CAMDEN – Wren Ingram is all over Fairview. In fact, she's such a fixture in the Camden neighborhood, her face is immortalized on a mural that decorates a church's exterior wall.

And on a warm Thursday morning, she's physically all over Fairview: on the grounds around Malandra Hall, to the edges of the marshes and woods, into the historic area's winding streets, around Yorkship Square.

She points out its beauty: Lush vegetation. Architectural details from a bygone era of home building. Old trees and babbling waterways. Public art like the mural that features her and others who've called Fairview home. 

But she points out a lot that isn't so pretty: The invasive species of plants that are overtaking Fairview's green spaces. Graffiti tags that mark the presence of gangs. Broken glass, food wrappers, empty liquor bottles and goose droppings littering the ground where children play. Abandoned homes that draw criminals and drug users.

She's complained to city and county officials. She and fellow members of the Fairview Neighbors even took Camden Mayor Frank Moran for a walk around the neighborhood on National Night Out, pointing out the problems they see in their streets, and asking the city for help.

Moran, in a separate interview with the Courier-Post a few days earlier, said he's heard residents, and is trying to address their concerns.

Sitting outside Malandra Hall, nestled alongside the Newton Creek and perhaps the city's most-utilized community center, Moran talked about a new playground under construction in front of the hall. With new equipment, renovated tennis courts and basketball courts, the playground is being built with Community Block Development Grant funds.

Residents told the city they wanted a new playground, Moran said, to replace an aging one behind the hall. 

"It was kind of out of sight, out of mind," Moran said, "and we wanted to place something out here where people could not only see their children and supervise them, but also see the park and hopefully take part in keeping it safe and clean."

In other neighborhoods, residents have been asked the same by Moran: At new parks in East Camden and downtown, he's issued calls to action for neighborhood associations to take ownership of the recreational spaces.

Neighborhood groups keep an eye on the parks, making sure no one is doing anything nefarious within its confines and calling police if they are; locking gates at dusk and unlocking them at dawn; and keeping tabs on litter and trash and alerting public works if they need to clean the park.

Ingram said she doesn't mind being part of the effort to keep the park safe; she's complained to city officials and police about the drug users who've populated the area around Malandra Hall and wants to ensure neighborhood kids have a safe place to play.

But, she said, there was no input from residents about the park.

"Look here, and here, and here," she said, pointing to asphalt and other hard surfaces.

"Impervious," she adds, a problem in a neighborhood prone to flooding. Basketball backboards are constantly being stolen or vandalized; new tennis courts, she worries, won't be used by inner city kids unfamiliar with the game.

Moran said the Camden Youth Athletic Association will begin introducing new sports including golf and tennis, so Camden's kids can enjoy the benefits of a wider range of sports, like their suburban counterparts.

One thing Moran and Ingram agree about is that Fairview has changed, and it needs help to get back to the tight-knit, working class community it once was. 

In his book, Camden Before the Fall, historian Howard Gillette writes that as the rest of the city declined, "Fairview was the neighborhood that changed the least."

Constructed as a planned community of Yorkship Village to accommodate shipworkers during World War I, the area became part of Camden in 1918, changing its name to Fairview in 1922. It retained its social as well as physical distinctiveness well into the late twentieth century.

But as its longtime homeowners aged, moved or died, their families, wary of Camden's reputation as a crime- and drug-ridden city in crisis, either sold homes to landlords who rented them to tenants but neglected the properties, or the houses simply fell into foreclosure and abandonment, both Ingram and Moran said. 

The lack of ownership, both literal and figurative, led to the issues Fairview residents now grapple with: blighted homes, still bearing their distinct historic architectural features; a school playground that burned, never to be replaced at Yorkship Family School; small waterways filed with trash; the square itself, dotted with vacant shops.

"I was born and raised here," said Moran. "And when I was a child, that saying 'It takes a village' was real. It wasn't just our parents who had authority, the neighbors had authority. We've lost that. It's 2019, not 1980."

But, Moran noted, "we do have a lot of folks instilling in our young people how to be that village, and how to be involved so we can protect the investments we're making today."

The feeling of community can be restored in Fairview, Moran believes, by giving residents reasons to get out and meet each other — and by mitigating the reasons they don't, like crime and gang activity.

Connect the Lots, the popular program that gets residents in the city's open spaces for everything from concerts to yoga to basketball, will extend its offerings in Fairview, and the city see potential for pop-up parks and activities in the neighborhood's many green spaces, Moran said. 

"We're not turning a deaf ear (to residents' concerns)," the mayor added. He recalled his conversations with Ingram and others on National Night Out and said Camden County Police also heard about drug dealing, use and gang activity.

"It's tough but I know we can rely on people like the late Dot Burley (a Fairview resident and activist) and others who won't throw in the towel, who are ready and willing to take ownership of their neighborhood."

One person who certainly hasn't thrown in the towel is Ingram, who's popped up with her dogs at city-sponsored events to get the attention of Moran and other officials. A 20-year neighborhood resident, she knows Fairview as well as anyone — and others in the neighborhood know her, too, waving, stopping to chat or commiserate, shouting a friendly word across the square.

She chatted with Simone Isley, Malandra Hall's site supervisor, as a couple dozen young children played on the run-down playground behind the community center. As the two women talked about the Fairview that was and the Fairview that is, they also imagined a Fairview that could be.

"There's so much green space here, more than anywhere else in the city," Ingram said.

"There's an incredible irrigation system under this building," Isley said. "They could put a splash pad like the one (at 4th and Washington Park downtown) right here."

"There's an amazing, incredible variety of wildlife: foxes, herons, eagles... We've seen it all here," Ingram said.


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