September 10, 2019: Smart phone use is omnipresent. According to Statista.com the current number of smartphone users in the United States is estimated to be 265 million. Besides social media, how can a downtown community connect to these smart phone users?
September 9, 2019: What do California, Connecticut, Hawaii, New York and the District of Columbia have in common? They have banned single use plastic bags. While New Jersey was on the verge of leading the ban against plastic bags in Spring of 2018, the bill was vetoed by Governor Murphy because it was not strict enough.
September 6, 2019 – Downtown New Jersey acts as an advocate for downtown commercial districts in New Jersey, tracking legislative, regulatory, and policy issues that can affect the success of the state’s downtowns and then informing and educating members on these issues. Since our last Policy Watch, there has been movement on a few bills impacting downtowns…
June 6, 2019: Downtown New Jersey acts as an advocate for downtown commercial districts in New Jersey, tracking judicial and legislative issues that can affect the success of the state’s downtowns and then informing and educating members on these issues. Since our last Policy Watch, there has been movement on a few bills impacting downtowns…
May 30, 2019 – Over 50 professionals in downtown management, design, and development joined together to watch the Downtown New Jersey and NJTOD.org co-hosted panel discussion, Making TOD Real – Planning & Building Transit-Oriented Development in NJ.
May 17, 2019: For decades, New Jersey has experienced notable success with redeveloping many of its distressed areas by affording municipalities the ability to provide tax incentives to redevelopers (e.g. PILOTs). These incentives encourage redevelopers to accept the substantial risks and additional costs that come with most redevelopment projects – for example, the risk factor for unknown markets and the often-required construction of highly-amenitized, elevator buildings, and structured parking (at a cost of roughly $25,000 per space vs. $3,000 per space in a surface lot).
