Rand Institute Partners with Neighborhood and Groups to Green Vacant Lots in North 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 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. 

Rutgers professors, staff, and students in Camden are working together to turn this vision into reality. in support of a multi-layered effort to revitalize this blighted neighborhood. They are 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 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.  The institute was established in 1999 to honor the legacy of Senator Walter Rand and his efforts to increase resources for Southern New Jersey.

Institute Director Richard Harris sees the effort, under the guidance of Rand Institute project coordinator Zoe Selzer, as an outgrowth of Rutgers’ 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. “The closure of the prison allows the community to recapture this prime land,” says Richard Harris. “This is a critical achievement for North Camden.”

Harris estimates that up to 40 percent of the area needs redevelopment  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 Dean J. Cardasis, a professor at the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences in New Brunswick, comes in Cardasis is launching a graduate program in landscape architecture this fall. With two of his students, seniors Charles Oropollo of Audubon and James Brosius, he will work with residents and community leaders to develop a blueprint using ornamental plantings, gardens, and stone pathways to unite the now-vacant 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 rubble. He also plans to incorporate suggestions from neighborhood residents, many of them in their 20s and 30s.

Residents have already participated in several Saturday clean-up days organized  by 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, Selzer says.