without one, we have to ask “is this progress, or political corruption?”
It means when new schools open in the city we have to ask, “is this good for children, or oppressive and abusive to students of color?”
And it means when a small business grants program launches, we have to ask, “is this designed to help small businesses, or go to politically-connected businesses downtown?”
Each question is rooted in the exploitative and racial history of the city. Even the good news in Camden is complicated.
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The article you connected in terms of “politically-connected businesses” states the issue with one simple line (quote of John O’Donnell; president Michaels Organization)-
“He said the company is “excited to be part of the extraordinary rebirth under way not only on Camden’s Waterfront, but in all its neighborhoods.”
But as simply noted where all the money is being invested in up to this point and in the case of the program for small businesses where they have be located- leaves the question of:
Is the rebirth really happening in “all its neighborhoods” and what is being done to progress a rebirth outside of the waterfront and similar surrounding areas?
It seems a lot of similar issues/sentiment with the transformation of Camden, we can step back and look at a city of similar nature that is slightly further along in their transformation process- that of Newark, NJ.
A recent piece:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/08/nyregion/newark-development-projects.html
talks about some of the same issues/sentiments, i.e. who is really benefitting from a lot of the so-called progress that is going on within the city.
The one item I take from their situation- and I don’t know if a similar incentive-type program is in place with the Camden waterfront development:
“Mr. Baraka announced a set of initiatives this summer meant to encourage larger companies in the city to hire residents and buy from local businesses, extend development beyond downtown to the rest of the city’s five wards and persuade people who work in the city to move here. The centerpiece of the effort is a job program, Newark 2020, which aims to have 2,020 unemployed residents working full time and earning a living wage within the next three years.”
As Camden is earlier in the transformation process, starting initiatives such as this at an earlier point could lead to many gains/benefits and not having to deal with it quite in the same sense as Newark is with already having become developed and pushing people out- they can set the tone and trend early.
I don\’t disagree with your interpretation of the grant program. But I want to make a different point.
From the downtown plan: \”…create a sense of place within Downtown Camden with strong design, mixes of uses, and a cross-pollination of institutional workers, students, residents, business people and Camden visitors\”
From Relph\’s Place and Placelessness (1976): placelessness is “the casual eradication of distinctive places and the making of standardized landscapes that results from an insensitivity to the significance of place”
When I think about the downtown of Camden, it strikes me that there is not a single block stretch that has storefronts lining both sides of the street. It seems the last one was Broadway between MLK and Stevens, which they are building the new Rowan/Rutgers building. Furthermore, the idea that fifth street represents a potential business corridor in their plan is also surprising since not a single storefront faces that street.
The city ceded to placelessness when it allowed bad design from suburbs to creep onto MLK Blvd with the construction of the TD Bank and CVS and the imposing Rand Transit Center. The preponderance of small parking lots throughout the downtown signals to the pedestrian that their mode of transit is subordinate to the car, and discourages the very idea that this grant program is trying foster. Connecting the waterfront to the downtown is impeded by the superblock of Market from 3rd to Delaware Ave with its incumbent parking lots and windowless walls will keep these places from ever developing this sense of place they are talking about in their plan and dooms the small business grant strategy to failure before it is even implemented.
I have two small ideas that might generate a sense of place:
1) at the intersection of third and market, there are open spaces at each corner. Use these spaces to set up a food truck corner or an open air bazaar sort of thing. It will activate that otherwise odd corner of the windowless structures and jury parking lots. I believe a similar idea was proposed in the space near the Broadway PATCO stop by using shipping containers to set up semi-permanent spaces (which is also a good idea there too!) http://anelessen.com/projects-of-interest/camden-downtown-institutional-plan/
2) think of alternative uses for that strange little lot between 4th and 3rd on Market. It features metal buttresses that suppport the adjacent structures. Could be a nice area to convert to an open air patio sort of thing, especially if the nearby restaurants like the soul food and salad places promoted it. Waypoints like these provide a space for conversation, a meal, or some shade.
Ideas like the above are a dime a dozen, but to an extent, they are also just that inexpensive to implement, and you don\’t necessarily need grants to small businesses to do them. If grants were tied to either or both, it could be a great opportunity to bring in businesses from other neighborhoods to program in these spaces to provide an inclusive opportunity to residents of other neighborhoods to engage in the development of the sense of place, since after all, they are third on the list of potential cross-pollinators.
Hit it on the head…this is a PR move. On it’s face, it’s great to include Federal Street (aka the best commercial corridor in the City). The only problems are that 1. there isn’t much vacancy in East Camden anyways for someone to take advantage of the lease program and 2. existing businesses STILL have to pony up 50% of the price if they are going to do a facade improvement. That’s not entirely “helping small businesses” at the level that they should be helped. ESPECIALLY when the City has had programs where they would complete the facade improvement free of charge. ANNND that the match money CANT come from another public source…especially when these developers use public money wontonly. lol $500 fee to apply