Contributor: Aury Cifuentes
Goal Statement
To increase the amount of restoration and funds toward environmentally friendly artistic and urban renewal in Trenton.
Scope of the Problem
Urban Renewal involves the “revitalization of any or all portions of the urban structure which are not fulfilling the functions for which they were designed.”[1] In Trenton, homes, parks, and storefronts all had various purposes at one point before their abandonment. They aimed to serve the community as a place of shelter, recreation, or by offering services and this purpose now is replaced by nothingness, illegal activity or forgone taxes. When parks are tainted with graffiti or a home is boarded up there is a loss of opportunity. All cities have areas that aren’t as renovated as the rest but the issue with Trenton is that there are too many streets that have gone from thriving communities to blocked up buildings and empty sidewalks. At the same time, the improved safety and living conditions in neighboring towns, such as Ewing and Lawrenceville, provide competition and a comparison to Trenton in many contexts. The reality lies in the rich historical and cultural context of the city that has just as much potential to thrive. The sense of community in Trenton is present but some areas need to look like communities to change the overall impression of the City of Trenton on its residents, neighbors, and municipality.
Trenton isn’t the only city in New Jersey facing this problem. Cities like Newark and Camden have similar issues with even larger populations. In fact, “with 1,195.5 people per square mile in 2010, New Jersey is the most densely populated state according to the U.S. Census. The U.S. average is 87.4. From 1,001.4 per square mile in 1980 to 2010, New Jersey density's increased by almost 20 percent.”[2] In terms of population density there is a larger probability of migration within residents and abandoned lots are one of the results of that movement. Beautification correlates to culture because “in its various expressive forms [urban beautification] can feed the empowerment of people and citizens, leading them to (re) discover their identity and the strength of interaction with peers.”[3] Not only that but “a beautiful park awakens the desire for a lovelier home-garden, and the wish for a beautiful home grows into the wish for a beautiful street and every other development will be influenced …”[4] Thus the positive feedback loop of renewal is evident and ultimately the opportunities, visual beauty, and flexibility offered by a community “are the most likely elements to affect residents' attachment to it.”[5]
Probable Causes
- Struggle in Transition from Industrial to Modern Day City
Trenton was an industrial powerhouse in the late 1600s up until the early 1900s. Mills and factories famously produced various goods, which were sold all over the country. The city has not kept up technologically, in terms of moving toward other aspects of job creation besides labor intensive manufacturing, and economically, like the decline of property values in the housing market along with the lack of investment in human capital in the areas of STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) to provide a competitive labor force and incentive for investment.
- Difficulty in Attracting Investment and Maintaining Responsibility of Properties and Structures
Many initiatives have been proposed to attract businesses and firms to headquarter and offer their services in Trenton. The cycle of bankruptcy and relocations have left less of an incentive for others to pursue similar ventures. As a result property values and tax revenues remain low, which in turn limit municipal beautification and renovation projects. The number of abandoned buildings and lots is a combination of both an industrial past and a struggling socioeconomic present.
Past Policy
Exempts entities and related personnel of a site from liability and provides a speedy settlement to those who cannot afford to pay.
The funding, totaling 200 million was toward entities responsible for cleanup and remediation of qualified brownfield.
- Neighborhood Revitalization Tax Credit Program
Provides business entities a one hundred percent tax credit if the money is given toward non-profits with plans for revitalization. The non-profits must use at lease sixty percent of the funds more housing/development and the rest for other activities that promote neighborhood revitalization. Wells Fargo donated 1.1 million dollars.
- CARE Act (Community Action for a Renewed Environment)
The grant totals $66,000 in order to create and distribute a list of environmental issues raised by the community. Thus a catalog and profile will be created to better target these issues. Partnered with Trenton Department of Housing and Economic Development and Isles. Inc.
Present Policy
- Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act
Authorizes additional assistance for the Neighborhood Stabilization Program, a program that aims to provide stability by repurchasing abandoned or foreclosed properties in order to aid communities with the process of revitalization, by providing 1 billion dollars to be allocated to qualified areas. A new amendment allows the funds to be applied to vacant lots and demolished property.[6]
- American Recovery and Reinvestment Act:
Allows for additional funding, 1.93 billion, toward the Community Development fund in conjunction with funding toward the Neighborhood Stabilization program.
Policy Options
SAGE
As a group that aims to revitalize communities through art, their efforts have been dominating the area of Trenton and transforming lots into gardens and places of beauty. Forging relationships with legislators like Bonnie Watson Coleman can be pivotal to expanding their work across more areas of Trenton and across the state of NJ. The funding for SAGE is limited but increasing the traffic to the website or posting general newspaper ads for awareness can increase the donations of supplies or funds. In working with those abandoned areas that don’t provide any beneficial function, SAGE provides a renewed opportunity not only for the area but also for the community. Renewal in the form of public gardens and mural space began in 2012 for SAGE and the support from the city of Trenton has been overwhelming. There are benefits to beautifying areas in urban neighborhoods and the movement has taken appeal nationwide and worldwide. An ideal would be to continue an already present renewal in a volunteer driven, green, and appealing manner to aesthetically transform the city for locals and visitors.
Isles and The Five Point Plan (for the city of Trenton)
Isles in coordination with Rutgers created a very clean cut website as a hub to pinpoint the issues with housing and promotion of abandoned lots/homes as a “canvas.” They have a similar ideal as SAGE, which is to make some productive use out of those lots. The website could be a helpful tool to locate those areas for expanded mural areas and gardens, but as the Five Point Plan (mentioned below) takes momentum there could be a potential conflict between profit and beautification efforts. A probable solution can be to flag properties (on the website) that wouldn’t yield much revenue and separate them for expansion and project opportunities for organizations like SAGE.
The website is frequently updated and recently a feature has been added to see the foregone revenue because of a property being abandoned. The economic aspect of the issue cannot be denied and that is why The City of Trenton’s Five- Point Plan is a major strategy toward tackling the issue of abandoned lots. The ideal is to get those properties back on the market, sold at a largely discounted price, and back onto the path of tax revenue. The Plan was presented at the end of 2014 and has yet to be updated in terms of listings but the general process and conditions to all interested parties are on the “Restoring Trenton” website.[7]
The Five –Point Plan also coordinated a study, (currently in progress), which will be demonstrate the best strategies to tackle the overarching issue of abandoned properties and sustainable construction. The study aims to outline the current housing market and the appropriate conditions of each respective neighborhood in Trenton so specific target strategies can be generated.
UAFSA
In Washington DC, the Urban Agriculture and Food Security Act was passed December of 2014. It aims to provide a tax credit to those who use abandoned properties/lots for urban farming and donate the harvest to a food bank. There will also be real property tax abatement for those who decide to go through and formally purchase a property to dedicate as a location for urban farming. This practice is a green and a more affordable way to make use of a lot but also the amount of emissions from that location would decrease along with the potential waste that would result from deciding to renovate the existing area. This practice also contributes to urban beautification because gardens, like parks, can be made public and can become a changing face for communities nearby. If Trenton were to adopt something similar organizations like SAGE can take gardening to another level and turn it into a steady food supply for the food desert areas of Trenton. [8]
Community Asset Preservation Corporation
The non-profit aims to purchase restricted foreclosed properties, in terms of legality and technical paperwork, and transform them in a timely manner into spaces used for affordable housing. These spaces could contribute to economic development in the form of taxes and jobs, and would positively alter the overall community environment. In Plainfield, NJ through coordination between other organizations, such as municipal governments, construction agencies, and local banks, allowed for a total of nine completed property rehab projects. These organizations helped potential buyers to build credit so that they could eventually purchase the homes. Proven impacts include an increase in affordable housing in the area, an increase in property value for the surrounding and rehabilitated homes, and an increase in economic activity through tax revenue and job creation throughout the entire project.[9]
Key Organizations
Works Cited
- https://www.mcgill.ca/mchg/student/neighborhood/chapter1
- http://njdatabank.newark.rutgers.edu/urban
- http://rohcavamaintenant.free.fr/USB%20KEY%20Fahriye/Urban%20renaissance%20from.pdf
- http://urbanplanning.library.cornell.edu/DOCS/carrere.htm
- http://www.gallup.com/poll/144476/social-offerings-openness-key-community-attachment.aspx
- https://www.hudexchange.info/nsp/
- http://www.restoringtrenton.org/#!plan/c1mbj
- http://dcclims1.dccouncil.us/images/00001/20140211114248.pdf
- http://www.newjerseycommunitycapital.org/initiatives/capc
Bibliography
- Birch, E. (2008). Growing greener cities: Urban sustainability in the twenty-first century. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
- Sandler, R. (2007). Environmental justice and environmentalism the social justice challenge to the environmental movement. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.
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