In their 1987 article in Planning magazine, "The Great Plains: From Dust to Dust," Deborah and Frank Popper proposed a plan to transform the Great Plans into a 10-state national reserve. Their proposal prompted a wave of letters to the editor, inspired a musical, and...
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The Challenge Facing New Jersey's Suburbs: 'Adapt in Order to Survive'
So far this decade, population growth in urban areas in north Jersey has outpaced that of suburban areas, with Hunterdon, Monmouth, Sussex and Warren counties actually losing population between 2010 and 2017, U.S. Census data shows. The reason, according to many...
Solution to state's dying malls, office parks could be mini urban centers, expert says
Ellen Dunham-Jones literally has written the book on suburban redevelopment. Her effort, “Retrofitting Suburbia,” came out in 2009 (ahead of its time). She is working on its latest update. So, when the Georgia Tech professor came to Rutgers University to discuss her...
8 critical elements to having a productive conversation around abortion | Opinion
Some issues may be settled in law but remain contested in culture. Abortion is one such issue. It’s been 45 years since the U.S. Supreme Court, in Roe v. Wade, found a constitutional right to abortion and yet the debate rages on. A recent Marist poll found that most...
Closing of banks in rural areas angers some NJ farmers
Demographers say that the current trend of closing bank branches is of no surprise. They say that as development booms in once-shrinking cities like Newark and Jersey City and smaller towns along rail lines, rural areas of Sussex, Hunterdon, Ocean and Monmouth...
Are you middle class? Depends where you live in NJ
The overall average in New Jersey for what is considered to be middle class income for a family of four is between $60,000 and $177,000 a year. According to Rutgers University economist James Hughes, "middle class" can mean many things these days. But “somebody...
Panel relates how old malls are becoming mini urban areas
For the first time in the post-Great Recession period, suburban growth in New Jersey surpassed that of the regional core. But after six years of a dramatic shift toward urbanization and New Jersey's downtowns, was 2017 just a blip or is suburban growth here to stay?...
Closing of banks in rural areas angers some NJ farmers
Some New Jersey farmers say that the closing of several bank branches in rural parts of the state is making their jobs more difficult. Demographers say that the current trend of closing bank branches is of no surprise. They say that as development booms in...
Editorial: No, we’re not losing all the good people
The project was conducted by Rutgers University graduate students under the supervision of Cliff Zukin, a professor of public policy and political science at Rutgers’ Edward J. Bloustein School for Planning and Public Policy and Eagleton Institute of Politics. “There...
Millennials Not Hotfooting It Out of New Jersey After All — Report
“There is no crisis here, it’s not that people are fleeing the state,” said Cliff Zukin, a professor of public policy and political science at Rutgers’ Edward J. Bloustein School for Planning and Public Policy and Eagleton Institute of Politics who served as adviser...