A stretch of riverfront, where a row of factories once stood, is a thicket of weeds and scrubby trees, and an occasional dumping ground for trash. The public library is empty and rotting.
Men hang out by day in the shadows of shabby row houses.
Politics paralyzed Camden's zone early on. A new mayor and the arrival in January 1998 of Bryan Finnie as managing director of the Camden Empowerment Zone Corp. helped moved things along. One is an effort to reclaim part of the riverfront for a greenway and industrial park. The zone is also part of an alliance trying to persuade the Navy to dock the USS New Jersey on Camden's waterfront. The group would then turn the most decorated battleship in Navy history into a museum and memorial on the Delaware River.