New Jersey Future Blog
Introducing Jersey Water Works!
December 15th, 2015 by Elaine Clisham
At the inaugural New Jersey Urban Water Conference on Dec. 10, 2015, a steering committee of thought leaders from a variety of sectors concerned about inadequate water infrastructure jeopardizing the long-term health and economic vitality of New Jersey’s cities and towns, announced the establishment of a new collective entity: Jersey Water Works. Jersey Water Works is, according to its purpose statement, “a cross-sector initiative focused on transforming New Jersey’s inadequate urban water infrastructure by investing in sustainable, cost-effective solutions that provide communities with clean water and waterways; healthier, safer neighborhoods; local jobs; flood and climate resilience; and economic growth.” It is a true collaborative, with members representing a wide variety of interested organizations and viewpoints and independent leadership from its steering committee. Read the rest of this entry »
Workshop Focuses on Helping Coastal Communities Confront Climate Risks
December 15th, 2015 by David Kutner
Word cloud highlighting key issues at the Consensus Building Institute’s coastal adaptation workshop.
New Jersey Future was invited to participate in a coastal adaptation workshop on Dec. 11, 2015, hosted by the Consensus Building Institute, a non-profit organization based in Cambridge, Mass. CBI works with public and private, government and community representatives and leaders from around the world to broker agreements, negotiate conflict and build collaboration. The workshop assembled approximately 30 invited participants from across the country who work in federal and state agencies, educational institutions, non-profits, community organizations and the performing arts. Read the rest of this entry »
Can New Jersey’s Older Residents Afford Their Housing?
December 8th, 2015 by Elaine Clisham
A new report released today by New Jersey Future takes a municipality-by-municipality look at the issue of housing affordability for the state’s older residents, and finds that in many places, older residents suffer significant housing cost burdens.
The report, Housing Affordability and Aging-Friendly Communities, identifies two primary types of places where high percentages of older residents have difficulty paying their housing costs: Read the rest of this entry »
New Jersey Gets a D+ on New Climate Preparedness Report Card
November 19th, 2015 by Elaine Clisham
A new report card, States at Risk, that grades each of the 50 states on how prepared they are for future severe weather and climate change, gives New Jersey a D+, and faults it particularly for the absence of future-oriented plans to address flooding and extreme heat.
By contrast, all of New Jersey’s neighboring states received a B+ (Delaware) or better; New York and Pennsylvania each received an A. All Northeastern coastal states except Maine received higher grades than New Jersey. Read the rest of this entry »
Report: Fiscal Implications of Development Patterns on Road Usage
November 10th, 2015 by New Jersey Future staff
This article was written by Chris Zimmerman of Smart Growth America.
For a new report released Nov. 10, New Jersey Future teamed up with Smart Growth America to examine the relationship between residential and employment density and per-capita road usage, and to consider how much state, county and municipal governments in New Jersey could save on road maintenance bills by building in more compact ways.
The Fiscal Implications of Development Patterns: Roads in New Jersey analyzes the relationship between road infrastructure needs and population and employment density. It found that as density increases, per-capita road needs decrease, suggesting in turn that there are road-maintenance savings to be realized if the distribution of New Jersey’s population and jobs could be made even incrementally more dense and compact. Read the rest of this entry »
New Jersey Future Celebrates George Pruitt
November 3rd, 2015 by Peter Kasabach
Former Governor Kean, Trenton Mayor Jackson praise pioneering educator
L to R: New Jersey Future Executive Director Peter Kasabach; former New Jersey Gov. Tom Kean; George Pruitt; and New Jersey Future founding trustee Ingrid Reed.
At a reception on the evening of Oct. 29, 2015, New Jersey Future honored Dr. George Pruitt, president of Thomas Edison State College, for his dedication to higher education and to the revitalization of Trenton’s downtown area. Scores of officials and supporters attended the event, which took place in the majestic and scenic setting of the Ellarslie mansion in the Frederick Law Olmstead-designed Cadwalader Park.
Rebuild By Design Resiliency Projects: A Status Update
October 28th, 2015 by Elaine Clisham
New Jersey Future’s comments on both stress the need to adopt climate projections, engage communities
Rendering of the New Meadowlands Rebuild By Design project.
New Jersey Future recently submitted comments on two proposals related to New Jersey’s multi-million dollar Rebuild By Design projects, which are intended to make the Meadowlands and Hudson River shoreline areas more disaster-resilient.
The New Meadowlands project is the target for additional funding in the state’s final-round application to the federal National Disaster Resilience Competition, which proposes construction of a berm as a flood-protection measure. The Hudson River project Resist, Delay, Store, Discharge, which provides a multi-pronged strategy to manage stormwater in and around Hoboken, is the subject of a draft scope of work for engineering services. New Jersey Future submitted comments on the draft final-round NDRC application, and on the draft scoping document for the Hoboken project.
Several common themes emerged in both sets of comments and recommendations:
- Both initiatives should adopt a set of sea-level rise projections through 2075 and 2100, since the useful life of the proposed infrastructure is at least 50 years, and both initiatives should select projects based on a comprehensive cost-and-benefit analysis over that time period;
- In addition to employing floodwalls or berms to address more severe coastal flooding, both initiatives should incorporate green-infrastructure techniques that can mitigate the recurring nuisance flooding that happens after regular rainstorms;
- Both initiatives should make greater efforts to engage with, vulnerable populations — for example, the elderly, those with limited English proficiency, and the disabled — to ensure that their needs are addressed in the projects.
Both projects are on a fast track to allow them to meet federal deadlines for the obligation and expenditure of funds. They can be followed on the state Department of Environmental Protection’s flood hazard program page.
Are Towns in a Better Position to Make Long-Term Resiliency Decisions?
October 27th, 2015 by Elaine Clisham
Report Examines Model Framework for Local Disaster Resiliency Planning
A new report from New Jersey Future examines the origin and outcomes of a groundbreaking approach to helping communities take steps to make themselves more resilient to natural disasters. The approach, based on FEMA’s recommended National Disaster Recovery Framework, was piloted by New Jersey Future in six Sandy-affected communities. The report summarizes the lessons learned from those engagements, and discusses recommendations for replicating the approach effectively in other post-disaster situations.
“Over the last two years we’ve learned that the risks people are willing to take are high if it means remaining in their homes and community,” said New Jersey Future Executive Director Peter Kasabach. “We also learned that when presented with a thorough analysis of vulnerability and future risks that reflects the specific characteristics of their community, residents in coastal areas are willing to envision the sometimes considerable changes that will be needed to improve their long-term health and safety.”
He added, “One of the keys to this process being successful is being able to spend the necessary time understanding the local community and building trust with leaders and participants, and then engaging with them over an extended period of time.” Read the rest of this entry »
NJ Spotlight on Cities: Successful Development Requires a Community’s Blessing
October 26th, 2015 by New Jersey Future staff
This article is written by Sonia Schnee, video production and outreach coordinator for CivicStory, where the article originally appeared.
Left to right: Paul Silverman of SILVERMAN; Ron Beit of RBH Group; Christiana Foglio-Palmer of Community Investment Strategies, and moderator Peter Kasabach of New Jersey Future. Photo by Amanda Brown, NJ Spotlight.
The Oct. 16 NJ Spotlight on Cities conference offered a refreshing number of ideas about how to improve conditions in New Jersey’s cities. The day-long conference at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center was presented by NJ Spotlight, a nonprofit state-wide public policy news site.
The speakers at one stimulating panel, Development 2025: What Does the Future Hold? included Ron Beit, chief executive officer of RBH Group, LLC and President of RBH Management; Paul Silverman, co-founder and principal of SILVERMAN; and Christiana Foglio-Palmer, chief executive officer of Community Investment Strategies. RBH Group currently manages development projects in Newark, SILVERMAN is based in Jersey City, and Community Investment Strategies has projects across the state. Read the rest of this entry »
New Driver for Downtown Economic Development in Trenton
October 19th, 2015 by Peter Kasabach
On Oct. 19 the mayor of Trenton, Eric Jackson, announced the formation of Greater Trenton, a new economic-development entity dedicated to promoting economic revitalization in New Jersey’s capital city. The organization, an independent 501(c)(3) not-for-profit, is a collaborative of private-sector, institutional and philanthropic organizations that have made an initial five-year financial commitment to fund the initiative.
More details about the announcement are available in these articles from the Times of Trenton and the Trentonian. Read the rest of this entry »