Recommendations to the City of Newark, Mayor Ras Baraka
Rutgers Equitable Development Working Group and Rutgers Center on Law, Inequality & Metro Equity (CLiME)
October 2017
The Rutgers University-Newark Project on Equitable Growth was formed as a team of university researchers led by CLiME to provide research and recommendations about spreading the benefits of potential economic growth to all wards and neighborhoods in the City of Newark. Although housing and housing-related issues dominated our work, we viewed the task more broadly and asked:
How does a working-class city in the midst of economic interest from a fast- growing metropolitan region harness newfound resources to grow in ways that ensure the maximum amount of inclusion and opportunity for its current and future residents?
The recommendations that follow are both comprehensive and incomplete. The practices discussed below include ideas successfully attempted in other cities as well as innovations tailored to our unique home. The recommendations will be accompanied by CLiME’s forthcoming Newark Housing Study, Ward-based Demographic Profiles and a methodological account of an assessment tool, CLiME’s Displacement Risk Indicator Matrix (DRIM). The work reflects quantitative policy and legal research as well as qualitative interviews with individuals from multiple sectors. In all, the recommendations represent a holistic beginning to a critical collaboration between public sector leadership, its myriad community constituents and an educational anchor institution committed to the healthy and egalitarian development of our shared environment. We look forward to learning and doing more together.
Highlights of Recommendations
Plan with the CLiME Displacement Risk Indicator Matrix (DRIM) tool.
Establish an independent Equitable Growth Advisory Council with representatives from non-profits, developers, community, business and academia (appointed by mayor and city council).
Embrace a voluntary urban AFFH (Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing) approach to development (borrowing from HUD regulations).
Reform key aspects of the rent regulation process and operations.
Get the development the city wants:
a) Expand the notion of “anchor tenancy” to include, for example, Community Land Trusts, Limited Equity Cooperatives and embedded artist-restricted housing units.
b) Give preferences to large developer-small/local developer partnerships and seek community benefits agreements that condition PILOTs and other perks on local training, financing or hiring.
c) Put city-owned land and other vacant parcels to productive, more creative uses, using APRA and other tools.
Restore the Trauma-Informed City approach to institutional training and care across city agencies, but especially for educators, law enforcement, firefighters and EMT (first responders) and health practitioners.
Make public institutions like libraries into “Civic Learning Hubs” with classes geared to the current needs of Newarkers of all ages (e.g., coding, financial literacy and Street Law).
Improve overall government transparency and public information access.
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