“Nationally, Black and Hispanic people are acutely underrepresented in real estate development…Black and Hispanic real estate developers represent less than 1% of their industry across the nation, even though Blacks make up 14% and Hispanics make up 18% of the total population. New Jersey’s affordable housing development space shows similar disparities.
Posts Tagged ‘equity’
The Changing Faces of New Jersey Developers
Tuesday, July 18th, 2023Launching the Next State Plan
Tuesday, July 18th, 2023The State Plan “is more than a guide for land-use… it’s for public health, transportation, and much more,” stated Michael Kolber, Senior Planner for the City of Trenton, during the 2023 Planning and Redevelopment Conference as a panelist on the roundtable session Launching the Next State Plan, sponsored by New Jersey Future and the New Jersey Chapter of the American Planning Association.
Access to Parks is an Environmental Justice Issue
Wednesday, April 19th, 2023Conversations around environmental justice (EJ) and social determinants of health are commonly focused on the inequities that are present in underserved communities: the dangerous developments and contaminants. Often, the focus of environmental justice efforts is on remediating the lead and forever chemicals like PFAS found in the drinking water of low-income communities, or cleaning up the massive superfund sites or improving air quality near freeways that are often sited in communities of color.
Transportation for Everyone: Designing Safe, Sustainable Options for Women
Friday, March 17th, 2023Last year, New Jersey Future explored how women and gender nonconforming people face disproportionate obstacles when accessing public transit, biking, or walking as forms of transportation. We found that 65% of women-identifying people have experienced street harassment in their lives and that 99% of the NYC public transit riders who reported sexual harassment on the subway identified as female.
Ten Years After Sandy, a Look at Population and Housing Trends at the Jersey Shore
Tuesday, October 25th, 2022Both before and after Superstorm Sandy, the trend at the Jersey Shore has been toward higher home values, a smaller percentage of housing units being occupied year-round, and an increasing presence of retirees among year-round residents. Is the Shore becoming a playground for the rich? And specifically rich retirees?
New NJF Report Explores How to Promote Racial Integration in NJ Municipalities
Thursday, September 22nd, 2022New Jersey is paradoxically one of the most diverse and most segregated states in the nation. The state has grown more diverse over the last two decades, with its non-Hispanic white percentage shrinking from two-thirds of the state population in 2000 to a little more than half as of the 2020 Census, with notable proportional growth among Hispanic and Asian-American communities. But New Jersey’s macro-level diversity often does not translate into integration at the local level, and places that are integrated at the local level don’t always stay that way.
Walking the Talk: Planning for Places that Actualize Equity and Inclusion
Friday, July 8th, 2022“In this era of racial reckoning, especially triggered by the murder of George Floyd, we have to pause and ask what our role is as a profession, what responsibility we have had in creating the societies in which we live, and how we rectify [problems] with an equity lens,” stated Eleanor Sharpe, deputy director for planning and zoning in the City of Philadelphia, a panelist in the first plenary session of the 2022 New Jersey Planning and Redevelopment Conference, hosted by New Jersey Future and and the New Jersey chapter of the American Planning Association.
Constructing Accessible and Inclusive Communities for People with Disabilities
Friday, July 8th, 2022“Inclusion means different things for different people,” stated Carleton Montgomery, Executive Director of the Pinelands Preservation Alliance. “[With] the vast demand for accessible nature, [people are looking for] inclusion, not just being out in nature. That might mean a stable trail, being able to paddle…,” continued Montgomery as a panelist at the 2022 New Jersey Planning and Redevelopment Conference (NJPRC), sponsored by New Jersey Future and the New Jersey chapter of the American Planning Association.
Beyond Getting from A to B: Ensuring Safer and Fairer Ways to Move Around
Friday, July 8th, 2022Transportation emissions comprise over 40% of New Jersey’s total greenhouse gases (GHG). Expanding bus and rail transportation options beyond cars not only addresses reduction of GHGs, it also increases affordability and improves general public health by getting transit users to walk or bike to popular modes of mass transit.
Award-Winning Map Shows Water-Related Environmental Justice Issues in New Jersey
Thursday, June 30th, 2022The Summer 2021 floods in New Jersey, none more widespread and damaging than following Hurricane Ida, showed the damage that stormwater can wreak on communities. New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) anticipates that rainfall intensity will increase due to climate change, meaning that flooding will become more frequent.