Camden, New Jersey

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Camden
Camden, New Jersey.
Camden, New Jersey.
Seal of Camden
seal 		Camden flag
flag
Location in New Jersey
Camden, New Jersey
Camden
Camden
Basic data
Foundation : 1626
State : United States
State : New Jersey
County : Camden County
Coordinates : 39 ° 56 ′  N , 75 ° 6 ′  W Coordinates: 39 ° 56 ′  N , 75 ° 6 ′  W
Time zone : Eastern ( UTC − 5 / −4 )
Residents : 77,344 (as of 2010 census)
Population density : 3,377.5 inhabitants per km 2
Area : 26.9 km 2  (approx. 10 mi 2 ) of
which 22.9 km 2  (approx. 9 mi 2 ) is land
Height : 6 m
Postcodes : 08101-08110
Area code : +1 856
FIPS : 34-10000
GNIS ID : 0875105
Website : www.ci.camden.nj.us
Mayor : Dana L. Redd

Camden is an industrial and port city in the state of New Jersey in the United States with (2010) 77,344 inhabitants. It is across from Philadelphia on the Delaware and is part of the Delaware Valley metropolitan area . The city is the county seat of Camden County and also its largest city.

Camden was an important industrial location for many decades , especially for the production of record players, the food industry and shipbuilding, but has been badly hit by structural change and industrial decline in recent years and is now one of the poorest cities in the USA. In Camden, nearly 60% of children grew up in poverty in 2005 and the unemployment rate was constant at two to three times the New Jersey state average for 2001–2005. The median income of residents, who are 53.3% black and 38.8% Hispanic, is 50.1% of the US national average. Although Camden has one of the highest crime rates in the United States, in 2011 the city government had to significantly reduce the number of police staff due to insufficient funds to finance salaries.

geography

Geographical location

The city of Camden is located on the Delaware River across from the city of Philadelphia , to which it is connected by two bridges, the Benjamin Franklin Bridge and the Walt Whitman Bridge. It is 58 kilometers from the capital of the state of New Jersey, Trenton .

The neighboring communities are (from north to south clockwise): Pennsauken , Merchantville , Pennsauken again, Collingswood , Woodlynne , Collingswood, the western exclave of Haddon and in the far south Gloucester City .

history

The urban area was settled for the first time in 1681. In 1773 Camden was founded. In 1834 the city was connected to the country's rail network, which led to the settlement of several companies, such as the Campbell Soup Company (Campbell's) in 1869, and to an increase in population.

In 1894 the record player was developed in Camden by the Victor Talking Machine Company .

On June 6, 1933, Richard Hollingshead Jr. opened the world's first drive-in theater just outside his hometown of Camden. The film Wife Aware was shown .

Walt Whitman House (2010)

One place in Camden has the status of a National Historic Landmark , the Walt Whitman House . 45 buildings and sites in the city are listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) (as of March 7, 2020).

religion

Camden has been the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Camden since 1937 . Main church of the archdiocese is the Cathedral Immaculate Conception ( Immaculate Conception ) from the in 1864.

Culture and sights

town hall

The New Jersey State Aquarium and the battleship USS New Jersey (BB-62), which has been converted into a museum on the Delaware River, are worth seeing . It was in service from 1943 to 1991.

One of the city's historic buildings is the house where the American poet Walt Whitman lived from 1873 until his death in 1892.

Because of the local record industry, recordings of early swing jazz took place there in the 1930s.

Fairview , the former Yorkship, is located on the southern edge of the urban area . The planned settlement in the style of a European garden city was built during the First World War according to plans by Electus Darwin Litchfield for the workers of the shipyard. In the years of industrial decline, the district was characterized primarily by its social stability.

Camden is also home to the Nipper Building, built in 1909, which was once the headquarters of the telephone and consumer electronics manufacturer Victor Talking Machine Company (from 1929: RCA Victor). The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and has been used as residential property after extensive renovations.

The Adventure Aquarium is in Camden . It was built in 1992 as the New Jersey State Aquarium and has existed in its current expanded form since 2003.

Economy and Infrastructure

Industrial area on the northern edge of the city on Delaware

Camden is a center of industry, trade and transportation. The city mainly produces electronics products, and Camden is also the headquarters of the soup manufacturer Campbell's Soup, which employs 1,200 people in Camden.

traffic

Camden is a port city and an important road and rail hub with two deep-water docks and a large freight yard.

Camden is on the PATCO Speedline , a high-speed rail link from Lindenwold, New Jersey , which crosses the Benjamin Franklin Bridge to Philadelphia. There are three stations within the metropolitan area, City Hall (Camden) , Walter Rand Transportation Center (formerly: Broadway ) and Ferry Avenue . Since March 14, 2004 there has also been a light rail connection to Trenton with the River Line . The route runs from the Waterfront Entertainment Center as a tram through the city.

education

In 1927 the Camden site of Rutgers University (The State University of New Jersey) was established. Around 6,600 students studied here in 2016/17.

High crime rate and budget cuts

Based on FBI statistics , Camden was the second most dangerous city in the United States in terms of crime in 2002; In 2004 and 2005 it was upgraded to the Most Dangerous City in the United States . In 2008, Camden ranked second on this statistic, which is based on crime statistics in six categories: murders, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, break-ins, and vehicle theft. Councilor Ali Sloan-El said in 2004, referring to 2003 statistics, that poverty in Camden is a key contributor to the high crime rate. Population statistics show that a third of Camden's residents live below the poverty line.

In July 2011 Camden hit the media again and was named the city with the second highest crime rate in the US (per inhabitant). The city is also suffering from severe cuts, particularly in the fire brigade, but also in the police. The cuts were made as a result of the global financial crisis , the aftermath of which can still be clearly felt in the USA in particular. For example, a fire in a tire warehouse lasted eight to twelve hours before the tire warehouse burned down completely. The police only cordoned off the area, the fire brigade did not move due to lack of money. Six weeks later, the wreckage of the fire had still not been cleared.

Due to the low police presence as a result of the cuts, so-called gangs have taken over the drug trade , especially in the south of the city . In 2011 there were 49 gunshot victims. In 2010, the city received US $ 64 million in grants from the state of New Jersey, which covered around 40% of the municipal budget. The governor of New Jersey Chris Christie canceled this grant as much as possible in 2011 in order not to burden the state budget any further. The municipalities usually finance themselves mainly through property tax, which is linked to the property value. However, as Camden property prices have fallen dramatically in recent years, tax revenues are correspondingly low.

Since 2013, the police function in Camden has been exercised by the county. Thanks to grants from the state of New Jersey, the police force is back to pre-funded levels. Governor Chris Christie views the 2010 and 2011 events as a dangerous political game, but it was won. Only through the escalation was it possible to reduce the personnel costs of the city administration, and especially those of the police and firefighters. In previous years, both professional groups had used the bargaining power of their unions to increase their income and, above all, pensions, which, given the economic developments in the city, proved to be unsustainable.

In the mid-2010s, it succeeded in significantly reducing the crime rate and increasing the confidence of citizens, especially African Americans, in the police.

Personalities

sons and daughters of the town

Personalities who have worked in the city

Web links

Commons : Camden, New Jersey  - Collection of pictures, videos, and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Poverty in the City of Camden. (PDF; 963 kB) Study by the Poverty Research Institute of the New Jersey State Administration of Justice, April 2007, archived from the original on February 1, 2015 ; Retrieved February 19, 2017 .
  2. ↑ http://www.us-infos.de/nj-camden.html
  3. ↑ - Announcement based on a report by Associated Press dated November 5, 2011
  4. ↑ List of NHL by State . National Park Service , accessed September 27, 2018.
  5. ↑ Search mask database in the National Register Information System. National Park Service , accessed March 7, 2020.
    Weekly List on the National Register Information System. National Park Service , accessed March 7, 2020.
  6. ↑ A Place Called YORKSHIP - Electus Litchfield's Plan ( Memento of the original from June 29, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / yorkship.home.comcast.net
  7. ^ Susan Todd / The Star-Ledger: Campbell's Soup eliminating 130 workers in Camden as part of global cost-cutting plan. In: nj.com. June 28, 2011, accessed February 26, 2015 .
  8. ↑ How Debt Ruins a US City (Camden)
  9. ↑ A US city is falling into disrepair: Anarchy rules in the once wealthy Camden , RP-Online
  10. ^ Matt Taibbi : Apocalypse, New Jersey: A Dispatch From America's Most Desperate Town . Rolling Stone, December 11, 2013
  11. ↑ Barbara Junge: How the dangerous US city found peace. In: Der Tagesspiegel , August 3, 2015.