“Most of Camden’s civic life is hidden to someone who isn’t from here.”* 

Over the past few weeks I’ve been stepping out and trying to find new things in Camden. I attended the Camden High-Camden Catholic hoops game (even brought a PhD student for a meeting). I went to Corinne’s for the first time through LAEDA’s Dine Around. I went to Cooper Ferry’s Place-Making community meeting in the Walt Whitman Arts Center. The common thread through these meetings was how much civic energy is in Camden if you know where to look. And how hard it can be to access that energy if you don’t.

I’m not sure how to explain what I’m calling here “civic energy.” I judge it by the energy when you enter a room; that buzz that makes you glad you made the decision to come. It wasn’t there at the tip at Camden Catholic. The game started at 3:45, and it seemed like most folks couldn’t get off work quite that early. But by halftime I had to pause my meeting with my PhD student, and we spent the rest of the time cheering like the rest of the crowd. 

In Corinne’s, the Dine Around crowd was hopping from the first minute I arrived. A mix of Rutgers students and local community leaders, we were packed in, and the soul food was amazing. 

At the Cooper’s Ferry’s meeting (funded and run by the Kresge Foundation), this energy was mostly present in the power point slides demonstrating “place-making.” I jest, but the point stands. William Whyte argues that “it is difficult to design a space that will not attract people. What is remarkable is how often this has been accomplished.” I’m not sure that’s quite right. I think it is tremendously difficult for those who don’t know the history of a location to rally people with their vision. To the credit of Cooper’s Ferry and their place-making partners, they were giving it an honest try. And let’s face it, place-making is a pretty cool idea.

An MIT study titled  Places in the Making describes it saying, “today’s placemaking represents a comeback for community. The iterative actions and collaborations inherent in the making of places nourish communities and empower people.”

That is a beautiful vision, and it’s good to see organizations that haven’t always understood the importance of empowering residents making a commitment to it. At the meeting, Jake Gordon from Cooper’s Ferry told me that the waterfront was about ratables (property taxes), and this was about neighborhoods. But the meeting showed just how hard it can be to make that transition. 

Cooper-Grant, one of two neighborhoods involved in this place-making grant, had citizens willing to sit through a 45 minute, jargon-infested power-point presentation. And they had the patience to spend over an hour meticulously connecting Kregse and Cooper’s Ferry to so many of the things that have happened or are happening in the city. It’s not clear the goodwill exists to use that same process in more skeptical neighborhoods. Or that Kresge and Cooper’s Ferry have the cultural skills to bridge that credibility divide.

To Kresge and Cooper Ferry’s credit, they’re reaching out to a lot of local organizations to ensure that the Camden Night Garden (April 17th) planned for the prison site has local entertainment. That’s a good start. But the meeting demonstrated how difficult it can be to meet communities half way when you don’t know the directions. This is painstaking work, and it is exceptionally challenging.

Which made me think back to these other spaces I’ve walked into recently that have been buzzing. Corinne’s. Camden Catholic v. Camden High. The Camden Christmas Parade. They draw on the rich history of Camden in a way that deeply connects first and foremost with residents, but also resonates with others who have chosen to make Camden part of their life (Rutgers students, transplants, etc.).

There is power in these activities and the history they draw from. But accessing that power will require the difficult work of building trust with, and learning from, community. A good place to start is by ensuring place-making isn’t about making something new, but helping something old come alive again.

 

*Statement made to me by a fellow Camden transplant.