IN A DREAM I SAW A CITY INVINCIBLE - Walt Whitman

One of the nation's poorest cities---- in one of the richest states in the country.  A city where narcotics is the number one import / export commodity ---- a commodity that fuels an economy built on violence and desperation, and a political system mired in corruption and cronyism.  Here in the midst of all this wreckage, reign the drug kingpins and the political kingmakers ---- and the people in the city who live, work, pay and die according to their whims.

 

 Welcome to Camden

 

OVERVIEW:

Chase Street is the story of Camden, NJ, the county seat of Camden County, NJ. This is a story of a city abandoned -by the state, and its  local government. A city whose middle-class and wealthy suburban neighbors peer down from Ivory Towers, avoiding contact with its borders at all cost. A city whose residents are left to fend for themselves, within a vortex of drugs and political corruption. While Chase Street is the name of an actual street in the heart of a thriving drug area within the city – its meaning has origins whose implications are far reaching. Chase Street is the story of the politicians, and their unrelenting chase for power. It's the story of the hustlers, and their insatiable chase for the almighty dollar. It's the story of the every day resident of Camden, and their chase for the American dream ... a dream that always seems to be out of their grasp. These dynamics resonate in every inner-city throughout the country. Camden, NJ is its epicenter..... Welcome to Chase Street.

 

Like HBO'S acclaimed series, The Wire, Chase Street will focus on the players who move the city and its residents like pieces on a game board.  First, there is the local Kingmaker, Rose Fiori, who rules the city, and the rest of South Jersey politics with an iron fist from atop her perch in the Gallant building.  She is on the the chase: with a state takeover looming, Fiori wants to make sure that the Mayor, City Council, the Cops and the Housing, Parking and Development Authorities that administer the city's millions in aid are in her pocket.  When we open the series, Rose is on track: the former Mayor has been ousted and convicted, and his replacement, City Councilman and Acting Mayor Jorge "Bunny" Velez awaits in the wings.  Her next move is to get Camden's favorite son, former NBA player and Wall Street exec Aaron " Pooh" Best, first on City Council, and eventually into City Hall.  But Aaron has reasons to be reluctant: his half-brother Spark has a shady lifestyle; his mother is notoriously promiscuous; and although he's dating a prominent lawyer, he can't give up his East Side "side piece."  Still, Camden is home, and Rose's offer gives him a chance to serve the desperate city he just can't seem to leave.

 

But in Camden, politics is never a done deal, and Rose's best laid plans are about to be derailed.