New PATCO Cards

Those who cross the Delaware on a regular basis may use PATCO to do so. Be aware that a new card system is in the works. The cards are supposed to last years and money can be added via a credit card system similar to EZPass or by stopping at a card machine in a station and adding money on (similar to Washington's METRO but with more permanent cards).

See this story from Connections for more details.

Big Orange Boat

There was a big orange boat anchored smack in the middle of the river today around noon. I've never seen a boat quite that color before.

Annual Summer Writer's Conference

Rutgers Camden is holding its 20th annual summer writer's conference.

The 2006 Summer Writers' Conference features evening readings by the staff members and students. These affairs with refreshments begin at 7pm and are free and open to the general public.

Tuesday, June 20 in the Octagon Room, Campus Center: Lev Raphael and Moira Crone
Wednesday, June 21 in the Faculty Lounge, 3rd Floor Armitage: Rachel Hadas and Lisa Zeidner
Thursday, June 22 in the Faculty Lounge, 3rd Floor Armitage: Sidney Wade and Joe Barbarese
Friday, June 23 in the Faculty Lounge, 3rd Floor Armitage: Peter Murphy and Danielle Trussoni
Monday, June 26 in the Octagon Room, Campus Center: Percival Everett and Owen King
Tuesday, June 27 in the Octagon Room, Campus Center:Lauren Grodstein and Tom Bissell
Wednesday, June 28 in the Octagon Room, Campus Center: Students from the program

Walking Along the River

I've been walking with a friend a fews times a week lately. There is a red brick walkway along the river. We've been tracking some families of ducks. One day the ferry left just as we came by and we heard the horn. The Spirit of Philadelphia cruises along regularly. Some days it is nice just to sit on a bench and listen the waves and the gulls. Walk past the marina and you can hear the ropes and moorings creak. We're by no means the only ones and often pass other walkers, singly or in groups, along with the schoolchildren by the aquarium. Definitely a nice break in the middle of the day.

Rutgers-Camden Technology Campus in the News

Peter Gold has a great commentary in today's Inquirer, "Creating jobs in a job-hungry city." In it he points out:

Currently home to 50 businesses (35 on-site and 15 virtual tenants), the incubator has netted exceptional economic development results during the last three years.

Located in a city hungry for jobs, these businesses provide more than 155 well-paying positions, producing a combined payroll of $6 million.

The average annual wage of an employee in the incubator is $38,000, well above Camden's median household income of $24,612.

When adjusted for the value added by the services provided by the incubator, the average wage of an employee of an incubator company rises to almost $49,000.

These are jobs that otherwise might not have come to Camden.

The incubator companies also have generated almost $6 million in mostly private-sector investment. Four companies have graduated from the incubator setting and are now outside Camden but still in the Philadelphia region, where they pay taxes, purchase goods and services, and contribute to the economy.

Cool!!

Johnson Park

If you, like me, walk past the Walt Whitman Cultural Arts Center and wonder what is going on with all the fencing and construction equipment, wonder no more. There is a website devoted to the renovation of Johnson Park, named after Eldridge R. Johnson, founder of the Victor Talking Machine Co.

There are pages giving history, photos, renovation information, and so on. When completed the fountains and statues (including the Peter Pan statue) will be restored. Interesting stuff.

Missing Monday

It's the first Monday of the month -- Missing Monday in the regional blogosphere. Participating bloggers highlight a missing person's case. More info here.

JOSE SAMUEL ORDONEZ
Case Type: Endangered Runaway
DOB: Mar 15, 1988 Sex: Male
Missing Date: Feb 19, 2006 Race: White/Hisp
Age Now: 18 Height: 5'9" (175 cm)
Missing City: HAMILTON Weight: 190 lbs (86 kg)
Missing State : NJ Hair Color: Black
Missing Country: United States Eye Color: Brown
Circumstances: Jose was last seen on February 19, 2006. He may still be in the local area.

South Jersey Tourism Corp.

From today's Inquirer, "More than the Shore," by Tom Belden, an article describing the South Jersey Tourism Corp.

Her little-known three-year-old agency is charged with attracting visitors to the Camden waterfront, the Pinelands preserve, burgeoning retail development, and dozens of historic sites and quaint towns in five southern New Jersey counties along the east bank of the Delaware River.

later

For history buffs, the tourism agency this year created a tour of Camden landmarks associated with its most celebrated 19th-century resident, Walt Whitman. The agency points out that two river towns, Burlington City and Salem, which have their own tourism-promotion efforts, were founded before Philadelphia was in 1682 and offer tours of their historic districts.

Betsy Ross Moves to Jersey

According to the May 28, 2006 Life magazine:

Annin & Co, in Roseland, New Jersey, is the biggest flag-maker in the U.S., churning out more than 10,000 types of flags and related products.

A Walk Along the Delaware River

Lately I've been walking two afternoons a week with a friend. We stroll down to the river and up along the riverwalk, past the fisherman, the aquarium, and the battleship. The red brick provides a path to follow. The river has been beautiful in different ways on different days, some days dark and choppy, others glass and calm. There are gulls all along the way, and crowds of schoolchildren by the aquarium and the battleship. If we need to stop for a minute there are benches here and there. A water fountain in the battleship gift shop provides refreshment. It is a lovely way to exercise and get some fresh air.

Rutgers Camden Women's Softball NCAA Division III Champs

The Rutgers Camden Lady Raptors are the 2006 NCAA Division III champions after defeating two-time defending national champion St. Thomas on May 22nd. Details and photos here.

Restaurant Review: Ron Do's Kitchen

Today I stumbled across a new eatery in Camden, Ron Do's Kitchen (319 Friends St.), right across the street from the parking lot by the Business and Science Building on the Rutgers Campus. The menu features seafood, chicken and turkey, and ribs, as well as side dishes and individual servings of what looked to me like homemade cakes and pies. They have lunch and dinner specials of the day. There is outdoor seating. Hours extend to 10 p.m. Monday - Thursday and later on Friday and Saturday nights.

I had a lunch special, 3 chicken wings and 2 sides, plus a soda, for a little over $5.00. The wings were fabulous, a light seasoned breading so you have some crispy crunch but not too much, and enough taste to be interesting but not overpowering. The chicken itself was good. They cook it to order, though, so be prepared to wait a few minutes or call ahead and order.

For the sides I had macaroni and cheese and potato salad. The mac'n'cheese was not my preferred style. It was baked and the chef uses the small elbow noodles. The potato salad, though, was very good. Most restaurants will serve up tiny pieces of potato smothered in mayo. Here, you have potato pieces big enough to taste, seasonings, and assorted other finely chopped vegetables to round things out. Not a midwestern potato salad, not a cajun potato salad, but an excellent potato salad in its own right.

The roll that came with the meal was not perhaps the best but including it is a sign of class. They remembered the fork, too, which some places don't with carryout.

A co-worker has been there twice and recommends the turkey wings. She agreed with me on the mac'n'cheese but highly recommends the collard greens.

The indoor seating area is nicely decorated, with some interesting architectural features. One part of the main wall has been pulled back to the brick and is framed by molding. There are magazines neatly arranged if anyone wants to read and a tv if you care to watch. (Trivia: John Cleese is a lemur supporter and has had a kind of lemur named after him -- "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" or whatever it is called now, was on while I waited for my chicken.)

I will be going to Ron Do's again.

Reunion on the River

This Saturday, May 20th, Rutgers Camden alums will be attending the Reunion on the River 2006: "Carnival on Campus."

The year 2006 will mark an exciting change in the Reunion schedule. Activities and events will be held throughout the day and will include speakers, performances, exhibitions, tours, and receptions, leading up to the evening party and traditional festivities.

For the first time in several years, Reunion 2006 will be held on our beautiful campus and under connected carnival tents, adding to our campus-wide tradition of Commencement - Reunion Week.

details here.

Restaurant Review: Crossroads Cafe

Right across from the Adventure Aquarium, at 2 Riverside Dr. is the Crossroads Cafe. It is a cafeteria style restaurant. You can select from the salad bar, soups, featured entree, hot grill, and pizza, as well as cold sandwiches (tuna and egg salad, for example). There are also desserts and beverages available. The pizza is especially good but the salads and soups are as well. All of the featured entrees I've had (or friends have had) are excellent. The rolls that come the soup/salad are HUGE! Pizza and a soda will run you around $3.00, the featured entrees (often ethnic in nature) are more expensive. In seasonable weather there is outdoor seating. It is not open on weekends at present, though this may change.

Rutgers Camden Women's Softball

From Rutgers Camden:

During the past weekend, the women's softball team made Rutgers-Camden history by winning the NCAA Division III East Regional title and advancing to the NCAA finals with a 5-0 victory over second-seeded Rowan on Sunday, May 14.

The Scarlet Raptors, now ranked third in the nation by the National Fastpitch Coaches Association, will face off against Ramapo College in the first round of the NCAA finals at Peace College in Raleigh, NC, at 11 a.m. Friday, May 19.

Read details here.

Stained Glass Window Tours

On May 13 and June 10, you can take a tour of downtown Haddonfield churches with a noted stained glass expert. Meet at 10:00 a.m. at the Baptist Church on 124 Kings Highway. Might make a nice Mother's Day activity......

They'll Stop Harping On It This Sunday

The grand finale of the Ritz' Theatre Company's three part "Master of the Celtic Harp" series is this Sunday, May 14, at 7 p.m., at the Ritz Theatre, 915 White Horse PIke, in Haddon Township. details.

Mall Decor and Its Effects on Spending

Maureen Morrin, as associate professor of marketing at the School of Business -- Camden and Jean-Charles Chebat, professor of marketing and chair of retailing at HEC -- Montreal have teamed up to study what makes you spend, or not, at the mall.

Recent research by marketing scholars at Rutgers University—Camden and HEC-Montreal suggests that interior décor at a mall, especially involving color schemes, plays a critical role in determining shoppers’ perceptions of quality, not only of the mall itself, but also of the products sold there.

[The study] also finds that different subcultures do not perceive quality in the same way. For instance, French-Canadians had higher perceptions of product quality when the mall décor consisted of a warm color scheme. On the other hand, Anglo-Canadians found higher quality when the décor consisted of a cool color scheme.

The full press release is here. So that greenery is not there just to improve the environment or indoor air quality. How crafty! The research will be published in a forthcoming issue of Journal of Service Research, with the title "Person-Place Congruency: The Interactive Effects of Shopper Style and Mall Atmospherics on Consumer Expenditures".

Morrin and Chebat have also studied the effect of sound and smell on shoppers' spending behaviors. For example,:

In a survey of 774 shoppers at a large retail center in suburban Montréal, Maureen Morrin, an associate professor of marketing at Rutgers-Camden, and Jean-Charles Chebat, a marketing professor at HEC Montreal, found that impulsive shoppers – characterized as those who make unplanned purchases more often than so-called contemplative buyers – spend more when pleasant music is playing in the background.

Contemplative shoppers, on the other hand, tend to spend more money when a pleasant odor is in the background.

In 2004 an article Morrin co-authored with S. Ratneshwar, "Does It Make Sense to Use Scents to Enhance Brand Memory?" published in the Journal of Marketing Research (40 #1, 2003,pp. 10-25) received the Bright Idea in Marketing and Brands Award from NJPRO/Seton Hall, 9/2004.

New Waterfront Condos in Camden

According to the Inquirer (Dwight Ott, "Dranoff to rehab 2nd Camden site, May 4th):

Camden's downtown took another major step forward last night when the city's Redevelopment Agency authorized a second project by Dranoff Properties Inc. - a $25 million waterfront condominium building.

The panel unanimously authorized Philadelphia developer Carl Dranoff to rehabilitate the former RCA No. 8 factory into 86 condominiums, with commercial space on the first floor.

The condos, which would cost around $250,000, would be two blocks from the river. They are scheduled to be complete at the end of 2007.

Missing Monday

On the first Monday of each month area bloggers highlight a missing persons case. Danielle Nichole Nottingham, who would now be 17, ran away from Princeton, NJ, on January 11, 2003. She is 5' 6" with brown hair and brown eyes and is considered an endangered runaway. She may be in the Camden or Trenton area of New Jersey. She has pierced ears and a scar under one of her shoulder blades. When Danielle was last seen, she had braces on her teeth. Danielle may be in need of medical attention. She may use the alias last name Spivey. Her nickname is Dani.