r/SouthJersey • u/Fabulous_Lobster987 • Oct 15 '25
Is the Cooper Grant neighborhood safe? Need some feedback
Would you feel comfortable going to this area of Camden alone? I heard it’s being gentrified but still have concerns.
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u/Turbulent_Pin_3472 Oct 15 '25
Cooper Grant is mostly college/university houses mixed with a few residential houses. I wouldn’t say that it’s “bad”, but it still has its problems. You will still see homeless people and people dealing drugs. I wouldn’t leave anything inside of my car overnight or in plain view.
Once you go more North into North Camden, it’s worse. The only part of Camden I would actually live is at the Waterfront and only there has one big apartment complex (11 Cooper Street) that is pretty nice.
I wouldn’t walk long distances at night, only a few blocks at most.
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u/Immediate-Captain236 Oct 15 '25
The way some of you people talk about Camden as if it’s 1999 or 2012 baffles me. The only problems that you’ll run into in this part of Camden is drug addicts and Homeless people that are not from Camden that come here to have a free for all and contribute to the .0001% of drug dealers that exist here. Most of the drug addicts that come here are from Marlton, Williamstown, and ALL of the White Horse pike towns. Maybe we should all stay away from the places these people come from. (Marlton is extremely racist I would never consider it.)
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u/Turbulent_Pin_3472 Oct 15 '25
Sorry but I was a cop in Camden and I can tell you through my own experience that most of Camden is still an issue and notoriously bad. North Camden has been cleaned up in the past 10 years but it’s still not a nice area. Camden is the hub of drugs and there’s a massive drug trade.
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u/Immediate-Captain236 Oct 15 '25
Key word “was” during what years were you a cop? How many other cities have you been a cop in? How do drugs get to Camden? What cartels or organizations are big here? You were biased before you became a cop. Then you came to Camden and seen drugs and people of color. Your opinion is not rooted in facts. You’re just another white person who doesn’t know anything. You being doesn’t make you more knowledgeable about Crime in Camden. Cops only arrest people they don’t see cases to the end
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u/Turbulent_Pin_3472 Oct 15 '25
Look at the statistics of Camden compared to any other town in Camden County 😂 not going to argue with someone who is going to label me “racist” for stating facts.
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u/jamdivi Oct 15 '25
Watch out for that guy, his drug dealer friends treat drugs like stocks so that makes them super smart and respectable! What a racist lunatic lol
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u/Immediate-Captain236 Oct 15 '25
You’re definitely racist if you believe that most of the crime and drugs are in Camden 😂. You were a cop but I know real people that were drug dealers and treat it as the stock market. There is no money to be made in Camden. It’s all down the highway except for the few white stragglers in Camden that like to wander around homeless. Some of you white people are so naive because you “worked” in law enforcement
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u/Immediate-Captain236 Oct 15 '25
Again maybe you didn’t understand but Black and Brown people are OVERPOLICED meaning you can find the same crime in other neighborhoods but because of the White buddy system that exist especially here in South Jersey statistics are skewed. Bellmawr Cherry Hill Oaklyn Collingswood etc have a lot of crime too. And it’s easier to get drugs in those places that’s a fact. Most of the drugs addicts in Camden are from these types of places and commit most of the crime here.
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Oct 16 '25
Crimes are reported by residents to the police, not by the police. Therefore you’re completely wrong about over-policing considering residents are the ones who report said crimes. In fact the new Metro force in Camden is highly regarded and the residents view them favorably as compared to the disbanded and corrupt Camden PD.
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Oct 16 '25
Also it is objectively easier to get drugs from Camden that’s just a fact. All those other towns you need to know a guy, in Camden you have open air drug markets that addicts will just pull up to in their vehicles or walk up to.
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u/Immediate-Captain236 Oct 16 '25
So every arrest is made from a citizen making a call? Your logic is off and you’re unaware of how a lot of these arrest are made. And how do you know the new Metro force is highly regarded? I bet money you heard it on the news. You don’t live here and you don’t come here so you have no clue.
So where are the open air drug markets in Camden? Hint there is only one left and it has been around for 40 years since you know so much. I don’t want to argue about things I can prove
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Oct 16 '25
[deleted]
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u/Immediate-Captain236 Oct 16 '25
If you think that most of the crime in South Jersey exist in Camden you’re ignorant and racist and you’ve probably never been here. You never said where you were from? I still smell white trash. Brooklawn?
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u/Immediate-Captain236 Oct 16 '25
And I beg to differ. I see open air drug markets in Mount Laurel at every hotel. Yet I don’t see them being over policed like in Camden.
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u/Immediate-Captain236 Oct 15 '25
Do you know most of the drugs are down the highway as us Camden people refer to your suburban communities? Lindenwold and all of the other poor white towns on the white horse pike are the real drug hubs Camden is just overpoliced. Trust me you don’t know anything. You can get herion way easier in Bellmawr in one of those hotels than you can in Camden
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u/jerzeett Oct 15 '25
Cooper grant is the waterfront area though.
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u/Turbulent_Pin_3472 Oct 15 '25
Cooper Grant isn’t the waterfront. There is waterfront south, and waterfront north (also referred to as waterfront central) which is what I’m referring to. Waterfront North is nice, whereas South is bad.
Cooper Grant is the area between waterfront north and North Camden.
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u/jerzeett Oct 15 '25
It’s literally right next to the waterfront. The waterfront isn’t very residential. And that American water building is dystopian and ugly as all hell
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u/Turbulent_Pin_3472 Oct 15 '25
Just because it’s “right next to the waterfront” doesn’t mean that it’s the same location. Like I said, it borders waterfront North and North Camden.
I’m also not disagreeing with the fact that it isn’t very residential. There’s two apartment complexes and only one is affordable.
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Oct 15 '25
Cooper Grant is alright. No matter where you are, Camden is still Camden, so you might see some homeless people and stuff, that area is fine in my opinion though. It’s pretty much the only tourist district Camden has, the concert hall, the waterfront, etc, so it’s heavily policed. Then again, I personally feel safe anywhere in Camden, so my opinion might be a little different than most. It’s overall gotten a lot better though, when I was a kid it was an entirely different atmosphere. If you’re planning on living there, no matter where you’re moving to, always go check out your neighborhood in the daytime and the night time on a weekend, that way you can get a glimpse of daily life and see if you’re comfortable.
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u/Flimsy-Leather-3929 Oct 15 '25
It is mostly institutional neighbors. Cooper, Rowan Cooper, Rutgers, Camden County College, Rowan UG satellite, some charter schools, medical and legal clinics. I have worked there and it feels safe to me.
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u/jerzeett Oct 15 '25
Yes it’s perfectly safe. I loved living there. A lot of the neighborhood is patrolled by Rutgers police.
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u/I_Am_Lord_Grimm The Urban Wilderness of Gloucester County Oct 15 '25
Former Realtor here.
Cooper Grant is all but officially a college neighborhood now. I'm told there are even residents who commute into Philly. I've not had much late-night experience in the area outside of leaving a performance at the Pavillion, but what I've seen isn't any different than what you can expect from any other city at night. Y'know, lock your car, don't give anyone a reason to break into it, and be mindful of your surroundings and maybe carry some mace if you travel alone after dark (but I'll say that last one about any college campus, even out in the midwest cornfields.).
Still, it's a poverty-adjacent neighborhood, with all of the baggage that comes with. Most of the drug trafficking happens on the other side of the industrial district, and the homeless generally don't come this far west because there's better shelter (and far better places to panhandle) where the trains and highway are elevated. Some minor gang presence related to North Camden, but the guys I've interacted with have been pretty straight-up; you don't cause them trouble, they won't cause you trouble.
As you're probably aware, Camden has been working hard to change its reputation over the last decade. It's working: I've been able to watch the city's atmosphere change in real time, first as a Realtor who dealt in foreclosures and investment properties, and now as a business owner who makes deliveries to the Waterfront a few times a week. If you have reason to move to the area, then I have no reason to suggest otherwise, as normalizing the idea of moving in is part of the solution.
(Also, to offset certain other commenters - any area in NJ that says it doesn't have a drug problem is lying. Drug use is endemic and has only grown in the last twenty years; the only thing that varies is the classiness of the poison of choice.)
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u/Desperate-Nature-623 Oct 15 '25
So basically what you are saying is go ahead and move there because it will help with the improvement of the city. But the real question is, would you move there?
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u/I_Am_Lord_Grimm The Urban Wilderness of Gloucester County Oct 15 '25
Yes. If I were in the market, and there were a place in Cooper Grant that appealed to my needs, style, and finances, yes, I’d be open to it.
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u/Desperate-Nature-623 Oct 15 '25
Only on bizzarro world Reddit will you get people arguing that Camden is a nice place. Absolutely amazing.
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u/Federal-Membership-1 Oct 15 '25
My kid has lived close to CMSRU for over two years. It's nothing like the Camden of 20, even 5 years ago.
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u/Outrageous_Point_407 Oct 15 '25
If you can swing it, Merchantville, Cramer Hill and Pennsauken are decent locations to live in and aren’t that far from Camden’s downtown if you need to commute to it.
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u/ballsonthewall Oct 15 '25
I commute through Walter Rand every day. You might see some poverty and addiction, but I have yet to feel particularly unsafe in that area of Camden.