Dear Cory Booker: How’s that ‘Camden Rising’ thing working out?

Dear Senator Booker:

I regret you were unable to attend the grand opening of the Hillary for Arkansas office in Little Rock last weekend. As Senator from New Jersey, you have a long record of experience in state politics and a national reputation as a forward-thinker. I won’t ask about Governor Christie’s latest shenanigans or about alleged corruption in the Democratic National Committee, but about larger issues.

On the last day of the Democratic convention, a concert head-lined by Lenny Kravitz, Lady Gaga, and DJ Jazzy Jeff was held at the BB&T Pavilion on the Camden waterfront. According to Philly.com, the event was initially billed as “invitation-only.” It was closed to the press, except for PhillyVoice.com.

{mosads}A “full disclosure” on its website had explained that the concert would be “sponsored by George E. Norcross III, a member of the Democratic National Committee and the chairman of Camden’s Cooper University Healthcare and the MD Anderson Cancer Center at Cooper, and Susan McCue, the former chief of staff to Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid and co-founder of Senate Majority PAC, and features special guest Congressman Donald W. Norcross.”

You evidently introduced Lady Gaga on-stage.

The executive director of PhillyVoice.com is the daughter of George Norcross. He also used to control Philadelphia Media Network, the parent company of the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News. He also heads the insurance brokerage Conner Strong & Buckelew.

A notice distributed to convention delegates stated, in part, “With the Philadelphia skyline in the backdrop, Camden Rising will shine a light on an historic American city in transformation. Through the leadership of Congressman Norcross, labor unions, community, government, religious, and business leaders, the City of Camden is being revitalized.”  

George Norcross and his brother Donald are heavy-hitters in New Jersey politics. George endorsed you in your Senate campaign. As reported by Philly.com in 2013, he called you “a Democrat that’s fiscally conservative yet socially progressive.” Did his endorsement have something to do with your promotion of school privatization? Or with why you haven’t taken a clear stand on single-payer healthcare? Or with why you have opposed repealing the Patriot Act?

It must have been embarrassing when the Republican National Committee organized a petition supporting you after you defended Bain Capital on “Meet The Press” against criticisms made by President Obama. This was when you were still mayor of Newark and supported Barack Obama in the 2012 presidential race against Mitt Romney.

Getting back to the concert, its official name was Camden Rising. Was that intended as some kind of sick joke? Camden most certainly is not rising, not by any stretch of the imagination. It is one of the poorest cities in the United States.

Isn’t Camden County Jail around the corner from the BB&T Pavilion? I wonder what the inmates and county employees there think of the notion “Camden Rising.” Or has that facility already changed hands due to budgetary problems? As made clear in an undated Camden County memo, privatization is an option on the table for the jail. I wonder how you square that with the recent Justice Department report that’s critical of private prisons. Or is prison privatization on the agenda of “Camden Rising”?

Then came shocking news that a water main break left half of Camden without clean water for several days (Philly.com, July 31). The mishap took place while Camden Rising was in progress on the waterfront. Did you rush off the stage mid-way into your introduction of Lady Gaga to get to the bottom of the matter? Why wasn’t it screaming front page news across the country? After all drinking water for Camden’s residents is already controlled by a public-private partnership. I guess the privatization of public utilities is part of “Camden rising.”

Deindustrialization and the collapse of our cities are not recent developments. It was almost twenty years ago that I used to walk by the jail when the BB&T Pavilion was known as something else and was owned by Sony Music Entertainment and now-defunct Blockbuster.

You are to be commended for your defense of same-sex marriage and of civil rights. But what is the point of civil rights when so many U.S. citizens, particularly people of color, lack the means and the legal protections to practice those rights in a meaningful way? Do Black lives and the people of Camden matter to you?

But like George Norcross and Hillary Clinton, perhaps you have a more nuanced understanding of economic development.

Sincerely, Anthony Newkirk