Stratford, NJ good, bad and ugly, please

[HubCityMadMan]

Somewhat irrelevant, but I love how this document mentions the possibility of merging Merchantville with Cherry Hill and even goes far enough to say "Adding to Pennsauken and any option removing Merchantville from the Pennsauken School District would magnify the racial/ethnic disparity in the Pennsauken School District," then states that Cherry Hill does not think Merchantville would "be a good match" and is in turn seeing about Merchantville feeding into Haddon Township instead.

[Jerseykids2011]

I remember when I was house-hunting (for 14 months!) and went to Stratford, NJ to see some homes for sale. They were lovely and well maintained, but close to a busy road. The deal-buster, however, was when I drove onto the highway down the road from the development, there was a HUGE sign advertising "Live Nude Girls" . I thought to myself, "Now isn't this a lovely area to raise children!" and proceeded my house-hunting to the next town further south...

[Tracysherm]

I grew up in Stratford, as did my Dad and my Grandmother before him. My Great Grandfather was a well respected leader in the town for some time in the early 1900s, and my family has a lot if history there.

It's sad to say, but I wouldn't want to live there now. I could have decided to take over my Grandmom's house for free when she died, but it's really not the Stratford I grew up in. I'm reminded of that fact whenever I go visit my parents, and it just saddens me.

I went to Sterling High in the 80s, when it was still one of the better schools. I hear that's not the case anymore. All along the White Horse Pike area, it looks downright scary today. Plus, it's so congested in that area now, it can take like 25 minutes to go somewhere a few miles away.

[Glenn Drake]

I grew up in Stratford, NJ and it has declined in the last 15 years. I think it is because Lindewold has become the new ghetto of South Jersey! I lived on Evergreen Road right across the street from the shopping plaza. We had an A&P and then Shop-N- Bag. There were also smaller shops like a Dry Cleaners and a pizza place. In many ways it was like Mayberry. On the White Horse Pike was the Bradlees and other stores. It is sad to see it go down. It has so much potential. I moved to Ohio for graduate school at Ohio State and then moved to Chicago and other parts. When I moved back East to New York I did not even consider Stratford. If they want to make Stratford better, they need to expand on the hospital with departments that would generate revenue like geriatric services, maternity, emergency, etc centers. They could also partner with Rutgers University with an extension campus for sciences, medicine, math, nursing, etc. classes!!! So many students want to go to Rutgers but refuse to travel to Camden. There is so much open land near the hospital to build these facilities!!! This would create jobs for locals and attract an professional class or residents to the town. If I had about 50 to 100 million I'd start the project. I'd give scholarships to Stratford residents to attend the RU extension campus and build houses for the professors, doctors, nurses working in the new facilities. Also, I would build an upscale shopping plaza in the empty plaza on the White Horse Pike and across from SS Yellin.