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How exactly do you get to the aquarium without going through the city of Camden???
Technically, you would have to pass through Camden to reach the aquarium, but if you take I-676 and then go through Downtown Camden, you avoid the rougher areas because you're only passing through the downtown area.
How exactly do you get to the aquarium without going through the city of Camden???
The highway access is pretty much set up so you can avoid the bad areas.
To the OP, the aquarium and the rest of the waterfront area (Campbell's Field, Susquehanna Bank Center, Battleship NJ, some restaurants, etc) are pretty nice.
I went a few months after it first opened (it opened in 1992, I went in 1993). It was beautiful. Getting there though (and this was before GPS and Internet), we went through some BAD parts of Camden!
And this was when we were relying on road signs that pointed to the aquarium. We purposely got there early/first thing in the morning, so that the streets of Camden were almost empty. We left before noon to hightail it out of there.
What they need to do is do what they did in Baltimore for the Inner Harbor - make a major highway exit/entrance ramp! Now reading previous posts related to that, I'm confused. Did they actually do that, or is it still iffy?
I went a few months after it first opened (it opened in 1992, I went in 1993). It was beautiful. Getting there though (and this was before GPS and Internet), we went through some BAD parts of Camden!
And this was when we were relying on road signs that pointed to the aquarium. We purposely got there early/first thing in the morning, so that the streets of Camden were almost empty. We left before noon to hightail it out of there.
What they need to do is do what they did in Baltimore for the Inner Harbor - make a major highway exit/entrance ramp! Now reading previous posts related to that, I'm confused. Did they actually do that, or is it still iffy?
I don't know, but I too got lost trying to find the battleship New Jersey and ended up in some scary-looking neighborhoods.
I went a few months after it first opened (it opened in 1992, I went in 1993). It was beautiful. Getting there though (and this was before GPS and Internet), we went through some BAD parts of Camden!
And this was when we were relying on road signs that pointed to the aquarium. We purposely got there early/first thing in the morning, so that the streets of Camden were almost empty. We left before noon to hightail it out of there.
What they need to do is do what they did in Baltimore for the Inner Harbor - make a major highway exit/entrance ramp! Now reading previous posts related to that, I'm confused. Did they actually do that, or is it still iffy?
I can't exactly remember the roads we took to get there. We stayed in a hotel on that side of the state but north of Camden. I think my daughter was 8 or 9 when I went, and she was born in 1991. I just know that I sort of was wondering if we would SEE Camden up close and we really didn't drive through any ghetto neighborhoods. It seems as though it was mostly a highway to get there.
I went a few months after it first opened (it opened in 1992, I went in 1993). It was beautiful. Getting there though (and this was before GPS and Internet), we went through some BAD parts of Camden!
And this was when we were relying on road signs that pointed to the aquarium. We purposely got there early/first thing in the morning, so that the streets of Camden were almost empty. We left before noon to hightail it out of there.
What they need to do is do what they did in Baltimore for the Inner Harbor - make a major highway exit/entrance ramp! Now reading previous posts related to that, I'm confused. Did they actually do that, or is it still iffy?
I believe you can take I-676 and get off at Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd and then take it west until you reach the waterfront.
As far as building an exit out of there, that would only further the decline of the surrounding areas (People don't have to pass through and there's no incentive to fix the area up). I mean, it might improve the Downtown area, but everywhere else will remain undesirable. The solution is to try and advertise the area as being close to Philadelphia and hope it gentrifies that way. The poor people might get displaced, but you can try to build some areas with mixed-income housing so they can enjoy the benefits of the revitalization.
I am a bit of an aquarium snob (my father designed the exhibits for most of the big aquariums) but I do not like Camden much at all. Low species diversity compared to National, Shedds or Boston, decent "wow" species, touch tank is abysmal and they even had a mantis shrimp in it once!!, shark tank is an antiquated design (aside from the "tube" which has been done better elsewhere), I could go on but won't. On about the same par as the Mystic Aquarium IMO.
Also, it is odd that Camden is the only city I have heard of to not benefit from the aquarium effect. Weird.
Is it really such a big deal to drive through the ghetto for a couple of minutes? jeez.
That said, the aquarium is very big and was entertaining when I went. Not sure how the outside is (closed during winter), but it was pretty impressive.
It is pretty much what you would expect in an aquarium, and this is a big one.
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