Only two years ago, Alphonso Castillo was excited by the prospect of businesses that the dynamic new mayor would attract to this commerce-poor city. But fresh faces in the retail district remain rare. Few businesses have committed to bricks and mortar to replace ramshackle buildings knocked down to stymie drug dealers. Analysts note that even development along the Waterfront is stagnant while the economy elsewhere in the state is booming.
Merchants say some investors are turned off by the city's unsavory reputation for crime.
Except this time, the purported criminal is Mayor Milton Milan, who turned himself in Thursday after being indicted on political corruption and other charges. But Castillo, who directs a job training program at the Latin American Economic Development Association, believes the city is on the rebound even though the flurry of activity he saw after Milan was elected in 1997 subsided after the mayor's legal problems began. He views Milan's indictment as deeply sad and a waste of human potential. Kelly Whitman, an analyst with Regional Financial Associates in West Chester, Pa., points to the area surrounding the E-Centre, the successful concert venue on the Waterfront. Whitman, who tracks business patterns throughout New Jersey, sees Camden as an isolated pocket of weakness in an otherwise thriving state.