One of the joys of my job is watching students struggling to reconcile what they learn with their own life experiences. Here, Brian Everett, a Rutgers-Camden student and author of NJ Poverty Reality, writes about growing up in Cherry Hill, and its relationship with Camden:
The reoccurring suburban battle cry has been sounded; “Not in my backyard!”. Well, for my fellow Cherry Hill residents, at least you have a backyard. We have created a living culture in Camden County that continuously prevents low income children from learning in diverse and safe environments, therefore continuously yielding low tests scores and high school dropouts. The research by Dr. Doug Massey, found in his book “Climbing Mt. Laurel”, shows that low income children are much more likely to rise above the poverty line while they are able to grow up in thriving communities, rather than a poverty stricken city. Children and families of low income who might have the chance to live in these new units in Cherry Hill would have much better access to public transportation and to a more successful job market that already exists in the township.
It seems like my Cherry Hill neighbors are much more comfortable to allow all New Jersey tax payers to continuously pay more in state property and income taxes due to the rising amount of people who are forced to rely on public assistance programs such as food stamps, emergency room healthcare, and housing, rather than lose their backyard’s view of an empty golf course which in turn would give hundreds of families and children the opportunity to one day rise above the poverty threshold in a safe community.
I will agree with my Cherry Hill neighbors that such developments should not be built in the blink of an eye. Infrastructure needs to be taken into account so that flooding or sewage issues do not worsen. However, I do invite them to visit Camden during any rainstorm if they’d like to see flooding and raw sewage issues of epic proportions. That is a constant reality that low income families must endure while simultaneously being unable to purchase fresh foods or drink clean water.
Read the whole thing.
Photo via: https://ants-and-grasshoppers.blogspot.com
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As a fellow resident of Cherry Hill, I could not agree more with your sentiments. I am too often embarrassed by the priorities of my fellow residents, such as protesting apartment complexes that would bring stable, affordable housing to many or raising more than $1 million for a statue to sit outside our library just as libraries across the city of Camden were closing.
It is unfortunate that we are led to believe our existence is independent of our neighbors in Camden, and that so many fail to see the concrete connections and effects our towns have on one another. The plight of Camden residents is not just their own; it is ours, in Cherry Hill, Moorestown, Mt. Laurel, etc, as well.
I totally agree with this. Our parents’ generation made Camden what it is today. Over the past fifty years, they created a de facto system of segregation by shirking their responsibility to create affordable housing in suburban communities, damning Camden to hosting it all, which has done far more to hurt the entire region than sprinkling it amount the various towns would have ever done. Their exclusionary tactics are without a doubt the shame of New Jersey.