Pennsauken Journal

Pennsauken has much in common with older suburbs throughout the state and nation. For one, it’s fully developed yet desperate for redevelopment and new construction. The last few years have been peppered with plans that have not delivered on the redevelopment promises held up by officials.

At least not yet. Will they ever?

• Petty’s Island and the waterfront: last word was that the project would be scaled back (2007), no word since.
• Pennsauken Mart: the land is being cleared but the proposed ice rink is out; or is it?
• Rt 130 Corridor: has anyone heard of this? It was news in 2006. Any progress?

Do I seem a little disheartened? You bet and I think most Pennsauken residents feel likewise.

To be fair, let me sing praises for the single visible exception: the boathouse on the Cooper River!

In a recent post, I opened up the question of the dilemma facing “first ring” suburbs like Pennsauken. We have precious little open land available, so we have to pick and carefully choose to redevelop choice parcels if we hope to revitalize the town by drawing people back from the newer “exurbs” to the east.

Future posts will weave various threads together: the declining prospects of “first ring” suburbs, the de-suburbanization trend and the various redevelopment projects that could decide the fate of Pennsauken for many years to come.

I think it’s strange that NOTHING has appeared in the mainstream press about the redevelopment project for Petty’s Island and the Pennsauken waterfront. The last buzz was the row over the eaglet that died when a wildlife consultant was contracted to study the impact redevelopment might have on Petty’s Island, but that was ages ago.

Recall that the project was embroiled in politics with pro-development folks extolling the project and conservationists who were opposed. A check of the Pennsauken Tomorrow website that supports the project, has the last news item dated March, 2007. A check of several websites opposing the project were similarly outdated.

According to the Philadelphia Inquirer (March, 2007):

Pennsauken has reversed course and decided to back a plan for Petty’s Island that would entail far less development than was originally planned, township officials said last night.

The revised plan for this teardrop-shaped island on the Delaware River eliminates construction of a proposed golf course, and leaves 72 percent of the island undeveloped.

“Tonight’s plan is entirely different,” Mayor Rick Taylor told a group of reporters prior to disclosing the plan to close to 100 residents in the Central Elementary School auditorium. “It calls for a footprint of only 28 percent development.”

That, he said, is 12 percentage points less than the current, controversial footprint proposed by developer Cherokee Pennsauken L.L.C. for the island’s 392 acres.

But he said the details of the new proposal, dubbed the Conservation Development plan, were still to be worked out…

I’ll be checking with Pennsauken officials for details and the status of the revised plan. Stay tuned!

In yesterday’s post, I opened up the topic of “first-ring” suburbs. Today, I thought I’d mention that independent filmmaker, Andrea Torrice has been working on a film entitled: The New Metropolis, on precisely that subject. Torrice filmed in Pennsauken for this upcoming work, produced with funds from the Ford Foundation.

A prior film was on the subject of global warming way before the issue had broad currency. That film: Rising Waters: Global Warming and the Fate of the Pacific Islands was released in 2000. Another was: Forsaken Cries, The Story of Rwanda (1997) documenting the genocide in that country.

Torrice grew up in New Jersey and has over a decade of experience as a producer of educational and public television documentaries. She’s covered a broad of topics from health and the environment, to social and cultural themes. Torrice’s work has been featured in several well known public television series and in festivals around the world.

It’s clear that Torrice has a knack for being ahead of the curve in shedding critical light on important issues. Is she on to something with”first-ring” suburbs?

Living in Pennsauken gives me first hand view of a “first ring suburb”. Never heard of a first ring suburb? I hadn’t either till recently so let me share what I’ve found so far.

When scientists first documented the movement of the middle class from the inner cities to the suburbs, those new fangled “suburbs” were communities like Pennsauken. Near the city but far enough to get away from the crime, congestion and higher costs of the city. In those days, Pennsauken and similar towns, bordered on the rural. They were sparsely populated and offered land for development and very low prices.

Over time the infrastructure of roads, public transportation and services extended to serve the quickening rise of the suburban population. The trend of suburbanization really gathered steam after WWII and then again during the tumultuous ’70s.

But by then people had to look further and further away from the inner city; beyond the first ring suburbs that by then had burgeoning populations. That’s when outer ring suburbs appeared. Today, experts refer to the furthest ring as an “exurb”. In this region, you might say Voorhees or even “towns” further afield qualify as the exurbs.

The hallmark of these exurbs are those humongous homes on quarter acre lots with nary a tree in sight. They require an hour commute or more to the city job and virtually no public transportation. They have no center and commerce consists of the strip shopping centers along arterial roadways.

But there’s a looming problem in this exurb “paradise”. With rising gas prices, unbearable commutes and a host of other issues, the exurb has lost much of its appeal to a growing number of the middle class. They’re now thinking that it may be time to follow in the footsteps of the inner city gentrification pioneers and move back to the city.

Lacking the enterprising spirit of the early wave of folks back to the city, the hard reality of sky high prices for decent housing in the inner city hits them. What now?

We’re not sure what the answer is. I’m certainly not sure at all but I can tell you my theory: the middle class will take a long, hard look at first ring suburbs. They’ll figure out that they’ll get many of the benefits of the city at an affordable price.

On the hand, others say that Pennsauken and similar first ring suburban communities have suffered many of the same ills as the inner city did earlier: the flight of many middle class residents to outer ring communities, leaving behind poorer folks augmented by a surge of equally poor recent immigrants. The concentration of poor and lower income folks, coupled with an aged housing stock, may be the newest urban planning nightmare.

In future posts I’ll be exploring the inner suburb quandary and give you first hand reports on what’s going on in Pennsauken. Maybe that will help connect the reality of life and trends in this example a real first suburb, to the abstract issues. Along the way, I’ll share what I can learn from the experts on the subject. It will be an interesting and educational story.

Stay tuned.