Welcoming Remarks: “Recovery after the Recovery” James W. Hughes, Dean, Bloustein School New Jersey Forecast Nancy H. Mantell, Director, R/ECON™ Michael Lahr, Research Professor, Bloustein School Hot Real Estate Sectors: Warehouse/Distr
The U.S. city was built for the baby boom. Its bones were formed when the U.S. was in its final decades of legal apartheid and fleshed out over four decades of rising inequality. The baby boom is still here and will continue to shape cities, suburbs, and rural areas. But we now need to accommodate a new generation— the millennials—whose coming of age will require millions of new rental housing units. Where will this housing be built?
Work on The Fourth Regional Plan began by talking with and listening to people from across the region. What the Regional Plan Association heard was that people loved where they live, but they had serious concerns. Housing was too expensive. Commutes were long and unreliable. The destruction brought by Hurricane Irene and Superstorm Sandy underscored the region’s vulnerability to climate change and raised questions about how prepared we were for the storms to come.
Movements of industry, service, and residents cause substantial change to our cities, towns, and suburbs. The visual impact of the changed physical environment often negates the social characteristics that once uniquely identified a neighborhood or place. Urban design is often used to generate and substantiate citizen buy-in – the promise of a better quality of life, and a higher tax base, But who is the beneficiary of good urban design? Our panelists will discuss how design impacts community development. They will explain how their role in community development leads, and will partner-with the development community to reduce the negative effects of change and gentrification.
Movements of industry, service, and residents cause substantial change to our cities, towns, and suburbs. The visual impact of the changed physical environment often negates the social characteristics that once uniquely identified a neighborhood or place. Urban design is often used to generate and substantiate citizen buy-in – the promise of a better quality of life, and a higher tax base, But who is the beneficiary of good urban design? Our panelists will discuss how design impacts community development. They will explain how their role in community development leads, and will partner-with the development community to reduce the negative effects of change and gentrification.
While the laws, regulations, and structure of banking greatly influence land use, urban planning and housing, banking itself is poorly understood—even by many who work in banking. Looking around today, it may seem like big banks have always lorded over the economy, but in reality, it was community banks that did the bulk of the work to finance the expansion of infrastructure, homes, small businesses and industries that built the cities and rural economies that make up our country today.
In the face of a collapsing public health infrastructure and deliberate attacks on government institutions and human and civil rights, community health and our collective well-being are at risk. As the pendulum swings widely, the fair solution is to build lasting safe spaces for equity and inclusion, where health equity and social justice can be achieved.