Cartography

Co-authored by the eleven participants in David Kinsey’s Fall 2020 Policy Workshop, Ensuring Equity in Transit-Oriented Development outlines policy proposals and advocacy targets for two non-profit clients: New Jersey Future, a land-use advocacy organization, and Fair Share Housing Center, a civil rights advocacy group dedicated to pursuing affordable housing litigation under New Jersey’s Mount Laurel doctrine. I coordinated sections of the report on zoning reform and the proposed northern extension to the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail system.

Additionally, as the workshop’s GIS lead, I developed a series of maps that reinforced three key arguments of the report:

1. Transit-accessible communities in New Jersey are diverse but segregated.

   Rail lines often pass through both disproportionately white/high-income census tracts and disproportionately non-white/low-income census tracts.

2. Affordable housing construction has lagged behind on Transit-Oriented Development.

   Outside of urban centers, Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) projects are rarely transit-accessible and very rarely accessible to rail stations.

3. The Hudson-Bergen Light Rail northern extension should be re-oriented toward racial equity and TOD before New Jersey wastes a unique opportunity.

   Currently planned more for park-and-ride than for TOD, the proposed Northern Branch Corridor Project lies in the path of sea level rise and cuts through segregated and underserved municipalities.

The workshop’s report received the 2020 Planning Excellence Award for outstanding student work from the NJ chapter of the American Planning Association and is available to view on issuu.