Corzine hears pleas to boost aid for Camden

September 16, 2009  |  Philadelphia Inquirer  |  Link to article

Gov. Corzine sat with his hands clasped last night as a Camden minister asked hundreds of city residents to stand if their homes or churches were next to abandoned buildings. (photos here)

Most of the crowd at St. Joseph's Pro Cathedral on Federal Street rose to their feet.

Then the Rev. Willie Anderson asked whether anyone had heard gunshots at night, and nearly everyone else stood up.

By the time Anderson had finished listing his concerns - broken infrastructure, dirty streets, inattentive officials, and poor education - all the residents were standing, clapping, or raising their hands to the ceiling.

The city's largest civic organization, Camden Churches Organized for People (CCOP), last night made its third major public plea in a decade to try to exact more state assistance for Camden from a governor seven weeks from a tough reelection battle.

"You have listened to our pain: Our neighborhoods are struggling and recovery has not met our expectations or prayers," Anderson, chair of CCOP, said after residents, young and old, had given testimonials of life in New Jersey's poorest city.

"What are you going to do, as our governor, to get us back on the road to recovery?"

Corzine stood. "Wow," he said. "Where do I begin?"

While acknowledging that "there is a strong feeling that we could do a lot, lot better," Corzine described the hundreds of millions of dollars that his administration has funneled to city for new schools and other projects. And he said it would continue.

"We are going to be committed to make investments so everybody in our society has access to the American dream," he said. "You may not like the way it's delivered, but we are trying very hard to invest in the people of Camden City - whether it's education, public safety, or housing."

Corzine referred to the recent, unexplained resignation of the city's overseer, Theodore Z. Davis, whom he had appointed, and said Davis wasn't his first choice to lead the city, but the top choice "was not available to us."

Unprompted, he also said he disagreed with Davis' statement last month that the city should remain under state control until 2030. Without saying when city officials would regain control, he said, "It ain't going to be 30 years if I have anything to say about it."

Corzine said a permanent replacement for the chief operating officer would be his highest priority if he were reelected. Last month, he appointed Albertha Hyche, a state Treasury Department administrator, as interim COO.

This was not the first time the community organization had heard promises from a governor. In 2000, CCOP set a vision for renewed neighborhoods, and in March 2002, the group brought 1,300 residents to meet then-Gov. Jim McGreevey.

"I'm not going to be like the politicians who drove through Camden and told you what you wanted to hear and drove out," McGreevey promised. "We're going to take Camden back, block by block."

McGreevey signed a law the following summer that brought $175 million in public money to the city. But the law also put control of the city government and schools in the state's hands - a move that was nearly unprecedented in American history and has angered residents.

After the law passed and CCOP saw that much of the money was going to build education and medical institutions, it lobbied for $24 million for neighborhood revitalization. Instead, it got $5 million to fix up houses.

Corzine renewed the takeover in 2007 but did not send new funds. Last night, he did not offer details of a plan for Camden going forward, but at the end of the night, he made an acknowledgment that became his biggest applause line.

"We are not paying attention to the details that would give people tangible feelings of hope," he said