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July 22, 2009:
Camden cleanup focuses on Cooper Plaza
SGIs Client since 2005
They are ambassadors of the \"Clean and Safe Team,\" a program created by the Greater Camden Partnership in October 2005 as part of its efforts to revitalize the downtown.
Since then, the program has doubled in size to include 24 full-time staff members patrolling the city seven days a week from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. The annual budget has grown to about $1.1 million in grants and donations from more than 20 partners. Last August, the team expanded into five business corridors -- Haddon Avenue, part of Broadway, Yorkship Square in Fairview, Federal Street and River Road.
Now, for the first time, the team will be working in a residential neighborhood.
Despite dreary skies Tuesday morning, about 50 political, business and nonprofit group leaders gathered to celebrate the Clean and Safe Team expansion as well as the grand re-opening of Cooper Commons Park.
Renovating the park, a full-city block bordered by Chambers Avenue, Washington Street, 6th Street and Auburn Alley, started two and half years ago when architects invited residents to contribute their ideas for the recreational space. The county funded the project, as well as another park on the median on 7th Street, with $1.5 million.
Workers broke ground in November. The finished product has a fenced-in \"tot lot\" with playground equipment, an amphitheater and numerous benches.
\"This park brings back a center for the neighborhood,\" said John Sheridan, president and CEO of Cooper University Health System. \"To build it is the easy part, to keep it . . . a place people want to come to is the hard part.\"
Cooper signed a 20-year agreement to maintain the city park as well as two others -- the 7th Street park, also slated to open this summer, and Triangle Park, which will begin construction in the fall.
\"We can\'t have a health care campus that stands alone without an equally great neighborhood that stands beside it,\" Sheridan said.
Cooper officials said they\'re still working out a contract for mowing and landscaping the parks. Seven organizations, including Cooper and PSE&G, donated $60,000 for the Clean and Safe Team to help with trash collection.
When the team first started working in the neighborhood, \"we must have got 200 bags in one day,\" said Carol Lindsey, who supervises the downtown employees.
In addition to cleaning, the workers -- all city residents -- have a positive presence in the neighborhood, said Davis Foster, president and CEO of the Greater Camden Partnership.
\"These guys all have stature in the community, there\'s sort of a quiet influence there,\" Foster said.