Op-Ed Articles
- Op-Ed: Affordable housing in New Jersey — a call to action
November 20, 2024 -- People will stay in New Jersey, but only if they can afford a home in a neighborhood where they can thrive.
- School segregation in NJ is not an accident
October 11, 2023 -- Despite being one of the most racially diverse states in the country, New Jersey remains stubbornly segregated at the local level.
- N.J. needs a flood of funding to weather catastrophic rainstorms
August 9, 2023 -- From flash flood warnings and commuting delays to mudslides and a state of emergency declaration, New Jersey experienced the latest in the series of anxiety-inducing rain storms last month.
- Car-Free Inspiration From an Overseas Adventure
April 14, 2023 -- This essay focuses on lessons for the author’s home state of New Jersey, but we hope it will be inspiring for readers in other communities, too.
- Age-Friendly Municipalities Creating great places to age in New Jersey
December 1, 2020 -- America is growing older. Every day for the rest of the decade, 8,000 members of the Baby Boom generation will turn 65.
- 8 years after Superstorm Sandy, we need a more resilient New Jersey
October 25, 2020 -- This October marks eight years since Superstorm Sandy ravaged our region, leaving thousands in New Jersey without homes and causing $30 billion in economic damage to businesses.
- Climate change is an equity issue; green infrastructure can help on the water front
August 10, 2020 -- Newly adopted rules are good, but we must dramatically improve stormwater management on previously developed sites
- Let’s invest in projects that guarantee we’ll have clean water
June 25, 2020 -- As we move toward reopening and recovery, the government response to COVID-19 must assure a clean water future for all communities in New Jersey.
- Let’s not go backward. Let’s rebuild better as we recover.
May 19, 2020 -- Rather than viewing recovery as an effort to return to the pre-pandemic economic status quo, we need to view this phase as a much-needed turning point.
- Lead water pipes threaten public health. Partial replacements could make it worse
May 17, 2019 -- While New Jersey is making a larger effort to protect children from all sources of lead, if we want every child in the state to reach their full potential, we need to solve the lead service line problem now.
- Let's Be Smart About Community Solar
September 17, 2018 -- New Jersey has a once-in-a-generation opportunity to craft rules for community solar installations that will bring substantial benefit to communities that heretofore have not had access to solar energy.
- We Need Real Solutions to N.J. Water Woes
September 6, 2018 -- Let's start viewing combined sewer overflows and polluted runoff as the economic threats they are.
- Tested Solution Addresses Flooding, Polluted Runoff
June 19, 2018 -- A solution proven in 40 states could help New Jersey control flooding and polluted runoff.
- New Jersey Needs Its Downtowns. Here’s How To Strengthen Them.
May 7, 2018 -- As demand for downtowns grows, resources to revitalize these districts must grow too.
- How Can We Keep Millennials in New Jersey? Give Them Great Places To Live and Work
April 10, 2018 -- Towns that find their “center” and create authentic, walkable experiences for businesses and residents have a better chance to attract Millennials
- Thank Millennials for Growth
March 2018 -- Millennials are opting out of car-dependent suburban subdivisions, driving a trend of redevelopment in cities, towns, and older suburbs.
- A Chance To Get Economic Incentives Right
January 8, 2018 -- New Jersey's economic incentive program is expensive and lacks return on investment. It's time to rethink the goals of this program.
- Report Outlines Resiliency Options for Coastal Towns
December 17, 2017 -- As hurricanes Sandy, Joaquin and Jonas have shown us, the patterns of development that characterize the New Jersey coast have left many people and structures dangerously vulnerable.
- A Year One Clean-Water Agenda for New Jersey
November 30, 2017 -- It’s time for New Jersey to become a leader once again in protecting our residents and economy through smart, innovative investments in water systems.
- More Roads Won't Fix Our Traffic Problem
October 30, 2017 -- More roads won't fix New Jersey's traffic problem.
- Rethinking the Future of the Shore in an Age of Climate Change
October 15, 2017 -- New Jersey's 130 linear miles of coastline and 239 coastal towns remain as vulnerable to another hurricane as they were in 2012.
- The Work Before the Storm
September 17, 2017 -- New Jersey is lagging on planning for sea level rise.
- Despite the 'Summer of Hell,' We Should Be Increasing Transit Ridership
August 23, 2017 -- We should work toward a long-term goal of getting more people off the roads and onto transit.
- Suburban sprawl is out. Smart growth, redevelopment and transit stations are in.
June 11, 2017 -- New Census municipal data confirm that urban centers and urbanized suburbs are seeing robust growth.
- Preparing for the Next Sandy Requires Facing Hard Facts
Oct. 28, 2014 -- Two years after the devastation wrought by Hurricane Sandy, many of New Jersey’s coastal communities continue to struggle with recovery and rebuilding efforts. The highest community priority is to get people back into their homes, re-establish business operations and return to life as close to normal as possible. The elected officials who have led these efforts are hardworking heroes. But it’s also clear that recovery decisions made without a clear understanding of future risks can move people back into harm’s way, build infrastructure that will be damaged again, and waste taxpayer dollars.
- Many Older Residents in New Jersey Live in Aging-Unfriendly Places
March 19, 2014 -- A research report recently released by New Jersey Future, Creating Places to Age in New Jersey, evaluates municipalities’ land-use patterns based on how well designed they are to accommodate the changing mobility needs of an aging population.
- Time for New Jersey to be Smarter than the Storm
Sept. 4, 2013 -- Of all the recommendations that came out of President Obama's Sandy Rebuilding Task Force Strategy, there is one that will help inform much of the other recovery planning that is currently being done: Incorporate projected sea-level rise into all decision-making.
- Planning Where the State Will Grow Must Take Into Account the Weather
Nov. 20, 2012: The State Strategic Plan is a framework, a guiding document of only 41 pages that promotes sound planning but doesn’t attempt to do the actual planning work. Any changes in it to address the need for resiliency should remain high-level and provide the parameters within which to make changes, but not prescribe the actual changes.
- Consolidating county’s school districts would yield benefits beyond cost savings
February 9, 2012 - Hunterdon County leaders are looking into the idea of consolidating the county’s more than two dozen school districts into a single, countywide district.
