Camden Mayor Dana L. Redd sent out a letter Monday to city business owners formally notifying them that the city now has a curfew in place.
“This letter serves as a courtesy to notify you that pursuant to the New Jersey Superior Court’s recent decision, the City of Camden is actively enforcing Ordinance MC-4629,” Redd states, in both English and Spanish.
(Perhaps neither version will be sufficient: Most of the late-night food places that are the focus of the curfew are Chinese restaurants or fried-chicken places owned by other immigrants who don’t speak either language well.)
A group of poets will be paying tribute Monday to Camden's biggest celebrity: Walt Whitman.
Here is a description of the event:
"140 years ago, on May 20th, 1873, Walt Whitman came to Camden after having fallen ill. On May 20th, 2013, Sean Lynch will bring together Lamont B. Steptoe, the renowned contemporary American poet and Vietnam veteran, and Rocky Wilson, the puppet laureate of Camden and self-proclaimed Whitman interpreter, in order to pay tribute to the great Walt Whit. "
As the June deadline approached for Dooley House to finish its AIDS transitional housing project, the nonprofit's contractor is in a legal fight with the city, holding up the project.
Dooley House, a struggling Camden nonprofit that provides social services to adults and children with HIV and AIDS, secured a federal grant last year for transitional housing for people with AIDS. But the city has been holding up $153,000 of federal grant money that should have gone to Philadelphia-based developer Seven Caesars, which was contracted to perform the rehab work at 521 Cooper St.
The city, which administers federal housing grants, made the first two payments last year for a total of $193,805. But after a review of the receipts submitted and payments made, the city said there was " lack of uniformity of documentation." In march, Seven Ceasars filed a complaint in Camden County Superior Court against the city and Dooley House alleging breach of contract and other counts.
More than a decade ago, there were dreams in Camden of three new firehouses to be built with the city’s issuance of $19.5 million in municipal bonds.
But by 2011, the department had downsized with layoffs and had even closed some firehouses. The $5 million for new firehouses went unused.
Until now.
The nation's 175,000 letter carriers will pick up non-perishable food left by mailboxes on Saturday, May 11, to deliver it to local food banks, as part of Campbell Soup Company and the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) Stamp Out Hunger campaign.
The Stamp Out Hunger food drive benefits Feeding America, a domestic hunger-relief organization. In 2012, more than 70 million pounds of food were donated by 10,000 communities, helping to put millions of meals on the tables of Americans in need.
In honor of the initiative's 21st anniversary, Campbell's will contribute one million pounds of food and 21,000 cans to Feeding America, according to the company's news release.
The news and chatter out of Tuesday’s Camden Board of Education meeting was who was laid off.
But given the state’s intervention plan, which the board agreed to last month, it was also interesting to see who was reappointed for the 2013-2014 school year.
Three top administrators, whose positions are expected to be abolished by the state once it takes over, were saved by the board. For the next several weeks at least, Andrea Gonzalez-Kirwin, Patricia Kenny and John C. Oberg will remain in their respective administrative positions.
Should the public have the right to know where public officials live?
This is an argument I just lost with the New Jersey Government Records Council.
A recent state analysis of my case against the New Jersey Department of Education showed that public officials should have “reasonable expectation of privacy.” Except that the state Government Records Council executive director Brandon D. Minde uses “citizens,” not “public officials” in his “reasonable expectation of privacy” decision.
The secret to revitalizing New Jersey’s urban areas might be indebted college graduates.
A group of urban state legislators are proposing a bill that if signed by Gov. Christie would give $7,000 tuition reimbursement to young professionals who commit to live for two years within a designated neighborhood in either Camden, Trenton or Jersey City.
“This is to encourage young professionals to be part of the economic rebirth of the city,” said Assemblyman Angel Fuentes (D- Camden), a co-sponsor of the bill making its way through the legislative process. (It just came out of the Assembly Commerce and Economic Development Committee with a 5-2 vote.)
Camden's now-famous drill team Sophisticated Sisters performed on Good Morning America earlier today as part of it's You're Not Dreaming series of inspirational stories.
The girls who were just on Dancing with the Stars last week, got another glimpse of fame Monday morning as they performed in front of a large live audience and millions of TV viewers.
After dancing to Beyonce's "Get Me Bodied" outside of the GMA studios in New York, the girls were shown a video of a recent interview with Beyonce in which the diva says she was "inspired" by the sisters and wants to meet them.
After my series of stories on the great lengths that LEAP Academy University Charter School went through to give the school’s chef a $24,000 raise, LEAP’s board of trustees said it was formally reviewing the matter.
“On February 22, the LEAP board announced that it was conducting its own independent review of this process. No comment will be made until that review is complete,” LEAP board treasurer Peter Burke said in a statement at the time.
Well, apparently there are recommendations for the board to consider. But the school is mute on what they are.
Prior to covering Camden, Claudia wrote about South Jersey’s interesting dead as the South Jersey obituary writer. Before arriving at the Inquirer in 2010, Claudia covered crime in Rochester, NY, which, like Camden, has struggled to emerge from the fall of its industrial peak several decades ago.
You may contact Claudia at cvargas@phillynews.com and follow Claudia on Twitter here.
