Makeshift memorials would be cleared after 15 days. Is that enough time to honor the dead?

At the corner of Harrison Avenue and East State Street in Camden, a collection of stuffed animals, love letters, and more than five dozen candles weathers the snow and rain in memory of Nerreada Robles.

Before she was struck and killed by a police cruiser earlier this month, the 17-year-old was preparing for graduation and her future after high school. Now, those dreams are but a memory. All that remains are her family’s grief and the makeshift memorial they erected in her name.

“We’ll always keep a candle on for her,” said Roble’s great-aunt Brenda Carter. The memorial display on the side of the road where her niece lost her life brings the family comfort, she said. It reminds them of her vibrant spirit. It’s a salve for their loss.

In Camden, where violent death is all too common, makeshift memorials are scattered across the city. Soon, though, they may be short-lived. City Council is considering a measure that calls for such displays to be dismantled and removed after 15 days.

To some, that seems all too cruel. There is no timeline for grief. But City Councilman Angel Fuentes, who proposed the time limit, said memorials left in place too long mar the landscape, potentially lowering property values and serving as an unwelcome reminder of near-constant violence.

The 15-day limit he suggested was introduced earlier this month and will be considered for a final vote March 12, when city leaders will also discuss ways to permanently honor those who lost their lives to violence.

“When I talk to some of the residents they are concerned about property values and their quality of life," Fuentes said. “That’s why I said 15 days, so that they [relatives of victims] go through that period of loss and grief. Then we can make good change for this community.

“These memorials have been accumulating throughout the city and it’s unsafe,” he said.

This is not the first time New Jersey has tried to regulate memorials. In 2016, the State Assembly approved a bill that would have established a roadside accident memorial program to be overseen by the Department of Transportation. But the measure stalled in the state Senate. In an email, the DOT said it works with state and local police to decide if a memorial on a state highway is a “danger to the public because of its location” and if the memorial is determined to be a hazard, it will be removed.

If approved, Camden’s measure would be the state’s first law to formally regulate roadside memorials, said Frank Marshall, staff attorney for the New Jersey League of Municipalities. He said some towns may control these displays through “some other means” such as litter laws.

Walking through his Cramer Hill neighborhood, on a recent day, Fuentes counted three memorials along 26th Street between Pierce and River Avenues.

When a man was struck and killed by a pickup truck outside his home last June, Fuentes said, his family and friends quickly put up a display of crucifixes, flowers, and even empty beer bottles.

“We thought maybe it would be there for a couple of days,” Fuentes recalled. “But it was ongoing."

Residents were afraid to take down the memorial or call the city to haul it away because they feared backlash from the victim’s family, he said. After hearing concerns from some of his neighbors, Fuentes knocked on doors in his neighborhood and asked people what they thought. Some confided that they worried the display would lower their property values. Others said they were concerned that the enduring reminder of death could have a traumatizing effect on neighborhood children. “I don’t think it’s fair for children growing up,” one resident said.

“People want their quality of life to be respected,” Fuentes said. So he decided to act.

His plan has not been well-received. Critics say the city should be working to lower crime, not focused on getting rid of the symbols of the violence.

Nyzia Easterling, a Camden activist and founder of Saving Grace Ministries, an agency that helps children who have lost a parent to violence, said “15 days is not long enough” to memorialize the dead.

“The true narrative is that we are an impoverished, crime-filled city," she said. “If you’re not going to get to the root of the issue or be there for families, how are you going to put a number on how long our memorials can stay out there?”

Easterling lost her husband to gun violence 15 years ago. James T. Brown was closing up for the night as the bouncer of a Camden bar on Broadway and Viola Street when he was shot 18 times by two teenagers taking part in a gang initiation. Every year on April 14, Easterling places a memorial at the spot where her husband was killed and removes it after a month.

“Every death anniversary, I’m going to put a memorial out there again because his murder still isn’t solved,” she said.

Sister Helen Cole, executive director of Guadalupe Family Services, has been consoling families affected by Camden’s violence for more than 20 years. In an email, she said she hopes the city will research what other states have done to regulate memorials and consider the feelings of those who have suffered tremendous loss. The memorials are placed with a purpose.

"It is a sacred place where that person breathed their last breath and met God face-to-face. There is no timeline for the end to grief,” said Cole. “If I had to choose an end time for memorials, it would be two years.”

Milwaukee has been regulating memorials since 2006. The displays are allowed to stay for 30 days and can then be removed by public works employees.

To ease tension between victims’ families and city officials over those rules for such displays, local activist Camille Mays created the Peace Garden Project MKE in 2015. In place of hastily assembled groupings of teddy bears, candles, and bottles, Mays works with families to plant permanent “peace and love” gardens with perennials and hand-painted rocks.

“When city officials would go to remove memorials, they would run into trouble with the families and police would get involved,” said Mays. “By planting perennials in place of memorials, we respect the families and community members because it’s not about the person who passed. It’s about the family members who have been left behind and the community who needs to heal from these traumas."

In Camden, Fuentes and other members of City Council recognize the sentimental value of memorials, but worry that the city is overwhelmed by them. Fuentes said he is aware of at least 12 memorials. But there may be more since Camden saw 22 murders and 13 vehicular deaths in 2018, said Dan Keashen, a city spokesperson. This year, there have been four homicides.

Andreas Sandoval, who lives near the memorials on 26th Street, is in favor of Fuentes’ proposal — as long as residents are allowed a say.

“I understand what the councilman is trying to do,” he said. “I think it’d be great. It’s just that we have to see what the community wants.”

City leaders hope for public input next month.

Councilwoman Sheila Davis has suggested creating a permanent memorial, with a park bench engraved with the names of victims.

“We have to have that very hard, very true conversation,” said Davis. “I feel your pain, I feel for your loss. Now it’s just finding that balance.”

Staff writer Melanie Burney contributed to this article.