I’ve been thinking a little more about a phrase I’m known for using (People Not Buildings) when discussing various events and news around Camden. I wanted to take some time in discussing this phrase and to also add clarity, for myself and others who hear it, about what this phrase really means.

It goes without saying that as the city has been seeing incredible amounts of economic development in recent years, residents have been feeling left by the wayside.  Recent events across the city (the billboard in North Camden, Holtec CEO Kris Singh, changing Cooper Street traffic patterns, and devaluation of EDA-funded waterfront developments) have been making the writing on the wall much bolder and clearer: fire needs to be held closely to the feet of local and state leadership on how Camden develops well.

This is where my focus on “People Not Buildings” started.  There are two components of good development that effectively reshape towns, especially in urban regions like Camden: community and economic.  Most times these two are implemented separately, and not usually with the same degree of priority; at times economic downturns (e.g. 2008 recession) require more focus on economic development and other times societal downturns (e.g. civil rights movement) call for community development.  The issue is that many people think this mentality is the rationale for these development measures, meaning they need to be implemented separately because economic and societal issues are naturally separate – this is not the case.

The Great Depression was a mixture of economic and societal downfall and the New Deal implemented by FDR was a mixture of economic and societal measures to turn the nation in the other direction. Jobs, housing, employment, training programs, health, education – all of these combined into one major policy focused on both economic and societal issues. The policies that exist in New Jersey, especially the ones with aims to implement similar development in urban areas, still separate the two. The focus needs to be shifted, not to exclude economic, but to include societal issues that need to be addressed in policies like the Economic Opportunity Act.

We gain more by adding to our perceptions of how communities grow and mature, both economically and socially. So maybe we shouldn’t “People Not Buildings” but something more along the lines of “People Not (Just) Buildings” to truly encompass the needs of everyone.

Tags: #peoplenotbuildings