Kevin Riordan: Camden continues to sacrifice pieces of itself

Cooper Street was Camden's finest address a century ago and, arguably, still is.

But this noble downtown boulevard's evolution - from primarily residential to professional and, more recently, educational - also illuminates a sad truth.

Just as irreplaceable buildings along the Cooper streetscape keep on falling to the wrecking ball, Camden continues to sacrifice pieces of itself in a belief best summarized as "anything would be an improvement."

The city has acquiesced in a state takeover of its schools. It has agreed that the county should take charge of law enforcement. And it wants Cooper Street's Plaza Hotel, vacant since 1985, to be taken down altogether.

Built in 1927, the crumbling structure has tiny rooms, narrow hallways, and communal lavatories that render it functionally obsolete - an obstacle to progress.

Characterizations of the Police Department, established 1871, and the public schools, which date to 1854, have been less charitable.

"Human catastrophe" was state Education Commissioner Chris Cerf's description of the schools, all but a handful of which are failing to meet state standards.

"Insidious carnage" was county Freeholder Director Louis Cappelli's assessment of Camden's heart- and record-breaking homicide rate last year. The memorial crosses that activists erected on the City Hall lawn were a dramatic symbol of a community's grief.

The reality is that despite the thousands of law-abiding citizens and many good cops, eager pupils, and strong teachers in Camden, public safety and public education are in crisis.

Half of all students are dropping out, and killers last year claimed the lives of 67 people. It's not enough to simply call this state of affairs unacceptable.

Let's remember that these crises have festered for decades as the state and the county essentially signed off on Camden's direction. Not because municipal decisions were necessarily wise (although the city often did its best), but because they were politically expedient.

Shortsighted politics were far from the sole driver of this disaster. Real estate values, the primary source of tax revenue for police and schools in "home rule" New Jersey, began plunging in Camden in the late 1950s.

At the same time that thousands of buildings went vacant or were torn down to make way for urban renewal fantasies, the number of manufacturing jobs withered from a postwar peak of 43,000 to fewer than 2,000. By the 1970s, Camden had become a de facto ward of the state.

It remains so after four decades of enabling by Democratic and Republican governors, with whose help the city became addicted to emergency appropriations and one-shot revenue. The structural deficit grew in part because of the price of labor peace, including contracts offering lifetime benefits for generations of municipal employees.

Periodically, the state would decide to take a closer look. Gov. Christie Whitman did so with a special audit in 1996, and Gov. Jim McGreevey orchestrated a quasi-takeover in 2002.

Shortly after he took office in 2010, Gov. Jon S. Corzine essentially handed Mayor Dana Redd back the keys. Perhaps he believed City Hall could overcome the Great Recession on its own and save Camden after the state had failed to.

Three years later, the Plaza - despite its desirable location near Rutgers-Camden - really does seem beyond salvation. The mayor should insist that it be replaced by a worthy development as soon as possible.

What the state calls a schools' "partnership" rather than a takeover will, I suspect, prove temporary, its impact limited (although finding a qualified, capable superintendent can only benefit the district).

As for the new police department, I'm glad current Chief Scott Thomson will run it. Having more officers on the street should help.

And given the carnage Camden suffered in 2012, anything would be an improvement.

at 856-779-3845, kriordan@phillynews.com,

or follow on Twitter @inqkriordan. Read the Metro columnists' blog, "Blinq," at www.phillynews.com/blinq.