Camden Mayor Says City About To Turn Corner ... No Seriously This Time

At a press conference outside of the historic RCA Building, which has been undergoing renovations for over five years, Camden, New Jersey Mayor Gwendolyn Faison said the city is about to turn the corner and eventually return its the glory days of the early 20th Century. Repeatedly during the press conference Faison asked reporters to hold down their laughter saying, "No, I'm serious."

For dozens of years the "Camden Turnaround" has been bandied about by lawmakers and business people on both sides of the Delaware River, but Faison said some recent developments have her believing the city is on the upswing.

"I'm sure you all saw the reports recently coming out of this city, and this really tells me things are changing for the better," said Faison. "We had a 44 pound cat walking the streets of Camden, now if you've got a 44 pound cat, things are good."

But Faison was quick to point out that changes are necessary if the city is to reach the front page of the paper for things other than obese felines and crime.

"The truth is we need to get more white people around here, but they're all too scared," she said. "There's more to Camden than an unaffiliated minor league baseball team or an aquarium or an amphitheater for a bunch of white folks to see Journey and Cheap Trick. OK, there's not much more, but there's more."

When asked what about future plans to draw more residents and tourists to the city, Faison said her office intends on drawing on help from what she called "our friends across the river, particularly Mayor Nutter."

Asked for comment on if and how his office planned on helping Camden and Faison, Philadelphia mayor Michael Nutter responded by saying "Where? Oh the place with the Excitement Aquarium or whatever? Yea sure, tell her to call my people."

Philly Gets Transformers 2, Camden Gets the GoBots

(Above: Early conceptual art for GoBots: The Movie © 2007)

An article on Camden and its western suburbs finding their place as locations for Hollywood motion pictures has appeared on the site of NJ Motion Picture & Television Commission. Amongst the many movies listed for using Camden as the location to shoot their materials, GoBots: The Movie is named by the article as possibly also shooting here.

The GPFO website (film.org) headed by Sharon Pinkenson dismissed the claims of a "rival robot transforming into a human vehicle" movie just across the river as just a rumor. She states, "We have a world renowned director in Michael Bay, a world renowned duo of young actors in Megan Fox and Shia Lebouf, and a franchise in Transformers that's loved by millions around the world. There's no time to speculate about the revival of a half rate children's franchise that aired on USA networks back in the 90's."

Unbeknownst to Pinkenson, the cartoon in fact aired in 1984-85, beating the original Transformers cartoon to the air and running for 66 episodes. As of yesterday morning, the only talent rumored to be attached to the rival robot action film is "Golden Girl" favorite, Bea Arthur as the voice of Crasher.