From Cherry Hill to Camden: More than just trash

by Lori Braunstein on Feb 20th | Email

This post is a follow up to my last, “Is Justice a Naughty Word?”.

We all want a safe, healthy place to grow up

Yesterday, I received this poignant email from a Whitman Park resident of Camden, who was at the Camden County Freeholders meeting with me on Tuesday night.  I often think about the trash and sewage that flows from Cherry Hill to Camden, but I never really thought about the drug and prostitution customers that follow that same path.  We are, indeed, intimately connected…

Dear Lori,

I attended the Freeholders meeting last night as well, as a  Board member

of DCCB IV in the Whitman Park neighborhood in Camden.  I want to take

this opportunity to applaud your efforts at educating people regarding

environmental justice and supporting Camden’s DCCB’s.


I was born, raised and educated at Saint Joseph’s Polish in Camden. My

husband and I purchased our home in Camden to  be close to my mother

(who is now 97) and has lived in our neighborhood since 1950!

We have great neighbors from all different walks of life

ranging from potential Olympic gymnasts to aspiring musicians, nurses,

teachers and construction workers.  All working hard to make ends meet and

struggling to bring up their families in a safe and loving environment.


It is high time everyone spoke out against social, economic and

environmental injustice and supported the majority of people in this City

who really are great neighbors!  We see everyday  the devastation that

drugs have created in out streets and how many lives have been senselessly

ruined .  Yet most of the faces I see buying the drugs are not faces from

the neighborhood, but clean -cut suburbanites in their SUV’s and sports

cars.  Recently, using our DCCB website, I reported a young blond woman

(with a baby in the back seat of her car!) stopping on our street to make

her purchase from the local drug dealers.  We are all interconnected in

more ways than we realize. Only through more socio-centric approaches and

less ego-centric focus will we be able to improve and flourish as a

society with a conscience.


Once again, thank you for your support!


Whitman Park resident

DCCB IV