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I have been to East St. Louis, the nation's largest incorporated slum.
I'd say that little city (it has less than half the population of the other two and has lost a greater percentage of its peak population than they have) is so utterly and hopelessly dysfunctional that St. Clair County should put it out of its misery and run it directly.
(FWIW, the state of New Jersey did step in and take over Camden's municipal government as a condition of a bailout of the city treasury in 2002. I believe the state returned control to the locals in 2012, but its finances still are in poor shape.)
Camden's downtown waterfront and the adjacent Cooper's Ferry neighborhood (home to the Camden campus of Rutgers University, New Jersey's state university) are actually pretty nice now, thanks to a bunch of public and private investments; there are even some tourist draws in the form of the New Jersey State Aquarium (now Adventure Aquarium), the Susquehanna Bank Center ampitheater and the battleship USS New Jersey, which was built in the city. Poet Walt Whitman's last home on Martin Luther King Boulevard is also a minor tourist draw and historic site. There are also a few other anchor institutions still based in the city, including Cooper University Hospital and Campbell Soup Company.
Gary, as has already been noted, still has the massive U.S. Steel works and the Indiana Dunes.
East St. Louis has nothing of this sort.
Camden is also home of the Philadelphia 76ers Training Complex which houses the team's training facility and headquarters for basketball operations and Cooper Medical School of Rowan University. I'm also pretty sure Camden has the other cities beat when it comes to mass transit with NJ Transit (the River Line LRT provides service all the way up to Trenton, tons of bus routes) and the PATCO Speedline which provides service 24 hrs a day to Philly and towns east of Camden.
With all of Camden's assets compared to Gary's, I'd say they are in the same league.
Camden is also home of the Philadelphia 76ers Training Complex which houses the team's training facility and headquarters for basketball operations and Cooper Medical School of Rowan University. I'm also pretty sure Camden has the other cities beat when it comes to mass transit with NJ Transit (the River Line LRT provides service all the way up to Trenton, tons of bus routes) and the PATCO Speedline which provides service 24 hrs a day to Philly and towns east of Camden.
With all of Camden's assets compared to Gary's, I'd say they are in the same league.
This is true, especially with Gary's connections with the South shore line to Dt Chicago and other portions of NW indiana..
I'd pick Gary. Miller beach is making a comeback with a micro brewery and new restaurants. Gary also has the beach and dunes with the Chicago skyline as a backdrop.
I believe all three cities are connected to their respective cores by rail, so that's a wash. I love Chicago, so being next door is an obvious bonus. Philadelphia and St. Louis are great cities too but I prefer Chicago and for me, that's what it comes down to.
I'd pick Gary. Miller beach is making a comeback with a micro brewery and new restaurants. Gary also has the beach and dunes with the Chicago skyline as a backdrop.
I believe all three cities are connected to their respective cores by rail, so that's a wash. I love Chicago, so being next door is an obvious bonus. Philadelphia and St. Louis are great cities too but I prefer Chicago and for me, that's what it comes down to.
If you’re a Midwesterner you pick what you’re familiar with, others pick from their areas. Nothing wrong with that it’s fun to learn. Happy New Year 🎆
I am curious why Gary is so much better known than Hammond or East Chicago Indiana, both of which lie closer to Chicago and are arguably more urban/related to Chicago than is Gary.
Hammond is now actually larger than Gary population-wise... The three of these NWI legacy cities peaked in population at a combined population of about 350,000 in 1960 and although 3 independent cities (plus tiny Whiting)...they do form a relatively uniform economic and cultural zone and are all very interconnected.
I'd pick Gary. Miller beach is making a comeback with a micro brewery and new restaurants. Gary also has the beach and dunes with the Chicago skyline as a backdrop.
I believe all three cities are connected to their respective cores by rail, so that's a wash. I love Chicago, so being next door is an obvious bonus. Philadelphia and St. Louis are great cities too but I prefer Chicago and for me, that's what it comes down to.
One thing I would say is that Camden has a 10 minute ride 24 hour subway into center city Philly
I hope all regain some of their former glory as all were instrumental in helping with the industrial revolution that made the US the power it is today
NJ is dumping a lot of money into Camden it is also flanked by very wealthy suburbs in Jersey and wealthy areas of Philly to the east
literally can see cranes rising from Philly when looking across the river into NJ
I agree with what someone said that Camden will see more progress more quickly
Gary may have the views of Chicago, Camden has great views of Philly as well plus is closer to the DT than the any of the others by miles, with a ten minute subway ride running 24/7
I am curious why Gary is so much better known than Hammond or East Chicago Indiana, both of which lie closer to Chicago and are arguably more urban/related to Chicago than is Gary.
Hammond is now actually larger than Gary population-wise... The three of these NWI legacy cities peaked in population at a combined population of about 350,000 in 1960 and although 3 independent cities (plus tiny Whiting)...they do form a relatively uniform economic and cultural zone and are all very interconnected.
I could say the same thing about a place like Chester PA which to me might have actually been a better comparison than Camden here yet Camden is more well known
I could say the same thing about a place like Chester PA which to me might have actually been a better comparison than Camden here yet Camden is more well known
And has about twice Chester's population.
But replace the 10-minute subway ride with a 20-minute trip on Regional Rail and the two cities are quite similar, right down to having riverfronts that are now not half bad (though Chester still has a prison on its waterfront while New Jersey tore down the one in Camden).
The South Shore Line that has 3 Gary Stations has stops at Hyde Park/McCormick Place/Soldier Field/MuseumCampus/in addition to its terminus at Millenium Station...and to the east are stops at Indiana Dunes State Park downtown Michigan City, which has rally started to boom and finishing at the South Bend Airport. However, there are plans to extend that to downtown South Bend, which is also in a major revitalization phase. So Gary has rail access to quite a bit.
I wish that someday there could be a high speed catarmaran/ferry from Gary to Navy Pier...that's a ways in the future.
And btw, from a road point of view, sure it costs 6-7 bucks now to take the Indiana Toll Road from Gary to the Chicago Skyway. I've made it from Gary to downtown in under 25 minutes, and the toll road/skyway rarely has traffic. On many days, Gary is closer to the Loop timewise than is Ohare.
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