Saturday,
September 5, 1998
Residents
first
Lately, we've been hearing about
bringing the battleship USS New Jersey to the Camden Waterfront.
Of course, in some ways, it will create jobs and attract tourism
to the Waterfront. But is that what the people of Camden want?
When I say people, I mean people who live in that area - not
the people who don't live in Camden but work their jobs, 9 to
5. You see them coming and going out of Camden so fast, like
they're scared or paranoid.
Being a resident of Camden for many years, I have ambivalent
feelings about the whole deal. Take, for example, the New Jersey
State Aquarium. It created jobs somewhat, which is good. Look
at the Blockbuster-Sony Music Entertainment Centre. Same there.
One thing I know for a fact is these two things have more
protection than the residents of Camden. It's not right and not
fair.
Another example is the traffic pattern. We have to go out
of our way to give the concert-goer the right of way, which is
wrong. We should go first and we shouldn't have to go out of
our way.
There are times when we can't get the street cleaner to come
and clean the street, but look around the Aquarium and the E-Centre
and see how clean they are kept by the city.
Why should we allow this battleship in Camden? To treat the
tourists better than the residents of Camden? I say let's work
together to bring Camden up first, and then work on attracting
businesses, hotels and movie theaters. Let's compete with Philly.
PEDRO RODRIGUEZ
Camden
USS
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