Trenton, New Jersey, in Top 25 Most Dangerous Cities

Here I sit writing this piece from the wonderful state of New Jersey! In this grand Garden State we have two of the top 25 cities noted for being most dangerous by the FBI survey list and one city named for being the safest in the country. According to Les Christie, CNNMoney.com staff writer, in recently published article, Top 25: Most dangerous and safest cities, Brick Township, is the safest city in the country, while Camden is ranked 4th and Trenton ranked 11th.

I happen to live in Trenton, I would love to say I am proud to be living here, sadly I can not say those words. Why is our city ranked one of the most dangerous? What was once a nice place to grow up has now become run down and crime infested. A little background on this city will make this all too clear what has happened to a once beautiful town to leave it like this.

There is a bridge that spans the Delaware River from Trenton, New Jersey to Morrisville, Pennsylvania that has in lighted letters, "Trenton Makes - The World Takes". In 1910, the Trenton Chamber of Commerce adopted this slogan since Trenton was one of the leaders in manufacturing of a multitude of goods, steel, rubber, wire rope among them. In 1911 the bridge was fitted with the letters to proclaim this fact to travelers.

My father in law, was born and raised in this city, his father worked for Roebling Wire Company. Most of the working men in this town worked for one of the large manufacturers and lived within walking distance of their employer. Roebling produced the steel wire cables that were used to build many of our countries bridges, which are still in use today. There was no shortage of work here in this town.

That is until the manufacturing industry was being outsourced to other states and countries because labor and materials were less expensive which brought the company's bottom line up instead of taking it down. As the demand for American products became less because their prices were so high manufacturing moved out of the city. The last manufacturing company to close its doors was GM, just a few short years ago. When this began to happen, unemployment went up little by little. At first it was not so noticeable, but now, many of the old buildings that once housed thousands of workers sit idle and empty. Skeletal remains of what used to be and no longer is.

Little by little the town began to change, as the manufacturing plants lost business and closed their doors, people moved away to find work. The entire area began to suffer slowly and painfully. Some families became desperate to find work elsewhere and when their home would not sell they would abandon it. Or worse when they could no longer afford the property taxes they would lose them to tax sales. The unfortunate part is that people did not realize or maybe they just did not care, that when one home is left boarded up there is no one to pay the taxes and it becomes every one else's debt as well.

Vagrants, drug dealers and gangs began to dwell in vacant and boarded up homes. Each bringing another set of problems to the already declining area, causing more to leave homes abandoned, driving taxes even higher. It is a vicious cycle that is sitting in limbo as to its certainty.

My husband has been a letter carrier in Trenton for over 20 years and I keep waiting for the Post Office to issue Kevlar vests to the workers. He sees young men and women that he has watched grow up turn to gangs and drugs. It saddens him when he hears or reads that one of the children who are now grown adults has been shot or over dosed. He has said so many times, it is not all because of how they are raised. A lot of these kids come from law abiding, loving homes. Some of it is what we have allowed our towns and cities to become. Not allowing the laws to be tightened and upheld more strictly. Criminals now think that jail is not harsh enough to keep them from wanting to steer clear.

This city needs true leadership that will be reactive to the occupants of the city and bringing it back from where it is now. Allowing law enforcement to enforce the laws and putting criminals where they belong, behind bars. Bring taxes back to within normal ranges, not like they are now. Taxes for a row home (semi) that sits on a piece of land approximately 17 feet wide and a few feet longer than the home itself now carries property taxes upward of $2200 a year, when just a few years ago it was just below $1000.

This town needs to get practical and take a long hard look at itself. Making changes will not happen over night but it can happen. It does not have to remain as it is but huge changes need to happen. Starting with crime, you can not hide a murder and with more of them happening on a daily basis people are starting to take notice and are looking for change. You can not clean up the city until you expose all of the dirty elements and get rid of them. It is going to take some real elbow grease and hard work to clean up Trenton, New Jersey, but it can be done.

Sources:
Les Christie, "Top 25: Most dangerous and safest cities", http://www.money.cnn.com/2006/10/30/real_estate/Most_dangerous_cities/index.htm

http://www.stanglpottery.org/trentonbridge.htm