Camden Mayor says city gets unfair reputation

One New Jersey Mayor is tired of hearing negatives things about her city.

Camden Mayor Dana Redd said her city faces the same challenges as many other urban centers: including population loss and abandoned properties,”I really take offense to this: Camden has been the poster child for everything that’s wrong in urban America,” Redd said, “But if you take and compare us to cities like Detroit, Detroit in it’s hey day it’s population was at 1.8 million.  It’s population in the present day is 900,000 and again their issues are similar,” she said.  “Camden is not the worst city in America.”Camden’s poverty rate is 52 percent and Detroit’s is 34 percent.  Things don’t look like they’ll get easier for Camden anytime soon.  Mayor Redd has submitted a plan to the State Civil Service Commission to lay off about 24percent of the city’s employees.