Cities and Towns

What does art have to do with economic development? “Every single thing,” Tai Cooper reminds us, opening up the session, “Putting the ‘ART’ in SmART Growth: Strategies for Arts and Creative Placemaking.” When we’re looking at smart growth pillars, it’s not easily apparent how art can be connected, but it’s vital for creating vibrant communities and, in turn, economic prosperity. From theater to art mixers to murals, we benefit from art programs all the time. Bringing us closer to our community, livening up neighborhoods, and promoting economic development in the cities that we work and play in.

While New Jersey is one of the most diverse states in the nation at the macro level, at the local level it is also one of the most segregated. The state has grown more demographically diverse over the last two decades, but most of its individual towns and neighborhoods are either predominantly white or predominantly non-white, with few places occupying the “diverse” range in between.

“It is necessary to invoice Venus’s story, not only through black history, but through Latinx history and queer history. It is too important to excavate this kind of history, so what happened to Venus won’t happen again because it continues to happen.” expressed Michael Roberson, Professor, New School and Union Theological Seminary at the 2023 Planning and Redevelopment Conference hosted by the New Jersey Chapter of the American Planning Association and New Jersey Future.

“The Woodmont Metro at Metuchen Station was a catalyst for further redevelopment in downtown Metuchen… Having residents living downtown has resulted in a remarkable growth of restaurants, making downtown Metuchen a highly popular regional dining destination. New retail and service businesses have also opened creating a vibrant, active downtown,” explains Jay Muldoon, Director of Special Projects with the Borough of Metuchen.

New 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.

In this report, New Jersey Future analyzed housing affordability in each New Jersey municipality, to see where households headed by someone 65 or older have high housing costs. The places where housing cost burden is greatest fall into two groups: towns that are expensive for everyone, and towns that are dominated by larger, single-family housing stock. December 2015.

In this report, New Jersey Future and Smart Growth America analyzed per-capita road usage. The results show that places with the highest activity density have the lowest per-capita usage, suggesting per-capita road-maintenance costs can be reduced by even marginal increases in density. November 2015.

An interim report, three years after Hurricane Sandy, on New Jersey Future’s groundbreaking local recovery planning manager program, including lessons learned and recommendations. October 2015.

An analysis of household income distributions in the neighborhoods around New Jersey’s transit stations shows that not all station areas offer the benefits of transit access across all income levels. June 2015.

The Economic Opportunity Act of 2013 included additional incentives for projects destined for “smart-growth” areas. This report analyzes how effective the updated incentives have been at directing growth to those areas. December 2014.