I shall continue to voice my opinions until the day I stop breathing. For many years I have been involved in our community. First as a Concern Citizen then as your Mayor. I am presently very concerned with the direction our beloved city is heading.
There are more businesses leaving out town than there are coming into Gloucester City. Over the last several years, we have gone from a proud hard-working, blue-collar, middle-income community to a none-working low income town.
Who can we blame for this?
Partly, it has evolved from a one-party system that has been in charge for the last 40 years. This is not the only reason for the decline of Gloucester City. It has also been the public attitude of accepting things the way they are without questioning the decisions made by your local government.
We no longer have citizen involvement in our neighborhoods. Our elected officials are responsible for decisions that affect the quality of life in our community. They are not responsible to any political party before the citizens.
It is my opinion that party politics have done more to hurt Gloucester City than it has helped us. From the first day I was elected as your Mayor, I have pushed for a system that would allow people to run for local government without declaring a party. Today in New Jersey, 88 communities have adopted this non-partisan form of local government that allows good, concerned and local community leaders to run on a platform that allows them to campaign on their ideas of how they would change things that would improve their community-putting Gloucester City first.
We must do this if we ever expect our Gloucester City to become the best it can be.
Former Gloucester City Mayor Robert S. Bevan