2014: Change and tragedy in South Jersey
If numbers tell a tale, two figures explain why Camden's changing fortunes were the top story of 2014.
One is $631 million — the amount of tax breaks granted by a state agency this year to lure more than 2,000 jobs to the impoverished city.
The other figure — 31 — represents the city' homicide total so far in 2014, down sharply from 57 a year ago and a record 67 in 2012.
Other categories of violent crime also have fallen since May 2013, when a newly formed Camden County Police Department began patrolling city streets.
While Camden's boosters acknowledge persistent problems remain — troubled schools; deep poverty; and entrenched joblessness, for instance — local officials ended the year in a celebratory mood.
"Camden's transformation is real and unstoppable," Mayor Dana Redd declared earlier this month, after the state Economic Development Authority approved tax credits of $118 million for Subaru of America and $40 million for Cooper Health System.
The two employers expect to bring about 950 jobs to Camden.
"We have seen crime contract, and now development and jobs are following behind the good work (of the county police)," said Freeholder Director Louis Cappelli Jr.
The 10-year tax breaks are available under a 2013 state law that offers lucrative incentives to firms moving jobs to Camden. The EDA this year approved tax credits for eight firms, with the largest award — $240 million — going to Holtec International, an Evesham firm that plans to build a factory in the city's port district.
Not everyone is happy with the changes, however.
Critics deride the tax breaks as excessive and ineffective. They note most jobs heading to Camden are existing positions and new hires are unlikely to come from the city's hard-core unemployed.
Skeptics also argue the crime picture has improved because the county department has about 400 officers. The former Camden Police Department — hit hard by cost-cutting layoffs and hampered by contract restrictions — had some 270 officers when homicides hit an all-time high two years ago.
In chronological order, South Jersey also saw these big stories in 2014:
• Bishop's move
Bishop Dennis Sullivan, leader of the Diocese of Camden, sparked a controversy with his decision to buy a $500,000 home in Woodbury at a time when Pope Francis was advocating a modest lifestyle and many local Catholics were chafing over cutbacks for parishes and schools.
A Courier-Post story on Jan. 3 noted the bishop, who was leaving an apartment at the St. Pius X Retreat House in Blackwood, would occupy a 6,000-square-foot mansion once the official residence of Rowan University's president. The diocese noted the house would also provide office space and host fund-raising events, and that Sullivan would share the house with other clergy.
• Losing hand in A.C.
The Atlantic Club folded in Atlantic City on Jan. 13, the first of many casino hotels to fall in a year-long losing streak for the resort city. Also going under — victims mostly of increased competition from nearby states — were the Showboat, the twice-bankrupt Revel and the Trump Plaza.
At year's end, Trump Taj Mahal was on the edge, with chief debt holder Carl Icahn demanding concessions from union workers to save the business.
At least 8,000 casino workers lost their jobs to the shutdown, with another 3,000 positions in the balance at the Taj. State legislators, meanwhile, were pursuing multiple plans to promote a comeback for the casino city's battered economy.
• Vacant homes
A state law signed by Gov. Chris Christie Jan. 21 allows Camden to tax parking facilities, providing funds to raze some of the 3,400-plus abandoned structures in the city. Throughout the year, the Courier-Post detailed the hazards posed by the city's long-vacant structures, considered a magnet for crimes and fires, among other problems.
The land-clearing project moved ahead in November, when the city got a bid from a Monmouth County firm to take down 62 buildings, and this month, when a Mercer County firm gave a low bid to raze 562 structures.
• Andrews out, Norcross in
Rob Andrews, a Haddon Heights Democrat, gave up his seat in Congress Feb. 18 after representing South Jersey since 1990.
Andrews, who took a job with a Philadelphia law firm, said he wanted to earn more money in the private sector for his two daughters' education expenses. He denied his exit was connected to an ongoing investigation by the House Ethics Committee into his campaign-spending practices, most notably a $30,000 family trip to Scotland in June 2011.
More:Rep. Donald Norcross sworn into office
The House seat in the heavily Democratic district remained vacant until a special election was held last month for Andrews' unexpired term. It's now held by Rep. Donald Norcross, a Camden Democrat and former state senator who also won a two-year full term that begins in January.
• Hanson takes wheel
John Hanson of Audubon was appointed CEO of the Delaware River Port Authority March 19, marking a top-level transition at a time of change and controversy. Hanson succeeds John Matheussen, who left the bi-state agency in January to become a New Jersey judge.
Among other problem areas, the authority's PATCO Hi-Speedline angered patrons with repeated delays and overcrowded conditions due to an ongoing track replacement project on the Ben Franklin Bridge. The authority also saw the departure of Inspector General Thomas Raftery and progress on long-delayed plans to open the Gateway Park along Admiral Wilson Boulevard in Camden and Pennsauken.
• Crash kills Katz
A private jet carrying Cherry Hill philanthropist Lewis Katz veered off a runway and burst into flames during a failed takeoff at a suburban Boston airport May 31. The crash killed Katz, an attorney-businessman who co-owned a Philadelphia newspaper firm, and six others.
Katz, 72, and three guests had flown with Susan K. Asbell of Cherry Hill and Marlton's Marcie Dalsey and co-pilot Bauke "Mike" de Vries.
While a final report is pending, federal investigators believe pilot error may have been a factor in the fiery crash. A flight check apparently was not conducted before the return flight and a locking system for the jet's elevators may have remained engaged during the takeoff attempt.
• Sheridan deaths a mystery
The Sept. 28 deaths of 72-year-old John Sheridan Jr., a prominent Republican who was Cooper's president and CEO, and his 69-year-old wife, Joyce, drew hundreds of mourners, including four governors, to a memorial service in a Trenton.
But the case also has fueled months of speculation over what led to their demise during an arson fire at their home.
Authorities last month labeled Joyce Sheridan's death a homicide, giving credence to a relative's account that the retired teacher was found with severe stab wounds. But officials assert a cause of death is "pending investigation" for John Sheridan, who was reportedly found with less severe stab wounds beneath a burning armoire.
The Somerset County Prosecutor's Office, drawing criticism for its tight-lipped approach, has offered few details about its ongoing investigation. Among its few disclosures, the agency has said the Sheridans' four adult sons are not suspects and that the couple's neighbors have no cause for alarm.
• Tabernacle tragedy
A troubled mother of four shot her three children, then took her own life, in a Nov. 20 rampage that initially went unnoticed by other family members in a Tabernacle home.
New Jersey State Police said 44-year-old Jeannine LePage fatally shot her children — Nadia, 8; Alexander, 11; and Nicholas, 14 — in a bedroom of their home on Holly Park Drive. Investigators said LePage, described as a recently laid-off nurse with financial problems, used a pillow to muffle gunshots in a house shared by nine relatives.
Nicholas and Nadia Harriman were found dead at the scene on the morning of the shootings. LePage died three days later and Alexander Harriman succumbed Nov. 26.
• Players on the move
Two baseball players, both local heroes, made news at opposite ends of their careers.
Mike Trout, the 23-year-old Millville native who found fame as a hard-hitting center fielder with the Los Angeles Angels, was named the American League's Most Valuable Player Nov. 19. The Millville Meteor was a unanimous choice of the Baseball Writers of America Association, after finishing second over the first two years of his pro career.
Jimmy Rollins, seeking another championship at age 36, accepted a Dec. 19 trade from the rebuilding Philadelphia Phillies to the Los Angeles Dodgers. J-Roll anchored the shortstop position for 15 years with the Phils, was the National League's Most Valuable Player in 2007 and helped the team win the World Series one year later.
