The poorest city in America is...

[disneysteve]

Re: The poorest city in America is...

And that these two extremes are like 50 miles apart.

This is also odd. I live 8 miles from my office in Camden. My area is perfectly fine. Low crime. Nice homes and businesses and much higher median income. It is amazing what a difference a few miles can make.

[neguy11]

Re: The poorest city in America is...

Never been to NJ, but I did visit the deep south Mississippi once. Pretty sad as their isn't much hope down there. Amazingly, people from Missippi give a higher percentage of their income to charity than any other state.

[Fern]

Re: The poorest city in America is...

I grew up in northern New Jersey, and left at 16. Whenever i go back to visit friends in NJ, i always feel so comfortable, like these are "my people' there. And i tend to lapse back into my "Joisy" accent there too. NJ people lack any pretensions, they are very down to earth and tell it like it is, and that can't be said for everyone in CT.

[StressLess]

Re: The poorest city in America is...

Camden update, since I live near it, too.

Heard a radio show on "gourmet waters" that sell for champagne prices. The guest said that the Camden water system was one of the best around, and the water won some sort of taste test. Some towns are making money by bottling their water and selling it--but they figure it won't work for Camden because it has such a bad reputation. People wouldn't want to buy the water no matter how good it was.

More corruption has turned up. They've been paying someone $130,000 a year who's been dead since the 1970's! They had a bill to pay for about $50,000 worth of equipment, but when they paid it the check was for almost $1 million. The state has been overseeing the school district for several years, but this didn't come to light until just now. It's so maddening--the rest of us in the state are pouring money into that city, and instead of it going to help the kids who desperately need an education, it's going into somebody's pockets. Grrr!

[kv968]

Re: The poorest city in America is...

This is also odd. I live 8 miles from my office in Camden. My area is perfectly fine. Low crime. Nice homes and businesses and much higher median income. It is amazing what a difference a few miles can make.

Few miles? Try a few blocks. Unfortunatley all of the fixing up has occured near the waterfront and not much, if any of it, has reached into the city itself. I go to the Tweeter Center for concerts all the time and all I can is say is don't get lost trying to get back to the highway

[disneysteve]

Re: The poorest city in America is...

Few miles? Try a few blocks. Unfortunatley all of the fixing up has occured near the waterfront and not much, if any of it, has reached into the city itself.

Actually, that isn't true. I work in Fairview Village, at the southern end of Camden. In the past couple of years, our neighborhood has been extensively rehabbed. Two large apartment buildings that had been vacant for about 8 years were totally gutted and rebuilt and are now occupied. Two other apartment buildings were put up from scratch on Collings Road. Yorkship Square area was totally redone with new sidewalks, new lightposts and there is a facade renovation project underway. Many other vacant homes have been rehabbed and sold to new owners. I don't have much contact with the rest of the city but I know the Cramer Hill section also has a lot of rehab going on.

I actually had dinner at a nice restaurant in Camden Tuesday night. It is called the 20 Horse Tavern and is housed in an old horse stable. The place is on 2nd street in the middle of industrial businesses, right down the street from the Beckett St. marine terminal. It seems somewhat out of place but was quite nice inside and the food was very good.

[miclason]

Re: The poorest city in America is...

oh, you don´t even want to hear about the poverty levels in ES...when the latest one came out we realized we live in the wealthiest/safest area IN THE COUNTRY!!..... yes, there are "marginal" communities as we call them here, but, not as many, not as large, not as terribly poor as in other areas (the poorest people in this area have at least been given materials to build ....in other areas "houses" are made of cardboard boxes ...)....not surprisingly, the mayoress has been re-elected 8 times already!!

[scrava]

Re: The poorest city in America is...

Miclason, where's ES?

[kv968]

Re: The poorest city in America is...

Actually, that isn't true. I work in Fairview Village, at the southern end of Camden. In the past couple of years, our neighborhood has been extensively rehabbed. Two large apartment buildings that had been vacant for about 8 years were totally gutted and rebuilt and are now occupied. Two other apartment buildings were put up from scratch on Collings Road. Yorkship Square area was totally redone with new sidewalks, new lightposts and there is a facade renovation project underway. Many other vacant homes have been rehabbed and sold to new owners. I don't have much contact with the rest of the city but I know the Cramer Hill section also has a lot of rehab going on.

I actually had dinner at a nice restaurant in Camden Tuesday night. It is called the 20 Horse Tavern and is housed in an old horse stable. The place is on 2nd street in the middle of industrial businesses, right down the street from the Beckett St. marine terminal. It seems somewhat out of place but was quite nice inside and the food was very good.

It's good to hear that there's other rehabbing going on. All I know is that I missed the on-ramp to 676 after a concert and got a nice little "tour" of some part of Camden at about 1 AM on a Saturday. It wasn't exactly the kind of place you'd walk around and take in the view.

Steve, is that restaurant right around the corner from the Tweeter Center? There's a restaurant I noticed when waiting to park for the center that looks like it could have been an old horse stable or something. It looked like a decent place to eat and I was wondering how the food was.

[disneysteve]

Re: The poorest city in America is...

Steve, is that restaurant right around the corner from the Tweeter Center? There's a restaurant I noticed when waiting to park for the center that looks like it could have been an old horse stable or something. It looked like a decent place to eat and I was wondering how the food was.

http://www.restaurant.com/microsite-ebay.asp?rid=320772

Yes, it is close to the Tweeter Center. The food was quite good. You can see photos, map, menu, etc. at this link. I had the wild mushroom bruschetta appetizer and the sesame grilled yellowfin tuna with jasmine rice for my entree. The cheesecake for dessert was okay but I've had better.

[rob62521]

Re: The poorest city in America is...

I've often mentioned that I work in a very poor city. Well, now it's official.

http://courierpostonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060830/NEWS01/608300380

Camden, NJ is now both the poorest and the most dangerous city in America. Median household income is $18,007. What is mind boggling is that the poorest city is located in the state with the highest household income. What a contrast that is.

I tried to access the article, but it says it's a bad URL. I did watch the 20/20 program a week ago that said the same thing. It's kind of like East St. Louis here in the Midwest -- St. Louis has some wonderful buildings, places, and some ritzy homes and just a few miles east is poverty. I guess things are improving in East St. Louis than from even 10 years ago, but you can still see some of the buildings that look abandoned.

[disneysteve]

Re: The poorest city in America is...

I tried to access the article, but it says it's a bad URL.

http://www.camconnect.org/documents/camconnect_poorest_city.pdf

The article is now archived and not available for free. This link is to a different source that also tells the story.

Unfortunately, I missed the 20/20 episode. I watched some of it online but haven't gotten to watch the other clips yet.

[sarah]

Re: The poorest city in America is...

Rehabing an area only gentrifies it. It does not solve any of the real problems. Rehab usually simply pushes the poor into other areas of the city making them poorer and more crowded. The problem is that there is no willingness to create low income housing. Most people don't care what happens to the poor as long as they do not have to look at them.

[creditcardfree]

Re: The poorest city in America is...

sarah, I think that is a very true statement. The poor and homeless just have to adapt and move elsewhere. Low income housing is one issue as is education.

[kv968]

Re: The poorest city in America is...

http://www.restaurant.com/microsite-ebay.asp?rid=320772

Yes, it is close to the Tweeter Center. The food was quite good. You can see photos, map, menu, etc. at this link. I had the wild mushroom bruschetta appetizer and the sesame grilled yellowfin tuna with jasmine rice for my entree. The cheesecake for dessert was okay but I've had better.

Yup, that's the place I was thinking of. Thanks for the link. Unfortunately the only time I'm really down that way is to catch a concert so I'm not so sure if I'd be "properly attired" to dine there but I might have to give it a shot sometime.