Anthony Mazzarelli, 29 and a resident at Cooper University Hospital, gushes about his waterfront apartment and trying to lure his Philadelphia college friends over the river.
For now, the movement involves just a few dozen people, but it could hold significant ramifications for a place long challenged by weak or corrupt leadership.
"We're young enough and naive enough to be excited about things," says Erica Claggett, 26, the new president of the Cooper-Grant Neighborhood Association. "We have different perspectives because we didn't grow up here."
Some longtime city leaders say it is a perfect match between fresh eyes and a small, troubled city.
"I think, over time, these people are going to form the nucleus of the new leadership of Camden, particularly the civic leadership," says waterfront leader Thomas Corcoran, 60, who has a residency requirement for his mostly young staff at the Cooper's Ferry Development Corp.
"That's what the city needs - young, independent-minded people who aren't going to accept the system the way it has been."
Over the years, Camden had attracted a trickle of young urban pioneers. Now a growing number appear to be staying put instead of moving on.
The movement is most pronounced in Cooper-Grant, a tiny, renewed neighborhood between the waterfront and Rutgers University that has the highest concentration of new young professionals in Camden.
Just ask activist Frank Fulbrook, 55, who spent almost 20 years as neighborhood president until Claggett unseated him last fall in a 25-24 vote.
"Some of the yuppies are extremely arrogant," Fulbrook says. "They don't have much respect for those of us who took Cooper-Grant from rock-bottom in 1981 and made it the best neighborhood in Camden prior to their arrival."
