June 5, 2007
In Camden, Campbell Co. Says It May Go if Sears Building Stays
By KAREEM FAHIM

CAMDEN, N.J. - For decades after it was built in 1927, shoppers drove to the Sears, Roebuck & Company store on Admiral Wilson Boulevard just beyond the center of town. A colonnaded temple to both commerce and the automobile, the store, in the classical revival style, had a lot with parking spaces for about 600 cars.

But in 1971, as the middle class fled the city, the store closed, and reopened at a mall in nearby Moorestown. In the years afterward, most of the drivers who stopped by this despondent stretch of freeway were visiting seedy strip joints. And the old Sears building went on to become a car dealership, then an office. Today it is vacant, vandalized and in need of repair.

Now, amid an effort to revive a city mired in a crippling cycle of crime and unemployment, the Campbell Soup Company, Camden's longtime and most prominent corporate resident, has proposed expanding its presence and transforming the area where the empty store sits into an office park.

The soup company is prepared to spend $72 million to improve its headquarters, and has also promised to help lure developers to an adjacent office park with the help of $26 million in state funds. But the company's pledge comes with one nagging caveat: The Sears building, which is listed on state and national historic registries, must come down. If not, Campbell Soup, which has been an enormous presence in the city since 1869, may abandon Camden and go elsewhere.

Linking Communities with Information is devoted to creating a learning partnership in Camden, New Jersey, with the belief that sharing and using data will lead to informed decisions and better policy making to support the improved quality of life of all Camden citizens.  The purpose of CAMConnect is to expand and democratize access to information for residents and organizations that live and work in the City of Camden.

Posted on Fri, May. 26, 2006    
Camden promises to retool Cramer Hill plan
The redevelopment revision would displace "far fewer" people, city officials said.
By Dwight Ott and Elisa Ung
Inquirer Staff Writers

Dropping their legal fight for the $1.2 billion Cramer Hill redevelopment plan, Camden officials said yesterday that they would retool the project to require displacement of "far fewer" homeowners.

The officials said during a briefing at Mayor Gwendolyn Faison's office that the blight study and redevelopment plan for the neighborhood would be revised and reintroduced to the planning board and City Council.

In April, a state Superior Court judge dismissed the blight study, which was key to the completion of the redevelopment plan. Known as the Cherokee Plan, after its developer, the proposal would have dislocated about 1,100 families, including 400 homeowners.

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This study summarizes the results of a mailed survey and follow-up interviews with municipal and agency representatives from southeastern Pennsylvania and Southern New Jersey townships, boroughs and counties located adjacent to Philadelphia and/or Camden City. The purpose of the survey was to define and evaluate barriers and opportunities for greater collaboration between the cities of Philadelphia and Camden and their adjacent suburban counties and municipalities. The report illustrates the outreach and coordination process that was used to obtain information about current and future collaborative efforts. The outcome of the survey and interview process provides an inventory of current and future potential inter-governmental and inter-agency collaborative activities. Tables and maps highlight the survey findings and analysis. The complete survey and responses can be found in the Appendices.

This website includes images of Camden taken over the past 30 years, often the same building or street has been photographed several times over the years to show changes.

Invisible Cities details the state of Camden New Jersey through photos and includes essays by Howard Gillette and photos by Camilo Jose Vergara.