Rutgers Partners with Neighborhood Citizens, Groups to Help “Green” North Camden

For Immediate Release

CAMDEN -- Picture it: Where weeds and broken bottles now clog vacant lots in North Camden, pocket-sized parks and community gardens bloom. Where abandoned land currently raises public concerns, the waterfront thrives, with young families, grandparents and business owners playing, gardening, and working next to the Benjamin Franklin Bridge, with unobstructed views of the Philadelphia skyline.

At Rutgers University–Camden, professors, staff, and students are working to bring this dream into reality.  In support of a multi-layered effort to revitalize this blighted neighborhood, Rutgers is partnering with community activists and residents to create abundant green space on the banks of the Delaware River.

“North Camden is a distressed part of the city, but there’s great potential there. Much of the area now looks desolate, but as more trees are planted, more abandoned land reclaimed, and the prison demolished and its land repurposed, you will have a vibrant, thriving community,” predicts  Gwendolyn Harris, associate director of the Senator Walter Rand Institute for Public Affairs at Rutgers–Camden.

The Rand Institute, which brings Rutgers–Camden faculty and students together with public administrators, elected officials, and community leaders to address issues facing southern New Jersey citizens, is spearheading the university’s participation in the North Camden project.  

Institute Director Richard Harris (no relation to Gwendolyn) sees the effort of the greening committee, under the guidance of Rand Institute project coordinator Zoe Selzer, as an outgrowth of Rutgers’ longstanding policy of establishing itself as an anchor institution within its host communities.

“The Greening Committee is an exciting opportunity for stakeholder groups and community residents to develop a partnership that will make a significant, long-term impact,” Selzer says. “Creating safe public places such as pocket parks is a wonderful way to engage the residents in improving their community.”

Home to roughly 8,700 people, predominantly African-American and Hispanic, the parcel of land under consideration contains about 600 abandoned lots.  Bounded by the Delaware and Cooper Rivers on three sides and by the Benjamin Franklin Bridge and Rutgers on the fourth, it was until recently the site of the Riverfront State Prison, which closed its doors earlier this summer after 25 years. Three nearby city schools -- Pyne Poynt Middle School, Cooper Point Elementary, and R.C. Molina Elementary – serve the neighborhood’s youngest residents.

“The closure of the prison allows the community to recapture this prime land,” observes Richard Harris.  “This is a critical achievement for North Camden.”

He estimates that up to 40 percent of the area needs remediation following the demise of the industry and manufacturing that drove Camden’s economy during the first half of the 20th century.

The Greening Committee, co-chaired by Selzer and Annie Sadler of Respond, Inc., is working with Save Our Waterfront, a coalition of people who live, work or worship in the area and who have been spurring economic development since 1992. Their shared plan envisions a waterfront where local residents enjoy walking trails, fishing spots, playing fields and picnic groves.

And that’s where another Rutgers faculty member comes in.

Dean J. Cardasis, a professor at Rutgers’ School of Environmental and Biological Sciences in New Brunswick, is launching a graduate program in landscape architecture this fall. With two of his students, seniors Charles Oropollo of Audubon and James Brosius of New Brunswick, he will work with residents and community leaders to develop a blueprint using ornamental plantings, gardens, and stone pathways to unite the now-vacant Camden lots in a common theme.

“It’s a greening and an ecological project to be sure, but we also have to concern ourselves with social and cultural issues as well,” says Cardasis, who spent the summer meeting with people who have an investment in the area’s future. “We’ve been talking about gardens for vegetables, places for children to play, perhaps a memorial to a young woman killed there and to other children who have been victims of violence.”

Guided by principles of sustainable design, Cardasis hopes to recycle usable materials out of the ruble. He also plans to incorporate input from neighborhood residents, many of them in their 20s and 30s.

“At our July 9 meeting, we presented some images of different possible activities that could take place, and they were very successful,” Cardasis reports. “People were very interested in having not just one park but numerous parks to accommodate different activities. The more members of the community who become involved, the better for the project.”

Residents have already participated in several Saturday clean-up days under the auspices of the Greening Committee, with Rutgers, the City of Camden and Habitat for Humanity providing garbage bags, tools, carts, gloves, and people power. More events of this nature are planned, says Selzer.

Save Our Waterfront’s president and chief executive officer is pleased to have Rutgers on board.

“I see the greening committee playing a supporting role in the overall North Camden Plan,” says Rodney Sadler. “When it’s all done, it will be a completely occupied neighborhood, roughly 800 (housing) units within the core, with another 2,800 along the waterfront.”

The Senator Walter Rand Institute for Public Affairs at Rutgers–Camden delivers high-quality, policy-relevant research on public issues that cut across local, regional, national, and global boundaries; timely and meaningful technical assistance to governments and nonprofit organizations in southern New Jersey; neutral convening of stakeholders and citizens; and academic opportunities for faculty and students to connect classroom and scholarly objectives with public service and applied research in a service learning environment.

For more information, visit wrand.rutgers.edu.

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