Future Facts
Job Growth Finally Following Population to Compact Centers
May 3rd, 2019 by Tim Evans
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Aerial view of Newark, which has seen the largest improvement in private-sector job numbers since 2014.
Population growth began returning to compact, walkable places starting around 2008
- Job growth, in contrast, did not appear to be following suit – the 2008-2014 period still looked a lot like 1999-2008
- From 2014 to 2017, though, jobs appear to be belatedly following people (especially Millennials) back into cities and older suburban downtowns
Population growth began returning to compact, walkable centers back in the mid-to-late 2000s, as the Millennial generation began aging into young adulthood and expressing their preference for walkable urbanism. But a similar trend had not manifested itself in the geographic distribution of job growth – until now. Read the rest of this entry »
Community Solar Pilot Program Now Accepting Applications
May 3rd, 2019 by New Jersey Future staff
This article was written by Joseph L. Fiordaliso, president, New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (NJBPU).
As the cost of renewable energy continues to drop, “going solar” becomes a viable option for more New Jerseyans. Over 100,000 homes and businesses in our state now benefit from solar, many of which are seeing savings on their utility bills. Governor Phil Murphy and NJBPU are advancing renewables in the Garden State. However, not everyone is able put solar panels directly on their roof. To address that, New Jersey just launched its first Community Solar Energy Pilot Program, and started accepting applications in April. This pilot program is intended to increase access to solar energy for New Jersey ratepayers. Read the rest of this entry »
New County Population Estimates: More of the Same Changes
April 24th, 2019 by Tim Evans
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Map Courtesy of Digital-Topo-Maps.com
New Jersey’s population growth continues to be most pronounced in the North Jersey urban core of Hudson, Essex, Union, and Bergen counties; this is a stark contrast with the 1990s and early 2000s, when most growth was in suburban and exurban counties
- Growth in New York City has ground to a halt, however; four of the five boroughs (all except Staten Island) have lost population in both of the last two years
- Philadelphia – which has much lower housing costs than New York City – continues to grow at a rate comparable to the urbanized counties of North Jersey
- Growth has tentatively returned to the exurban frontier of northeastern Pennsylvania, though not to northwestern New Jersey
- Far southern New Jersey continues to languish, a victim of both a weak Atlantic City economy and a shortage of downtowns that appeal to Millennials
The Census Bureau last week released county population estimates for 2018, along with revised annual estimates for earlier years since the 2010 census. The picture for New Jersey between 2017 and 2018 looks a lot like it has all decade, with the fastest growth happening in the North Jersey urban core and with the northwestern exurbs and far southern New Jersey continuing to languish. Read the rest of this entry »
Are Millennials Leaving New Jersey Because Housing Costs Too Much?
April 22nd, 2019 by Tim Evans
What do the compact, walkable counties that attract New Jersey’s out-migrating Millennials – and the ones that don’t – tell us about why Millennials are leaving? Part 4 of a series investigating where New Jersey’s out-migrating Millennials are going.
New Jersey Future intern Alexandra Rome assembled the migration data on which this analysis is based.
- When Millennials leave New Jersey, they are usually looking for compact, walkable, transit-friendly places
- In particular, they are often looking for compact, walkable, transit-friendly places with lower housing costs than New Jersey’s
- New Jersey has a lot of compact, walkable, transit-friendly places, but perhaps most of them are too expensive for young adults to afford
In parts 1, 2, and 3 of this series, we looked at the most common destinations, by county, for adults who move from New Jersey to other parts of the United States, and explored how the preferred destinations of Millennials differ from those of older out-migrants. The results were consistent with the documented preference for compact, walkable, mixed-use places expressed by the Millennial generation within New Jersey. In part 4, we look at the specific counties that are attracting a lot of New Jersey Millennials – and some of the ones that aren’t – and consider what these counties might tell us about what Millennials want that they aren’t finding in New Jersey. (Once again we restrict our analysis to migrants age 20 and older, using migration data by age from the 2010 and 2015 editions of the American Community Survey combined.) Read the rest of this entry »
New Jersey Future Executive Director To Co-Chair Waterfront Alliance Coastal Resilience Task Force
April 10th, 2019 by Elaine Clisham
Will present at organization’s annual conference May 5
New Jersey Future Executive Director Peter Kasabach will co-chair a new Coastal Resilience Task Force being organized by the Waterfront Alliance. The alliance, which focuses on accessible, resilient shorelines around New York Harbor, is convening the task force to build consensus around needed resiliency adaptations, investments, and policies. According to the alliance, the task force “will deliver a final report that frames resiliency recommendations in the context of climate adaptation,” and then will launch an advocacy campaign “to encourage public funds to be invested in critical resiliency priorities, with policy alignment among local, state, and federal authorities.for all communities.” Read the rest of this entry »
At Convention, Builders Take Interest in Green Infrastructure
April 10th, 2019 by Kandyce Perry
Changing rules will make it a central element of stormwater management.
Why does green infrastructure make good business sense in private-sector projects? Two experts explain why in a new video produced by New Jersey Future. George Vallone, founder and chief executive officer of Hoboken Brownstone Company, and Jeromie Lange, engineer and senior principal at Maser Consulting, make several convincing arguments about the business sense and overall return on the investment in green infrastructure and debunk myths you may have heard. Read the rest of this entry »
New Jersey’s Approval Rate Sinking With Young Adults
March 13th, 2019 by Tim Evans
The recent release of the latest edition of the Monmouth University Poll’s Garden State Quality of Life Index made headlines because the index has hit an all-time low: Only half of the survey’s respondents rated New Jersey as either an excellent (11 percent) or good (39 percent) place to live. This was down from 54 percent in the previous version of the survey, and down substantially from the mid-60s where the rating has generally ranged since Monmouth started asking the question back in 1980.
This news is consistent with a flurry of recent stories about New Jersey losing people to other states. Many of these stories (see, for example, NJTV, ROI-NJ, the Press of Atlantic City) were triggered by the release of the latest United Van Lines “Annual National Movers Study,” which found that New Jersey ranked first among the 50 states in terms of the percent of moves that were outbound, when tallying up all intra-US moves into or out of each state. Read the rest of this entry »
New Jersey Future Sends Letter to Governor Urging Him To Sign Stormwater Utility Legislation
February 27th, 2019 by Elaine Clisham
New Jersey Future Executive Director Peter Kasabach sent a letter to Governor Murphy Feb. 26, urging him to sign A2694/S1073, legislation that would permit local government entities to establish stormwater utilities. These entities would be responsible for maintenance and upgrades to the infrastructure that handles runoff from rainfall and snowmelt in New Jersey’s 565 municipalities. They would be able to levy fees, based on a property’s estimated contribution to the storwmater management system, that would be invested in system maintenance and upgrades.
In asking the governor to sign the bill, the letter cites the cost of needed upgrades to municipal stormwater systems, the increasing frequency and severity of rainstorms as a result of a changing climate, and the equity issues that surround the issue of stormwater management.
Read the full letter below.
Planning Manager David Kutner To Retire
February 27th, 2019 by Peter Kasabach
David Kutner
An important page is being turned. If you know our climate change, resiliency and aging-friendly-places work, you know David Kutner, New Jersey Future’s planning manager. David will be retiring this March after decades of service to the public planning profession and more than half a dozen years with New Jersey Future. For all of his years of service and accomplishments, David was recently awarded the prestigious American Planning Association – New Jersey Chapter’s Bud Chavoosian award. David’s work has affected individuals and policies across New Jersey and across the United States.
New Jersey Future will continue the groundbreaking work that David began. While enjoying a much-deserved retirement, David will remain as a senior adviser to New Jersey Future, helping to guide and support existing staff and initiatives. As David transitions from his current position, New Jersey Future will be looking to fill the planning manager job with a seasoned, inspirational and proactive planner capable of building on the foundation that has been laid. The job description can be seen here.
For those of you who have had the pleasure of working with David, you will know that he probably doesn’t appreciate us making a big deal of his retirement with this announcement. Having said that, I’ll take full blame for all the praise and congratulations that are directed his way in the coming weeks; so please join us in celebrating a tremendous career in planning and in public service and wishing David all the best.
What Kinds of Places Are Attracting New Jersey’s Out-migrating Millennials?
February 26th, 2019 by Tim Evans
How do the top destination counties for New Jersey’s out-migrating Millennials differ from the destinations of older out-migrants? Are Millennials who leave New Jersey attracted to certain kinds of places?
Part 3 of a series investigating where New Jersey’s out-migrating Millennials are going.
New Jersey Future intern Alexandra Rome assembled the data on which this analysis is based.
In part 1 of this series, we looked at the most common destinations, by county, for people of all ages who move from New Jersey to other parts of the United States. In part 2, we looked at where out-migrants of the Millennial generation – typically defined as those born between 1980 and 2000 – are going when they leave, compared to out-migrants of older generations. In part 3, we investigate how Millennials’ favored destinations differ from those of older generations, to get an idea of what Millennials might be looking for when they leave New Jersey. (Once again we restrict our analysis to migrants age 20 and older, and to counties that received at least 100 migrants from New Jersey in 2010 and 2015 combined.) Read the rest of this entry »
