Garden State City Takes Top Spot.
The annual survey of crime statistics performed by the Morgan Quitno Company’s has resulted in Camden, New Jersey being named the country’s most-dangerous city. Camden managed to knock Detroit out of the number one spot into second place on this most “exclusive†list.
The other three cities that made the top five are Atlanta, St. Louis, and Gary, Indiana. It should be noted that because the St. Louis police omitted 5,760 crimes in its report to the surveying company, St. Louis and Atlanta might switch places on the final list. I assume that this will come as great news to my Jawja Blogger friends. After all, being the fourth most dangerous city is way better than being the third most dangerous city.
For our part, we in Jersey always strive for the top spot, no matter what.
Har, Jim. I beat you by almost three hours! That’s what you get for having a real job.
Comment by Mike Hill — November 22, 2004 @ 11:21 pm
Having spent the better part of three years living in Camden, I don’t know how it wasn’t number one sooner. The place looks like Dresden. It was one scary place place when I lived there. Red lights were suggestions, not required stops. Stop and you might get carjacked. Oddly enough, I’d say Camden is way better now than it was 10 years ago, the State has poured enough money into the waterfront so that that area is actually almost livable, if you like fortress living.
Comment by Jim — November 23, 2004 @ 12:08 am
Is it possible that the other hell-holes got a little better a little faster? I know there’s almost nowhere where crime statistics haven’t improved somewhat over the last decade. Maybe Camden was left on top rather than sank to it.
Comment by Mike Hill — November 23, 2004 @ 1:22 am
That’s entirely possible and very probable. Up unitl 2000, Camden was a complete hellhole except perhaps for a small area by Rugters University that was bounded by the Ben Franklin Bridge and Federal Prison to the north and the Federal courthouse, State courthouse, jail and small commercial district to the south. The best you could say about Camden was that buildings burned on mischief night had been declining. Then in 2000, politics spurred the next attempt to revitalize Camden. First, South Jersey lawmakers succeeded in getting the Battleship New Jersey docked in Camden joining an ampitheater, and underperforming aquarium. The Battleship gave another attraction to the waterfront, and later the aquarium was expanded, a minor league ballpark built, a light rail system added, and I kid you not, luxury condos were built in the abandoned RCA headquarters building. They are really nice. I think there’s even a restaurant or two nearby to cater to these condo dwellers. To my knowledge there were no restaurants open at night in Camden when I lived there, there were hardly any businesses at all, and none except for two dive bars catering to students open at night. The other politcal event in 2000 that changed Camden was the Republican Convention. The Convention was in Philadelphia that year and the main highway going to Philadelphia goes through Camden. This highway was lined with strip clubs and was a fertile ground for streetwalkers plying their trade. New Jersey Republicans would have none of this so close to the convention, it would have been a national disgrace. So with Christie Todd Whitman in Drumthwaket at the time, the state just took a bull dozer and basically knocked down anything that looked seedy. The road to Philadelphia never looked so clean after that. Despite all the improvements though, it looks like little has actually happened to deter crime among the residents of Camden. It may just be that its easier and less dangerous to dock a battleship in Camden than it is to clean up a crackhouse filled with drug dealers with lots of guns.
Comment by Jim — November 23, 2004 @ 11:18 pm
Ahhhh, fond memories of drinking outside at music festivals over at Penn’s Landing…looking across the water towards Camden…noting a burning police car…and saying, “Oh, look! They’re having a bonfire!”
I miss the Philly area…
Comment by zonker — November 24, 2004 @ 12:31 am