Pride of the Hill
Posted December 11th, 2007 by Anonymous
Watch the Trailer
in
Producer of the Work / Filmmaker:
Cramer Hill Residents Association with Scribe Video Center
Filmmaker Facilitator:
Production Facilitator - Graham Hancock, Humanities Consultant - Ricardo Howell, Post Production - Graham Hancock
Year released:
2006
Length:
10 min 25 seconds
Price:
This video is available for purchase as part of a Precious Places Community History Project Vol.2 compilation DVD.
In 2004, much of the stable, working class community of Cramer Hill in Camden, New Jersey was slated to be bulldozed. The City Planning Board had authorized $1 billion redevelopment plan that would have demolished 1,200 homes under eminent domain law. Although parts of the Cramer Hill waterfront had fallen into disrepair, residents say that their charming neighborhood on the Delaware River had a vitality that the City failed to recognize. An isolated neighborhood adjacent to a marina, Cramer Hill's forested shores are a unique natural sanctuary. As one resident says, "It's the Camden that nobody knows." Pride of the Hill portrays the outrage of neighbors facing dislocation from their beloved neighborhood and their determination to resist. They question the social benefits of a housing development project that would destroy so many people's homes. "You can't displace 1,200 families and say it’s for the public at large" says Mike Hagen, who has called Cramer Hill his home since 1966. The neighbors fought back, forming the Cramer Hill Residents Association and eventually winning a major victory when a Superior Court judge invalidated the redevelopment plan. In an era of often dramatic demographic and economic changes in many urban neighborhoods, the struggle of Cramer Hill residents is indicative of forces operating in cities around the nation.
Update 2011
2011, from Mary Cortes
Since the City of Camden could not take our waterfront property by eminent domain, it has now resorted to raising our taxes. Property assessments went from $59,000 to $266,000 for one neighbor. A lot went from $4200 to $26,000. How can this be justified? Taxes went from $2400 up to $8000 in one night!!! People who live in Camden live on Social Security, Pensions, Welfare, low income with no benefits, no income with some benefits, Veterans' pensions, and wahtever program help for the rejects of other towns who enter our city for help. What's next? We have a city-wide petition from all walks of life stating that we cannot be disenfranchised as such, that we cannot live any where else affordably, that we would rather burn our houses down than to give them up to tax-lien-buying sharks. Where is Governor Christie in all this? Where is our President Obama in this? Well, this may became another Burning Chicago with the blessings of the powers-that-be.
New Tactics, New Battle
The Cramer Hill Cherokee Plan was removed from the books, but its aftertaste still lingers. The City of Camden insists on a Master Plan that includes renovating the entire city. Presently, Cramer Hill is in its last meetings with the Redevelopment Dept for a neighborhood plan, but suspicions are apparent. "The City will not take any occupied homes." This does not ring true to anybody who just missed sentencing. Residents do not attend these meetings but rely on the faithful few fighters to defend our Precious Place. The City devilishly claims that we are the only ones impeding progress, and those who stay away are accepting the "inevitable".
The fight is not over but the plan is evolving....to what?
--2008 Update from Mary Cortes, President of the Cramer Hill Residents Assn Inc and Secretary of Camden United Inc