CAMDEN — A stroll down Cooper Street provides a glimpse into the future.
Cleared ground awaits new buildings. Other new or rehabilitated structures have opened their doors. Millions have been invested along this strip in recent years, and millions more are expected in coming months.
Driving this development is not one of the oft-mentioned, high-profile projects such as the aquarium, Tweeter Center or gleaming battleship on the waterfront.
Like other urban areas across the nation, Camden is benefiting from a thriving collection of colleges and universities and their nearly 8,000 students.
While the schools - Rutgers University, Rowan University and Camden County College - have provided millions in capital investment and access to a brain trust, they also largely have been commuter schools.
Now even the "commuter school" persona is beginning to change as Rutgers and Rowan jointly add to dormitory space, attracting more residential students.
Camden a college town?
That's the goal of local leaders and university officials.
"The [universities] are the only strength we have left. If you're not going to invest in that, then you're really not investing in Camden," said State Sen. Wayne Bryant (D., Camden), who said four similar schools in Newark contributed to that city's revitalization by generating the equivalent of a $1.1 billion business enterprise.
In addition to the three colleges, a fourth - the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey - operates on Haddon Avenue.
Rutgers Provost Roger Dennis says he shares Bryant's enthusiasm. "Bryant has a vision of downtown Camden being a college town, like West Philadelphia," he said. "It is a vision we embrace and are working to participate in. It might not come as quickly as in other places. But we're doing it in phases."
Said Phyllis Della Vecchia, president of Camden County College: "The campus in the city . . . is to serve that city." The county-supported college, based in Blackwood, plans a $17 million expansion on Cooper Street that will include classrooms, parking, a bookstore and a coffee shop.
The collection of colleges along Cooper Street has a varied impact on the city itself. And one of the most-evident influences is on the neighborhood near the campus.
When Rutgers University student Julie Pi told her friends she lived in Camden, they told her she should move out.
