Destruction of the Camden NJ Club Scene and Government Overreach
Studme53
The 6-8 lane "Boulevard" took all eastbound traffic coming from Pennsylvania and especially Philadelphia coming over the Benjamin Franklin Bridge into New Jersey. Philadelphia is directly across the Delaware River from Camden so they are basically sister cities, with Camden being the smaller, grittier and sluttier sister.
The clubs, lined up in a half-mile along the eastbound highway included the Oasis "Harem Lounge", the French Quarter, the Admiral, Minnies, and the White House. All had their distinct attraction.
The Oasis was my favorite. As an 18 year old, which was the legal drinking age back then, I would go there with my buddies, and more shamefully and kind of obsessively, solo, many, many nights. The Harem dancers there were the by far the hottest and the Harem troupe would also rotate between the Riviera in nearby Pennsauken and Thee Dollhouse in Gloucester. I would also often drive between those 3 "Harem" clubs looking for my favorite dancers or looking for a new favorite among the multitudes of hot dancers.
The Oasis would also post the names of the 3 dancers on a marquee working that evening. My first all-time favorite was a young, impossibly tight blonde spinner named Persian. She drove distinct Corvette she parked out front and had an incredibly tight ass with bikini tan lines that looked glorious when she wore that skimpy g-string. I got to say, Persian, more than any other person, got me hooked on this hobby. If I saw her today, I wouldn't know whether to thank her or curse her. I'd probably thank her. If it wasn't her, it be some other ATF. I've had many.
The distinctive connected Oasis motel was also featured exterior shot in the movie 12 Monkeys.
There were no private dances or lap-dances back then, but the girls, and especially Persian, would walk around for tips and grind on you for tips. I never LDK'd, because it was such a short visit, but I probably came close. I was so young and naive that OTC wasn't even on my radar, so I'd just get very horny.
But that is where the other attraction of the Boulevard came in. It was also "the stroll" for a great number and variety of high caliber street walkers. It was part of the hooker "circuit" that including the booming Atlantic City, with burgeoning casinos and cash flush customers thanks to the recent legalization of casino gambling there, and the various strolls in Philadelphia.
The hookers ranged from skank to gorgeous. Unlike today, they weren't all drug addicts and they all dressed for attention. Almost all of them wore high heels or boots, tight dresses, short shorts, or something else that really intrigued me. The would crowd the Boulevard' s off-ramps, day and night, which made cruising around and looking at the offerings very easy and safe. Camden's cops didn't seem to care. They may have been paid off, apathetic, or busy elsewhere, but they were not cracking down on circling drivers.
I would get charged up at one of the go-go bars, usually the Oasis, and occasionally get relieved by one of the working girls with a very reasonably priced covered BJ. My standards were high in my mind. It had to be one of the better looking girls. It wasn't great or even good sex, by any means, but is was a means to an end. Mostly I would just look and if there weren't any girls on the street that looked really hot, I'd drive away.
This pervy monger's happy place all came to an abrupt end in 1999 when NJ Governor Christine Todd Whitman, no doubt a prude, decided she had to clean up the Boulevard for the 2000 Republican National Convention in Philadelphia. She couldn't have the delegates getting the wrong first impression about NJ LOL. She was also probably worried many of the delegates would be cruising the Boulevard.
The Delaware River Port Authority (DRPA), a Philly/NJ patronage pit that controlled all bridge toll revenue in the area, including at least 4 major toll bridges, was directed to buy up the go-go bars and property. They are a very cash-rich agency. I guess they made the owners offers they couldn't refuse. They reportedly spent well over $30 million (over $60 million in today's money) to acquire the go-go properties, a few seedy hotels, along with a few decrepit gas stations (which is where most the hookers parked or got dropped off and used as a home base), with at least an additional $10 million ($20 million today) on consultants, legal fees, land surveys, and hazardous waste clean-up (cum and used rubbers? lol).
Full disclosure, my favorite, the Oasis, had already burned down in 1987. Contrary to the joke my buddies would make, I was not there that night !
In amazing short amount of time, they demolished the properties, planted grass and built an asphalt walk way. They either chased the hookers away or they left on their own. The joke of it was the property was not open to the public because of soil contamination from old leaking gas tanks. Also the DRPA later had a scandal about the misuse of funds. They were so busy financing things that had nothing to do with the mission of running the bridges that they ran out of money to maintain them. Everyone was fired and all unrelated land acquisitions and enterprises were prohibited. I'm sure a lot of corrupt people made millions off the DRPA, but I don't think anyone went to jail. It's a Jersey/Philadelphia thing (puke).
Governor Christine Todd Whitman got appointed to an EPA cabinet position under George W. Bush, who won the 2000 Presidential election, but Camden lost a bunch of tax-paying businesses, exacerbating their already terrible financial situation. So good trade-off! (sarcasm).
The Admiral Wilson Boulevard is now just a boring highway. The hookers and go-go bars went away and are now just a memory. South Jersey is no longer a monger mecca.
Sometimes I drive down the Boulevard and get a chubby, but it quickly goes away, replaced by a tear in my eye. As Roy Batty said, "All these moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die."
Uhhh..the "time to die" part doesn't apply here, to be clear. I'm just quoting Roy.
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last commentMoved to the area in the mid-80s and traversed that area so many times. A period of my life when I wouldn’t even have considered hitting up the Gogo bars, much less picking up one of the ladies on the Boulevard. Hopefully, the money I didn’t spend, with accrued interest, defrays at least part of the current cost of the hobby