Christie: Progress against crime is being made in Camden

Not too long ago Camden had the dubious distinction of being labeled as the murder capital of America - and was considered to be the most dangerous city in the nation. Plenty of problems remain, but Gov. Chris Christie believes real progress is being made.

During a visit to a local public school Tuesday the governor praised local education officials for working together to solve problems, instead of finger-pointing and blaming each other.

"A cooperative spirit is turning things around in the city," he said. "You see the work that's going on with the metro police force and the extraordinary drop in crime that we're seeing because of that effort, we're seeing economic development announcements on a fairly regular basis, that's helping to bring jobs back to the city, and bring a sense of greater economic vitality."

Christie believes these things are happening because of a cooperative political environment which is putting aside partisanship.

"You can never take the politics out of this unfortunately. The question is whether or not you're going put aside the politics and work together, for what can be a common shared good. Unfortunately in other places we have people still playing the politics of yesterday, blaming and finger pointing," Christie said. "What we've had in Newark in particular, are people who are trying to undercut the success of the very schools they're sending their children to - with boycotts and other things, and politicians who are just trying to make a name for themselves off of that."

The governor said unfortunately "the interests of adults are being put ahead of the interests of children."

"We need to grow up and understand that as adults, those children are counting on us to put aside our differences and act like adults," Christie said. "They're doing that in Camden - it doesn't mean everyday is perfect and they don't have problems, but the spirit here is, how can we get to yes with each other, not how's a new way we can find a way to no."