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Camden: We’re #1! We’re #1! In fact, the first time I can remember being in Camden, in fifth grade for a birthday trip to the then-new aquarium — hey, some of us are big giant losers, okay? — we were sitting at one of your everyday friendly traffic lights when a cop crashed right into the back of the car. And it wasn’t even like he couldn’t stop, or was chasing a criminal. No. He was parked, too, and just decided, “Hey, I can go, even though there’s a car stopped in front of me and the light is still red.” But Officer Slammy McAccellerator was a good guy, at least he seemed it though the apologies to my mom. But going to Camden and being hit by a police officer pretty much sums up my feelings on the city. And so, last year, when Camden was named America’s Most Dangerous City, I pretty much shrugged my shoulders and said, “Well, you know; I’m not surprised.” Naturally, Camden did the only thing they could do: actually attempt to make things better. Woah, wait? Really? I thought I was going to try to write “make excuses,” but actually crime dropped 18 percent, and they’ve tried to revitalize the waterfront. I don’t know if they have revitalized it, but, hey, they’re trying. I mean, obviously there was some complaining The new rankings come out Monday, and for the second year Camden will be America’s Most Dangerous City. Personally, I’d be around waving “We’re #1″ foam fingers — it’d help with the city’s street cred — but, hey, that’s just me. The crime stats are from 2004, but, this year the reaction seems to just be “blame everyone,” which is what I look for in government. Oh, the statistics are flawed! They’re using outdated data! We’re actually not that bad! “In a sense, they’re saying if you go to a concert at the Tweeter Center, you’re going to get killed. That’s just not true,” said a professor of criminal justice at Rutgers. No, professor, they’re saying you’re going to get hit by a cop if you go to Camden. Anyway, the whole thing just seems silly to me. Oh, no, what is this study going to do, ruin Camden’s good reputation? Puh-leeze. If anything, it’s at least gotten some attention on getting the crime rate down in the city, which can’t be anything but good. City will wage war on crime label [Inky] Image via Saffanna |
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Like most Philadelphians, the only time I’ve really spent in Camden, our fair neighbor to the east, has been doing four things: concerts at the E-Center, waiting for the ferry after concerts at the E-Center, that one time I went to a Riversharks game and that one time I went to the aquarium when it first opened.
My list of times I’ve been to Camden is similar to yours, although I also once went to a concert at Rutgers-Camden. This was last March, and the concert started at 8–well after dark. I took PATCO over there, thinking I knew how to get to the auditorium from the City Hall station. I immediately got lost, which was quite unnerving since it was (a) dark, (b) foggy, (c) completely deserted except for the occasional weirdo having an argument with himself, and (d) I was well-dressed. After running around for about 10 minutes, I finally found a security guard at a building who pointed me toward the campus, although he didn’t know where the auditorium was.
The creepiest thing about the whole town was the deserted feel. It was like running around a movie set. Now I understand that they are going to put out “ambassadors” like Center City and University City do, but for some reason the ambassadors will only be out until 7pm–just the time of day it starts getting creepy. If they want to make it feel safer, they need one of those guys at least every two blocks, and they need them out past 7.
(I found out after the concert that the location labelled “PATCO Station” on the Rutgers-Camden LineArts website was actually the Brodway station, not City Hall, even though City Hall is the closest station and its location was within the map area.)
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