City on the Brink: Economic and Community Development in Camden, NJ

Abstract

Today people know Camden, NJ as one of the poorest and most dangerous cities in America. It has a population of 80,000 people with an unemployment rate of 10.1% and for those over the age of 25 only 50% graduated from high school.1 Of those who work their median income is $23,421, which puts 36% of Camden residents and 45% of Camden children in poverty.2 But how did Camden reach this state? How did decades of disinvestment go unnoticed until “on November 21, 2005, Camden was deemed the most dangerous city in America for the second consecutive year,” with a murder rate “over 10 times the national rate” and a “rate of robbery in 2004 [that] was 30% higher than the #2 city.”3 The Beginning Old Camden's industrial and commercial sectors survived two World Wars, the Great Depression, and it was not until the 1970s that Camden's steady decline became a rapid dive. Why then did Camden fall harder than other industrial cities? Disinvestment affected most cities across America, as did white-flight, but why did Camden never resurface? [From introductory section]