The City We Love..Camden, NJ

Today I stumbled across some historical photos of Camden while at work (and bored to tears, I'll add!)  In the 1940's and 50's it was a beautiful city, new, blossoming, thick with hope, wealth and the prosperity that came through local businesses (Campbell Soup, RCA, TastyKake, Bic to name a few).  It's a city with a colorful history.  It's always amazing to me to see pictures from this time period and to realize just how quickly things can change.

Who knew Camden had the world's first drive in theater?  Located at what's known as "Airport Circle" where Rtes 130, 38 & 70 now intersect.

For a city that measures only 10.4 sqaure miles, it's shocking to read the statistics:

~The city was ranked the most dangerous in America this year (2009) due to the high rate of violent crime. 
~Two of every five residents are living below the poverty line.  The median household income is $18,007.00 which is the lowest of all US households in cities with similar population levels.
~Camden spends $17,000 per child for education and only 2/3 of the students graduate.
~Three Camden mayors have been jailed for corruption, the most recent being, Milton Milan in 2000.
~34.6% of residents are under the age of 18 with 45.5% of those children living under the poverty line.
~In the state of NJ, there are approximately 8300 children currently residing in out of home foster care (no stats found on those from Camden only).

Clearly, there is a lot that has changed in this city.  Camden will always be precious to us for the many things it's given us:  our son(s), our foster kids, relationships with amazing children and youth, learning experiences we'd never have received elsewhere and a new world view, which is less skewed by the politics and rules of religion and errs more on the grace and love of Christ.  For those reasons, we'll always love Camden!