Residents uneasy over Camden's layoff plan

Between a shuttered restaurant and a vacant building with a hole above the door sits a little office with tall, green-trimmed windows. On the glass hangs a sign that reads "Re(think Camden)."

Shawn Burke, 25, a product of Glendora and Marlton in the South Jersey suburbs, sits at a desk inside. The real estate broker has fallen in love with his adopted hometown, Camden, and particularly the neighborhood where he lives and works, Cooper Grant, the most stable in the city.

Burke is working to sell and rehabilitate all but one of the properties on the largely dilapidated 200 block of Market Street, where he has set up shop. He has grand plans to transform them into mixed-use buildings, just as he renovated his office, which had stood vacant for 30 years.

But with the layoffs of up to 383 city workers - including a possible 180 police officers - expected this week, Burke is "very much worried."

Cooper Grant sits between the waterfront and Rutgers University, and is a short walk to City Hall and tourist attractions such as the Adventure Aquarium. On the other side of the Ben Franklin Bridge entryway is North Camden, a struggling neighborhood known for drug corners and shootings.

"If North Camden loses a lot of the heat it's been getting [from the police] in the last six months, guess what. North Camden is 10 feet away from us," Burke said. "There's not some Great Wall of China. It's right there."

The loss of nearly half of the Camden police force due to budget constraints would likely affect neighborhoods like North Camden and Whitman Park, which already are dangerous.

But in Cooper Grant, where homes go for more than $200,000 and residents work middle-class jobs as Rutgers professors and business people, Burke fears that the layoffs - to go into effect Jan. 18 - could jeopardize the Camden reinvestment so many have worked toward.

"Why aren't residents angry? Why aren't they speaking up?" asked Burke, who owns a $206,000 three-bedroom home there.

"When I talk to people they say, 'What am I going to do?' They think the problem is too big to talk about, let alone solve."

One reason concern might be muted in Cooper Grant is because the neighborhood already has what Burke calls a "de facto police force" - the 19 sworn officers of Rutgers University, who patrol the 40-acre campus and surrounding area. Rutgers also has 40 unarmed guards and 200 security cameras linked to the school's own dispatch center.

Frank Fulbrook, a 43-year Cooper Grant resident and city activist, said he hasn't called city police to report a crime since the 1970s. He contacts Rutgers police, who he says show up in 30 seconds.

The layoffs will lead to lower response times citywide and are "definitely going to help criminals," but Cooper Grant will be OK, Fulbrook predicted.

Rutgers students said Wednesday that they generally feel safe on the small campus because of the university law enforcement presence. But they worry about how Camden police layoffs might affect other parts of the city, they said.

"I don't think that's fair to the police that are there, who are going to have to stick around and deal with the crime," said Robert Gordon, 24, a 2008 Rutgers graduate.

At Friends Cafe in Cooper Grant, which attracts a steady stream of Rutgers students, owner Kelly Chang, 39, said a steep reduction in Camden officers would stunt the city's growth.

"You need good schools. You need a good police department. You need good parks," said Chang, a Rutgers graduate who opened the cafe in 2008. "It's about prosperity. It's about going forward. I really want this city to grow."

The Rutgers model of supplementing city police is found elsewhere near Cooper Grant. Cooper University Hospital, for example, has a 70-member security staff and contracts 12 hours of coverage from the Camden County Sheriff's office each weekday. Using a federal grant, the hospital soon will install seven security cameras on its campus.

Rowan University already provides security at the building it shares with Camden County College. When Rowan opens a medical school in partnership with Cooper University Hospital in 2012, that private security force will be enlarged.

Rowan spokesman Joe Cardona said he didn't expect Cooper Grant and its environs to be significantly affected by police cuts because of the investment in private security there. Areas that lack significant anchors, "that's where this cut will hurt the most," he said.

When Symphony in C, formerly the Haddonfield Orchestra, moved to Camden five years ago, patrons had safety concerns, said Pam Brant, vice president for marketing and public affairs. The organization, which performs at Rutgers, took extra steps to make them feel secure, and membership has grown 15 percent, she said.

On performance nights, the symphony gets help from Greater Camden Partnership staff members who provide a "friendly presence" for those walking from their cars to the venue, Brant said.

Ticket-holders who don't want to drive into Camden can reserve a shuttle to the performance from points in Cinnaminson, Collingswood and Marlton.

With news of possible police cutbacks, Brant said she expects to get calls of concern from some patrons.

"We have a lot of faith in the private sector in terms of picking up the pieces," she said. "People have significant investments here and they're not going to watch this just disintegrate."

Mayor Dana L. Redd held a news conference Wednesday to encourage city worker unions once again to accept contract concessions she said would reduce the number of layoffs.

"The math is simple, ladies and gentlemen," Redd said. "We don't have the money to remain at the staffing level if no concessions are made."

City Attorney Marc Riondino said concessions offered to rank-and-file police officers could save 58 jobs. He did not say how many of the 67 firefighter jobs might be saved under new contract terms.

John Williamson, president of the Fraternal Order of Police union in Camden, said Wednesday was first time he had seen in writing a statement by the city that linked proposed concessions to a specific number of saved jobs.

He provided The Inquirer with a copy of a letter from Riondino, dated Wednesday, that said a 20-percent wage reduction and other givebacks would translate into savings of $4 million and preserve 58 positions.

"There are things in here that we're going to look at," Williamson said.

There's a sense among some that the layoffs won't be nearly as severe as threatened.

James Reilly, 35, a Cooper Grant resident who boasts of being able to jog along the waterfront and says he can stare at the Ben Franklin Bridge from his home, is "optimistic that the powers-that-be [will] do the right thing."

Even if there are layoffs, Reilly said, he thinks the city will continue to improve. The doom-and-gloom news about the city is "overinflated" to sell newspapers, he said.

"People love to have that relative that people like to make fun of, and that's what Camden is," joked Reilly, who said he feels "extremely positively" about the city. "Not that Camden in 10 years is going to be a great spot, but today it's a great spot to be, and it's only getting better."

Rutgers-Camden Chancellor Wendell Pritchett found some encouragement in the fact that the layoff process was not yet complete.

"That said, there's no question that the city is experiencing financial problems that are going to impact the workforce," he said. "What this means is that we're going to work even harder together to cover the gaps."