The Trenton Times published the following article on May 22, 2013. To read the full article, click here.

Trenton featured on Swiss television documentary about failing American cities

By Joyce J. Persico / For The Times 
on May 22, 2013 at 7:15 AM, updated May 22, 2013 at 9:47 AM

TRENTON — A Swiss television documentary that will be screened in the city tonight presents a stark portrait of Trenton as plagued by urban blight, pervasive drug use, ineffectual government and an understaffed police force.

Billed locally as “A Tale of Two Cities,” the short film offers comparisons of Trenton and Colorado Springs, Co., which have both struggled with funding shortfalls.

“The very first and strong impression we got was that the two cities seemed to be set in two different countries,” director Beatrice Bakhti said in an e-mail interview. “Colorado Springs, pretty, neat, clean and white. Very similar to a lot of Swiss cities.”

“When we arrived in Trenton, we very rapidly got lost and, within five minutes, a police car ordered us out of the area, saying we were in danger if we stayed there,” she said.

“So we instantly got the impression that we had arrived in a dangerous place, very different from the laid back and peaceful atmosphere of Colorado Springs. Trenton looked desolate, poor.”

The film shows how in Colorado Springs businessmen were able to turn local government around after residents pushed back against budget cuts that included turning off some of the street lights. Volunteerism, a street light and park “adoption” program, and cuts in personnel, benefits and public recreational areas helped bring change quickly, along with a new mayor who had more power.

In the Trenton portion of the film that was shot locally last July, Mark Kieffer, a police sergeant demoted as part of Mayor Tony Mack’s September 2011 cut of one-third of the city’s police force, talks about swimming against a tide of drug activity, gang and turf wars and not getting anywhere. Construction entrepreneur Tracey Syphax points to a bullet hole in the wall of his office. A man on the street who calls himself Desmond says, “I just live day by day. No police? I’m good.”

Federally indicted Mayor Tony Mack “systematically refused” to be interviewed by the filmmakers, the narrator states during the film.

In the documentary, Trenton looks like a kaleidoscope of dilapidated houses, lazy people and a handful of residents who are fighting back.

“In Switzerland, people were stunned by this report. They had never seen America in such a crude light, with little or no government involvement in major areas of its citizens’ lives,” director Bakhti said.

According to Bakhti, Europeans pay high taxes and “expect government to take care of its people.”

Bakhti and journalist Francoise Weilhammer found beacons of light in their research, among them North Ward Councilwoman Marge Caldwell-Wilson, A Better Way executive director Perry Shaw III and activist/blogger Michael Walker. The documentary shows how, in separate ways, each is taking on the multi-layered problems confronting Trenton one day at a time.

“I don’t want people to think of Trenton in a negative way but to see the hopefulness in it and for them to know that there is a way out,” Shaw said. “I worked in mental health and law enforcement and I saw the kids of some of the people who came through my doors. I’m doing this for them.”

Shaw and his father, Perry Shaw Jr., are shown in the documentary visiting their former home in the city and reacting to its state of disrepair. To illustrate A Better Way’s social service agency approach to changing the cycle of crime and poverty, the documentary visits a class in which the younger Shaw talks with former prisoners on how to approach a job interview. It also shows how he takes small teams of workers to tear down abandoned homes.

Caldwell-Wilson praised Shaw and pointed to him as an example of the people who are trying to turn the city around. In the film she is shown circulating in the Trenton community and taking a personal interest in neighborhoods where residents know her by name.

“The interesting thing is, after the documentary was shown on television in Europe, I got numerous e-mails from people in Spain, Switzerland and other countries,” she said. “It makes you want to cry out, ‘How can we change this?’”

Bakhti said people she met in Trenton were “kind and helpful” and “went out of their way” to help the European film crew do its work. She said the only thing they were not allowed to film was Trenton police on patrol because they could not get permission.

Asked what she hoped her documentary would accomplish, the director replied, “I hope the film has helped people here (in Europe) understand the issues Americans have to face and understand how these issues affect us, too.”

Caldwell-Wilson, who is described in the film as one of the few people willing to confront Mack, said, “Many times I felt like I was making a mistake,” in terms of her personal commitment of living in the Mill Hill section of town and serving on council. But she said she decided long ago that she was staying put and would help to make a difference.

Shaw’s A Better Way at 1040 Pennsylvania Ave. in Trenton will host the free showing of “A Tale of Two Cities,” followed by a panel discussion, tonight from 6 to 8 p.m. The documentary’s original title was, “Broken America: Back to the Wild West.” For more information on tonight’s screening,” call A Better Way at (609) 392-1224.